soartful challenge-Dragonfly

Wow, it's been a while since I've played in a challenge. I love dragonflies--they are such etherial yet solid creatures-- that this week's Soartful theme seemed a good place to start. I began with the bug himself, and the waterlilies and it grew from there. the Chinese character is "Happiness"
Thanks to Dover and Art-e-zine for the images, and to Rubyblossom and Boccacino for texture and text. Some watercolor and grunge Photoshop brushes were used as well.
Thanks for visiting.

One more from the workshop

This workshop ends tomorrow. A new skill learned is adding a gradient to text. a pretty neat effect. Also new to me is the idea of duplicating a layer and rotating on top of the copy to create a pattern, then using a blending mode on top of that.
I used both these techniques in this montage.
The quote is from the poem "Poppies," by Carl Sandberg. I never knew he wrote poetry about flowers.

More from Digital Montage Workshop

Here are a couple more pieces from the workshop. The Themes were, "It's About Time" and Graven Angels" We are still exploring blending modes and playing with text and brushes.

Some work from the Digital Montage workshop

The first theme for the workshop, about using Photoshop blending modes, was "Widow's Walk." I made my image based on an original photo of Salisbury Beach. We were given a bunch of sample images to use, and I chose the lighthouse. The boat is actually a model yacht, and the woman comes from a painting by John Waterhouse.

The second theme is My Story. I'm afraid I had to make one up. more to come about this one.

Three Muses Challenge-Mail art

Here is my mail art piece, made entirely with photoshop brushes over a crinkled paper texture. Oh, and a postage stamp, of course.
This was a lot of fun to make. I do like playing with brushes.

Off to Maine for a little vacation... hoping for good weather and a lobster or two.

Digital Whisper Challenge Group--Forest Child

A quirky image selected by Kimmie, the group leader, from MrsInman at Collage Images Flickr Group is the inspiration for this piece. A second and personal inspiration for me was a great flaking green paint texture from Rustic Cat Sarah at T4L. A fern from Dover,some filters and blending and a few brushes, and there she was, peeking through the leaves.

Rhiannon

This is another "double duty" piece--first, for the SPA challenge, Magic. Rhiannon is the Celtic goddess of the Moon, Night, Fertility and Death. She is worshiped as Queen of Night.
The Digital Montage group holds its first workshop on Monday, and I am very excited to be exploring Photoshop with the very talented and knowledgeable Cindy Powell and Sherre Hulbert. Our final warm-up theme is "Four Moons." If you look closely, there are four moons in this piece, the full and crescent moon of the neckpiece, the glowing moon of runes and the actual moon itself on which the goddess is overlaid

ACF & 4 x 4 Friday--In the Garden

I haven't had the wherewithall to do much creatively this past week--too much to do at work, nasty heat and humidity and a lot of ambient stress in the air--made it difficult to concentrate, and my efforts were so feeble I didn't even save them...

When I saw the beautiful melancholy woman chosen for us this week at Art Creations Friday I knew she belonged in a garden, to ease her mind. The 4x4 Friday challenge gave me the colors that might cheer her. She's still sad amidst the wisteria, but she has fond memories to keep her company.
Thanks to Lukasb32, Abby Lanes and Amberb92 at T4L for the textures and colors, and to Dover and Google Images for the other elements. Some Photoshop brushes and lots of filters and blending completed the piece.

All that Jazz

A new warm-up theme from the Digital Montage Yahoo group. The class begins on the 19th.
Musical themes are always interesting--how to convey the idea of music in a visual piece. When I think of Jazz, my mind always turns first to New Orleans, and the traditional jazz style. Louie Armstrong is such an icon in this genre, both as a trumpeter and a singer.

Thanks to Pareerica of T4L for the piano keys background. other texture pieces are from Aqueous Sun and Zen Textures. The images are from Google and Wikimedia Commons

Cool Jazz soothes my soul...it just makes me go ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

This image was found on Google Images, and altered with filters. The rest is done with brushes and more filters.

Three Muses Challenge-Rust

As I searched through Textures 4 Layers Flickr group for inspiration for this week's challenge I came upon this piece of rust and turquoise paint taken by Abby Lanes. I was immediately transported back to New Mexico, where these colors abound in the land and sky. I overlaid a photo I took at Taos Pueblo, and made a Kokopelli brush and texturized it to look like rust--I think it looks rusty...
anyway, here's my interpretation of the theme. I can't wait to see all the other entries. They are always so amazing and different.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July, everyone!

SPA-Street Art

Interesting theme.

My offering this week is created using one of my original photos, altered with filters, and several watercolor and graffiti brushes.

ACF #81 She Got What She Wanted

This week we are presemted with the image of a lovely and self-confident woman to work with. She looks to me like the type of woman who has no trouble getting whatever she wants. The only thing she was really lacking was wings, so I provided them.
Thanks to Sigmaman and Temari09 from T4L and the Graphics Fairy for elements used to make this collage.

Beach Day

I'm getting ready for a workshop on digital montage and Photoshop techniques at one of the Yahoo groups I belong to. As we prepare, gathering images and textures and other bits to work with, we've been given some themes to play with. You may have seen a previous post, Pandora's Box.
The current theme is Serenity at the Beach. I could think of nothing more serene than the quiet joy of children at the seaside. There is such wonder here, the action of the water, the warmth of dry and coolness of wet sand, the SOUND!

I made this postcard sized piece with one background texture from Textures for Layers Flickr Group, an amazing digital community where thousands of artists and photgraphers freely share their creations and offer them to all for the making of art. I've even posted a few textures I've phopographed and created there. The text piece is also from T4L. The kids and the clock face were googled and altered with filters and blending styles. The rest was "painted" with Photoshop brushes.
Thanks for visiting and
Happy Summer!