Pushing-Pulling [Tearing] 'The Envelope'

Recently I spent a bit of time beginning work on an idea I have, an illustration of a “witchy woman” moving through a “scary forest”.

Part of that idea involves a sorta surreal effect that would, I thought, be more effective if I were able to create a “leaf” brush I could then tweak to build swirls surrounding her stacked in layers I painted. (A picture is worth a thousand words so I’ll save you from reading those remaining 933 and simply add a link HERE.)

At any rate, after creating that Photoshop tool I needed to experiment with it a bit so I just opened one of the ’stock photo’ images I have within my LR Catalog and began working with this one by Cathleen Tarawhiti.

Long story short is that by experimenting with my new brush for the effect I had in mind for that ‘conceptual illustration’ I ALSO ended up creating a sort of “Editorial”-like result I can use again one day on portraits that are part of some more-creative ‘Fashion’ or ‘Beauty’ project I am involved in.

Cool. I love serendipity.