PhotoArt Friday graffiti for Easter

I had Bonnie’s suggestion of creating photoart graffiti in the back of my mind when I was wandering around an Easter display in Covent Garden in icy wind and occasional light snow.  I snapped this lovely image of giant daffodils while wondering when spring weather would arrive around here.

and slowly an idea for my graffiti creation took form.  Back home I created this using the selection tools, artistic filters and the bored schoolboy font

Still waiting for some nice weather but glad to make the statement. 

and a version with Bonnie’s latest lovely texture gift as the background (I do love the magic eraser tool that enabled me to easily remove the white from the flattened image)

Looking forward to seeing the graffiti others present.

Look up look down with others

 

One of the many delights of meeting Deb and Alison last weekend was being in the company of fellow ‘look up look down’ ers who were not at all perturbed at being asked to point up in order for me to take my photo (Alison on the left, Deb on the right) and yes those gloves were needed as it was icy cold.

The down is of a fun and energetic busking band who jumped to the classical music they were playing – providing a nice thematic link of moving limbs

Deb was in town !!!

Back from a lovely weekend in London to meet Deb and Carrie, and Alison and Mel.  Such a strange mix of familiar and unfamiliar – known lives in previously unheard voices; conversations using real names rather than blog pseudonyms; chat in real time on several topics. 

I met up with Deb, Carrie and Alison for breakfast at the hotel and then a wander around Covent Garden market as it awoke. Plenty of chat and touch and laughter and of course photos of everything, including some up and downs.  So refreshing to be around other scrappers when whipping out the camera to take photos of everything. 

Then the number 9 bus to Kensington for lunch with 7 more scrapping bloggers.  Again plenty of camera action amongst the chatter and laughter.

Indeed the novelty of all the photo taking inspired my first layout of the weekend.

the bottom right photo is Ruth doing the series of photos of each of us with Deb and Carrie – and here is mine

We did take a group photo in the restaurant – but took pity on the helpful waiter and agreed to share the image rather than pass him 11 cameras.

So lovely to meet blogfriends who have been part of my life since Shimelle’s blogging class in 2009. 

photoart Friday - yes its hand made

Self-portrait is the theme this week from Bonnie for PhotoArt Friday.  As I used my own face for the portrait theme last week I turned to a different part of me for this challenge.  Again I was drawn to the idea of making a photo look as if it had been drawn or painted





for both images I followed the same process
*heartland (Pioneer woman) effect
*find edges filter
* Bonnie’s Dusty Rose Bokeh in colour burn (added warmth)
* artistic filter rough pastels
*some pixel cutting magic to keep the coffee foam in real colour and to remove the background on the 2nd so it looks more like a sketch

Look Up Look Down in Princes Street Gardens

One of the scenarios that I like to use for up and down photos is when I’m above ground level so that the down has more perspective.  The gardens that run along one side of the main shopping street in Edinburgh hare a perfect example and I expect they will feature again for this meme. 

A wet week so the seats were empty and the sky grey

Next week I hope the photos will be on London and include the feet or hands of some important American visitors

PhotoArt Portraits

Bonnie’s challenge for PhotoArt Friday this week was portrait.  So many possibilities and ways to take this subject. 

first off I played with putting my face in an unexpected place in a photo – and after playing unsuccessfully with several ideas I merged together a wall, a spotlight and my face for this rather disturbing but fun image

Later I took  different path and experimented with creating a portrait which looks as if it has been painted.  I was so pleased with the effect that in each case I felt it wasn’t finished until each looked as if it had been mounted

I’m pleased with both – much more than the original photo (which was taken sitting on a train using my tablet)

 

I’m looking forward to seeing how others interpret this challenge.

Look Up Look Down at more snow

snow in mid March is rather an ‘unexpected item in bagging area’* moment – just when thoughts turn to spring we are back with snow and icy winds.  But, wearing my Pollyanna hat, at least it is more photogenic than rain.  Hope the flowers survive the chill

* I realise this reference may not actually be universal – at the self-service tills in the supermarkets here, if you put something in the bag other than the item you just scanned the automatic voice says ‘unexpected item in bagging area’. 

multi media fun

While my main creative space is my computer, I’ve been creating across a range of media recently – concurrent multi-media rather than the normal kind, I guess

I’ve liberated my art. 

I had the postcards printed with Moo and was very pleased with the ease of the online process and the quality of the cards.  I used the minimum quantity – 20 – and chose 10 images to print.  They came out at 50p (74c US) each. I’ve sent off the requisite 5 to Kat and am looking forward to receiving 6 back in April.  Sign up is open until 17 March if you’ve been thinking about participating and haven’t done so yet.

I finally found a knitting group that I enjoy – with the right combination of relaxed about the knitting; snacks they bring and chat topics.  Over half the members are new to knitting so I spend some of my time each session helping others with their knitting.  Last week I taught someone to crochet – she was so pleased as she has been trying to learn for months and finally made a 2 ring granny square.   I’m knitting squares for a South African charity which sews them together to make blankets for orphans, and most of the new knitters have decided to create squares as they learn different techniques too.

I strung some amber beads that my Mum has had for years. 

I alternated the amber with pairs of small bright beads from my stash – the result is lovely and bright (for spring if it ever appears). I made it really long so that I can create a big knot as in the image or loop it round my neck twice.  It also means I didn’t have to fiddle with a fastening.  I strung it on embroidery thread – also from my stash.

Which crafty media have you been using recently?

Keep pushing those abstract ideas

Bonnie is keeping us on our creative toes with her suggestions for PhotoArt Friday.  For this week she suggested creating abstract using only her textures.  ‘Do you mean only your textures and photos@ I asked;  ‘No’, she said’ ‘I’d thought just textures’.  Ok, I thought let’s give it a try – and what fun I had

I started by cutting scruffy quadrangles from 7 textures that I chose pretty randomly.  i turned them all black and white so that the texture was the focus and then arranged them in an abstract, pleasing to me, way.

Nice, I thought but Bonnie has suggested trying something new, again and again.

So I thought I’d add some textures to this and keep the resultant colours.  And I created 4 which I liked and rather than just have 4 items in the gallery I put them together

Even better, I thought so perhaps repeating them some more would make it even better

Still looking good so may as well keep repeating

Not so keen on this last one so went back to the one before and again I was tempted to stop there but thought ‘what would happen if I added the original on top and blended that in different blending modes?’

Really pleased with both of these so decided to stop.

Thanks to Bonnie for the prompt and for the suggestion of trying it again, and again, and again.  Interested to see how others respond to the challenge.

Look Up Look Down on the rocks

In 9 weeks the habit of looking up and down for interesting photos has changed how I consider photos and I find myself taking many more up and down photos throughout the week.

This pair is from a trip along the coast for lunch at the Seabird Centre and a walk around the rocky lookouts beside the harbour.  Despite all the clouds it was a pleasant day for a walk.

February (re)counted

Julie’s idea of summarising and sharing the past month in numbers is now a solid part of my end of month routine, and much more fun than recording my money activity and filing papers.

I’ve decided to stick to the same format all year, just changing the highlight colours.

I’ve also added a few bits of reflection or commentary for context

Vintage pictures

I had some fun playing with painting pixel magic for Bonnie’s theme of ‘vintage’ for PhotoArt Friday.

I love this technique – much easier than actual painting due to the undo button!

[postcard template from The CoffeeShop Blog]

I particularly enjoy the very modern architecture in an image that at first looks vintage.