Theme image: Abstract with Frog

[Judy Howle]

I used an iPhone photo of a piece of found object artwork by a friend as the base for the background image which is really unrecognizable now. It was created from buttons and all kinds of other 3D objects glued on to a base. I used SnapArt and a couple of Jixipix plugins and various blend modes. Then I cut out my photo of a tree frog and did work on it in Ps and also used jixipix plugins on it, then I pasted it in and didn't like the way it just sat on top, so I duped the layer twice and used Overlay blend mode for those 2 layers so the background showed through. I lowered the opacity of the original frog layer to like 40 or 50%. I think frogs have the coolest eyes. I shoulda painted them red!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

I thought they were all eyeballs Judy:) Another piece full of whimsy and charm:S3:. Love the bright colours and the BG, the frog seems totally oblivious to everything!

[Judy Howle]

Thanks Jackie! Yes some of the buttons and such do look like eyes.

I made a small booboo in my description, the 2 duped frog layers are in hard light mode, not overlay. I tried to use a layer mask on those layers over the lips and very weird stuff happened and it didn't work! But it's OK, it looks all right as it is. I guess it was because the underlying frog layer was also partly transparent. But when I went over that area a black border appeared around where I was painting, like the drop shadow applied to brush strokes. I think I overstepped the bounds of what I know about Photoshop. :e3

[Kerry Perkins]

Love the colors and hints of eyes all around the image. The frog looks pretty cool with a bit of transparency. Cool idea and always good to push into areas of PS that you are not so familiar with, it often leads to fun discoveries!

[Judy Howle]

Another version. I bought a book on 3D and tried making the frog 3D but it didn't do much for it. Then I changed the layer opacities and tried different blending modes than the first one.

[Nancy Bell]

This is so fun! It's almost like those "where is Waldo" pictures. Love the repeating "eyes" and bold colors. I think my favorite "eyes" are those two turquoise ones just right of center, very top, each with a polywog in them! The frog addition is so OOTB. I like both posts.

[Judy Howle]

Thanks Nancy! BTW, I posted the photo of the original art work (no. 4) and other photos of my friend Elayne's art here: http://southernexposure.zenfolio.com/p32917902 Elayne has been featured in several magazines and her works are in museums and galleries in NY, Atlanta, B'ham, and Paris and Julia Roberts the actress owns one.

[Anita Bower]

I see lots of eyes in this image, not just the frogs! I like this funky, colorful image. Playful and fun.

[LinzRiverBalmer]

much fun!!!

This reminds me of one of those 3-D puzzle things where it looks like nothing and you are supposed to hold them a certain distance and unfocus your eyes until suddenly the shapes appear within the image.... anyone know what I'm talking about??

Nicely done, and again, creative beyond imagination.

[Judy Howle]

Thanks much Linz, and I do know the kind of puzzles you are talking about. I had little success with most of them... :e3

[Judy Howle]

Thanks Kerry! Working in OOTB I often encounter these situations where I am not in control and sometimes I muddle though and learn new things. Like Jack Davis said in his class on painting, photo art, etc. at creativelive.com, "give yourself permission to experiment"!


Love the colors and hints of eyes all around the image. The frog looks pretty cool with a bit of transparency. Cool idea and always good to push into areas of PS that you are not so familiar with, it often leads to fun discoveries!