Something Fishy This Way Comes

by Kathy Garvey

I have been busy working on projects unrelated to art and in wanting to get back to it, explored my old online portfolios. I was surprised how many fish there were. I haven't done a fish in ages. Here are a few, all from 2010. 

I just noticed that they are all facing right! I also noticed they are all done in Photoshop and Illustrator which I have been trying to wean myself off of because of the monthly cost. But, these make me remember how much fun I have with them.

I hear Procreate is a much more affordable creative tool and it works on an Ipad. I've downloaded it and just need to learn it. And when I do, I could maybe point one to the left and see what happens! Perhaps there are more fish in my future.

 

Everything's Coming Up Roses in our November Challenge

The challenge this month was roses. 

I think every painter, has painted a rose.  It must be the most loved of all flowers.

I have chosen to post two of my favorite rose paintings today, with two different techniques and two very different effects.

The first and was done using lots of liquin added to my paint, which produced a soft, almost watercolor feel. 

 The second was done with a mix of palette knife and brush, and does not depict a perfect rose, but in my eye, it is still a beautiful flower.  It feels much more structured.

Which do you prefer?

Carol Schiff

www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com

www.CarolASchiff.com

**************************
Kathy Garvey

I have a favorite rose painting from years ago that took quite a few hours to create. It's one of my Mom's knock-out roses painted in acrylic on 11x14 canvas.

Knock-Out-Rose
11x14 Acrylic on Canvas

But, for this  month's challenge, I took a few old photos of my Mom's gardens and a lot less time to create what look like a colored pencil sketch and a watercolor. The technique uses custom brushes on a mask followed by several filters in Photoshop, and is extremely versatile and easy. (Click to enlarge.)

A Visitor
8x10 Digital Print

Yellow Rose Watercolor
8x10 Digital Print

*********

Jean Thomas

Wine and Roses
Oil on Canvas, 10" x 10"

The small wine glass in my painting was made by my great grandfather, Joseph Locke. He was a glass artist first, and also a painter and print maker. He invented and patented a type of art glass called Amberina, when he worked for New England glass company.  Amberina,  a two-toned glassware, was originally made from 1883 to about 1900. It is still made today. 

Also, he loved to paint and flowers were a favorite subject. I'm fortunate to have a few of his paintings and glass. Here is one of roses. (image coming) 

Jean Thomas 

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

I decided that paper rather than paint might be the way to go for the challenge this month.  I found some beautiful red tissue with the words love printed on the paper and that was what inspired the collage.  I had to use the tissue in a special way and what symbolizes love more than roses.

Donna Vines

www.donnavinesart.Etsy.com

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

"Rosy Outlook" by Carmen Beecher

8x10 oil

 "Why is it no one ever sent me yet

One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it’s always just my luck to get
One perfect rose."

 --from a poem by Dorothy Parker

*****

This painting is of a photograph I made while on a trip to Canada.  We visited the summer home of President Roosevelt where I found this beautiful multicolored rose.  The painting is now in my guest bedroom.  Enjoy.    Denette Schweikert. 

www.denette.net

*

Mary Warnick

I love painting roses, and keep trying to do a better job of it.  Some are better than others, but i keep trying to be perfect every time.  This is the latest one, with this challenge is mind.  I am trying to keep it loose and watery.

Thought for the day

Digital art and thought for the day inspired by the beautiful passion flowers in my yard.

"Life is beautiful in all its incarnations. 

We know nothing and yet we know everything. 

We are one with nature, one with God, 

and one with each other." 

by Kathy Garvey

A Few Kentucky Butterflies

by Kathy Garvey

On my third day at my month long retreat at Furnace Mountain Zen Center, after a heavy thunderstorm (that also zapped my car), I found a beautiful little butterfly drowned in a mud puddle. I pulled it out, dried it off and then photographed and sketched it. 

I had never seen a butterfly like this one and went on-line to discover its actual name is "red spotted purple." (Someone must have run out of imaginative names.)

Red Spotted Purple - Under wing has all the red!

Red Spotted Purple - Upper wing is a shimmery blue!

He was the first I found on my walks, but not the last. The abundant plants including milkweed and mountain laurel attracted many butterflies…among them tiger, zebra and spice bush swallowtails, fritillaries and monarchs.

I like to experiment with Photoshop. So, even though I have plenty of unmodified photos of butterflies that I am happy to share, here are a few of my "photoshopped" butterfly images from the trip. (Click on any image to enlarge it.)

Spice Bush Swallowtail on Milkweed

Fritillary (I don't know which kind) on Wild Hydrangea

Tiger Swallowtail and Spice Bush Swallowtail on Milkweed

Zebra Swallowtail on Clover

Kathy Garvey

etsy.com/shop/snailflower

spoonflower.com/profiles/kgarvey

The Challenge of a Challenge

by Kathy Garvey

The Pieces spent the month of February, when we weren't preoccupied with our show and sale, working on crows and other black birds. That's because our February blog challenge set up by member Carmen was to paint a black bird without using black.  It could be a raven, crow, anhinga, cormorant…you get the idea…any black bird. And we don't always paint, so I interpreted that as create because some of us collage and Photoshop and fiddle around with other media.

I gathered some crow images. Here's a few.  Click on any image to enlarge it.

I looked up the difference between crows and ravens. Here's a good link if you are curious: How to Tell a Crow from a Raven.

I sketched up a dozen ideas in my sketchbook.

I fell into playing with my photos in Photoshop, making sure not to use black for my crows.

Then I started to feel like maybe I should have painted, not Photoshopped. So I sketched some more and tried a watercolor of one of my thumbnail sketches. 

It was a childish idea that turned out to be a childish watercolor. But, it was fun to do, and I didn't use black!

But, then back to Photoshop for another round.

The challenge of a challenge is to finish it with something you are happy with, even if it took the whole darn month. On the last day for the blog challenge, I had to decide which one of these to post. It will post tomorrow morning with all of the others.

Hope you all enjoy our post tomorrow seeing everyone's crows! The challenge resulted in lots of crows! Something to crow about!

A Photo's Journey to Watercolor

by Kathy Garvey

Photoshop is so much fun that I call my time with it playtime. One of the things I like to do with an already beautiful photo is make it look like a watercolor or sketch. Below is a recent example. The photo on the left was taken in a research garden in Washington state in July of this year. The place was magnificent and I'm just starting to use my photos from it. The image on the right is just one "painted" version of it. (Click to enlarge.)

There are many ways to go from the view on the left to the one on the right, but for this, I used the Pattern Stamp Tool (which is hidden under the Clone Stamp Tool).

I first cleaned up the spider webs and then applied a few filters to make it look more like a watercolor. (My favorite filters for a watercolor look are Paint Daubs, Dry Brush, and Poster Edges.) I fiddle with them until I have something I like. Then I work at making it into a piece I would be happy to print. That meant adding a frame and border with colors from the image for this photo. 

But to take it further, I selected the succulent area (just within the frame) and made it a pattern  (Edit>Define Pattern). I opened a new file of the same size and dimensions as the pattern and on a new layer "painted" it back in using the Pattern Stamp Tool and some custom watercolor brushes. (Select the Pattern Stamp Tool and then in the top bar, choose a brush and your pattern. Leave Aligned checked and Impressionist unchecked for this look.)

I keep adding layers with different brushes and different opacities until I have a look I like. The process is so fast that you can just keep adding new layers and painting again and again. Two other versions are below. The left one was just adding more brushes and also painting soft colors from the image on layers underneath it. The one on the right was using a custom sketch brush.

And, since the process is so fun and fast, you can experiment. Below, I started with a larger 12x12 inch file size and unchecked the Aligned feature for the Pattern Stamp Tool. When you do that, the position you are painting changes every time you lift the brush. (It's such a hoot! I love it!) The two different versions below each took less than five minutes from start to finish.

PS  If you are curious about the Impressionistic option, here's what you would get if you check it for this image.

Crazy as that is, it makes a nice background if you then uncheck Impressionistic and paint over it.

Find a favorite photo and give it a try!

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.