Digital Poppies for Houston ATC Swap

I took time out from stitching to work on a few Artist Trading Card designs for the ATC swap at the Houston quilt show in November. I plan to print this on fabric, probably draining every drop of ink from my printer's color cartridge, iron it on to peltex, and embellish with beads and embroidery. I'll iron a fabric back on it, and finish the edge with a machine zig zag stitch or a hand embroidered buttonhole stitch. I love the colors, and I hope my printer will duplicate them as vividly as they show up in PhotoShop.

I started with a layer of solid fuschia, then added layers of brushstrokes in various colors. I added the flower photo (taken in my front garden in the spring), and placed it between layers until I got the effect I wanted. The green floral design across the bottom is a brushstroke, and I even tried some embroidery stitch brushes (didn't like the effect). PhotoShop brushes are fabulous, and with so many free ones out there it's easy to build up a large library. Some of my favorites are French handwritten script, kanji symbols, floral designs, and abstract designs.

updated bird and bride

I made a few changes and I like the image much better.

bird and bride

She seems to be looking toward the bird, but her eyes are closed. Perhaps she is imagining the bird, hoping that it has some wisdom to share.

The brightly colored bird is wearing a crown, indicating that it is special in some way. Why has it come to her on her wedding day?

mothers' fears

My son is in Chile, and from all accounts, is having the time of his life. He has been working on an organic farm, making new friends, and learning Spanish. He sends me a short email message every few days, not so much to communicate about his trip, but to reassure me that he is alive and well perched on the Ring of Fire. He is nonchalant about the earthquakes that occur almost daily, saying that anything less than 5 on the Richter scale is a "tremor". Today he told me that he is traveling to Valdivia where the strongest earthquake on record (9.5!) shook the town to bits in 1960. It occurred to me that my feelings about this are somewhat akin to those of mothers of soldiers. I am in no way comparing my son's trip to Chile to the experiences of soldiers facing enemies on front lines in the middle East. I am talking about my feelings about his being far away, with potential danger near, and my being powerless to help him if he needs it. My son is in a relatively safe situation, unlike our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. My level of fear for him is quite uncomfortable. I would imagine that for the mothers of young soldiers the fear can be unbearable at times. I think of a friend whose son is in Iraq for a second tour. That has got to be hard. Yet we do what mothers have always done. Pray for them and put one foot in front of the other until they come home.

woman with pansies

downhill

Who can forget the feeling of flying when riding a bicycle down a hill. You work so hard to get to the top, then with a rush of wind and a thrill of exhiliration you scream toward the bottom, and it's all over so fast.

intellectual geisha

The image of this woman is one of my favorites. Something about her seems schoolmarmish, the glasses I suppose. And the bun on top of her head. The crane is her daydream as she sits, perhaps, facing a roomful of noisy children. Maybe she wishes she could fly above the earth in silence.

birthday

 

Birthday card to myself. How could I not be happy while looking at those colors?

dog dreams

snow

winter

sisters are doin' it for themselves

bamboo garden

dreams of the forest
swaying with the wind as does
the ancient bamboo

in the rain

soft drops in the trees
the damp air is golden
walking hand in hand

bicycle

It doesn't seem quite finished. Not sure what to do next.

medieval knight

When my son Barry was 12 years old he joined an organization called the Arthurian Order of Avalon. The AOA was a wonderful experience -- lots of choreographed swordfights, performing a human chessboard play every year at the local Medieval Fair, feasts, parties, armor-making, jousting, costumes, singing, dancing, even cooking and sewing. Part of this image is a small beaded quilt that I made with a photo of him in costume.

the bird is the word

Another PS CS4 creation using layer masks. My formula (or rut) is to open a new image using a template that I created for my journal. I duplicate the background layer (Cmd J on mac, Ctrl J on pc), then select a font and start typing. This is a personal journal where I say whatever comes to mind. I fill up the page, and if I am not through writing, I have a file on my computer where I can continue, so that I don't have to stop if I am on a roll. I lock the text layer, then start Placing images on layers. I choose a central photo, like the bird, and add texture with pictures that I have taken, brushes, and acquired texture files. Then I play with positioning the layers, changing colors, and so on. I add layer masks to expose or conceal parts of the images. This is starting to feel very comfortable, so I need to find some new techniques to explore in photoshop.

My journal template is 5X7 and I am using high resolution images so I should be able get good quality prints. I am imagining a crazy quilt using some of my favorite images. Or maybe I could wait until the end of the year when presumably I will have 365 images and make a quilt that would cover the roof of my house. Sort of a Christos installation. I wrote those last few sentences to see if anyone is actually reading my blog. Surely someone will comment!

come into the woods

Created in PhotoShop CS4. The flowers and woods are a picture that I took, and the girl is an image that I got from Divas D'Este on one of their great cd's. The purple lace pattern is a photoshop brush that I downloaded from a website -- and now I don't remember which one, sorry.

I decided that I liked the lace over the other images, although I did remove it from around the face using a layer mask.

These collages are great fun to do, and I am getting much faster.

My studio has been a wreck for at least 6 weeks, and I going to spend this week cleaning it up so I can get crackin' on all the projects running around my brain, including printing some of the journal pages on fabric.

disconnect

bff