Art Washes

December's digital art project is about fonts and text and making art and being creative.
After finishing this piece I really want to make a few more. I plan to have this printed on canvas for sure. I have a few quotes in mind...Now to go play some more.

Playing in the Light

This week I had a few free hours at work for 'cleaning' up my Lightroom catalog. I had to go back to March and start culling. Of course I got side tracked and started editing some because I'd done very little of that too. I was captivated once again at how my neighbor's lilacs danced in the light that day.

I wouldn't have thought they would look so stunning in black and white, but who knew?

Their buds look like little alien mouths.

Such delicacy.

 Such beauty.

Have a beautiful weekend and a great Mother's Day!

Mobile Art Monday No. 18

One morning these words came out of the blue as I opened my blinds at work. I jotted them down and a few days later this photo was begging for them.

A few tweaks in Snapseed, Tune and Tonal Contrast.

Several layers from Overlay, Grunge, Leaks and Light paint in Pixlr set at very low opacity.

In iColorama I chose Effects> Glow> 3 and reduced the opacity.

In Word Swag I typed my message and played with the different options until finding the one I wanted.

This was my first attempt at Word Swag. I thought it was a pricey app but in looking at a few examples on Instagram of some very creative people...    I'm glad I bought it.

How is your Monday going? How about letting the day in?

The Lime Shoot

In our Be Still 52 class we were to shoot citrus and in The Studio Online class, the prompt was fruit or vegetables. I've been a bit busy with taxes and 'the folks' taxes so this will do for both. (Sorry about no movie Art Monday yesterday, I will be posting it later.) I took quite a few I liked on my Canon and a few on my iPhone, but here are a few faves.
The sun was just up and coming through the kitchen window. I have an island with barely enough room to walk around let alone shoot. I placed a black matt board on a chair for the backdrop as I shot toward the north and the ones to the south just ended up with a blurry background because I was too lazy to move it.

kk_gentle preset with kk_thursday texture.

No preset, just a few tweaks.

kk_chocolate preset, with a little noise reduction.

I really liked this angle. kk_within preset.

Shooting south, kk_gentle.

I preferred all the shots to be somewhat desaturated. I think it worked good with the dark moodiness of the early morning light.

It's Texture Tuesday at Kim's! Come over and check out what everyone's been up to!

Texture Tuesday Jan 27

Today would have been my Mom's 78 birthday. I made this to honor her.

Captivated Visions, Artified template. Painted art, mine.

In fact today I decided to wear one of her sweaters and a piece of costume jewelry that was hers. Can't believe she's been gone more than 30 years now. 

It's Texture Tuesday at Kim's...

Kim's preset kk_barelycolor with some added haze. I've really gotten on the haze bandwagon lately. I spent the past 48 hours processing photos from a family shoot this weekend and decided to play catch up from December's family photos too. I did quite a few with haze and I LOVE them. (More about that later.)

Two layers of kk_epic texture, linear burn and soft light both at 68% opacity. Word Art mine. (Words of Love in store) Can you relate to this one?

Early Morning Thoughts

As I laid in bed this morning with one eye open, I began remembering hubby's comments on yesterday's glorious sunrise (which I missed). I hopped out of bed, peeked out the window and OMG, the sky was pink! Throwing on my clothes, I dashed out the door only to find it was fading fast. 

Oh well, I also wanted to capture my newly found 'old barn'. Just 2 miles away and in the city limits, it had been too well hidden by tons of farm machinery and junk until just recently. The corner was purchased by Walmart last year, much to the dismay of the rich folks that built new houses on the north side of the street. Now it was exposed in all it's glory. 

Since the sun was still behind the clouds, I first stopped for coffee and a breakfast burrito to go and went to park pond where I intended to just sit and BE (Finally, my word for 2015). I shot photos of the geese, other birds and the burr oak acorns. I gathered up a grocery bag full for still life shots and decided to process and post a sunrise photo for Instagram. 

(Mextures app)

While cruising my Instagram feed I found that my still life shot (from yesterday, second photo) was chosen along with @7seasphotography for the #mystillsundaycompetition that Kim Klassen hosts. I had such overwhelming emotions about this. These thoughts came to mind, I wrote them down and decided more artists need to hear this. It's still shaking me to the core.

(Snapseed, retrolux filter, Over)

Back to the barn, This shot was taken a few days ago in bad light and with a nasty sun flare. This is one of 5 totally different edits I did in Stackables and Lenslight. You'll have to tune in Monday for all the details on Mobile Art Monday.

Linking up with Barb for App Happy Wednesday. 

Linking up with Kim for Friday Finds.

Texture Tuesday Jan 20

I managed to do more than just watch my lesson on BeStill52 last week.

A little background play in effect here. My first shot was using black matt board. Edited with kk_dreamlike preset. Textured with kk_simple2 magic texture, 2 layers, one rotated with Color burn, reduced opacity, the other screen 100%. 

Word art is mine and available at ESS with a current sale deal on. Buy this kit, get this one free. BUT WAIT! I'm offering the free kit to my blog readers for a limited time. Click here for a download. (Please don't share this link.)

This is my favorite. I do wish I had made the first linen layer straighter, yes it bugs me just a bit but not too much to not use the photo. kk_chocolate preset.

kk_barely color preset. Now that I'm seeing this set up… I believe a larger bowl would be better at least in this shot.

Another with kk_chocolate preset. White foam core and cheese cloth. This would look better textured. I think it just looks too much like white foam core even tho I like the 'clean' look of it.

Perhaps like this… textured with kk_epic.

And one shot from above. kk_chocolate.

Linking up with Kim for Texture Tuesday.

Coneflower Love

These babies have ravished my heart. 

The common pink coneflower I planted last year didn't survive the winter. There are a few volunteers out there but I think they may all be yellow. Most are still quite small. The rabbits seem to enjoy them more than is allowed. 

I bought a few new ones this summer. They were all shades of coral and orange when they were planted. So far this color is all that's blooming.

I dusted off my Lens Baby (Composer Pro with Double Glass Optic, 4 aperture) and tried out a few new presets for Lightroom.

Lightroom Presets Summer Collection- Summer 2

Lightroom Presets Summer Collection- Summer 10 with additional adjustments. 

This one is my most favorite, at least for today.

I didn't care that this ended up out of focus. I really like it this way. 

Rad Lab Replichrome Sample Pack Tweaks, Curve:: Fade+++ This is a free 'try me' part of Rad Lab's  Lightroom Film Presets. This is the first time I've played with it. Not sure that I'll spend the money, we'll see.

Matt Kloskowski's preset  Twilight (Strong) Another freebie.

Rad Lab ReplichromeII Sample Pack Films, E100G Calibrated+

Absolutely no edits! When I went to look up my info on this one I couldn't believe I had not done ANY edits. (Makes me want to go back and play.)

I used several fonts in my word art, (Yes, I broke the rule of no more than 2 or three max.)

Merged them to one layer.

Added a mask, added a gradient to the mask from the bottom so BLUR would fade out.

Duplicated my layer and applied the mask. 

Added a slight vertical motion blur. 

Added a new mask to it. 

Selectively brushed away and added back on the mask of both text layers.

Added a texture to my type layer set on multiply.

Do you feel like you get lost in the blur? 

I often do.

Every time I turn around, it's Friday again. 

Better than Monday right?

Texture Tuesday Feb 24

One of my favorite red photos this month that I've been saving for a texture. 

Shot with my Lens Baby, which I'm still not comfortable with.

This is my first try on some funky word art. I love Rhonna Designs for iPhone and iPad editing. She has tons of word art that inspired this. And you can get stuff for use on the computer HERE.

Joining Kim today for Texture Tuesday. kk_simple, color burn 53%, kk_simple, divide 64%

Gratitude Day 9

I am grateful to have discovered that I don't need to meet the needs of the public. That I am perfectly acceptable to do that which brings my heart joy and makes me come alive.

Textured with 2 layers of kk_2710. Word art from Cottage Arts.
Linking up with Kim for Texture Tuesday.