Ginkgo vs. Sycamore

By Kathy Garvey

On my third day at my month long retreat at Furnace MountainZen Center, I realized that the spindly little tree near the Tea House was a Ginkgo Biloba. The leaves have such a fascinating shape that I first decided to paint them and then to play with one of my photos of them in Photoshop.

Watercolor 9x12 Ginkgo Biloba

Ginkgo Biloba, Photoshop (I like to use the shapes of leaves to make brushes in Photoshop. I'm building quite a nice set of them from this trip. The small pale purple ginkgo leaves in the image above are from a brush used as a mask to the layers below.)

On the fourth day's walk, a pretty little leaf with very obvious fuzzy veins on its backside dropped right into my path. I think it's a sycamore leaf. It inspired another watercolor which I enjoyed painting out on the front porch of my cabin.

The cabin sported a shady open porch with room for a table and four chairs.
Squirrels, skinks, deer and birds checked in on me every now and then. 

 And, naturally, the same leaf had to take a few trips through Photoshop.

The woods of Kentucky are awesome. So many trees - a lot of them ones I knew growing up in Maryland. The hillsides are covered with every size and shape and every shade of green imaginable. I'm still working through my collection. More to come.

Kathy Garvey

etsy.com/shop/snailflower

spoonflower.com/profiles/kgarvey

Same Photo, Different Trip through Photoshop

On a recent trip to Huntley Meadows in Virginia, the geese were posing for photographers with awesome cameras - the ones with giant lenses that make you wish you could see what they see.

I just had my little Fuji XP 120 but I liked this photo for the rippled water and the beautiful reeds in the background.

I took it through Photoshop once using some textured brushes to make it look more like a sketch.

And then again by merging it with the colorful trees bordering the pond.

They will both work when printed to cards, and my little camera takes perfect images for working in Photoshop.

Is it Abstract?

By Kathy Garvey

Since "Abstract" is the title of our monthly Pieces of 8 challenge for January, it's been on my mind.  So, while out walking with my camera and taking pictures this morning, I thought I would use one of my photos of sidewalks (yep!) to make an abstract when I got back home. And then this blog entry was going to be about how something realistic can become something abstract. But, that's not totally what happened.

I started with this photo. (I'm fascinated by cracks in sidewalks!)

After straightening it in Photoshop, I applied some favorite filters and modified the color. Then I applied some patterns to it. All three versions definitely fit the category of "Abstract" to me. (Click on any image to enlarge it.)

That could have been the end of it, but Photoshop is just so fast and so much fun, I took the middle one into a new document, flipped it, rotated it, copied sections and created a new abstract that I liked more.

And that's when my own "interpretation" of this abstract happened. I saw two birds. So, I added "stuff" so that everyone could see two birds.

And that's how my abstract of something real (the sidewalk) turned into something that's not so abstract! Now, time to make that look more like a tree they are sitting in, right? 

---------------------------------------

Watch for our group write up on Abstract coming soon! We have a monthly blog challenge and this month it is titled "Abstract." That's it. You could interpret it how you wanted. I don't usually do abstracts except when I'm playing with Photoshop. However, because my frequent designs of birds and flowers aren't realistic but stylized, sometimes people tell me they are abstracts. So, for our blog, I made note of that and put in an image I created that is an actual abstract…in my mind, that's something that might suggest an idea but is open to interpretation. That, with entries from all of my fellow pieces, will appear at the end of this month. January 31st to be exact. 

OK! Couldn't resist...

Photoshopping a Silver Spring Camellia

by Kathy Garvey

I just got back from a few days in the wonderful cabins at Silver Spring State Park near Ocala, Florida. I love walking in a park and then coming back and playing with my photos in Photoshop. This is the journey of one photo. The process took about two hours.

A lone camellia in bloom in one of the gardens near where you take the glass bottom boats captured my attention. It wasn't til I got home and looked at it on my laptop that I noticed the little bug. I love bugs, so this is the first photo I decided to play with. (Click on any image to enlarge it.)

My first attempt just did what I usually do; crop, play with filters, and add custom patterns to different areas.

Then I decided to crop more and be a little more creative by adding some custom brushes and of course more filters and a few borders.

Next, I experimented with adjusting and softening the colors.

And then I tried colorizing the results. I liked these two colors.

It's a long way from the original, but the one below, which merges the two colorized versions with a gradient mask, is my favorite.

Fall Leaves in Fabric

It's fall and that makes me think of leaves. The colors are so amazing and the patterns in them inspire me. I'm particularly fond of the beautiful sea grape leaves here in Florida.

I wanted to create some permanent leaves to sew up for my living room  - that just happens to have a lot of red, orange and purple. My goal was to match these colors. (Those are pillows made from Moroccan Fez hats that my parents brought back for me.)

I made a rough sketch of the idea.

And then drew up my leaves as individual files in Adobe Illustrator. I captured the colors from my pillows to use as the main colors.

After creating the individual leaves, I pasted them into Photoshop using a 54 x 36 150 dpi file so that I could see how many leaves I could get on a yard of fake suede to be printed at Spoonflower.  I added details and texture in Photoshop as well as some cutting lines. Then uploaded the digital file to Spoonflower's web site. (Spoonflower is awesome! It's a totally USA company and it's less expensive to print to fabric than it is to paper! Check it out at www.spoonflower.com.)

My fabric arrived back in less than a week. Unfortunately, I don't always get the colors I want. We all know that issue. My red looks like salmon! But it still worked in the room.

I cut, stitched, turned, quilted and wired to create my leaves.

I still need to find just the right vase and wire them to be tall like my sketch, but I now have some beautiful leaves for year round in my living room.

Digital Art: Sketchbook to Poster

by Kathy Garvey

I dabble with paint, but I thrive on digital art. My favorite way to relax is to bring up Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator and just play. The great thing about digital art is you can print it to fabric, posters, tiles, etc. The not so great thing is that it only really exists in your computer until you do print it. 

In hopes that there are some people who read our blog who are interested in digital art, I've assembled a few graphics that show my process - from sketchbook to poster. 

I do keep a sketchbook. When I have time to create, I usually start by scanning an idea from my sketchbook. These are often only a few inches in size, but I scale them up to 8x10 because that makes a great 16x20 poster. I then place the idea in Illustrator and start building the design. Sometimes I build in color, sometimes in black and white. But I always experiment a long time with color, gradients, patterns, blend modes and strokes in Illustrator. Once I'm happy with the idea in Illustrator, I can't wait to take it into Photoshop. Then it's even more fun to experiment with color, gradients, patterns, strokes and blend modes. And there it stays until I decide to print it to something!

In the three recent examples below, the left image is the sketch right from my sketchbook. The next image is about midway done in Illustrator. The third image is at the end of the time in Illustrator right before taking it into Photoshop. And the last image is the final image after time in Photoshop.

(Click on any image to enlarge it.)

If I Could Fly

Orchid Sketch

Flower Sketch

Why I love Morguefile.com!

I love the web! There are so many great resources for artists! I could spend all day being inspired by the graphic designers and illustrators on behance.net, or looking at wonderful watercolors and creative doodles on pinterest. One of my favorite places to visit is morguefile.com where photographers post pictures that anyone can use for inspiration.

As an example, a few weeks ago I was building some new brushes in Photoshop and testing out some others. I made this playful graphic. I had placed a little tiny bird brush in it and it was obvious the design needed something more substantial.

I searched morguefile.com for beautiful little birds and found this truly precious one by "rezdora70."

Notice in the capture above that when you find an image you like, you can see the photographer's information, file size, how often the file has been downloaded and what if any restrictions there are on the photo - usually none - other than you can't use it standalone. If you decide you want it, you just have to click the very obvious button that reads "Download Image."

After downloading, I opened the image in Photoshop, flipped it horizontally, desaturated and applied a few favorite filters. He fit right in and completed the image. Thank you, rezdora70!

Sometimes I download beautiful birds I find on the site with plans to work them into something later. This little black capped chickadee by a photographer called "AcrylicArtist" was one of them.

My original thumbnail sketch was just some random designs on a large square under this cute bird's feet. After downloading, I just viewed this image on my monitor and started sketching with a micron pen on watercolor paper. When I doodled a worm as one of the designs in the square beneath him, I felt I needed something else that lived underground. I searched morguefile.com again for a little field mouse and found this adorable one by "xandert."

Here's the pen and ink so far, thanks to both AcrylicArtist and Xandert! .

I am so thankful that there is such a wonderful and free resource for artists. Keep morguefile.com in mind when you're looking for photo resources that you don't have of your own. It's very inspiring, easy to use, and a great place for sharing. The photographers ask nothing, except maybe to be notified if you are so inclined. Click here to check it out: http://www.morguefile.com/.

Lots of Butterflies

by Kathy Garvey

My yard is filled with butterflies this time of year, primarily because of the proliferation of passion flowers in bloom. Attached are a few of my recent butterfly images, most of them featuring the lovely Gulf Fritillary or its chrysilis. All were done with Adobe Photoshop and/or Adobe Illustrator. I'm hoping to have some of these printed up to either paper or fabric for our annual Pieces of Eight Christmas sale coming up in early December. We always have wonderful paintings, jewelry, tiles and this year - decorative bird houses - at very reasonable prices. Watch this site for the date!