I think birds with red eyes make "eye-catching" subjects :w3! I simplified the details of the coot close-up with Topaz Simplify, oil paint III. I further created the bkgd texture using PS poster edges from the filter gallery. Since the coot was nearly all black already with no edges, I did not have to mask the effect from the coot.
12-17-2013, 09:14 PM
Dennis Bishop
You have a sort of primary color thing going on with the blue water, the red eye, and the kind-of-yellowish color on the bill. It's nice having the purples in the water, too, with the blue and red. Poster Edges accents the curves of the ripples well.
12-18-2013, 06:45 PM
Diane Miller
Cool coot, and the effects are very well done! Dennis summed it up. They do have wonderful eyes.
12-19-2013, 09:35 AM
Cheryl Slechta
Hi, Nancy, Poster edges gives this a really nice graphic look - the colors are great and I love the close-up view.:S3:
12-19-2013, 01:00 PM
Jackie Schuknecht
I really like the flat picture effect Nancy. The colours and that red eye and beak really stand out.
12-19-2013, 08:26 PM
gary ellwein
Eye-catching indeed. I particularly like the concentric rings of blue water.
12-19-2013, 09:45 PM
Christopher Miller
Nice graphic quality, Nancy. The contrast between the black coot and the white beak is very eye-catching. Well done!
12-19-2013, 10:30 PM
Nancy Bell
Thanks everyone! It was a fun image to play with.
01-02-2014, 03:00 PM
Mitch Carucci
A light, a bright, and a dark. Great graphic rendering of the coot. We have a bunch of them around this year, and their coloration is so dark that it is hard to render. You solved that problem by using the strong contrast to your advantage in this strong image.