Ever wonder how I create my digital art? I’ve been asked a number of times how I do what I do with photographs and a computer, so I thought I’d share a little about my creative process with you. I began my journey into digital art 5 years ago, when I turned a photograph I took of a tree in my parents’ backyard into a dramatic, surreal piece of art in Photoshop. I’ve actually been experimenting with my photography in Photoshop since I got my hands on Photoshop 2.0 (around 1997), but in 2005, after being a member of the DeviantART community (a wonderful source of inspiration) for about 2 years at the time, my photo-manipulating/digital art creations went to another level.

My process is 1 part planning (utilizing my photographic composition & design knowledge) and 9 parts experimentation. When I say “experimentation”, I don’t mean I go crazy trying anything and everything until I get a result I like. Okay, maybe a little! I apply a lot of techniques that I’ve taught myself over the years to see if they’ll work for a particular piece. I also often come up with completely new techniques or ideas. Each project goes through an evolutionary transformation and manifests on my screen by fusing many elements together to create a unified work of art.

Here I will outline a very basic, very abbreviated version of my digital art creation process, using the “Avalon Revisited” cover art as an example…

Step 1: Found photos, removed subject from background, arranged photos on canvas.

Here you see a public domain photograph of the Houses of Parliament found on the WikiCommons website. Normally, I try use my own stock of photographs for most of my art, but since I’ve never been to London to take a photo myself, and because the project required it, I had to settle for this very nice license-free stock photo. You also see a carefully cut-out photograph of our mysterious steampunk model.

Step 2: Added some “steampunk” elements and experimented with layer blending options.

I found the clockwork, gear and cog photographs on the WikiCommons site and cut them out from their respective backgrounds. You can see some layer blending has been applied by the almost negative effect of the clockwork and the variegated color on the cog. At this stage I also smoothed out the pixelization and digital noise from the photo of the model.

Step 3: Texture!

Added clouds and an overlay texture image, adjusting opacity and probably playing around with the layer blending options again.

Step 4: Added coil, clock and more texture

Added more texture using clouds and a grungy photo of a rusted metal surface. Erased the center of the rust image to allow most of the art to show through, leaving a little to frame the edges. I also added the coil and clock face for some more steampunk flair.

Step 5: Flatten and Filter

When I get to a point where I am happy with the layout and placement of all the elements, have the color adjusted to my liking and just the right amount light density and contrast, I flatten the entire image. With the flattened image, I do some more color, levels and contrast adjustments before playing around with special filters.

Step 6: Filters and Backtrack Adjustments

I use Photoshop filters or additional plug-in filters to achieve a more polished look. For this piece, I added a vignette filter that also brightened the center a bit. Because digital art can often be moody and unpredictable, I often went back to the un-flattened file to make adjustments. Here you can see that the cog on the left, inside the clockwork, is more pronounced/constrasted. I also resized the subject and nudged her a bit to the left. These were just a few of many many adjustments. I’m quite the perfectionist, and while sometimes that can become an obstacle, thankfully in this case that trait helped make the final image a success!

Step 7: Final image

It’s finished! After many more adjustments to the final flattened image, I decided it was ready for print. I sent the final version off to the publishing company and the author, who were both very pleased with the final result.

Step 8: Final Cover Design

InDesign was used to lay out the final design. I created all the design elements except for the publishing company’s logo and bar code. The industrial-looking metal placard and screws were created from scratch in Photoshop. This shows the full image stretching on to the back of the book.

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It seems so simple when I write it out like this. In reality, this particular project lasted many countless hours scattered over the course of a month and a half. But it was definitely worth it, and I’d do it again if the opportunity presented itself!

Before reading this post you may want to view the exhibit in this interactive slideshow

Here it is…a photo journalistic approach to all 17 pieces in my solo exhibit at the Lynnwood Library Gallery. Each piece is either 8×10 or 11×14 in size, matted and framed with 11×14 and 16×20 frames, respectively.  They are framed with museum-quality solid black beveled wood frames that are ready for hanging on a wall.  If you are interested in purchasing any of the work you see here, please fill out the contact form.

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Time draws near for the beginning of my solo exhibit at the Lynnwood Library Gallery in Lynnwood, Washington (just north of Seattle). The mats and prints thankfully arrived safely after being delayed due to Seattle’s “Snowpocalpse”, so all 18 pieces will be framed and ready to go for the show on Friday. The postcards have been sent to friends & family and more will be scattered about at the gallery. Very excited to ring in the new year with my first ever solo exhibit!

All of my friends and family (with the exception of my husband and a good friend who will be up for from San Francisco for a visit and to attend the Bad Faeries Ball) will not be able to attend, so I’ll be sure to post some pictures of the show. I’m looking forward to meeting some new people when I visit the gallery!

It’s been almost two years since time and my fleeting creative spark have allowed for the creation of any new digital fantasy art. So with great pleasure, I would like to unveil my latest piece (and addition to the Maidens of the Otherworld collection)….

Solstice Queen

She’s now available in print, greetings cards, and a number of different products! But, truly, just spreading the word about my work is payment enough. Thank you to those here who have been incredibly kind and generous by spreading the word!!

What do you think?

Another bit of news is that I created a page on Facebook to display my work. Anything new that’s created in this wave of creativity will be added there. Come join us here!

Do any of you have a Facebook account, group or page? I’d love to join!

I’m on YouTube! Well, at least my art is. Ive had an account for years but never really got into the whole “moving picture” phenomenon, being a still photographer and all. I decided it was time to branch out to other popular media Web outlets, so here it is..my YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/catarionna

Feel free to add me as a friend if you have an account, and a subscription to my channel would also be much appreciated! I’ll be posting slide shows set to music showcasing my art and photography. First in the series is Maidens of the Otherworld, seen here.

* Be sure to watch the video in high quality, by going to the following link and clicking “watch in high quality” in the bottom right corner below the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuAVIqwTv8c

These photographs were taken last Fall with my good friend and consistent model, Kristy Rose. I dreamed this series before it was created…in the dream I was taking photos of Kristy running through the green coastal plains of Ireland, large flowing scarf trailing behind her as she ran. I like dreaming about epic “high fashion” photo shoots

This is not quite the the location from the dream, and it’s definitely not high fashion, but the beautiful Autumn palette and Kristy’s serene expression gives these a very soft, romantic feel.

What do you think?  Should I pursue conceptual portraiture more aggressively, or just stick to nature and landscapes?

There are a lot of nice shots I’m still going through, so this is just a preview of what’s to come.

Our first trip after moving to Seattle was about 60 miles south to Mount Rainier National Park. The mountain overtakes the horizon from the entrance onto I-5 near our home, and it can be seen as far away as Portland and Vancouver. Up close, it’s mind-blowing…

We climbed to about 6,000 feet after a long, semi-terrifying bus ride up the winding roads. The crest is at a little over 14,000 feet. These photographs hardly do the real views any justice, but they come close. Very little editing was applied.

These photos were snapped at the Paradise location (named for the pure gorgeousness of it’s wildflower-covered slopes), where there is a visitors center and beautiful mountain lodge. To the south are some lower elevation peaks that are much older than Mt Rainier, and in one of the shots you can see Mount St. Helens faintly in the distance (about 50 miles away).

Mt. Rainier is the most glaciated mountain in the lower 48 states, but we heard stories from park volunteers about glaciers that have completely melted since they were children (over 50 years). That’s global warming for ya. Yet, it was a 90 degree August day when we visited and we were so high up that we eventually had to stop because of all the snow blocking the path.

Upcoming series: Oregon, Mt. Hood, old-growth forests, and Puget Sound & Lake Washington areas

The following art is work that doesn’t quite fit into the Maidens of the Otherworld series, but that I still consider fantasy-themed. All work is digital art/photo-manipulation using my photography, and was created between 2005 and 2006.

Happy Halloween! I’ve always loved this holiday but have not had a reason to dress up in recent years. So this year I decided to create some digital art! This is what evolved on my computer screen after taking a few self portraits. What do you think? I’m thinking about offering commissions for digital art…specifically if a client provides a photograph to work with. This is something I’ve always wanted to do.

To celebrate the day, I baked another pumpkin roll, am preparing a nice dinner for my husband and I, and best of all, I’m listening to my ever-growing Halloween playlist. I live for music! There is a lot of chanting, lovely harmonies, “darkness”, and autumn-themes to these songs. Here is a sampling of the songs that instill the spirit of Halloween and the changing season in my mind:

• Cormacus Scripsit by Anuna
• Cruel by Tori Amos
• Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles
• Devils Haircut by Beck
• World of Stone & 25 Years by Blackmore’s Night
• Maiden of the Mountain Deep by Katharine Blake
• Newgrange by Clannad
• Dance of the Satyrs by Daemonia Nymphe
• Carribean Blue & The First Of Autumn by Enya
• Bring Me to Life by Evanescence
• Evenstar from Lord of the Rings Soundtrack by Howard Shore
• Sirena, Ne Aludj El and basically everything by Faun
• The Mystic’s Dream, All Soul’s Night and The Old Ways by Loreena McKennitt
• I Am Eve, Lhiannan Shee, and Spiriti by Mediaeval Baebes
• 26 Ghosts III by NIN
• Wytche’s Brew by Omnia
• Huckle Duckle by Primaeval
• A Window To The Past from Harry Potter Soundtrack by John Williams
• Time of the Season by The Zombies
• Every song from the Oblivion video game soundtrack (thanks to Ben )

You can read a great post on the history of this holiday over at Christine & Ethan Rose’s blog

Happy Birthday, Dad!

My digital fantasy art has been now brought together for the first time into a fantasy art collection called Maidens of the Otherworld. I recently designed and sent out an email campaign promoting the Maiden’s website, which you can find here:

Maidens of the Otherworld Announcement

I would like to continue on with creating digital fantasy art…it’s been far too long since I’ve indulged in art for art’s sake, that which feeds my soul. What types of otherworldly beings would you like to see added to this collection?