My Lily Pad

I chose this copyright-free image so we could have a simple, but not too simple first exercise. I like the subject (I love lily pads, and this one is quite handsome), the quality is great, and it’s such a generic picture, with no baggage – perfect for dressing up.

To me, this lily pad needed to be stripped down to its bare essentials – the lines. I didn’t want to use any special brushes or effects that wouldn’t be available to everyone, so I stuck with what Photoshop had to offer already… which is plenty.

I made myself take notes, so this process ended up a little bit self-conscious, I must admit. I wish I had the patience to take vignettes of each step, but I don't. I might in the future, if I decide to incorporate something like this on the gallery website. But that's another post.

Lilypad © R. Koleilat, 2007

Ok, now - explanations: (NOTE: I'm updating this as needed from the comments)

First, under Filters, Stylize, I chose Find Edges, edited with Hard Light Mode at 74% opacity. This really bleached out the photo, and gave me colours I liked as a base.

I then went back to Filters, Artistic, and chose Cutout to give the image more of a hand-painted look.

I then selected the water feature with the Magic Wand, and filled it with the Satin pattern in the Paint Bucket feature at about 22% opacity, in Overlay mode. I prefer the Overlay mode for most “fills”, and generally reduce opacity for most everything for more subtle effects.

I then selected the lily pad leaves individually, and filled them in Overlay mode with the purple pattern, in some places with 22% opacity and others up to 84%.

I also cropped the image to get a narrower frame, because it was looking more and more like a Japanese print from the 50s. Which is why I went back later, and added an extra Layer with a vertical "brushed" signature and stamp.

Finally, I selected the centre of the flower, and did a Gradient overlay in a diagonal line with the Radial Gradient option, at about 25% opacity, with the violet-to-orange option (with mostly the orange showing up).

So, here are my six steps – I didn’t go overboard like I normally end up doing, because there was no need for any additional tweaking. I liked the lily like that and wanted to focus on its elegant shape, without all the distraction in the background.