my new found passion…"conceptual fine art".  i am intrigued by the challenge & endless possibilities.  the fact that i can create a world based upon ones dreams and fantasies and turn them into a piece of art is an AMAZING feeling. Here is a little sample of what goes into creating a conceptual fine art portrait.

FIRST…the concept.  in this case, my client was my 5 year old daughter.  she loves the movie alice and wonderland.  she wanted to fall down the rabbit hole just like alice.

SECOND...the subject.  i had to decide how to pose her to make it look realistic.  after several attempts, a helping hand from "dada" helped seal the deal.  she was a little scared that he was going to drop her, but i thought a little fear in her face was good for creating a little emotion (bad mama!!!).

THIRD…finding & placing the objects.  most of the time, i will use images that i have personally photographed…especially if the final piece will be sold…etc.  in this case i used a combinations of my own images and stock photos (since this piece is for my own personal use).

i began with this tunnel as my background.

i used pieces of these two images and created several layers to form the opening of the tunnel. i cut and pasted several individual branches as well to form different objects and create dimension.

next, i added an assortment of these three roses throughout the branches.  i made sure i placed a few behind the branches to create depth.

my favorite...the cheshire cat!

also, i couldn't forget the pocket clock, key and "drink me" bottle.  i decided to keep these objects in the foreground to tell a story about what might have happened before she fell.

i decided i wanted the rabbit to be at the end of the tunnel waiting for her.  i toyed around with a variety of different rabbit images, but i liked the creepiness & darkness of this particular one.

the fun part…adding the cards, tea cup and saucer.  i learned how to change the perspective (make one side bigger, change the angle, bring certain parts forward…etc.) of these object to give the look as if they are really falling down the hole.  if i were to place them in the image "as is" they would look like flat objects laying on top of the photo. so amazing!!!

the most challenging part of all…adding my little alice to the image.  after positioning and moving the image around way too many times, i decided to rotate the image, so it looked as if her feet were falling down the tunnel first.  after placing her in the photo, i felt her dress was a little too plain and didn't fit in with this fantasy world i created.  i decided to make a dress & headpiece out of roses to tie everything together.  i copied, pasted, resized, desaturated, flipped each rose individually to create this beautiful dress.  it was A LOT of work…but so worth it!!!

to complete my masterpiece, i decided to add an overlay to the final image to create a little more texture and dimension.  i took this picture back at christmas time of a piece of silver glitter wrapping paper.  using it with a very low opacity helped to give it a magical touch.

LASTLY…choosing color scheme, shading, smoothing, blending…etc (the final touch).  this is a copy of the image before i added the overlay, chose color scheme…etc.  i felt this image was too bright.  i did most of my adjusting using curves to darken areas, desaturate a bit, tone down the blues and reds.  i also ended up smoothing certain areas to give it more of a paint-like feel.  i find myself gravitating to darker colors that are a little desaturated and have a matte-like finish, which in my mind feels magical & dreamy.

after 12+ hours and over 350+ photoshop layers, i am so excited to share my final piece, "down the rabbit hole".

***i would love to make your dreams & fantasies come to life.  please contact me for information and pricing***