In today's Coffee Time art video, I talk about using SCREEN MODE to quickly brighten a super dark photo, and to bring light right where you want it to be in your finished art in a super fast way.

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In today's video, I take you through the creation of this winter snow leopard art as I test out a new texture which will be released in a set this month.  Be sure you've signed up for the mailing list, so you can be notified when the new set is released! :) This is the image I am creating in the video below:

When you really want to stretch your creativity, ask yourself "What If?" when you're working on your art.  That's what I did after I pulled out this photo to work with:

"Big and Small" - this was one of those images I asked myself "What If?" a lot on!

What if...I added a hummingbird to sit on his horns?

What if...I added lots of textures, focusing the light on the area where the bird sits?

What if...I desaturated those textures to tone down the color of the elk, while still keeping the hummer more richly saturated?

What if...I added lots more textures from a variety of collections on top and underneath the elk in different layer modes, forcing the light and dark areas to happen exactly where I wanted?

What if ...I ran a painterly preset in multiple programs and blended them together using layering at various opacities?

What if...I used a smudge tool to soften the hard edge on the hummingbird that I missed when masking?
What if...I added a slight - very slight - shadow on the horn under the bird?
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Take your time...ask yourself "What if?" a lot...it takes hours of work, but it's well worth it. 

I've had numerous people ask me "Can you do your texture work with photos in Procreate on the iPad?"  And the answer is YES!  I created Where Crows Roost this morning, using ONLY the Daily Texture resources, and a couple of my custom brushes I made for Procreate.  I photographed some crows recently, and I had a vision of a strong textures, mixed media background for them.  That was my goal with this piece:

I began by opening the new Painted Ground background, and then opened the Better Days barn background on top.  I created a mask on the barn layer, and masked away all of the background, and that little attached shed on the left side of the barn.  Then using the liquify tool in Procreate, I warped my barn a bit to give it some unique and whimsical interest.  Using the mask again, I blended the barn right into the ground level of the Painted Ground Background.

Then I started adding multiple textures on top, in various layer modes and opacities.  It was at this point, things got a little crazy and I lost track of what I used.  I do know I used several textures from the Studio Collections and the Restored Collection in this category. 

I decided to add just a couple of my custom drip brushes at the bottom of the barn to give a little more painterly interest to the piece. I also stamped a couple of my custom brushes at the top edge of the barn, coming over the edges a little.  This was all completed on new layers so I could resize each brush stamp, as well as move it exactly where I wanted it on the art.

I added accents from the Gold Leaf Collection as final touches at the end.  Finally, I sent the image back to my computer and sharpened everything up a bit.

Now I have an interesting, mixed media style background to use with one of my crow photos!

As you can see, yes, you can do layering and masking with your textures in the Procreate App.  I know we are limited on the amount of layers which can be added in Procreate, but once I get things looking good, I often merge the layers down, and start adding new layers on top again for additional accents and looks.  This way, I am never limited on what I can add. :) 

Alpha-Gal Allergy is something which can happen after being bit by ticks - I have recently been diagnosed, though I suspected it for several years.  My symptoms got worse after a new tick bite on Feb 15th of this year, and I have been very sick ever since.  As wildlife photographers, I think everyone should be educated on this and how it can affect your life.  In this video, I talk about my experience, and my thoughts.  I'm not going over all the research and scientific things...you can search Google for all of the published information.  Instead, I'm telling you my experience from my viewpoint.  I hope you will find the information in this video useful in some way -- and if nothing else, I hope it will encourage you to be extremely diligent about tick protection.

So my advice to those who have it....

Avoidance is the #1 thing.  Avoid anything with mammal in it, including dairy. This includes butter, frying oil {many restaurants fry stuff in beef lard}, sauces and breading, salad dressing, etc. Research medicines...research household products used...and change if necessary to those without mammal.  Look at everything you: ingest, touch, or inhale.  Anything that just says "natural flavors" or "artificial flavors" on an ingredient list can potentially contain mammal and set off a reaction.
#2, Do whatever you can to prevent new bites. Check out InsectShield.Com for clothing.
#3, Don't freak out if it doesn't seem to get better for a while...keep looking into if you are accidentally exposed.  It takes inflammation in the body a LONG time to go away. 
#4, Don't eat out, or be very, very careful eating out.  Don't talk to the teenager at the counter or even waiters/waitresses...talk to management if eating out to make sure your allergy is understood.  The last thing a manager wants is an incident happening in their restaurant!
#5 Be sure any doctors who treat you are aware of your allergy, and make sure YOU understand what's in medicines so you can make THEM understand.  {like the fact GELATIN comes from mammal...I'm amazed at how many medical people seem surprised and have an "aha" moment over that one!}

I really do!  I love being able to take a "normal" photo like this:

And turn it into ART like this:

The pose this raccoon had was perfect for holding a flower.  So I brought in a flower photo after I masked away her original background and blended her with one of the Bountiful Spring Field Backgrounds.  I rotated the flower, and resized it down to position it properly in her paws.  And I masked away the flower background completely as well, to isolate the flower.

I added a couple more textures on top - one from the Ascend Collection and one from the Mesmerized Collection.  After getting the look and lighting the way I wanted, I took the merged image into Impresso Pro to create the painterly effect.  And that is how "A Flower For Mom" was born. :) 

In this video, I demonstrate how I did a simple head swap on the bird, and then I take you through the creation of the artistic image using textures and resources from the collections at the bottom of this post.

In today's video, I take you through the creation of this eagle art.  I used a Sweetest Dream Spring Field texture as the background and then three layers of Island Dreams textures were added on top:  One to adjust overall color tone, one to add a bit of darkness where I wanted, and one more to add some brighter light in an area.  I hope you enjoy the video!

This morning, I played with a snowy owl photo with a white background just to give you guys some creative things you can do with those white background photos.  Here's the before and after images I show in the video...be sure to watch the full video below...and I hope you enjoy it! :) 

When I'm photographing wildlife in the field, I often come out with photos which are too dark.  I try to remember to adjust my exposure compensation UP to get it right in camera, but sometimes I forget and I'll have photos which appear unusable.  However, they can be saved in many instances!  By using "Screen Mode" in your layers panel in your photo editing software, you can brighten a photo which may be too dark - instantly!  I did a short video showing you the process here: