Sol Artsy Transfers **coming soon**
Sol Artplay Palette https://www.oscraps.com/shop/ArtPlay-Palette-Sol.html
Multmedia Suns #3 https://www.oscraps.com/shop/MultiMedia-Suns-No.-3.html
Mini dot brushes No. 1 https://www.oscraps.com/shop/MiniDots-No.-1.html
Copyright-free diver image from internet

Notes in Photoshop Elements 14

I had nothing in mind when I began construction of this composition, but I felt the need to artPLAY, so I let myself be guided by my mood. Which, having recently experienced the passing of our beloved miniature poodle shortly after his 18th birthday, has been touch and go. I started simply, by pulling solid paper #3 over solid paper #1 on a new canvas, and then applying Difference blending mode, to make things dark. Because that was my mood. Dark. Difference Blending Mode is my default darkness hack.

And then came a parade of Artsy Transfers. They are so luscious! I randomly dropped AT #4 in the middle of the layer stack (which interacted nicely with the layers on Difference blending mode), then added AT #2 on top, which also interacted with what was underneath, producing intense red and orange tones. AT #3 went on top of that because I was hoping for more reds, and I got them. I fine-tuned the layers, adding deep shadows to some, changing blend blending modes on others, and separating layers from how they were delivered into positions that worked better for my composition.

And then I knew I wanted to add an imageI did a little clicking around on the internet and found my diver. I blended her into the background using inverted masking and the new mini-dot brushes, which leave a lovely texture.

To complete the layout, I dropped Multimedia suns 3_1 and 3_3 in the layer stack, moving the wooden sun shape further down so it would blend within the Artsy Transfers. I grabbed just the cloud and bird flock from Multimedia Suns 3_4, duplicated twice, each time on Color Dodge Blending Mode, and let them fly into the upper right-hand corner.

The button is from the Sol Artplay Palette, recolored from brown to blue. I added a bit of journaling just to preserve my emotions of the moment. When I look back at my work over the years, I find that I like the little mental prod of why I made something, and even a touch of journaling does that for me.