Writing fiction is creative, but for an author it’s also work. Sure it’s work we enjoy, but it’s still work. Often when I take a break from writing I find other creative outlets to keep my juices flowing. (I’ve talked about this before like in my Be Creative post last year.) Photography is something I love. I’m always playing with my camera and begging friends to donate time for a ‘shoot’. And from that I’ve also started to play with digital manipulations. I took a workshop last year given by Creative Direction on cover art and montages and such, and this weekend they’re having another. YAY!
Their workshops are only $25, and its all online so you can take your time over the weekend, and usually the week after, to go at your own pace. And They answer questions in the comments, and you can see others work to. You can see the final montage I did last year here.
Yesterdays class was on re-touching. Now to most photographers this would take on a different meaning. I’m also (on my own) learning how to retouch photos in a much more realistic and portrait style. But this was geared toward book covers. As in changing hair and eye color of stock photos to match an authors description.
I had pure fun with it, and I wanted to share.
So, here’s the original stock photo. A cute/pretty girl in a field. (although I’m not sure why she’s wearing a bikini top when she’s in a field?)
And here’s what I did with it. I’m thinking she looks more like a witch now…like maybe for a cool paranormal story. What do you think?
The point of the post is, I know I’m not very good at this stuff, but it’s something that I like to do. It’s creative, and it encourages flexibility in my creative muscles…so if you’re always writing, and you feel a bit blocked creatively- step back from the story project, and flex your creative muscles in another way for a bit. You might find that it’s just the kick in the pants you need to get over a hump.
PS: I think I might write a short witchy story to go with that picture. Just for fun. 
