PAF: entrance

I haven't participated in Photo Art Friday in months and months.  I love working on digital art but it all just takes so much time.  And now since I haven't done it in so long I've forgotten many of the techniques that I'd figured out and liked.  But, I want to edge back in now and then so I don't totally forget everything.

Bonnie at Pixel Dust Studio hosts a Friday (open Thurs nites for links) roundup where you can share your photo art efforts.  She offers a weekly theme if you want, but you're encouraged to share whatever you've been working on.  This week's theme:  Entrances/Exits.  My submission:  Enter Spring with a quote by AA Milne.

My photo of a snowy daffodil is blended with Bonnie's Blank Page texture.  It might be a bit premature to hint at spring, but I'm employing a little wishful thinking.....  :)

PAF

I haven't participated in a long time, but Fridays are Photo Art Friday over at Bonnie's Pixel Dust Photo Art and to start the new year she suggested using our 'word-of-the-year' as a starting point. Since I actually chose one of those and drew it, I decided to use it in creating a bit of digital art.

I started by using the cutout from my lettering project and added layer upon layer - bits from my photos and collages and from some scrapbooking elements.....all thrown together, tweaked and manipulated til I came up with this.....don't think it's the best digital thing I've ever done, but I'm a little out of practice - it'll get better!

As I worked on this, the digital manipulation ideas and tools starting returning and I remember how much I enjoy experimenting with it - but oh my goodness, there's just not enough time in the day to do everything I love to do.  How to choose?  I guess I'll just work on what I feel like doing at the moment and other stuff can wait, right?  Collaging and mail art and mixed media exploration will still be there .......

paf: horizon

Bonnie at Pixel Dust Photo Art is once again hosting Photo Art Friday and this week's prompt is horizon.  I decided to use one of my watercolor paintings and see what I could come up with.  I tried a couple of different paintings with horizons and settled on this....

I like how my merging of the other photo layers gave this painting some texture in the water and sand and made it look a little stormier instead of the calm, glassy feeling of the original.  It's a composite of the following photos of mine:

original painting

icy glass (above) used at overlay blending mode 50%

snowy footprints used at hard light 37%

detail of a mixed media piece which I erased most of except the white stripe and bird used at multiply 61%

Thanks again Bonnie for providing a place to experiment with digital art and often take it way outside my usual boundaries.

photo art friday

Yes, it's only Thursday, but Bonnie (Pixel Dust Photo Art) opens her links early, and I've got a couple things, so there you go.  She was going to take a hiatus from PAF through the summer, but thankfully has changed her mind!  I love the range of creativity that shows up from her participants.

This week I wasn't terribly inspired with "new" ideas, so just worked in my semi-comfort zone.....

First, a simple version of tulips with a rainy overlay and Bonnie's texture Grunge Surprise (didn't note the blending & opacities, sorry).

Then I got fancy (or weird) and layered in some more photos, did some erasing, added another texture, discarded lots of options and settled on this....

Original photos:

Textures:

Drippy by Vintage Findings, flickr

Grunge Surprise by Bonnie at Pixel Dust Photo Art

FABrique by Bonnie.

Digital geniuses hang out at Bonnie's so be sure to check out the talented digi-art.

paf: use a quote

Okay, you KNOW I love a good quote!  So combining photos and quotes in this challenge for Bonnie's Photo Art Friday - the hard part was stopping!

I used the same quote illustrated in a few different ways.  Hope you'll enjoy my vision.

"The question is not what you look at, but what you see."  Henry David Thoreau

This SOOC shot is brown hillside reflected in water and the gentle wake of our boat.  Sometimes "what you see" is just taking the time to really notice the details around you.  (No, I really didn't use the wave or any other PSE filter, though it looks like I did)

This image from San Juan Capistrano illustrates how "what you look at" might be many things - the texture of an old building, the play of light, the reflection of a tree in the glass, or the addition of some subtle texture (Bonnie's Vellum texture at multiply 80%).

Finally, "what you see" might be something that evolves, created from several photos combined to make a new image, full of meaning or maybe whimsy.

I combined the following three photos, turned the building, reduced opacity on the San Juan Capistrano bells and did a little judicious erasing.

Sunset from Alki Beach, Seattle.

A Las Vegas hotel.

Fountain and bells at San Juan Capistrano.

Be sure to check out other artistic offerings over at Photo Art Friday.

PAF: macro

This week Bonnie at PixelDustPhotoArt challenged us to make 'art' with a macro photo.  Oh boy!  I love macro....of course most of mine are floral but I do have some others, so I did one of each :)

My artistic interpretation:

I combined the 2 photos below as well as Bonnie's Holy Grunge free texture to give that canvasy texture to the background.  The pod on the left is overlay at 100% and erased where it overlapped the poppy bloom.  The pod on the right is at vivid light, 53% - I like the golden glow around it - also some erasing around it.

My second effort:

For this image I used the original closeup of a bench, layered the ball image on top at difference 100%. Then I copied the bench and stacked it on top of those using pin light at 100% - I slightly erased the ball layer in the white stripes to enhance them more and came up with this abstract look....

Original shots:

Be sure to visit Bonnie and check out all the amazing links - macro photography at its best!

paf: path or road

I haven't had the time to play along with Bonnie's Photo Art Friday themes the last couple weeks, but found myself missing the fun of manipulating my photos and stretching my computer wings so to speak.  So I made time to play at least for a few minutes.  This week's theme is path/road so I'm using this photo I took in Vermont last year.

Original:

The result using Bonnie's Chinks of Light at soft light 65%.  I takes away some of the richness of color but gives it a sunny, brighter look - the squares in 'chinks' are totally lost in the busy photo.

Added another layer: Bonnie's Backlight (overlay 55%) which brightens it even more and makes it have a sun kissed look.

Copied the original image, changed it to black and white then reduced opacity to leave just a hint of color; added one last layer:  Shadowhouse Older Than Dirt, overlay at 100%.

The path seems a little more sinister to me now.....  This was fun - haven't played with my textures in a while - sure wish there were more hours in a day!

PAF: holiday season

Photo Art Friday (PAF) is here again with a very broad theme of showing the holiday hustle and bustle, the preparations or activities so I have a couple to share.

I used Bonnie's Christmas Music and Intensify textures and added posterize filter to this holiday table.

This shot of one of my Santa collection has Old Ornate Linen texture at vivid light 50% and then erased around his face.

Added a little crackle texture, soft light at 55% to this old ornament - one of the few left from my childhood.

And finally, played around with my mantel (both the decor and the processing!).  I used Bonnie's great Christmas Music texture again.....

Happy Holidays to you all and I look forward to starting up again in January.  For now, be sure to visit as many of the participants as you can.  There are a lot of them and I certainly can't visit everyone, but I do my best....

PAF & AEDM-25

Those acronyms in the title look like some high level secret government organizations, but no, they're just challenges I enjoy participating in. Today is PAF (photo art Friday at Pixel Dust) and today's was quite easy - just choose a photo from my archives that I feel never got the 'attention' it deserved.  Well, I don't know about that, but I did pick one that I thought had possibilities that had never been explored.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

This was taken on a beach on Tahiti but the sky was all blown out so it was very underwhelming - though I really like the lines of the trunks.  So, a little texture magic to the rescue.  I used two by Shadowhouse (or Skeletal Mess) - the words using linear light at 15% and then the bokeh for a little sparkle is color burn at 60%.  I tried posterize too because I read last week that it's somebody's favorite go-to adjustment.  I didn't think it helped this particular picture but I'll definitely use it again - it adds some interesting definition.  (I just noticed as I was reviewing the post that the horizon line is crooked. Oops! I'll fix it later.... :))

If you have time between the shopping adventures, take a moment to visit some of the other cool photo art entries this weekend.  I'm also submitting it to AEDM - as the month draws to a close, I'm so appreciative of the new blogging buddies I've discovered and the push/nudge to keep working at my creative endeavors....whatever they might be for that week/day/moment!

Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving (or a fabulous weekend if you're not in the US).

AEDM -day 18

Photo Art Friday is back and I love participating here because I really try to do something different and bold and totally away from my 'norm'.  Sometimes I can't even tell if I like it yet, I just want to try new techniques, new textures and play with the million things PSE can do.

This week we're supposed to share one of our fave techniques and show our work flow.  Well I haven't really been adding textures long enough to have a favorite; every week is a new experiment.  Here's this weeks experiment:

Started with this, a photo of rusty machinery - I liked the colors and general shapes:

This time I really wanted to try to create something totally abstract but starting with these basic shapes.  I cropped and straightened it then went to the PSE filters and added a layer of palette knife and underpainting to give the whole thing a more 'painterly' effect.  I also added the netting in the bottom corner from my digital scrapbooking stash.  It's better already.

Then I added a bokeh texture I picked up somewhere (sorry, no name) and Bonnie's texture from a few weeks ago, Abstract Splotches at hard light, 84%.

I really like how the hint of the original shapes are still here but if you didn't know where I started, it would just appear as a cool abstract.  I think the splotches really add that abstract character.  To try to push the envelope, I added another texture - this one is Razzled Dust by Roshanda Glenn, used at Difference (thanks for the tip Earl K) at 100%  and arrived at total and complete abstraction.

Using Difference totally changed the color combinations and I can barely determine any of the original shapes though the effect is kinda mesmerizing.  To see lots more creative efforts, please be sure to visit Bonnie at Pixel Dust for Photo Art Friday.  She's offering 4 free holiday textures that are very cool and I can't wait to try them.

This is also my creation for AEDM, day 18!  This month is sure zooming by!  Visit all these amazing artists and crafters too - the range of medium will amaze you.