For this first image, I sketched my view from Midland Beach looking out into the ocean from the pier. Once I put my sketch into Gimp, I was able to enhance it and make it look much better than the original. The first thing I did, was go to “colors” in the tool bar, and then to “Brightness-Contrast.” Using the sliders I was able to made the light gray lines from my pencil look much darker and black. It was a much darker image and I loved the new feel to the image. After this was done, I thought it would be cool to add some wildlife and objects into the image. If I were to be realistic, the image would be pretty boring, because no one likes mud brown fish or spider crabs, so I added some things that would turn Midland Beach into a gorgeous beach that you would probably only find in a tropical or southern area. The first thing I did was find an image of a blue whale, and by using Scott’s method, I was able to crop out the whale and get rid of its background. I had to first use the free select tool, and then I had to invert the image, and add an alpha channel. Lastly I had to press delete and get rid of the original background. From that point I was able to use the scale, rotate, flip, and move tool, to position the whale exactly how I wanted. I did this for all of the other objects too. You might think the cruise boat was a little unrealistic, but I actually saw an awesome ocean liner pass by when I was sketching the view. Once all this was added, I felt that I needed more color. So again using the free select tool, I selected which parts of the image I wanted colored separately. Starting with the sand, then the ocean, sky, and pier. By messing around with the color sliders I was able to add a lot of personality to the image. My final step was adding text into the image. This was simple because all I had to do was click the “text” tool, and type in the title. This image is what I wish Midland Beach could be.

For the second image, I sketched my view of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. By this point it was getting pretty dark so the lights on the bridge had been turned on. I did not want to add so many things like I did for the first picture. I thought it would be cool to make it simple and again, unrealistic. That night, while drawing the view, the sea was almost black, the sky was a dark gray, and the sand was a dirt brown, but since this is art, I thought I would make it look as cool and pretty as possible. I did find an image of the Verrazano Bridge online with a bright red background, and I thought it would be great to make the sky a dark red, instead of a boring gray. Instead of a black ocean, I thought a lighter green would be more effective. The water closer to the bridge with the lights is much brighter than the more distant ocean. Lastly, instead of having mud brown sand, I liked the idea of a maroon. It matches the sky, but is slightly darker. The last thing to do was to add my image of the bridge and ass some text. Repeating the steps that I used to add objects in the first image, I added the bridge and the title. I also like how the final result came out because it seems as if each part was done separately and then glued on. At first I thought it was a little sloppy, but I liked it much more this way.

Landscape 1:

For this picture, i set the photograph as one layer and my sketch as another layer over it setting an alpha channel for it. I erased the sky and the roof of the building off the sketch so that the photograph would show through. Then, using the paint tool on Gimp and different levels of opacity for each color I painted and shaded in the trunk and main branches of the tree, the fencing of the building, the stairs, and the background plants. By keeping the opacity of the colors I used relatively low, i was able to allow for the details of the sketch behind the color to still be seen. And finally i made it so the sand is half my sketch, and half the photograph by setting the eraser opacity to 50%. This allowed for the sketch of the tracks to be seen as well as the shadows of the tree and building from the photograph behind it to be seen as well. I left the majority of the columns and the trash can in its original sketch format.

Landscape 2:

For this picture I used the ocean from the original photograph as one layer. I expanded the original size of the ocean by copying and pasting what I had and used the smudge tool to blend in the lines. Then, I layered my sketch over the photo as another layer and erased the ocean so the photograph could be seen. I used the paint tool to slightly darken the edges of the ocean where it met the shore and finished the water off with the smudge tool. Finally, i used the paint tool and different shades and opacities of the colors to paint everything else in it but the sky. For the shells and branches I used 3-5 shades of gray and brown respectively to add shadow and depth. For the other items in the background, I mainly just switched up the opacity levels of the color to add shading. For the sky, I used the smudge tool to smudge out the border that was originally there but i didn’t add any color.

1. To produce image one, I began with my drawing of a scene at the waterfront, and a picture of the same place; the angles were different enough in each of these that they would not correlate exactly. I played with opacity, gradients & regular layer masks and the warp options in transform (ctrl T) in order to create the angles that I needed piecemeal. Then I merged the ten or so pieces while in full color, used the healing brush and cloning tool to fix any minor areas of grey or clear lines and then adjusted the color levels of the “photo”. Following this I decreased the brightness and the contrast of the photo to make it seem like a real photo, and also to bring out some really cool highlighting colors. I then put a color burn effect on the background, copied it and merged the two layers to darken my drawn lines before merging the drawing and the “photo”. Finally, I placed a filter known as accented edges on the newly merged “photo” and background layer. This filter produced even more colors in the picture, and I merely darkened them again by merging another copy of my created photo atop the result.

1. To make this image, I also began with one of my own drawings and a picture. In this case, the picture was not of the same place, though. I took one seagull from the picture, copied it and warped and transformed the resulting twins into the images in my drawing. I then used about 7 solid color layers, playing with modes like overlay, multiply and color burn, to color in my pencil drawing around the seagulls (using layer masks to hide unwanted color). Then I merged all of these layers to a copy of the background drawing. I applied accented edges to this picture, and then copied the layer. I masked the entire layer and then unmasked the words “The waterfront” with the paintbrush (while selecting the thumbnail of the layer mask and setting the color on white).

For my first image, I used the program OpenCanvas to edit it. To start, I first opened up the photograph I took of the waterfront as a layer. Then, I opened up my sketch as another layer, placing this layer on top of the one of the photograph. Next, I erased the background of the sketch layer, excluding the rocks and the grass, to allow the actual photograph to show through. Afterwards, using my Wacom Bamboo tablet, I colored in the rocks, switching between the watercolor brush and the pencil tool, using various shades of gray to shade them in. Next, I colored in the ground and used the pencil tool to draw grass and sticks on the ground. Finally, I touched up anything that I needed to, and saved the image.

For my second image, I also used the program OpenCanvas to edit it. To start, I first opened up the photograph I took of the waterfront as a layer. Then, I opened up my sketch as another layer, but this time, I placed the sketch layer underneath the one of the photograph. Next, I erased the image of the side view mirror to reveal my sketch underneath. I also erased the ocean in the background to reveal my sketch. Afterwards, using my Wacom Bamboo tablet, I colored in the scene reflected in the side view mirror, and the ocean, switching between the watercolor brush and the pencil tool to do so. Finally, as I did with the other image, I touched up anything that I felt needed some more work and I saved the image.