Making Abstract Digital Art Using Photographs

Digital Photo Art

I happened upon an article about the new Photoshop “craze” called Twirls. It was a perfect day for playing with photos yesterday, so I watched the video, read the article, and started playing.

Photograph used for image above

Making Abstract Digital Art

Is it art?

I hesitate to call it art, as so much of the process is formulaic or chance, but I had a lot of fun seeing which photos and techniques allowed me to create images that I liked. After making a couple of “twirls” according to the directions in the article, I began experimenting with using different Photoshop techniques to obtain slightly different effects.

One of my favorite substitutions was for the first step of pixelating the photograph. Instead of choosing Filter – Pixelate – Mezzotint with a mode of medium lines, I tried switching to a mode of long lines, and instead of using Mezzotint, used Pointillize, or added additional layers to the mix. The ways that you can adapt this “recipe” are endless.

It is surprising how the photographs you use affect the outcome. Depending upon the blend mode you choose, you can end up seeing the colors represented in many different ways.

What do you think? Is this art? Or not? Would you like to hang prints of any of these images on your walls?

May you walk in beauty