Photo Manipulation

Occasionally members of Photoshopcontest.com will submit images of themselves for other members to chop into something else. Anything goes. For this image I decided depict the character, mike.b.29, with barbed wire running through his head. As if that wasn't bizarre enough, I added an image of my dog in the background, a see-through moon over his head, and then ran a filter effect over the whole thing to give it that little extra grinding twist.

You can view the thread of comments and images posted by other members here. Two other images of mine can be found in that thread, as well. You can find me by looking for user: tadams.

I was at a loss when it came to chopping Josh Holloway, an actor known for his work on the TV show, "LOST." My notes indicate I was looking at creating some kind of alien creature which preys upon unsuspecting women by morphing its face into that of a popular hunky male actor. There was some thought of an insect like creature, which would devour the victim later in its lair. Alas, as the creative process unfolded with the application of a zillion cheap Photoshop filters, I began to see something entirely different: I saw love blossoming out in an assortment of custom brushes and stock custom shapes all arranged carefully to keep the viewer moving inward towards the Love Guru. Various shapes dictated the 70's style feel, and bright swirling colors led to a vibrant exotic landscape. Enjoy the love!

A bigger version is available for viewing.

The idea for Nessieloon took a long time to pop into my head. Even after I had the main idea I still thought it lacked something so I began searching for whale hunting photos. At one time I was going to insert a boat with someone shooting a harpoon. This became three harpoons all pointing at Nessieloon. Finally, I decided one carefully placed harpoon was enough. This theme and idea is similar to one of my favorite pieces I created a while back, "Trigger goes POP!"

The balloon photo was taken over a year ago. The harpoon was painted from reference. The wave image seen below was used to combine everything together.

A larger image is available here.

I posed my daughter for this image, taking several shots. She was sat on a stool in a closet, shades drawn. I bounced the flash off the ceiling while she pretended to be gnawing on her forearm. A shot of tree fungus (see image below) was overlayed and brushed in. The main eating area is a combination of digital painting mixed in with the tree fungus.

A larger version is available here.

After seeing the image below of a buried crab claw the movie, "Princess Bride" popped into my head. In the movie Mandy Patinkin plays Inigo Montoya, a man out to avenge his father's death. Just before starting a sword fight he proclaims in a polite, but serious tone, "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die." It seemed logical that a seagull would eat a crab, and that one of that crabs offspring would one day grow up with a huge claw to avenge his father's death.

Two external images were used from my portfolio. The bird I used actually went over the top of where a different gull used to be. This birds mouth was opened up. The extra parts of crab leg were painted in Photoshop.

Moon Dog wasn't preconceived. He started out as nothing more than me trying to blend a dog (see image below) face into that of a bald man from istockphoto.com. I removed the man's eyes, replacing them with a rooster's eye from istockphoto.com. The moon shape is the result of messing around with Photoshop's liquify tool. The background image is a shot I took of fireworks in downtown Seattle of this year.

You may be asking yourself, "What on earth inspired you to make that thing?" My response would be, "the plate of sushi seen below and lyrics from 'The Dead of Night,' by Depeche Mode." The head shape is from istockphoto.com. The eyes were removed and replaced with a dead fish eye and a woman's eye. Sushi parts were brushed into the head. The entire body below the head was lovingly made with sushi.

This image started with the image of leaves going through change seen below. The ant was painted from reference, no underpainting. I'm quite pleased with how the ant turned out. It would have been so easy to just use a photo, but one must constantly challenge themselves to keep growing. Woman is from istockphoto.com. Foreground created with a grassy brush in Photoshop.

The inspiration for this piece began with the image of the hand seen below. Originally the idea was going to be something about the hand of God being guided by little hands, with big mouths, blowing up Tinky Winky. In the end I almost gave up doing anything because the hand didn't have the right look. With a deadline fast approaching I opted to turn the hand into a rocky mountain in silhouette, which was combined with an image from istockphoto.com. I painted in the organic beam. I then overlayed another image from my personal collection, a shot of a leaf with water drops to create the planetary-like orbs.

I set out to create a wacky image by adding all sorts of images to the image below. All external photos were shot by myself.