Field in February

Field in February, a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

If you have been watching a little too much Downton Abbey, as I have, you might imagine that this is a photo of the English countryside. But in fact, this image began with a photo that I took today during a late afternoon walk at Beverly Golf and Tennis, a local public golf course. Here, north of Boston, it is unusual to see a field in February that is not covered in snow, so we usually miss the warm golden tones of dry fields in low winter light. Tonight I edited this in iPhoto, adjusting shadows and saturation, and then cropping the image to get this composition.

Happy Pattern in Blue (Digital "Print")

Happy Pattern in Blue (Digital "Print"), a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

I have been exploring my new update to Painter 12, and did a little more today. I tried out the pattern pen, using the "Happy to Draw" pattern that I made yesterday. The controls are a little different and are in different places, but I am happy because the pattern pen in Painter 11 stopped working a few months ago. I made a couple of images with the pattern pen for practice to get the hang of it. I started to relax and have fun, and that's when I made this image. I used a blue canvas and the pattern pen was loaded with digital pastel in fuschia. I also did a little posterizing to get this image, and a little bit of cropping in iPhoto as well.

Happy to Draw (Digital Pattern)

Happy to Draw (Digital Pattern), a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

Yesterday I posted a little digital drawing that I made using my brand new Painter 12 upgrade. I wanted to draw something quick and simple just to try out the basic functions. Today I continued my exploration by creating a pattern from that little drawing. Over the past several months, some of the functions in Painter 11 became problematic and even stopped working, no doubt due to compatibility issues with upgrades to my Mac OS. Making patterns was one of those functions. At first, I was unable to find old patterns I had created. But I am used to that because it seems to happen with every upgrade. But then the "capture pattern" function stopped working completely, so I couldn't make new ones. Making patterns is fun and also very useful, so that really convinced me to stop procrastinating already and upgrade to Painter 12. Now I am happy that I did. Just to make sure everything was going to work, I also uploaded this image into Zazzle. That also worked smoothly, and I am already using this little pattern on some new items.

Happy to Draw (Digital Drawing)

Happy to Draw (Digital Drawing), a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

This week I (finally) upgraded to Painter 12. Today I finally got the program installed and operational, and this is my first drawing with the upgrade. Painter is an amazing program that I have been using since sometime in the 1990s, despite the fact that I am a (recovering) technophobe. Each upgrade in Painter is a bit of a learning curve; the main tools and functions stay the same, but may be in a different place on the screen. You have to keep upgrading because Painter changes as Mac and Windows operating systems change. But I love Painter so much that I don't mind, well at least not much. Painter 12 comes with a beautiful little guidebook, which I plan to read. But I was happy and I had to draw right away. As soon as Painter was working, I started a little doodle that turned into a little sketch. I only had about 15 minutes to work on it, but I just wanted to see if I could do something pretty basic. Tonight I kept going with it a bit more, trying to use the "magic wand," "color overlay," and "posterizing" tools. So far, so good.

Rhododendron Flower Buds

Rhododendron Flower Buds, a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

We had a sunny morning, followed by a gray and gloomy afternoon, but the temperature was in the forties, so we took the dog for a walk at the Cummings Center Pond, here in Beverly, MA. When I saw this bright pink on such a gloomy day, I thought I was seeing things. (It was warm, but not warm enough for spring!) The overcast sky made the pink look even more intense, so I took some pictures. Tonight I looked on the internet and found out that some types of rhodendron have bright pink flower buds during the winter. So it is not spring yet (but it is on the way. . . .)

Birds Skating on the Pond (Posterized)

Birds Skating on the Pond (Posterized), a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

This is a digitally edited version of the image I posted yesterday, geese and seagulls apparently skating on the Cummings Center Pond. Tonight I used Painter 11 to adjust the lighting and focus, and then posterized it. Then I transferred the image into iPhoto and readjusted the color. I am not sure which version is better, at this point.

Birds Skating on the Pond

Birds Skating on the Pond, a photo by randubnick on Flickr.

This afternoon, we stopped at the Cummings Center Pond for a walk. It was partially frozen over, and there were lots of geese as well as some seagulls who seemed to be walking around on the ice. I tried to take some pictures, but I had nearly no battery left in my iPhone. I tried anyway, zooming in to get the best shot I could. Tonight I cropped and edited this image in iPhoto to get this image. There is more to do; I plan to edit this in Painter and see what I can do with it. But I am currently between versions, switching from Painter 11 to Painter 12 (hoorah)! So I plan to come back to this in a couple of days.