Art Transformation Of Weeping Willow Landscape

Sometimes a photographer will see a beautiful scene, take the photo, then when they view it, it's not as great as they had hoped for. Then there are times where a photographer will see the potential in an okay scene that can be made into a piece of art that makes you say "Wow!".

On a beautiful late summer day, I was taking a walk at Nathanael Greene Park in Springfield Missouri, United States. Everything was still green because thankfully we had a wet summer. I came upon this beautiful willow tree across the pond. I love the looks of these beautiful trees. The way the wind gracefully sways through them... they are so wistful.

I took the photo knowing the landscape scene was pretty, but when it came to the colors it was almost too much green for me. I could see it's potential even though I wasn't 100 percent sure what I was going to do with it yet.

A tip to improve your photography: Before a photographer posts an image to their website, they should ask themselves, "Would I hang this up on my wall?" or "Who would hang this up on their wall?" If you can't say yes or answer who then it's probably something you need to put aside or transform it into something that will change those answers.

As I mentioned above, the photo was just okay, but too much green for me. It didn't really have any drama. I kept the photo and set it aside until I could come up with an idea that would make it art. Finally got some ideas to try something different (about a year later) and gave it a go.

A photographer acquaintance from one of my photography groups had mentioned how he changed the color of some objects in one of his art pieces using colored layers. I thought this was the perfect photo to try it on. I did the color changes in GIMP using different layers of red and orange. Then I used layer masks and brushes to put the color where I wanted it. I loved the transformation it was taking.

I then turned it into a painting using 2 different painting filters. I do this to make it unique. To make it even more artistic, I opened it in Corel Painter Essentials program, added some more painting techniques using my own hand brushes, and some 3D like texture. I wanted to keep the water somewhat smooth so I removed the texture from that area of the photo using a clone brush.

To finalize, I opened the photo in Lightroom, did some extra enhancements to color, hand light brushing, added tags and a description and the unique art piece was done. I believe it went from okay to wow and now I can say, "Yes, I would hang that on my wall."

What do you think of the transformation?