WildGoose's Wanderings

Year of the Dragon

2012-01-23T17:02:00.002-07:00

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-29T23:44:00.002-06:00

More cats, natch!

Lady Luna and Sir Finn

2011-07-19T17:30:00.001-06:00

lady Luna and Sir Finnegan....cats we know and love!

Introducing Spaceball comics!

2011-07-16T17:21:00.006-06:00

My bro and I were big super-hero fans when we were kids, so in redponse to a SCI-FI Swap I decided to create my own brand.....introducing SPACEBALL COMICS

Using old 1950's era Planet comics as inspiration,

I did some new backgrounds/re-colured some others, swapped/re-named some characters and designed new covers for a a new image ....the SPACEBALL image!

Digital design altered and re-assembled into physical collages- 1 only of each -for the swap..

( Original designs saved as files to only be re-issued, if ever , as digital - only prints )

Introducing Princess Zara and Space Maiden!

Homage to Hitchcock

2011-07-12T19:35:00.001-06:00

Thought it was about time to show some of my recent work!

I"m in an exchange about what movies mean to you over at the ATCS for ALL site

MEDIA: Digitally designed collage/ re-assembled as a single physical collage

To keep the ATCS I make one-of-a-kind for the recipient , even while digitally designed , I choose certain layers to isolate and then print out as seperate collage elements to physically re-assemble. Pen or CP might be added, or a water-colour or mixed media base used...

In the case of Homage to Hitchcock, about 4 seperate layers of birds -and a plane - were flattened into the sky back-ground, with his profile shadow to make one collage layer to cut out and put down.

So, 7 into 1 cut-out...the hand, house and field were also laid down seperately.

Happy Canada Day, Everyone!

2011-07-01T19:55:00.004-06:00

Make Art for Christchurch!

2011-03-18T21:49:00.013-06:00

Art for Christchurch !

What is this about?

February 22, 2011 was New Zealand's Darkest Day. The second largest city, the "Garden City" of Christchurch, suffered a powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake. Heritage buildings were destroyed, lives were lost and the many were left homeless.

Here you are able to "purchase" original art by a selection of artists, by making a donation to the Red Cross Earthquake fund.

Please watch the linked blogger page - as there is much more art to come in future.

How does this work?

To "purchase" one of these pieces, there are three simple steps:
1. email art4chch@gmail.com with your name and the number of the piece. It will then be "held" for you.
2. Make a donation to the Red Cross Earthquake fund of $10 or more, make sure you put in an email address for your receipt.
3. Send a copy of your receipt email to art4chch@gmail.com along with your postage details.

The piece will then be sent to you by the original artist.

To donate: http://www.redcross.org.nz/donateIf it doesn't say "christchurch earthquake 2011" you can easily choose it from the drop-box.

So how can you help - as an ARTIST?

You can:

1. Donate money and "buy" art

2. Donate your art for people to "buy" - email a scan to lemurkat:

lemurkat@gmail.com

3. Spread the word!

Post the above link to Art for Christchurch on blogs, facebook, forums, anywhere you think people you know are concerned or can help!

THANK YOU!

Happy 2011 Everyone!

2011-01-02T21:08:00.004-07:00

Happy 2011 Everyone.....Hope your holidays were as enjoyable,restful,interesting &/or productive as mine....with an accent on the &/OR!

Will be doing catch-up on displaying here some the more interesting projects and exchanges I"ve been working on and been involved with these last few months for ATCS FOR ALL....STAY TUNED!

A Merry Christmas to One and ALL!

2010-12-24T13:13:00.005-07:00

Enjoy the Holidays, Everyone!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

2010-10-24T19:42:00.005-06:00

Photo Painting Image

2010-09-20T20:35:00.004-06:00

Here are the finished images

Baby Blue and

Luna looking Up

Compare them to their WIPS below to see the difference!

Photo Painting Exercise

2010-09-20T20:09:00.003-06:00

Hand-Colouring Home Printer Photos HOW-TO:

I printed out my own black-and-white photos to colour with Epson Durabrite inks on Epson Glossy Photo paper.....just de-saturate your coloured ones to turn them into black and white..

The pens and inks I used to hand colour were rated permanent, smudge and bleed-proof....and were they ever! ( Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens- use the brush tipped ones - and Staedtler Lumocolor pens , Pioneer Gel pens )

The TWO most important things I learned from doing these was:

1. DO NOT use pens DIRECTLY on Glossy Photo paper.....it looks awful, frankly.......covers all the shadows and gradations of tone up!

The exception is gel pens, which add nice highlights here and there ( see car chrome and cat's whiskers )

2. Instead USE a damp -not wet - flat sable brush to transfer inks from the tips of your pens TO the paper surface

EASY , no?

I have uploaded both the experimental first WIP set and the final work to compare and see the real difference those TWO little easy steps make !

QUAN YIN - Chinese Goddess of Compassion

2010-08-14T15:10:00.004-06:00

Quan Yin - The Chinese Buddhist Goddess of Compassion is one of 4 cards created for the WATER elements exchange on ATCS FOR ALL.

Patroness of Fishermen, she is sometimes seen standing on water over a lotus- symbol of purity- and a protective dragon-or overcome sea serpent - about her....she is also seen depicted carrying either a vase of merciful water to pour out to those in need , or a willow branch.

Digital design of about 9 layers

Summer 2010 Exchanges I"ve been in!

2010-08-14T14:37:00.005-06:00

I haven't written here, but I have been busy creating art!

The other cards in these exchanges - usually 3 different out for 3 back - can be seen over on my ATC"sFOR ALL Gallery page

Some methods:

Constellations were done on coated scratchboard paper with cp and gel pens...found the surface is so slick anything used to colour photographs ( like Marshall's photo cps ) works on that surface very nicely!

Tried "scraping" first and found it not my forte'!

The Tiffany lamp postage stamp was built around a last century French fashion illustration, with added collaged elements

The "Apple twins" are a face doubled and cut out. Image courtesy of WACKY STUFF , of FLICKER.

The "Nuptial Visit" is a PD Theatre image I collaged over a water-coloured background over which I embossed feather shapes with cp for the wall-paper.

"The Newfangled Invention " actually WAS an invention...!!

I placed it in the early 1900s, but it actually was invented in the early 1930's...the inventor remains a Frenchman, but with his HEAD SWAPPED for a more EDWARDIAN-looking fellow, following STEAMPUNK- period"conventions"

Three pictures were combined and layered to make it , and I decided designing it to look like an old studio photo of the period would be fun!

Lu Hai and the three-legged toad

2010-08-14T13:54:00.005-06:00

Title: Lu Hai and his 3-legged Toad

1 in a series of 4 designs done for an Asian-themed exchange on ATC’s FOR ALL.

( The link here goes directly to my Gallery, there , to see the rest )

There are many versions of this theme of the good luck and riches toad and his human companion.

I chose to combine 2 Ming Dynasty images of the story I found in the Smithsonian Museum online; the main image is shown here, untouched and as as I downloaded it.

Quite the fun challenge to “clean it up” a bit - left some of the bottom stains in for effect - and frame it with a colour-changed border of a Chinese silk painting I got years ago.

My intention was to print it - and other Asian designs I did - on silk, but found the silk version of light art works much muted; ( nice for Lu Hai- but not the others ).. even with more saturation and set to best printing mode... and the darker prints were just too dark...AH me!
Cotton dulled all prints
Mulberry paper worked well with the darker, but soaked up the lighter!

So with Epson pigment ink and on Epson photo paper it remains!

Vintage Lace

2010-07-15T01:58:00.004-06:00

I loved creating these ...and I love the result!

These are the digital copies - the ones mailed for the exchange are of fabric.

Printing the images on silk fabric for inkjet, and adhering them and the lace with sheet adhesive worked very well!

Can't wait to see what the mail brings for me!

Exquisite Corpse

2010-07-15T01:44:00.004-06:00

Meet Geraldine

( not the transvestite one from Some Like it Hot - before that )!

A 3 part image to be mixed-and-matched in a swap called Exquisite Corpse.

She was inspired from a photo of an early stage and screen actress named Geraldine Farrar; done with cp/fine line marker and metallic pen on Bristol.

Her pose and attitude reminded me of a Mucha model, so I followed his lead in the decorative detail, though substituting silver for his lush gold.

Newest ATCS Traded

2010-07-15T00:21:00.004-06:00

Thought I"d show what I've been up to, Art-wise, besides digital -work.

I've been in a series of exchanges over at the ATCS FOR ALL Web-site over the past few months; shown above are some of them!

I quite like the set-up of the ATCS FOR ALL trading site... you join a swap - numerous varied themes are always on the go - and usually have a time limit of 6 weeks to 2 months to complete either 3 0r 6 pieces of art to swap for...3 for 3 or 6 for 6.

The host master/mistress chooses what they consider like for like effort &/or ability wise.. after having been in a fair amount of swaps now I can say that I think generally, the host decisions as to how to swap OUT - whom to whom - are fair, more than not.....You send in to them, and they swap all received cards out to the other traders.

The prime advantage for me is because I am only making a limited amount of cards within a discrete time span - I usually opt for 3 for 3 -I feel I personally end up actually doing BETTER WORK...it keeps my initial interest fresh and alive!

I truly believe that attitude works both ways; affecting other participants as well!

Time To Leave

2010-05-31T21:05:00.011-06:00

TIME TO LEAVE was created for the occasion of the first year anniversary The Three Muses Challenge site.

The sailing ship is actually the BLUENOSE, a yacht of considerable racing fame for Canada...if you've ever seen our dime, it's on it......the girl a shepherdess from a last Century British Victorian painter of pastoral scenes.

My husband commented it must be a ship of crazy seamen going full tilt from such a shallow harbor.....but I reminded him looks can be deceptive; especially if you're starting to experience a sea-change, of sorts , as I think this lass longs for!

Happy May Day , one and All!

2010-04-30T15:06:00.010-06:00

TITLE: Reader Rock Gardens

SWAP: Vintage Spring/ ATC'S FOR ALL

I researched Historic Houses in the Calgary area from at least 85 years ago to make the sources Vintage. Calgary was only declared a city -of 4000 souls- in 1884; so most Vintage homes are of the 1885-1925 era.

Couldn't help throwing in a famous cowboy's homesteader's cabin about 150 km from Calgary, though!
I also tried to match the era of the house with flora and fauna that would likely have either naturally grown or been planted in the area at the time.

THE HOW:

I designed the cards digitally in layers; then printed the underlying house layers on adhesive cotton that went over a base of a green floral print which I had distressed.
A layer of waxed paper went under a transparency printed with a floral overlays.

Constructing a card that way is quite new to me; so I've learned a bit from the experience..know better what to do next time around!

AS OF APRIL 30, 2010 , THERE IS STILL SNOW ON THE GROUND HERE...WE WERE HIT BY A SLEET STORM THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY, AND SNOW YESTERDAY MORNING!

THAT'S CALGARY!

HappyTomorrow-is- Earth Day, Everyone!

2010-04-21T19:48:00.008-06:00

Quaking Aspen Forest in Early Spring / main imagery from land near Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, others from the US and Canadian Forest Services, and in the Public Domain / Digital work of 19 layers

Originally created as one of my cards for the Magical Air Elements swap at ATC's For All

Busy at ATC's for All!

2010-03-22T22:49:00.004-06:00

I have been busy creating Art- digital and otherwise- for some of the themed swaps courtesy of the members of the ATC's for All( AFA ) site as of late.....

I have a GALLERY over there featuring cards I created for some of the swaps I have been involved in.

I will be uploading a few examples to post here, in the near future!

The one posted above, Winter Tree is a photo transfer onto film, adhered to paper I made out of watercolour paper scraps and white cabbage!

It is ATC-sized, 1 in a series of 4 made for the TREES Swap I was in. The other 3 can be seen in my Gallery on the site.

Memories of Varanasi

2010-02-23T22:45:00.004-07:00

Memories of Varanasi is a card I created for a Travel exchange on the Wet Canvas site, it is a digital collage of about 20 or so layers using almost all personal photos from around the holy city of Varanasi on the holy river Ganges, which my husband and I visited in the 1980"s, long ago and far away.

Most of the incredibly carved buildings built during that time of the Moghul rule still stand.

TITLE: Memories of Varanasi

CHALLENGE: Architecture challenge from The Three Muses weekly digital challenge site.

The flower seller was on the very first transfer image I ever made, and only the second ATC I traded. He fronted a card I called BEAUTY-found on my sidebar, here - as I found and still find him a sublime representative of it...and Grace..

Happy Valentine's Day, Everyone!

2010-02-13T20:19:00.002-07:00

ATCS FOR ALL Site & Photography Festival Feb 1-28 2010

2010-02-04T23:17:00.013-07:00

Went tonight to a First Thursday Gallery opening at one of my favourite Calgary little eclectic book arts loving Galleries where I made my first ever IN-PERSON-and-IN -THE-FLESH ATC exchange!

I traded with photographer Roberta Murray, who is also known as uncommondepth on the ATCS for All website....I received a print of her fine limited edition digitally enhanced Alberta parkland photo "Daybreakers" in exchange for my own ( Artist proof) copy of "Eternity"..

Interesting to talk to an established Artist who agrees that there is still prevalent a lack of acceptance for the validity and merit of creative photographic art enhanced digitally on behalf of still quite a few out there...

I"m also in a mail art trade with another member of the site who does lovely digital art from Finland, trading a post-card size copy of my digitally archived but never printed or traded "The Ghost in the Machine "

We're both quite interested in seeing how long mail takes from there to Canada -and vice -versa!

ATC's for ALL is a PRIMO site for all kinds of trades and swaps ever-changing and fast moving....

One can configure their own Gallery and thus display any cards they want to trade one-on-one; or join one of the active swaps ", there's also forums for swapping art other than ATCS...such as inchies, chunkies, bookmarks or the aforementioned Mail Art...

Have joined:

-a digital "round robin"

-a 3-for-3 swap on TREES ( any medium )

-a 3-for3 on the theme "Air" ( any medium )

-and a 3-for-3 creating your own hand-drawn and coloured CHIMERA

For anyone at all interested in Art exchanges I most definitely say ...

CHECK IT OUT!

Eternity

2010-01-25T20:20:00.011-07:00

Title: Eternity

Swap: Digital Art Quirks Group Theme: Time

Challenge: The Three Muses Quotation Challenge

Layers: 9

Source Imagery: PD Images of a turn-of-the-Century "Alice by the rabbit hole "-possibly Alice Liddell, Carroll's model for his fictional heroine; Einstein's "clock" theoretical mock-up. and back-ground textures from the FLKR Free Textures Group, sky and birds and waves photos in the Public Domain; Corinthian capital from Art History textbook page.

QUOTE:

Eternity is not something that begins

After you are dead...

It is going on all the time....

- Charlotte Perkins Gillman

Traded with members of DAQ for their January swap.....a gold gel pen was used on the cards traded to highlight 1/2 the spokes of the wheel and the word Eternity.

Gillman's quote has a singular perspective on time that holds particular meaning for me at this point in my own personal scale of time.

Printmaking Event This Week-end!

2010-01-15T13:00:00.008-07:00

Hybrid Print/sculpture by Eveline Kolijn / on view at UAS

Intergraphia - A Winter Printmaking Event runs Thursday night through Saturday Day this week-end in Calgary this week-end at various gallery venues such as non-profit, commercial, artist-run co-ops. The above work, at Contexture: New Directions and Intersections in Printmaking at The Untitled Art Society Gallery on display until February 5th - is by Eveline Kolijn, an artist I have studied etching with, who is a printmaker and Instructor at ACAD- the Alberta College of Art.

See you there!

Merry Christmas !

2009-12-22T12:54:00.004-07:00

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

2009-12-15T14:29:00.003-07:00

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

2009-12-08T04:58:00.011-07:00

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

2009-11-21T14:05:00.006-07:00

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

2009-11-11T21:30:00.005-07:00

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

2009-11-01T22:45:00.007-07:00

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

2009-10-27T00:38:00.005-06:00

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

2009-10-14T21:39:00.008-06:00

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!

2009-10-12T13:20:00.003-06:00

FLOWER POWER / September DAQ ATC SWAP

2009-10-04T20:04:00.007-06:00

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!

2009-10-04T19:45:00.016-06:00

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!

2009-09-19T13:02:00.005-06:00

Avast!Get Ye Now to:

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

The Black Cat of Craigdarroch

2009-09-08T17:00:00.010-06:00

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

2009-09-07T19:07:00.009-06:00

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!!

2009-08-19T23:41:00.013-06:00

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

2009-08-05T14:18:00.006-06:00

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?

2009-08-02T13:00:00.028-06:00

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

2009-08-01T00:30:00.012-06:00

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

2009-07-30T13:21:00.005-06:00

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

2009-07-27T21:35:00.003-06:00

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!

2009-07-27T10:24:00.014-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO!!!

Blog Piracy Update: Check July 21 Entry below!

2009-07-24T04:56:00.003-06:00

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

2009-07-22T02:46:00.033-06:00

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

2009-07-21T00:01:00.057-06:00

...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

2009-07-18T21:47:00.022-06:00

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

2009-07-15T02:24:00.014-06:00

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

2009-07-13T13:32:00.008-06:00

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!

2009-07-08T21:36:00.016-06:00

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

2009-07-08T03:54:00.008-06:00

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

2009-07-07T01:25:00.013-06:00

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!

2009-07-04T02:07:00.014-06:00

(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

2009-07-02T02:19:00.003-06:00

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!

2009-07-01T23:56:00.000-06:00

Cheers to All!

Chris/ WildGoose

WILD

2009-06-28T22:00:00.002-06:00

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

2009-06-28T13:13:00.000-06:00

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

2009-06-28T02:08:00.001-06:00

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

2009-06-28T01:39:00.006-06:00

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

2009-06-28T01:15:00.000-06:00

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

2009-06-22T02:31:00.001-06:00

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

2009-06-21T19:00:00.002-06:00

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!

DIGITAL NEWS FLASH!

2009-06-21T18:48:00.004-06:00

Latest Breaking News....

Last week whilst channel-surfing...I chanced upon a site that specializes in digital-only created art works , challenges and exchanges...I very happily joined!

It's called Digital Art Quirks..
I've signed up for a Summer Post-card exchange and an ATC exchange which will start at the month's end....STAY TUNED!!

Space Harvester...almost forgot!

2009-06-07T22:04:00.002-06:00

Space Harvester was my entry in last week's WDE....almost forgot about it.....then stumbled on it in that My Pictures folder we all seem to have on our computers, and remembered I said I"d upload if I myself did anything for it...

Being raised a city girl I wasn't sure if it was a combine or a harvester.....so, after listing it's title as Old Farm machinery I posted the question to my Artist comrades for enlightenment...

....was it to be Space Harvester or Cosmic Combine?

...( my Saskatchewan-born husband knew, but he was out biking )...

A Wet Canvas member also from Saskatchewan told me that the name is linked.... it's actually called a combine-harvester out here in Western Canada....

Any how, this is a photo manipulation to make the turned around C-H look like it should have NCC-001 carved on it's side... Turned into a deep space, dark scene with rust stains turned into comets, and silvery-illuminated metal fixins'...

A commenter said it reminded her of all the man-made space junk we've got floating around our poor little green place....think that articulates it pretty well!

Was thinking in terms of the NOSTROMO space junker in ALIEN...

...and that old SCI-FI TV Show form Britain with that black cat that was turned into a man; RED DWARF......

and SPACE TRUCKERS...and.....

Homage to Salvador WIP

2009-06-05T14:10:00.000-06:00

One of the good things about my Collage/MM class is the fact that we have tons of assignment options, including self-generated projects, and may work on them concurrently in class or at home.

Love this approach; as I find creating a collaged work lends itself naturally from an initial conception or design to more additions, and changes as one gets further inspired while in the process of image making....."Altered Art", in a different-than-usual- sense of the word...

What you can't do today, you might think of tomorrow!

...and finish next week ...

Our assignment was to create a potrait in/as metaphor....who could be more a living, breathing metaphor than a Surrealist like Dali?

This WIP Homage to Salvador was inspired by this incredible photo of the young Dali in Paris of the 20's, taken by one of his contemporaries, the Artist and Photographer Mann Ray

Not quite sure how to finish this up as yet....maybe with a gaudy-or Gaudi?-styled frame with plastic bugs crawling here and there a la Andalusian Dog?

Or a shadow-box like black surround?

Present size is around 11x17" ( 29x44 cm ), with some elements projecting a bit up from the surface

Have to be careful and not be too derivative......going here-and-there for my metaphors for his metaphors!

One can just see the impish start of that famous, much exaggerated, showman-styled Conquistadoro moustachio!

....which reminds me...I'll have to put a fake bigger one on that little real Conquistador image!

Silkscreen Image

2009-06-05T00:08:00.000-06:00

This is the basic graphic image I created to use next week when I start a print run in my Silkscreen class.

It's a simplification and clean-up of a webcam photo taken of my daughter when she was 15....exactly 3 years ago today!

She thinks it's a riot being portrayed as this Film Noir Femme Fatal I turned the image into; espcially as IRL she looks younger, of course and has a sprinkle of freckles on her nose and quite wavy brown-not black- hair, as compared to the slicked back midnight hair of the dark lady of darkness...

We both think she should have a string of ex-lovers - including late 40's era Robert Mitchum -arranged streaming around her some way; maybe a carmine-coloured carnation in her hair a la Spanish Dancer....but all that 's in the future!

Just working now to learn the craft!

Have exposed 4 stencil images into the photo emulsion on my screen....the plan is to print the above in a dark colour on differing light or part patterned back-grounds..

The 3 other stencils based on the above image will be printed in 3 different colours to come together as one....can't wait to upload when they're finished!

Collage Study in Black and White

2009-06-02T22:56:00.002-06:00

Here's the first of my Collage/ Mixed Media assignments...to create a work in B/W emphasizing either movement, texture or both.

I chose to do a sort of free form light-hearted abstract piece emphasizing movement and rthymn.

Created from paper with some added touches of ink, it measures about 40cm/15" in any one direction..

I call it Miro Meets Kandinsky ......or is it more like Paul ( Klee ) meets Vassily?

All Media Week-end Drawing Event

2009-06-01T22:00:00.001-06:00

The Week-end Drawing Event I hosted saw many fine entries ; some of which I'd like to share because they will give an idea of some of the work that is done on these weekly challenges.

I encourage you, gentle reader, to check out the WC site I"ve bookmarked here on my sidebar at some point in time...well worth the visit!

Two pictures follow, done in 2 different mediums.

The B/W photo is our younger family cat, Ringo. Here seen "guarding"our hiking boots...

The water-colour pour and follow-up ink outlined picture you see is by Crispur2005.

She gives it the title "Puss-in-Boots"..

The mountain goat photo was taken in Waterton-Glacier International Park; shared by Alberta, Canada and Montana, USA.

The acrylic tile painting you see was done by artastic. It is mounted to mountain stone. She plans to varnish the piece and hang it in her outdoor back-yard space.

Great addition to it , m'thinks!

Most popular subject on the WDE Event

2009-06-01T21:20:00.001-06:00

This week-end saw quite a few entries on this particular subject from Artists on the Wet Canvas site.

I"d like to share one here...

It is a 5x7 oil painting of Jack Big Plume, ( Sarcee Tribe C. 1923 ) based on the B/W photo you see to your above left taken from the collection of the Glenbow Museum & Archives

Painted by Deano, who entered it at the 2 hour mark.

This was by far the most popular subject chosen, in part, I believe - aside from being an interesting subject - because it was taken by a professional photographer who obviously knew how to display and enhance the properties of B/W to perfection.

When asked to rise to my "challenge" to portray it in colour; values were easily seen.

A Busy Month ...and Up-coming week-end!

2009-05-28T00:00:00.008-06:00

The Month....

This past month I started 2 back-to-back courses on Wednesday and Thursday nights at ACAD, our Provincial Art College. They run through mid-June.

I am finding them both interesting and enjoyable; with fine instructors and challenging, varied on-going assignments.

I hope soon to share some of the new work I have created in both courses as they are completed.

The Week-End ....

As the past month has been filled with creative work, so too will bet his up-coming week-end....and hopefully, with many more persons than myself!

The image at right is my Invitation to the week-end drawing event on the Wet Canvas Artist Site starting this May 29th of which I am a first-time host!

The poster is the very first layered work I created in Photoshop Elements when I first learned how to layer images....way back last year in 2008!

I've updated it with newly-learned selective dodging & burning ( fun stuff )!, and have added new text related to the Art event.

Hosts post 16 varied photos for the participants to use in creating an artwork of their choice. The theme is the variety of scenery,flora and fauna, animals , objects and people that make up the environs of where they live, or places they have been; and are , naturally, expected to comment on all entries....talk about busy!

In gathering together an assortment of pictures, I"ve learned more about how to upload to the WEB....

Also the various uses/mis-uses of png and jpeg, and about the nuances of compression and possible pictoral quality erosion......wee bit of a tech learning curve there!

My theme will be based around the Wild Rose Country of Alberta in which I live.

Hosts also may choose to issue a challenge.

If I have time to meet it ...I"ll post what I did here!

(PS - the Griffin has been finished...might upload the updated version with some ACAD work next week sometime )

Cheers to All....and see you soon; I"m hopin'!

Griffin in Pen and Water-colour

2009-04-21T22:50:00.001-06:00

Griffin drawn on stretched 140 lb. Strathmore WC paper; outlined with black o.5 Micron pen, then coloured with a combination of Rembrandt Lyra, Staedtler and Inktense WC pencils .On 8x10 ( 20x25 cm)paper, the actual picture is somewhere around 5x7 (13x18 cm ) in size.

At this point, I"m not quite sure how to best approach his wings; but will be doing some spot touching-up with white gouache before preceeding further.... I"ve been told gouache is good for this...we shall see!

The uploaded scan is actually showing slightly blue shadowy sections not there IRL....think my "stretching' was not quite what it should be! No doubt will be turning it over to iron it out a little flatter after the work is finished!

Thought at first I"d try the gold metal-leaf on this; but might just stick to using gold acrylic paint, over the yellow back-grounds, and perhaps on his wing tips....Quite like the intensity of colour in this and don't want to over-do the brightness factor... a little seems to already be going a long way!

I love the faded, faianced ( sp)? look to the original page, but I would think that this look was indeed, achieved by time....as originally created, and using fresh-minted materials I believe it must have been stronger in both tone and hue; somewhat as displayed here.

As the Bestiary Project is on through May, there's still plenty of time to try out the metal leaf on a third subject, m'thinks!

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=555617

It's interesting that as one looks at something a day or so after doing it, the mind notices things not seen before.....and , of course, changes !

Aberdeen Bestiary Griffin

2009-04-17T19:24:00.001-06:00

To the left is the original Griffin portrayal, illustrated in late 12th Century Norman Britain.

It is in the collected manuscripts of the Aberdeen Bestiary of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

The second, seen above and to the right, is my transformation/"take", ( digitally manipulated in Photoshop Elements ) on it if it had been a brass or stone rubbing.

That meets one of the Project's set of self- challenges- to somehow "transform' one's chosen art-work .

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=555617

Posted on the Wet Canvas Artist Site ( linked above ) is the first step taken in meeting a self-challenge on using seldom-used or new-to-you- mediums. In my case, water-colour and ink are the seldom, and gouache and metal leaf are the new.....

When finished, I 'll upload here...

Bestiary Exchange Project

2009-04-13T16:05:00.001-06:00

This is an ACEO that I created last year for an exchange . I chose to create a Bestiary - basically a collection of fantastical animal imagery with an accompanying description - of 24 mostly imaginary animals.

The Barnacle Goose legend is one that had been created during the Middle Ages by scribes who were perplexed by the migrating patterns of this particular real-life bird and created a fantastical story to explain it.

These birds supposedly grew on trees!

Starting out in a barnacle shape...any that dropped on the ground perished, and those lucky enough to drop into the sea survived to grow and prosper as geese !

Doing this project encouraged a further perusal of the subject of Medieval Bestiaries and Illuminated Manuscripts.

BESTIARY SELF-CHALLENGE PROJECT

I volunteered when the opportunity arose in the Classical Forum of the Wet Canvas Artist Site ( see Link ) to create and host a 2 month personal project-based study of the Medieval Bestiary. Go to the drop-down menu for Classical Art Forum and scroll down to the post : Medieval Bestiary Project: There be Dragons! http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=555617

It runs through April of this month, and May of the next.

There are already some entries ; if you are at all intrigued by this subject, please, do take a look at how some participants are interpreting it!

There is also an short link to an entertaining and profusely illustrated online museum presentation about the evolution of the Bestiary .

A Work in Progress

2009-04-11T20:02:00.000-06:00

A Work in Progress all this month...and no doubt all the rest!