Cowgirl Photoshop Project

This is a page that began as a scan from a 1941 edition of a Lone Ranger coloring book published by Whitman Books, Racine, Wisconsin.  I love the original (featured below, before restoration) but wanted to have the line art available for other projects.

I started this on Thursday, the night my dog died, and there was something soothing about cloning and erasing, bit by little bit.  I worked on it Saturday and Sunday evening, and spent a large chunk of today finishing the work and adding the filters. I altered some parts of the drawing and created "solid" dust clouds.  I used my mouse for all the re-lining work (the cowgirl, her horse, tack and the dust clouds were all relined).  I have a Wacom tablet, but haven't used it for awhile, and wanted the familiarity of the mouse for this project.

All told, this is about 10 hours of work.  I was having a new A/C installed today, so I did the bulk of the work while the technicians were hauling equipment up and down stairs.  I still may tweak the line art--I think I'll move the horse's rear leg into the middle of the "dust cloud" and do a few other refinements.  However, it's a nice piece, as it is, since the drawing has that old-fashioned feel.  I feel like I know Billie Jeanne after working on her page so long!

Photoshop Fun

While I am not the creator of the primary layer "Rainbow Fireflies Room," used in this composition, I wanted to use with a subject that it could enhance.  I carefully cut out this photo of my daughter in a purple gingham dress and reconstructed the soles of her cowboy boots (she was standing in grass).  I used the "Gaussian blur" filter to create a second layer over the cutout to give the figure depth, glow and to help ground it to the background.  My next task is to have a go at placing a shadow across the floor.