I've Always Wanted To Go To Florence

Really, I have. For some reason, I have kind of a "thing" for the Medicis. No idea why. Maybe just because I like how their name sounds....

So that's why today's collage started with an extremely vague sketch of the Florence skyline. I pulled up a bunch of images on Google to be able to do that. Don't you love the Internet?

I added some light color, that woman, and a window from a building in Florence. Some more paint, a little pastel, and it was done.

 

Then, I played around again in Photoshop Elements. This time I fiddled a bit with the Hue and Saturation adjustments. This next version has no change in hue, just a large increase in saturation.

 

Next, I went in the opposite direction, decreasing the saturation to the point where the image is almost black and white.

 

This next image has no change in saturation, just a change in hue.Weird looking sky, isn't it?Stormy, or something. Maybe a different planet.

 

 

I won't show you all the different versions that I made. That would be a very long post. I tried many different combinations of hue and saturation changes. I also made lighting changes, which changed the mood to light and airy, or dark and eerie, depending on the setting. It's hard to stop playing once you start!

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions about my paper wrinkling issues. I printed the window out on cardstock (acid-free), and it was much easier to glue down.

And now, back to watching election returns....

Art Every Day Month Begins

November is a month of projects. Some of us are busily creating things for holiday gifts, or to keep up with the seasonal rush of small businesses. Some of us are writing novels as part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I thought about that, but it seemed like too large a mountain.

Instead, I decided to try  the Art Every Day Month Challenge  being run by Leah over at Creative Every Day.  The rules of the challenge leave the choice of what you do pretty wide open. I've decided to put some limits on myself, and do a collage for each day of the month. I'm hoping to get over my reluctance to cover up layers. I tend to get a little too attached to early parts of a project, sort of like a writer becoming attached to a sentence, and trying to force the story to work around it!

This is today's creation. First, I wrote all over the page about what was on my mind, then with pastels, I drew a variety of symbols. Then, some paint, followed by some strips of paper that I had painted, and a couple of magazine pictures. Since this is just an exercise for myself, I felt it was OK to use the magazine bits. Of course if this were going out of my house, I wouldn't use copyrighted material. Then, I added more paint, cut out words, more pictures, more pastel, more paint (with stamps). I finished as I began, with writing. Whew! That was a lot of layers.

 

 

I'm pretty happy with the results, but it was almost a disaster. I started making this in an old sketchbook that I hadn't ever used very much. Apparently, I had only used that paper for dry mediums in the past, because the paper started to disintegrate when I added the paint! Once I realized this I stopped and let the paper dry. I got a book of watercolor paper, and sewed the first paper to the watercolor paper before continuing. Project rescued, and the horizontal stitching lines add a nice touch.

 

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

 

Over the last month, I have been taking an on-line class in Photoshop 10 through the local community college. The class has been quite time consuming, but I really enjoyed it. This is a Photoshop collage that I made early in the class. I have since learned how to fit things together more smoothly. In this image is a passage and statue on the Chatham University campus, and some trim from one of their buildings. Also, a pillow from the oldest one's apartment, fireworks from the Fourth of July, and both my girls. And the Neighborhood Lion, can't forget him!

 



This first series of classes focused on the basic mechanics of using Photoshop. I've had one version or another of the program for several years, and only learned how to use a few of the tools, so this was useful for me. I'm much less intimidated by the program now. It doesn't feel quite so much like a foreign language. Has software ever given you that feeling?

Since Weasley crossed the bridge, I've had a hard time getting back into blogging. So in addition to AED, I'm going to try BlogHer's NaBloPoMo (National Blog Post  Month), and attempt to post every day in November. Have you heard the saying that it takes 30 days to form a new habit? November has 30 days, so I guess we'll see if it works. Is anyone else working on one of these November projects? If you are, I'm rooting for you. Stay focused, and have fun!