I have been working on my website and finally have a site I am beginning to like. Although I have changed the art on the homepage, the links are in the old style. My website address is: www.artsychix.com and I would love to hear any comments anyone has. Thanks.

Here is another digital collage I did using only the photoshop brushes from Annika von Holdt of The Fifth Muse. She makes beautiful brushes which I really enjoy using.

I changed the name of this digital collage after I highlighted the Mona Lisa's eyes with a flourish mask by endlessdeep. She also has a link to a tutorial on how he makes his masks. Endlessdeep(she) includes the image packs in her downloads so that you can make your own masks.

This is the final product for the da Vinci digital collage I started previously.



I made some significant changes to the inital collage but like the end result. I love the photoshop brushes from Yasny-Chan (the swirls and flowers).

I accidentally left out the handpainted layer when I saved this version of fairy dust. This is why I like digital collage, you can alter an image without having to paint another canvas. You can see the techno bursts in the upper right hand and left hand corners of the collage.

I have to say that doing these digital collages has become something of an addiction. The two fairy images were the inspiration for this new collage. The collage is made up of approximately 19 layers consisting of: a handpainted background, images, and a variety of photoshop brushes.



The initial background layer was a solid sheet of black. I followed this layer with a handpainted background I did on a stretched canvas. I usually photograph or scan in my backgrounds so that I can reuse them. This is the painted background that I started with.




The next 7 layers were made up of different photoshop brushes ranging from nature (plants) to techno (bursts). The full body fairy was the next layer followed by another layer consisting of photoshop brushes. The next layer was an ellipse I drew and filled with color onto which I applied another layer consisting of the upper torso of another fairy. The colored ellipse highlights the face of this fairy. After the fairy torso, was another 5 layers of photoshop brushes. The final layer was the text which I toned down by using a light grey.

I switched between black and white for the various brushes I used and I altered the opacity of some of the layers which ranged from 55% to 100%. I try to use "free for commercial use" photoshop brushes in the event that I would like to sell these pieces. Finally getting the layers the way I liked them, I flattened the image and saved it as a jpeg.

This is a digital collage I created using images from the artwork of Leonardo da Vinci. The swirls and grunge touches were added using photoshop brushes. The texture/grunge touches I used were from sanami276 and the swirls/flowers were from Yasny-Chan.



The background was an old world map onto which I applied a copper patina layer. With the cooper patina layer, I used a cookie cutter to create the irregular shape.

As a side note, I download my photoshop brushes from a variety of sites. I pay particular attention to the "Terms of Use" of all the brushes I download. If there is no "terms of use", I don't use any of the brushes on my commercial projects as I prefer to err on the side of caution.