Life Through a Lens

It’s Martin Luther King Day here in the States which, for me, as well as many others, means a day off. (That is, of course, in addition to the historical importance of the man we’re remembering…)

As I’m in a bit of a lazy mood today, and it’s too cold to break out the bike, I’ve decided to play around in Photoshop a little and share some of my creations, along with a little tutorial I happened upon. The other day I created planets, today we’re creating what I’m going to call starbursts.

Back in elementary school, in attempt to get in with the boys I had crushes on (you probably know who you are as I wasn’t subtle), I would spend more time than I’d like to admit drawing space wars with them… exploding planets, space ships and the like. Who knew that one day I’d be creating them out of nothing more than a single photo of some dried mud and some creativity?

Yes, that’s right, dried mud. It doesn’t end with dried mud though, you can  use anything from photos of tire tread to cracks in the sidewalk… anything that has fissures which can be put to good use. Using the same Polar Coordinate distortion tool I used with the Little Planets Project, as well as some wind, I flexed my creative muscle and came up with the attached images. (I had a little fun with that last one… try mixing up the backgrounds, colors, and playing with the layering and see what happens)

The tutorial called them exploding planets… I actually think they look more like starbursts, what do you think?

You can find the original tutorial here. Try it! Have fun with it and see what you can create.

Enjoy!

*tracey*

"Starburst Orange"

"Starburst Blue"

"Starburst Magenta"

"Starburst Fire"

"Starburst Sketch"

Original Photo