Sunday Sketch--Empty

Been a few weeks since i posted a Sunday Sketch, but never fear, it isn't because I haven't been creating--its because I have been working on a LOT of projects! I was finally ready to take pictures of the studio and the latest arts and the camera battery died. Figures. So this will be a short post to share a sketch with you--the beginning of an art journal spread...

Happy Sunday!

Crusade 52--Seasonal Wardrobe

This month, Michelle asked us about colors and the changing seasons. Do we change pallets the way we change our wardrobe when the weather changes. I have to say--do I ever!! I have favorite color schemes for every season and every holiday!! i had hoped to have a sampling of a bunch of them--but well--you know me--i'm lucky I'm getting this posted before the end of the month! HA!


Anywho. I did make a few new pages with my most favorite color schemes for the summer--beach and sea!!

if it's got mermaids, sand, shells, sea glass....i'm all about it :)

Thanks for taking a look! And stay tuned for my first blog give-away coming soon!!

Paint Party Friday--Change

I haven't had too much studio time since last weekend, but i am always sitting in front of a computer--my "painting" for the party is digitally rendered from a photo i took with my phone last summer :) I will try to give a bit of instruction on how I got from photo to finished painting. Keep in mind, I don't know what I'm doing....lol...just went with something that gave me the look i liked! and i didn't write down the specifics as i went, so this will be a very GENERAL tutorial--lol---i'll pay more attention next time ;)


This is the photo i started with: i opened it in PSE (photoshop elements--i'm using 6.0)--as a safeguard, it is a good practice when you open a photo/background/etc to alter to go to "File:duplicate" to make a copy and then close out the original. Once i have my copy, I select the "background" layer in the layers pallet, right click on it and chose "layer from background." If you don't do this, your background is locked and you can only make certain changes to it.

I started by trying to add artistic filters directly to the photo and wasn't liking it at all. 

• I decided to duplicate the layer and turn it to black and white. 
• I applied the "paint daub filter" to the black/white layer--adjusting all the paint daub options until i thought it looked like watercolor. At this point, i had two layers--the color photograph and the b/w with the filter.
• Selecting the b/w layer, i changed the blending mode to "hard light"--way cool, but i wanted more...
• I duplicated the b/w layer (3 layers now) and changed the blending mode to "luminocity"--sweet.
• I did a "merge visible" to get back to one layer and increased the saturation some. 

So this is where we are: (oh--forgot about the mask i used to get that extra bit of color around the edges--i'll save that for another time)

• I decided the lower right of the "painting" needed some text, so I added a .png file from Club Scrap's Papillion digi scrapbook kit.
• i changed the color of the text to match the blue in the grunge border and then added a "simple bevel" and "low drop shadow" (adding a drop shadow is the key to making any object in your digi art look "3-d")
• merge visible again

If i stopped here, they would be lovely printed up as note cards...but I wanted still more...

• I opened and duplicated a background "paper" from Club Scrap's Raku kit--then drag-and-dropped the painting. I resized and centered it, making it above center just a bit.
• Use the eye dropper color select tool to select a nice shade out of the flower.
• Select the painting--go to "Edit-->Stroke". Make sure the yellow foreground color is chosen, and change the outline width to 30 pixels (more or less to your liking). This put a yellow border around the painting.
• add a simple bevel and drop shadow to the painting layer and voila!!

Whew! that took me a while...lol...for more detailed info on the techniques I used, check out this site--the tutorials are fantastic!


Happy Arting to all and stay tuned for my very first blog give-away!!

Summer of Color--Green with Citron, part I

Is it obvious yet that my latest obsession is all of these nifty "weekly prompt parties" I'm finding?? Not to mention all of the fantastic art I get to view from them!! I could sit in front of my computer all night drinking it in!!


The latest promting fabulousness is Summer of Color--it started last week with blue, but I am just joining in this week with green.  I opted to go digital for this challenge, but after printing it out, my muse hit with another great idea that I'll share later :)


for now--step into the pond...grab yourself a frog....

Happy Hump Day! May the rest of your week be art-filled!

Sunday Sketch--Destined to be Dinner

When working on projects, I keep various journals nearby to be the recipients of left over paint, papers, glue--waste not want not and all that....eventually, something is drawn to those random backgrounds and art is born.  Such was the case on the final day of my weekend art retreat...


You may have encountered recently, folks being "given" a letter, which they must then list something they like, dislike, love and something bad (or some such variation)...I first saw this interpreted in sketch and of course thought it was great! A few days later, a friend on FB gifted me with the letter "V."  The girls at the retreat and I had a fantastic time coming up with all sorts of things that begin with "v" and I started on my sketches.  A few of the items, such as Venus flytrap (who doesn't like a good Venus flytrap??) required a google search to find some images I could sketch from.


Upon finding a photo from (I kid you not) flytrap.com, I felt the fabulous flora was worthy of its very own page. I set that thought aside while working on some other pages and ideas (I usually work on multiple projects at once). while leafing through a small journal (that I came very close to tossing because I wasn't so keen on the content...and more on that in a moment), a page covered in dry-brushed blotches of red, yellow and green screamed ME! ME! PICK ME! to be the home of the reddish/pinkish/greenish wonderful Venus Flytrap.


As if i could say no to a screaming journal.

After the sketch was complete and inked, I used watercolor pencils to fill in the traps. And if you are wondering, yes, the fly was in the original photo. Gross.

Needless to say, both the journal and I are very glad I did not toss it. It was a complete "DUH" moment and I can't believe I entertained it.  I mean, who gets rid of a journal just because the content isn't current and meaningful? Yes, it was so three years ago, but with my memory as bad as it is, without those pages I would likely forget that time of my life. Seriously. What was I thinking?


Mind like a steel flytrap...


But I digress. 


So there you have it. Sometimes you are the trap....and sometimes you are the fly....don't forget to click on the Sunday Sketches button in my right sidebar to view other great sketches this week!


Say....what's for dinner??

Home Sweet Home--complete

A few posts ago, I shared the journal pages I was working on for Crusade 51, Home Sweet Home, and now they are finally complete! 

Not having any desire to create using "evidence" of the house i live in or the "home" it falls short of being, the prompt of Home Sweet Home left me at a loss for most of the month. As May ended, it was this statue and a precious sentiment the reminded me "Home is Where the Heart Flowers." 


In keeping with the French title of the statue, i looked up the translation and added it to the upper left of the pages. The "Je t'aime" hides in the flowers in the lower right. 

Home is where the heart is...so hold those hearts gently.

Artfully yours,

Blink and you'll miss it

So in my last post, I made some mention of my fab mini vacation to Michigan.  It was a wonderful, much needed escape and I got to spend it with some of my fave peeps :)


We stayed at a lovely lodge tucked away in the woods (ticks, mosquitoes and bugs oh my)...

a doorway to a place of enchantment....

and my peeps dodging the paparazzi....

couldn't get away from the rain....

and this was just too cool to not photograph it....

Never having had the pleasure of viewing a small town parade, we found a spot on the sidewalk and sat to enjoy some fresh baked cookies and await the fun. Keep in mind, we were accustomed to Chicago parades--you know--like the Pride Parade--that is at least a three hour spectacle. While not expecting anything as elaborate as that, we certainly weren't expecting the parade to be over before we were finished with our cookies. I kid you not. If it was 15 minutes I'll eat my hat. It consisted of three squad cars, a politician, a handful of vets....

one float with the worlds smallest light house.....

a duck...

another squad car, 2 fire trucks and an ambulance.

That's all folks.

The cookies were really good....