Imagekind Matting and Framing

I recently opened an account with Imagekind and uploaded some macro floral photographs I took this past summer to my new gallery. Today I was experimenting with their online matting and framing feature. For fun, I chose a large print size(32"x 24") of Miss Willmott 1 and decided on Torchon Fine Art for my paper. Next I selected a thin frame in Frosted Silver Arthaus and added an inner mat(2nd mat) of Fiddlehead Green and an outer mat(1st mat) of Digital White. I then selected the mat widths...3'' for the top and sides, 4" on the bottom. I also appreciate the fact that they offer the buyer an idea of the scale of the finished framed piece as it will appear hung on a wall by using a graphic of a woman 5' 4" tall standing next to it for comparison.

Watercolor Textures

I haven't wandered off again. Instead I've been reading Ann Blockley's Book, Watercolour Textures while waiting for my art supplies to arrive and having fun experimenting with different techniques. So far I've produced nothing worth posting but it's been a learning experience none the less. She often uses different surfaces such as gessoed mountboard and incorporates acrylic inks and textiles such as lace in some of her work with incredible results. I've played with dropping alcohol into wet w/c paint and found it creates great dandelions! Other than that...well, I'm still playing.

For all of you watercolor artists out there that aren't 'purists' and want to take your work to the next level, I'd recommend Ann's book.

Mike's Cat Revised

I have to say, the position of the cat looks better this way and it didn't take much alteration either. It also solved the 'tail problem'. I suggested the water and scribbled in some landscape and threw in some cattails. Nothing is set on that yet. Any suggestions anyone? Mike, got any preferences?

Special Request From Mike

A fan of my fantasy cats has given me a suggestion for a concept that I quite like! I don't have a title for it yet so it'll be known as 'Mike's Cat' for now. We emailed back and forth two nights ago going over the details and this is what I've come up with so far. It's just a line drawing at this stage. I ran out of HP paper which I ordered yesterday from Blick and Krylon fixative(for the study) which I forgot to order so I'll be making a road trip to Petoskey for that. I need to write these things down when I run out of supplies. I knew there was something I forgot to order. I just forgot what it was.......

East Meets West Completed

SOLD

I had a blast doing this one! I finally called it done last night. I could've fiddled endlessly with those orchids but wanted to preserve some sort of spontaneity to them.

Next time I plan to be more bold with my pours. I also plan to take a cue from Nick Simmons. He doesn't tape his paper to a board. This gives him more freedom of surface movement.

Check out this short video clip on Nick's blog to see him in action. It's well worth watching.

East Meets West

This is where I'm at right now. I'll start painting the details of the flowers tomorrow.

I laid on the masking fluid pretty heavy for this project. I'm glad I did. Juicy work, easier removal. I did add a little salt in places for effect.




I needed a break from the kitties and I felt a floral coming on. It's been ages since I painted flowers. The winter weather, although not bad right now, is making me miss my gardens. I had been fooling around drawing snow covered tulips but couldn't find the right blue for the sky. The mat and frame I have is the wrong format for what I had in mind, too. Well...nuts.

As luck would have it my April issue of Watercolor Artist arrived in my mailbox and the Chinese artist,

Lian Quan Zhen had written a four page article on three styles of Chinese painting...detail style, spontaneous style and a combination of the two styles. Zhen also incorporated what he calls the Western Style of negative painting in a demonstration featuring orchids. What caught my interest the most were some of the techniques this artist used...pouring and negative painting. These are two methods of painting with watermedia that I've been planning on trying but somehow never got around to actually doing. I'm posting my work in progress, two orchids and a bud. So far, I've completed my background and removed the masking.

Warning! When pouring be ready for a mess! My first try was hideous. I mixed my paint too thick and poured a little too fast and heavy. I had paint on me, the floor, all over my worktable...holycrapwhatamess. Err on the side of caution when attempting this method and wear your grubbies. Have lots of paper towels handy, too.

Lian Quan Zhen also has a step-by-step demo available online right now. You may want to check it out.

My First Art Award!

Anita Murphy bestowed this on me yesterday and I feel so honored. Thank you, Anita! Now I have to list 7 things that make me happy so here goes........

1. Warm summer nights complete with a Moon and lots of stars to count

2. My gardens

3. My boys

4. Cloud watching

5. Thunderstorms but nothing too violent

6. When a painting turns out just the way I envisioned it

7. Really good music

Experimenting

Well, before it was all said and done I threw everything I had at this one trying to figure out what worked best and what didn't work at all. I found out you can put CP's over acrylics. If you put down CP's first forget putting anything over them. I tried valiantly to soften the edges of that reflection with soft pastel. The cat which I did with pastel pencils was an after thought. I'll definitely take more time with the fur when I redo this piece. The surrounding landscape is just rubbish. I'll have to give that more consideration before I begin again. Also HP paper will not take much abuse so I'll be keeping that in mind, too. On the bright side, I love the eyes in the reflection. I think they make the painting. Once again...any C & C is welcome and don't be shy either.

Note: Notice anything odd in the reflection? Check the direction of the cat's tail. It's on the wrong side. I had a *d'uh* moment when I did that. Maybe the current was so strong it moved it to the other side? Sounds good anyway............

Pond Water With Reflection

I was pretty darn happy with my first attempt at painting pond water on HP watercolor paper. I've never really done a proper landscape or been completely happy with my ability to paint water. I liked the glow achieved here with an underpainting of Gamboge Hue with subsequent washes of Cerulean blue and Indigo so I'm filing this one away in my success file. I'm working on a new fantasy piece and I realize I will need to work on these skills to realize my vision. Unfortunately, I really blew the sky so I'm only posting the pond part. I've got my pride at stake here folks! The 'reflection' is of an overly large Moon and I can see that I shouldn't have created so much ripple effect as the pond is basically still.

I plan to continue with this flawed painting, experimenting and working out the logistics. When I'm finally satisfied with my abilities and have a successful piece completed, I'll post it along with all my 'experiments' and point out where I went wrong along the way. As Stacy Rowen reminded me...it's only paper. All a part of the learning process..............

Adobe Photoshop Elements 6

I purchased this program last year after downloading a Free Trial Version online. It worked great for editing and printing my notecards and that's really all I needed at the time. After the trial period ran out, I was sent an email offering a discount on the full program so I bought it. It cost about $75.00 plus tax and shipping at the time. Now, I don't pretend to begin to know what all the features are or how to use them but I have another cat fantasy piece in mind so I thought I'd see what I could do with the Elements editing features. There's a lot of online tutorials available but they tend to make my eyes glaze over reading them so I just started playing around.

Here's a brief and rather sketchy tutorial of my experiences. From the bottom to the top.....

(1. This is the main editing window. It functions much like any other editing program. You retrieve your selected image from 'File'.

(2. This is my first image which I've rotated for editing purposes.

(3. Select 'Auto Select Layer'. Why? I don't know other than you DON'T want to create a locked layer. That will greatly limit your editing options.

(4. I wanted to create a watery, wavey reflection of a cat's face so I chose 'Liquify' from the 'Effects' menu. Be sure to click on 'Apply' at the lower right hand corner to initate. This will take you to another window. You'll see a circle which will take the place of your cursor arrow. That's your brush which you can adjust under the 'Tools Option' at the right of the screen.

(5. I ran my 'brush' back and forth across the image, giving it the look I was after. When the right look was achieved I clicked 'OK' which took me back to the original window. I then saved this altered image in My Pictures.

(6. I used another editing program to put this new altered image and another I had drawn together to see how well I did.

Voila! Well, it's kind of crude but I'm still learning. I hope this helps someone who's as PS challenged as I am.

Why So Many Cats?

I've asked myself why, when looking for subjects I tend to always go back to cats. I met a man from Dubai a few years ago. He was a longtime pen pal of my best friend, Betsy. They had been writing to each other for over 40 years and finally got the chance to meet face-to-face when he brought his son to Windsor, Canada to enter the university there. I made the journey with her to Windsor and had the pleasure of meeting him, too. He and his wife are originally from India and his wife is still a practicing Hindu. He's a lovely, gentle tempered man and was aware of my artwork. He said to me one day, "You know....Billie is the Hindu word for cat". I looked it up and sure enough...he was right! Coincidence?
*********************************************************************************

cat/English
Function: noun

Hindu/Meaning: 1. (a) billI

Milky Way~Completed

This one is done! I debated what the cats should look like and finally settled on a variety of colors and markings. The leaping cat was inspired by TJ, my oldest son's cat who passed away two years ago. I would've liked to have paid homage to Raven, my beloved studio cat who passed away last summer but a black cat just didn't work with this piece. I used soft pastel sticks and pastel pencils to finish the cats and also added a bit of soft pastel to the Milky Way in places to soften it a bit.

I had a devil of a time photographing this piece. I couldn't seem to get a nice clear image. After sharpening it in my photo editor it occurred to me that maybe my camera lense was dirty! The colors are also a little 'off' but it's a cloudy day so what can you do. *sigh*

Milky Way WIP

Update: After my first attempt to paint this one without the benefit of doing a color study(shame on me...it failed miserably), I cut the back of the paper up into squares approx. 6"x 8" and did several studies with various palettes. I settled on this one.

I decided to freehand the Moon, enlarge it to outrageous proportions and attack this project with my trusty Mon Image spray bottles filled with diluted watercolors. (1.)I started with a light wash of DV Gamboge Hue by spraying the entire sheet and wiping the excess paint away with a paper towel. Great way to tone paper! (2.)I then applied Misket to the cats and the reflection in the water. I also spotted in a few stars. I used Frisket film to protect the Moon.(3.)Then the fun began. I sprayed like a maniac, directing and modifying the coverage with good old toilet paper. My paper towels had way too much texture for this purpose. The palette is basically Indigo mixed with FUB, Perylene Maroon(potent color!)mixed with Ultramarine violet and that's about it! I did use a bit of plain water in a sprayer to move the paint in places.

The Frisket film is still in place as is the Misket. I plan to tweak this further with some pastels so I'll remove the masking materials afterwards.

What Kind Of Flower Am I?

I'm a canna lily! I grew this flower one year in a very big clay pot. It was gorgeous but come time to de-pot in the Fall the root system had grown so large I had to fight like crazy to get it out. Very stubborn. Kinda like me....

I am a Canna What Flower Are You?

Milky Way Study #1

I'm posting this primarily to see what it looks like on screen. I find the screen highlights all the flaws(or successes)in a piece. This was all done with black and white pastel, blk/wht charcoal and white charcoal shavings. Man, I sure make a mess with pastels! My hat's off to all the pastel artists out there that create such gorgeous work. I also forgot how bad Krylon fixative smells.

Any critiques are more than welcome! I can always use them when working from imagination. Imagination is a wonderful thing. You can take many liberties with perspective, lighting, etc. but I still want the piece to make some sort of sense to the eye. Keep in mind this is just a rough idea of the concept. The cats aren't well developed. I'm still trying to decide if I want them all white or not. I'm not even sure this will be my final concept.

If you look carefully you can see I have one cat on the very top that I chose to ignore. I think three cats will be sufficient for this project but I left the outline just in case I change my mind.

HAPPY NEW YEAR~2009!

Catitudes

Trying Out My First Slide Show

This Is How It Starts

This is how I develop a concept. I get an idea in my head and it rolls around until I finally put pencil/pen to paper(any paper I have handy)and start doodling. I have a basic vision of my subject matter. In this case, cats lapping up starry milk from the Milky Way. From observing my own cats I can create rough sketches of felines engaged in the appropriate activities to suit my concept.

Next, I need to do research. What does the Milky Way look like...really? During my online browsing I discovered that the Milky Way can appear as an incredible spiral or resemble an erupting volcano of cosmic vapors, very organic in shape. Good! This will give me the creative 'wiggle room' I will need. Now all that's needed is the Moon. Got to have the Moon! The next step will be to incorporate all these elements into a pleasing study worthy of painting. That will be the next challenge...........

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

I want to wish all my friends & visitors a wonderful holiday and all the best for 2009.