Birds of a Feather

Getting back to my painting.  

This is an old painting I did and I simply played around with blending modes, filters and textures.  

The original looked like this...

Amazing what a few tweaks can do to change the look of an image.

A Single Rose

A single rose can, indeed, make a garden.  The beauty and simplicity is sometimes all one needs.

Texture Deconstructed

Yesterday I posted some textures I had made.  Today I'm going to share some of the process.  I gessoed a piece of sturdy cardstock.  When that was dry I applied some collage items -- postage, tickets, old papers and a piece of paper doily.  I painted with a darker color wiping selected areas to allow the collage items to peek through.

  
I then painted with a light color such as titanium white.  I added some titan buff in a few areas including applying it with bubble wrap.  When this layer was dry I rubber stamped on it.  I tried to leave the center area a bit lighter and uncluttered as this is most likely where my subject would be on the photo image below the texture.

Finally I opened in Photoshop and played with blending modes and filters.  I also added  a custom Photoshop brush around the edges.  Voila, it's ready to use as a texture over another image.  

This is the final product.  It is a freebie.  Feel free to download it and use in your work.

Enjoy and have a wonderful day

The Making of Textures

Textures have become my life the past few weeks.  As you all know I'm taking Kim Klassen's class on textures.  Thought you might like to see some of the "makings".  Below are finished products - what did I say?  They are never totally finished.  But for now, these are results.

Below are the beginnings of future textures 

Four Dog Night II

With white matte

Four Dog Night

This started with the painting I started in my class with Julie Pritchard and Chris Cozen  Image from Flickr Commons.  But wait, there are four dogs in the image, some present and some past.  Funny how these critters tug at our heart strings.  They are like our children but always in a good mood, never judging whether we are good looking or have lots of money and material wealth, never complaining.  They are just there for us.  They are companions and always here to comfort us or warm us or??

A very merry Christmas, happy holiday to all.

   

Annual Christmas Photo

At the last minute

my DIL called on me to do a little photo shoot, so she could use a photo for

her Christmas card.  She needed it immediately!

Sun was way too bright and indoors was not an option.  She chose the 

one behind the red Dutch door.  In spite of the light, I think they 

came out okay.

The individual photos of the grands were from previous

 shoots.  I framed all

 four in a cute collage frame for Sylvia's Christmas gift.

  

Time to Relax

It's that time of year when things start to get a bit crazy - holidays, shopping, guests, etc.  I've been thinking about a relaxing day at the spa.  Since I'm not doing that right now, I can imagine it, breathe deep an relax for a minute or two. This image gives me that feeling of relaxation and serenity.

Practice, practice...

Gee, I'm still on week 2......

It's lesson 8 of week 2 but I must move faster.  These are examples of softening edges and placing a fill layer underneath, so it will show up on my blog background.  Also playing with text - adding bevel edge and textures of course.  My image, Kim's textures.

The Christmas Card

I promised to show you the final Christmas card.

  

I cropped my collage and attached to Fabriano square note cards.  I'm pleased with the results.  I played around in Photoshop Elements with all kinds of filters and blending modes.  In the end I decided to forget the digital alterations and just go the traditional route.  The collage was so easy and the addition of the fine quality watercolor notecards really gave a beautiful finished look to the card.  To find out how to do the collage, look at my previous post.  

Christmas is Coming

I can't believe it's December again......

I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with my Christmas card this year. I decided to 

recycle some art, a tip from Traci Bautista.  I photocopied a collage I did a couple years 

ago.  I will post my card after I have sent them out.  The idea for my card came from my good friend, Jacki Long. who is ever so talented.  I just wish she had a blog so you could see her incredible creativity.  

Be sure to stop back here in a few days to see what the next generation of this collage (in the form of my Christmas card) will look like.

Now back to addressing cards......

If you're so inclined, you can make a collage very easily.  I tore pieces from magazines, wrapping paper, decorative papers, etc. and glued to a piece of cardstock in a random fashion.  I sectioned areas using plain green cardstock and added some star stickers.  There you have it -- simple as pie.    

Celebration

The Photoshop bug will not go away!  I've been busy stirring up lots of stuff but I'll just post a couple here.

and

This one used Kim's image and textures.  Isn't her Ben just the cutest?

How about this succulent birthday cake?  What?  You've never had a succulent cake?  You really must try one.

Again, using Kim's image and texture.

I even made my own doodles into brushes.  

Homework

I'm so excited about Kim's classes.  Here are a couple more.  The images and

 textures are hers for the class.  The top image

 was altered with cross processing.  Bottom image incorporated

 some textures, a gradient map and blending modes.

  

and

Painterly tulips

This is Kim's image for the class I'm in.  I love the processing here.  

and

a couple more photos from classes.  These are my images.

The portrait shot of K was an exercise in the spot healing brush and burning plus black/white conversion and add back in a bit of color

The shot of the university was using textures and levels adjustments plus eraser to remove a light pole above the building.

Seasons

Another lesson in Kim's test kitchen....
Using her images I played with the textures, filters and adjustments.  

Have fun and create something everyday!

Green Pears

There's a story behind this piece......  

The pears were given as an "assignment" to the members of Kim Klassen's Test Kitchen.  I looked at the image and knew immediately I had to paint them green.  Some time ago my husband and I were out to dinner at a restaurant in our neighborhood.  They were displaying art from a student at a local university.  The piece that was so striking was a painting of green pears.  They were really green - almost unreal.  We went home and talked about that painting and decided to purchase it.  When we returned the painting had been sold.  Bummer!!  

I used two of Kim's textures -- "robins egg" and "live love laugh".  The mask is from Shadowhouse Creations. 

Results of Video Lesson

This is Kim Klassen's image.  I'm doing some practice and learning from her video lessons.  I joined her Test Kitchen and with that membershp come lots of video lessons and tips, plus lots of free textures.

Below I used Kim's daisy image and a couple of her textures.  Tried two different frames both courtesy of House of Three.

How Did That Happen?

I'm coming up for air.   How in the world have I gotten myself into concurrent classes?  I just want to take  in everything I can.  There are so many classes and not enough time.  I'm in Kim Klassen's 

"Test Kitchen" and her new class on textures plus I'm taking Julie Prichard and Chris Cozen's class "Chaos and Calm".  I guess I figure I can handle it since Julie's and Chris's class is a go at your own speed class.  Kim's upcoming class on textures is 13 weeks I believe.

So to catch up..... two paintings I'm working on outside of the classes.  They are unfinished so I will post either the next step or the finished paintings.

A collage I did in Chris Cozen's class in Pasadena a couple weeks ago

plus some Photoshop Elements creations I've done in Kim's "Test Kitchen" -- the makeup brushes resplendent with wonderful textures from Kim and from DJ Pettit.

plus the storyboard

A while back I did a 20 minute photo shoot in my bathrooom as a challenge for "Clickin' Moms" and I used some of those images for these two pieces.

I'm hoping Chris and Julie's classes will get my painting muse going again.  I've neglected my painting  since I discovered Photoshop.

Have a glorious day!!   

What I'm Working On

I've been out of the loop here for a while.  I took an acrylic class in Pasadena from Chris Cozen.  It was a busy class all day long and lucky for the students -- there were only fifteen of us.  Chris showed us how to get the most from the Golden line - fluid acrylics, various mediums, the new open acrylics and the air brush acrylics.  The new open acrylics are terrific for monoprints.  Mine looks like this.

From this plate I made a couple prints and used them as collage pieces 

  This is certainly not the  most exciting art work here.  But then Chris said our class was technique driven and we would not go home with a finished project. I learned so much in this class.

Oh, and the airbrush paints are to die for!!!  They are so highly pigmented, the colors are dazzling.  They are almost like a watercolor ink but much more stable.  I had never used them.  That's what I used on the above collage.

Chris teaches online classes with Julie Prichard.  Check out the workshops to see if any tantalize your muse.  I'm definitely signing up for at least one and maybe a couple more.  They are really affordable.  

I'm Home

I'm back.........

home, that is.

I had a few fun days in Santa Barbara.  Visited the Mission Santa Barbara

and spent some time at the wharf.  Such a pretty marina and beach.

Love the color of these kayaks all stacked up together.

We didn't do this but I wish we had.  Lobster sounds so good right now.

Had some wonderful meals - seafood and delicious wine from Santa Barbara Winery.  Also shopped up and down State Street.  Purchased

some unique tea from Teavana and some little ramekins

which were on sale at Sur Le Table.  It's not as if I don't have that store here, but I don't make it a point to go there.