Remember Hats??

That's what this reminds me of.....an old fashioned girl with a hat and a boa.  It's really just a texture and some fancy blend modes. 

 

I quite like the results and I find myself looking at it over and over again.  Do you ever do that when you're pleased with 

something?   Maybe you have just finished cleaning your house, and you're really pleased with how beautiful everything looks.  You keep going from room to room to admire.  

I do this with art.   OMG reminds me I have to do some cleaning this week-end or my house will run away!

 

Photoshop Artistry

Seems I have played the week away and just now have come up with a result I actually like.  This Photoshop Artistry is a fun class and there is just so much to learn!  I have created my own brushes now and previously, but I must admit I get so confused when saving them.  I now have a duplicate drop down of my brushes sets. Cannot figure out how that happened or how to fix it.  I think I have the standard brush sets and more in PSE 9, and the same with a few different brush sets in PSE11.  PSE11 is misbehaving, so I reverted to PSE9.   Somewhere in that process I think my saving sets got messed up.  

In this image I actually started with a texture and added lots of grunge brushes in different analagous colors.  I added an image of some type of wheel or gear and an image of a woman.  I also added a vector.  Many blend modes and images later this is what I ended up with.

There's a  thin white border which is not visible on this white background. It may show up better in Flickr.  Also used my stroke selection around the text. 

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!! 

Time Worship Continued.....

I played with this image some more today.  The wonders of Topaz Adjust and Restyle are just incredible.  I practiced layer selection and copying to get the three boxes.

And again.....

There is just no end to the editing and each one is more fun.

Mike is on vacation this week, so we are going to hang out.....go to our favorite restaurants for breakfast and lunch and take in a movie or two.  He's putting his front yard to sleep for the fall/winter  season. 

Have a great week-end!!

Time Worship

Recently I was reading a photography blog and someone who left a comment said that they did not consider digital edits photographic art when all the photographer does is a composite of a couple images and run a couple filters and claim it is art.  This is merely an opinion, of course.  I have always thought of digital edits as artistic photographic expression.  
In this exercise I worked with shapes, both Photoshop shapes and custom shapes.  The image is from Tray Ratcliff of Stuck in Customs.  It's part of his "Burning Man" collection.  You can find the original here.  I added the clock image from Morguefile.com and created the shape to surround the woman.  I also added a PS shape which I skewed.....and a brush.  I ran Topaz Restyle and Adjust filters on it and framed it.  Today I'm going to play with it a bit more and I'll post the results hopefully tomorrow.  Now this, my friends, I consider artistic photographic editing.  I call it art...... 

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was 

more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

~Anais Nim~

Today's Practice for Photoshop Artistry

A little practice....haven't done much since I fell last week....yes, I had a little meeting with the sidewalk on my morning walk.  I think everything is okay although my left knee and my ribs on my right side are definitely aware that a crash happened.  

Here I went for a vignette effect on both these images.

I edited this image below for a more grainy look with the help of texture and Topaz Restyle.  I masked it and removed some of the grain but decided I liked it better with all the grain intact.

Shiny New

I debated whether or not to do this post of our newly upgraded kitchen counter, because I can't seem to get good images.  

The granite is so shiny the lights reflect on it, and the room is too dark if I turn off all lights.  The granite is prettier in person....it has some black, gray and dark red (amost a bordeaux color), and the red does not show up in my pics.  In my "before" post I promised to post the "after" results.  
Because there was so much going on with the granite, I decided to do plain subway tile on the backsplash.

I'm happy with the clean look....there is no longer a bottle of liquid hand soap on the counter, since there is a soap dispenser.  It fills from the top, so that's a good thing, as Martha would say.  I debated forever on stainless vs. porcelain sink.  My friend/advisors were equally divided.  I even ordered the porcelain and then took it back and ordered the stainless.  I'm still getting used to it.   I think I like it, but I tend to be meticulous, so water spots make me nervous.  I know..... you're all laughing!! Now the only appliance that is not stainless is the oven.   I refuse to replace it to the tune of $1800.  It works fine, and it will do!  All in all, I'm delighted with the updated clean look.

Life is grand.  The weather could not be more perfect....mid to high 70's, very little humidity.  I feel lucky to live in Southern California!  I hope you all have a great day.  Thanks for visiting.

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.......

Photoshop Inspiration

Taking Sebastian Michaels' class has been so inspiring.....a very different style than Kim's.  They are both highly talented, and it's fun to learn new "tricks".   This image is one of my first after starting his class.  

I will say he has some of the most beautiful videos.  I don't know what program he uses, but there is no need to change to full screen.  The videos are pretty big 

to start with.  

Even though he says his classes work with PSE, and they do, there is still so much he can do in Photoshop 

that I'm envious of.  If Adobe were still selling their program and supporting it, I think I would buy it.  Now it seems the only choice I have is to buy CS6 and not get support from Adobe or 

purchase their Creative Cloud membership at $50.00 per month.  I'm just not up for that.  I realize I 

would have access to all the latest in their software, but I don't use all their software.  Dilemma.......I guess I will just stick with PSE and do as much as I can do with that program.  

It's the same thing as......oh, I could take much better photos with an upgraded camera.  I can still take good photos with my current camera.

But every time I see him do something cool in PS, I lust after it.  

Day of Fun

It was my turn to host our art group and in an earlier post I mentioned we would be making mail art.  The weather was beautiful.  I borrowed a fold-up long table and an Easyup  canopy......not enough room in my little house, but plenty of room on the patio.  

Some very creative ladies!!  I think everyone had a good time.

Photoshop Once Again....

I'm starting to work in PS once again.  Took a little vacation to do my face class.  Every time I do this, I promise myself I will do a little of both every day......but for whatever reason,  I seem to get involved with one and let the other dwindle.   I just purchased Topaz ReStyle, the latest of Topaz' products.  It literally has thousands of styles and is so much fun to play with.  It's hard to settle on a look when there is so much to choose from.  This is simply a landscape image imposed over the cherub image, tweaked with Topaz, with the addition of some brushes.   

You can play with it on a 30 day trial, and the price is reduced 50% through the end of August.

Topaz held a webinar Friday, and I "attended".  I have never before done a webinar.  It's a great way to learn.  I will be "attending" another Topaz event on the 22nd...tips and tricks.  There is so much these plug-ins can do.  I would probably never do half of these if not for learning through their webinars or tutorials.