Pastel Processing & Texture Tuesday

We were challenged to do some pastel processing on day 24 of Beyond Layers. I knew this was going to be difficult, as pastels are so not my style. I love colours, bright and clear, strong contrasts - it's not that I wouldn't admire softness and delicacy in the work of others, I just don't feel quite at home with pastels. I guess it's because in my own colours, I'm an Autumn: orange is my favourite colour, I love warm browns and yellows and reds, soooo not pastel.

So, the first problem was to find a shot I could even imagine turning pastel. I don't have a white room, all the rooms in our house are colourful, and I simply didn't feel like going into setting up the studio to photograph with the phone. I started processing several photos, ditched them, and finally ended up with these two, both of which are photos I've taken in spring 2010.

White Carnation

Resources:
- texture Paper and Paste by Kim Klassen
- texture Now by Kim Klassen
- font Lastwaerk Bold by Johan Aakerlund
- font Gondola SD - Swash by Steve Deffeyes

Merezeon Blossoming

Resources used:
- texture 61v1 by Sirius-sdz
- texture Sepia Canvas by SolStock
- font Lithos Pro by Adobe
- font Chopin Script by ClaudeP

Now both of these were a challenge, and I'm posting them now just to get rid of the endless tweaking. I've practised the techniques Kim showed us, and although the images don't show here as they do when I view them in Photoshop, I rather think that I did manage to create the soft vintage feel that was the aim of this assignment.

Oh, and although prompted, I didn't try out Radlab. Frankly, I can't see the point in getting a Photoshop plug-in toy that costs $150, which is a lot of money for me, and lets you click click click to make your photos fancy  - I'm doing photo processing for fun, not for a living. If I want something like that, there are countless very cool Photoshop actions available quite free, thanks to lovely people like The Pioneer Woman, Rita at the Coffee Shop blog, The Black Cat Photography, NighFate, Jae and Sarah Lynn Cornish, just to name my favourites. I'm sure this plug-in has its uses for someone actually working with photos for a living and wanting to save time, but I for one am taking this course to learn to use the tools that I already have.

Since the theme for Texture Tuesday this week was free & easy, meaning anything goes as long as there's one texture by Kim, I'm also sharing this post there. Who knows when I'll be able to participate again, for now I'll have to start learning a completely new rhythm of life again.