I thought that this week I’d skip ahead a bit and write about one of my more recent images ‘The Fairy Mill’. But to do so I have to go back a bit first.

About five years ago, I found out about a group called the National Association of Photoshop Professionals or NAPP. They were responsible for publishing the ‘Photoshop User’ magazine. I had received a sample magazine and found it very educational. The tutorials and ‘how to’s’ were really well put togethre, so I decided to join up.

The magazine and online video tutorials were fantastic and I learned a lot quickly, but the best part of the membership was the community forums. It didn’t matter how stupid a question may seem, there was always someone who could help out without calling you and idiot for asking (unlike some other forums I had visited.)

One of the cool things the forum moderators started up was a weekly Photoshop battle. Each week, one of the moderators would post an image from the Stock Xchang website and it was our mission to create something special out of it. Sometimes there were strict guidelines to try and follow but mainly it was freeform. No prizes, no winners or losers, just a desire from all who participated to create the best work they could. It was a lot of fun, and pushed all of us creatively.

Over the years, life got busier and busier and I found little time to be a part of the community but always stayed a member and dropped by from time to time to see what was going on. A few weeks ago when I dropped in, I saw a battle image that just called out to me. I couldn’t resist, I had to do it.

I downloaded the image of the forest and started to work on it. I knew I needed a fairy to put in it so I began scouring another website, Deviant Art, for a stock image I could use. After searching through hundreds of shots, I found it. A stunning girl, posed in a light, summery, turquoise dress provided by Ranger Cookies Stock. I started putting the image together.

I have always had a love and fascination of the mystical and enchanted. Faeries, goblins, trolls, pixies and enchanted, magical forests. I love finding real locations that could be magical forests and photographing them to composite in the magical creatures. I’m even developing a children’s TV show that is set in an enchanted forest. It’s something that always brings me back to my childhood, how I used to have adventures running around, exploring the countryside in England.

I composited the image together, hand painting many of the lights and fairy dust elements. I played with the idea of putting a second fairy sitting on the mossy rock but it all started to look a little too cluttered. I finished it off and uploaded it to the forum. It felt good to be doing this again after so long away. I think I’ll have to do more again soon.

I thought the image turned out pretty good but I couldn’t help but feel that it was a shame it was made out of stock images rather than ones I had taken myself. I have hundreds of great landscape shots that would work perfectly for this type of image but I’ve never really gotten into photographing people. Maybe I’ll have to try doing a proper studio shoot with a model sometime.

If you or somebody you know feels like being turned into a mythical creature, please get in touch and we’ll organise a photo shoot. You can purchase prints of The Fairy Mill as well as other artwork I have created at RedBubble.com.