The Mysterious Protector in the Woods

The “Mysterious Protector in the Woods” was created for ShiftArt June Digital Art Challenge.  ShiftArt is another community I am a member of.  I joined the ShiftArt community for the tutorials offered by other talented artists, in addition, to entering the challenges to practice my digital art skills.  I found out about the ShiftArt community through the Photoshop Artistry course that I have been taking by Sebastian Michaels.  For this challenge, ShiftArt supplied the images to be used in the “Mystery” challenge.  There were two main requirements for image submission, the artists had to use a minimum number of images supplied by ShiftArt and one of the images chosen had to be the main subject.

Arsenal

Out of all the images provided I chose 5.

• Portrait of girl in the woods
• Smoke
• Woods
• Snowy Owl (main subject)
• Grunge Overlay

My love of nature led me to pick the image of the woods and the Snowy white owl with the piercing bright yellow eyes.  I used the girl in the woods to symbolize the subject needing protection.  To add additional interest to the image I chose the smoke and the grunge overlay.

Processing Steps

I experimented with layer masks and blend modes in order to achieve the look of “Mystery”.  Throughout the whole process I wanted the eyes to stand out.

1. Opened the owl image first since it is my main subject
2. Applied a curves layer to the eyes only to make them brighter
3. Added the girl, applied the layer mask to remove what I did not want
4. Duplicated the layer and set the layer to soft light
5. Added the woods, set blending mode to soft light, added layer mask and painted with black
6. Overlaid the grunge layer and set blending mode to multiply, added layer mask and painted with black on eyes
7. Duplicated the layer, set blending mode to soft light, added layer mask and painted with black on eyes
8. Finally, added smoke, set blending mode to soft light, added layer mask and painted with black on eyes

Final Result

I am my worst critic when it comes to my art, as a result, I would talk my self out of submitting my art to any challenge. The reason for that is because I did not feel I was talented enough.  So this time, I stepped out of my comfort zone and submitted to the ShiftArt June challenge.  I went into this challenge with the sole purpose of practicing my digital art skills and to do something that I normally would not do.  As a result, I created a piece of art that I am very happy with and I did get noticed by the ShiftArt community by having my art displayed with the other talented artists.

In summary, I am still learning and I will continue learning,  Also, I will continue submitting my work.

Thank you so much for stopping by so I can share with you my artistic journey.

Happy Creating,

Bec

PS If you would like to see more of my work stop by my photo gallery.

Also, if you would like to purchase wall art for your home stop by my store.