Tuscany Girl With Pup

No symphony orchestra ever played music like a two-year-old girl laughing with a puppy.

~Bern Williams

After being away for the week, I was having a mental meltdown itching to get back to creating. I worked for days before I left on a piece with ballerinas dancing on a pine branch and I just couldn't get it right. Something was missing. I thought if I left it for the week during vacation, I would come back inspired to finish it and be happy with the result.  

Not so much.

I worked an entire day and night on it yesterday into the midnight hour and finally I just decided to scrap it. I hated it. I couldn't get it the way I wanted it.

This morning, this idea sprung into my head...a Tuscany themed background with a little girl and her dog (inspired, of course by watching my own kids with our dog, Buddy). Simple. Plain. No frills. And I liked it.

For those interested in the hows...I started with a black and white vintage photo of the little girl and dog. I then colorized it by painting in Photoshop.  I then layered it onto the background, adding shadows and a bit of lighting. Then, over in Painter, I chose the oil brushes and painted the entire image. Back in photoshop, I opened the painting in an add-on called Topaz Simplify and created a Buzsim layer. I combined the two versions into a happy medium and then added adjustment layers and texture layers. Last, I made final adjustments to the color for the final product.  

It felt really good after stressing over the other project to finish one I was happy with. I still haven't deleted the other project...perhaps I will get inspired down the road to figure out how to finish it. Perhaps I may start over from scratch.  

TGIF  Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there! See you next week.  xo