Since launching my website, I have received questions from people asking how I create a Photo Art Design, how flexible are the colors, and what types of pictures are best.  This blog post is my attempt to answer these questions, by showing you step by step, how I create.

Once I receive someone’s favorite photos, I begin to brainstorm various ideas for their artwork.   When the customer uploads their pictures, they are asked a series of questions that help me understand what they are looking for, what colors they prefer, which photos they want more dominate, etc.  If there is any particular text they want included, I have gathered this information as well.

The example below features a good friend’s daughter, Sarah Moorman.  She held the Women’s World Record for Bench Press in two different age groups, along with numerous power lift competition wins.  She wants something for her dorm room, and her favorite color is red.   Here is how my process works:

These are the original photos she sent me.  Unless you want the PopArt (aka Warhol) type of photo art seen on my portfolio page, the best images are those where the subject is ‘in their zone’ rather than photos where the subject is looking straight into the camera, because they allow me to produce much more interesting artwork for you.

The first step was to cut out the background in each photo and arrange them, with the lift picture being more dominant.  Knowing Sarah likes red, I began playing with that color, along with others that compliment the photo(s).  I like to use colors found in the photos themselves. Virtually any photo art design I create is completely color customizable.  Everything you see on the Portfolio page can be color modified to your specific images and decor.  These are some of the backgrounds I came up with given her preferences:

Next, I added some edge effects to make the images pop.  A sunburst background layer is added with the center of the burst near Sarah’s face when she’s doing the lift, as well as a diamond shape which adds some punch to the overall layout.

Since world record bench press and power lifting require months, if not years of training, I thought it would be nice to somehow depict this kind of dedication.  After some thought, I decided to create an overlay that uses adjectives to describe the training process.  I grunged up the text a bit to make it look a little worn.  You can see the custom overlay text around the edge of the artwork below.

Here is how the custom overlay text looks on the overall design:

Next I added a name plate at the bottom highlighting her accomplishments, to make the piece more personalized.  Below is the finished product. Congratulations Sarah, on your impressive accomplishments!