First Official Post - About the Background

It is exciting to finally have my blog up and running and to have my first official post. Discussing the creation of my background would probably appear to be a simple post, but it is not. I would like to comment and say that the background you see now was not my first idea. I actually got about an hour in to my first idea, realized it was not working and scrapped it. I was passing the time at work the other day, and the idea came to me. I have always wanted to do something with a phoenix, and this was exactly it! I used a total of 5 reference photos. I honestly had no idea which direction I wanted to go with the phoenix, but I decided most of the phoenix birds are displayed in vibrant colors with flowing tail feathers. I drew up an extremely simple sketch, and then the Photoshop work began. The reason this piece is my first post is because it means a lot to me. Most of my posts will be based on getting exposure and learning through the use of tutorials. This is probably my first real solo piece; therefore, how I got from scratch to background means a lot and took a lot of time. By doing my own background, it also enabled me to pull out my Photoshop knowledge when it came to doing certain things. I also learned some color theory...which was much needed. I'm going to insert my reference images and then explain a bit from there...

I knew I wanted the phoenix to have a bit of an abstract and glowing look. The difficulty really came in to play when trying to match up a vector image with translucent images. This was my base image:

Getting the phoenix the way I wanted it took a lot of back and forth with constant touch ups. I started out with a light, lilac background and then played with some blending modes to get the phoenix to fit. A great tool that I used was color range. I was able to select all of the black quickly and easily and make it a different color.

Next I worked on the trail from the tail and the wings (although the wings came later) using these two images:

 

Once again, I was able to use the color range to just select those nice, translucent strokes of blue. Then I changed it to a bit more vibrant magenta. However, the tail and the phoenix, at this point, were not cutting it for me. The tail needed that extra shine to make it really stand out and represent the fire from a phoenix. The image on the top was placed over the magenta trail and with another blending mode it gave the tail that shimmering glow (and made it even more vibrant!). Of course, erasures and touch-ups were needed. Now the phoenix was lost in its own tail's radiance.

These were the last two images I used. I just placed the stars under the phoenix to give it some more glow, once again using a blending mode (those really come in handy). Also, I placed the blue swoosh over and under the phoenix to give it some body and direction. I also used an effect to place an outer glow around the phoenix itself, just adding those extra touch-ups that make all the difference.

Some other finishing touches were the red spiked tip wings, as well as using the select tool with a feather, on those bottom tail feathers. I just gave them a vibrant purple with a slight fade effect to make them pop on top of their trailing counter part. As I mentioned, using the trails on the wings were a last minute touch that really brought the piece together. The phoenix was now surrounded by the trails and was able to become the focal point of the piece. The most challenging part of the piece was overcoming various obstacles. It takes time to use different tools to get it just right. It takes time to select different areas and play around with colors and see what works. Many times I went back to make changes to certain layers. This is why the piece ends up taking quite some time but is well worth it. Lastly, another struggle was getting it to fit properly on the blog. I had to make many changes to get it to blend appropriately, as well as look good on any computer screen.

This is only the first post of many! I will be providing a lot of my other work accompanied with links to various tutorials (if I still have them), as well as what I did to make the piece my own.