Unleash Your Creativity Side Challenge

12/13/2025 01:53:42 AM · #1

This Side Challenge is about getting feedback and sharing creativity in all its forms:

- traditional: hand drawings or painting, poems or prose, craft-work, film photography
- technology based: virtual photography, AI assisted or generated images, AI assisted or generated text, 3D printed art

The only restriction is that your post needs to be related to the last 3 themed challenges and be created by you. Please mention the theme in your post and add notes on how you did it.

To start the ball rolling, post something creative on these 3 themes from most recent challenges:
Postcard, Balance and Architecture.

I will post soon something technology based but you may be a painter or a poet, there is no restriction on creativity!

12/13/2025 12:14:42 PM · #2

Can I share some of my digital collages if I can find one that matches recent challenge themes?

12/13/2025 12:19:45 PM · #3

Originally posted by kichu:

Can I share some of my digital collages if I can find one that matches recent challenge themes?

No worries, sounds good :)

12/13/2025 12:48:56 PM · #4

Ok I'll kick things off then! This is a favourite digital collage of mine that I've done recently. Every time I look at it I think there are so many pleasing elements of balance that seem just right. I love how some things flow from one to another, almost naturally, even though the whole thing is a bit of nonsense.

It started with the prompt of the flower, from an instagram collage page that provides prompts every week and the collage community makes something based on that. I was thrilled to have this image featured on their page for the first time since I started participating.

I started doing collages last year as a coping mechanism to get me through a hard time. Very grateful for this weird little art form and the community I found. :)

I use an app called piccollage and snapseed to edit, and try to source images from things I take photos of, lots of vintage stuff, and from sites like unsplash, pexels, etc.

A fun note, one of the strips at the top is a photo of my eye, that was actually a result of a photo attempt for

beatabg's self-portrait side challenge.

Excited to see everyone else's creative things! :)

Message edited by author 2025-12-13 12:49:26.

12/13/2025 01:02:20 PM · #5

Originally posted by kichu:

...

I think it is fantastic! The face really sets the theme, it is a great composition of subtle colors, text is used as a texture, vertical lines and soft elements like the birds and the branch complete the image. I like it a lot!

PS Creativity is very important when coping with any problem. It is a passion that occupies 99% of the mind when doing it. Very therapeutic :)

12/13/2025 05:19:57 PM · #6

Thanks for the nice comments! :) And I agree, creativity for the win when dealing with life stuff. Lesson learned for sure!

Cant wait to see what you post. :)

12/14/2025 10:25:06 AM · #7

Theme: Architecture
I was planning to create something new but I have run out of time and Architecture challenge is leaving the front page tonight.

Looking for my creative experience with architecture I remembered my 3D project with virtual drone fly through. I started it with a 3D model of triplex villa which I extensively modified – changed roof, materials, windows, removed garage, kitchen, bathroom etc in order to make it into an exhibition house.

I enjoyed the experience a lot, I wonder if I shouldn’t have studied architecture instead of mechanical engineering :)

The link to the fly through:
Drone fly through the exhibition house and grounds

Barroness

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

12/14/2025 01:40:13 PM · #8

https://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=1302620

Wow. Nancy your image is gorgeous! I commented on your workshop. Stunning!

12/15/2025 11:16:49 AM · #9

I removed my old virtual photography image as this SD is about getting motivated to create something new, same as for most DP challenges. I also realized that 1 week is much too short to unleash creativity. I am making the following changes:

- each theme is available for 1 month since the voting has finished
- any interpretation of the theme is welcome, no need to adhere to challenge description

Let's get creative! :)

Message edited by author 2025-12-17 00:57:12.

12/17/2025 01:01:25 AM · #10

The current list of themes based on challenges that finished in last month since this SD started:

Architecture
Balance
Postcard
Daily Rituals
Inanimate Macro

12/17/2025 11:05:27 AM · #11

Originally posted by MargaretNet:

The link to the fly through:
Drone fly through the exhibition house and grounds

Wow this was so cool, and unexpected! The video was really neat. I think my partner would really love this as a creative exercise. So you use something called Unreal Engine?

How long did this take you to do? And how long have you been doing this for? I'm curious how long you need to have been at this to get to this level. Very interesting.

12/17/2025 11:07:57 AM · #12

Originally posted by Barroness:

https://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=1302620

Wow. Nancy your image is gorgeous! I commented on your workshop. Stunning!

aw thanks so much :) I really love doing it

12/17/2025 11:08:25 AM · #13

Originally posted by MargaretNet:

woo hoo!

12/17/2025 11:24:16 AM · #14

Alright keeping the ball rolling here, I'll share a collage I did last year, and I think this is a good fit for "reflected self." It's interesting to go back to something I did last year and see how my style has evolved. I definitely would do a more textured background and just include more texture/grittiness overall if I was to do this one now. It's also interesting to have this marker from a certain time in my life. It brings back a feeling right away that I'm not sure I could conjure through any other way than by a piece of art that I made.

Adding my blurb that I included in my post on instagram:

"This was for the call for submissions from @_agazart_ called "Soul Garden." See the description in the last slide.

I zeroed in on the part about translating the essence of your soul, and the thought that came up was instant - animals. It's always animals. I might write more about this one day when I'm in a different place, but for now I'll tell you I love animals more than anything in the world. I always have, it is the core of who I am.

I decided for the sake of creating this particular image that I would focus on my recent growing love of birds and insects (although I'm still terrified of bugs like spiders and centipedes!)

I went through a pretty major life event recently, and I can honestly say that birds and cicadas were a big part of what brought me joy the last couple of months when I didn't think it was possible to feel joy. I will forever hold a special place in my heart for them for getting me through the last couple of months of deep grief.

This piece is my love letter to them."

Message edited by author 2025-12-17 11:27:27.

12/17/2025 11:40:40 AM · #15

MargaretNet I'm realizing you might have intended for the themes to be the ones that have already been voted on! ok I got ahead myself on my last post haha oooooooooops....

12/17/2025 12:07:29 PM · #16

Originally posted by kichu:

MargaretNet I'm realizing you might have intended for the themes to be the ones that have already been voted on! ok I got ahead myself on my last post haha oooooooooops....

Yes, that's true. This is to avoid any problem by discussing the challenge currently in voting. Your art is so far away from the regular DPC photography that it won't matter in this case :)

Thanks for participating. I hope some other DPCers have other passions than digital photography and will join in later :)

12/17/2025 12:17:22 PM · #17

Originally posted by kichu:

.. I think my partner would really love this as a creative exercise. So you use something called Unreal Engine?

How long did this take you to do? And how long have you been doing this for? I'm curious how long you need to have been at this to get to this level. Very interesting.

It really depends on what you did before. I played with 3D graphics about 30 years ago, got back into it about 4 years ago. The technology has made an amazing progress, I can do now what was impossible in the 90s.

Unreal Engine is free to use and there are many free resources and tutorials. If one has never done anything in 3D it will be a steep learning curve. It is now used in commercial movies for specific sequences but primarily it is software to develop games.

The drone took me about 2 months because at that time the control of camera movement was very difficult, now it is much easier.

12/17/2025 12:46:53 PM · #18

Originally posted by kichu:

... ..

WOW! Very beautiful. I like the vivid colors and the birds, they remind me of far North Queensland in Australia.

I love butterflies, I designed a website years ago for a guy who sold butterflies painted by artists. I still have a few of them around my apartment.

While I like sometimes the sound of cicadas (they are a little bit too noisy when you try to sleep ;) I really don’t like the way they look!

I agree with your comments, why don’t you make a new version of it and post it here?

12/19/2025 10:41:18 AM · #19

Originally posted by MargaretNet:

Originally posted by kichu:
.. I think my partner would really love this as a creative exercise. So you use something called Unreal Engine?

How long did this take you to do? And how long have you been doing this for? I'm curious how long you need to have been at this to get to this level. Very interesting.

It really depends on what you did before. I played with 3D graphics about 30 years ago, got back into it about 4 years ago. The technology has made an amazing progress, I can do now what was impossible in the 90s.

Unreal Engine is free to use and there are many free resources and tutorials. If one has never done anything in 3D it will be a steep learning curve. It is now used in commercial movies for specific sequences but primarily it is software to develop games.

The drone took me about 2 months because at that time the control of camera movement was very difficult, now it is much easier.

thanks for all of the info, I passed it on to him :)

12/19/2025 10:47:13 AM · #20

Originally posted by MargaretNet:

Originally posted by kichu:
... ..

WOW! Very beautiful. I like the vivid colors and the birds, they remind me of far North Queensland in Australia.

I love butterflies, I designed a website years ago for a guy who sold butterflies painted by artists. I still have a few of them around my apartment.

While I like sometimes the sound of cicadas (they are a little bit too noisy when you try to sleep ;) I really don’t like the way they look!

I agree with your comments, why don’t you make a new version of it and post it here?

thank you! I might redo this one when I think I can be with this image but not right now, still processing this time in my life and what the image is related to

I totally get it about cicadas, they're not for everyone! I just became obsessed with them last year when there was a double-brood emergence, I just wanted to be part of this rare and amazing natural phenomena:

"What Happened in 2024
Broods: Brood XIII (17-year) emerged in the upper Midwest (around Chicago/Illinois) and Brood XIX (13-year) emerged across the Southeast (Georgia, Alabama, etc.).
Overlap: Their ranges overlapped in parts of Illinois and Iowa, creating a "double-whammy" for those areas.
Rarity: This specific co-emergence (Broods XIII & XIX) happens only once every 221 years."

I made my partner drive us from Toronto down to Chicago and then we drove further south of Chicago and went hunting for them. We found a nature preserve and oh my gosh there must have been billions of them. I had the time of my life. :D

ps - I think I'm going to make a new collage around the theme of "Balance" and will share here when done.

12/19/2025 10:49:58 AM · #21

Originally posted by kichu:

.. ps - I think I'm going to make a new collage around the theme of "Balance" and will share here when done.

Sounds good. I am working on a video sequence for Postcard but it has been very slow progress.

12/19/2025 11:11:18 AM · #22

The current list of challenge themes to Unleash Your Creativity

Architecture (expires January 7, 2026)
Balance
Postcard
Daily Rituals
Inanimate Macro
Pet Peeves

Message edited by author 2025-12-19 11:13:47.