The Orton Effect

I polished some silver last night, bowls that my dad used to pick up for me at second-hand stores when he was still out and about. Then I got the pretty, antique-looking Christmas balls and put them in the bowls, and thought I'd take some pictures, intending to play with depth-of-field. Turned out the pictures were harder to take than I expected since the light was poor in the diningroom at night, so I thought I'd play with them in Photoshop this morning. I had some notes scribbled in the back of one of my Photoshop books about the 'Orton Effect,' which is what I attempted here.

This effect is named after a photographer named Michael Orton who developed it as a darkroom technique long before digital imaging; it's much easier to mimic the effect inside digital photo-editing programs.

BE CAREFUL NOT TO DESTROY YOUR ORIGINAL IMAGE!

1. Open your original image. Duplicate this layer. Change the blending mode of the new, upper layer to "screen" and merge these two layers.

2. Duplicate this new layer. Change the blending mode to "multiply."

3. Making sure that the top layer (the one set to "multiply") is selected, choose Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. You can play with the amount of the blur, watching your preview window. I think for this image I chose somewhere around a 7 pixel blur for a 72 dpi, 4" x 4.8" image. How much you blur will depend on the resolution and size of your image. In general, you want to blur enough to remove the detail from the upper "multiply" layer.

For this particular image, I also removed some of the distracting pieces of the image (the chair backs and the red flower) and blurred the wood grain in the table a little bit extra...

Any questions or comments, let me know...

Illustration Friday Captain

"All I need is a tall tall ship
And a star to steer her by."

Took the little boy from "The Waterboy" and gave him a ship on a sandy beach. The hardest part was painting and weathering the boat... I used my Mister Retro filters to make the wood look old.

Hard to believe that a week ago, Mama Goat was still alive. I looked at the pictures yesterday when I took pictures of the girls for the first day of school. Horrible.

three masking tape brushes for PS

Directions for uploading these brushes:
Right-click on the image and choose copy image. Paste image into a new document in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Then choose Edit > Define Brush Preset and give the brush a name.

Then, when you want to add a piece of 'masking tape' to an image, choose that brush, resize it to fit, and use it almost like a stamp--"click" and there you are. You can click several times or copy the layer and use "multipy" mode to make it darker, and you can choose any color you want before you stamp/brush it.

Any questions, let me know!

Today's Creativity

Not very much time out in the studio today, but I received a book I'd ordered from Amazon and it really inspired me. The book is Digital Art Studio: Techniques for Combining Inkjet Printing with Traditional Art Materials, by Karen Schminke et al.

Some of the techniques in the book I've already done, such as wet and matte medium transfers from Jet Print glossy photo paper, or gessoing a page from a book and then running it through my printer, like I did with yesterday's postcard with the eyes. But some will require more preparation before I can attempt them. So tonight I will read and make notes, and tomorrow I'll experiment. Thursday the girls start school, and Friday Joel has a freshman orientation, so by next week I should be operating on a more workmanlike schedule out in the studio.

Mini-tutorial on inkjet transfers (note: top images are the gesso transfer and its release sheet, middle images are the gel medium transfer and its release sheet, and the bottom images are water transfers onto rice paper):

Print reversed image on Jet Print Glossy Multi Purpose paper, available at WalMart. The paper is important, because this paper will release the inks, even from a pigment ink printer like my little Epson.

Water transfer:

thoroughly wet the receiving paper and blot. Place the glossy inkjet image face down, and rub firmly with a brayer or the back of a spoon. Peel up the corner to see if it needs more burnishing. When it appears that the image has transferred, lift paper off. This is great for putting images into diaries and journals, or onto cool papers like rice paper.

Gesso transfer: (which didn't work that well here)

brush gesso onto receiving paper/canvas, then burnish as above.

Gel Medium transfer:

Brush Golden Semi Gloss Gel Medium onto paper/canvas and follow directions as above. (You can use other acrylic mediums, but I always seem to have the best luck with this brand and type).

A few notes: The IMPERFECTION of the resulting image is part of its appeal. Don't expect a perfect image. This is a hit and miss transfer method, at its best. Also, the brand/type of paper is important, although you can always try others. This brand is cheap and readily available here in the U.S. You can try the water transfers with any gloss paper with inkjet prints that will smear when wet, such as HP. I love my Epson printers with their waterproof pigment ink. Wouldn't trade them for the world.

Hmmm. I'm sure I've left things out, but it's time to go make dinner for the kids. I'll add more later after I've thought about it.

I also made some Photoshop brushes, which I'll post later for anyone who wants to grab them...

IF Emergency

Awakening from a dream, Enid looked around and saw a nightmare. She was surrounded. It was all over.

All the World's a Stage

This is from before Katie got sick. The curtains are from the painting of a tent from the 1800s, photo of woman during Civil War, harlequin floor fabricated by me, photo of sky by me, baseboard pasted together from the background of the picture of the woman...

I love the colors in this--and isn't she beautiful?

The Waterboy, Part Two

Lying in bed last night, I figured out a way to minimize some of the damage that the original postcard of the little boy had sustained. Even though this will only be meaningful to Photoshop users, I'll tell you how I did it: I used a monochrome color mixer adjustment layer, decreasing the amount from the blue and green layers, which had the most damage, and increasing the amount of the red layer, which had the least damage. Of course, then the image was completely black and white, so I duplicated the image, set it to color, and placed it above the adj layer. That gave me the original color, but minimized the damage.

No wonder I have trouble sleeping!

I'll be posting all the pieces I used to make this soon--just need to gather them all together...

The Waterboy

Today I spent several hours in the studio. It felt good to have time to work. Katie really does seem to be feeling better--she danced around the livingroom this morning to show me how great she felt!

I like this piece. Tomorrow I'll post all the different photos that I used to make The Waterboy--mainly because I think it's interesting how photos/paintings/textures morph when they're used in Photoshop...

IF Missing

I feel like I've been out of action forever.

Katie's feeling better, although the trip to go school shopping wore her out on Friday and she ended up in tears on the long ride home...So I'm out in the studio today for a little while.

This is the first time I haven't posted an Illustration Friday on Friday in, well, forever, I think. But I was determined to start something new when I came out to the studio today, and just now, when I logged on to Blogger, I realized that the piece is actually IF's "Missing." Not sure which of the two versions I prefer--let me know what you think, if you have time, either via a comment or by participating in the poll in the left sidebar of the blog--

Playing with Photoshop

I've long been a believer that we learn best by playing--look how easily babies learn to walk and talk! I've been playing with Photoshop for the last year or so--reading, asking questions to my VERY PATIENT BEST FRIEND KELLY JO, and playing.

Today I haven't felt good--my ear aches (I'm going to the doctor tomorrow) and I feel yukky--but I escaped to the studio and played with some photos. This is the only piece that seems finished, so I thought I'd share both the original photograph (Katie and her friend at Halloween) and the tweaked version. Posting on my blog is the grown-up equivalent of sticking something to the refrigerator--looky here!

Hazel in the Night

More of life under the sea...

Illustration Friday Paradise

I love what I wrote--

I'll live under the sea
in a forest of anemones
where I can feel the ocean's gentle swells and
ride the furious waves,
where the cold of the depths balance
the heat of my heart's desire...

But I'm not happy with any of the ways I tried to incorporate them. I'm looking for help, folks! Any suggestions are welcome...