Something new from something old

First off, I want to apologize to anyone who tried to download yesterday's textures from Flickr and couldn't. I have gone over all my settings at Flickr today and everything should be back to normal now.

And secondly, it's time to show you what I've done with those two textures! (Thanks Marie, for the reminder!)

Let's start by having a look at the two photos I used, shown above. Those are straight from my files, no photoshopping done whatsoever except to create the layout you see. We'll tackle the gargoyle first.

The gargoyle was photographed last month during our visit to Epcot. After making some minor adjustments to the photo (curves, brightness, contrast), I placed the "cool" texture on top, on its own layer, rotating the texture 90 degrees so it fit atop the gargoyle image. Yes, I could've stretched the texture with its landscape orientation to fit the gargoyle with its portrait orientation, but I decided not to do that. I then chose the Difference layer blending mode and kept it at 100% opacity. Next, I merged the two layers together and messed about with the artistic "painterly" filters and with the Color Balance. After I was satisfied with that, I upped the contrast a bit and then used a clipping mask to rough up the edges.

Now for some flowers.

I started the roses artwork last night, but wasn't satisfied with it and left it for today's fresh eyes. This is a photograph I took several years ago, from a photo shoot for a local florist. I had forgotten all about those photos until last night, when I went searching for a floral photo to use with the "warm" texture. After deciding the roses in the terra cotta vase image was perfect for this project, I squared it off, made some minor adjustments (curves, saturation, brightness, contrast and a small amount of sharpening), then placed the texture on top on its own layer, stretching it to fit the square photo and then using the Overlay layer blending mode at 100% opacity. I wasn't happy with the texture on the flowers though, so I used a layer mask at a very low opacity to "erase" it, just over the areas that bothered me. (This could be done in Photoshop Elements using the eraser tool at a low opacity and a careful hand.)

At this point I was tired and ready for bed, so I shut down the computer. This needed fresh eyes, not droopy ones. So, after staring at the project this morning, I came to the conclusion that it needed some sort of edging. I used the eyedropper tool to capture one of the lighter tones in the image and applied a smudgey edge. I was close to liking this enough to call it finished, but I wasn't there yet. After a few more experiments that were tried and then deleted, I flattened the entire project and applied the Dry Brush filter. To my eyes, this was just what it needed and I called it a day!

So there you have it. A little peek over my shoulder as I create. I hope you give these textures a photoshop workout too!