First of all, I should probably explain what "Volleyshop" means. As defined over at PhotoshopTechniques.com (where these matches took place), a Volleyshop is "a noncompetitive, community, image build. Player's generally select a goal concept for the image and provide a source image or images as the 'ball.' Each player makes an edit to the image within a set timeframe and posts the result in the thread. The next player posts a 'got it' and continues the build."

In this particular match, I challenged Strych9ine (an extremely challenged designer and good friend of mine from the PST forums) to a no-holds-barred, anything-goes volley, which I began with the first image you see to the left. It was created with gradient-filled layers set to different Blending Modes, with a little brushwork done on top.

9ine's return included some scans of a stuffed animal (!), and type that would survive almost to the end of the match.

My next image was done almost entirely with native Photoshop filters. Texture was achieved by using the Lighting Effects filter on a Brush-Stroked alpha channel. I used selections of 9ine's text to create my own message.

Strych9ine's next volley continued to make use of his text, altered again to a different arrangement.

My final volley in this match took a drastic turn from the style of the previous images. The gasmask-guy was taken from the galleries of Imagebank. The text behind him is in Times Hacker font - it reads "Under it all and far away/ and on summer winds both night and day/i'll say it again/i'll say it again/and i'll fill her ears with lies/but i'll say it again i tell you now/that no one ever dies." Just a little something I wrote on the spur of the moment.

9ine's last volley is a well-composed jumble of scanned sketches, custom brushes, and remnants of my last image, including bits of PERL code. Well done, bro, and thanks again for the match...serious props to you.