Red, White & Blue

Sometimes, when taking my digital photography to digital imagery, the result is quite unexpected. I create a majority of my fine art images using one of my original photographs as the basis. On this foundation, I work in Photoshop to add texture layers, utilize various blending modes, and add brush strokes until the result pleases me. This may take just a few hours or more often than not, can take several days. Further, not just any digital photo will do. I’m pretty picky like that. A photo that I choose to use as the starting point for the image must evoke a feeling or spark a desire in me to look at it more closely.

The preceding image is based on a digital photograph depicting a sunrise at the beach. A flock of Black Skimmers were periodically flying and swooping all around and the cold wind was blowing like the dickens. Given the backlighting of the sunrise, the birds appeared mostly as silhouettes against the sky in the digital photograph. The silhouettes were the primary characteristic that peaked my interest in working further with the photo. However, after spending time in the creative process, I began to see how the colors of the sky, the pattern of the clouds, and the many textures began to accentuate the colors of the sunrise. Quite unexpectedly, the result reminds me of the American flag with red and white stripes, and birds as stars. Even though the field of blue is along the bottom, I still chose to call this fine art image, Red, White & Blue.