So it begins!

I don't know what came over me, but I decided to change my business website to a craft site. I don't need the business one any longer so why not re-do it, right?
I started the coding right after the first of the year and was coming along nicely until I decided I needed new computers. Ya gotta know what a headache that is. I had already updated the graphic card as much as possible and the OS on my desktop all the way from Vista through to Windows 10. Still, it really was time for a major hardware upgrade.
Anyway, that all is mostly done, but my website was put on hold and is not completed. I just couldn't wait, though. I put up what I have finished and will continue to update it as time allows and when I am able to decipher all the post-it notes I have sticking everywhere.
It really is just in the start-up phase. I have so much more I want to do and share.

If you would like to see, you can go to Elsa.

There's Always an Exception

My creative philosophy generally leans toward..Less is more..

I also believe something is not finished until you think it is finished.
I thought I had finished this wreath, but after looking at it more and more, I decided it needed MORE.

It you've seen the first version, you will see that I added a bow and a lot more "stuff" at the bottom

I do like this one better.

Now That Halloween is Over

It is time for one of my favorite times of the year.

I helped my daughter make this wreath to hang on one of our front doors.

I purchased the scarecrow SVG files from Scrappy Dew.
I created the burlap, denim, straw hat, striped fabric and pumpkin fabric in Photoshop and Xara Designer Pro to use as my patterned cardstock.
I printed squares of each pattern large enough to cut out the appropriate pieces. I don't have the patience to cut multiple tiny pieces of many different colors of cardstock so I cut those pieces from white cardstock and colored them with alcohol ink pens.
The eyes are painted with acrylic paint.

It looks different hanging and in photos than it did laying on my craft table. After looking at it for awhile, I have just about decided to add a bow at the top and maybe some more filler flowers and/or foliage at the bottom.

Between the cooler weather and the rain, it just felt good doing something Fall..ish.

Ladybugs and Thistle

I colored these with alcohol inks. Still working out my techniques.

The background was digitally created and light enough to add additional elements if I choose.

Lunchtime

Here is another attempt at using the Spectrum Noir markers.

I tried something different with the background on this one. I digitally created a colored background. I also took a little "artistic license" with the colors that I chose to use.

I've found only one thing so far that I don't particularly like about markers. I am incapable of drawing as fine a line as I would like. Maybe that will improve with time.

EDITED: I tried adding detail with a water-based ink pen. They work great under and over the alcohol markers without smearing as long as they are dry. My problem with the pen lines is that they are consistent in width from the base to the tip. You can't add pressure to deviate the line. For me, this is a must to create flowing, more natural looking lines. Next up...my trusty brush.

I Succumbed

I have resisted purchasing a set of alcohol markers for years. Goodness knows I have enough painting products to last me forever. Are they the brands being sold today for the current paper trends? Not all of them. Are they the same products? Most, yes, and I've done a great many of the "new" techniques in the past just on different surfaces. So...honestly, I didn't really NEED the markers. Not even to keep up...so to speak. That fact has helped me resist them. Until now.

When a friend posted a link to a site that had them on sale, I succumbed. Coincidentally, I had been looking at them again that very morning. I purchased the whole set of Spectrum Noir Markers.

I made a few digital stamps from some of my own drawings while I waited for my markers to arrive. I've managed to complete two of them.
Learning to work with a new painting medium is fun and exciting. For me, though, it is also a slow process. I like to play as I learn and usually end up veering off in umpteen different directions.

Here are scans of the two completed projects.

I did this first one just to see how the markers work and to get the feel of them.

I did this one to see if I could blend the colors to get some mottled texture without distinct edges.

I must say, even though I have a lot to learn, I rather like working with them.

It Finally Progressed to This

Compositing is the combining of visual elements from separate sources into single images. This type of photo manipulation helps greatly in the understanding of color, light, and movement. Every element has to combine into a cohesive whole. Sometimes I can make it work...others not so much.

I started out with this photo of a Giant Swallowtail. There were a number of them that kept coming back to our Purple Cone flowers and I took many photos over a period of days. This was not the most technically successful photo I took but I like it and wanted to see what I could do with it. It took several versions for me to get over my hangup of messing with a traditional photo. I'm glad I did.

I chose to use this version to make a popup card.

For World Travelers

It was suggested to me that I should create a Texas postcard front with a world traveler sort of feel but focusing on Texas. The requirements were that the name of a city and an image symbolizing that city would be the predominate focal point and easily changed to represent another city.

I think this one meets those requirements but could easily be changed to also represent the state as a whole or just certain regions of the state. For example, instead of a city's name, it could just say Greetings from Texas and any "Texas" image could be used. The same could be done for the different regions of Texas...West Texas, the Hill Country, East Texas, the Red River Valley, etc...
Each are Texan but with unique, and usually recognizable, attributes.

This is a composite image for display purposes. The actual file is just the front of the card.

As a side note: The NTTA is opening the Chisholm Trail Parkway this Sunday. It is a 27.6-mile toll road that will extend from downtown Fort Worth south to Cleburne.

The actual Chisholm Trail was a trail used to drive cattle overland from ranches in Texas to Kansas railheads. The cattlemen rounded up longhorns by the millions in Texas and drove them north across the Indian Nations into Kansas.
It went through Fort Worth then right by where we live now as does the new Chisholm Trail Parkway.

I can't say that I am too happy to have a major road running less than a mile west of my home. It did however peak my curiosity about the Chisholm Trail and I have learned a lot about the area in which I live. It is also the inspiration for the card front.

She's a Ham

This photo is a couple of years old. She was up in my wildlife blind and I was standing on the ground.

She heartily hams it up for the camera which is mostly always fun. I found it was hard to get good, natural posed shots so I opted to go the spontaneous route. Otherwise, both of the girls would put on this phony, fake smile.

I have always liked the expression on her face in this one so I decided to try to make the most of it.

Original:

This is what I did to it.

Multi-Tasking

I am still working on my Photoshop class homework. While I am doing that, I am "thinking" about another project I want to try with my digital cutter. It has required a lot of research but I think I now have a direction in which to precede. I am still designing the file and have tried a few things that didn't suit so I am planning and picturing it in my head as I work on my photos. Add to that, I am working on a painting. I have reached a brick wall and need to figure out how to proceed with it. I just have to find a crack in that wall to crawl through.

I have APA (Against Photographers Advice) accumulated a lot of images that in no way could be considerd good photos. Most photographers would delete what I have kept as soon as the images are downloaded. Maybe even before. At least that is what they tell me. But, I consider mine a record of memories; adventures taken with friends and family even if they aren't the best. Plus, I don't need good photos to paint from. Hey, they don't even have to be in perfect focus for me to be able to use them as a reference.

I used one of those photos to create a piece for my class.

This was taken at the zoo while on a field trip for home schooled children. None of the animals were particulary co-operative that day.

This is the original picture. Bleh!

This is the first image I created from the original.

I added to the first and created this image.

I like the first one because it maintains the integrity of the white tiger, but I also like the color in the second. I could paint a canvas from either one of them.

Speaking of adding to the first. I added more to the first image I did. The butterfly image. I kept adding until I felt like I was just looking for stuff to stick on it. I knew then that it was enough.

I don't Know

I have always been taught and believed that when you are creating any artistic endeavor that you only add enough additional elements to support your main focus. Or, conversly, you eliminate the unnecessary. Learning to do that is not easy. There is always something more that can be added but should it?

How far do you go?

I have seen artists and artisans alike pile so much stuff into their creation that its focus is completely lost. I have seen scrapbook pages embellished to the point that you can't find the memory that is being preserved. Cards created from papers with big, bold designs then more big, bold elements slapped on top creating a sense of clutter and the excessive frills hugely popular among the Victorian era upperclass and, still to some extent, today. Paintings with so many components that you can't find a point of interest. Photographs stacked on top of photographs, on top of textures, on top of colors until they become surreal.

Again, how far do you go?

Surprise! There are buffalo in the Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. A lot of buffalo. They are hugh, magnificent creatures. It seems that what they like to do most is eat, drink and lay down. Not exciting photography but who can resist?

I took this photograph early one morning.

I created this from the original.

So, how far do you go? Art is highly individualistic. You go, a little or a lot, until it pleases YOU!

An Oldie but Goodie (Sometimes)

The technique of converting an image into black and white then bringing back only isolated areas of color has been around a long time. I like it, but, IMHO, it takes a special image for the technique to work really well. I think those images are far fewer than the number of times I have actually seen it done. Personally, until now, I have only used it on one image.

I have done these just because the technique is a class requirement.

This is my oldest Granddaughter. She's truly a Texas gal.

This is my youngest Granddaughter. She's truly a Texas gal,too.

Come Fly with Me

First, I want to say that I love butterflies just in case you haven't already figured that out. We are lucky that we have a whole slew of Giant Swallowtails flitting around every year. I love to photograph them as well as any others that come our way, but the Swallowtails are so easy. They are large, up to a 6" wingspan, and are not awfully shy. Sometimes I think they even pose. Like everything else, though, I may get some good shots and some that are not so good. Can they be rescued?

Normally I wouldn't dream of manipulating their images, but I have started the Photoshop Artistry course. The first few lessons were on the functions in Photoshop that we will be using in the course and how to create and collect images in order to assemble our image library for use in our composites. We finally had the first lesson on putting everything together. Our assignment was to utilize the information we gleaned from the lesson.

I chose to use an image of one of the Giant Swallowtails in flight.

Before:

After:

Maybe I'm nuts, but I can see the After image on the front of a card with something like,"Come Fly with Me" printed in the less busy space around the butterfly. Can you?

I think I May Be in Trouble

I signed up for a different kind of photography class today. Its mission is to attempt to teach a dummy like me how to digitally turn my photos into fine art. I love the layered, blended, even grunge look. I know in my head what I want something to look like but sometimes have trouble getting there.

Here's the problem. I agree some images, probably even most, need to be left very traditional. However, there are many that are just perfect for experimenting with to see what more can be done with them. My husband disagrees. He's an_everything needs to be squared to the wall_ kind of guy. He'll line up a foot stool, chair, kitchen appliance or whatever straight to the wall. I'll come along grab the stool with my toe and give it a kick. Where and how it lands is where I want it. I turn a lot of my things on the counter so they are not lined up in neat little rows. He turns them back. Then the process starts all over. He straightens, I turn, he straightens, I turn. We're both pretty much running on autopilot now.

He does not like the photos I mess with. I do but think I can do much better. We shall see.

Here are a few that I have done. I think it will be fun to compare after the course.

Van Granny

This is absolutely the last post I am going to make regarding a decision that was made or an action that was taken predicated on events out of our control. Things are Great now and looking up more and more every day. I thought this one turned out funny, though.

Because of circumstances, my husband and I were discussing the possibility that we might have to sell our house. We started analyzing what changes might need to be made in order for it to sell quickly. A major problem that we could see, at least in a Realtor's eyes, is that I LOVE color...lots and lots of color. There is not a single color I do not like and firmly believe that every one of them has its right place. My kitchen and breakfast area was the canvas for my palette. We knew we were going to have to get the walls back to a neutral color, which we did.

I started looking for things that I could hang on the, now, to me, boring walls. I found a place that sells crops of Van Gogh's paintings that have been sublimated onto ceramic tiles. I ordered the most colorful ones I could. I also ordered some frames designed specifically for ceramic tiles. The day my goodies arrived, the Grands were here. We all had a hand in deciding how and where they would be hung. Mission accomplished, but it wasn't enough. They filled one area, but I had more wall to cover.

In one of the painting classes I teach, the students each take a turn choosing what they would like to paint and we all paint the same thing. One was of some grapes with very colorful leaves and background. I have grapes and some of those colors already in my kitchen. I could hang that. Check!

I went through some of my own photos and cropped out some colorful sections, reduced the detail to make them look more painterly, over saturated the colors and put them in the same color frames as the ceramic tiles. Would it work? We thought so. Check!

My Granddaughters call these my Van Grannys. Bless their hearts. I think it takes a colossal ego to put my stuff next to Van Gogh's. One thing can be said, though. It is colorful.

A Random Exercise

I love working with paper and have an electronic die cutter... The Blackcat Cougar.

I have decided I would like to design some paper hats. No particular reason other than I have been sewing some fabric hats and visors and thought it would be fun to try some with paper. To start, I have just made my designs into....well...hats. Once I have the concept down, I can revamp the designs and turn them into containers or boxes to hold something. I could also make them smaller for treat boxes. Whatever.....

The first hat I wanted to be floppy and yellow polka-dotted. I couldn't find any yellow polka-dotted cardstock. I could design my own, but I do not have a 12 x 12 printer. Anything smaller would make a hat smaller than I wanted. So, I painted white polka-dots onto yellow card stock with acrylic paint and a sponge dauber. I was afraid the acrylic paint might inhibit me from getting a good cut, but the Blackcat cut right through it like butter.

I added some grosgrain ribbon for the band and bow. I also designed some Southern Magnolias for embellishment.

Here is a close-up of the magnolias. I've applied a "technique" to this image. I think the image itself could be incorporated into a paper project.
I prefer most images that I use within my paper projects to not look too realistic so I am always playing with them to "mess them up" as my husband says.