Merry Christmas !

Merry  Christmas Everyone!

This is a Pen and Ink card I created for a 2009 Card Exchange in the Pen & Ink Forum on the WET CANVAS Artist site. It is based on some old Public Domain Illustrations from various children's books. The Reindeer is from a last Century Alphabet book, and the goose was originally a white one...decided to make it a WILD Canada goose for the card... wobbly snow-covered fir trees and back-ground my own....the work is a combination of 2 sizes of Micron pens and a Wolff's carbon graphite pencil for shading. 

The exchange is made up of 20 people from Australia to Canada and points across the Atlantic and Pacific and in- between. You keep your original penwork, then scan  it, print up an edition and send it to the others in the exchange.have recieved about a dozen great and varied , individually designed cards thus far...nice way to ring in the New Year!

Again....

Season's Greetings One and All!

The Ghost in the Machine

Title:     The Ghost in the Machine

Challenge:   Using textures and Layers for the Digital Art Quirks Studio Challenge Forum

See Comments at :   Studio Challenge Art  : Gallery

Layers:  24-30  incorporating 2 other prior digital works- including one of a combine-harvester-

new (FLKR group)  free textures and an old 17th C Italian Engraving recently found on the Web

Christmas Past

Title:    Christmas Past

Entry:   Art on the Darkside Challenge

Layers: 12 plus words

Sources:

Public Domain Images of Quebec from The Library of Congress/ Back-ground from FLICKR Free Textures group/Website freebies from online vintage art sites...including an old ad of a particularly spooky and snowflake surrounded Pere Noel/Father Christmas!!

AIM:

My hope is that the back-ground and surround is convincingly cold and Winter-y in feel ; reminiscent of a block of carved dark-cored ice...

Flames of the Phoenix

Title:     Flames of the Phoenix

Entry:   Late entry for the  Art on the Darkside Challenge of Mythological Monsters

Medium:  Digital  photo manipulation

The How:

PD Archeological Photos, old Northern Lights etching and personal photo of cloud formations edited, re-mixed and coloured to meet the theme

Come Fill the Cup That Clears

There's a new challenge out there in blogland where, the bi-weekly winner gets to wear the crown of Queen of Darkness. Click on these words: DARKNESS INSPIRATION....and it will take you there. This November's theme is BATS... those as depicted in Come Fill the Cup I believe fit the bill!

The DAQ October ATC Challenge was "Spooky" The image below of The Sorceress was my entry.

The link to DAQ will take you to the site where over the next few days more images following that theme, either digital-or digital-hybrid will be posted ; with commentary by those in the exchange and other site members.

The haunting original hand-painted photographic image of the Sorceress was created by Adelaide Hanscom in 1911.

The animals depicted are from The Public Domain.

Tha back-ground moth-design cloth is by me.

Come Fill the Cup

Come Fill the Cup that clears Today

Of Past regrets and Future Fears

from

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

for 

All Soul's Day

 

The above link goes to The Harry Ransom Centre for the Arts where various editions of The nearly 1000-year old Rubaiyat are kept in a permanent collection that was on display there from February to August of this year .

Crane Maiden - Long Ago and Far Away

Title:     Crane Maiden

Legend:  

Old Japanese folk tales tell of animal spirits such as swans or foxes who choose to take on the form of a human for a while; and even learn to love as a human for a while, but find they must inevitably answer the call to return to the freedom they left in their other form.

This picture depicts an imagined version of such a story; a Crane Maiden discovered coming from the surf onto the land by a poor Japanese fisherman.

The How:

Many blended and newly combined layers of Japanese and Hawaiian antique woodcut prints or paintings.

Frank Sinatra and Josephine Baker ATCS

The Challenge for this week"s Artist Studio Challenge Tuesday on Digital Art Quirks is STAMP PEOPLE.

( you can use the above LINK to access the site and see what other DAQ members are posting for it). 

As of today, there are 5 entries.These new digital art challenges there will run every week.

I used a stamp from a letter I had been sent of pop singer Frank Sinatra; who made tons of vinyl records in his day.

To challenge myself I tried to keep it at  only an hour of work...took me 75 minutes; actually... including looking for images on the Net.... a record for me!

Kept to clip-art and vector images.....whatever I typed in and found I used! Fun card!

Last week's Challenge was black and white digital imagery....I submitted 2 - Young Woman's Blues ( for a 3 Muses Wednesday Challenge ) and Storm Rider ( for a Art on the Darkside Challenge ),  previously seen and commented on here.

I think I will be entering these new challenges as much as I can, as they're not only digital ones, but weekly. 

The other image posted is an ATC done for a trade at DAQ this past July. The theme was "WINGS" . The LINK will take you to the page of others in the exchange, and commentary.

I  positioned chanteuse Josephine Baker above her beloved Paris ( by way of a night -shot of Vancouver, BC,Canada )! At her side is a cheetah...standing in for the leopard she supposedly walked aroud the city of light with back in the 1920"s...figure her costume's feathers suggested wings. This is 1 of a variable edition of 6 colours.

Happy Turkey Day-Calgary Style!

FLOWER POWER / September DAQ ATC SWAP

 FLOWER POWER LINK  :http://www.digitalartquirks.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=580

Just found out one of the 6 variable editioned  FLOWER POWER -themed ATCS I exchanged was received . This was for the monthly Digital ATC Exchange over at Digital Art Quirks. Go to the above link for commentary, and to see other entries. 

The image of the girl was enhanced with psychedelic colours from an old Simplicity sewing pattern. The back-ground flowers were found on free clip-art or vector illustration sites.

NEWSTIME!

Holy slokes, folks!

A whole 2 weeks since coming around!

Here's a little ART NEWS catch-up:

...started a new course at our Art College-( ACAD )I"m off and Etching  for 10 weeks there...

Went on Calgary's annual Art walk/Gallery Gaze/Make-yer-ownArt week-end of Sep 18th with my daughter, we both wound up at Calgary"s one-and-only Printmaker's place  where they were hosting an Alberta Arts Council sponsored Make-Your-Own PRINT workshop!

The up-shot of it was:

the one I did there was one helluva lot better than the one I did at my first "official" Etching class 2 Mondays ago....PLUS under the same teacher...YIKES!!!

I think room for  improvement better be in my future, eh? 

...and just finished up hosting a study of New Zealand Artist RITA ANGUS over on Wet Canvas; where I"m also madly working on creating  PD SUPER HEROES  for an ATC  ALPHABET EXCHANGE over there!

Will upload 'em to PICASA or FLICKR soon!

SUZANNE VALADON will be the next artist studied/ artwok inspiration for the next 2 weeks on Classical Forum.

Will up-date post with actual ART  sometime soon!

Ahoy, Maties! Talk like a Pirate Day is Today!

Avast!Get Ye Now to:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/stopartpiracycampaign

The Black Cat of Craigdarroch

 

The Black Cat of Craigdarroch

********* 

The Challenge theme this week at the Three Muses Wednesday Challenge site is "Moonstruck" .

Title:   The Black Cat of Craigdarroch

 The How:   PSE 2 

Layers:   9 plus writing 

Source Photos:   The sky is one I took on a dark and stormy night here in Calgary, I  also took the photo shown here  of Craigdarroch Castle, a turn-of-the-last-Century coal-baron's mansion in Victoria, the capitol city of British Columbia, Canada the Summer of 2008.  The cougar/black panther is a popularized royalty free image seen frequently in different panther collection alblums on the net..

*********

Inspiration:   Cougars are known to frequent even the populated lower mainland of  Vancouver Island, and sightings have been reported for years. Amoung the reports, occasional sightings of one in the environs of the  Craigdarroch Castle grounds is quite common. What is not commonly seen is the Black variety of Cougar that I portray here; and which seems to me to fit in well with 

a magical  moonlit night sighting

by a meandering moonstruck young laddie !

OCHch! 

...do ye ken? 

BLACK SEPTEMBER

 

Black  September

He was  On the lam, and caught between the brash peroxide blonde and the intriguingly mysterious brunette.... 

*************** 

 Title:  Black September

Challenge: BLACK / Art on the Darkside 

Layers:  7 plus text 

Source Photos:  Old late 1940's pulp fiction cover , chantilly lace and a snapshot of my casually reclining ( unsuspecting ) daughter 

 Inspiration:  Film Noir 

ATOMA and FLY MAN HAVE WINGS!!

Here are Atoma and Fly-Man, folks!
Trading-type cards created about a week ago now winging their way to their recipients on an Exchange I"m doing on the Wet Canvas Artist Site!
Have Wings/Will Travel!
Submitted also to the "Wings" challenge on the 3 Muses site for your viewing pleasure!

Ah, my sweet Public Domain....whatever would I do without you?!

       

Earth

Title:     Earth

3Muses Challenge:  Use a circle in an artwork

The How/Source Imagery:

Earth was based on the idea of filling in a divided circle , much-manipulated magazine imagery was used to see how far I could go with it!

Picked broccoli and steak newspaper ads as the base and went from there...added a spruce tree in both =/- image from a backyard photo and a single PD photo ( ! ) of  ancient SW -now US SW States area  Anasazi ruins, and some texture photos I had from bark and sand close-ups..

When done, it reminded me of either a First Nations/Native American Dream-catcher or a Warriors sheild ..

In & Out/back&Forth of vacation/at home-time, this past week, this and next; so thought to submit this fitting piece I did a few months ago in when I came back and read the theme!

More Caffeine?

                                                    Title:     More  Caffeine?

 
Art on the Darkside Challenge:     WEB

WEB chosen:
In the 1950's experiments were done spraying spiders with various psycho-reactive drugs....the WEB shown is the kind of WEB they wove after having absorbed caffeine.
Source WEB:      An html document from the WORLD WIDE WEB!
Other:    
Symbolist era painting by  Fernand Khnoph (1891)/ Back-ground ttv from amy higgins of the Noise and dust through the Viewfinder FLICKR group/ PD coffee cup and spider
Layers:     13, natch!

Hemingway Homage- A Farewell to Arms

                         Ernest Hemingway - A Tribute to A Farewell to Arms

This is my first submission to a series of Literary Challenges issued by Aino's Inspired by Books site. This is my entry for the  Challenge #20  to portray a Nobel prize winner. I chose to do Ernest Hemingway from the time period of one of his first memorable books, A FAREWELL TO ARMS; based on his own front line experiences of WW I.

Reading about his life  again on the JFK Library site; the perspective of South African Nobel Writing winner Nadine Gordimer  quoted by article author Thomas Putnam helped give me a new appreciation of him as both man and writer, that I had not had before........

My youthful assessment of him as a tad too overtly macho for my taste was overshadowed when I was  re-aquainted with his realistic and pragmatic  as well as his  ( link next ) evolving  philosophical view of 20th century warfare......and his personal exploits as a reporter on the front lines after WW I and beyond.

In short, I have a new admiration and respect for Hemingway; and wanted to show that somehow...hence this entry.

NOTE:

The lower left picture is of a young Ernest writing in the grass, and the letters/writings I show scattered here and there are actually from a writing assignment he did when he was in Elementary school...

.....a man who liked hanging out with Gertrude Stein is all right by me!

Title:          Hemingway Homage

The How:     PSE 2/ 21 layers

Source Imagery:

As is my inclination, all historical images are in the Public Domain. Most of the imagery related to Hemingway is from the JFK Library Archives.  Other WW I imagery from LOC/Library of Congress Archives. 

 

Don't Maroon Yourself / Blog Piracy poster

You MAY copy this image for the sole purpose of displaying on your blog or website IF it is linked back to this flickr group :  www.flickr.com/groups/stopartpiracycampaign . You may NOT use any piece of this image for your own artwork or any other publication or reproduction.

Since I like to use historical imagery from the PUBLIC DOMAIN in my digital work; I chose one of my favourite of the classic illustrators.....one of Howard Pyle"s famous pirate portrayals. I also included a one-page link of interest from Docs Populi that models a way to give a citation to such a PD image, which I have referenced for doing my poster here.

http://www.docspopuli.org/articles/RecyclingArt.html

I particularly like their point about the importance, even when using PD pieces about attribution...it's your own way of not contributing to cultural/historical amnesia.

....not the least because it's something I myself am trying to do better at!

Pyle's powerful image portrays the pirate practice of marooning.....you choose to break The Code .....you choose to take the chance of being excluded from that society of choice; or worse....for me it's message is analogous to exclusion from any community, including an Art one.

Venice by Moonlight

Title :       Venice by Moonlight

Darkside Challenge:     Masks

The How:     PSE 2 / 19 layers

Source Photos:

The Back-ground is such a marvelously evocate one -a turn-of-the-last-Century Postcard- that I left it totally intact; selecting colours and blends and  building the rest of the images around it!

Images taken  from sets of folders I"ve maintained over the years of pictures in the Public Domain for the majority, woman- called Castiglione/ maybe an Italian actress or Opera star?- included.

The recent edition is the huge Mardis Gras mask from a  Public domain Clip Art site.

It's July 27th!

HAPPY  BIRTHDAY  BRO!!!

Blog Piracy Update: Check July 21 Entry below!

Dr.Mary Edwards Walker 1832-1919 / An Incredible and Inspiring Life Journey

Physician-Surgeon, Abolitionist, Women's Rights & Health Advocate, Teacher & Lecturer, Writer, Prisoner-of-War Survivor, Suspected Union spy, Suspected Confederate spy (because of crossing the lines to help civilians-so add Humanitarian),Prohibitionist,Trustee of Woman's Prison, Trustee of Children's Orphanage, Divorcee and Cross-dresser...and last, but not least, US Congressional Medal of Honor winner!

What an interesting life,eh?

Check out this short LINK on Wikepedia!

Three Muses Challenge:

An Incredible Journey this week / someone who Inspires you next!

The HOW:

PSE 2 / 24 Layers plus 3 for Writing

Source  Photos:

Public Domain Photos from the Library of Congress Archives (LOC)/The archives of the JFK Library/Public Information Network Group ( pingnews.com)/ & Wikepedia Commons

The back-ground is a Freebie from Zen Textures, and the wee mirror from AntiqueClip-art.com

The Picture:

Left of the good doctor is her pre and Civil War/Turn-of-the-last-century life...

Coming 'round her starting at the centre are groups of Women, Teens and girls her fighting spirit and advocacy surely changed the future for :

• Socialists in the  white shirts
  

• Washington, DC Area Black Women's Basketball Team & 1902 class of Smith College Basketball players
• Striking Jewish Teens from NYC Garment District
• 2 NYC Immigrant little girls playing at being "On Stage"

• Women's Team of Surveyors and Engineers/ Federal Government Employees

• 2 women frolicking in bathing suits-oh,my!-on a public beach!

Dr. Mary imagined as a child is on the left, and  in reality as an old woman near the end of her life on the right/ The small frame has a picture of her wearing her Medal of Honour, as shown also on her in her central portrait. 

Her Medal Of Honor

This was the absolutely proudest possession in Mary's life, and hard won.

Congress actually changed the laws for getting it, and tried to get it back from her and 900+ others 2 years before she died.

She absolutely refused, and sticking to her guns as usual, wore it proudly every day until the day she died.

President Jimmy Carter re-instated it to her in 1977.

Think you can figure out why she's inspiring.

My own personal " Blog Philosophy" sidebar, and it's accompanying banners you can feel free to click - way down left yonder- is now headed by a picture of the good Dr.Mary

Blog Philosophy ....... AND Blog Piracy

                          ...she ain't yer average garden -variety protected flower!

                                    Ship Approaching   by   Howard Pyle

In the politically aware and fighting  spirit of Humanitarian Activist  and  Congressional Medal of Honor Winner, Dr.Mary Edwards Walker and as the result of

something unfortunate happening- concerning copyright infringement- to a fellow artist who also happens to maintain a blog,

Ive decided to further update my sidebar- that scrolly thing of WAY DOWN YONDER- I have under the title:

BLOG PHILOSOPHY....

All buttons & Banners are now Fully Clickable to connect to other sites that have been written by Individuals and Organizations far more articlulate and experienced than I...those already In the Vanguard of some Blogging concerns that I think affect us all...

I would simply and plainly encourage anyone who has ever even had a minor thought about what this little "online universe" really means , in terms of Community and Interpersonal Respect, to reflect what such things mean to them personally; or professionally .....as well as to others....and if so inclined, as was I , to make such things known, in your own way in your own blog, plain  enough for everyone to see and understand...

BLOG  PIRACY

 TumbleFish Studios brought up the very important issues  of Artistic license and Copyright recently on her blog.

Go back to July 18 to see the full story; or just read the section the entry after on why Y-O-U-meaning us all- should be concerned...

Fortunately, for now, she believes the situation has been  been resolved ; and is taking some interesting steps to follow-up the issue....

DID YOU KNOW THAT SEPTEMBER 19  

IS TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY??

AAAAAAUURRRRRGGHHHHH!!!

...be sure to start looking around Blog-O-Ville for details come September....

That's all Folks!

Back to Art Makin'!

UPDATE

Update : Here's a LINK to the Stop Piracy AD Campaign Group on FLICKR  : 

Join the Group...Join the Discussions....Upload your own poster, if you will....

Here's my pull-no-punches/Take-no-prisoners Favourite from the bunch submitted thus far:

Submitted for use on your Blog in the context of the campaign by briedah......very pro-active thoughts in this one!

Do you know your copyright....and have you stated it?

Do you understand that of others?

...that's what the wee fine print is for!

...or the clickable buttons!

 

A Light in the Attic

 

A Light in the Attic was created for Art on the Darkside"s Challenge this week.

The idea came from some colourized prints of the utterly classic horror film, The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari...a film rooted in Expressionism and heir to German Romanticism, but  influenced by the new darling of the era's recent artistic ferment, Cubism.

It is a film of weird angles, and haunting, off-kilter suggestive imagery shot with incredible lighting effects on a set inspired by dreams and nightmares.

Made in 1920...

As was the rest of Europe  Germany was  coming out of the horrors of WW I, and just going into the coming tragedy of trying to fufill the war debt obligations imposed on her by the rest of Europe and her winning Allies and at the same time primed to try new politics under a Democratic form of government ... as surely a Surreal landscape and time period to dwell in as any ever imagined by Bosch.

Title:        A Light in the Attic

The How:

PSE 2 / using a mix of 4 source photos to create an assembled and merged image of  9 layers 

Source Photos: 

The 2 bottom layers were Royalty-free stock images of rays and a whirlwind.

The image of a "woman in gray attic" -I gave her a distorted shadow- is from an Edward Weston photo of 1922 I found via Project Gutenberg.

The image on the left of the man, chair and open window is one from a publicity still for  the 1920 movie .

The above source I"ve linked to for the article on Caligari is on Wikepedia. 

Font:      WolfgangCaps

Young Woman's Blues

No time to marry

No time to settle down

I'm a young woman

and I ain't done runnin'  round!

Bessie Smith / Young Woman's Blues  ( 1927 )

( click on image to enlarge for detail )

The 3 Muses Challenge:     Create a digital image inspired by words

The How:

PSE 2 / I created the back-ground curtain of 12 abstracted layers from photo images of Harlem , New York that I found in the NY Public Library Archives; 1 of them was a PD image of a cubist-inspired cloth design from the period by  Sonia Delaunay and 1 a  royalty-free rayed effect for back- lighting .

All the images of the women were taken in the 1920's period; and are all from the NYPL Archives/10 Layers of photos

They include performers Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, Josephine Baker and Florence Mills.

The group on the left - Vivienne, Phyllis and Ethel are members of the Northeasterner's Women's club.  Behind Bessie is a chorus line.

The Font:     Zelda, natch! ...... as the old song goes...who could ask for anything more?

Total layers:     24

       

   

Storm Rider

Title:   Storm Rider

Darkside Challenge :   Haunted House

The How:     PSE 2 / 12 Layers

Source Imagery:

Four seperate photos of  the House, Prairie ,Storm & Rider courtesy of the Wet Canvas Member's Photo Archive, Image of Jennie Jerome in the Public Domain.....click on image to enlarge

To my Great-Grandmother Immaculata Concepcion Rodriguez: A Message from Afar: He Lives!

Call me a space cadet ( it's in the stars, I"m Aquarian )!...I Love NASA, and I Love Surrealism!

The above is dedicated to my Great-Grandmother, Concepcion, who fought with Villa to bring about the Mexican Revolution!

VIVA mis abuela Concepcion!

In fact, one of her sons was still riding with Villa in his Bandito mode when he was being chased around US Territory by Pershing.....but that's another story!

The 3 Muses Challenge:     Surrealism

The How:                                  PSE 2 /7 layers

Text:                                           Tango

The Imagery:        

NASA, US Gov Archives & other royalty free images, except for the eye, conch shell and truck-on-stilts...they're mine!

Bring on the cerveza!

Here's to YOU, Pancho!

The Embrace

Art on the Darkside Challenge:   Wolf/Werewolf

Combination Imagery:

I couldn't top these finds!

An old French Post Card and the  overlay of a wolf's paw from   Gustave Dore's illustration for Little Red Riding  Hood  

The How:

PSE / 2 layers 

The Why:

It was a full moon !  ( Actually, the night after...but close enough )!                              

Serenity

Serenity is my answer to this month's Dragonfly Challenge at  Big  Art Adventures , a monthly Challenge site, which in the past weeks  has just started encouraging the exploration of Digital creations as another art form for it's participants to consider.

I"m in!

Title:         Serenity

Method:   PS 2 / about 24 manipulated layers

Source Imagery:

The base background of foliage from Thailand is one I had created in another project, to use as a sort of wallpaper behind any future projects 

The copy-right free Dragonfly imagery is courtesy of the Antique Clip Art Site, which I just found out about from seeing an entry from another Artist on Blogger who enjoys digital challenges, Anne, of Creative Cornucopia.
 

                  

Up, Up and Away-To the Rescue!

(NOTE: To see a bigger version, either click on the above picture itself, or take a short journey over to my Picasa Alblum -tab at the left and up top )!

Here's my entry for the 3 Muses Challenge of Up, Up and Away...first uttered famously by a certain red- caped crusader....the call has since been heeded and taken up by a virtual flotilla of others of his ilk!

Pictured here for your viewing pleasure are such past ( circa 1930-40's ) heroes and heroines  that have since gone out of mere mortal syndication and into the great and ever- growing public domain in the sky ! 

They are the now Immortal :

Bulletman....( see the lil' helmet )?

Green Lama .... ( yes, you read that right )!

Cat Girl....( looks more like Woman; if you ask me )...

Lady Luck... ( she -in-green-with heels , yet )!

Mothman .....hmmm-nn..

Nelvana of the North  ( First INUIT heroine , and a half-Goddess one at that )!

and last, but not least...

WILDFIRE!.....YOU ROCK GIRL!

Number of Layers:  13  /  All photos Public Domain, albeit altered a bit!

( To find the Three Muses Challenge site , press on their name here )

I see suddenly it's July 4th...

HAPPY  FOURTH TO ALL OF YOU SOUTH OF THE 49TH!

 

Paris by Night - 1923

Paris by Night- 1923

This is my entry- a piece originally created for a postcard exchange on Wet Canvas - to this week's  Art on the Darkside Challenge to use Gargoyles- those fantastic architectural elements-in a piece

I at first  thought to re-invent it for an entry by cropping it to just the gargoyle, but changed my mind

The back-ground is a shot I took in Vancouver, BC,Canada 2 Summers ago.

A much-manipulated and location-challenged Paris/Paris monuments are over it.

My own B/W shot of a Notre Dame gargoyle is looking into the river where a very young-just-starting-his-mustache Salvador Dali is floating. A bemused Josephine Baker looks on...

Check out   http://artonthedarkside.blogspot.com to find out more!

(Link at bottom under CHALLENGE  BLOGS)

Happy Canada Day!

Cheers to All!

Chris/ WildGoose

WILD

Title:    WILD  

The Three Muses Wednesday Challenge:   Create a digital image to match the theme

The How:              PSE 2 / Back-ground layer is black

2d Layer - a  Tiger-in-the-grass photo of our family cat, Ringo / 75 % opacity

3rd Layer- a turn-of-the-century diffuse-glow enhanced fairy

4th layer- a brightened and contrasted - up flutter-by

Text Layers used Slasher typeface with inner glow

Samurai Seaweed

Title:   Samurai Seaweed

The Challenge:  

Create a work of art in a squared format to be part of a digital quilt based on a sample photo of seaweed floating in water

The How:

PSE2 /  about 7 manipulated layers and blends from source photo / shaped into a square with side panels reminiscent of a silk Kimono design

Mandala

Mandala

The Project Challenge:

Create a mandala using meaningful, personal imagery and metaphor in Coloured Pencil

The How:

CP on  rag vellum  / seasonly "changed"-to reflect the year- foliage images drawn au plein air in my back-yard / deer image from photograph / circular surround using frottage

Song of the Siren

Song of the Siren

The Challenge:

Visually create an image in  response to a song

The How:

PSE 2/ 13 blended and manipulated layers / NASA and copyright free  archival images in the Public Domain

Also entered as a late response to the Art on the Darkside Challenge site; which I've only just discovered!

Fire Fox

Firefox Creating the Northern Lights

A legend told among the Lapps of Northern Finland holds that a Spirit-being... a magical  Fire Fox roams the Winter landscape.....

When he flicks his tail, sparks fly off into the Night sky, creating the spectacle known as the Northern Lights...

The How:

Photoshop Elements 2/ 5 manipulated and blended layers /Photos courtesy of NASA & the University of Tromso, Norway/Wacom tablet line drawing of fox

The Challenge:

Use the Northern Lights to create an image

Beauty

Yet another challenge  site , thanks to viewing INDYBEV's site on Blogger, has come forward to entice me in these wee hours of this Monday morning....it's name is Theme Thursday!

This weeks theme is Beauty....a theme I have already considered!

My Beauty was an ATC collage/image transfer  I created for an exchange on Wet Canvas.

This gentle, serene and truly beautiful old man was a flower-seller in the holy city of Varanasi, India...

....a place I went, and a photo I took, long ago and far away....but always remembered...

The universality and timelessness of the eternal qualities of Gentleness and Gracefulness say Beauty to me....hence this entry...

Doorway to Open Space

Doorway to Open Space is one of the very first
images I created in any image-editing program....

It was created three years ago in response to a 
sudden and unexpected but much needed, brief Hospital stay in the midst of a beautiful and mild Indian Summer!

It's also my first attempt at digital/ print "hybridization", as it combines both an original artwork done in another medium - an oil pastel monoprint -with a scanned -in photo overlay of an old door that reminded me of the door to our old porch from a newspaper ad.

I used a very beginner-type digital manipulation program called Corel Photo House to create it.

I didn't yet know how to create layers - amoungst hordes of other things- but the program let you "drag' in an opened picture onto the background you were working on.

The original landscape monoprint was done in more natural colours, but I think the supposedly soothing, essentially bland colour scheme within Hospital had finally "gotten"to me somehow...

...So when I was out and about again this first back-ground Image I scanned-in was transformed into a virtual Candy-land of colour!

************************************************************************************

The  Three  Muses

Three members of the Digital Art Quirks group have created a weekly challenge Blog called The Three Muses Challenge; and their second challenge was to create imagery using the theme Doors..

You use any media -or combination thereof - to create your response, publish it on your Blog or site, then upload to theirs adding a link back so that otherswho have also met the challenge can view the entry.

The 3rd challenge - to enter starting this Wednesday - is Wild....

Hope I can start on it - utilizing some layers this time around- soon!