Uploads from Gale Franey, tagged digitalart

Universal Love

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Fri, 27 May 2011 16:29:52 -0700

In The Garden

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 08:19:47 -0700

This one is mostly digital painting in Photoshop. Usually I do the majority of my art with bits and pieces of digital images, then afterwards shape them and add some painting. But on this one I wanted to see how much I would be able to do from scratch. It was an interesting challenge. Although I added some composited pieces after finishing the body, the majority of it is painted. I didn't use any reference image which made it for more challenging deciding where to lay down shadow, highlights and contour. But it took me about the same amount of time as the other method.

I did the hair with a standard ragged edged brush set to "scatter". I used a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet with art pen that enables rotation, tilt and pen pressure. I would have been hard (but not impossible) to do it with the mouse. When compositing though, I use mostly the mouse. I'm still trying to iron out some glitches with the wacom stylus, which sometimes doesn't recognize when the brush is set to a soft edge.

Girl In Blue

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 05:24:34 -0700

Gale Franey posted a photo:

It's been ages since I've created a piece of art for my myself. The joy of being able to allow the creation process to go in whatever direction it wants to take, not knowing what the end result will be is a very pleasant process. It is one of the most enjoyable things to do.

I have been teaching Photoshop and Illustrator in the New Media and Web Development Program at BCIT plus doing freelance digital art for a children's book. Always so busy that I rarely get time to just immerse myself into free form digital art. This piece took about 100 hours to complete. It is a combination of compositing and painting in Photoshop.

Swan Over Mountains

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 09:56:06 -0800

Gale Franey posted a photo:

Here is another sample of the art I made for the children's book, Super Someone.

Gorilla Eats Pizza

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 09:58:57 -0800

Gale Franey posted a photo:

Here is another sample piece I did for the children's book, Super Someone. These were created using Photoshop CS4.

I've also been teaching Photoshop CS4 at BCIT, a college here in Vancouver, Canada. I've been so busy that I am not able to visit Flickr as often as I'd like.

Tame the Crocodile

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 09:51:58 -0800

Gale Franey posted a photo:

Another sample of the art I created for the children's book Super Someone. The company that commissioned me to do the art has launched it on flattenme.com

Super Someone children's book art

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 09:47:50 -0800

Gale Franey posted a photo:

I've finally finished the art for the Super Someone Children's Book. It kept me busy, along with teaching Photoshop, so I've not be here for awhile.

The Wizard

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:21:00 -0800

Gale Franey posted a photo:

I made this for Ivy, and her parents. I came across her most amazing face that has such a mystical quality and got permission to use her face in this art.

It took me about 5 days (and nights) to complete. The monkey is pieced together with about 10 pireces, the snake is several pieces, her dress and body are comprised of too many bits and pieces to remember. The flower vase is comprised of more than 30 pieces and was so much fun to make.

Actually this image was a delight to make, everything went smoothly and it is the very first art piece that I've made using CS4. I had bought CS4 (the Master Edition) several months ago but wanted to wait until I finished the card project before installing. For some reason the new OpenGL features aren't working on Windows XP Professional. I have to find out if it's due to XP or due to the kind of graphics card I have. I also have Vista installed on the same computer, but it's acting up at the moment, keeps restarting after intalling an auto update.

But the fantastic news is that Photoshop CS4 seems to be far more stable than CS3 !!! Yipee !! To test its stability, I purposely tried doing some distortions that used to be a guaranteed way to crash Photoshop on my prior version (ie: I have a layer with a Mask that is grouped to another layer and I Transform / distort it). In a large file that is more than 2 gigs unflattened, CS3 used to crash ... but the operation went as smooth as butter. A complete delight ! The image you see here (viewed at large size) is just 9 percent of the original image size, which is 22 x 30 @ 300 dpi.

Visit jiffyslot's Flickr gallery: www.flickr.com/photos/jiffyslot/

and here is a link to Ivy's face image: www.flickr.com/photos/jiffyslot/2883725557/

The Dove -- Detail

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:42:06 -0800

Gale Franey posted a photo:

Here is a zoomed in look at The Messenger, my most recent art. This piece took me 4 days to complete, using Photoshop.

I had worked on the dress for hours and lost track of the time. I was distorting (Edit / Transform / Distort) and rotating layers wtih Masks attached. Suddenly I got the dreaded message that there was insufficient RAM and Photoshop went down like the Titanic. I felt numb and exhausted. I couldn’t remember what stage I had last saved the PSB document, so I had to wait in suspense until the file reopened, to discover that the entire dress was lost and I had to rebuild it all over again.

The Dove

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:44:54 -0800

Gale Franey posted a photo:

My most recent art. This piece took me 4 days to complete, using Photoshop.

I had worked on the dress for hours and lost track of the time. I was distorting (Edit / Transform / Distort) and rotating layers wtih Masks attached. Suddenly I got the dreaded message that there was insufficient RAM and Photoshop went down like the Titanic. I felt numb and exhausted. I couldn’t remember what stage I had last saved the PSB document, so I had to wait in suspense until the file reopened, to discover that the entire dress was lost and I had to rebuild it all over again.

Christmas Card

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 15:20:21 -0800

Gale Franey posted a photo:

Here is another that I made for the children's card series that was commissioned by Flattenme.

(I do not make any commission nor profit from the sales of these cards).

Hannukah card

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 15:14:20 -0800

Gale Franey posted a photo:

Here is another that I made for the children's card series that was commissioned by Flattenme.

(I do not make any commission nor profit from the sales of these cards).

Princess and the Dragon

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 14:51:54 -0800

Gale Franey posted a photo:

Here is another that I made for the children's card series that was commissioned by Flattenme.

(I do not make any commission nor profit from the sales of these cards).

Lily

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:06:42 -0800

Gale Franey posted a photo:

I took a breather durng the card project to work on one for myself. It is so relaxing to begin working without any idea of what the theme would be. I start by just playing with background, piecing bits and pieces, then blending, manipulating until a mood and idea begins to emerge. I had no idea in the beginning that I would make a woman with a bird. Whereas, when I’m working for a client, with a specific theme, it’s much different. When I do art for myself, I just let my hand lead me, instead of forcing the art to comply with a specific idea. It is very relaxing … until …

At 3 a.m. after working for about 6 hours without saving, Photoshop crashed when I tried to distort an object that had a Mask applied plus was linked to several other layers with Masks on them. The Photoshop file was already more than 6 gigs! with about 70 layers, so the calculations for this distortion exceeded the available RAM, so down she went. I remember emitting a loud "NO !" (I hope I didn’t wake my neighbors There was nothing to do but to redo all that work. I had to redo most of the dress that I had painstakingly worked on for hours, had to redo the bird, the flowers and the woman’s chest and collarbone, which you might think is easy, but that portion alone had taken me more than an hour to complete.

You think I would have learned my lesson by now. Once I lost an entire day’s work when Photoshop crashed and since then I’ve gotten into the habit of saving more frequently. But when the files are 6 gigs unflattened, (169 MB as a flattened Tif), it actually takes 17 minutes for the file to save (I timed it). That’s the reason why when I’m in the ‘zone’, I hate to have to sit and twiddle my thumbs while the file saves. But I sure paid for it, I had to redo 6 hours of work. I was up until 9 a.m. finishing it up (and had worked day and night for 3 days before). This image took me 4 days and nights to complete.

The woman is made from too many pieces to count, ie: the eyelashes from one, irises from another, eyebrows from another, nose from another, hair from several, shoulders from another, and so on. I love this kind of challenge, creating things from bits and pieces. I made the dress in Photoshop, using tiny bits and pieces. I tried so many hand poses, and different birds, eventually settling on this little sparrow, comprised of 3 different images.

For anyone who is interested, I've just created a book of my images, available from www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/451343 This link just shows a few sample pages. It is really an experiment, I've not yet received the copy I ordered so I can't yet attest to quality, but I have heard that their book quality is good. I created it mostly as a portfolio piece and out of curiosity, but anyone is welcome to order a copy if they would like one. :-)

Third Valentines Card

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:01:35 -0800

Gale Franey posted a photo:

Here is another that I made for the children's card series that was commissioned by Flattenme. There is also a boy version of this card.

They will soon be launching this card series on their new revamped website (soon to be launched). This card, like the book illustrations that I did for them, are made in such a way that they can be personalized by inserting children's faces into the image for customers who order the cards or books.

If you want to read more details about what went into making it, you can read my blog: galefraney.wordpress.com/2008/11/11/425/ I've mentioned a few Photoshop tips and you will find other tips there :-)

(I do not make any commission nor profit from the sales of these cards).

Another Valentines Card

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:58:17 -0800

Gale Franey posted a photo:

Here is the second Valentines card that I created for the Flattenme personalized card series.

They will soon be launching this card series on their new revamped website (soon to be launched). This card, like the book illustrations that I did for them, are made in such a way that they can be personalized by inserting children's faces into the image for customers who order the cards or books. There is also a girl version of this card.

(I do not make any commission nor profit from the sales of these cards).

The Falconer

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:05:52 -0800

Gale Franey posted a photo:

This one took 3 days to make. I needed to take a little break from making the children's cards, in order to refresh my creativity. You can view them on my blog www.galefraney.wordpress.com , several that I've not posted here.

One of my friends had mentioned to me that many of my images are of females. This is not my intention. I enjoy doing images of men/boys too. I had actually intended to do some of male subjects to balance the scales.

The character is comprised of too many bits and pieces to count. He is purely a figment of my imagination ... ie: hair from various sources, forehead from another, eyes from another, chin from another, neck from another, bicep from another, shoulder from another, hips from another, hand from another and so on. This is what makes it so fun, creating a person who doesn't exist. I tried to give him a sort of Mowgli personality ... the jungle boy all grown up :-)

Valentines Childrens Card Series

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:08:05 -0700

Gale Franey posted a photo:

I've been so busy working day and night on two sets of children's cards for Flattenme. There is also a boy version of this card.

This one took four days and nights to complete. I'm still working on the boy version and the graphics for the inside of the card. After that, I will create two more Valentines cards and several other card ideas that will be finished by the end of December.

Although this one has a more realistic quality than much of my previous art, it is actually constructed of many bits and pieces of digital imagery. The background took about 2 days to construct, including the greenery in the foreground. The skirt is made of several pieces, each hand is from different sources, one arm made from scratch because the original image was a side view with only one arm visible. The hair was from an image of a ponytail, which I turned into two pigtails. Extracting the hair, being careful to keep the delcate wisps of curl is a painstaking process using several layers and numerous Blending modes in Photoshop.

The techniques and effects in this image are actually far more intricate than many of my previous images, but the overall effect is subtle because I was aiming for a "less is more" effect. :-)
You can see more of the cards from the card series on my blog: www.galefraney.wordpress.com

Cheers!

(I do not make any commission nor profit from the sales of these cards).

Weaving Dewdrops

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:02:31 -0700

Gale Franey posted a photo:

I made this for Martine, of her daughter Danielle. I've created the dress in Photoshop, overlaying bits of lace and patterns. The design on the dress was made by overlaying leaves with Blending Modes. I've posted some details on my blog as to some of the steps I used to make it. :-)
galefraney.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/207/

For the past few months I've been working on a children's book, which I just finished. It is called GlitterGills, a story for children age 2 - 5 yrs. old. It will soon be available from www.flattenme.com

Now I've begun making a set of cards for the same company. I describe how I made them on my blog: galefraney.wordpress.com/

River's Edge

nobody@flickr.com (Gale Franey) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:49:53 -0700

Gale Franey posted a photo:

A boy and his dog, and river companions. I made this for Aiden of her son Isaac.