No weeding lets play!

Last night I went to this web site photo effects tutorial and was able to follow the directions and make my own POP ART pictures.

I'm using photoshop 6.

As much fun as this is, I have a huge urge to do some real get your hands messy art. I'm off to pull out some paint and clay, unless I put my new lens on the camera and go out and shoot.....so much to do so little time.

Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.Pablo Picasso

Friday Desk Photo- Photoshop

My desk this week has been the monitor.

I'm really making an effort to teach myself some Photoshop techniques. I bought this book about a year ago and I'm just now taking the time to read it. It is easy to understand and follow each step. There is a CD to use for step by step instructions, The book is $25 ISBN 0-7645-3578-1

This is a 100 year old church near Helvetia, I took this shot the other day on my way to the Art Barn.

The book shows you how to make a line drawing in about 3 steps (very easy). I printed it on watercolor paper.....

and then added some water color..

The book had a image of a fun grungy frame but upon reading I found out it was in a chapter on how to use plug-ins (you buy extra).. well heck... So I made my own on a layer and saved it. Again super easy, it was a make do deal.

Playing with layers, filters, colors and the grunge frame.

Original photo

More....

Original photo

Caution this will eat time like no body's business! A good thing if you have tons of weeding to do.

The last one took more time with many layers and filters, I do like that you can see through the tree branches. I found out I need a larger file of photos to work from.
Original photos.

Well I really do need to go out and weed. Have a great weekend.

ART ESSENTIALS

There is a small list of things we as artists can do to make art a pleasure, but from time to time we forget a few of them. I was reminded of them by my granddaughter just the other day.


REMEMBER
Remember that new box of crayons? A clean sheet of paper? And that it didn't matter if you had an idea of what to create. You just grabbed the color that caught your eye and made a mark, the joy of that color on paper is all that mattered.

TAKING TIME FOR JUST YOU TO DO ART
I know this color "BLUE" .... Hey I'm coloring....

please you will mess um up..... gosh everyone wants in on this...



Organizing

OK all the caps off...... line up at your right....

No better on the left..... Boy that feels good when you get your supplies just right!


FINDING A SPOT TO KEEP ALL YOUR SUPPLIES

After you finish your piece put everything away. Why can't I keep it in here?

Careful Dad I didn't put the lids on all of them.


DON'T CRITICIZE YOURSELF

I'm going to the gallery to see some real art.

Let yourself be proud of your work.

Art work by Savannah Brokenshire all rights reserved 2010

Would you tell that little girl her work was horrid? Tell yourself what you would tell her.

Friday Desk Photo- My Birthday

My desk today is loaded with flowers, cards and all things birthday. Norm picked me a beautiful bouquet from our garden and brought in the mail. He told me I got a magazine called "Paper cuts and Scissors" hee hee, this must be a special issue just for me.

Yesterday and today I have a bit of a bad bug so I'm indoors to rest, thank goodness for lap tops and photoshop.

I don't feel like eating my Cheerios but playing with them is fun.

I love how this one flattened the image but brought in the detail of the flowers on the old china bowl. After I imported the photo I went to Filter and dropped down to sketch and then to Bass Relief. The next two filters are just color.

This is a shot of my lap top and a card I was working on. You should try Photoshop it is really easy and fun!

This photo was taken in a near by town with my Cannon. I cropped and trimmed the shot and fixed the color before I brought it in to collage.

This shot was taken in Salem and I did the same as the old car.

And the end product. I used a watercolor filter on the brick work and then put the car on top.

"The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it." -- Richard Bach.

I'm enjoying today !

"What's the use of worrying?It never was worth while, So pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,And smile, smile, smile. -- George Asaf

And smiling !

I have seen several comments about the little bird house I made a few weeks ago. I told the story how a friend of mine bought a little house necklace in Australia and that I loved it but couldn’t remember what it looked like. I made one for myself, see post here.
My friend that bought the necklace told me her name but as an artist I remembered the image and not the name. Her name is Jen Crossley, her work is very nice have a look. As I read her post about the necklace I saw that she got the idea from Catherine Witherall and credited her for the design. I think this is all part of being creative, as people we are inspired by others and their work. I was inspired by Jen Crossley and Jen by Catherine Witherall and so on. This reminds me of a couple of posts that other artists have recently written, Michael deMeng wrote on the subject here, and Diane Trout wrote about it here. I agree with them and hope if someone was inspired by the bird house necklace that I made they will try to make one for themselves.

Woodblock cutting and printing workshop

The Art Barn
Nine artists gathered at Kitty's beautiful farm and lovely studio space.

We said our hello's and found a spot to sit and learn a new technique.

Kitty is the lady in red and Stephanie the one who organized us is in blue.

The workshop was taught by Debby Neely of Green Mountain Studio. Her wildlife blockprints that I have seen are stunning. I wish she had a blog so you could see her work.

We started by putting our design on the wood...Jill works on a floral design.

Suzanne carves on her block.

Then with lots of encouragement from Debbie we all started to carve and gouge.

Kitty was the first to print.

Inking the block.

I'm not sure of the terms but here she is rubbing the paper firmly to transfer the ink.

Debbie checks to see if enough ink was put down.

And look at that! It was like magic to us, Kitty's turtle came out beautiful.

That first print opened the gates and we were off, working in teams we printed our blocks with plenty of conversation and laughter.

Paula helps Cynthia print her bird and then the favor is returned.

Louise has made a fantastic sunflower.

Suzanne's beautiful lady.

Cynthia's clever little bird.

Paula's tulips are on the top row, my heron is on the left and Stephanie's bird is taken from her assemblage work is on the right.

Tammy was so good at this she was able to make two, bottom left "3 jugs" and this very cute Zebra.

I somehow missed our other participant Suzanne #2 I didn't get a photo of her or her print, darn it all.

Good bye to the Art Barn once again. Thank you kitty for sharring your space.