Surfs Up. Boomerang Beach, Australia. Day 24. Art. Montage. Photography.

I move
Imperceptibly.
Beneath waves. Over sand.
Holding the energy of earthly time.
I am receptive to the light of the stars. ~Starfish.
~A Magical Moment

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Nothing, in truth, can ever replace a lost companion.
Old comrades cannot be manufactured.
There is nothing that can equal
The treasure of so many
Shared memories.
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Wind, Sand and Stars.

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Third Seven Day Covenant.

I have worked with many traditional art modalities: drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, sculpture and photography. And at this stage of my Art Journey I'm seeing a lot of relevant relationships and connections with mediums converging within my art-making practice. ~Ally.

In the first two weeks of my Covenant to make an artwork, or do something that contributes to the making of an artwork and share it at Steemit every day, I developed a small series of Eco-collages. ~Ally.

For my third Seven-Day Covenant, I worked on a single piece: A Pink Rose that incorporated some of the elements that appeared in my Eco-collage: Pink Rose. Day 15 ~Ally.

It's now my fourth Seven-Day Covenant, and I'm working with the theme of rockpools and starfish using the same format that evolved in A Pink Rose: Three small squares in vertical alignment on either side of a square image.

Yesterday I shared the process of creating the image: A Tribe of Starfish.

Today I'd like to share some variations of this image: Using the same format and my own photographs based on the theme of the rockpools at Boomerang Beach.

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First Stage: Surfs Up. No 1.

Having established the six smaller squares on either side of the image with a single starfish in each, let's see what happens with a change of background.

Some images work better than others: Depending on whether you like the subtle blending of images or more colourful contrasts.

Base image: Two Surfers.

I started with this photograph of two surfers who had just walked past me on the reef.

The reef with all its hidden treasures is a favourite place for the more adventurous surfers to wade out from.

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Second Stage.

Six small squares, each with a slightly smaller inner square and a single starfish in each were added to the background image of Two Surfers: Using the format of 3 squares in vertical alignment on either side of the image.

You can see the original images of the individual starfish in A Tribe of Starfish.

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Third Stage: Jewels of the Ocean.

I selected Jewels of the Ocean as another background image for the six squares with single starfish.

It's a view of the rockpool after the water ebbed: It's hard to see the tiny starfish that have buried themselves in the sand or are hiding under the rock ledges, but there are just a few bright aqua blue starfish visible, attached to rocks and upon the exposed sand down the bottom of this photograph.

The gold and orange boldly patterned rocks in contrast to the bright aqua blue starfish: A Jeweled Ocean.

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Fourth Stage.

The same six small squares with the single starfish in each were added to the background image of Jewels of the Ocean: Using the same format.

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Fifth Stage: Three Surfers.

'Will I join them?'

Another photograph I REALLY wished to use as another background.

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Sixth Stage.

Unfortunately Three Surfers didn't work as the entire background. All that could be seen of the newly arrived surfer was his board and the first surfer out to sea couldn't be seen either.

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Seventh Stage.

Not to be daunted, I played around with reducing the size of Three Surfers so that the three figures would be visible in the image. Another image as a background would be needed and so I played with a few images: Finally selecting Jewels of the Ocean as these two images seemed to compliment one another really well.

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Final Image: Surfs Up. No 2.

Using Jewels of the Ocean as the background image.

Adding Three Surfers to the centre of this background.

The final touch and one that was the most satisfying to do was montaging the foreground rocks with the ocean. I can see how to work with this way of montage now ~ And would like to redo the entire image ~ But for another day.

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Boomerang Bay.

All the images in this present series are based on photographs that I took a few years ago at Boomerang Beach which is 400 kms north of Sydney.

The wonder of the day and the rockpools in particular are described in A Magical Moment.

Sheltering in the shallows of the crevices and all along the edges of the rocks of the rockpools were not just a couple of starfish but whole tribes of them: Half buried in the sand, their muted grey, decorated with different markings of dusty pinks and pale blues, punctuated with bright aqua. ~Ally.

Photoshop.

I've only recently started to dabble with Photoshop again. Not one for manuals, I just play intuitively and then try to remember what I've done. A total novice, but I'm finding my way around layering and the logical ordering of layers now. So I'm really happy with my slow but steady self-relearning program. ~Ally

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I have the feeling for continuing to play with other backgrounds: Using photographs that were taken from this same location.

And all the time I'm playing with Photoshop, my Creative Muse has other ideas for where this may all be going now. I've ALWAYS wanted to draw and paint rockpools.

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A heart that is holding infinite possibilities.
A creative who is learning to trust the mystery of what will be.
A spirit that is willing to fly into new creative realms and share the journey. ~Ally.

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Art and Photography: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
SONY Mark2 A7.

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Posted from Earth ♥︎ Sand ♥︎ Water ♥︎ Ice with SteemPress : http://www.allyinspirit.info/2019/05/10/surfs-up-boomerang-beach-australia-day-24-art-montage-photography/

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