Technique Tuesday!

Start with a beautiful picture taken on a clear sunny day.

Add a touch of menace.

Why would you want to do this?  I don’t really know, but it’s fun to know how!  With Photoshop, there are always multiple ways to accomplish tasks, but here’s how I did it:

Step by step instructions

Make Art Monday!

You all know that I love Photoshop and am totally devoted to it.  You also know that there are times when you may need to do photo editing away from home.  Then it’s great to know about online editors.

At  Art + Creativity, there are links to ten more online toys tools that you can use to jazz up your pictures.  The list includes Animoto, which I told you about before…a very fun way to turn some shots into a short music video

So, wasn’t it fun playing with Big Huge Labs (de)motivational toy?   Want another?  Despair, Inc, the folks who have brought you some of the most recognizable demotivational posters for years now, also have a lab where you can create your own.

Warning: Looking through the Despair gallery is one of the biggest time sucks out there!  But it’s worth the trip 

Image: Despair, Inc

Tell me how much you HATE those motivational posters that are always so prominently featured in the Sky Mall catalog?  (Can you tell we’ve been traveling a bit lately?)

Well, Big Huge Labs to the rescue!!  Thank heavens, a service that will let you make your own.  You can even buy copies if you want!  Here’s what I did with a recent picture from my daughter’s college graduation.

Life Images is now going to be an annual photography publication by Stampington & Company. The next deadline is August 15, 2009.  The issues usually have a special theme or challenge, and this upcoming volume will especially be featuring work done with Polaroid emulsions.  Another theme will be photos that illustrate this quote by Henri Matisse: “Color helps to express light, not only the physical phenomenon, but the only light that really exists, that in the artist’s brain.”

Life Images will feature the very best of your most artistic, emotionally moving, or expressive photos along with a few of your words. These photos should be of people, places and things important in your life, whether for a fleeting moment or a lifetime. We are interested in your journal entry that would accompany these photos – whether it be a heartfelt short story, expressive comment, or emotional poem. All original or copies of photographs submitted must be clearly identified with the artist’s name, address, email and phone number on each photo. We also require information on the camera make & model, film or digital, altered or unaltered. If altered, please indicate software and techniques used or materials and technique used for manual alteration (i.e. bleaching, etc.) We also ask that your journal entry be attached. If you prefer, you may send the images, copy and photo information electronically to the managing editor Jennifer Jackson at jjackson@stampington.com.

Technique Tuesday!

Another topic we visit pretty frequently here is different digital effects tips and tutorials (including those that mix physical and digital work).  So I thought that they should get compiled for future reference too!

Digital Effects Links

This is a fun way to finish off some of your experimental pieces that you create in Photoshop.  I love this particular border for expressionistic, impressionistic, or surreal pieces, or for anything that doesn’t use a lot of hard edges.  This method allows the border to blur and glow, while keeping the central image as sharp as you want it.

Step by step instructions

Make Art Monday!

When I’m working on a piece that has a surreal, abstract, or expressionistic feel to it, I usually don’t want to use a classic border style to finish it off…it just doesn’t seem right.  Once I discovered how to make this blurry, glowing border, my finishing dilemma was solved!

Tomorrow, I’ll outline the step by step instructions for how to create this border.  In the meantime, find a digital piece that you think would be a good example to try it with 

Technique Tuesday!

We’ve explored lots and lots of fun collage techniques over the years. I figured it was past time to compile some of the methods. This post doesn’t include all the techniques like image transfers and making background papers…those posts have been compiled elsewhere!

Collage and Quilt Techniques

You’ve got to see this!  It reminds me of my favorite TV show of olde…Monty Python’s Flying Circus.  BubblyNumbers has created this amazing online treat, called the Book of Numbers!  Visit the site and click through all the animated pages with your morning cuppa