Week 4 - Putting it all together.

This week we have been learning to put together all the things we've learnt over the last few weeks.

This image is really an exercise in putting together some of the textures, scans, brushes etc that I've made.

The base pic was simply some coffee stains on canvas paper.

I then blended in several layers of other items such as a photo of the side of a very old, well used cake tin,

and some brown paper,

I added a crack effect by using a brush I had made from a ruin wall

I cannot remember everything I did to them but after changing blend modes and experimenting with different processes I came up with this final texture image.

I then blended this texture with one of my stock pics of an onion, added some text and distressed it a little.

click to enlarge

Looking forward to trying more of the hands on messy type of textures,

thanks for looking,

Kathy

Why textures.

So what are all these textures about?

Well for me it is taking an image which otherwise might just sit on my hard drive and enhancing it to be a piece of artwork that could be used as an image for a card, calendar or wall art for example.

I have thrown subtle out the window for this one and gone for a much more dramatic, bold look.

The final result is always subjective and will not be to everyone's liking.

I've chosen a picture I took of my bouganvillea set against the blue sky.

Though this image has great colours, as it is it would sit on my hard drive as just another photo of my garden.
The bold colour of the flowers always makes me think of fire.

I had created two textured backgrounds using some photoshop brushes I created out of splashes of paint and they remind me of fire also. 

They are very similar, one a little lighter and more yellow than the other.

I blended both of these backgrounds with the original photo using different blend modes until I was happy with the result. Also added a lens flare in the top left corner to add some highlights.

Finally I cropped it slightly and added some text.

Final image.  Bloom...

click to view larger

I hope you like the final result.
Feedback welcome.

I'm still working on my brushes sampler so maybe I'll have it ready for next post.
See you then,

Cheers
Kathy

Art of Textures Course Week 2 - Brushes cont

Hello Everyone

I'm having so much fun with these brushes both making them, using them to make textures and then blending the textures with photos.

Here is an example.

Using this photo of paint

I created a Photoshop brush

Using this brush I created a texture pattern in blues and whites.

Then I blended this texture with a photo of a water lily from my little water garden I have in a wine barrel.

I used two layers of the texture - first set to Soft Light and the second to Screen, opacity adjusted for both and a subtle border added.

And the final image

Water Lily Blue

best viewed larger to see texture (click).

The effect is subtle but I think it suits the soft water lily.

I've also had fun making brushes of my kids, a friend's grandkids as well as wood, stone, foliage etc. I'll do a collage of them for my next post.

Please feel free to comment. I have set it to public so you don't have to log in.

Cheers

Kathy

Art of Textures Course Week 2 - Brushes

In the Art of Textures Course this week Kim has taught us how to make our own Photoshop brushes.

I used a photo of my old wooden box  to create some grungy wood grain brushes.

Then I used those brushes and some Freebie drips and drop brushes I found on the net and created a new texture image out of an old one I wasn't happy with.

The limitless possibilities of these brushes both the creating and the using is amazing. I wake up at night dreaming about them but they are a lot of fun.

I have used one of my new textures in this image...Sit and Ponder.

Introducing Molly.

I found her in a shop a few years ago when life was giving me a few thorns and she looked so forlorn I just had to give her a home.

She is a very willing model and you will see more of her in the future. (and she's not nearly as forlorn as she looks).

Cheers

Kathy

Art of Textures Course Week 1 - Day 3 cont

Still on Day 3 (I'm a bit behind as there is so much to learn) - Tutorial on removing the textures from a selected area of the photo without changing the tone of the subject. I used this technique to remove most the texture from the vase and flower allowing a little of it to remain so it would blend in.

This was an amazingly simple technique but all new to me as I had not used Smart Objects before.

Texture used: Kim Klasson's greydayvintage.

Here is the final result.

Hibiscus

Cheers
Kathy

Art of Textures Course Week 1 - Day 3

Day 3 Tutorial was called 'Whisper'.  Another process to produce a dreamy whispery effect.

Original photo

Final image

Textures used:  kk_Flourish (for the image)

kk_golden hour (for the text)

Beauty Lingers...

Cheers

Kathy

Art of Textures Course Week 1 - Vintage Colour

Hi Everyone,

I'm a bit behind in the course. I realised how few photos I have with light backgrounds that blend easily with textures so I scouted around the house and found some new subjects and spent Sunday afternoon (Aussie time) shooting them against the white paper tablecloth used for my son's 18th birthday party Sat night.

Day 2 - we also learnt how to give a vintage colour look to a photo and add a texture (kk_sonnet).

For this one I have added Kim Klasson's - "Sonnet" plus one of my own textures.

Vintage Roses

Now I'm off to try Day 3...then Day 4...I'll catch up eventually!

Cheers

Kathy

Art of Textures Course Week 1 - Day 2

Day 2. One of our tasks for today was to try cross processing a photo and adding a texture and some text.

Here is my original photo taken recently at Pt Willunga beach.

Texture added - Kim Klasson's "Embrace"
Quote - Michelle Held via scrapbook.com/quotes.

Final image - Day at the Beach.

click to view larger

Art of Textures Course Week 1

Day 1

Today I started Kim Klasson's Art of Texture Course (see button at side).

If you love textures and aren't familiar with the Kim Klasson Cafe you need to check it out.

Today we learnt how to take a strong picture and make it soft and dreamy.

Following Kim's tutorial I have taken this pic of mine:

by adding one of Kim's textures and other secret processes

produced a soft dreamy image.

click to view large

I have learnt a lot just in one day and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the course.

Thanks Kim.

Welcome

Welcome to my first post on Coffee Pot Textures.

The purpose of this blog is to share some of my work using textures to enhance my photos.

Last year I began exploring the use of textures and to make some of my own textures. The very first of these were made using natural dyes from coffee and onion skins, thus the name Coffee Pot Textures.

I have since blended these with photos of things like bark, stone, wood, peeling paint or old ruin walls and have slowly built a collection of textured images which I then blend with my photos.

The South Australian countryside is dotted with many old ruins from it's early settlement days. I love to photograph these old buildings but sometimes the image on it's own is lacking something.

I came across one of these ruins outside Sedan, SA.

Texture added - Cappuccino.
















Final image. Sedan Ruin.















Please grab a cuppa occassionally and visit my blog to see future posts.

Regards
Kathy