Ida’s Dream

Ida had lived very quietly all her 24 years. Her mother and father did not like disruption and noise. They only had Ida because she came along. They frowned highly on her crying when she was a baby and quickly let her know as she grew older that they would not tolerate any undue commotion in their lives.

So Ida’s life turned into a routine of oatmeal for breakfast, then off to her all girls school, then home in the evening to study quietly in her room. Supper was a very quiet affair as Ida’s father believed conversation and digestion were not a good mix.

As soon as Ida graduated from high school her father put her to work in his office. She spent her days sorting papers and putting them in large filing cabinets in a small room in the basement of her father’s building. It was a very quiet job.

Ida may have been quiet all day for those 24 years. But. At night as she lay in her bed waiting to drift off to sleep, Ida had dreams before her dreams.

Ida dreamed she would travel to Paris and become a Can Can dancer. Ida would dance to the loud beautiful music every night and hear the men and women laughing and applauding and cheering.

The music would be loud. The people would be loud. The color would be loud. And she, Ida would be loud.

Ida’s Dream a photo collage created in PSE7 and Photoshop CS4. The 2 vintage images are freebies from Gaby Braun.

Ever onward my dreaming friends.

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Lion In Winter

Samhai was a king of lions many seasons ago when the animals and humans were still on   talking terms. As king, he was of course, friends with the kings of all the communities around his. This included the king of the humans in the small, nearby village. As friends, the kings were committed to helping each other out in times of need.

It became necessary one day for King Samhai to so with the King of the humans. The humans’ village was struck by hording pillagers from the east. The King was mortally wounded and called for Samhai. When the human king lay dying, King Samhai promised, that he would guard the village from further marauders until they could care for themselves once again.

So King Samhai left his own pride of lions and came to the village of humans. He sat with his shield for weeks and months and years keeping watch over the humans so they could be safe. King Samhai sat for so long on his corner keeping watch that he finally turned to stone. And now, even in the winter, he guards the large city that has arisen around him.

 

Lion in Winter photomontage.

Many layers including a picture of a lion from Savannah, a fence, 2 different flowers, toy truck, and cloth. Made in PSE7.

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News of the Day

Well that’s what it says in the paper that I’ve put in this digital photo montage. I don’t have any news other than I’ve made this for you to enjoy!

I started this with a lovely lady freebie from the internet. She was hearing something far away and I had just the shell she needed to use to catch the words flowing towards her from somewhere out there.

I masked her onto a shell I took a picture of this past summer. I also gave her some color and a spotlight. She deserves one, don’t you think?

The very back background is a portion of an art journal page which I duplicated and added a color burn to as well as a mask.

The next thing I added was some weird lit squares I had a picture of. I masked that and added a soft light to it.

Then came the newspaper clipping which is another from our cabin walls. I stretched it out to where I liked the placement. I used multiply at 92 percent on it. Hey,no mask on that layer, amazing!!

I next put a black color fill layer in and used a couple of different brushes with white to get the border.

I decided I still needed something in the background, it didn’t look layered enough or textured enough for me. So I added a layer of crushed oyster shells with a screen style and yes, masked it. Then it was done!

Getting easier to use the PSE7: not thinking so hard about where things are anymore. The mouse is easier to use now too, altho I still miss my pen tool!

Ever onward my listening friends!

Technorati Tags: digital photomontage,PSE7,masks,vintage photo,log cabin,art journal,layers,texture

So I Only Made One Photomontage Today!

This is called: “Here Spot, Can I keep him?”

I imagine the little girl having dragged him away from his porch just down the street.. You know how little girls and puppies can be. And Spot’s Mom just realized he is gone and is calling him.

The little girl, I got from the internet a couple of years ago a freebie. I did extract her from her background and messed with her color and contrast and all that good stuff plus wiggled her around till she fit in the chairs better. (I think with CS4  I could have done a much better job of this ‘cause it has the warp feature. But I hafta work with what I have at hand:PSE7.)

The chairs are from the World’s Longest Yard Sale,I think last year. I thought they were cool looking between the color and the rust.

The dog is my daughter’s, Oscar. I’ve added some of my paper with a layer style.

The main background is actually an art journal page of mine before I added the words.

I then blended in a picture of a building in Chicago(turned sideways) and a log, for their textures.

I just painted in the edges after adding a gradient layer.

That’s it for today. I’m hoping my back is better. Thanks for all the words of support! At least I’ve been able to keep up with my email the last few days!!

Ever onward my spotty friends!

Technorati Tags: photomontage,PSE7,texture,dog,vintage photo,chairs

 

Last post of the day!

Really!!

I just had to show you the final photomontage I did today in PSE7 sitting here at my laptop. This was with no Wacom pad either! Just my mouse and my little laptop, sitting here with my stupid back, trying not to twist the wrong way!

I call this Flower Girls. I made this with an old cabinet card I found as a freebie on the internet a long time ago.Then I masked and blended like crazy and used five pics from my garden to decorate the dresses.

The yellow is just a solid color fill layer that I masked to just get the areas I wanted. This included painting in a belt! There is a layer in there of marble for texture from a photo I took in a bathroom somewhere!

I used a photo of the underside of an old lawnmower I took a couple of years ago for the background.Again used blending and a mask to make it work. Blending is what I call using the layer styles in case you haven’t figured that out yet.

The final thought for the day: will I do more tomorrow, or have I now burnt out for now?

Technorati Tags: Photoshop Elements 7,PSE7,photomontage,flower girls,flowers,texture,vintage

Two posts in One Day!

So you can tell I have nothing better to do than sit at my laptop and work at PSE7! I can’t go tripping up and down the steps to the studio, and I can’t really figure out what to do art wise that I can get himself to corral in just a few minutes down there. So this seems the best thing to do with my time.

I have been using that mask action like crazy! Here it is used on just about every layer of this photomontage.

That’s a picture of our driveway and a great blue heron from the nearby lake. Also I used a headlight from an old fire truck. The plaid on the heron is a pattern I made. The door is a picture my sister Chrystal sent me last year.

Fun stuff, fun times…oh except for the little back thing. That’s ok. As long as I’m having fun,eh?!

Technorati Tags: Photoshop Elements 7,PSE7,photomontage,masks,heron,bird,door,fire truck,headlight,pattern

I AM ZORRO!!

Why you ask?

Because I have a mask now!!

Yes I went poking around the old internet this am as my back is still yelling at me. And I found an action for using a layer mask on Photoshop Elements 7, or PSE 7 or Elements 7 or whatever you want to call it.

I found it at at a wonderful site called Coffeeshop. She has a plethora of info on PSE and lots of free actions that I’ve not started to explore yet as I wanted to quickly pass on the info to anyone passing this way!

So now back to our regularly scheduled day.

Ever onward my masked friends!

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My Stupid Back!

Is totally acting up again. So no trip to SC for us this weekend. Drat it all anyway! I was really looking forward to this as both a getaway, and a photo op. Not to mention, it would be a chance to see folks I haven’t in about ten years! And I would be with Brian and Lori, our son and his wife all weekend. That’s always so nice. They are a joy to be with.

So I should have been on the road all day today, enjoying the lovely fall scenery between TN and SC. I have instead been carefully moving around so as not to blow my back completely to the screaming point.

I caught up on my Google reader and cleared a lot of junk out of my email!

And now I’ve loaded Live Writer on here so I can add this to my Blog. Busy gal, I’ve been!

I then decided to load Adobe Elements 7 on here (I’m on my  PC laptop upstairs, not my Mac, down in the studio). I never had figured out how to really use this, so thought I’d give it another try. Boy is it weird (when compared to Photoshop CS4. So here is what I did with it this afternoon.

All of that is my doing. In another words, I didn’t use any of the gadgets from Elements. Oh, unless you count a drop shadow, and I don’t, ‘cause CS4 has that!

But I sure miss masks in Elements! Did I just not see it? I looked around. That is a major drawback for me, as I use masks all the time.

Oh, I just remembered. An interesting tidbit about the piece that is corrugated with the cowboy comic on it. It actually came off one of the logs that make up our cabin walls! We had to strip the logs when we got them, of all the nails and various bits of papers before they could get built back up again. I’ve got the bits and pieces saved. Fun, eh?!

Ever onward my strong as oxen friends!

Technorati Tags: Photoshop elements 7,flamingo,photo collage,log cabin

On art journals and other things

So I said last time I would share a few more of my art journal pages from the class I took. Here are the last few I made to go with the various lessons/videos Julie shared with us.

 

This was done with layers of monotone. Then I just pulled the lady out of the paint using a dip pen and India ink. The white is also done with a dip pen and ink.

This is many layers of several colors built up over some collage pieces. Again a dip pen with ink is used for the writing.

 

Just 2 colors here followed up with some oil pastel on the edges and dip pen and ink for the sketching and writing. The figure at the top of the bird house is just what I saw when the color blocks were finished. The bird is made from a photo I took. I used deli paper that I stamped and watercolored to make the individual segments.

 

This had a couple of blocks of color laid down first then I spray painted through a couple of stencils. Reversed the flower one on the bottom to make the flower at the top look so faded and cool!

 

I’ll end today with a photomontage I quickly did this morning for my sister Chrystal. Her husband took the initial picture of her out working with him.

They and some other guys have to pull and count all these thousands of small fish out of this net. Hours they spent doing this! It was an unusual situation. Usually they have bigger fish that they are tagging and counting and releasing.

Ever onward my drier art friends!

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So it is just so nice outside

that I don’t even want to be in the studio  at all!

I want to be out with Tommy and whichever of the 5 cats are awake!

I feel like  soaking up any little bit of the sun ‘cause I know soon there won’t be any…just cold dreary days. And then I’ll be hunkered down under lots of layers of warm winter clothing.

I’m a summer gal now! Give me a glowing sun, warm days, green grass or even better sand and ocean, and I’m a happy camper.  The winter chill that is coming cuts right through to my bones, and leaves me unable to think clearly.

So, I’ve been gathering the wonderful rays of warm yellow to keep safe for as long as I can during the coming winter siege. But that means art takes a back seat.

I did make this digital montage this morning. (be sure to click on it to get the full effect) I had been thinking of Van Gogh lately, and this is a tribute to his Starry Nights, called Starry Hollyhocks.

I would like to thank Renate over at Put a Little Magic in Your Life for letting me use a picture of her freshwater pearls as a background texture in this.

There is more texture in this,including a fabric piece and the log cabin itself that is behind where the hollyhocks grew.

So now back to the sun, with the dog and cats before that gorgeous moon comes up and steals it away!

Ever onward my sunlit friends.

Technorati Tags: digital montage,digital collage,flowers,texture,sunshine,Van Gogh

Happy Halloween!!

Still busy doing lots of different things around here. Not taking many pics though, it seems. And Nothing much worth blogging about.

I mean do you want to hear about my wonderful puppy anymore and the fact that he only does tricks for treats? Ooh that’s great on Halloween, isn't it?!

Or that I have still been working on art journal pages? But wait, I will post some of those I think.

Or that I’ve started working on my Color Block series again?

Or that I am STILL working on cleaning up the studio. I said it would be a long process. I do it bin by bin. And I don’t do it every day. I can only stand it that way. But I’ve made a lot of progress. I’ve gotten rid of lots of things I thought I needed. But now I know I’ll not use them in the future. Just not geared that way now.

You probably do want to hear that the class with Julie Pritchard was fantastic. She says she has another class coming soon. And the 3 classes she already has, stay open, so you can sign up for them any time.

I found online classes a refreshing way to learn. I do believe I will investigate these types further. If anyone has experience with some. let me know.

I leave you with a pic of Tommy from last month!

So I’m Still Here!

I’ve been here, there, and nowhere in particular.

I’ve done this and that, and a whole lotta nothing in particular.

I’ve seen Him and Her, and no one in particular.

BUT.

I’ve been doing a whole lotta art journaling ala Super Nova’s Julie Prichard.

Here are a few examples:

Fun stuff! I love this class! I’m learning ton’s and bunches.

I’ll be back!!

Technorati Tags: art journal pages,acrylics,breast cancer month,Super Nova class

Having A great time,Wish you were there!

I have started an online workshop with Julie Prichard at the Land of Lost Luggage. It’s called Super Nova Art Journaling. How cool is that for a workshop?

So any way, I’m having a wonderful learning experience over there. And that's after only two, yes 2, videos!! I still have many more to come.

Julie is terrific in that she is always there answering questions and providing feedback. And there are lots of others in the class to do the same. This will be a fun few weeks, I can see that from these first couple of lessons.

So here are the first few backgrounds I did. I haven’t added the words yet as I’m awaiting further instructions ala some super spy, ya know! But I have what I want to say for them written on Post It notes, so I won’t forget! (I’ll eat them if the bad guys get too close!)

I’ll write in the pink blocks, later.

This smaller journal page, I’ll add a picture to.

Again, the writing will be in the light bocks.

Now I’m off to work on the second lesson. What fun. This is really helping me loosen up. I sure needed this.

Ever onward my studious cohorts!

Technorati Tags: julie prichard,land of lost luggage,art journals,workshop,acrylics

Who Knew?

 

Not me that’s for sure! I’ve never had my eyebrows “done” so I always thought it hurt. But no. It didn’t. Just a slight tug, a little sting for a millisecond. Then pretty eyes!

And thus a quick art journal page is born.

The lady is from an old 60’s mag that I gessoed over. Black and white of course. She originally had curly hair wearing a hat. I more heavily gessoed the hair and put a bit of texture in it with the knife. That was fun! Then I just had at it with the acrylics.

I’ve been busy working on several things.

And puppy training. Lots of puppy training!

Weather here has been wet wet wet. We have mushrooms growing on top of mushrooms out there now! And the dehumidifier is running nonstop down in these lower rooms. I think the word for this is: Soggy!

Ever onward, artful folks

Technorati Tags: art journal,acrylics,gesso texture,weather

Playing Art

I had a nice comment from Sharon on my previous post and it resulted in this art journal page!

The funny thing is that the bits and pieces are from cleaning up my studio. I was putting them away and knew they would work on this page.

The paper behind the girl is a torn map we used on a trip a few years ago. I put layers of acrylic glazes on both sides and crumpled the edges as it dried so that it would stay in that shape.

The corrugated piece is cardboard from which I had torn the top part ‘cause I like the writing. Then I found I liked the corrugation left behind! That’s it layered with acrylics, glazes, watercolor crayons and here comes the surprise…fingernail polish! The polish was sort of finely glittery and green. I just put it on sparingly here and there in strategic locations!

To write on, I used an old bit of my own wheat paste paper mounted on some thick colored vellum I got from I don’t know where. The vellum was just one of those small bits and pieces of which I have so many different kinds. I’ve collected these over the last bazillion years and I’m trying to figure out how to organize so I can actually use them!

The face was a strange learning thing: It’s done on regular weight light purple paper with watercolor crayons. The whole time I was working on it, It was much darker than it is here. When it dried, it turned I’d say about 50% lighter than how it was as I worked on it. I was shocked! But I wasn’t gonna throw it away. Just lesson learned…Regular weight paper holds the water and makes it look darker than the end result. So I either won’t use that kind of paper again, or I’ll go even darker as I’m painting.

So, when I'm “playing ART”, my mind is in a much sweeter, happier place. And that is the first step to getting the stink out! First steps lead to second and so on…

Ever onward my sweet smelling friends!

Technorati Tags: art journal,watercolor crayons,acrylics,acrylic glazes,cardboard,playing art