Category Archives: INSPIRATION

App-solutely! App-mosphere to Blog-o-sphere…

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(Image above is the original drawing, see bottom of post for the version discussed in this post)

Apps! I have so many of them they take up most of the space on my iPhone and iPad. But I LOVE them! There are incredible things out there for the creatively insatiable like we are. And even though the results of the art we create on the mobile devices may not be magazine quality/dpi it doesn’t mean we can’t use them to make art or to embellish our art. App-depending you can still get a decent quality out of most them I have found. And if not I’ve found I can tweak later and make it work.

I’m a digital artist… duuuuh. But I have found a couple of apps that I think are brilliant and monster kudos to their creators who took their time and brilliant genius to get them into the app store at .99 a pop so I can do and create things beyond my scope of abilities in Adobe Photoshop.

This particular image is a hybrid of one brilliant App and a pretty amazing website I was turned onto.

The website is http://www.mrdoob.com. The site has been around for years and has some amazing things on it but the one I enjoy when in a doodling mood is Harmony. I have no idea what the creator did, how it works, only that it does brilliant craziness and I love the results. I simply make a drawing, do a screen grab, open up the drawing in Adobe Photoshop and away I go– adding color, altering lines, drawing in faces and more line.

This image was originally drawn on http://www.mrdoob.com, then saved to my photo stream. The additional wave of fun is due to a hippie dippie App that makes me insanely happy called Phototropedelic. Psychedelic and fabulous if you ask me. Do a little button and numbers selection dance in there and bingo bongo, next stop Photoshop where I dialed in some color and a few more minor adjustments. Ta daaaaa!

I like to create for the sake of creating, don’t you? It’s how I learn. Trying things out, seeing what it will do. WHAT IF… That’s the game. If you haven’t yet why not play it with me? I’d love to see what you’re up to, please share and I just may post it! xxxooostickface

Owl City backstage at Endfest

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This just makes me laugh!

I’m always on my computer in my archives searching for something and often come across fun or unexpected file photos.  This one of Owl City is from End Fest last year. I was one of the photographers shooting the meet and greet and just before the crowd began to line up I had an opportunity to meet Owl City.  I asked them to jump, who knows why!  Only this one member said yes and I shot two consecutive frames then animated it.

When it comes to working with your subjects and something pops into your head It never hurts to ask them to do it because you never ever know what will happen next and what kind of fun it might lead to.  This just makes me laugh. 🙂

Fido and Fluffy are Family Too!

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C-is-for-cat-CrailYes, C is For Cat!  Meet my beautiful feline friend Toby.  He’s been with me for 16 years now and has been feeling a bit poorly recently.  One thing I’m so glad of is that over the years I have taken the time to make art pieces out of my cat friends.  Our pets are such important part of our family.  I do animal art portraits professionally too and my tag line is “Fido and Fluffy are Family Too”.  They are such wonderful companions with these great distinctive personalities and big love in abundance for us.  Not a day goes by that I don’t sit back and marvel at the joy they bring into my world with their sweet and loving companionship.  I’m feeling so much love and compassion for my ailing Toby today so decided to share this artistic representation I did of him a couple of years ago.  His bountiful purr is unparalleled!

On the technical side I found some wonderful old lettering and clip art to use for the drawn graphic elements and also wrote the prose, which I used both in english and in french.   It’s created in Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter.

 

Roller Derby Car Load

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Roller Derby Car Load

Derby Girls, gotta love em. They are a different breed. Wild, fun, playful, sexy, rugged, athletic, competitive. Pulled this image from the files today. I don’t even remember it from the first time around looking at the images. Probably because I was more focused on the portraits. We did a series of portraits of each girl along with a vintage car parked under a freeway. The driver let us use his very cool convertible. Seemed to me it would be great to get something with him and a few of the girls too. It’s funny when you go back through stuff. I can see from looking at the take that this was the only frame I shot like it. This one included the framing of the car window and reflections, which the other ones didn’t. I pulled a few others from the shoots too, may post a few more later and talk about portrait shooting… 🙂

Geisha

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Geisha

“There is currently no western equivalent for a geisha—they are truly the most impeccable form of Japanese art.”—Kenneth Champeon, The Floating World

And the quote actually sums up the picture for me. Today I took the original a few steps further– it’s a bit subtle perhaps, which make me think a bit philosophically too about the (my own) creation process.  

This may sound strange to people who really know me but I find myself rather restrained and long to break out artistically. Truth is no matter what level you are at, the creative must always strive for more– bigger, greater, more profound, always trying to up our skills a notch, figure out how to do that new cool thing. It never stops.

I’ve learned a lot about courage from looking at others work and desire greatly to put more courage in my approach and execution of what I do too.

No matter what I’m photographing, I’m always looking to please both the client and myself so I often capture juicy imagery that I might eventually make art out of even if it does take me years to get back to them.

The original image that I created this art piece from was photographed during a job, an event assignment, where many people were in costume.  This woman just caught my eye, possibly because the she so embodied her character it was entrancing. Today I happened upon the original in my archives and decided to put a spin on it artistically and now you see the result!

From Wikipedia: Geisha (芸者?), geiko (芸子) or geigi (芸妓) are traditional Japanese female entertainers who act as hostesses and whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music, dance and games.

Love is In the Air…

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Love is In the Air...

Love Love Love, it’s what many of us think about A LOT! If we have it, if we don’t, if we want it, if it’s on the horizon… Passion, romance, sweet sticky wonderful love. I’m in love. I’m completely in love with my amazing husband and next month we celebrate our one year anniversary. AND next month is Valentines Day, YAY!

So it may be a bit early for this love holiday card but today I had to create something new and play just for the joy of it. I found this beautiful vintage angel with such a charming cherub face it was easy to envision something cool. I found it at http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com.  She has the most wonderful vintage imagery on her blog site.  Check it out!

I worked on this piece on and off all day long between jobs, errands, calls– a few minutes here, a few minutes there– letting ideas unfold, visions pop, flashes of insight appear.

Tonight we went to see a movie– Silver Linings Playbook. What a great movie– all about love– and gambling. 🙂 I kinds got chills from it too and by the time I got home I was rarin’ to get back on this.

Bottom line– I took this very vintage image and using very contemporary techniques, as well as my colorful style and hippie chick sensibilities voila! A brand new art piece I just love. What a great way to keep learning and keep the juices flowing creatively! So Happy Valentines Day a month early! xoxoxoxox

Nudist at Heart

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Nudist at Heart

Doodling, I don’t now where a specific doodle comes from. Do you? I sit down and with an implement in my hand I touch the drawing surface and the line appears, my hand moves. It’s instinctual, intuitive, a mind of it’s own. A line that chooses to be this way or that way, to take form and soon completed. I usually don’t remember the middle and what happens along the way. Do you? Do you doodle? Are you like me on the phone, or sitting thinking at a table and find yourself drawing something? I’ve noticed that we all have a very distinctive line. Even a straight line, drawn by two separate people can have a distinctive difference.
This particular drawing, the woman figure, was one of those instinctive travels my hand took. The rest of the image was completed in Adobe Photoshop using line art, photoshop brushes I’ve created, layers, layer blending modes and selective color. Admittedly it’s a bit of an oddball and a bit on the racy side, even for me. But the best part is it’s 2013 and the art is flowing!