Recently my mom showed me a picture from when she went to prom. In the photo stands my nana, mom and her highschool sweetheart. I have become obsessed with this photo because my mom made her dress AND her date’s sports coat! Seriously, I would kill for that coat! Well, that photo is really important to my mom because she’s standing with her mother. She wants to frame the photo but it’s just not exactly appropriate to display the photo with her being arm and arm with her past.

So, at her request, I scanned it in as a high resolution image and photoshopped him out of the photo. Yes, it’s sad because her date’s outfit completes the entire photo but I understand. I put together a brief step by step guide on how I did it. The trick was to use any existing elements of the photo. By copying those elements and then using layer masks and a soft brush to conceal, I was able to cover him up entirely and then crop the photo.

Here’s how I did it…

 BEFORE

STEP 1: Look for existing elements.
After analyzing the photo, I realized there were a lot of clean areas to the right of the prom date (who will now just be called Homeboy for the rest of the guide). So the red circled areas shows the elements that I copied over and blended together with layer masks. I then used layer masks to hide part of the copied sections to bring my mom’s shoulder and arm back.

STEP 2: Let’s deal with that dress.
Above, you can see that the right side of the dress is covered by Homeboy’s leg. So, I needed to build that side of the dress to give it a clean line. So, I selected the opposite side of her dress, copied it and inverted to reflect the other side and matched up the lines in the plaid. As seen below, it gives the impression that her dress is now completely in the foreground and not being covered by anything. Though I didn’t spend a lot of time to retouch and make them look more different from one another, you get the point.

STEP 3: Cover that boy up!
Shown below, you can see the elements I used. I basically just brought everything from the far right side of the image and moved it over. Since I had to shift it to line up with the other horizontal lines in the window it left a gap at the bottom. So I just blended in elements of the grass to cover the small piece left at the bottom. I then used layer masks to mask the edge of her dress and elbow.

STEP 4: Finishing touches.
I had to use pieces of the middle window pane to cover Homeboy’s head. The far right window pane was too different to blend. So I used small sections and layered them until his head was covered while smoothing the edges with layer masks and a soft brush.

STEP 5: Crop it!

And we’re done with removing the past!

Lastly, I made a slight color correction to remove the overall yellow tones from age. I love the vintage look of the original so I didn’t completely correct the color. I also bumped up the contrast and saturation to make it pop just a little more.

Now I would like her to make me an awesome plaid sports coat like the one in the photo. I think I’ve earned it!

Next month marks a year since I started my Artist’s Way journey. Sure, I gave it my best about four years ago but only made it through week 8 out of 12 weeks. Around this time last year I realized that I needed to make some pretty drastic changes to my life if I wanted it to change. Even though I was experiencing new things and enjoying new adventures I was still sorta floating, uncertain of everything. I was trying to heal from years of past broken relationships and friendships. Last June I knew that it was time to do something and it needed to be drastic to have any affect at all.

I suddenly realized how much I got from participating in the Artist’s Way journey in the past but knew I was unsuccessful in that initial adventure attempt. So, this time I thought if I was going to do it then I was going to go all out! That’s exactly what I did. I eliminated any distractions from my life and made a commitment. I said goodbye to Facebook for three months along with dating. I figured the no dating thing would be easy considering there wasn’t anyone knocking down my door anyway.

Funny how life works out. About week four of my journey, a beautiful soul named Gavin enters my life by way of a simple smile across a busy coffee shop. He was visiting from California for the weekend and just so happened to be in my favorite hangout at the same time I was there editing photos from my trip to my Aunt’s lavender farm. Long story short, it wasn’t until I surrendered my constant searching for fulfillment in others did it actually happen. About four weeks after I gave up everything for the sole purpose to be healthy and make changes it came to me. Not just through Gavin but the lessons I learned on my 12 week journey.

Many things happened during those 12 weeks of creative discovery and healing. They keep happening. Opportunities and adventures find me consistently since I learned to be open to them and not afraid of them. Until you’ve taken the Artist’s Way for a ride you won’t completely understand. Though it’s not smart on a professional level to admit how much of a newbie I am at the stuff I’m doing these days I feel I must just as a testament to my journey. It’s been a little over a year since I even owned a camera. I finally graduated (again) with a new degree in graphic design. I still have so much to learn and experience but I’m so extremely thankful for all the incredible opportunities that have come my way after opening myself up to the possibilities. This is not a post to brag. When it comes down to it I’m still a poor struggling artist! But I’m finally letting myself enjoy the creativity that once terrified me. It’s a big scary world out there and we all want to make our mark on it in some way. With that comes rejection. Lots and lots of it. However, in the last year because of the Artist’s Way (and the incredible support from my family), I have learned how to embrace it. The good and the bad. “Take a small step in the direction of a dream and watch the synchronous doors flying open.” No joke! This is an important quote that has stuck with me.

To sum it all up, this is what I learned from the Artist’s Way. Creativity comes from within. Everyone has it, not just artists. It’s a piece of who we are individually. It comes from a place that has become vulnerable and sensitive. Our creativity is a direct reflection of who we are and how we think. When you think about it, no wonder it’s so terrifying to let our creativity soar and want to share it with others. If we are uncomfortable  and uncertain with who we are then sharing pieces of it to others is the last thing we want to do. So we bury it. Deep. The quote that has changed me more than any of there others is, “Creativity flourishes when we have a sense of safety and self-acceptance. If you want to work on your art, work on yourself. In order to have self-expression, we must first have a self to express.” Seriously? Why couldn’t someone have shared this simple proverb with me a lot sooner. As simple as it sounds it takes a lot of work to get there.

So yes, some of the stuff I create may be a bit on the amateur side and may not be on the level of other professionals but for once in my life I’m not letting it keep me from sharing anything at all. It’s all a journey and keeping it all to myself and being afraid to share it will not get me any further on that journey.  So I’m going to “post”, “share”, “recommend” and “update my status” to my heart’s content without reservation or risk of ridicule or rejection. Enjoy or don’t. I’m still going to keep putting it out there!

All that to lead in to the following images from the book I created containing original graphics and photography and my most favorite quotes from the Artist’s Way.