Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
LilyKitty Sixpence creates magnificent photos that range from pure fun to dreamily romantic, but I was struck by “Ultraviolet” which is such a joyous expression of rebellion that I had to ask how she did it. Luckily for you, she explained it all.
She gave some general background on how she does most of her photos before getting into the specifics:
She uses the Black Dragon Viewer and recommends it highly. “It's got a lot of graphical options that help get the best base shot you can get. It also has a built-in model poser that is very useful, even if you are simply adjusting a store-bought pose. Unfortunately, you can only pose yourself with it for now.”
She edits in Photoshop. “Even for beginners I suggest looking at Lightroom (or the Camera Raw Filter). Just upping the clarity a bit can bring out tons of details.
If you're looking to dive into it more than that, I'd say just go for it.: LilyKitty recommends watching tutorials on YouTube and following along or applying them to your own shots. Or even just learn by doing, experimenting with the tools. “Learn about layers, masking, blending modes, and the adjustment layers. Learn to work non-destructively - so you can always go back and fix something. It's daunting to take on all at once, but by doing it and learning something each time you will begin to understand how each of these parts works and how they can help you with your ideas.”
Click for all the deets on how she created this amazing picture:
She took a blue screenshot of herself. “I find it much easier to have a cleanly cut out model to manipulate. For this shot specifically, I found I needed a very bright initial shot, otherwise, the dark blue light drowned out most of the detail.”
Then she placed the model over a concrete backdrop she had photographed and added the dragon graffiti stencil from a stock image she found.
To create the ultraviolet effect she used a solid color of layer of dark blue with a linear light blend mode for the black light.
“Then, I made five groups for each color I planned on using. In each I made a solid color fill layer with the color I wanted - pink for example. Then with the group tab, I'd add ~40% outer glow of the color with screen in the blending mode options. I'd mask out the entire layer and add the other colors the same way. In each I'd add curves layers to keep them in line with the others and adjust as needed on top of all these, I added a vibrance adjustment layer and a solid white layer set to Overlay 100% to make the colors bright/saturated.”
“So essentially I was painting white on each group's layer mask to paint the color onto the model/background. This was mostly trial and error as I'm not a great painter/drawer. I filled in the dragon and painted over the stencil. I tried all sorts of spray paint brushes. Anything to add some fun color and make it messy/punky/bright. Anything to give it the blacklight look.”
When she was satisfied with the “mess” of spray paint on her model and background, she stamped all the layers into one on top and converted it into a smart object so she could use the camera raw filters to get rid of dark spots and increase the clarity. “To finish it off I used the Nik Collection's Reflector Efex to really make the spray paint pop from the model. It went from just being a blue washed over photo with some paint on it to having the colors really shine.”
“I don't know if it's my best work, but it was one of the ones I had the most fun with. I certainly learned a lot about aspects of Photoshop I hadn't touched until then.”
As you can see in “The Raven”, LilyKitty Sixpence is a wizard at editing and color. The richness of the reflected fire on her dress and the gorgeous blue highlights on the feathers make this a stunning photo. So what is her secret?
As with many of the best SL artists, her best advice is to have fun.
“If it feels like work or it's not fun I don't feel like it's worth doing. It's funny, I can look back at this photo (Ultraviolet) and think of several different things I could have done way differently or ways to make it outright better and it was only two months ago. I still feel like I am just scratching the surface with Photoshop.”
She also added a couple of her favorite inspirations, Orion Octane and Eripom Moonwall.
See all of Cajsa's Choices here. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter or on her blog
Thanks for doing a write up on my shot!
Posted by: Lily | Wednesday, April 22, 2020 at 11:27 PM