Digital Abstract

I've been creating representational art with pastels since I started learning to express myself with the medium, for a rather functional purpose -- to de-stress while writing my dissertation. I love pastel painting but I feel it sometimes cramps my style; I want to be more loose, imaginative, expressive and create from within me.

So at times, I play with PicMonkey to turn my imagination into reality.

I took this photo with my Samsung mobile phone:

I like the look created by the interweaving of the branches, but the image still looked pretty bland to me. I fiddled with the colors. It looked somewhat better but did not exactly capture what my creative muse wanted me to unleash. How do I describe this force? The urge to express is powerful. If I don't find an outlet for it, I feel all bottled up and oppressed like a coil of spring.

Without a digital tablet to brush or swirl colors around the way I do with ink, I played around with layers to change the winter mood to something free-er and more expressive of how I felt at that moment, intuitively, spontaneously.

Here's what it looks like then, when I turn something authentic into abstract art. Just let your imagination lead you, from within. 

P.S. There's no formula for it.  Just play.