Issuu

DOWN UNDER Australia and New Zealand

I ssu e 116 | novemb er 2026 | digi t al ar t ist r y

EDITOR’S REPORT By Pam Henderson

P H O T O S H O P A R T I S T RY

PA M H E N D E R S O N

32-33

KIM RICCI

By Sebastian Michaels

06-07

S A N D R A DA N N

34-35

JULIE POWELL

08-09

PRUE WRIGHT

36-37

B E V T E R AW S K YJ

10-11

C O L I N CA M P B E L L

38-42

PHOTOSHOP I N S P I R AT I O N

SHARON R ANKMORE

13-17

A R T I S T S M O N T H LY AC H I E V E M E N T S

18-19

COLIN KILLICK

20-21

MICK ROONEY

22-23

JA N E T OV E Y

K YE THOMPSON

25-30

A R T BY I LO N A A B O U - Z O LO F

By Andrew Haysom

F R O N T C OV E R by R O S A P E R RY - T H E FO R G OT T E N H A L LO W E E N S TO RY 43

DENNIS RICK ARD

44-45

R O S A P E R RY

46-47

H E M A N T KO G E K A R

48-49

AL BAMASS

Christina Brunton - Tunnel Vision

C H I N E S E W H I S P E R S # 10 7

By Maureen Maxwell

51-59

A R T BY M A R I E H E LYA R

60-61

M AU R E E N M A X W E L L

62-63

PENNY DE JONG

64-65

K A R E N WA A LW Y K

D E N I S E CAU C H I

CHRISTINA BRUNTON

67-76

COFFEE AND PIXELS

MARINA HOBBS

77-85

86-87 88-89

By Maureen Maxwell

A GLITCH IN RE ALIT Y

94-97

By Marina Hobbs & Robyn McLauchlan

TRISH HOSKIN

98-108

G E O R G E KO N C Z A N D R E W H AYS O M

M O N T H LY A R T I S T I C PHOTOSHOP CHALLENGE THEME - FR AME IT

109-115 90-91

QUOTE’S CHALLENGE

By Christina Brunton

ARTISTS BUSINESS A DV E R T I S E M E N T S

Andrew Haysom - Rings Of Fire

a r t i s t s DOWN UNDER Australia and New Zealand

How nice is the weather at the moment, beautiful warm days but not too hot and still cool enough at night to sleep. I always find the warmer weather very motivating, makes you want to do things, gives those creative juices a little nudge, what to create. Now that starts a whole new thought pattern. Have you ever thought about what motivates other artists, what thought patterns run through their minds when they sit to create their next image, have they already got ideas or do they stare at a blank screen waiting for it to happen. Do they have a routine to get ideas flowing, do they carry a notepad to jot ideas down when they happen, interesting isn’t it when you start to think about it. But whatever works for you is all you need to worry about. No matter what motivation works, our artists have definitely found it this month, I have received so many amazing images from our artists who have been very busy creating. We have two series of images for you this month, one from Ilona Abou-Zolof & one from Marie Helyar, along with our latest image creation from the girls in the Redlands Group in their Chinese Whispers series. Our Coffee & Pixels meet up group is going so well each month, catching up for a chat, having lots of interesting discussions and setting their newest theme to go away & create with. Our two artists Marina Hobbs & Robyn McLauchlan who do a special series for us each month have delighted us once again with their latest series “A Glitch In Reality” and of course we cannot forget our ever loving Photoshop Guru, Andrew Haysom who has put together another awesome tutorial for us all to follow & learn. And of course we have another set of images from the Art Buddies, this months theme was “Water”, and for our Artists Challenge, the theme was “Frame It”. I hope you enjoy this months edition. Look out & support one another.

Pam Henderson

Ilona Abou-Zolof - Halloween

Artists in this publication are responsible for any rights appertaining to their work.

HTTPS://PROPHOTOSHOPARTISTRY.COM

Image by: Denise McDermott, Photoshop Artistry Student

SANDRA DANN

( AUSTRALIA )

https://www.sandradimagery.com/

TIME IS TICKING

T H E LO N G AWA I T E D J O U R N E Y

PRUE WRIGHT

T H E WA R R I O R

( AUSTRALIA )

AFRO GIRL

colin campbell

( AUSTRALIA )

https://colincampbell.myportfolio.com https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artists-1/colin-campbell/

E U K A LY P T

CAG E 19 7 9

SHARON RANKMORE

( AUSTRALIA )

https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artists-4/sharon-rankmore/

DIVERGENCE

artists down under monthly Achievements 13

artists down under facebook page The Artists Down Under Public Facebook page has been set up to allow the artists in the group to showcase their work and to enable them to share promotional information about themselves, e.g. exhibitions, awards etc... You can find the Artists Down Under Public Facebook page at this address; https://www.facebook.com/groups/ArtistsDownUnder/

So, if you are an artist in the group, don’t forget to regularly share your work and information here, and to let your friends and family know about the page if they are interested in viewing the latest art and news from the group. If you are a reader of the magazine who does not have access to the page, please click the link above and request to join. When you request to join you will be asked to answer three simple questions that will allow us to determine if you are an eligible artist who may wish to join the group and therefore be able to post on the page, or a member of the public who can view, comment and like the work on the page. It’s a great place to see some great art from this vibrant group every day!

Two ADU members receive a special gift Our very good Awake friend Diane Stafford from WhiteLaneStudio continues to give gifts as a reward for members of the Artists Down Under group who contribute to the ADU Facebook page by regularly posting their artworks and supporting other members with their comments. Diane Stafford from Chester, UK, designs Photoshop textures and overlays for photo artists and photographers to use in their digital artworks. Diane has created another special kit just for Artists Down Under for the month of NOVEMBER. Two artists will receive a Diane kit each. Diane Stafford can be found at

https://whitelanestudio.co.uk/biolinks

The NOVEMBER lucky winners are Diane Stafford (WhiteLaneStudio) Texture & Overlay Kit - Trish Hoskin - Sue Masterson

LIVING THE PHOTO ARTISTIC LIFE https://issuu.com/thephotoartisticlife/docs/living_the_photo_artistic_life_-_issue_no._140?fr=sYjM2Nzg0NDE1MDQ

Congratulations to the following artists for having their images chosen to appear in the International magazine “Living The Photo Artistic Life”. Sandra Dann - Regal Giraffes Penny de Jong - She Became The Wind - The Night I Left Home Rosa Perry - The Forgotten Halloween Story Ilona Abou-Zolof - Venetian Masquerade - Dream Trail Jane Tovey - The Spirit Of Autumn Maureen Maxwell - I’m Not Ready Christina Brunton - Bright Lights

Christina Brunton - Bright Lights

Jane Tovey - The Spirit Of Autumn

Ilona Aou-Zolof - Dream Trail Maureen Maxwell - I’m Not Ready

LIVING THE PHOTO ARTISTIC LIFE

Ilona Abou-Zolof - Venetian Masquerade

Rosa Perry - The Forgotten Halloween Story Penny de Jong - She Became The Wind

Sandra Dann - Regal Giraffes

Penny de Jong - The Night I Left Home

shift art OCTOBER 2026 Theme

“The Impossible Library” https://shiftart.com/shift-art-photoshop-challenge-results-october/

Congratulations goes to

PENNY DE JONG & PRUE WRIGHT FOR BEING NOTICED

Penny de Jong - She Dreamt Of A Magical Library

Prue Wright - Tree Of Knowledge

COLIN KILLICK

( AUSTRALIA )

T H E S . S . (S T E A M P U N K S TA R S H I P) E X P LO R AT I O N

MICK ROONEY

( AUSTRALIA )

https://www.artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-3/mick-rooney/

QUEEN OF THE ELEMENTS

S TA R

WA R R I O R A N G E L

JANE TOVEY

( AUSTRALIA )

S E C R E T B U T T E R FLY B U S I N E S S

ASCENT

KYE THOMPSON

POT

( AUSTRALIA )

art by

ILONA ABOU-ZOLOF “ENCHANTED AFTERDARK” 25

E E R I E M E LO DY

ETHERE AL PRESENCE

FREE SPIRIT

QUIET ODDITY

T WISTED DELIGHT

PAM HENDERSON

( AUSTRALIA )

http://www.artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-4/pam-henderson/

WA L K T O T O W N

KIM RICCI

( AUSTRALIA )

https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-3/kim-ricci/

CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD

B E YO N D T H E H O R I Z O N

UNDER GOD’S SK Y

JULIE POWELL

( AUSTRALIA )

https://www.juliepowellphoto.com/ https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-2/julie-powell/

DAY O F T H E D E A D I

T H E FO U R T H H O R S E M A N I I I

DAY O F T H E D E A D I I

BEV TERAWSKYJ

( AUSTRALIA )

https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artists-1/bev-terawskyj/

RISING

MEMORIES

a Dr t Oi sWt sN U N D E R Australia and New Zealand

SOME PHOTOSHOP INSPIRATION

USING THE DISPLACE FILTER TO DISTRESS TEXT By Andrew Haysom

As a follow up to last month’s article about distressing text and vectors, this month I want to talk about another way to do so, using the Displace filter. The majority of the articles you see about using the Displace filter are to do with using it to make an overlaying image conform to a surface, like making a logo image “fit” onto the surface of a shirt or something, but it can also be used very well for creating distress. In researching this article, I realised that I really didn’t know how the Displace filter works, I had a couple of big misconceptions about how it works, and now that I understand it better, I think I will be able to use it more effectively, I hope that my explaining how it operates may help some of you too. The Displace filter operates on a layer (or preferably a Smartobject) in your document and replaces every pixel in that layer with another pixel from the layer, based on the information in another Photoshop document called a Displacement Map. The Displacement Map must be either a Grayscale document or an 8-bit RGB document and must have been saved as a PSD file prior to running the Displace filter. For every pixel in the layer being operated on the Displace filter examines the corresponding pixel in the Displacement Map and uses the Red and Green channel data of that pixel in the Displacement Map to calculate a horizontal and vertical offset. The pixel in the new calculated location (based on those offsets) in the layer is copied over the original pixel. Effectively every pixel in the source layer is updated by the Displace filter but some may remain unchanged when the horizontal and vertical offsets are calculated as zero and they are replaced by themselves.

The Red channel in the Displacement Map controls the horizontal offset (0 moves maximum amount left, 255 moves maximum amount right). The Green channel in the Displacement Map controls the vertical offset (0 moves maximum up, 255 moves maximum down). A channel value of 128 indicates no offset with the offset increasing in either direction as the channel value gets lower or higher, 0 and 255 indicating the maximum offset. The Blue channel in the Displacement Map is ignored.

So, for every pixel, the horizontal and vertical offsets are calculated based on the Displacement Map and Photoshop goes and gets the pixel based on those offsets and copies it over the top of the pixel. One of the misconceptions I had was that Displacement Maps had to be black and white (gray scale), because this is usually the process advised when using Displace to make something conform to a surface. To do this, we’re usually advised to save a black and white version of the image, maybe adjust the contrast, and then save this to be used as the Displacement Map. However, as you can see from the above explanation colour does play a part in how Displace works because the displacement is determined by the Red and Green channel information. A corollary of this is also that if you are using a black and white image as a Displacement Map the horizontal and vertical offset is always the same (because the Red, Green and Blue channels are identical in a true black and white / greyscale image). The example in Figure 2 illustrates the use of colour. The Displacement Map file has an Olive background, the colour code for which is (RGB 128, 128, 0). As both the Red and Green channels are 128, this means that the Displacement offsets calculated are both zero, so the pixels in these Olive positions will not be affected (they’re effectively copied over themselves).

There are four colour squares in the example Displacement Map; Black (RGB 0, 0, 0) – red channel 0 gives maximum offset left, green channel 0 gives maximum offset up. So, the image in the location of the black square appears to have shifted down and to the right and appears reduced in size with the pixels along the top and left edges have been replaced with Olive background pixels. Red (RGB 255, 0, 0) – red channel 255 gives maximum offset right, green channel 0 gives maximum offset up Green (RGB 0, 255, 0) - red channel 0 gives maximum offset left, green channel 255 gives maximum offset down. Yellow (RGB 255, 255, 0) - red channel 255 gives maximum offset right, green channel 255 gives maximum offset down. So, the other three squares like the first one appear to have been displaced similarly but in other directions. You will find the Displace filter under the Filter / Distort menu. Selecting this displays the Displace dialog (see Figure 3).

The Horizontal and Vertical Scale are percentages that determine the size of the offsets calculated. When these are set to 100, the maximum offset is 128 pixels, at 200 it’s 256 pixels, at 50 it’s 64 pixels, at 20 it’s just under 26 pixels etc. The scale values can range from -999 to +999 with the negative values reversing the direction of the offset. The “Stretch To Fit” or “Tile” option determines what action to take if your Displacement Map is smaller than your target document, will it be stretched to fit, or tiled to fill your document. The “Wrap Around” or “Repeat Edge Pixels” option determines what action to take if an offset causes the pixel selection to go “off the page”. Will the request wrap-around to the opposite edge and reach into the document from the other edge, or will the pixel on the edge of the document be used. When you press OK you will be prompted to find your Displacement Map document and then the filter will do it’s work. I’d highly recommend making your layer a Smartobject before using Displace, this makes it very easy to re-do the filter with different parameters. To compare using Displace to the method presented last month for distressing text, refer to Figure 4 for four examples of using Displace to distress the same example text used in the last article.

You can also use the Displace filter to add distress or texture to your images, the two images of mine that are in this month’s magazine, “Incomprehensible II” and “Incomprehensible III” were both heavily influenced by the Displace filter to create the distortion and distress. You can also try using it to create your own textures. Adding contrast to your Displacement Map will drive more obvious displacement. I find that Displace can create a lot of hard-edged pixels, so sometimes adding a small amount of blur afterwards can help. Hope you have some fun with Displace!

Andrew Haysom

DENNIS RICKARD

( AUSTRALIA )

https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-2/dennis-rickard/

R AK ALI

ROSA PERRY

( AUSTRALIA )

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosa_perry https://rosa-perry.myportfolio.com/artwork

YO U N G P O E

IN HER STILLNESS

HEMANT KOGEKAR

CORNERS

( AUSTRALIA )

P O R TA L

AL BAMASS

MOON VEIL

( AUSTRALIA )

M YS T E RY P E T E

artists DOWN UNDER Australia and New Zealand

DIGITAL ARTISTS GROUP A COLLABORATIVE GROUP OF PHOTO ARTISTS

CHINESE WHISPERS #107

“STORIES THAT COME TO LIFE“ STAGE 1

STAGE 2

Maureen Maxwell

Pam Henderson

Pam and I have been doing these collabs every month for over 7 years. You would think that we could never really surprise each other, however, every month we do. And that is both a wonderful artistic journey and a learning opportunity. I started the collab this month and Pam has turned it into this wonderful image of stories coming to life. She is to be congratulated! It is excellent!! Maureen Maxwell

art by

MARIE HELYAR “BREAKING THE FRAME” 51

BRE AKING THE FR AME 1

BRE AKING THE FR AME 2

BRE AKING THE FR AME 3

BRE AKING THE FR AME 3A

BRE AKING THE FR AME 4

BRE AKING THE FR AME 5

BRE AKING THE FR AME 6

T H E PA I N T

MAUREEN MAXWELL

( AUSTRALIA )

http://www.artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-3/maureen-maxwell/

LO O K I N G T O T H E F U T U R E

DA R E T O B E D I F F E R E N T

M Y Q U E E N , I H AV E R E T U R N E D

PENNY DE JONG

( AUSTRALIA )

http://www.artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-4/penny-de-jong/

DA N C E L I K E N O O N E I S WATC H I N G

TIME RECL AIMS THE E ARTH

KAREN WAALWYK

( AUSTRALIA )

https://www.flickr.com/photos/88165766@N05/ https://www.artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-3/karen-waalwyk/

T R AV E L L I N G T H E S E A F LO O R

U N D E R WAT E R T H R O N E

DENISE CAUCHI

POST OFFICE

( AUSTRALIA )

Marie Helyar - The Creative Table

‘COFFEE and PIXELS’ by Maureen Maxwell

THIS MONTH’S CHALLENGE THEME IS

Embrace Colour 67

Christina Brunton - Water Colour At The Seaside

Maureen Maxwell - My Favourite Colours

Jenny Davidson - Horse Of Many Colours

Rosa Perry - The Colours She Carried

Bev Terawskyj - Embrace Colour

Ilona Abou-Zolof - Chroma Flight

Prue Wright - Hibiscus

Penny de Jong - Life Is A Canvas

Karen Waalwyk - Exploding Paint Pot

Marie Helyas - The Paintbrush That Bloomed

A GLITCH IN REALITY By MARINA HOBBS AND ROBYN MCLAUCHLAN

A GLITCH IN REALITY

Marina Hobbs - Chess Rules

marina hobbs 78

A GLITCH IN REALITY

Marina Hobbs - Flower Harvest

marina hobbs 79

A GLITCH IN REALITY

Marina Hobbs - Going Up

marina hobbs 80

A GLITCH IN REALITY

Marina Hobbs - Reality Bites

marina hobbs 81

A GLITCH IN REALITY

Robyn McLauchlan - Apartment By The Sea

robyn mclauchlan 82

A GLITCH IN REALITY

Robyn McLauchlan - High Tea Velodrome

robyn mclauchlan 83

A GLITCH IN REALITY

Robyn McLauchlan - Spring Colours

robyn mclauchlan 84

A GLITCH IN REALITY

Robyn McLauchlan - The Orange Moon

robyn mclauchlan 85

TRISH HOSKIN

( AUSTRALIA )

https://trish-hoskin.myportfolio.com/ http://www.artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-4/trish-hoskin/

PIXIE KING

ROSA BELL A

GEORGE KONCZ

( AUSTRALIA )

http://www.artistsdownunder.com.au/artist-2/george-koncz/ http://georgekonczphotography.com/

W H AT A P E A R L

LO T S O F P E A R L S A R O U N D

ANDREW HAYSOM

( AUSTRALIA )

https://andrewhaysom.myportfolio.com/ https://artistsdownunder.com.au/artists-1/andrew-haysom/

INCOMPREHENSIBLE II

INCOMPREHENSIBLE III

christina brunton

( AUSTRALIA )

U N I C O R N A N D T H E CA S T L E

UNICORN

MARINA HOBBS

( AUSTRALIA )

B R E AT H I N G S PAC E

artists DOWN UNDER Australia and New Zealand

A COLLABORATIVE GROUP OF PHOTO ARTISTS

QUOTE CHALLENGE by the Art Buddies

A bit of background first: In our Art Buddies group, we’re a vibrant mix of ADU members from across Australia, each contributing individual talents and viewpoints. Our ‘Art Buddies’ team includes Christina Brunton, Denise Cauchi, Ilona Abou-Zolof, Marie Helyar, and Ngaire Danvers. We gather regularly on Zoom, taking turns to set our creative challenges.

Challenge: “Water” Let’s get creative with water, I hope your imagination take you some amazing wet places. This challenge was set by Ngaire Danvers

Our Art Creations: We hope our creations motivate you to share your own interpretation on the Artists Down Under Facebook page. Your artistic expression matters to us, and we are excited to see what you create!

Ilona Abou-Zolof - Desert Memory

Marie Helyar - Hope Walks Here

Christina Brunton - Sailboat In The Harbour

Ngaire Danvers - Water

Denise Cauchi - The Power Of A Majestic Waterfall

artists down under monthly artistic photographic challenge theme:

FRAME IT 99

Pam Henderson - Book Club

100

Penny de Jong - Whisperings By Candlelight

101

Prue Wright - The Ballerinas

102

Colin Campbell - Cage 2

103

Karen Waalwyk - A Face Worth Framing

104

Bev Terawskyj - Framed Halloween

105

Rosa Perry - A Memory That Wasn’t Mine

106

Ilona Abou-Zolof - Framed

Christina Brunton - I’ve Been Framed Again

107

Marie Helyar - Framed

108

artists DOWN UNDER Australia and New Zealand

adu artists s s e n i s u b s t n e m e s i t r e v d a 109

110

111

Still-Life & Flowers

SELF-PACED & ONLINE

Learn to use the Mixer Brush In this class, you will learn how to effectively use the Mixer Brush tool in Adobe Photoshop to create beautiful and unique still-life & florals.

Learn techniques The class is suitable for both beginners and advanced artists, and I will cover everything from the basics of Mixer Brush to advanced techniques like creating custom brushes and textures.

Master & Create Whether you are looking to explore a new medium, expand your digital art skills, or simply enjoy the process of creating art, my Still-life & Flowers Mixer Brush Art Class is the perfect place to start.

Six band new projects Six brand new projects including three stilllife scenes and three flowers. All base images, bonus practice images, textures, E-Book and custom brushes provided

julie.powell@outlook.com www.juliepowellphotography.com

112

JULIE POWELL PHOTOGRAPHY

113

114

115

WEBSITE:

http://artistsdownunder.com.au/

http://tinyurl.com/artisitsdownunderpublic