Off the Grid

As of Tomorrow morning I will be literally off the grid. We we are going there is apparently NO mobile reception of any kind and certainly no internet, so I will be completely out of touch. It also means I will not be able to visit everyone’s blogs……..sorry for all the cool stuff I will no doubt miss. I also will not be able to respond to comments.

But don’t be despondent, I will be back with cool tales to tell, hopefully some truly magic images. I visited here in what feels like another lifetime ago now, (my youngest was six months old – now married). I know I have photos, but I can’t find them? I’ll leave it as a surprise til next week.

In the mean time I thought I might leaves you with some twirls….

Muse Twirl

Peacock Twirl

These are currently all the fad in my Tog Group and are actually a lot of fun, they are created in Photoshop from photos.

Muse

Peacock

How to Create a Twirl

1.) Open your image in Photoshop

2.) With your background layer selected > select Filter > Pixelate > Mezzotint. Set your mode to “Medium Lines.” OK.

3.) Next select to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur.  Change settings to Amount 100, Blur Method zoom, Quality best.OK.

4.) Repeat step 3 as many times as you like.  I ran mine about 3 times.

5.) Create a duplicate layer [CTRL/CMD J].

6.) With the background layer highlighted, Select > Filter > Distort > Twirl. On this layer you want to use a positive number ie +200.

7.) Highlight Layer 1, select > Filter > Distort > Twirl. For this layer we need a negative number ie: -150. OK

8.) We now need to blend these two layers together, select Layer 1, and change your blending mode, try darken and lighten, Exclusion and Difference, it really depends on your image and what effect you like. Try all the blend modes, some will work, some wont.

9.) Now flatten or stamp your image (Ctrl, Shift, Alt, E) and transform it (flip horizontal or vertical) and use another blend mode, or even the same one, to create a really great piece of unique art.

There is a really cool video here

Have fun and show me some of your twirls! Til I return safe travels and happy snapping…

-Julz