Take a Word--Man

I chose Leonardo DaVinci for this week's challenge. Honestly, this image just popped into my head and try as I might, I couldn't shake it. The mind and imagination of this man just amazes me. His painting is sublime, his inventions were amazing for his time, his curiosity was insatiable and infinite.

I think he is the perfect embodiment of this quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet:

"What a piece of work is a man,
How noble in reason,
How infinite in faculties,
In form and moving how express and admirable,
In action how like an angel,
In apprehension how like a god! "

The images were Googled, and the background began as a texture piece by UR_2; all were much embellished with filters and brushes.

SPA--Thanksgiving

For all the gifts we have been given, for all the blessings we enjoy...we are truly thankful.

Take a Word--Moon

I found a free set of Skyline brushes recently and have been looking for a way to use them. The Take a Word challenge, Moon, turned out to be the perfect place. THe moon image is from NASA, courtesy of Wikimedia, the woman is Marcelline Day, an acress from silent movie days, and the background was made with pieces by Sigmaman and Irene2005 at Textures for Layers. The brush set is called Nineteen_Eighty_Seven--Skylines!!, and I found it on Brusheezy.com.

Where might you fly

This image of a cloud filled sky, glowing with the colors of the sun (set, rise, I don't know)was recently posted to one of the Yahoo groups I belong to and we were challenged to use it for an art piece showing our emotional reaponse.

This is what I made.

Images like this move me deeply, and turn my thoughts to eternity and infinity and making leaps into the unknown. Some times it's a creative leap, sometimes it's the fear of NOT moving that makes you leap, sometimes it's desperation--the need to change something-ANYthing--that sends you out there, where there is no ground below your feet anymore.

All we can hope for at these times is that we WILL be given wings--that we WILL be able to soar. That there is more than we know still waiting for us to discover.

Where will you fly...

three Muses--Black Birds

Here's a piece for this week's challenge. I call it Ravensong. It is said that in old times Ravens and Crows had beautiful singing voices and rainbow colored plumage. When the bird, who was a friend of humankind, traveled to the realm of the gods and stole fire for the people, it returned with its feathers blackened by soot, and its throat burned so that it could only make a raw, cawing sound.

I found the raven at Wikimedia Commons, and the background texture is based on a piece by VancayzeeleOlivier at Textures for Layers. I added a yellow gradient for the warmth of the sun and fire, and blackened the edges with grungy PS brushes.

Thanks for visiting.

Art on the Dark Side--Bats

I guess I still have a little Halloween left in me...the Art on the Dark Side challenge, Bats, took me right back to haunted houses and ghosts. Or maybe because it's a dark and dreary day, the leaves are almosy gone from the trees and Winter feels very close. It will be dark before 5:00 today.

Thanks to JoesSistah and Digitalyardsale for the textures I used to make the spooky background. The ghosts are from Art-e-zine and ACF, I think, from and old challenge. The house I found at Wikimedia Commons and the bat was Googled and altered into a digistamp.

SPA-Hats & Crowns

Bunnie got himself a new hat and so wanted to show it off. This Sunday's challenge seemed like the perfect place.
He's SUCH a fashionista...

Snow Angel

My creativity and inspiration are both at ebb tide these days. As the weather grows colder and the light retreats, my energy wanes for a bit. It will equalize itself again,I'm hoping, as we move closer to the bustle of the holidays.

I've been working on ideas for three challenges this week; adding poetry to an image for a Yahoo digital group, the Angel theme for the next Take a Word challenge, and Winter for 4x4 Friday.

Today, finally it all came together into one piece.

The image is from the Graphics Fairy, with wings from Suzee Que. The background started with a texture by JoesSistah and a blue gradient overpainted with watercolor stroke brushes. The snowflakes and tree branches are brushes also.

I couldn't find a line of poetry that suited my feeling, so I wrote this haiku to finish the piece.

Wow, sometimes I even amaze myself...

Digital Montage Challenge-Doorway

Cindy Powell, artist and author, has started a new challenge blog. Cindy is one of the instructors in the Digital Montage Workshops for Photoshop that I've been taking for the last several months. I have learned a lot from these workshops--how to use PS tools in new and different ways, interesting techniques and a lot of " I didn't know this tool could do THAT" moments.

Here's the blog address. http://dmstudiochallenge.blogspot.com.

Cindy's challenge is to take the photo prompt she selects and transform it into a digitally altered piece of art.

The first prompt is a photo of a door, taken in Utah, a small portrait of the rustic Americam west. It conjured Native America for me, and here is my interpretation.
I used Cindy's photo, texture overlays from a set by UR_2 that I found on the Brusheezy site, a public domain photograph of a Native American family, and various PS brushes.

Thanks for visiting.