Smoke Signals

Smoke Signals is a unique photo-illustration hybrid, and one of my favorite. My friend John, dressed for one of our socials, was cut out of this picture. The highlights and shadows are painted on with varying brush sizes and strengths. Thin, strong highlights are used on the rims of his glasses to give the illusion of a strong light source. Likewise thin strong shadows are painted over his hair to add texture. Large soft brushes are used around the shoulders. The image below shows the mask without John.

The process to create these images is extremely tedious, but the results are impressive.