Project 4

Project 4

This gorgeous sunset was taken in Favorite Bay from the upper deck of the tugboat Katahdin. I wanted to follow Deke’s DVD lesson and wrote “Koenigin” (it is German for queen) after I selected the Horizontal Type tool. Then I selected the Custom Shape tool, loaded all the Custom Shapes and picked the bird shape (something between an eagle and a dove). I started to paint and drag the bird while pressing the spacebar for position. The selection outline was visible and no new Layer for the bird shape was created in the Layers palette. After starting all over again from the beginning the same problem appeared. Finally I figured out to click on Shape Layer icon in the options bar and here we go and it worked! A New Layer appeared in the Layers palette and I deselected the selection outline with clicking on the Layer. I tweaked the fill and opacity in the Layers palette for the bird and created a second bird with the Shape tool.


With the Auto Color command I brightened the background; the sunset image. I then filled the word “Koenigin” with the green color with clicking on the T Layer in the Layers palette and then I picked the color from the Swatch palette; when the eyedropper appeared I clicked on the green color.

Next I chose Eights Note as a Custom Shape in the options bar and painted it into the image. I pressed A-key for the Path Selection tool, clicked on the note and then pressed Ctlr+ALT+T to duplicate the note. I clicked the “chain” icon in the options bar to scale the note proportionally, then changed the Width and rotated the note with changing the rotate value. Finally I dragged the note. I repeated these steps a few times to duplicate and move the notes. I set HUE in the Layers palette and decreased the Opacity for the notes. Then I changed the Photo Filter in the Layers Palette to Warming Filter and the Density to 60. I liked the bright orange clouds and the shades in the image.

But the bridge of the tugboat almost disappeared in darkness, so I adjusted Brightness/Contrast under Image/Adjustment and also the island in the distance became more visible. With the Shape tool I painted a leaf on Katahdin’s white bridge, picked a red color in the options bar and selected Tie-Dyed Silk under Style for the leaf. Also, I skewed the leaf with the Skew command, Edit/Transform/Skew, to fit it better in the curved pilothouse. The “Koenigin” looked kind of boring so I skewed it with the Warp Icon, then chose the flag and changed bending to -45 and then she was floating with the notes.

The little owl

After I went through Lesson 7 I wanted to create a mask for this little owl. Unfortunately I found her this winter in our woodshed and she was frozen. She starved in the first cold snap we had. We showed her to the National Forest bird expert and he told us that she was a Screech owl and had no meat on her breastbones and that is a sign of malnutrition.

I chose the Extract command under Filter and with the Edge highlighter tool and a brush size 10 I started to select the outline. On the feathery part like her face I increased the brush size to 20. Then I filled the interior of the owl with blue color, using the Fill tool. In the Preview I changed the Display box to a bright green. I pressed C to select the clean up tool and started to erase pixels with Alt-key and click for white and click for black using a small brush size #6. I jumped between Display: MASK and NONE to review my success in cleaning up and kept cleaning! I locked the Layer with / key and saved it.

And finally I put the beautiful little owl on the bridge of the Katahdin where she enjoys the sunset but only after tinting her slightly more red with the Hue/Saturation command.