The Path

Our theme for Pixel Art Friday is something that incorporates the element of a path.  I looked in my archives and found lots of images with paths -- the trick is to decide which one.  Since I was not feeling very decisive, I chose one and then added a collage of the others.  

First up, the final image is of an alleyway in Laguna Beach.  This alley is behind one of my favorite

little restaurants "Madison Square and Garden".  It's a funky little place with outdoor seating

and lots of "Laguna Charm".

Um......back to paths..... one of these frames..

or this frame...               

I used Bonnie's "You Framed Me" texture and the "cutout" filter after I desaturated the image.  Then I tried different frames.

and then the collage for the other paths.....

Oh, how I'm going to miss Picnik.  I tried several other photo editing sites, but they just don't measure up.  If anyone knows of a good one, please do tell me.  I use PSE 9 for most of my editing but I like the little fun effects I can get so easily with Picnik.

I can't wait to see what everyone else did with this challenge.  You are all so talented and unique in your approach.

  

See you at the party!!

Pink

The subject today is Pink.  I do love pink in all its various shades from soft blush to hot pink!  I love pink dress shirts on men too.  It's a very flattering color for almost anyone.  I'm using hot pink today as you can see......  Run your mouse over the image to see the original.

I love the effect of Kim's two textures "So True" and "Absolutely".  I used two layers of each in different blends.  I ended up with about 15 layers.  I can't remember all the steps I took because unfortuately PSE does not record filters in a layer.   Lots of experimentation to see what different adjustments, filters and blends would give me.
For fun, I'm adding a collage of several other edits I did.  As you know it can go on and on!!

You can stop by Kim's blog and see many other Pink creations!  There are usually 140+ contributors.....all equally talented.

Skateboarder

This week my submission for Photo Art Friday was a last minute edit.  I just lost track of time and bingo -- it's Thursday afternoon already.  This one could have an autobiographical bent to it.  My son was an avid skateboarder.  I remember well when we gave him the board -- he was married to it for quite a while.  This photo reminds me of that time in my life.

I used Bonnie's "Chinks of Light" and "Back Light" textures and removed the textures from the boy.  I played with it in my Photo Essentials 4 and framed it in simple black. 

It looks to me like he is skateboarding in the nighttime heavens.

Have a great week.  To see all the entries for this week click on the badge below.

Weekly Challenge - PAF

For this week's Photo Art Friday challenge, Bonnie gave us  three choices....something green for St Patricks Day,  something with a hidden element in plain sight or any piece of photo art.  That gave us great leeway.

I had this piece of artwork....actually a page from my journal.  Sorry the image is not very good.... I played with the wave filter randomized on squares and then used Bonnie's "statement frames" texture since it had squares in it.  Then I added some text which is next to impossible to see and finally used Topaz Adjust on it and then a frame from Photo Essentials 4.  Doesn't look very St. Patricks but it's green.

This is my workflow

The finished image looked like this

After I did this, I decided I could make it into a shamrock shape so it would be more in keeping.

Happy St. Pat's Day everyone!

But wait......I also edited one of my sketches of two women.   I used a wonderful texture from DJ Pettitt and two of Bonnie's textures - "chunks of vivid light" and "old ornate linen" on this.

I like the way this turned out.  The original sketch is below.

Go here to see other artists's entries and do have a fun art-filled week!

Goddess Storyboard

 After following Kim's tutorial for storyboards I decided to put my Goddess picture together with a couple other images. I think it needs a frame though. 

New Texture Challenge

I'm "playing" in Nancy Donaldson's texture challenge.  She has some wonderful free textures for us to "play" with.  I used her "Garage 4" texture and an image from Flickr Commons by Gnuckx together with one of my images.  Got a bit carried away trying different filters.  Also used an edge overlay and a texture called "Stone Blush" by French Kiss Textures.  The texture was my "layer 6" (forgot to name it).

as well as a script brush by French Kiss.  The colors I ended up with were a nice surprise. 

My processing looks like this 

There will be more works on Nancy's blog, so be sure to take a look.  She will have them posted on Wednesday 3/13.

Hidden Elements

Our challenge for Photo Art Friday this week is hidden elements in plain sight.  I came up with several versions, some with hidden elements in plain sight and some not so easy to see. I used Nancy Donaldson's geometric texture on the image below.

 It's fairly easy to see the hidden faces here but look at these next images.......................

In the image on the right I used Bonnie's  French Boudoir Blue texture. The image on the left uses one of my bokeh
textures.










I used the wave filter on the image above and selected randomize.  I like this effect.

and on this one below I used the distort filter (spherize)

See if you can find the hidden elements in plain sight.  

Beautiful Freesias

The weather has been so gorgeous here over the past week-end and even today -- high 70's near the beach where I live.  I sat on the patio today and soaked up the sun for about 45 minutes.  It was truly a luxury.  So in my effort to invite Spring into my home I purchased some snowy white freesias at Trader Joe's last Friday.  I thought I would use one of the images for my Texture Tuesday entry.  

This photo was processed using two layers of Kim's "Happy Heart", Topaz Adjust and Photoshop Essentials 4.

Doesn't this just scream Spring???

It would have been great for last week's white theme too.

Hook up with the rest of the artists here, in fact why don't you consider participating.  It's really simple.  You can read the instructions on her blog.

PAF Day

Here it is Friday again, and I almost forgot.  I had prepared my image earlier in the week and got busy.....you know how that goes.  I decided to go for a realistic look rather than abstract.

I love Bonnie's new Flash of Gold texture.  I used two layers on this image (actually two images blended together), one on darken 100% and one on vivid light 100% and then removed most of the texture from the flowers.  I tried a couple different finished looks -- one included a frame from Picnik

and the other I framed with a grungy frame using my Photo Essentials 4 plug in.

I love what Bonnie did this week, her collage, the portrait of her granddaughter and the gorgeous abstract.  Be sure to check it out and while you're there check out all the entries for this week.

Have a fabulous week and we'll meet again next week.