Requiem for a Tulip - Collaboration with monocotylidono

Collaboration with my good friend George , a.k.a. monocotylidono , who kindly trusted me with the post-processing of one of his beautiful flower shots. It was a pleasure and an honour to work on this project. George’s photos are so inspiring!

When George saw my first draft, a title for this wilting tulip immediately sprang to his mind. Requiem for a Tulip !

I had started working with another sheet of music, celebrating the spring, but with this new title and orientation, George and I decided upon something moodier and darker, more appropriate for a flower’s death.

I found the music scores of Requiem for a Dream by Clint Mansell, which I printed, photographed, then modified in Photoshop. I think that it blends very pleasantly with the subject.

Below are all the layers used in the composite, with various blending modes and opacities. The original image and the green moss layer have both received a selective colour adjustment layer in order to tone down the yellow and greens a bit, and changing them to richer and deeper colours.

Finally, on top of all the textures shown below, I added a transparent layer at low opacity, on which I used some large grunge brushes in black, to add scratches and dirt smudges to the corners and edges, creating a textured vignetting effect.

Position your cursor over the thumbnails for more details on the images and how they were used in the composite

Should you wish to listen to George’s favourite inspiration for the title, just click on this link to the Requiem (Grande Messe des Morts) Lacrymosa by Hector Berlioz on YouTube. I must add that this is my favourite as well!

For those who would like to listen to the music associated to the score in the composite, please click here for the soundtrack of the movie Requiem for a Dream

Finished in 5th position of Top Ten in the Single Beautiful Tulip challenge of the Tulips Group on March 30, 2009

My friend George, aka monocotylidono entered his copy of this creation in the challenge Let’s Collaborate of the Live, Love, Dream Group, and it finished in 5th position of Top Ten ! Well done, George! :-)