texture tuesday: white

Kim Klassen encouraged us to work with white this week.  Not a usual subject or color way for me, none-the-less I scoured my photo archives and found a couple of different options.

Original photo:

Taken outside Caesar's in Las Vegas.  Cropped & adjusted by duplicating the photo at screen, adding Kim's "word" texture at saturation 69% (removed much of the blue), and finally adding "anabelle" at pin light 54% for the music detail.

Original photo #2:

Daisies in my neighbor's yard.  Adjusted by adding Kim's "word" at linear light blending mode 24% and then for some texture, "stamped softly" texture at soft light 69%.

Another fun exercise; thanks Kim!  Please take a minute to see the other talented participants and maybe even join in yourself!

texture tuesday: anything goes

Kim at Kim Klassen's Cafe is leaving this week's Texture Tuesday (tomorrow) wide open - just use at least one of her free textures.  This group makes THE most gorgeous, soft, romantic, elegant images filled with beautiful flowers and scenery.  I usually comply.  This week I'm a rebel!  I had the idea of beginning with one of my collages, adding a texture and going from there.  What I came up with surprised me and I think I've found a new tool to inspire painting/journal entries:

(ED:  Ooops - as I went to link up, I discovered I apparently missed a week and this week's theme was to use her texture Felicity.....last week was free and easy.  Oh well, hope you guys don't mind....  Next week's theme is to focus around the color white & texture.  I'll remember, promise!)

My original images:

Some paint and collage of magazine pages.

The gazing ball in our yard covered with frost and shadows.

Kim's texture Ugg Love.  Mix and stir and blend them all together and I came up with this:

I flattened my art and the texture to make a new 'texture' layer then applied it to the gazing ball at difference 85%, duplicated that layer again and used vivid light blending mode at 90%.  One of the best things about textures and blending is the vast variety of results - it's such a great way to explore color combinations.  I also tried these:

Look what happens when you distort one of the textures layers, offsetting the collage elements.

As you can see, the options are endless and just like with actual painting, the trick is knowing when to stop!  Here's to a week of experimenting for all of us!  Be sure to stop by Kim's and check out all the pretty and inspiring images.

Okay, here's one pretty one for those of you that made it this far:

I used two textures, Light Paper and If Only then erased most of each over the middle of the flower leaving only the edge details.  FUN!
Also linking to Creative Every Day - I often forget to link to this each week, but it's a great resource to follow some really creative ladies.

texture tuesday: simplicity

Today Kim's prompt is to use her free texture Simplicity with one of our photos....  (join in each week over at Kim Klassen Cafe)

With this image I actually duplicated the texture to get the cool texture on the edges to show up.

Some frosty leaves from this week look even more golden with the texture added.  Thanks again for the inspiration Kim!

texture tuesday: easy

Happy New Year!  Hope you all had a fun and safe start to 2012.  I'm so looking forward to this year's artistic endeavors and watching all of you progress and inspire.  It will be an exciting year!

Like many of you, I've set a few goals - some are fairly loose - but the general idea is to grow my artistic skills and expand my knowledge.  My plans include improving my drawing skills with regular practice (will try using prompts from Everyday Matters), improve my photographic skills, and finally play and experiment and learn with my art journal and collage/mixed media efforts.  Sounds like fun, right?!

To start the new year, Kim Klassen is easing us back into the flow with a simple prompt for Texture Tuesday - use one of her textures on a photo. Since she offers so many free ones (thanks Kim!), that's pretty easy. For this photo I added posterize edges, copied it in overlay mode at 58%, copied it again in difference mode at 37%, then added TWO of Kim's textures:  Grunge, overlay at 32% and Cosmo, multiply at 80%.

I'm off to finish packing up Christmas decorations and then pull out my sketch pad.  Because I want to practice sketching every day.  I do.  I can.  I will! :)

I'm also adding this to Sweet Shot Tuesday and Tuesday Tips and Pics (both for the first time).  I found these two sites from Kathy at You'll Shoot Your Eye Out (love her photos!)

peace

Mortal Muses prompt for today is "peace" and while I embrace the need and desire for global peace, it's sometimes too .... um, too vague or out of reach.  More directly and immediate is "peace and quiet" which is a highly prized state!  I find peace in quiet and can spend all day without music or TV and be perfectly happy, content and peaceful!

Texture by Skeletal Mess (or Shadowhouse)

Imagining peace, I staged this shot - a warm, comfy throw, a good book (absolutely necessary), a cuppa, a big fluffy pillow for my back, and silence!  Join me?

Each day Mortal Muses posts a prompt as well as the opportunity to win a range of very cool prizes (presents :)) so be sure to join in!  Tomorrow is "joy".

aedm -day 28 portrait

This digi art effort started out for my 365 day photo (the end is near!), then realized I could use it for the scavenger hunt hosted by Ashley, then if I added a texture I could use it for Texture Tues with Kim.  So, here goes:

The 2 photos I started with are:

I cropped the one of me and cut me away from the background (I didn't get enough tree bokeh). I love the colors in the frosty leaves so placed me over them.  I duplicated the background, changed it to soft light 45% and did a strong blur so it's mostly color, no shapes.

Then the magic of textures takes over.  I used 2 of Kim's:  autumn burst @ soft light 90% and crackerjack @ hard light 50%.  I added a bokeh texture that I think is from Shadowhouse @ soft light 100% to arrive at the final image.
This is linked to AEDM (day 28 already!), Texture Tuesday and on Sunday will be part of my scavenger hunt (portrait) with Ashley.

ED: I just went to link to Texture Tues and realized this week is about gratitude.  While I didn't take or process this photo thinking of gratitude, it could certainly apply - look how happy I look!  That's because I'm grateful for my life - I have the best husband and great kids; we have our health and we all have jobs; I have a circle of supportive and encouraging friends.  So many people don't have home computers (yes, it's true!) and easy access to the internet so I'm grateful I have the tools and time to develop my creativity.  The list goes on and on, but basically I'm grateful I have such a comfortable and loving life.  I wish the same for you.

AEDM day 8 and texture tuesday

I can't believe it's Tuesday again already and time for Kim Klassen's Texture Tues.  Her theme is "two" - an interesting challenge with so many possibilities.

My take is to use a leaf I picked up (I gathered leaves in Vermont on vacation and brought them home and then gathered piles of them from here at home - some yet-to-be-determined project in the making.....), dried and pressed, then scanned.  

 I duplicated the leaf, added a shadow and put them over a fall tree photo in the background that I blurred out.  Next I added a gradient level (at 49%) using one of the golden tan colors picked from the leaves.

Finally I added Kim's texture Pourvous at 100% Hard Light for a simple finish.  Not as many layers as some of my other creations, but a strong finish I think.

This is my AEDM entry for day 8 and my Texture Tuesday and Texture Thursday entry.

AEDM -day 4

My entry for Photo Art Friday (hosted by Bonnie at Pixel Dust).  The challenge was to embrace trying something new...a different style or technique - well, I certainly did that!  But, I dunno.  I've been working on this off and on all week and I'm mostly happy with this - I like the colors, I like the change I made that made the leaves look less like leaves and more abstract, I like the zentangle pattern down the side (looks kinda tribal), like the hide & seek words.  If it's true that the whole is a sum of it's parts, I should love this.  But.

Here was my earlier version:

My recipe:
started with 2 of my photos

Played with the hue/saturation on each and erased much of the dahlia, moving it to the edge
Duplicated leaf layer, blending mode vivid light 90%
Duplicated leaf again, blending mode linear light 100% and offset it from original leaves to obscure them
Added text texture layer from Skeletal Mess
Duplicated dahlia, cut and moved to upper corner, erased edges
Added encaustic texture from Nancy Donaldson for subtle circles at top
Added concentric circle scrapbooking element at vivid light, 15%
Added piece of one of my zentangles repeated down the edge, all at 65% opacity

This is my AEMD and my photo art - you really should check out some of the others to be properly impressed!  Even better, join in!  I'm also linking to Artists in Blogland on Saturday.

   AEDM link

AEDM -day2

 AEDM

This is a work in progress for Photo Art Friday - I'm struggling a bit with getting the images/layers to do what I have in my head.  So far I've layered a couple of my photos and snippets of a zentangle piece I did.  Lots of color and filter tweaking but I've got some more to do I think.  I'm certainly open to suggestions, recommendations, critique - I'm learning and will learn faster with some constructive feedback.  I'm tough, I can take it!

PAF theme is to make digital art outside your comfort zone - try new techniques, etc.  In my head I wanted something really abstract and hard to recognize the original images but to me I can still see the leaves and flower.  Is that okay or should I play with it more?  Also these are some zingy colors - too bright?  too vivid?  I'll have to think on it..... :)

Be sure to see all the other wonderful things people are creating this month:  Art Every Day Month

texture tuesday: and then some

Kim's challenge this week is to use her texture 'and then some'.....thought I'd try it on something other than a flowery thing this time -

I love this shot of my cat - so, first I copied the background and changed it to soft light (65%) to enhance the contrast, then I added the texture AndThenSome and changed the blending to soft light (100%) for the soft look and erased it at the center of the flower and around Tigger's eyes/nose.

Be sure to check out all the other great texture ideas going on for Texture Tuesday over at Kim Klassen's site.  I'll also be linking to Texture Thursday.

texture tuesday: doubles

The theme for this week at Kim Klassen's is just to use 2 of her textures - she offers so many great ones for free, it's easy to find a couple to enhance any style of photo.

My 365 POTD today is of a ceramic pear in my collection - I liked the play of shadows from the sun (we don't get that all that often here in Seattle).  While the pic was okay, I thought it a good subject to manipulate with some texture.
BEFORE:

AFTER:

The two textures I used were 'stamped softly' for the linen like texture and words and tea stained for the warm color and random splotches.  Both very cool textures Kim.  Be sure to visit Kim's site to see lots more beautiful photography!