Forgiveness

forgiveness, digital collage

Forgiveness - I dreamed of it last night. The details are vague, but I remember the intense feelings of relief I felt. I am not sure if I was doing the forgiving, being forgiven or forgiving myself...but does it matter? It's all good. It's all necessary. Life works better for me with forgiveness.

The life so short

This is a digital collage I made.

This quote was said in about 300 B.C. It could of been said yesterday. I am guessing that Hippocrates was speaking about the craft of medicine, but when I saw the quote, I thought about the online workshop I am taking to enhance my photoshop skills in altering my own artwork.

An old barn in my town

This old barn (click to enlarge)

This old barn is near my home. It's falling down. I stopped today and took two pictures of it before it's gone. There is a new development going up right next to it; I am concerned that 'they' might take it down or it may fall down. So I took pictures before it is gone. I then brought one of the photos into Photo shop and created this digital collage. I added the bird on barbed wire to give it more of a rural look.

And to think I live a little over 50 miles from Manhattan! I love barns. I've decided that I will photograph as many of the barns in my town this coming year. There are many still standing.

An American Beauty

American Beauty, digital collage

I am not finished with this duotone. It feels 'not done' to me. I'll have to mull it over and find a good word or saying to fit. My sister took the image at my daughter's wedding.

softly

Softly, digital collage

What is softer than a dandelion puff or a butterfly wing?

I like how this turned out. I used lots of photoshop masking for this piece.

she is having a baby

Today I toned down the moon- it was too dark and distracting.

Below is the 'before' image.

continuing in DJ Pettitt's online workshop, this image is all about masking and blending. I am not sure I like the moon- it may be too distracting. I would love some feedback as to what you think- moon or no moon?

always use sunscreen

always use sunscreen, digital collage

This month I will be posting lots and lots of digital art from DJ Pettitts online workshop I am taking. I am really enjoying the community and online meeting of gear-heads from all over the world. Great fun!

This piece is a nod to steampunk.

gear head

gear head, digital collage

The tree shades my soul

Digital collage I made in Photoshop using layers and masks.

fools like me

fools like me (click to enlarge)

Another image created in DJ Pettitt's online workshop. The eye candy in this workshop is staggering...so much fun!! And it lasts the whole month of January :)

Shout to the full moon

shout to the full moon (click to enlarge)

I am having a blast in DJ Pettitt's online workshop. It has created in me an obsession for all things digital. I find myself going through my massive digital collection to find images to use in the exercises.

I am loving the mix of using my own art work with photoshop to create new digital art.

DJ Pettitt's online Photoshop class

I took the plunge and signed up for an online art course. This is my first experience with an online course - I decided to take DJ Pettitt's online Photo Shop course. So far so good!

So many joined the class! There is lots of back and forth discussion, beautiful images and I am seeing several familiar faces there. Below are two images from Exercise #1 - the before and the after of the same image. I look forward to learning more!

I've always admired DJ's digital work and so it's a real treat to learn her process and techniques!

I'll use this image and keep building on it as I learn more...

angel - before

exercise #1 is complete see how I cleaned up her nose?

I love how the angel has a more surreal, ethereal look to it now.

watercolor

Chenoa

Using Illustrator and Photo shop with watercolor brushes, I made what I think is a pretty good 'watercolor' painting. I'll keep messing around to tweak this some...I want it to be more painterly. And I want to add some textured background to for interesting contrast.

photoshop fun

I love playing around with Photoshop. This is a photo from my daughter's wedding this past August. I love the photo as is, but I wanted to make it vintage and romantic. I downloaded some frames and new brushes.

daffodil

watercolor on 140# Fabriano hot press paper


watercolor run through a photo shop filter

To be honest, I am not thrilled with this painting. It's a little muddy as I fiddled with it too much. But I love the result of running it through photo shop! I think I will make some greeting cards using this image. It reminds me of spring and summer with the colors.

analog meets digital

original painting with ephemera

same painting with digital elements added

I sat down today to continue my 'blue series' of paintings and boats. As usual, I veered WAY OFF of the path.

As I thought about the words I had glued down to the paper, I decided I wanted to paint an allegory about life. (the ephemera is from an 1867 primer.) Me being the boat, life being the sea. I also decided that I wanted to paint a 'real' boat, not a simple stamped version. I painted an old-time wooden yacht in the ocean. Once I finished the little painting, I scanned it in and then added digital elements with Photo shop. The bottom image is the combined version. I like how it turned out.

Photoshop - product backdrops

Today is the first day I found myself a teeny tiny weeny bit bored since I was laid off from my job of 17 years as a graphic designer. Once I realized that it was boredom, I asked myself: "What are the things you wished you had more time to do when you were working all those years?".

What immediately came to mind was leaning Photoshop. I mean REALLY learning it. I have used PS for 18 years (PS is about 19 years old). But I've always been way too busy to really dig into this amazing program. I know enough to get the jobs done that I needed to do over the years. I think I am pretty good, but there are just things it can do that I've never had the time or the need to learn.

Well, what a perfect time to learn! So I went to the library and got out a book and a DVD on Photoshop. I am using CS version. The current version is CS4, so it was important that the book and DVD match my version.

My first 'lesson'...I've created two fake ads or posters...what ever. The lesson learned: How to create a product backdrop. I used objects pulled out of photos I took (no backgrounds) and then went about creating the 'ad' look. A slick, classy ad you might see in a fashion or men's magazine. I like the purple one - I created a reflection that fades out and make it look like it is sitting on a table.

The magic of Photo Shop

after Photo shop

original scan

I've added some Photo shop magic to this little snowman collage. Each has it's own charm. The original is clean and crisp. The photo shopped one has depth and looks more vintage now.

What do you think?

photoshop brushes

I can waste more time messing around with PS brushes! Here is a vintage photo of a sweet little angel girl-the first photo. Then I added brushes. The third photo is another photo with brushes and multi layers. As it is almost 1 am, I really need to get to bed!

untouched photo

brushes added


brushes and layers

still playing with photoshop

Here is a very cool brush effect. Brushes are handy photoshop tools. Almost anything can be made into a brush. Once something is made into a brush, it's there for you to use over and over again. There are thousands of free brushes all over the Internet for free download. The actual brush is the filmstrip. I then added my art of four different cupcakes I created.

After I added the images, I then desaturated the image to create the black and white negative effect. Warning- this is addictive!