Horses

How I did it...

• Program used was PSP8
• For this image I combined the bird with the night time scene.
• I used a combination of the freehand selection tool and the eraser, to cut out the bird and branch, and then copied and pasted it as a new layer, on to the night scene.
• The edges of the bird were too hard and sharp, so I softened all around the edge with the soften brush.
• On the layer containing the night scene, I applied PSP's lights effect, using the 'Fire Watch' preset to give a firy glow to the horizon.
• To give the image a more painted appearance I applied PSP's brush strokes to this layer.
• I couldn't get quite the effect that I wanted on the bird using 'brush strokes' although I spent longer trying to do so, than the rest of my time spent on the image altogether.
• Eventually I decided to try something else and found that the 'Simplicity' filter which is part of Xero's newest set, did just what I wanted. I called the final image 'Little Bird of Hope'.

Sandra - Little Bird of Hope (cassandrablue)