Part 4: Virtual Egg Painting | |
by Jacci Howard Bear
|
Don't get carried away
Your graphics software may come with dozens of different artistic effects and special filters. With so many choices it is easy to become overwhelmed. Yet, in most cases, a single effect can yield wildly different results.
I took the six plain painted eggs we've done so far (three painted with paint, three painted with photographs) and used a variety of settings in just one Photo-Paint filter. I chose the Paint Alchemy filters but you can pick anything -- embossing, swirling, blur, pointillism, whatever your software offers -- just pick one and try it out several different ways.
You may have tried out some of these special effects on photographs or clip art and been puzzled about why anyone would want to take a perfectly good image and distort it beyond recognition. Well here's one useful application of those funny filters.
Our blue, pink, and yellow painted eggs -- all with the same effect (Alchemy: Crowd in Photo-Paint) take on different looks because we started with slightly different painted patterns.
And look what happens to our leaf, butterfly, and flower stamp. Unrecognizable? Sure, but beautiful patterns and textures emerge. (Alchemy: Cottonball, Cubist, Diagonal Brick in Photo-Paint).
It's a 3D World
Our six painted and filtered eggs look great but we can improve them just a little bit more. Your paint program probably has a variety of ways to give objects a rounded or 3D look.
For the three painted eggs I used The Boss filter (a special embossing filter in Photo-Paint) to round the edges.
For the picture painted eggs I applied lighting effects.
In both cases, the effects simulate light striking the egg. There's a lighter area and a darker, shaded area. It creates the illusion of roundness. Experiment with your eggs.
Want to see all the eggs (12 of them) and perhaps grab a few for your own Web page? Go ahead, they're free from me to you. The page also links to a few dozen other eggs. Some were created using techniques similar to those described in this feature.
Free Easter Eggs
Back to the Beginning > Drawing Your Egg > Page 1, 2, 3, 4
