Art Journal Caravan

As anyone who has visited of late may have noticed, there has been zero art from me.  I totally lost my mojo.

Anyhow, to get back on track, I signed up for a year long art journal class.  Class is not the right word, but I  can't think of another word.  Check out the blinkie on the right hand side, at the top of the page, for more information. So, today, I'm checking out the blog and what do I see?  My cover page has been featured!  I'm blown away.  Here's the entry.   Mine is the first page. 

I hope it's one of more to come (we are already into week two of prompts and I have made nary a page!)

Bokeh and other textures

Over the last few weeks I've discovered bokeh. I'm trying to create bokeh effects with my point and shoot camera.  I'll let you know how it goes, according to the experts, it's a near impossibility.

In the meantime, I've had to 'pretend' and have been hunting down bokeh textures from all over the net.  I've been using those textures with my regular textures on my photos and here's one of the results (one of many, they are so much fun to make).   My daughter somewhere in Marrakesh.  We had been to the market the day before and she had wanted an outfit like the local kids.  Of course, she had to make it her own; so she added the sunhat (which was from our Italian leg of the same trip). 

Audrey Dreamer - an Experiment in Texture

I like experimenting with textures and techniques and I do it all the time.  I'm also really getting into starting something in Photoshop, tweaking it in Illustrator and then returning it to Photoshop to add more details.

When I was still running challenges, I had one for photo makeovers, but not in the traditional sense (if there is a traditional sense for photo makeovers).  I wanted participants to change the clothes of the people/models in their photos, and preferably use vintage photos.

I created two images, today I'm sharing Audrey Hepburn (I'm such a fan of hers, she had such style, grace and poise; a true lady).  I didn't want to change Audrey too much, so I merely 'painted' her and gave her some new snazzy material and sparkles (she deserves sparkles!).
   

Free ATC backgrounds

On one of the digital scrapbooking forums that I visit, I noticed a discussion on ATCs (Artist Trading Cards). One thing led to another, and now I'm offering some ATC backgrounds I made as samples for some 12 x 12 backgrounds I was selling; when I was designing.

Here's a preview (I know it's an awful preview) and here's the link for download.  Enjoy!  Let me know of you create anything with them by linking me up in the comments.  I would love to see what you have made.

The blog background, yet again

Okay, I think this is it. No more changes for a while. I'm quite pleased with this background and I hope it doesn't take too long too load.

Let me know if it causes any problems.

Changes

Yes, I changed my background yet again. I prefer this one, I think :) I'm not too sure about the yellow, as it's not really my colour, hmm, we shall see ...

I'm thinking of restarting my cooking/menu/food blog. I've been cooking and doing a lot of new stuff food wise lately and it's holding my interest a little more than digi art etc. right now. I guess, though, that I will have to make a new blog background for the new blog right? It's all relative.

Not much else to say today. I just found out that one of my favourite TV celebrity chefs, Keith Floyd, died a week or two ago. So sad. He was such a character. They are running a tribute show to him on the Lifestyle network. I must remember to watch.

Typography

I confess, I love clever use of typography (not surprising, as I love words and all things wordy). So much so, that when our family watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on blue ray the other night, I was far more intrigued with the layout and type used on images of the Daily Prophet, than in the movie (story line lost due to inclusion of special effects, although not as bad as Goblet of Fire, which was pure drivel as a movie).

Anyhow, using words and type to make portraits has been around since forever, and there are some really wonderful modern interpretations using graphic programs. I found this nice and easy tutorial on PSDTopBlog, which I changed a little, as I didn't quite like my end result following the tut verbatim. This is what I came up with, using digi scrap stuff as well.

Spring Cleaning

It's Spring here in the Southern Hemisphere. I'm hoping that the weather of Friday and Saturday is not an indicator of the Summer to come, or I'm going to be a wreck! I loathe the heat and the hottest I'm willing to tolerate on a voluntary basis is around 25 degrees Celsius (that's around 77 Fahrenheit). Unfortunately, I don't have weather control and I have to put up with temperatures that exceed 30 (86) on a regular basis. Blah!

Anyway, as it's Spring, Father of the Moo and I did some spring cleaning the weekend before last. Feeling virtuous, I thought I'd update my blog as well. Let's see how it goes. I might have to change my profile photo too, it just doesn't fit in.