theme: In the woods, dark and deep

[Nancy Bell]

The original image is a vertical blur of burned tree trunks. With Pixel Bender I created a hole in the trees and put the Halloween clip art there. Fractalius, topaz adjust dusk, PS paint daubs, fractalius again, at various opacities. I owe Robert Frost for "dark & deep" woods.

[Dennis Bishop]

I like where both your imagination and processing skills went with this. It's very effective and creative. The colors work very well, too. Because I subscribe to the notion that -- for the majority of viewers -- the eye enters at the left, I'd be inclined to flip it horizontally, but I do like it the way it is, too.

[Nancy Bell]

Here is a horizontally flipped version. I can't judge if this makes more visual sense since I'm used to working the image as the first orientation. What do others think?
I just foundd the rest of my processing notes. I processed the original blurred image in Nik b&w and revealed part of the original layer. Then I continued as above.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Nancy,

Greetings. Hmm... 6/half dozen? If I had to choose... the OP. That said, this is really cool, Nancy. The dark tree trunks with the horizontal banding are very engaging in their darkness. The small in frame clip art is perfect. I wonder what the clip art more centered (centered vertically, at the 1/3 mark on the left) might look like. I was thinking of a path toward the clip art. Perhaps, a slight darkening of the bottom to give that tunnel feel. Just a thought... cool as is. Thanks for posting.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Dennis Bishop]

[QUOTE=Michael Gerald-Yamasaki;1028834 . . . I wonder what the clip art more centered (centered vertically, at the 1/3 mark on the left) might look like. . . . [/QUOTE]

I'd wondered the same thing and actually tried it (using Content Aware Move for the first time) before my previous comment. Compositional guidelines say that's the thing to do, but I didn't think it made the image any better. Your tunnel idea is intriguing, however.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Nancy, nice results for an ambitious project! I like the original post. It's a great spooky look, with that unreal view into another place!

[Anita Bower]

A great spooky image! I love the dark, textured feel. My eye goes right to the orange ball which blends in beautifully, then wanders around the image enjoying the textures, tones, shapes. Excellent work. Perhaps because I saw it first, I prefer the OP.

[Nancy Bell]

Thanks all! Michael, I'll have to play with that dark tunnel idea. And I totally forgot about the rule of thirds for placing the clip art.