Brushes for iColorama

Beautiful as always, Ann. Do you create your backgrounds in iColorama?
The actual collage look, is a physical collage. In the example above, I opened the second collage paper which has bits of a plate and then I used Effects>Blend to load the first one on top. I then went to the mask brushes and selected the snowflakes and dotted them around so that the bottom whitish layer showed through as snowflakes. I then went to Paint, chose your goose, picked out a colour from the background and stamped your goose. Next was the text. Then I choose Effects>Raise to give it that 3D look. Finally I blended in one of the old textures from ShadowHouse and cropped it a bit.

I love the textures by http://shadowhousecreations.blogspot.hk/. I downloaded loads of them and because he gives them free I have made a couple of donations. I keep about 20 on my ipad but I need to download a couple more onto my ipad. It's not quite enough.

I used to go through the hassle of making collages and sticking everything down. But now I just tear pieces out of a magazine and lay them down on a piece of paper and take photos. I now have a stash of these papers, some of which I have sanded with texture plates.

These three below I cut/tore out yesterday when I wanted to get rid of some magazines.
IMG_4847.JPG


Snapseed.jpg


IMG_4851.JPG
 
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As we near Christmas, I realized we rarely have to spend our free time constructing presents as we used to. It's a lost talent to "insert tab A in slot B". The background came from Stackables. I created two images, one with colored shapes and the closed rose brush I made, run through Bristle Brush and Water in iColorama. The other used an ornament brush and was run through Moku Hanga. Then both were blended onto the background and the text was added in Phonto.
cabb7f467d85864578b5a0ab6a06c3cd.jpg

Here is the rose brush.
ddfe97175c0d7f594c4a9e4cc211d33c.jpg

And here is the ornament brush.
1a217422e9c06fb6c7e259b28f9c7dc9.jpg
 
The actual collage look, is a physical collage. In the example above, I opened the second collage paper which has bits of a plate and then I used Effects>Blend to load the first one on top. I then went to the mask brushes and selected the snowflakes and dotted them around so that the bottom whitish layer showed through as snowflakes. I then went to Paint, chose your goose, picked out a colour from the background and stamped your goose. Next was the text. Then I choose Effects>Raise to give it that 3D look. Finally I blended in one of the old textures from ShadowHouse and cropped it a bit.

I love the textures by http://shadowhousecreations.blogspot.hk/. I downloaded loads of them and because he gives them free I have made a couple of donations. I keep about 20 on my ipad but I need to download a couple more onto my ipad. It's not quite enough.

I used to go through the hassle of making collages and sticking everything down. But now I just tear pieces out of a magazine and lay them down on a piece of paper and take photos. I now have a stash of these papers, some of which I have sanded with texture plates.

These three below I cut/tore out yesterday when I wanted to get rid of some magazines.
View attachment 85544

View attachment 85545

View attachment 85546

Fantastic, Ann, thanks. I visited shadowhousecreations earlier via your website and downloaded some backgrounds and brushes ( and made a donation). I could have gone crazy with it but I'm trying not to overwhelm myself.
 
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I followed his tutorial on creating a distressed paper background. It came out pretty good, but on my own ... not so good.
Didn't you post a photo of buttons in the Wrecking Yard? They would make a great background. Go into iColorama and have a play - make them look less like buttons and then take them into Stackables. Go on, just for me. :D
 
The actual collage look, is a physical collage. In the example above, I opened the second collage paper which has bits of a plate and then I used Effects>Blend to load the first one on top. I then went to the mask brushes and selected the snowflakes and dotted them around so that the bottom whitish layer showed through as snowflakes. I then went to Paint, chose your goose, picked out a colour from the background and stamped your goose. Next was the text. Then I choose Effects>Raise to give it that 3D look. Finally I blended in one of the old textures from ShadowHouse and cropped it a bit.

I love the textures by http://shadowhousecreations.blogspot.hk/. I downloaded loads of them and because he gives them free I have made a couple of donations. I keep about 20 on my ipad but I need to download a couple more onto my ipad. It's not quite enough.

I used to go through the hassle of making collages and sticking everything down. But now I just tear pieces out of a magazine and lay them down on a piece of paper and take photos. I now have a stash of these papers, some of which I have sanded with texture plates.

These three below I cut/tore out yesterday when I wanted to get rid of some magazines.
View attachment 85544

View attachment 85545

View attachment 85546

That is massively clever. [emoji144]‍♀️
 
Didn't you post a photo of buttons in the Wrecking Yard? They would make a great background. Go into iColorama and have a play - make them look less like buttons and then take them into Stackables. Go on, just for me. :D
I will! I would have never thought of it! Thanks you! Gosh I love this place!!!!
 
As we near Christmas, I realized we rarely have to spend our free time constructing presents as we used to. It's a lost talent to "insert tab A in slot B". The background came from Stackables. I created two images, one with colored shapes and the closed rose brush I made, run through Bristle Brush and Water in iColorama. The other used an ornament brush and was run through Moku Hanga. Then both were blended onto the background and the text was added in Phonto.
cabb7f467d85864578b5a0ab6a06c3cd.jpg

Here is the rose brush.
ddfe97175c0d7f594c4a9e4cc211d33c.jpg

And here is the ornament brush.
1a217422e9c06fb6c7e259b28f9c7dc9.jpg

Wonderful!!
 
As we near Christmas, I realized we rarely have to spend our free time constructing presents as we used to. It's a lost talent to "insert tab A in slot B". The background came from Stackables. I created two images, one with colored shapes and the closed rose brush I made, run through Bristle Brush and Water in iColorama. The other used an ornament brush and was run through Moku Hanga. Then both were blended onto the background and the text was added in Phonto.
cabb7f467d85864578b5a0ab6a06c3cd.jpg

Here is the rose brush.
ddfe97175c0d7f594c4a9e4cc211d33c.jpg

And here is the ornament brush.
1a217422e9c06fb6c7e259b28f9c7dc9.jpg
Lovely Jerry, and very generous of you to offer your b&w pics for brushes. :thumbs:
 
Didn't you post a photo of buttons in the Wrecking Yard? They would make a great background. Go into iColorama and have a play - make them look less like buttons and then take them into Stackables. Go on, just for me. :D

It took a few days but I took your advice. I used the buttons, iColorama, saved several different results, then combined them in Leonardo. Maybe not stunning, but a start and great fun!! Thank you!
12f016edbadbfd3deaeb44410abe70fe.jpg
313a0822a4aabee16afc5211c7f565ee.jpg
ae2dbf2a153108f05e4678994a362b1a.jpg
 
It took a few days but I took your advice. I used the buttons, iColorama, saved several different results, then combined them in Leonardo. Maybe not stunning, but a start and great fun!! Thank you!
Great start! Lighten it a bit in Snapseed or iColorama (Adjust>Exposure) and you are good to go. Backgrounds are hit and miss. Sometimes they work well and sometimes not. Generally I find not too much pattern works better. If you struggle with a background, try Simplifying it in iColorama or blurring it to make it more uniform.
 
Great start! Lighten it a bit in Snapseed or iColorama (Adjust>Exposure) and you are good to go. Backgrounds are hit and miss. Sometimes they work well and sometimes not. Generally I find not too much pattern works better. If you struggle with a background, try Simplifying it in iColorama or blurring it to make it more uniform.

I would say "too much pattern" can also be be worded as "too much contrast". That can be remedied with a shallow tone curve. I used a Half mask to show you the result of the curve on the left side.

d8df083a46dd8266f9305d3a7688c319.jpg


Whether lighter or darker, less contrast means less distraction from the foreground subject.
 
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It took a few days but I took your advice. I used the buttons, iColorama, saved several different results, then combined them in Leonardo. Maybe not stunning, but a start and great fun!! Thank you!
12f016edbadbfd3deaeb44410abe70fe.jpg
313a0822a4aabee16afc5211c7f565ee.jpg
ae2dbf2a153108f05e4678994a362b1a.jpg
Beautiful Star. I love the third one. You'll only know how well they work as backgrounds when you start putting images on top. I can see the third one with a few of your excellent photos randomly angled over parts of it.
 
Great start! Lighten it a bit in Snapseed or iColorama (Adjust>Exposure) and you are good to go. Backgrounds are hit and miss. Sometimes they work well and sometimes not. Generally I find not too much pattern works better. If you struggle with a background, try Simplifying it in iColorama or blurring it to make it more uniform.

I would say "too much pattern" can also be be worded as "too much contrast". That can be remedied with a shallow tone curve. I used a Half mask to show you the result of the curve on the left side.

d8df083a46dd8266f9305d3a7688c319.jpg


Whether lighter or darker, less contrast means less distraction from the foreground subject.

.

Beautiful Star. I love the third one. You'll only know how well they work as backgrounds when you start putting images on top. I can see the third one with a few of your excellent photos randomly angled over parts of it.

Thank you everyone for the feedback. This is another reason I love this place. JillyG that is exactly what I did, well, except for the excellent part. But after the above, I think I'll tone the back ground down and redo it.

Again, thanks. It's so great to get fantastic, non-judgmental critiques.
 
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