Jade Buddhas

9/27/20

    When I first found this Smithsonite crystal (below left) while I was searching for a PFCC starting image, it reminded me of a polished piece of Malachite Cooper ore in my rock collection. (Below right) I fell in love with this lovely lump of green because it reminded me of jade. Hence, the Buddha carving result.

    Jade reminds me of China, so I set out on a search for carved Buddhas. I found two delightful antique ivory Netsuke (I know; they’re Japanese) carvings on AdobeStock. After I masked them from their backgrounds, I resized and warped theme to fit on each side of the crystal. I used an overlay blending mode to make them look like par of the mineral and give them a glowy look. I did end up masking a bit of the guy on the right so the two carvings didn’t overlap.  For the background, I used a variety of blending modes and textures from Flypaper, Photoshop RoadMap and Pixabay, along with a level adjustment layer and H/L adjustment.

    Take care and stay well!