Thanks to everyone who took part in our previous SFTW259 ‘lock gate’ challenge.This week I heard Bob Marley’s ‘Stir it up’ and, once that ear-worm had taken hold, I had to base our starter image on something connected. I found this whisk as a 3D model, in Adobe 3D assets, and I textured it using Adobe Substance Painter.The challenge is, what can you make with the whisk?The “rules”:Use the starter image as at least part of your own image entry. Anything goes, as long as it meets the forum rules on decency, copyright, etc. Anyone, and everyone, is welcome to have a go, whether you are a complete beginner or a Photoshop expert. This is not just for our forum “regulars”. The challenge is not limited to Photoshop. Any Adobe software can be used. There are no prizes apart from the chance to practice, show off your skills, or bring a bit of humor and fun. Don't be shy, join in and have a go! The starter image is made available for you to use in this forum challenge only. To download the starter image, click it then, when the image opens in its own window, right click and choose “Save Image As/Save Target As” (or similar depending on your browser). When posting back your image — please use the reply button in this first post and use the 'Insert Photos' icon at the bottom of the reply box. If posting a comment on someone else’s entry, then please use the reply button next to their image post. Have fun! Dave.

Community Expert

Question

Something for the Weekend - Part 260 - Stir it up!

Forum|Forum|1 month ago
June 5, 2026
41 replies
2818 views

Thanks to everyone who took part in our previous SFTW259 ‘lock gate’ challenge.

This week I heard Bob Marley’s ‘Stir it up’ and, once that ear-worm had taken hold, I had to base our starter image on something connected. I found this whisk as a 3D model, in Adobe 3D assets, and I textured it using Adobe Substance Painter.
The challenge is, what can you make with the whisk?

The “rules”:

Use the starter image as at least part of your own image entry.
Anything goes, as long as it meets the forum rules on decency, copyright, etc.
Anyone, and everyone, is welcome to have a go, whether you are a complete beginner or a Photoshop expert. This is not just for our forum “regulars”.
The challenge is not limited to Photoshop. Any Adobe software can be used.
There are no prizes apart from the chance to practice, show off your skills, or bring a bit of humor and fun. Don't be shy, join in and have a go!
The starter image is made available for you to use in this forum challenge only.

To download the starter image, click it then, when the image opens in its own window, right click and choose “Save Image As/Save Target As” (or similar depending on your browser).

When posting back your image — please use the reply button in this first post and use the 'Insert Photos' icon at the bottom of the reply box. If posting a comment on someone else’s entry, then please use the reply button next to their image post.

Have fun!

Dave.

Show previous replies

Rollan Banez

Community Expert

Creative Community Leader / Educator - Empowering fellow educators with creativity and innovation

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Beautiful work Rollan. If you drew that in the short time since Dave started the thread, I am seriously impressed. It doesn’t look like any of the Ai tools I’ve used, and it is sensationally good. Our Lesley has someone to live up to now.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

I can’t believe it let me do this! :-) No reference image at the moment, so start with the whisk on a white background, select all and say how to use it in the prompt. Gemini 3.1 If I knew that it was going to work I’d have

A witch stirs a caldron using the whisk in the image. The witch looks like Margret Thatcher, but has a long nose and her face is covered with warts. The caldron sits above a campfire. The light is evening time before it gets fully dark.

I tried being even braver with the prompt. No large areas of bare skin. No obvious weapons, but we can take the rise out of politicians, and show miners dressed in rags chained together!

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

I thought it worth pointing out that NB has done a reasonably good job with the perspective here. There are no hard lines to work out the vanishing point, so I tried to average it from, the height of the miners. The eyeline does a reasonably good job of intersecting the horizon as worked out from the vanishing point. It’s not perfect because MT is stooped over her pot so her eyeline should be lower than the miners who are standing erect. It’s a good rule of thumb when illustrating a scene though.

B

bluebrad

Community Expert

Just only $1.50

Illustrator is open almost 24/7 and just about the same for Bridge and Photoshop

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Greg_S.

Community Expert

How the builders were able to whisk away without anyone noticing.

davescm

Author

Community Expert

You’ve solved the mystery, Greg!
Dave

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

NEXT GENERATION DRUM WHISK

RightClick and open in New Tab to get closer, Click to get closer still

Here is an earlier generation drum whisk

N

Nick Gioia

Community Expert

Awesome whisk drummer!

Myra Ferguson

Community Expert

I started by duplicating the whisk, flipping it, and turning it into a sphere. I used rotate object to rotate it once I cleaned it up. Then I used a prompt to make it and the rest of the image similar to the device used in the movie Contact. The result was too crisp, so I added a few layers of clouds with the Lighten blend mode and adjusted the opacity.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

It puts me in mind of StarGate. I love the tiny people and vehicles. You’d know it was big without them, but you wouldn’t know just how big! There’s an area of low contrast at the bottom of the whisk structure. When I look at it collapsed, but on a large screen, it makes me think that I need to clean my glasses, or that I have new floaters (one of the banes of being old).

Something the image Ai is very good at is small detail. Imagine having to illustrate or composite the blocks and cable. Same thing with what look to be either heavy duty electrical cable, or hydraulic pipe. All in all, I love it. Say what you like about the Ai, but it’s the ideas that count.