Scrambled pansies sounds like a new sidedish Rachael Ray may have cooked up, but these pansies weren't scrambled in a skillet on the stove! No, they were scrambled on my computer, in my head and with my hands. And why would I want to scramble pansies? Aren't pansies beautiful just the way God made them?
The thing I love about art is the creative process. It's a need to deconstruct reality, rearrange the composition, crank up the color and leave a little bit of yourself and your emotions shining through the work. It's the hope of endless possibilites. It's the only way I know to wear myself out and totally pep myself up at the same time!
So, here's how the pansies got scrambled. I started with a photo looking straight down at the pansies and forget-me-nots growing in front of our fence. See that yellow pansy on the far left side? See if you can find him on the finished version. I cropped a portion of this picture and opened it in Photoshop. I then filtered the image to look like a drybrush painting.
I generated about 40 random patterns on the pattern maker. Look how the elements in the original photo are scrambled up. The white fence is "growing" in slivers in the ground with the flowers. The combinations are infinite, but I chose the one I like best and moved on.
Now, the fun part begins. With Photoshop's large selection of brushes and my Wacom pad and stylus I can paint with almost the same feel I have with real paints and brushes. So I started choosing brushes and colors and just got lost in painting for a while. But unlike, real paint, I can use different color overlays and light sources to scramble things up even more! I painted all sorts of shapes (a triangle, my symbol for God's serendipitous guidance, seems to have crept in!) and colors over the patterned photograph. I cropped it to more of a square shape and thought I was finished. I love the colors and the movement in it. Can you find the pansies?
Today I decided to see if I could take it a step further with a new version. I wanted it to look even more springy and happy. I used some special effects with some gradient changes that focused it into a circle and a vivid light source that made it scream "happy" for me.
I noticed when I got through that one of the shapes looks like a question mark, not something I intended, but I like the idea! Questions and triangles...inspired by the springtime pansies...as they sing their happy love song to God.
Stumble It!
