SO MANY DIFFERENT LOOKS....

I just finished Kim and Xanthe's class "Behind the Scenes"......16 days packed with little nuggets, tips, 

tutorials, videos.....lots and lots of inspiration.  Incidentally the second round is starting end of August.  

If you missed the first one, you can still take the class. 

Now I'm playing catch up in Ann's class....totally different.....more specific in nature.  She knows 

more about colors, brushes, patterns, gradients and selection tools than anyone I know.

And.....she makes it fun!

I started with the original image above and followed Ann's instructions selecting the flowers and

 creating a different background while using the impressionist brush 

to get the various looks below.  I also used some filters and played with

blend modes.

I had to put the little circle in.  Xanthe taught us how to do it.   Thank you, Xanthe!

DAY 13 - MAKING A GIF

I've been wondering how bloggers were doing these great animated photos.  Kim and Xanthe gave us the secret.  

Kim also showed us how to do it with a series of photos so it looks as if the subject is moving.  I will need to take four or five photos of someone on the same day in the same spot but with a different position in each shot.

Five Things......

We are coming to the end of our class and have been asked to answer these questions.

1. What makes me happy in 5 words or less? family, friends, art, my dogs, nature.

2. What talent would I most like to have? I would love to have the technical talent of people who work for a company like Apple or Google.

  

3. What words do I overuse? "absolutely", "exactly", "Anna!!!!" (the new puppy)

4. What are favorite movies and books? Some favorite movies are "What Dreams May Come", "The Piano", "Whale Rider", "Fly Away Home" "The Way". My favorite books are reference books - books about art, photography and "how to" books.  I'm also a magazine junkie.

5. Where would I most like to go on a retreat?  Anywhere in the Carribbean, the Mediterranean or Hawaii on a tropical beach.

From Day 10

Woo hoo!!!  I just completed Week 10 and decided to post a layout 

from my own template.  I absolutely loved the layout Kim did

with Lightroom.  It looked so easy but since I don't have

Lightroom, I did it the long way by making my own template. 

Xanthe had a couple great videos for this.

I always wondered how the little graphic additions (like this circle 

with text) were done and now I know.  Thank you, Xanthe! 

Home Again

I'm home from my trip to Arizona.  I spent a few days with my good friend, Shelley and her darling

 kitty, Rumi.  She visited Southern California and I rode back with her.  This was our first stop

Starbucks, of course!!

At 114 degrees, we spent all our time indoors.  

I'm so far behind on my classes - I'm alternating between my blogging class with Kim and Xanthe and 

my class with Ann on "Brushes, Patterns and Colors".  Each of these classes is jam packed with

 information so it is hard keeping up.  Taking a vacation to Arizona put me even further behind, so I'm 

madly trying to catch up.

Here's what I worked on today.  In Ann's class I learned to use the impressionist brush in PSE.

and yesterday...  I learned how to make my own swirl and then create a brush and a frame with it.  

We learned

 how to make a shape into a brush and then learned all about spacing, hue jitter, scatter and fade

 functions of our brush.  

Tomorrow is going to be even more fun.  I better check in on Kim and Xanthe's class first though.

  

Blog Header Craziness

Okay, then, I have worked on this header for two hours plus.  I tried making it shorter, but

it did not look good that way.  Each time I had to do major manipulations of the template.  But I've

settled on the one I'm using.    Here's another example.

I've looked at fonts until my eyes are popping out.  Eke!!!!

I reworked my "About Me" and added a "mission".  I think I'm done for now.

It's 4th of July

I'm grateful for all who fought and are still fighting for our safety and freedom.  I will not bore you with

my opinion of the current wars.

It's mid-year already.....In between classes and exercises I definitely want to keep up with Texture 

Tuesday and Photo Art Friday.     In that regard I'll link to both with these images.....Both

 the badges are in my sidebar. You can click on them and see many more examples of TT and PAF

I used Bonnie's "Mauve Threads" (click on this link for a free copy of the texture)  on both as well as a

 pastel radial gradient.  This started as a macro of

a blue mini Lily of the Nile.

On the image below I used a different blend mode and added a frame.

Have a great week everyone!

Gradient Training

I'm learning so much about PSE in Ann's class at Image Artistry.  This week we are working on

 gradients.  She is an absolute encyclopedia of information and shares very generously.  I'm on her third

 class. First class "Beginning" and second class "Selections" are free and packed with tips and 

techniques.  I highly recommend these classes!!!

This is my first week's assignment using the gradient tool.

 Check out Ann's blog  to get a look at her work.  You'll see her rendition of the image above.  I used 

her image to do the assignment.