Let's Make a Collage (Round 79) : The Dragon And The Sword
This is my submission for Let’s Make a Collage round 79. I know this contest from a post of @justclickindiva’s (https://ecency.com/hive-174695/@justclickindiva/family-day-at-the-castle-or-lets-make-a-collage-round-79). Which then I know that the contest was held by @shaka here : https://ecency.com/hive-174695/@shaka/lets-make-a-collage-a-contest-for-all-creatives-on-hive-round-79-134-hive-in-the-prize-pool.
Oke. The contest owner (@shaka) needs participant to create a collage from this picture:
What came to my mind when I see the castle picture was the adventure of Mario and her brother Luigi. Yeah! I played the game when I was a kid. It was about rescuing a princess which was held captive in a castle by a bad dragon.
Okay. I needed a dragon picture. A non-copyrighted dragon picture. Okay I went to the famous https://www.pixabay.com and typed “dragon” in the search box. I found this picture.
It was from : https://pixabay.com/illustrations/dragon-fantasy-animal-fairytale-4417429/. It is licenced as “free for commercial use” and “no attribution required”. Perfect!
Okay let me proceed with the two pictures I already have. I will let the idea catch up with me in the process. I will work with Photoshop.
So I opened the given picture in Photoshop. I erased the castle background and copy the edited image layer.
I inserted the dragon picture to the image.
The canvas was too low I need it higher.
It looked good. I can always adjust it whenever I need to.
So the idea came to me : I should make the picture in a night environment. So I needed a dark sky. I did it wiht the gradient tool.
Okay!
Of course I needed to adjust the castle coloring for the night environment. I did it by adjusting levels and brighness and contrast.
Okay. It looked perfect.
What about some ligthning? To make it more dramatic? Alright! Some lightning, then! I was adding lightning with Brush tool. The brushes pack I used was Lightning Brushes 04 pack which I downloaded here: https://www.brusheezy.com/brushes/44627-lightning-brushes-04. There are so many free Photoshop brushes on the internet. This Lightning Brushes 04 pack contains 10 brushes. Okay I just needed one for the moment.
Okay. That went well.
A thought came to me. “What if the dragon is not actually kidnapping a princess but is is protecting here?” Okay. So the dragon is a friend to a knight. Alright. So the knight has the dragon on his side and of course a sword among another battle equipments (the story takes place in an ancient era, so we are not talking about laser gun or something like that). And “The Dragon And The Sword” seemed to make a good title. All right! I need a sword. I mean a picture of a sword. A free to use one. Nope! You won’t see the knight in the picture! It’s about the sword and the dragon! It's for a misterious purpose. :D
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The sword picture came also from pixabay. The license could be checked here : https://pixabay.com/vectors/sword-sharp-medieval-knight-fight-158585/. It is another “free for commercial use” and “no attribution required” picture.
Placed the sword to the picture, added some lightning to it, and of course the title of the pic. I meant to make the pic to be like some poster for a game or a movie.
I guess it was finished. But I think the sky was too “clear”. It needs some cloud. So I went to get some cloud brushes and I found this pack called “24 Clouds” at https://www.brusheezy.com/brushes/2187-24-clouds. I installed to Photoshop right way.
I guessed that made it!
Done! Here comes the result.
Thanks to @justclickindiva for the information and @shaka for holding the contest.
Hello @janwar00 Nice add on for the lightning effects. The color effects for the contest photo were a nice blend with a dramatic touch that stood out against the dark background. I love dragons and castles. Thanks for showing us your step-by-step instructions on how you created the collage.
Make sure you place your link and your final image of the collage in the comment section of the contest post. If you are a member of LMAC's Discord, then place your link there as well. If not, their Discord information in included in the contest post.
Also engage with other participants who entered the LMAC Round #79 this week. There are some amazing artists who produce awesome collages each week.
So happy that you joined the contest. Good luck.
Thank you @justiclickindiva for raising awareness for the LMAC and your help in onboarding. Much appreciated!
You're welcome. Glad to see new members and their creations. At the least, I'm happy to see that my readers are paying attention to my content.
Thanks for the information, @justclickindiva, Proceeding with it. . And thanks for aprreeciation as well. You did a well job too. :)
You're welcome.
!luv
!engage
!wine
!beer
I love the entry. Next time maybe begin with the art work you made the important thing is that readers see that first. The contest is force with great artists but I wish you wel and good luck
Okay next time I will do just that. 😁 And about participants, I see they are submitting great works. My most favourite is the gif that shows a stickman eating the wall, that's funny. 😁
Thanks for coming and showinging some love. ❤️ Happy weekstart. (Is it a thing? Since we have "weekend" I think it is.)
Welcome to the LMAC, glad you found your way here! That's an exciting collage up there. It would serve very well as a cinema poster:)
Great that you also shared your thought and creation process in detail. It adds to the LMAC experience if we can pick up a technique or two from eachother.
Enjoy your first round in the LMAC!
Hello and welcome!
I really like your work. It would make a beautiful cover for a sword and sorcery book.
The format you chose is also very elegant.
Thanks for the tutorial.
Best of luck!
Thanks for the appreciation, @adncabrera.
SPECTACULAR your collage}, you have my vote, your explanation of the process, I liked everything, it's a poster for a novel.
Like the spin off game of thrones, I see there your collage.
House of the Dragon