Are You One of Those?

Before I get to "Are you One of Those"….

  I decided to play with a sketch I did in my journal.  It wasn't really intended but I always thought she resembled Drew Barrymore.

I first changed the image to black and white and worked with some filters and text….a quote from Ms. B of course.

I did a different take by keeping the color and adding filters and a fun vector.

…and finally for Texture Tuesday.  I used two copies of Kim's Antiques Texture over sepia.

Okay, on to my topic for today.

I see them everyday walking through a parking lot or across the street transfixed on their smartphones.  The other night hubby and I were at a restaurant waiting for a table, standing in the lobby with many others.  Almost everyone of them was on his smartphone. A couple sat on a bench each playing with his/her phone.  Didn't they come together???

So here's what I have to say for that….

I totally cracked up when I saw this!

~ calm ~

Maori Mannequin

I call her "Maori Mannequin" because the texture makes her look like her face is tattooed.  The mannequin image is courtesy Morguefile.com.  After watching Sebastian Michaels' exercise in layers, I decided to try with my own textures and brushes.  I also took advantage of Topaz Labs B/W and Adjust.  I played with this for the better part of a couple hours, and I could still do more.  

Woohoo!!! This class is so much fun and so creative.  Can't wait for the next video to see what other great ideas Sebastian has for us.

Oh, this is the original photo.......

I'm Still Here

Yes, I am still here.  This drawing thing does take some time.  Even though these are not portrait drawings, I still take a long time.  Plus I'm trying to use various art mediums.  Let me catch you up to date. 

I drew my lovely "Lavender Girl" and collaged a paper napkin around her. 

Her hair was done with watercolor ink which did not do well over the glue that I collaged with.  What to do??? I decided to gesso over her hair and I actually liked the lighter color.  I added a flower over her ear.

I took these photos in different locations.  I apologize for the poor quality but she was too big to fit my scanner.  

I love her little face.  The hair is not my fave but for now I'm satisfied.  Jane Davenport's class is all about having fun and drawing faces more stylistically.  I think mine will be going to "Mermaid School".  She has that look.  I know I will be able to turn these out faster with practice.  I do love drawing them so I don't really care that it takes so much time....it's really rather meditative.  I got lost in "Lavender Girl".

On another note, I worked on my sunflower painting.  Erin taught me a few tricks for "fixing" what I might not like.

I think I like it much better now.

I'm wishing you all a beautiful July 4th and all the friends and family and FOOD that goes with it!!

Today's Girl

A new journal page.  I first laid down a background of Faber Castell's Gelatos and Glimmer mists plus added gesso.  I drew my funky girl on top even with ridges from gesso. Jane's class is encouraging us to get out all the art supplies we have sitting on shelves and work with them.....colored pencils, watercolor pencils, water based markers, alcohol markers, paint daubers, Twinkling H2O's, Distress paints and markers and much more. I thought I had a lot of supplies, but I don't have even half of what Jane uses.  And....I'm going to try not to purchase much more.   Notice I said "much".  

I still need to work on hair....just like my own hair, it's always a work in progress/practice!  I love her big eyes and diminutive mouth.  

I found some more classes I want to take.....found this website through one of my Flickr contacts.  I want to take every one of her classes.  They sound like so much fun.  Carla's teaching a Gelli art class now.  I'd sign up for it now, but I'm in one too many classes as it is.  I also found her husband's class on Photo Silly.  I had seen his class advertised a couple years ago on Alisa Burke's blog.  For whatever reason I failed to bookmark it and then when I looked for it again, it was not there.  I will definitely be taking his class.  

Oh Universe, can I please have some more time????

Girl 2 with Another Layer

She looked a bit drab so I added watercolor.  I think I could pump up the color of her hair a bit. Since I'm somewhat new to colored pencil faces, I'm a little hesitant to "go for it".  I need to relax and go with the flow.

Splash Masks

Jerry from Shadowhouse Creations has the most gorgeous textures and gives them away.  His latest is a collection of 

"Splash" masks.  You can go here to download

them.  Thank you, Jerry.

Here is my first edit using one of these new masks. I set it off with

a border from Pixlr.com.

Cool?  He gives you the instructions too. I can see endless possibilities for using these.  As he says, you can use

more than one mask and play with blend 

modes and opacities to your heart's content.

Have a happy Mothers Day with Mom or whomever this week-end.

Collage/Painting Jumble

It's day 10 of my cleansing detox and I'm re-introducing items that were verboten during either days 5,6 and 7 or all days

I had some Mary's Gone Crackers pretzels which are gluten free "twigs".  Ingredients are rice flour, flaxseed, chia seeds and a host of other good-for-you goodies.  They had been my go-to snack when I was gluten-free.  They are so good, I kept them after realizing I don't have sensitivities to gluten.  I think that's it.  No cheese yet, and I guess I would be better off without, but come on.... what good is pizza, even a gluten free pizza from Z's Pizza, without cheese??

Okay it's time for Photo Art Friday again.  Bonnie's instructions.....

use a theme of "hardware" or post any artistic creation we choose.  I'm going with the latter.

I had in my archives a digital collage including an image of sea shells and an image of my drawing of a woman.

 and I shot a tiny piece of my painting for my Bloom True class.  My good friend Jacki taught me to get "closer" to my subject and take a little piece of it.

Then I just played with blend modes and filters.......and was able to get all these looks

I think this one below was done in mosaic filter.

 The image below was finished

 with the "extrude" filter.

and this one with watercolor filter.

 The one below which is one of my two favorites was finished in Topaz Adjust.

If you want to see some incredible edits head on over to Bonnie's Photo Art Friday link party.

That's it for this week.  

Wading In

I'm toying with the idea of taking a photography class from Vivienne McMaster.  She was kind enough to send me 

her eBook called Wading In.  It's all about self-portraiture. I suppose it's also a form of self-examination. I panicked 

at the thought of publicly displaying images of myself.....on my blog even!  I have to admit this first photo 

was doctored a bit with a texture.  Okay..... I'll get more daring as time goes on, right?  First, I need to get 

the hang of 

taking photos with my iPhone.  This was bright light 

mid-day, so shadows and glare are prominent.  I was hoping they would hide some of the wrinkles, but they 

actually just magnify them.

I've said this before but, for the life of me, I cannot understand why there are so many more nooks and crannies 

in my face and neck in a photograph that 

do not show up in the mirror.  I look in the mirror everyday very closely when applying make-up.  It never looks like this!

The next photo I took when I went out 

to my driveway to capture an image of the stains the Liquidambar leaves make after a rain.  I love the pattern.  In the process I captured a self-portrait of my shadow.  I rather like it, and notice..... there are no wrinkles showing!

The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been.

~ unknown ~

Happy two days before Christmas, everyone.

Goddess of Purity

The challenge this week for Texture Tuesday was the theme of white.  When I think of 

white I  usually think of innocence or purity.  I chose this beautiful goddess 

for my subject and then went about 

changing everything.  I used 2 layers of Kim's "Ben #2" texture to subdue the busy 

background.  I also added her "Graydayslate" 

so I would have a bit of a frame around my subject.  I must have played with fonts

for an hour and I'm still not thrilled.  I don't have one that looks Greek or Roman enough. 

Hope you all have a fun week and be sure to stop by and see the many other 

wonderful expressions of white. 

Faces in Collage

I'm presently taking Sharon's (All NoraS Art) Faces in Collage class.  I finally completed my first one.   Sharon has great video instructions.  I could watch her paint all day.  She makes it seem so effortless!   I'm so taken with faces....I've played a lot with them but never felt very good at them.  This class gives me a chance to play with the face already in place.  I just get to redecorate it.  It's really a challenge to get the values/shadows right and sometimes I find my paint has dried on my palette while I'm working.  Then I have a problem getting the right color mix again.  Oh well......practice, practice!

Original glue down before painting

and the redecorated version

She reminds me of the Avatar woman even though she is not blue.

This Week for TT

For this week's Texture Tuesday I used the same image from last week and a different "recipe" plus Kim's "golden" texture.

Have a great day!

Too Soon

I used Kim's "February Magic Edges" texture on this photo for Texture Tuesday's challenge.

Just yesterday my baby granddaughter was born and today she is almost grown.  I look at her and 

wonder where the time went.  

She is a junior in high school.  We are going to

look at colleges next week.  I sometime wish

they could stay young and innocent 

forever.  Soon she will graduate from college.  Perhaps she will marry and have children and/or have a wonderful career.  I wish for her 

all the happiness and success she could

ever want.

Textures, Textures...

It's Texture Tuesday again.  I played around with several textures and with Coffeeshop's "Pink Glow" action.  The results were so different.  On this first image I used Kim's "Burnt Edges" texture.

and on the image below I used a texture from "Ben's Collection" and "Soft Palette".  The action was fun to work with because I could turn off a layer or manipulate a layer if I wanted a different look. I just loaded Nelly Nero's actions - 25 of them.  So I'm looking forward to playing more with those. 

Wishing you all a wonderful textured week.  Be sure to click on the Texture Tuesdays badge to see many more artistic displays of textured images.  You will be very busy!!

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.