PRELUDE TO FALL

Can you tell I'm getting ready for fall and cooler weather?

I'm still really involved in my  painting class but I wanted to post something digital.......don't

want to forget how to do it.

Karen at Vintage Findings offered this beautiful painterly texture and I decided to use

it with an image of pumpkins.  Be sure to check out her gorgeous work.  Also she has textures to share

on her sidebar.

I'm posting this because I'm hoping the weather holds as it is now - mid 70's.

We are truly spoiled in Southern California.  The hot spell with such high 

humidity was a tough one this month and last.  Fall is just around the corner though!  

TRUSTING THE PROCESSS!

I apologize for the lack of posting for a week  or more.  I'm taking a painting class from Flora Bowley

called "Brave Intuitive You".   Her book Brave Intuitive Painting  has recently been published

 and it's a treasure trove of inspiration. 

I love, love, love her work.  When I found out that she was giving an eCourse, I jumped at the chance.

I've been very busy for almost two weeks between this class and my regular activities.  Also trying

to keep up with the Behind the Scenes alumni and their Facebook posts.  It's a lot.

My email box has never had so many emails!!

My plan was to post images of the steps in the process of painting these canvases.  However I've been

really hesitant as  they don't

look like anything yet. 

The first few layers are simply mark making.  To me they look like utter chaos, 

but Flora says to trust the process and assures us they will look like paintings later on in the game.

With that said.... I feel really vulnerable posting a bunch of scribbles.  Vulnerable to what?  Oh, I don't 

know......it's that inner critic and the fear that others will criticize.  It's really the 

inner critic that criticizes!

The first couple days were mark making and trying everything out from sponge brushes to fingers to

etchers, things to stamp with, etc......a lot of finger painting.  Takes me back to my 5-year old 

days.

I apologize for the poor image quality.  These canvases are way too big to scan.  The room is so dark I 

have to have overhead lights on.....oh well!  Above I show both canvases with layer 2.

Canvas 1 after a couple more layers of marks....

and above Canvas 2 with a couple more layers.

I'll post again with the next layers.  I promise I will return

with more photo edits soon.  In the meantime, I'm "trusting the process".

5 BENEFITS OF TEXTURES

This week, it's a "back to school" theme for Texture Tuesday.  I have no little ones, so it's back to 

school for me.  I paid for extended

 access to Kim and Xanthe's "Behind the Scenes" class.  I liked the video Kim did on making a blog

 banner.  I found a flower image I had in the archives and proceeded to add a 

new white layer under it.  That's because my rose was smack in the middle of the image and I needed to

extend the canvas of final image to hold the title. I used Kim's "Sandblasted" texture to pull

 the image together on  that white

layer and texturize out the background in my image.  It's just for fun, but I'm always amazed what 

textures can do. 

1. They can hide a busy background.

2. They can change the color or color cast of an otherwise boring photo.

3. They can pull together disparate images and make them look as if they belong together.

4.  They can smooth a rough background.

5.  They can give a an image depth and texture.

6. They can make an image look dreamy or dramatic.

You can probably think of many other benefits to using textures in your editing.  

Joining Kim's Texture Tuesday linky party.  Join us, won't you?

  

Just for Fun

Not much time this week.  Seems like life just got in the way, and I spent most of my spare time in my

class.  I decided not to get too distracted with the prompt for Photo Art Friday and just post my little

 piece of art.  

This is a piece I did in  Ann's  class using patterns which I created.

First the original.....

I chose this image because of the stark contrast background which I thought would be great for one

 of my patterns.  It takes me quite a while to do 

something like this only because

I don't know what I'm doing.  I have to keep referring to the video or my notes.  But 

eventually I should get more familiar and have faster results.    

I've enjoyed learning to make my own brushes and patterns and also new ways to use them.

You absolutely must check out Bonnie's post for this week's challenge.  Amazing what she did with a

 clematis, a wooden crate and one of her new textures.....quite spectacular.

  

Free and Easy

That's what Texture Tuesday is for this week.  And that's a good thing since we had a holiday

 week-end and not much time to prepare.   

So my dear friends, I'm going to show you some more images I've done with patterns.

Actually I cropped this from the center of my larger image and saved it as a custom pattern.

This one I made from a diamond pattern and the wave filter.

Don't know if I have shown you this.....it's my ginko leaf filled in with a pattern I made from one of my

 watercolors here

I upped the saturation on the pattern.

Let's see what else did I do?  I did a layout with the "kids".

Okay, I promise to prepare something for next week......

Don't forget to stop by Kim's linky party for some fun and beautiful art.