Orchid Love . . . A Before And After

                                         

I have a friend who just loves orchids.  I am not an orchid person but when I saw these in the store the other day I just couldn't resist getting them for her.  She loved them.  I took some photos of the orchids in her office.  I was struck by the blue color.  I  had never seen them before.  Neither had she.  Here is the original image . . . 

                                                                      

So gorgeous!  Well, despite how pretty they already were I wanted to amp them up a bit in photoshop.  So I took this image, added some texture, and inverted the image (which I often love to do).  Despite my love of the blue I really love the changes in colors that happened from inverting.  So cool!  

Thought you would enjoy the before and after.  I will be adding the top image as a print to my etsy shop soon!

Hope you are all doing well.  Me and my arm are still on the mend.  I know, its been so long already!  Hard to believe my surgery was april 23.  I had another issue over the weekend with more oozing and it ended up being a stitch trying to fight its way out.  So yesterday it was back to the doc to get it clipped!  I am hoping this is the last leg of this journey.  I haven't spent this much time at a doctor in 11 years!  UGH!  Anyway, it looks much better now and I am looking forward to saying goodbye to bandaids very soon!  lol

xo

Mystery at 42nd and Park

"42nd and Park"

prints available on etsy

One of the things I love about digital collage is the mystery. All the layers create these hidden spaces where anything is possible.

Yesterday afternoon I meant to paint but as soon as I opened up my iphoto I began a search for images to create a story. My favorite images are of NYC. I used one of those that I shot of city traffic on the corner of 42nd and Park Ave combining it with one of my mixed media paintings and a sketch I posted a few days ago.

A couple of the things I love about this piece are in the details. The taxi cab in the bottom right has the words 'love today' written on the windshield. And then there is the street sign popping through on the top left. The buildings create depth and the eye on the upper right is so mysterious. I wonder where she has been.

I am really learning to love creating this way. Its like painting for me. I hope I won't ditch the real thing for photoshop!

As you can see I am trying to change things up a bit around here. I finally figured out how to make a proper size blog banner. I used a cropped image from this collage. I feel like it represents pieces of what I am about as an artist. I am pretty fickle though so we will see how long it stays there!

So far I am liking it . . . although it may warrant a background color change.

See what I mean?! :)

Adding A Burst of Color To My Sketch

'you can see love'

prints available on etsy

Ok so I am pretty addicted to this digital collage thing! This time I took one of my whimsical sketches you may recognize from a previous post and collaged my watercolor painting over it. I played with layers, opacity, and that eraser tool till I was happy with it.

I love the results! Its pretty cool how I was able to add all this color to a black and white sketch! Looks like it was a painting. I thought the drips at the top were perfect with the rain drops in this sketch. Fun!

In other news I just signed up for Misty Mawn's new online workshop "Open Studio"! I missed her workshop last year so this time it was a no brainer for me! I have wanted to take a class with Misty for some time now. I am excited to get started! I just hope I can tear myself away from photoshop! lol ;)

xo

Digital Collage Play . . . She Dreams of Being Free

"She Dreams of Being Free"

print available on etsy

Ok so late last night I opened up photoshop and started to play. And man was it cool! I took an image of one of my butterfly mixed media paintings, a textured photo, a favorite sketch of mine and layered them. I played with blending modes, opacity, saturation, and the eraser for the push/pull of bringing different aspects of each piece through.

I was so in a moment and felt as though I was working on a painting. I have always admired digital collage and months ago made a few attempts but nothing I really was that happy with. This was the first one in which I decided to utilize a painting along with one of my sketches. I LOVE how this turned out! I may have discovered a new way to incorporate my sketches into my art! You know how I always say I am afraid to paint my faces? Well to me this sketch now looks as though it is in a painting!

I am hoping to spend more time trying a few others like this. I will be sure to share with you!

Wishing you all a creative night!

xo

Sunset Love . . . New Digital Collage

Sunset Love

prints available in my etsy shop

Here I am again with more digitally altered photos! What a surprise right?! :) There is a serious addiction developing here. But I am having fun so that is what matters right?! My blank canvas is still yelling at me. All I have done is sketch out my landscape and added a bit of purple for a sky. Then I happily went back to photoshop! lol

The above image was created using two of my own images. One is a sunset shot I captured in Puerto Rico on our honeymoon and the other is a photo of a heart a drew in the sand on the beach in newport. I layered the heart over the sunset, moved it around till I liked the image , and spent some time adjusting opacities as well as hue and saturation. I could spend hours playing around with all of the image altering techniques to be had!

I love the results! Hope you do too!

PS . . . I think I may need to change the title of this blog soon to "Photoshop Addict"!! lol