Trill-Desktop Com Inspection

Observing the machine.

This evening I was playing with more ambient glow photos, and for the first time ever it was Trill's turn to observe my new desktop computer.

Staring into the window of the machine is like inspecting a spaceship. 

Smile.

Trill was okay with getting a selfie before the machine, proof for showing friends back home that she was on a spaceship.

Nerd Soup- The Disposer

The disposer is a nick name I gave this spiky green guy lurking around the waters of a grave yard.

I felt like doing a bit of photo art with a picture I call Nerd Soup (left). This was from Aug. 1, 2017, a day I was cleaning a bunch of Bionicle parts.

The bowl full of murky water and pieces reminded me of a watery grave, and that tied in with the idea that something could live in those waters which is why there's so much death in it. 

I decided to create a creature for that idea, and called him Disposer. This creature is selected from a photo I took of a friend's Bionicle design a long time ago. He seemed like a fitting creature for the scene, so he got the role.

Editing involved selecting the image, erasing part of his legs, placing him onto the scene, using different kinds of gradients and brush textures, along with the technique of creating a copy layer, applying glowing edges, inverting it, and setting the blending mode to darken. This gave me that painted and partially outlined look.

I also played with different color stages over the image. The version above is the toxic green fog version.

Then there's the dimmed classic monster movie version (left), and also the sepia journal page version (right).

Misty Marine

I continue gravitating towards bright glowing things as scenery with mood lighting. Marine is back, and she's summoning the waters of Radha from the glowing well of wisdom. :P

Okay, yeah, whatever is going on in this scene there's nothing specific to it as far as a story goes. I just felt like doing more mood lighting pictures.

This scene took place on the bathroom vanity with its Chinese evergreen in a shiny pot, reflecting the glow of a Radha beauty defuser that puffed essential cinnamon oil.

With some basic editing like a black gradient, and level adjustments for sharpness and eye glow, I enhanced the mood of my scene.

I played further with my images by experimenting with similar techniques used for creating a watercolor over colored pencil effect on the Lewa and Pearl pictures. 

The left version is the mostly colored pencil effect. I wanted to get more of a brush stroke feel. Since this is a water themed image, I wanted it to look smooth and ripply. The way I did this was by making a copy of the colored pencil version, taking a textured brush in PSE, and applying that texture to the smudge tool set to 100% strength. The rest was just manual touch ups, dragging and dabbing my smudge brush over grainy areas of the image, resulting in a semi painted look (right).

Elemental Palette

This evenings art experiment involved using my own selection of backgrounds taken from a photo I did of a watercolor palette. You can find out more about the base project on the post- Watercolor Palette Pictures.

Each color on the palette immediately reminded me of the elements, specifically in the shades of Bionicle. I didn't want to spend hours on something silly, so I used some short cuts by selecting images of the Toa Nuva, then turning them into stamp outlines using a filter in PSE.

I couldn't decide between letting the colors show through the stamp images or not, so I made the one above, then saved a version of them on solid white, as shown below.

The six main elements are fun, but I did have two blocks left from the photo, so I decided to play around and create Toa Mata singles of Tahu and Lewa.

I did the same stamped image on watercolor effect for these, and put the two buddies together on a page.

Lewa looked right as an outline, but he also looked pretty good as a paper pieced image. I think this would make a nice card.

During my selecting and stamp making, I kept each form for later use.

Each picture I used has been assembled on a stamp sheet for fun (left).

The outlines alone look pretty cool.

Mudst Go On Takua

'Mud'st go on, Takua  was an odd little idea that came to mind after "star153", someone on Deviant Art, requested for a picture of Takua and Jaller in ankle deep mud. After looking at their favorites, it was apparent star153 is someone in Brittan who has a fetish for pictures relating to the subject of characters in such a situation.

At first I wasn't sure if I  felt like making a sketch, but the more I thought about it, the more amusing the idea became. I didn't just imagine these two standing in the mud, but rather saw them drudging through it.

It became a silly idea of where all they may have traveled during their mask of light quest, and in a jungle there's bound to be swampy terrain. After creating a sloppy pencil sketch of this idea, I proceeded to think up dialogue for these two.

 Takua: "Are you sure that thing is working right?"

Jaller: "If the real herald had it, we wouldn't be in this mess."

Takua: "You're doing fine, but if we're on the right path, that mask has a strange sense of humor."

Jaller: "What's the matter, Takua, I thought you liked having adventures."

Takua: >:(

My layout of the idea was a quick and scratchy thumbnail in my sketchbook (left), and then I did a digital overlay on the photograph to better define the shapes of the characters (right). I find the base sketch before the actual outlining to be just a tad bit more charming than the final result.

When first imagining the concept, I saw it in black and white more so than color in my head, which is a bit uncommon for me. I made the picture in color first, then decided to make it black and white just to see it the way I imagined it. 

Making it black and white is like looking at a photograph from the past, a record of the chroniclers possible adventures which are now placed in stone and faded in memory. 

A bit of trivia about the piece: I created some of my own brushes for making odd cattails, swamp grasses, trees, and leaves. The background beyond the trees was a section of an actual watercolor texture I did. It seemed convenient and quick for this simple project. 

Trill's Lightstone Necklace

While I had my paper beach scene up, after a long photo session of mug pictures, I played around with an idea of where Trill might have gotten her new little necklace.

I grabbed my Po Matoran and made a scene of teasing kindness.

Trill's little stone necklace is made from scraps of yellow cording, and a chunk of citrine. With a bit

of knotting, I made her a somewhat islandy looking charm just for fun. It ties around her neck, which means it can work for any small toy if the bow is adjusted.

I made a mini comic with the photos when a story idea started to form. It's just a silly concept, but during Trill's travels as a chronicler in training and a map maker, she meets a visiting Po Matoran on her way off along Ga beach. They talk to each other, Trill mentions how she wants to map the underground tunnels of Onu, but is spooked by the dark, and the Po Matoran offers her a gift to help her along her journey.

The joke is that he thinks she's cute, and offers his light stone necklace to impress her.

Trill's Houseplant Exploration

 Finally, edited pictures of Trill have been made (date actually completed being May 18, 2017).

 

I tend to find scenic spots in the houseplants for Trill to hang out in. For several days now I've been eyeing the Chinese evergreen in the bathroom, which is supported by bakers twine tied to false flower stems wedged in the dirt.  I also like how the edge of the pot appears to be a sectioned off garden plot.

The way it looked between the leaves reminded me of some island scene where either Trill or another Matoran tied the tree to supporting poles to keep it upright. Could be someone planted this tree some time ago, and as it grew it needed support.

This tree grows nearby to the coast of Ga Koro. Trill likes to come here for shade.

I had Trill observed the rope to make sure it didn't need replacing (left). Trill does after all know how to make new rope if need be. I found the bathroom plant served well for photo adventures with Trill, especially with LED lighting and blue walls.Trill in the bathroom plants looks great with eye and head glow.

 

I also made do with the larger Chinese Evergreen pictures taken in the front room (the mini jungle). There was one version of Trill calling out which wasn't so blurry it couldn't work as a picture, so I blurred the background a bit and gave it some life (right).

 

Unfortunately, even after turning on the lights, the plant was so shaded that the camera had trouble taking a clear picture, and all three of my attempts turned out a bit fuzzy.

That's not to say I couldn't use the shakiness of the images to my advantage. Trill held her hands up so her voice would carry as she called for someone, but this pose could just as easily be Trill screaming at something. With a few adjustments like motion blur, I could make these images appear as though something is coming after her.

The blurrier version of Trill calling out remained inspiring for Trill screaming out. With a bit of radial blur I wanted to give the viewer a sense of seeing Trill through a creatures eyes as it tries coming at her. To add to the dramatic moment, I played with Trills mask and stretch her mouth to look like she's actually screaming (right).

There are always those occasions where photography may be blurred, and then I thought how it's funny that there's radial or motion blur filters in some programs to get the look, yet here I have it happening naturally. This may seem like a wasted shot, until I thought of how to use it and what it might entail.

Who is Trill speaking to? Why are her hands up? Whoever or whatever it is may be having trouble focusing after getting hit by a lone tranquilizer dart.