Framed Lady - Book Cover Art with a Shrine Art effect

I've created a fun piece of Book Cover Art thanks to the latest tutorial put out by Gale at PaperWhimsy. I love her use of Drop Shadows and how much dimension they add to a project.
Here is the PaperWhimsy project she inspired me to create.

This project has my lovely lady standing in a window as if she has just stepped off the dance floor and has been captured in time peering out of a book cover.  It's what I would call a mix of  Book Cover and Shrine Art combined.  It makes me want to pop in my Jane Eyre DVD, and I probably will.

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In her latest PaperWhimsy newsletter (March 20, 2011) Gale showed how she created a great piece of stage art using PaperWhimsy products and Photoshop Elements.  I loved the drop shadow effect of her work so much I decided to give it a try too. I created my Book Cover Art in Photoshop based on those instructions and using similar PaperWhimsy items for a slightly different look.

Thanks of the inspiration Gale!

 Gale's PaperWhimsy Stage Tutorial for this great composition can be seen HERE

This was created by Gale at PaperWhimsy and is the inspiration of my latest project.

It's as if you are looking into a shadow box display and is so cool!

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As always I'm tinkering around with digital products to give them a different look 

and this project was no different.  

I originally started this project using the PaperWhimsy products as they appear 

when you purchase them; but being new to Photoshop I like to try out new skills as I learn them 

and could not resist using a new clipping masking trick I recently learned.

 This is what my Book Cover Art looked like before 

I started my clipping mask alterations.

Then I decided I wanted a bit more zing and decided to use 

this great PaperWhimsy texture for a new look on the frame 

and all the architectural elements.

PaperWhimsy Texture 07

PaperWhimsy Hybrid Images - Digital Artists: Overlays & Textures -Texture 07 

There are many ways to alter items in Photoshop; 

this is just how I arrived at my end result.

I choose to make my changes through 

Layer - Create Clipping Mask as follows. 

This example shows how I altered the frame and architectural elements in Photoshop.  

I repeated this same process for every item layer I wanted changed and am only showing

one layer here for simplicity sake.

I started with the outer frame layer.

I then added the Texture layer over the frame.

I selected Layer - Create Clipping Mask

which cut the new layer to the form of the frame below it.

I changed the mode on the clipped layer from 

Normal to Color and adjusted the Opacity to 55%

This allowed the details of the frame under it to show through and 

gave me the color change I was looking for.

I repeated this process on the layers for the inner frame, floor and background.

 

 This was the finished project after all they "yellow" layers 

were transformed with the pink texture.

Here is a listing of all the PaperWhimsy Products 

I used to create my Book Cover Art project.

all the items I used came from the PaperWhimsy:

Hybrid Images - Digital Artists section 

 Pastel Frame 08

I used only the outer portion of the frame for my project.

Background - Pastels Buttercup 02

This became the floor behind the lady in my project.

 

 I used the Photoshop function of 

Edit - Transform - Perspective 

to narrow the top portion of the background

 and

Edit - Free Transform

to squish the image down and become a floor.

 

 PaperWhimsy Background - Pastels Buttercup 06

was the wall background behind my lady

Elements - Old books and Papers - Old Mat 01 Sheet

 I used the golden image as an inner frame and made the 

center transparent so my other images would show through.

Beautiful Faces - Singles - Genteel Lady 20 PNG

I made some color adjustments to her brooch, eyes and dress.

Also, to get her arms to appear on the outside of the frame I created a 

duplicate image and erased all the skirt area below her arms.  

The first image of the lady is in a layer behind the frames 

and the duplicate with only the arms and above is the top layer 

in the Photoshop project so her arms rest on the outside of the frame.

Originally when I started the project I had not added in the Drop Shadows 

since I wanted to get all the elements in place and then decide how much 

of a drop shadow I would want on all the various layers.

Here is what the project looked like without the Drop Shadows

It is a bit flat looking at this point. 

I also later removed the upper diamond pattern.

and here is the final version with the Drop Shadows.

The shadows give a lot of depth to the piece and create a great

Shrine Art effect.

For the Outer Frame I added a Drop Shadow of:

Blend Mode: Multiply

Opacity: 55%

Angle: 90 degrees

Distance: 5 px

Spread: 27%

Size: 128 px

For the Inner Frame I added a Drop Shadow of:

Blend Mode: Multiply

Opacity: 75%

Angle: 90 degrees

Distance: 6 px

Spread: 17%

Size: 73 px

For the Floor I added a Drop Shadow of:

Blend Mode: Multiply

Opacity: 75%

Angle: 90 degrees

Distance: 26 px

Spread: 20%

px

For the Lady with arms over the frame I added a Drop Shadow of:

Blend Mode: Multiply

Opacity: 75%

Angle: 90 degrees

Distance: 5 px

Spread: 0%

Size: 5 px

 

 I enjoyed playing with Clipping Masks and Drop Shadows in this project 
and definitely agree with Gale of PaperWhimsy that Drop Shadows add 
a lot of magic in a Photoshop project.

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Many Thanks again to Gale of PaperWhimsy for inspiring me to create 

my Book Cover Art project based on her latest tutorial.

click HERE to see Gale's Photoshop Elements Tutorial

and click HERE to check out the great PaperWhimsy images and inspirational ideas.

Till next time...

Grins and Giggles,
   Evelyn