Photo Art

Creating Photo Art by Listening to Your Photographs

Look at your photographs with an open heart and you may be surprised at the photo art you see there. I believe it was in art appreciation class that I first heard this idea. You may have heard it yourself. Many artists say that the canvas, clay, or landscape in front of them creates the artwork.

Turning a photograph into art is just the same. There are certain pictures that speak out to you when you look at them. They have certain qualities that make them good candidates for turning into canvas art. You look at a flower picture and it looks as though it would be a beautiful oil painting. Others may say they dream of being a cartoon.

Well okay, they don't exactly talk to you. But some photos seem to take on the effect that suits them before you ever apply an artistic filter using your photo editing software.





Take this flower photograph, for one example. My first thought when I opened it on my computer was that it would make a beautiful oil painting. Even before I made any editing changes at all the image has a look of a painting. You may see something all together different. But you must admit there is an artsy look to it, right?

Play With The Artistic Filters in Photo Editing Software

Using the artistic filters that are part of almost any photo editing software is fun and inspirational. Use these art filters to create pencil sketches, oil paintings, abstract art, and so much more.

You will notice though that not every photo can be enhanced with the same effect. You may try using an oil filter on a beautiful nature landscape only to find it turns into a blob of unattractive color.

Sometimes using multiple effects will do the trick. Other times you realize the photo is perfect just as it is revealing nature's own artistic flare.  These photos simply don't need any changing at all.





Here is that purple flower picture with two effects applied:

• Cartoon Effect
• Oil Painting Effect

Here I used the Cartoon effect first and finished by applying an oil effect.  I often use the cartoon effect to sharpen some of the features in my photos.

The order you apply multiple effects will determine what your finished photo art looks like.

The choices are endless when you combine effects. Be sure and take notes for your own future reference as to what effects you used. You may also want to put them in the file name. The file name for this picture became purple-flower-cartoon-oil-w-7661.jpg.  The w stands for web ready and the numbers are the original image number from my camera. 

Don't get bogged down with remembering how you came up with your ideas.

It is more fun to simply allow your work to talk to you. Let that next inspired idea play out on your digital canvas. You can always undo.  Most photo editing software will allow you to back out all the way to the basic image you started with.

It's similar to an artist using oil paints on canvas and removing a layer of paint when they are not happy with the results. The difference is with digital art you don't have the messy tools to clean up later.

Let's take one more look at this same image using the same effects in reverse.




Reverse the order of appied effects and you create a different photo art all together. In this picture I applied the "oil" effect first, sharpened it a little, then finally added "cartoon" effect to the mix.

As you can see the result is softer and closer to the original. And yet you can see the oil painting quality there as well.  Have fun creating art from your photos.

Be sure and save your work with a different name than your original. You do this by choosing "save as" when you are happy with your results.  Save your photo art as a copy and you can go back and create more and more using the same photograph.

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