How to Use an Online Photo Library to Pose Virtual Models for Artwork
In the past, artists would search the world over to find a perfect muse. These days, an artist can create her own muse if she makes clever use of a digital photo editor and a stock photo library. Armed with these two tools, she can create a virtual model, assembled from photos of facial features or human anatomy that are publicly available in Google's online photo library. With the aid of image retouching tools, an artist can combine a handful of unrelated images into an original work of art.
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Instructions
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Make a rough sketch. Before you log on to the internet to access an online photo library, take a moment to make a sketch of your idea. Whether you decide to make a sketch of a person, an object or even an abstract concept, keep the sketch simple. Avoid adding details. Rather, simply illustrate a skeleton of your idea.
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Upload your sketch to a digital photo editor. An easy way to do this is to take a photograph of your sketch with a digital camera, then upload the image directly into photo editing software. However, you may also use a scanner to convert the sketch into a digital image.
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Enhance your sketch with images available from a Google image search. Google's online photo library is free and easy to use. Simply choose "image search" from Google's search engine preferences, and input a keyword phrase such as "eye" or "hair." You will instantly be presented with pages of results. Once you find an image that is suitable to your needs, open the image and either save it as a file or copy it. Later, open it in your photo editor in a separate window from your sketch.
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Resize any images found through Google searches to match the scale of your sketch. While a stock photo library can help you locate the images you'll need when you make your virtual model, these images must still be pieced together in a way that makes sense to the eye. Thus, spend time resizing the images if necessary. Be aware that the resizing process is not an exact science, so use your imagination to determine whether the images you're combining are going to mesh well together in your finished product.
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Make use of photo-editing tools to alter properties of your image elements. Facial features that you copy and paste together rarely appear compatible unless you go the extra mile and alter their various hues in order to conform to a standard. In addition, other image retouching tools are very handy to familiarize yourself with. The smudge and blur tools are indispensable. Transform tools such as rotate, crop and perspective are also very helpful.
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Combine all of the elements you are using into a seamless whole. One of the biggest secrets to combining these elements is to enlarge your canvas and work on individual portions of your virtual model. In fact, if you want to add fine details such as eyelashes, you can take a screenshot of an enlarged area of the picture, then begin work on the screenshot in a separate window. This will allow you to use finer brush strokes than you would be able to if you merely worked on the enlarged area in the original file. Later, you can transplant this enhanced screenshot into the original work.
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Apply artistic refinements to your image, either digitally or by hand. After you complete your virtual model, you may also want to add some ambiance by placing the model into the foreground of a background image. Furthermore, you can make use of advanced image retouching tools such as filters, patterns or gradients.
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Tips & Warnings
Very few people have photo-friendly faces, so don't be afraid to add flaws such as pimples, pores or wrinkles to the faces of your virtual models. It gives them a down-to-earth quality, and helps viewers to understand that flaws are meant to be valued rather than hidden.
In order to avoid issues of copyright infringement, be sure to make creative use of the images that you patch together to create your model. Seek to create a wholly original artwork, assembled with your imagination as much as with the tools available through a Google image search.
Resources
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