creative brainstorming advice needed for paint.net project

[thewebshark]

WARNING - Religious Images and content are contained in this post

I teach a sunday school class at church and they gave me a boring white binder, and i want to spruce it up a bit, but i am having designer's block. So I thought maybe some input from this creative crowd would help.

My original idea was to take one of the pics and put a white oval vignette around it with some fancy text under it. But I think there is more that can be done.

The theme or message i want to convey is how important children are to Jesus Christ. Also maybe add some pics or headshots of the kids I teach? Maybe some fancy text for a quote or something?

I am looking for some creative input and/or advice on how best layout or blend or something, using some or all of the pics shown below.

Any input would be appreciated.

Also, I do own each of these pics. I don't want a Howto (unless a suggestion is overly complicated). I'm not trying to convert anyone or start any religious debate either. I just have a paint.net project that has religious content and I'm looking for some creative feedback.

(that should make the "god-like" :shock: admins happy)

PS....I've done some of the tutorials in this forum, which has really helped me to learn paint.net.

http://thewebshark.wordpress.com/gallery/my-digital-canvas/

Thank You!

[ShK_828]

well, for the 3rd one, maybe you could cut jesus out :?

and then make a new layer, and paste, and then use arrow tools to align properly, and then a new layer between the background and jesus, and then paste a light c4d in, if it has a black background, play around with layer settings so that black dissapears, and then use brightness/contrast to make jesus stand out.

i tried doing that, so yeah:

*edit* oops, sorry, i just read the part on that you dont want a howto.

well, how about giving the picture depth, by blurring out the background?

[Tayoni]

Maybe...what you might like to try is to take the bottom image of Jesus sitting in front of the house with kids. Surround it with a dark golden/brown sort of woodsy looking frame and somewhere at the bottom use;

"The Lord Is Our Shepherd..." and put that in a caligraphy style. Or use some other fragment, phrase, or expression that might mean something to the kids you teach. maybe ask them what they'd like to see on this binder?

One image that is sticking in my mind from my own educational days (that stuck with me all this time) was a picture of Jesus holding a book or a scroll and a bunch of kids around him listening to what he was reading. I wish you had something like that to use, it'd fit the theme you're looking for perfectly.

[thewebshark]

Thanks for the tips, here's what I have so far......

I'm wondering if the upper-left image is too light and if there may be a better way to make it look like its part of the background. I gausssian blurred the edges a bit, then used the "rotate/zoom" to make it have same perspective as the text in the background, then i set the layer properties to "overlay" and set opacity to "120"

Should I add another pic to the upper-right and have it blend into the background like the one on the left side?, or is the one enough? Also, I'm wondering if I should right-align the text to the lower right side?

Ideas? :idea: Praise? Criticism?

I found the background here... http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1080102

The font is "english" and is found found here... http://www.dafont.com/english.font

Thanks.

PS.....I really love the "SOFTEN PORTRAIT" PLUGIN!!

Whoever made it.....THANK YOU!!

[Andrew D]

Guys, this isn't a request forum.

[Kemaru]

General Discussion & Questions

Want to talk about Paint.NET, or do you have suggestions, requests, or how-to questions? Post here! Not for troubleshooting questions.

[Bob]

Guys, this isn't a request forum.

Heh, why not?

I'm liking this thread.

Definitely needs lolcats though.