Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Painting Flowers With Digital Watercolors



The variegated Abutilon has been blooming off and on for the last few weeks. This is one that purposely has mosaic virus, causing the variegation in its foliage. The leaves are dark green with yellow flecks, although sometimes mine will have solid green leaves show up.

I love the orange bell-shaped flowers and tonight I was trying to get a macro shot of one of them. I don't like using a flash for such photos and the natural light was low enough that I couldn't quite hold the camera still enough to avoid blurring.

Sometimes when photos turn out blurry or are less than desirable in their natural state, I'll play around with special effects in Adobe Photoshop. The photo above is the original, altered with the watercolor filter.


12 comments:

Frances, said...

How absolutely fabulous !;-> Way to make the silk purse from the sow's ear, no offense to any pig lovers out there.

Frances at Faire Garden

Lisa at Greenbow said...

I have seen artists works that say they draw a picture then "paint" photo shop the color in it. I think it would be interesting to try this but haven't done so. I am so computer illiterate. I do well to post on my blog.

Anonymous said...

That's a really cool effect. Thanks for sharing the image!

Weeping Sore said...

I've got to try that filter. I'm a real novice at photoshop - intimidated by all the options. Nice to see you're not still digging out from snow.

Anonymous said...

Kylee - How neat - I love your Abutilon 'watercolor.'

I wish you success with that training for the half-marathon. I've had fibro since the late 80's. On a good day, I can walk a mile with my dog, whose on medication for bad knees. We're quite a pair of old ladies, but we try!

Great blog, by the way... Deb

Mr. McGregor's Daughter said...

Print it, frame it, hang it on the wall.

Anonymous said...

That is awesome. You could take pictures of humdreds of flowers and do the same thing, and then put them all over your house. It would be beautiful.

Anonymous said...

I do too--I take my photos and mess with them till they look presentable or goofy or Monet like. I have copied them on to a transfer paper and made napkins with the quirky subjects. It is not wasting a thing--right! I just love my camera. I loved your pic by the way---cause tonight I'm in a peachy mood.

Marie said...

You've got a very nice blog!

Muum said...

Oh, I like teeny poet's idea! My husband used the watercolor effect on a pic of a cosmo, and it is a lovely way to present a bloom in a new way.

Kylee Baumle said...

Frances ~ Thanks! Less than perfect photos get put to good use!

Lisa ~ I get in moods where I like to play around with things. Some results are good, some are not! You just need to throw all caution to the wind and do some messing around of your own! :-)

Brianna ~ Thanks! It was fun to do and really, really easy. Just a couple of clicks!

Nancy ~ I think the color of the bloom is enhanced using this filter. You're right - Photoshop can do some amazing things! I like "poster edges" quite a bit, too.

Weeping Sore ~ Get brave! Go for it!
Oh, we still have snow and it's snowing right now. It comes and it goes and it comes again. I'm SO ready to be done with all that!

Deb ~ Oh bless your heart, you've had fibro for a long time. I wonder if it's something I'll have for the rest of my life and if it will improve or get worse. It's just been a couple of years that I was diagnosed, but I had it for at least three years prior to that. It took that long for them to rule out everything else, which is basically how they diagnose it at this time (which you know). I do have fears as to how that will affect this running thing. We'll see, but my athletic trainer daughter says it may very well help. I'm choosing to think positively and that I'll feel better from the exercise.

Mr McGregor's Daughter ~ I've thought about doing that with several of the Photoshopped pictures I've done like this!

Teeny Poet ~ Have you been talking to Mr McGregor's Daughter? LOL. That would be fun...

Anna ~ What a GREAT idea! I'd love to see photos of your creations!

Marie ~ Thank you! I hope you'll visit often!

Muum ~ Oh, a cosmos would look wonderful treated this way! There are so many mediums for creating art, aren't there?

garden girl said...

That's gorgeous!

Wow, I never knew it was a virus that caused their variegation!

After reading your post I was inspired to learn more about this pretty plant and did a quick google search.

I have two of them overwintering in my basement along with some tropicals. I might have just figured out where the whiteflies came from! Oops!

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