SPA On the Dark Side

My, goodness--Haloween is certainly in the air. Sunday Postcard Art is asking us all to take a trip to our dark side this week. I love visiting there.
I have always been fascinated by sorcerers and witches; those people unafraid to attempt to control their own or others' destinies by use of magic. It doesn't always work out so well, but how brave to defy convention in that way.
Anyway here is my unrepentant sorceress. I love the look in her eye.
The image is from a family portrait I found on Art-e-zine a long time ago. She has appeared before in my Halloween pieces; the background is by ShironekoEuro at T4L.
The rest was done with brushes, most of them from Annika Von Holdt. Others were from InObscuro and PsyDoxArt.

4 by 4 Friday--Spooky Bingo

This concept is just so...... I had to take a stab at it! I mean---Spooky Bingo?

The witch and cat are from Dover; the bingo cards and numbers from Collage Images Flickr Group; the ticket is from Suzee Que--I added the spooky words-- nad the background texture is from Encounter_laura. I used the gesso technique, which I am in love with, and applied some blending modes.

Some new pieces

In the digital montage class I've been taking we are learning how to create some special effects, like sand, stucco and gesso. I haven't mastered the sand and stucco yet, but I love the gesso effect.

We've also been learning to make out own custom brushes and creating our own custom frames and masks.

Here are a few pieces using the gesso effect and a mask I made from PS brushes.

SPA Odd Bods--What the mermaid really wanted

Sunday Postcard Art's challenge this week is Odd Bods. You really should take a moment or two to visit there this week, some of the offerings are really great! There's a link in my sidebar.
My Odd Bod is a Mermaid--with WINGS! Who needs legs when you can fly!
The Woman is from Suzee Que's Flickr group. You may recognize her , she's usually on a broomstick, and often turns up around Halloween. The mermaid tail is from a set of .png files from Linzee777 from DeviantArts; the bokeh and cloud textures are from Shadowhouse and the ship's mast--probably the first place a mermaid would fly to--is an original photo of mine. The rest is brushes and blending modes.

A quick piece--Passion

This took about 15 minutes to create...sometimes this process of creating digital art just takes on a life of its own and just grows--elements and textures just fly--I love it when that happens.

Three Muses Challenge-Wheels

Here's my entry for this week's Three Muses challenge--Wheels. Seems I'm still stuck in the American West...cowboys this time!

I used a wagon wheel brush from a western set to create the background and another brush from the set for the cowboy. I used the technique I learned in the workshop I'm taking to do the dark border. The original background textures are from Shadowhouse Studio and Encounter_Laura at T4L

Digital Montage Studio Workshop # 2

In this workshop we are learning about distressing techniques to add the look of grunge and age to our digital work. We are using brushes and texture layers to create borders and other effects.

Here are a couple of pieces I've been working on. The first two are based on the theme "Windows of the Soul"--using a window image as a frame, and using brushes, blending modes and texture layers.

The third one highlights the technique of making a grungy frame using one or more texture layers ands embellishing with brushes and erasers.

For information on upcoming workshops you can visit Cynthis Powell's Art Studio blog at http://cynthiapowell.blogspot.com/

SPA-Mushrooms

Here is my offering for Sunday Postcard Art's challenge-Mushrooms. The two photos that form the main image are my own--the mushrooms, tiny things growing in the moss that covers everything in the rainforest in Washington, and ferns, growing in abundance in Arcadia National Part in Maine.
A texture layer from Scrapbook Flair, a butterfly and stamp from Collage Images Flickr group, and a postmark PS brush completed the picture.

4 by 4 Friday--Seraglio

This week's theme at 4x4 Friday is "put some glitter on it"--a tall order for digital artists. This freebie image from E-Vint caught my eye, and evoked to me a life lived with in a harem, not venturing out or even being seen without being hidden at the same time. How mysterious it seems.

I tried to create the impression of sparkles through the use of the noise filter. It's more apparent if you click on the picture to enlarge it. I also had some bling-y elements, and used a gold layer style on the corner bits.
Other texture bits are from T4L and Media Militia's Aqueous Sun collection.

Die cut letters

I've been playing with a new technique for PSE that lets you digitally cut letters out of a digital paper, using any font. I found a tutorial on the Cottage Arts blog, here

http://www.cottagearts.net/blog/?p=4063

it's pretty easy.

Here's a little postcard I made using the "die-cuts"

Darkness Inspiration--Vintage Halloween

I'm not sure quite why, but Halloween has been creeping into my mind lately. It's still in the mid 80's here, so it's not a change in the weather. And Halloween candy is NOT yet in the stores, although back to school is in full swing...I don't know where it's coming from.
But this theme from Darkness Inspirations is very timely.

I love this image of these two women; I imagine them to be sisters. Their faces seem almost devoid of expression, and you just KNOW that there are DARK THOUGHTS behind those eyes.
Thanks to Art-e-zine for the witchy sisters, Graphics fairy for the crow and the ornamentation and to Termin8r and Aqueous Sun for texture and background bits. Filters, layer styles and Photoshop brushes were applied liberally.
Happy Halloween!

SPA-Houses-Taos Pueblo

As I was thinking about this theme, I decided to Google Images for House. After about a million photos of Dr. House, I tried "houses," and was treated with images of everything from igloos, animal hide tents and mud huts to stately mansions, cute cottages and art to live in by Frank Lloyd Wright. I thought about all the different tpyes of houses there are...which brought me to Taos Pueblo, where Native Americans have been living for almost a thousand years. It is one of the oldest contunually inhabited communities in the United States.

The photo of the pueblo is mine. I used a texture by Temari09 from T4L, and the heiroglyphs are from a photo of the Sanders Family Buffalo Robe. Kokopelli is a brush.

Mine is the morning

A piece made for a digital round robin group I've been playing in in one of my Yahoo groups. We've been taking turns adding layers to a background each time and the results have been some amazing collaborative opieces of digital art.

This time, much like some of the other challenge blogs I play in, we were all given the same background to make our own finished digital piece. The background was a beautiful yellow sky with clouds, perhaps a sunrise or sunset. I chose sunrise--it was such a beautiful morning today.

Images are from Google Images and Suzee Que, background texture from a set of digital papers from Cottage Arts,( a really nice site--kits and things to buy; some really beautiful papers here; and lots of freebies--including some really good tutorials.) text piece from the Vintage Moth and Photoshop brushes.

4 x 4 Friday--Kings

Kings! So many different things come to mind...King Arthur, King of hearts, kings of England, king crab...I settled on Tutankhamen, the boy king of Egypt. A fascinating and mysterious figure.

A few years ago I went to see an exhibit about Tut, which included not only the marvelous treasures found in his tomb--and they WERE spectacular, but also x-rays of his mummy and artistic renderings of what he might have looked like. He appeared to be a beautiful and sad young man. Tutankhamen ascended to the throne at the age of nine, and ruled for 10 years. During this time he restored the worship of traditional Egyptian gods that had been forbidden by his father, moved the capital back to Thebes and restored relations with several nearby nations.

While there are no surviving records of Tutankhamen's death, it was widely speculated that he was assassinated. After recent examinations of the mummy. it is thought that his death was the result of infection of a broken leg from a chariot accident complicated by malaria. Tutankhamen had no surviving heirs. He was succeded by Ay, his wife's grandfather.

The images used came from the King Tut exhibit and from Google Images and Dover.

SPA--Patchwork

I used to be a quilter, in the old days, when I was exploring EVERYTHING. I made quilts for wedding gifts, to wrap new babies in, to send my daughter off to college with--even a quilt finished with patchwork blocks made by my grandmother. I loved doing it then, even though, looking back now, I don't know where I ever got he patience.
I really enjoyed making this piece, trying to make it look like a quilted fabric block. I think it does...

Thanks to Dover for the butterfly and Rubyblossom for the texture layer that the applique was "stitched" onto. The stitches are a brush that actually "stitches" as you move it around. Some Photoshop filters were applied for the fabric texture, and layer styles to plump it up.