Dream State of Life: Animated Clouds at Sunset

Anime-inspired skies continue to take over our world. 

The most glorious and dramatic sunsets happen in areas surrounded by mountains as high-altitude clouds spiral rapidly from golden hour to beyond. 

I altered the hues of this sparkling sunset, adding extra light blue touches, purple-pink afterglows, sparkles, and sun flares to create a dreamy, ethereal state of life. 

Featured in Flickr's Explore.

Dream Waves: Pink + Blue Skies in Toronto

The view of the ferry as we get closer to downtown Toronto.

The CN Tower stands tall and bright along with the other skyscrapers. I wanted to give this a dreamy effect, utilizing colors from the skies from anime and adding in sparkles throughout the imagery. 

Anime Skies: Pink + Purple Sunsets in Real Life

Wishing for anime skies in real life. 

I love the spectacular, vibrant, and super saturated sunset skies in anime, where the clouds are sparkling and ever-inspiring. 

I decided to alter this photo of the sunset at the lake by enhancing the contrast and colors, embellishing it with sparkles, sun flare effects, and more for an extra dream factor. 

Blue-Green Snowflakes and Sparkles Imagery

 'Tis the season! 

I decided to create a snowflakes design by combining a range of snowflakes, adding extra sparkles, diamond effects, and extra glow to a blue-green gradient background to jumpstart the holiday month. 

Pink to Blue: Ethereal Moon and Stars Imagery

As always, I love Little Twin Stars and am obsessed with their pastel colors, gradient backgrounds, and celestial stars and moon artwork. I was inspired recently to create imagery around this. I made the moon the main focus point for this and sprinkled stars and sparkle effects throughout the background. 

In general, to keep images from looking too 2D or falling flat, I like to add in other effects to bring in some type of texture to the backgrounds, especially after adding in a gradient. For this piece, after adding in the pink to blue gradient in the background (with mixes of pastels and brights), I also used a couple special effects to include other types of patterns to it. 

Futuristic City: Dynamic Skyline + Blue Lights Imagery

It's always intriguing when you blend fiction with reality. 

I had so much fun creating this imagery. Inspired by Perfume's Tokyo Girl MV, I decided to create a futuristic world using Yokohama's breathtaking Minato Mirai waterfront as the starting point. 

After changing up the hues of the photo, enhancing the saturation and contrast, and lightening the overall effect, I added in cool blue details across the image. Various versions of blue gradient lights are shooting down from the sky with little snow droplets spread across it. Small sparkles are also added across the buildings to spread more magic into the air.

Glimmering Green-Blue Sparkles and Enchanted Tree Imagery

Conservatory of Flowers Night Bloom Part I: Enchanting colors.

Went to Conservatory of Flower's Night Bloom event and it was spectacular seeing all of the beautiful plants in an entirely different light. Set with colorful lights all over the conservatory, rooms with wide-ranging temperatures, and calming, enchanting music playing in the background, we felt like we were in a whole new world with a new perspective on...everything.

I loved the effects in the various rooms and decided to lighten this image a little more, enhancing the glow and adding a soft mixture of pastel blue-green sparkles sprinkled throughout the backdrop for a more otherworldly, mystical feel.

Sparkling Aqua and Coral Snowflakes Imagery

I was cleaning out my closet and was inspired by my aqua snowflake t-shirt--the color, the texture, the snowflake design--so I decided to create an image based off of that. Aqua and coral are one of the best color combos so I used that as the main gradient for this picture. I also added various snowflake designs and sizes in gray and white hues. Last but not least, I wanted to give it a sparkly effect and add extra emphasis and uniqueness to the snowflakes, so noise, shadows, and a mixture of textured colors are a must.

Mysterious Mountain Lake Park Collage

Mountain Lake Park is the best spot to relax--day or night, cloudy or sunny. It exudes calmness, especially on this foggy day with clear, bright reflections.

The Star Wand Sparkles Effect

I've had this wand for the longest time and was inspired to create a layout filled with some sun-flare and sparkles on top of a blue-green and bold orange gradient background.