This is another "digital print" created using Painter's pattern pen and the rosebud pattern that I made from one of my photos. I used the same technique as with the image I posted yesterday, but this time I used more intense colors. Posturizing the image produced some interesting effects. This is not really a print, but with bright colors, it reminds me a little bit of a pop art silk screen.
This is a digital image that I made today using Painter's pattern pen. I came up with the process myself, and the results look like prints to me, so I call them digital prints. For this image, I loaded the pattern pen with the rosebud pattern that I recently made from one of my photos. I used pink "paper" and green "digital pastel"and selected a really big brush. I wanted to make a simple image with just a few strokes. Simple can be harder than complicated, and I had to discard several attempts before I arrived at this composition. Then I posterized the image, and here it is.
It has been a busy week, but I haven't forgotten about the heart-shaped box, and today I took a break and worked on it for an hour. (The box originally held a Mother's Day gift from my daughter. Now I am covering it with collage and decoupage created with printed metallic ribbon.) This afternoon, I continued to work on the red interior, filling in gaps with bits of red ribbon, and adding to the gold border around the perimeter.
Tonight I used my Painter program to create a pattern from thd posterized photo of a budding rose (posted here yesterday). To make this image, I created a new "canvas" and used the paintbrush tool to fill it with this pattern, adjusting the size and direction of the pattern, and then cropping to adjust the composition.
Last night I posted a photo of a budding rose. Tonight I used my Painter program to posterized it, adjusting the levels until I got the effect I wanted.
Yesterday while I was running errands, I saw some beautiful white roses growing in front of a store, so I took some pictures. Tonight I edited them in iPhoto. I cropped this image from one of the best photos. I had to crop in close to get this little rose bud, and the resulting soft focus seems to work well with with this image. This little rosette is a real flower, not spun sugar, but it sure looks like it belongs on a birthday cake!
This is a revised version of the image I posted two days ago, a digital sketch of Porto that I made on my iPad with the Brushes app. This little drawing is from my imagination and from my memories of visits to Portugal. Of course, very soon after I posted the original sketch, I wanted to revise it! (I was concentrating so hard on learning to use Brushes that I lost my perspective, and I mean that literally. The perspective was wrong.) I needed to fix the shape of the river bank on the right side, but I didn't know how hard it would be to do that in Brushes. Tonight I decided to find out. And the answer? It was easy to fix! As a bonus, I also rediscovered that Brushes creates a little "movie" of each drawing: you can play the little movie and watch your drawing take shape before your eyes! I wonder if there is a way to post it here. Meanwhile, here is the revised version of my sketch of the Douro River in Porto.
I took this photograph yesterday during a walk at Obear Park. It was hot yesterday, so we didn't walk until after dinner. It was approaching 9 PM, which was late enough to take the dog into the park. (There are summer hours for dogs at beach-front parks here in Beverly, MA). The sun was just going down; after all, yesterday was the longest day of the year. Of course, right before sunset is prime time for mosquitos, but it is also a "golden hour" for photographers. The light on the water was amazing, so I ignored the mosquitos as best I could and started taking some pictures. Tonight I cropped this image out of one of the photos.
This is a digital sketch that I did on my iPad today using the Brushes app. This is based on memories of my visits to Porto, especially of the beautiful bridges over the Douro at sunset.
Yesterday I was looking through my mom's World War II album and found a snapshot of my dad at St. Paul's Dome in London. The (unfamiliar) handwriting on the back reads "Zig at St. Paul's Dome". Apparently that was his nickname in the army (short for Zagon). He was stationed in Europe during the war, and apparently was doing some sight-seeing with army friends. There also a photo of my father and another soldier standing in the same location, labeled "Zig and Ray at St. Paul's Dome". (That would be Ray Raillard; I have heard about my dad's friend Ray before, and other photos in the album confirm the full name.) So the remaining mystery is who is the third person who took the picture and labeled the photos? I don't know, but he did a good job. In any case, I am grateful to the unknown photographer with whom I am collaborating on this little Father's Day project. The original snapshot was a bit the worse for wear, so I decided to rescue it. I scanned the image, and used iPhoto for some straightening, cropping, and basic cleanup. (I also saved a version of the image at that point, to keep.) Then I opened the image in Painter and did some gentle color overlays with the selection tool. Then I cropped again to get the final composition which you see here. I am happy with the result, and also happy that I learned a little more about my dad as I worked on this project.
This morning while I was out running errands, I saw some big white daisies growing in front of a brick wall, so I stopped for a minute to take a picture. Tonight I cropped this image from the original photo to get this composition.
This is a photograph that I took today at a plant store in Marblehead, Massachusetts. I went with my daughter, and we took the dog along. We went early in the day, but it was already too hot for our little Schipperke, so I tried to find her some shade. There was a nice cool spot under a long table of begonias by the chain link fence. While the dog sat under the table, I took some pictures. I liked the dappled light on the flowers and the pattern of the fence. Tonight I cropped this image from one of the best of the photos.
The clematis are in bloom in my yard, and I have been using them to make images which I have been posting here this week. Tonight I used Painter's pattern pen, loaded with the digital pattern that I made a few days ago from my photo of the clematis blossom. I chose a background color to evoke the color of the flower, and loaded my pattern pen with digital pastel in pale pink. (With pastel, the pattern prints "in reverse," just like a negative.) I used a very large digital "brush" to make the strokes, and when I had a composition that I liked, I posterized the image, adjusting the posterizing controls many times until I had what I wanted. So this is not really a print, but I kind of stumbled upon this process myself, and I think the resulting images looks like prints.
Today I worked on this project again for a while. I am covering this heart-shaped box with bits of printed metallic ribbon, creating decoupage and collage patterns on each surface. I have been working on the red interior surface, shown here. I have also been building up a gold border around the perimeter.
Yesterday I posted a digitally edited and posterized photo of one clematis blossom. Today I caught myself wondering what the image would look like as a pattern. I thought it would work well because of the strong contrasting colors, especially the black areas in the background. So tonight, I decided to see if I was right. I used my Painter program again to capture the image as a pattern. Then I used the pattern to create the image that you see here.
The clematis are blooming in my yard. I have been admiring these beautiful flowers as I run past, on my way in and out of the house. (The house is being painted, making life seem even more hectic than usual.) But today, I took a little time to take just one quick photograph because these flowers deserve better. Tonight I opened the image in Painter. Although I had a pretty good image of the flower, apart from one wayward leaf, the background needed to be simplified. So I opened the image in Painter and used digital pastel to fix the leaf that was in the way. After some trial and error, I decided to simplify the background with a dramatic black. Then I posterized the image, working one leaf and one petal at a time to get the effect I wanted.
Today I took a break and worked on this project for an hour. This heart-shaped box once held a Mother's Day present from my daughter. I am covering it with decoupage and collage designs created from printed metallic ribbons (given to me by a friend who was planning to discard them). This project is slow going, but I enjoy it. Today I continued to work on the red interior surface. I am building up a gold border around the perimeter, and it is beginning to take shape.
This is a digitally modified and posterized version of the photo that I posted here yesterday, a picture of the pond at the Cummings Center here in Beverly, MA. I was interested in the effects of the light on a summer evening. The interesting light made me wonder how the photo might look posterized. So tonight I opened the image in Painter. I had to lighten the shadows first to prevent the image from getting too dark. I also added a gentle color overlay to the sky. The sky really was blue when I took the photo, but looked white in the photo due to the strong light. Then I posterized the image one section at a time, using the selection tool: the land, the water, and the foliage in the foreground, using a different setting for each section. Finally, I added a color overlay to the highlights in the water, which were washed out to white when I posterized.
I took this photograph tonight around 7:30 PM, during a walk at the Cummings Center Pond here in Beverly, MA. I was a little reluctant about this walk because I needed to be somewhere at 8 PM.) But as usual, I relaxed once we got to the pond. The light was beautiful on the water so I took some photos. I'm glad I decided to fit this walk into my schedule, and in fact, I wasn't late as a result. Back home tonight, I cropped one of the best photographs to get this composition.
This is a different view of Long Hill Gardens, here in Beverly, MA. This is "The Food Project," organic farming at Long Hill. My daughter and I signed up, and now we get a weekly "farmer's basket" of organic produce. Today we went to pick up the first one. It's fun because you don't know what you are going to get. (This week, it was lettuce, spinach, squash, green onions, etc.) I love to look at farms and vegetable gardens, so I took a picture: I love the patterns and colors. Tonight I lightened up the shadows and cropped the original photo to get this image.
Today I was looking through my photographs of Colorado, and I found a picture that I took a few years ago, during a ride down to Pueblo. I am not sure of the exact location, but it is certainly between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, not too far from Pinon. This is the landscape in which I grew up. Well, tonight I decided to use Painter to posterize the original photograph. I often have problems when I posterize a photo of a landscape because if I do enough posterizing of the land to make things interesting, then the sky becomes too distorted. But on this one, I used the selection tool so I could posterize the sky at a different level than the land. (Have I learned something new, after all this time!) Anyway, here is my image for today: the landscape of home, softened by memory.
Yesterday I posted a photo of a beautiful chestnut tree, framing a house at Long Hill Gardens. It is hard to convey in a photograph the size of this great tree, and how it feels to stand under it. But here's another try. Tonight I cropped the original photograph to get this composition. You can get a glimpse of the house through the leaves.
This is another photograph that I took during yesterday's walk at Long Hill, here in Beverly, MA. (This property is also known as Sedgwick Gardens, and used to be a private estate, but now this house and the beautiful gardens are owned by the Trustees of the Reservation, and open to the public.) I was standing underneath an amazing chestnut tree when I took this photograph. Tonight I edited the photo, adjusting the shadows just a bit, and cropping to get this composition.
This is a collage and decoupage project in progress, a heart-shaped box that I am covering with bits of printed metallic ribbon. Today I continued to work on the red interior. I am building up a gold border around the edge, and trying to fill in remaining gaps with red ribbon as I go.
This is a another photograph that I took at Long Hill a few days ago. This is a view of the little road that leads up to the main house on the property. I took this picture around 5 PM. The day was overcast and the air was heavy. What I thought was mist turned out to be a combination of fog and smoke drifting down from Canadian forest fires. We take our environment for granted until it changes, and then we begin to pay attention. I guess that's why I tend to pull out my camera when there is mist or fog. I was interested in trying to capture the strange, almost refracted, and the luminous colors. Tonight I cropped the original photograph to get this composition.
For the past few days, the weather has been unusually misty and overcast. And the light is very strange, refracted and diffuse. At first, I thought it was just fog, but then I heard that it was actually caused by drifting smoke from forest fires in Canada. Not at all good news. However, it is visually interesting. Mist and fog make you look harder, look differently. And that's what I was doing when I took this picture during a recent walk at Long Hill, here in Beverly, MA.
This image is a digitally edited and posterized photograph. I took the original photograph on May 31, during a walk at Long Hill Gardens here in Beverly, MA. I suddenly stumbled upon these beautiful flowers, Japanese iris, that were blooming alongside a walkway. I loved the colors and combination of textures, so I took a quick photo, and moved on. When I transferred the image into the computer, I noticed some big leaves in the foreground that were leaning in to the image and covering up part of the iris stems. I kept coming back to this image, so tonight I decided to try to fix the problem. I opened the image in Painter, and drew into and over the image with opaque digital pastel, covering up the leaves. I also used some cut and paste to extend the ground cover to the edge of the image. Then I posterized the image a bit, to cover my tracks. Suddenly, the problem was gone, leaving just the iris.
Yesterday I took advantage of the long weekend and put in a little more time on this project, a heart-shaped box that I am covering with decoupage and collage designs created with printed metallic ribbons. (This box once held a Mother's Day present from my daughter and the ribbons were discards given to me by a friend.) I have been working on the predominantly red interior, and adding a gold border around the inside. In this photo, you can also see the inside of the top, covered with another pattern in shades of pink, fuschia, and orange.
