Work Spotlight: Watercolor Filter

Greetings from Cape Cod, Massachusetts!   While I’m usually in Charleston, South Carolina I’m spending a snowy week visiting my wife’s hometown in New England. With that in mind, I’ve decided to highlight some of my work that reflects a place that has become near and dear to my heart.   As part of my studies while pursuing my certificate in website design at Trident Technical College I took a course in computer imagery. This course was an introduction to Adobe Photoshop, and we learned how to apply several different layers, masks, and filters and utilize a range of brushes, tools, and techniques to enhance and manipulate photographs.   Of all the lessons we learned, my favorite was the alteration of an image to create a watercolor effect. The process involved creating a mask using an image reminiscent of watercolor paper, applying it to a photo and using a brush pattern that replicated a watercolor paintbrush. The paintbrush was then used to remove portions of the watercolor paper layer. The opacity of the brushstrokes was adjusted to make sure that both the pattern from the watercolor paper image remained, and that the brushstrokes mimicked the thin layers of paint associated with watercolor.   The watercolor paper pattern For the assignment we were required to alter two images – one from a set of photos provided by the instructor, and another photograph we’d taken. When I browsed the provided photos and found a Cape Cod shingle house, I knew immediately it was the one I wanted to edit. The results are below:   Cape Cod Shingle House, photo edited by Morgan Kinder Once I completed this image, I knew I wanted to use a photo I’d taken at Cape Cod to bring a sense of unity to the two images I would create for the project. I decided on a photograph of a sunset at Stony Beach overlooking Buzzard’s Bay, and I could not have been happier with the results.   Stony Beach Sunset by Morgan Kinder When I initially enrolled in the website design program, I did not think I would be working with Adobe Photoshop, but it was a pleasant surprise. It’s been rewarding to explore my creative side while completing my coursework, and I look forward to sharing my future projects with you.