Saturday, March 15, 2008

Illustration Friday -Heavy























Heavy or Not -- Anything is Possible

What a great Illustration Friday theme...many concepts came to mind; like Heavy Metal, He Ain't Heavy - He's My Brother (love that one especially), and Heavy Heart. But my very creative daughter came up with a feather lifting an anvil, so I played off the idea with creatures of the same distinction. I love Elephants and found this great one and his feathered friend on istock.
The Design Elements:

I used 3 backgrounds; the textured brown, the diagram and a blue fill layer (it's very light in this example, see it at the top & to the right.) Then I experimented with layer blend modes and transparency. The white lilacs (photo) was placed between the layers to try different possibilities, but I finally decided to plop them in behind the light blue fill layer. Florals always play an important part in my art and life...

Of course the main elements for the collage are the elephant, the dove, and the ribbon which I drew out on my wacom. You can see where I used a layer mask to weave the ribbon in and around my little elephant.

The final layer was created to frame the piece in a very subtle way -- adjusting transparency and using the selection tool, I made a filmy frame to give the piece some depth...oh, and I used a drop shadow on the main elements too.

Now to go create some more in between REAL LIFE...

9 comments:

Scarlett said...

I love all your work, I too find I love the flexibility of digital.

Anonymous said...

This is beautiful, I love the colors and the concept !
May I link to your blog ?

rebecca christiansen said...

Catherine, of course you may link to my blog. I would be honored, as I love your art!

morningDove said...

wow, is all i can say! i truly love this piece of art. what a statement in digital pics. thank you for sharing how you came to put this together. i have been dabbling in this arena now you have inspired me more.

1000 Bad Dates said...

this is lovely....... elephant looks very dimensional

Kim Naumann said...

Thankyou so very much for visiting my blog and leaving a comment on my collage! It was very much appreciated. And I must tell you that I absolutely love your digital art! Very beautiful!

yahidith monnalisa said...

anything IS possible. great use graphics. the colors add to the sense of effortless strenght of the dove, the little guy carrying the weight of the big guy...moving.

Catalina said...

love your work!!!!

Honor said...

Love the second piece, very thoughtful that you share your process. ;-)