PHOTOSHOP WITH A PAINTBRUSH

I have a lot of friends who make extensive use of photoshop to alter their images, I don’t blame or criticise them for this but you do see so many altered images now that is impossible to see what is real and what isn’t/ My approach is different my photographs remain largely as is except to lift shadow adjust contrast crop etc. what I don’t do is use tool to manipulate images I have a paint brush for that!

So for this years Christmas card I used a picture of a snowy owl specifically Sweeney Todd, one of many amazing raptors at the Hawk Conservancy Trust in Andover. However I imagined her flying over her native habitat not the lovely rolling hills of the Test valley. So I dug out some shots of Flam in Norway to provide the right sort of background and a moody sky over my background to finish the job

So my painting is a complete work of fiction but surely that’s the point.

The other thing that makes this look realistic is that I limited my pallette and use the same range for the arctic landscape as for the owl- after all nature has evolved her to blend in to the landsacpe and not be seen!

I am often complimented about how my subjects seem to pop off the page and I think this is down to subtle visual clues. I try and and soften the background so less contrast and gentle transition between tones like the rock and grass. I increase the effect for the most distant parts of the painting like the horizon and use less colour to simulate the way the atmosphere reduces red and colour as distance increases. You’ll also see Sweeny Todd is flying in sunshine where the range behind her is getting increasingly grey and stormy.

Sweeney Todd over Flam