Before and After - Compare These Two Paintings

Ken's Fruit Tart Improved
Working on other paintings and having some time to revisit
"Ken's Fruit Tart", helped me to see that it needed more color.
I like the richer reds in the raspberries and darker blues in the
black berries. The "Before" painting, with less intense color is the
same as my last post in October. The other is the "After" version.
Sometimes it just takes time to see the painting in a "new light".

Ken's Fruit Tart

Ken's Fruit Tart

Acrylic on Cradled Ampersand Board

10" x 10"

Now that autumn is here, this is one of my fond memories
from this summer.

Fruit tarts, with fresh Oregon peaches, blackberries,
raspberries and strawberries, are a symbol of summer to me.
Who (of the award winning bakers in Portland) would earn my
vote for the best and inspire me to paint a fruit tart?
Ken's Artisan Bakery created a delicious tender crust,
light, creamy, vanilla filling and topped it off with an amazingly
artistic arrangement of fruit.
It looked like a good subject to paint. After taking
reference photos and enjoying the flavor, it earned my vote
for the Best Fruit Tart of Summer 2009. (It amazed
me, that this yummy treat made it all the way home and
through a photo session without being eaten!)

Thanks to Ken Forkish, owner of Ken's Artisan Bakery for
giving me the inspiration for this painting.

If you are in the Portland area, you might stop by Ken's

or check out his website:

Ken's Artisan Bakery

338 NW 21st AvePortland, OR 97209-1102
(503) 248-2202

http://www.kensartisan.com/

Alisha - Step 6 (Final Step)

Alisha Step 6

On the top menu bar, I right clicked "Image". Then

Image>Rotate> Flip Horizontal was used to flip the image.

Back to the right side of the screen under Effects, I used
Brush Strokes> Sumi-e to create the darks. If you click on

Sumi-e, it will give you options to darken and change length of

strokes.

At this point I will study this composition, before making
any more changes. It is a good place to stop for now.

Have fun experimenting with these different Adobe Photoshop
Elements Effects and editing tools.

Alisha - Step 5 Soften Light on Door

Alisha Step 5

The Clone Tool (on the left side of the screen) was used to
select a medium value in the door (and with no perfection

in mind), softened the bright light on the door.

You can see on the right side of the screen under Effects,

the Distort>Glass used on the background.

Alisha Step 4 Blur Part of Background

Alisha Step 4 (Click on image above to enlarge)

Using the Polygon Tool, I selected the background area
around Alisha. Selecting the Filters (on the top menu bar)
or the Effects (on the right side of the
screen) I clicked on Blur> Motion Blur.
You will see in the next post how I used Distort> Glass to
demonstrate one more way to use Effects for the background.

Alisha - Step 3 Cropping To Focus on Composition

Alisha - Step 3 (Click on image above to enlarge)
On the left side of the screen, you can see that the crop tool
has black in the background, which shows that it is the tool
that is selected.
I cropped by clicking on the crop tool, placing the upper left
hand corner of the crop tool on the upper left hand corner
of the image and dragging diagonally to the right. By cropping
to remove the lower part of the floor and door, I am able
to focus more on what I want to see.

Alisha - Step 2 Enlarging the Door Selection

Alisha - Step 2

Here you can see the image in Photoshop Elements 6 -
full screen, which shows you the layer palette on the right
and the Move Tool (which is selected) on the left.
You can see that the door was moved in the last step and

it is on a separate layer. When I clicked on that layer, the door

selection was still selected. You can see the "handles"
or small boxes on the sides of the selection rectangle. I
pulled the one on the right side of the selection to enlarge
the door selection. This makes Alisha's shadow larger and
a more important part of the composition.

Alisha - Step 1 Combining Photos in Adobe Photoshop Elements

Alisha - Process

In yesterday's post, I selected two photos.
Both photos were resized to a smaller size for the
purpose of loading onto this blog and saved as jpgs.
The photo that has the best shadow on the door,
was cropped to show just the door and saved as a jpg.
I left that jpg. open and opened the photo
that shows more of Alisha's knee. Using the
"Move Tool", I left clicked on the door and
dragged it to the other photo. When it was in
position, I released the left click or dropped it
in place. The move tool can be used to adjust the
door, by clicking on it (as long as that layer is still
highlighted.)
See the cropped door and how it looks once
it is dragged and dropped onto the other photo:
___

Digital Images as Inspiration -WSO Photoshop Presentation

The Photoshop Presentation, for the
Watercolor Society of Oregon, 10/3/09,
was a pleasure to prepare and share.
Many thanks to members of WSO
who added to the inspirational spirit
of the presentation by participating.

My favorite part of the presentation
involved developing a painting idea
from reference photos taken from
a live model. Since, several WSO members
requested instruction about how to use
"Filters" or "Effects" in Adobe
Photoshop Elements, prior to the session,
I explored the possibilities with reference
photos of "Alisha".

At the end of the presentation, several
members of WSO asked for the Photoshop
Elements steps involved in my exploration.
Here is the first post of several, that will review
that part of the presentation.

Alisha

Several members of my art group, "Splash",
met at Kathy's, the home of one of our members.
The professional model, Alisha, is the daughter
of one of our members, Misty. I photographed Alisha
from several different angles and selected the
two below to develop my painting idea:

(Thanks ahead of time for respecting my copyright
on this entire lesson and all photographs.)

One of these photos shows more of the shadow on the door,

and the other shows more of the light on Alisha's leg.

In the next post, I will show how I selected what I liked most
from each photo and combined them into one photo.