Little French Bulldog : Texture Play

Not at all my style, but I wanted to practice using the cutout / texture masking technique that Rodney Brown and Jai Johnson posted earlier.  Jai's wonderful textures are perfect for this kind of thing!   It makes it look like a bona fide portrait of a distinguished person (dog nation included).

The subject is actually a statue of a little French bulldog that our French relatives have in their apartment (One day Thoma hopes to have a real one!)  My sister does have one in Japan.  So this light-hearted pet portrait goes out to both of them--and French Bull Dog lovers everywhere. 

Here's the original photo I started with.

Photo Processing layer-by-layer :

1) Background image - French Bulldog (Layer off)

2) Jai Johnson Texture  Old Masters 5 - Normal blend mode - 100% opacity

3) Bulldog shadow with blur - Multiply 37%

4) Bulldog cutout - Normal 100%

5) Copy Layer 4 - Soft Light 22%

6) Jai Johnson  At the Sea Texture, masked off of dog - Soft Light 100%

(This does not reflect the actual progression of steps to arrive at the final image, but it is the final set of layers.)

Sharing with The Texture Artists Facebook Group.