The above is a 'gig poster' if you will of an event at a ski/snowboard mountain. I began with live trace and the pen tool in Illustrator, I then altered the resulting image a little bit in Photoshop. This was done mainly in image > adjustments with exposure and saturation/hue. I then proceeded to use the pen tool to create a couple of paths that I then placed an outer glow on as well as a color overlay and erased portions that I didn't want. I did the same with the text (outer glow) and used a slightly opaque rounded rectangle for the text box.

The original image (which can be seen at the link below) is a picture I took at the mens' half-pipe competition at the 2006 Olympics. Some others are there as well if you are interested in taking a look. I wanted to do something with the torch but I tried a few things and I wasn't happy with it.

Original Image

Cheers,
RJH

Artist Statement

Artistically I enjoy capturing the realism of our world. Beauty, joy, pain, struggle, all that is part of the experience of life. I attempt to do this with photography and short video portraits (both a recently acquired love). I try not to just capture the human emotional aspect of a scene or situation but the natural as well. 
An avid outdoorsman I have seen many breathtaking landscapes and the emotions that I have felt are what I want to invoke in the viewer. Utilizing this mindset I then will use certain images or video shorts to put my own spin on the 'visual language' that aims to relay, promote, and foster information, ideas, actions and emotion.