Mobile Art Monday No. 49

A Digital Mixed Media Piece

Today's purpose: Mostly to inspire with a tidbit of instruction here and there.

This piece was created using three photos(sunflower, bird and an oil can label for texture) and two vintage papers(the butterflies and text.)

My original photo was shot with the Hipstamatic app using two of my favorites, Tejas lens and Ina's 1982 film. (I cropped off the border.)

In Leonardo I layered the other images on top and began changing blend modes and masking away areas.

I inverted the text paper and set it to screen so the text would be white. I duplicated most of the layers and used two different blending modes to achieve desired results.

When happy, I saved to camera roll and opened it in Picfx.

Under the PFX Film Set I chose PFX10 and reduced the opacity. (Touch on the right side to pull up the opacity slider. You can also rotate the filters on the left.) Be sure to touch the 'layer+' icon to add additional layers.

Under the Scratches Set I added Scratches One at a very low opacity and Olden Texture also at a low opacity. 

At this point I opened it in Procreate to outline the bird slightly and add a few sublte touches to the butterflies.

For an experiment I thought I'd run it through Brushstroke and saved three of the edits. 

Another play with the three in Leonardo using different blend modes for a unique painterly effect.

I hope this inspires you to try some layering in your edits.

Mobile Art Monday No. 37

The struggle continues among some as to whether to post images taken with dslrs to Instagram. Yes, it started out as a mobile platform but has morphed into 'big business'. If you teach classes and sell products, you can grab a lot of customers there. As a result more people are posting high quality photos. Sometimes it's hard to compete with such. Especially since I have one foot in the 'regular mobile' world and another in the 'still life' world (although that one has been on hold for several weeks as I've focused on my art for the November show).

One thing I like to do however, is a bit of a compromise. I'll load a few raw files from my camera to my iPad then edit them in favorites such as Mextures or Stackables. You can also transfer photos from your computer via Dropbox to get them onto your iPad. I have to admit, this is more fun than Photoshop (I hate to say). Here are a few from last week. 

The monarchs were migrating through town.

Edited in Mextures. (Canon7D)

The Mextures edit with Stackables. (Canon7D)

I took a detour out through the Slaton Canyon on the way to pick up hubby and found this Woodpecker munching away. I was very glad I had my camera with the 70-300 on it.

Edited in Snapseed and Mextures. (Canon7D)

Edited in Snapseed and Mextures. (Canon7D)

As I write this, I realize I haven't transferred these from my camera to my computer. In fact I'm at an all time low on the number of photos I've taken for October. Fall never arrives before November so I'm sure I'll make up for it this month.

Have a great week and if you haven't backed up your images from your phone or iPad lately.... go do it NOW!

My July Garden

These funky tiny coneflowers have brought a ton of delight this summer. They've bloomed a long time and still look good. I need to start dead heading so they'll last better until fall. They may have come back from seed, but I think they are the original plant.

I love them in blurry form.

I'll confess the bokeh was added. It's from Pretty Presets, their Luminous Set.

My pink/purple cone flowers seeded out. None of the originals survived.

(iPhone)

Fortunately the red/orange cone flowers seeded out all over and I've transplanted some of them to the front beds.

I guess a lot of things came up volunteer this year. This is a purple verbena variation that gets quite tall. It came up right in the middle of my flagstone path and because it wasn't coming up anywhere else I just left it alone. (Added bokeh, don't you just love it? I think it makes the photo more magical.)

Our butterflies have been few and far between this year. I believe it's because the city has been spraying our mosquitos a lot. We're already well above the average rainfall for the year. 

I love this in monochrome because it makes him look transparent.

Of course I've had a plethora of zinnias.

My sunflowers always volunteer in the veggie garden. A bad storm wiped most of them out last month so the majority are laying on the ground.

You'll see a lot more sunflowers from me this month. The farmer down the road has a field in rare form this year and I've been out twice in the last 3 days. This morning I took my tripod with me and actually dressed nice for some selfies. I'm doing 31 days of Hipstamatic sunflowers on Instagram. Check it out, link in the side bar.

Friday Finds July 25

Come on over to Kim's blog today and see what kind of great goodies everyone has found/discovered this week.
Just a few things found in the garden this week.

Have a great weekend!

Direction

I've been thinking long and hard about how I've not scrapbooked this year at all. I think I've made 2 pages. (besides the two I made this week)

It's time to figure out a direction. 

I've felt torn a lot.

Hadn't even used Photoshop as much since I fell head over heals in love with iPad apps. I now have 4 folders of them. A different one for 'cameras' and a different one for 'font type' apps. I should really weed a few out. The last trip I took to Amarillo I even left my big girl camera home (Gasp! I heard you.) Yes, and I got great pics to play with.

I would never give up my 'big girl' camera though.
Besides all that, I've been collecting mixed media art junk. What ever am I thinking!?!
One of my goals is to have an iPhone art show in this town. There, I said it. Now to outline a few steps to get there.
Instead of scraping a few things off my plate, I seem to keep adding. And they are all really good deserts. Maybe that's the problem. To many sweets, not enough meat.
The butterflies are migrating through so I've been on the look out. Here's who found their way to my zinnia's for a refreshing beverage. Some a bit tattered, such is life.

The black swallowtail put on a good show for me. I loved catching the little guys in flight.

I also found some mushrooms begging for attention.

And my zinnias are looking the best they have all summer. The butterflies seem to like them more than anything else. 

Linking up with Kim at Friday Finds and Nancy at Random Five Friday.

My random five:

Black Swallowtail

Clouded Sulfur

Fiery Skipper

Gulf Fritillary & Variegated Fritillary

Common Buckeye

Still hoping to spot some monarchs.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Five Finds

1. I found strange little pumpkins growing in the garden that I did not plant. (Texture here)

2. I witnessed a glorious sunrise last Sunday morning. (iPhone, Snapseed)

3. Now that the sun has moved south, I found this wonderful morning light in the dining room. 

4. And yes, I found yet another field of sunflowers just opening.

5. But the best thing I was blessed to find this week was this butterfly. And I wouldn't have seen him if I hadn't gone out to chase a squirrel out of my yard. It's a Giant Swallowtail. They are considered pests in citrus orchards. I'm sure that's why I've never seen one before since there is no citrus around here. It would not hold still. Even when it was eating, it's wings were fluttering. I set my camera on 1/500sec and snapped away.

All edits in Camera Raw except the iPhone shot.

Linking up with Kim at Friday Finds and Nancy at Random Five Friday.