Illustration Friday-Baby

In my heart of hearts I love this Illustration Friday topic -- I could create Baby art all day long! Since one baby is wonderful, then would two be even better? That's why I opted for Two in a Pea Pod. But I have been trying to get their attention all afternoon...they just have so much going on around them, and they can't tune in! Maybe when they need a diaper change...

Today as I was in the garden picking some peas to scan I noticed the sweet peas needed cut too, (they smell wonderful by the way) so I had to used them in this piece. The wheels are little buttons I scanned.

Here are the elements & images I used in Two in a Pea Pod ---

• 
  Textured and Solid Background Layers Blue and Green
  Textured Clouds
  Yellow Spherical Shape for Sun
  Scroll Ironwork Image
  Caterpillar Image
  Butterfly Image
  Scanned Sweet Peas
  Scanned Buttons for wheels
  Scanned Pea Pod
  Baby Photo from my Collection - color added
  Image of Grass I made with the brush tool
  Scroll Brushes for the border
  Brown shading layer for depth
  

Altogether with the mask layers, filters and layer effects, etc., I counted up 51 layers for this piece. What did we ever do before layers?

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great June!

Illustration Friday-Worry

No WORRY for this fine lady... She Keeps Her Eye on the Ball

The topic for Illustration Friday was perfect this week as I finished this Digital Collage on Thursday. Oh, by the way, we ate this fish that my husband caught, it was so delicious. Another "by the way"...my husband just shook his head when he saw this illustration, I'm sure he does not get it, but it makes perfect sense to me!

The ball is a selection of the fish eye - I was amazed at the great variation in it when it was enlarged and I applied a blending mode, plus bevel and emboss. The border is a photo of rust on a solid background with a blending mode applied, I love the texture.


I created 3 variations of this, if you would be so kind as to leave me a comment with your favorite of the three I would really appreciate it. You can also see the images used to create this piece below.

• Here are the images used to create this piece:
  
  Cinnamon colored solid layer
  Tan colored solid layer
  Scan from old store ledger
  Photo of rusty metal, cropped for frame
  Sky with clouds image
  Calligraphy Image
  Image of Domenico Ghirlandaio 1488 painting
  Fish my husband caught (yum), with selected fish eye

Thanks for stopping by!

Illustration Friday-Wide

Illustration Friday - Wide
Digital Collage

She has traveled Far and Wide, does she measure-up?

This little lady has quite an imagination. She travels Far and Wide in stories she tells herself. Safely tucked away in her dear and favorite flowers, she knows that dreaming will bring her to far away places and allow her to travel wide. Oh, the things she has seen…
This was an extremely difficult topic for me.
I'm going to go see what everyone else came up with this week for Illustration Friday.

The second photo shows elements used for this collage...
I applied Layer Blending Modes, Artisitc Filters and varied Opacity levels to create the final image for this topic.

Several of you have emailed me about the Wacom I use. I couldn't work without my Wacom tablet now as I am totally addicted! It's amazing the time I save and the creative process is less inhibited with the use of it. I have the Intuos 3 Graphics Tablet. It's just the 4x6, but that's what I chose as I like to limit the size of things on my desk!!! Well, I try to make a conscious effort anyway...

Playing around...

1. Spring Garden Fairy, 2. Illustration Friday - Fail, 3. Garden Dreams, 4. ledger w clover exclusion, 5. Good Seed - Bad Seed, 6. Timely Wrinkles , 7. Blessed One, 8. Fairy in a Jar , 9. ledger w clover, 10. Heavy, 11. Catch a Falling Star, 12. My Little Gypsy, 13. ATC Butterfly Baby, 14. Silenced, 15. Digital Architect, 16. Skeleton, 17. Broken Hearted, 18. Wandering Sprite, 19. queen bee, 20. Faith Hope Charity

I had so much fun playing around with mosaic at BHL. You should try it with your photos, it will even let you download from your flickr site.

These are all digital works I have created using Photoshop. Some are as small as ATC's others are as large as 36x36.

If you ever need some good quality prints made up in a hurry, order them online through WinkFlash. Last week I ordered 11x14', had them in my hands in 4 days and the quality was excellent! I'm impressed and highly recommend them!

Illustration Friday-Electricity

…

e.lec.tric.i.ty
Electricity is the new topic for Illustration Friday this week. Since my husband, who has worked his life away for the power company, knows so much about the subject, I thought I would ask for his input. Well, it’s funny how we all have different perspectives on things - he instantly thought of a power house, converters, transmission lines, transformers, those water drop thingies for hydro power, dams, substations, K what-cha-ma-call-it lines…and it goes on. I said, “Honey, can you make it simpler?” He said, “a kite, a key and Ben Franklin”.

Bingo…

Personally, I was thinking of a riveting on-stage performance by a beautiful actress or dancer. Something along these lines from http://www.freedictionary.com/electricity
3. electricity – keen and shared excitement; “the stage crackled with electricity whenever she was on it”
Oh well, he always seems to win out lately, if he didn’t look so much like Sean Connery, maybe I wouldn’t give in to him so easily. Just kidding…I liked the idea too.

The images I used for this composition are:

• Brown background
• Blue background
• Powerline photo that looks like a line drawing
• Inverse cloud background
• Ben Franklin scan from currency - recolored with a mask
• Kite illustration
• Key - scanned image
• Lightening made from Obsidian Dawn brushes
• Frame image

Illustration Friday-Seed

Good Seed – Bad Seed
I certainly don’t want to miss out on the chance to create something for this weeks’ Illustration Friday topic, Seed. I had a few concepts in mind, but as I was researching for one that would really enthrall me, I couldn’t get the Bad Seed idea out of my head. I saw the movie years ago, it left an impression.
The idea that some children may have a pre-determined and/or genetic disposition to do or be bad seems bizarre to me. There is an interesting article I found with Google search at crimelibrary.com.
As I plant flower or vegetable seeds I know that the type of care I give the seedlings and then the adult plants will most definitely determine the plant’s well being and productivity. So, I relate this to raising a child, which I have done with good success in several cases, and with the help of many; mainly God and who knows how many angels, but also a father, grandparents, friends, good teachers and various books. I’m glad I didn’t have any “bad seeds”, but was it just luck?
Maybe…
Here are the elements used to create this digital collage.