From Mini Canvas to Maxi Background
Armed with a spirit of experimentation, I decided to flex a few creative muscles and create a new background, using a mini piece of canvas as the inspiration. So, I gathered my supplies, which also included my brushes, an old pie tin for mixing colors, and my small box of Marie Water Mixable Oil Colors (easily found on Amazon), and started off creating my miniature masterpiece.
Okay, maybe not masterpiece. I literally began painting and pouncing colors on to the canvas. At times I would introduce a new color, or add highlights by applying cadmium yellow mixed with titanium white, but really, there was no particular rhyme or reason to the design. The nature of this paint is forgiving, as, much like oil colors, it is VERY slow to dry. If I didn't like the hue or tone of one area, I could dab, with quick random small strokes, other colors. I wanted a surface that reflected many different textures and bits of color. The process took approximately 15 minutes. As you can see, it gave me a very promising "background" to work with.
Once in Photoshop, I realized that the texture of the canvas was a little too strong for my liking, so the first step in fine tuning my background was to mitigate the strength of texture without affecting my colors. This was easily accomplished by creating a frequency separation layer. (Not sure how to do this, here is a pretty good video that covers this technique. Though, instead of a face, we are using the canvas. Click here to view.) Once the texture layer was separated from the color layer, I used my mixer brush and tapped on this layer using Kyles Concept Brush - All purpose blend. Not sure how to find these amazing brushes and install them? I have a link for that as well. Click here to view. It's a relatively random brush that softened the strength of the canvas texture.
Once I was satisfied with the results, I decided to change the color of my canvas. Changing the color on anything in photoshop is quite easy. Using your adjustment panel, you can affect and shift color using any of the following tools illustrated below. It will affect your entire image. Simply invert your mask (Command-I) and brush on the new color you would like and paint it onto your image. I particularly liked using the "Color Lookup" adjustment. You can use any number of the presets included in the box available. Simply adjust the opacity of that layer.
I am a member of the Phlearn educational platform, which includes so many awesome tutorials! Included in an annual membership are a variety of actions, presets and brushes, as well as amazing content. I highly recommend you check it out! I decided to use a combination of some of his LUTS presets which I had uploaded into the color lookup adjustment panel.
Finally, using the background as an underpainting, I added additional painterly strokes to my final image. This is such a satisfying and amazing process! Many of the brushes I used I have acquired through my membership with Elevate Your Art. (As I have shared in many previous blogs, this is an amazing online membership program for those seeking a serious, in-depth education in creating realistic paintings from photographs.)
Below are the two digital backgrounds I achieved using this process, as well as the before and after image of a painting I created combining the background with a photograph.
I hope you enjoyed a peak into my process, and that you find the inspiration as well as resources helpful in your artistic and photographic journey!
As always, keep creating!!!
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