This is my surrealism project. I decided to combine 2 of my favorite things- dogs and tea- and create a scene of a tea party with dogs with human bodies. My main inspiration for this piece is the series of paintings "Dogs Playing Poker" by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge
Above are some of my unedited images I used for this piece. I took a picture with my 2 best friends and then photographed my 2 girls, Cassie (left) and Kiki (far right), and also my best friends girl Mia (center), in the same place to capture the lighting correctly. I also laid the clothes we were wearing on the dogs to make the editing of the collar line easier. The most challenging thing about this piece was getting Kiki to collaborate with us, and just getting the dogs to look at the right place for the photo.
I used quite a few layers in creating this image, including masks and effects, as well as paining layers to add shadows to some elements. As seen above, there were also experimental layers that didn't make the final cut.
I thought of a few different ideas while preparing for this assignment, but ultimately decided I just REALLY wanted to do the dog portrait. I ended up expanding it into a party of 3 instead of just one to make it more visually interesting.
I also experimented with a witchy tea party idea, and even started working on it in photoshop, but I thought it looked a bit empty and lacked surreal elements so I scrapped it. I do think it looks kind of cool though, so I included it here. I might even render it further in my own time later.