Wednesday, November 30, 2011

52 Photos--Twinkling lights


Miracle of Lights

Well, they don't twinkle, but they do flicker and glow.
Textures by Skeketal Mess and Digitalcollagist

Sunday, November 27, 2011

4 by 4 Friday--Winter Blessings


A photo of mine from last winter, much altered in Fotosketcher and PSE. The texture is Kim Klassen's "Ladder."

Take a word--Blue




A play with shades of color and with brushes.

Gothic Arch and Soartful Saturday--Sewing

Sunday Selections. Reflections of Boston

Taken on several trips into the city, at Copley Square, the North End and Downtown Crossing. I just love glass buildings!





SPA--Candles


I found this lovely christmas stamp from 1962. I was 11 and wanted a chemistry set and one of those HUGE art boxes with everything inside, and it cost four cents to mail a christmas card!

Stamp, candles and wreath were Googled.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Photo Art Friday

Ok, I know it's Saturday, but...
I took a bunch of photos when I was on Cape Cod this past September, most in the middle part of the day so the light was very bright or else it was misty and foggy. A lot of the turned our like this.

I really wanted it to be better, so I periodically play with it using filters and autopainting programs, with little success.
Here's the latest try at it. I rather like this one.

Some playing in the gently surreal style of Jeannette Woitzik

If you google Jeannette Woitzik you will find a wonderful collection of art, digital, photomanipulation and photography. These pieces are my submissions for a digital art group where we play "in the style of".



Thursday, November 24, 2011

4 by 4 Friday--every leaf


the leaf brush is mine; frame by Frannie60 and text texture by Shadowhouse Creations.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate--Happy Thursday to Everyone!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Texture Tuesday


I can't for the life of me remember which of Kim's textures I used for this photo. I didn't save the psd and I didn't write it down. I think ir was a sample I got a long time ago called Luminous. It's set to color burn, I remember that, becaue I don't use it much.

Anyway, thanks for looking. It's a photo of a shop window in Newburyport, MA on a really drizzly day.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Take a Word-Show Biz


The young actress in this collage is a friend of mine. She is a wonderful actress and singer--she even sang the National Anthem at Fenway park a few years ago.
This was her senior class play and she played Adelaide--and completely NAILED IT!
The photos are mine, enhanced with the Poster Edge filter and a couple of Bokeh textures and a class frame.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Photo Art Friday--go-to edits

I have several edits that I use almost all the time, I'm a shy photographer so I tend to take phots at a distance. So my first edit is almost always a crop.
Second Go-to is duplicate layers, in this case two layers set to Multiply and Overlay.
original
Crop

Multiply and Overlay layers added

Burn tool and rusty turquoise texture added.


Final steps, I added a frame, the text and the flowers in the mailbox. Here's the finished piece.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Take a word--Umbrella


My original photo was taken last year during a period where it either rained or snowed for 10 days straight--talk about DREARY! I was playing with the pre-sets on my camera, and this has no post processing at all--except, of course, for Bunnie's head.
I found the delightful"circus" umbrella on Google images--it has a little man on a trapeze!
The rest was done with brushes, layer styles and filters.

Sunday selections

At frogpondsrock, another blog I recently found, on Sundays,there is a meme ( I don't even know what that is) where you are invited to share the old,forgotten photographs that are languishing in your computer's folders.
As I have been recently re-visiting my old photos, and playing with them in photoshop and other art programs, I decided to jump in.
So here are a bunch of ramdom photos, taken over the past 10 years or so. Some are altered, some are cropped and some are SOOC.
Thanks for looking.

Santa Fe, 2004
Santa Fe, 2004
Bug light, Portland, ME, 2011
Shop window, Newburyport, MA 2011
Cape Elizabeth, Portland Light 2011
House in Portland, 2011

Gothic arches--Numbers


No. 5

One of the iconic numbers in the 20th century.

The arch was googled and altered with a layer style. The perfume bottle is also from Google and the woman is from a 1920's magazine cover.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

SPA--Framed


So I put a frame around my Happy Thanksgiving card! Images are from Google, and Broken Halo. The image on the stamp is a magazine cover by Norman Rockwell. I was experimenting with the PSE cutout filter. The text and postmarks are brushes. Oh, I also made the frame with some grunge brushes.

soartful challenge-Sew Pretty


I wasn't really taken with the images for this theme, but when I visited the site where the second image was from, I found this wonderful Singer ad. I was off, collecting images of Japanese fabric and paper. The washi paper in the background is from a site called Patterns, the stencil overlay is from Dover and the kimono was found on Google.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

A Place to Play with Photos and Textures

Is Kim Klassen's Cafe. Her website offers a blog, free textures, tutorials, classes, and much more. I've only explored a little bit of it, but her photos and textures are lovely. I've been playing more and more with my own photos these days, and finding new places for learning to alter and enhance them. There's a button on the right sidebar if you'd like to visit.

This week, my first venture,the theme/instruction is to use a specific new texture she created, called Phoebe with a photo. It's ok to add other layers and use other Photoshop tools. I used Phoebe and textures from Playingwithbrushes and Pareeerica at Textures for Layers Flickr group. If you don't know this wonderful place for free textures and backgrounds, you should check it out.
I also used an eraser tool and the burn tool.

Three Muses Challenge- Mail Art


Images from the Graphics Fairy. Background texture from Cottage Arts. border bits from fidgetrainbowtree, and the rest was done with brushes.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Crazy Amigos-Nursery Rhymes


The Mother of all Nursery Rhymes

the Mother Goose image is a freebie from Inka at Altered Artifacts, stamp image was googled, public domain from a 1918 book of rhymes. Background made with pieces from Untamed Reflections and Joyce's Photo Album

Sunday, November 13, 2011

A Big Thank You to Elizabeth!

If you have had the opportunity to visit with Elizabeth Golden on her blog, you will know exactly what I'm going on about...

I discovered Elizabeth in my early days venturing into altered and digital art, her work astounded me, and spoke to me in a voice I understood. I happily followed her example and so far have not looked back!

In a group I belong to our challenges have recently been to try and create art pieces "in the style of" various artists. We have seen Dali, Teesha Moore, Rob Gonzales, Klimt, Suzanne Sbarge and Banksy. This time we are challenged to use one of our own favorites and to work in their style.

Elizabeth, I hope you don't mind that I chose your style to emulate.



Elizabeth is a collagist, journaller and journal maker, as well as a magnificent photographer. From her blog, The last Door...Down the Hall, I have learned that she enjoys travelling by car around the Amercan south and finding the the most amazing and beautiful images of small town country life and the forgotton and abandonded pieces of the past all around her. And as though these photos weren't already so special, she enhances them digitally just enough to raise them to pure works of art.

Hats off to you, Elizabeth.

This photo is my own, tahen in Santa Fe several years ago. As I learn from Elizabeth's eye, I am revisiting a lot of my older photographs and giving them new life.

Take a word--Moonstruck


Photoshop brushes, a background from a photo of mine and a sculpture of Cupid and Psyche by Antonio Canova.

Gohic arch--Roses


images from Google; textures from Shadowhouse and Media Militia/

Saturday, November 12, 2011

More Photoshop and Fotosketcher playing

Original photo


Painted in Fotosketcher in watercolor painting.

Drawn in pencil in Fotosketcher

Both Fotosketcher images layered and blended in Photoshop. I painted in the sky on a separate layer.

Playing with some photos I took





original photos