Treasures and Trash

One man's trash is another man's treasure.  I was reminded of that while cleaning out lately.  I ran across the program for the ECVA Visual Preludes and realized what a treasure of a memory this is.  I guess that's why I still have sketches I made when I was a kid.  When downsizing to move to a cottage I pitched expensive furniture and china.  But I kept my treasures.

My work is the icon of Mary Magdalene at the bottom left and the fire mandala in the middle left.  All work can be seen in the ECVA archives linked above.

Gold Fades Fast

As brillant as gold is, it doesn't last long. It fades as do all beautiful things.  Here I tried to freeze the brillance of gold in much the same way Van Gogh tried.  Our tools, however, differ tremendously.

This piece was originally painted on my iPad and exported to Photoshop Touch where I combined and blended it with a stone textured layer.  It was then exported to Photoshop, cropped and framed. I like to use different techniques on one piece and have been playing with the options since I got my iPad two years ago.  I am glad to now read about others doing this in the context of Adobe Creative Cloud promotion.  I am kicking around the concept of Creative Cloud.  It would be fun to work with all of Adobe's programs.

Making Waves 2: Breathlessness (A Clibe Experiment)

Scroll right on the bar beneath the image to be able to click, open and flip the pages of the journal.

The Ride II

I enjoy experimenting with a work of art to find new ways of looking at it with minor adjustments.  This is my original watercolor scanned, shading worked in Photoshop using a regular brush with different levels of opacity, cropped, made into a duotone and a filter made of moss loaded.  I use the moss texture in many of my works because I just like the softpress board feel.

I do not know what to call this piece except mixed media.  Still I keep it in a digital painting category because it does involve actual painting with a mouse.

The Ride

This is a work in progress made from a watercolor painting, scanned, detailed in Photoshop and filtered with diffuse glow.  More work is needed, and I will post progress when it happens.

Very Mixed Media

This is an experiment.  An acrylic portrait I just began was scanned and digital painting added.  So it's a mixed acrylic and digital painting.  I am playing with different concepts to determine what works best.  For this project I plan to do one digital portrait from scratch since I am a bit weary with the general attitude that painting is not possible with Photoshop (use Photoshop, and, in art circles, you are considered a photographer, not a painter when, in fact, you may be both).  I am struggling with texture.  Though I have Corel Painter with many texture options, I have this stubborn attitude that texture can be created in Photoshop.   I am working on it and will keep you posted.

Painting with a brush and a mouse produces different sensations.  I love both and can honestly say that I enjoy painting with a mouse as much, in a different way, as using a brush.  Most people who paint digitally do so with a pad, but I don't.  I like the directness of actually maneuvering the mouse like a paintbrush.  The primary advantage to painting in Photoshop is the fact that you have all color options in the rainbow readily available.

Doodles in Progress

Looking Glass

Take Off Your Shoes (or whatever you like)

This nude study was painted in Photoshop with a mouse.  I have tried using a tablet, but it does not feel as pleasing as use of the mouse - it almost creates one too many barriers between me and the work.   I am still working on this image but decided to post it because it fits the first full day of spring.  Remember being allowed to pull off your shoes and socks and run through the grass on the first warm day of spring?  I do.  In fact, it is one of my fondest memories of childhood.  I realize that posting this nude study is an adult equivalent.  What could be more liberating than to image the warmth of human flesh reflecting in the radiance of light?  

I have always found the human body to be a most entertaining subject.  I remember art school when we first sketched nudes.  Some guys in the class were making jokes until the instructor gave them one of the best lectures I have ever heard about how the artist does not flinch or judge the subject and to do so is just immaturity.  I can't remember it all, but it certainly shut up the clowns.  After everyone got through squirming, we rather forgot an individual human being was posed before us with no clothing on.  The bodies were sometimes lovely and sometimes not so lovely as interesting, but, either way, the shame of nudity departed with the desire to reproduce or express the image.  I knew then that text would be created on computers in years to come, but it never crossed my mind that one day I would be painting digital skin. 

I found a Computer Arts tutorial on painting digital skin, but I have not yet worked with it.  I look forward to seeing the difference the technique used there will make.  The creative capacity of painting digital skin is rather liberating -  like taking off your shoes and feeling the warm grass beneath your cramped winter-worn feet. 

Below is a variation, more cyan, which I believe to be a most complimentary color for most shades of skin.

 

October Falls

I recently completed "October Falls" (aka  "Ode to Fall" as I like to think of it).  I hoped to capture the energy of Fall as the wind gently propels  the leaves of the ghinko downward to a golden mass on the ground.  There is an energy to Fall that is especially beloved in the deep South after six months or so of temperatures 90+ degrees and humidity thick enough to cut with a knife. 

It amazes me that Autumn's feast of color foretells death.   I doubt that a person who never witnessed the cycles of the year would see the gold leaves glittering in the sun and  envision the bleakness that lies ahead.  I cling to Autumn every year because I hate Winter and ache for Spring the minute Christmas is over.  

I hope that this painting makes you feel the surprising chilly wind blasting out of no where and showering your head with tiny gold leaves.  I hope it makes you remember nature's toys celebrated with rolling in the leaves.