Enlargitude
Ou Est la Resistance?
by
David Nagel
Senior Producer
Like
all great myths in history, the French effort in World War II conjures grandiose
images of bravery, tactical genius and determination. In this composition, I have
attempted to capture the essence of France's glory—a grand lesson to all
of us whose ancestors sat idly by while De Gaulle and his mighty legions stood
firmly against the menace of the Hun, their noble white banners heralding them
forth to victory.
This image is yet another Photoshop painting and compositing effort. I got ahold of a picture of the Eiffel Tower, which I then squished up and distorted and to which I applied the Paint Alchemy filter from Xaos Tools. (I do seem to be getting more and more fond of that filter in my old age.) I then masked out the structure and dropped in a blue background, to which I then applied the built-in Render>Clouds filter. I then got an Apple logo and dropped it in, reducing its opacity to 38 percent.
The hand, of course, is a photo of my own. (I can't stand not to include myself in my own pictures.) It's touched up to looked a little more painted so that it wouldn't stand out too much from the rest of the composition. The shirt and coat sleeves and painted on. I shaded them with the Airbrush tool and applied Paint Alchemy and Texturizer to them. The flag is also hand drawn and shaded, with Texturizer added for a smidge of believability and KPT 6 Goo to make the canvas weave in the right directions. The planes are also hand drawn. For a related story, see my Paint Alchemy tutorial "Antiquing Bill Gates." You can also visit the Adobe Photoshop World Wide User Group or the Creative Mac World Wide User Group for questions and answers.
Do you have something to say? Write something back to me. Or, if you'd prefer, you can post a message in the Creative Mac World Wide User Group.
GO BACK TO THE COLUMN YOU WERE JUST READING.
Dave Nagel is the brand spankin' new Senior Producer of Creative Mac. An eight-year veteran of the print publishing world, Nagel covered a broad range of topics in the areas of technology and marketing. As a Mac psychofanatic since 1987, he's finally landed his dream job: earning a living writing about his favorite topic. If you have something to say, please send a polite e-mail to [email protected]. (Let's not try to bring him down from his euphoria too soon.)