The CD Project

Right now, more than anything, I need a place to look at what I've done so far, placing front cover next to back.  Here's option one:

I needed to be able to place my works in progress--CD front and back covers--close enough to see how they flow.  Here's the first.  I used photographs I took at Hickory's Octoberfest of the Alabama Blues Brothers, here for their "farewell tour."  Justin Crisler, a.k.a. Elwood Blues was a student I taught in Alabama about 1994.

For Option Two, I played around with some pictures I took during photography class a year or so ago.  For a project, I was taking pictures of "Old Things," so I had a great time at the little Coca-Cola museum owned by Allen Huffman (of Club Cola and the Granite Drugs Huffmans).  Here's my work so far:                                                                        

Finally, I played around with some photos from New Mexico.  For the track list, I made a handwritten "set list" on a sheet of paper torn from a spiral notebook, and I put it (with a monkey magnet and some duct tape) on the fridge in the picture.  Campy, I know!

Post 8: Brushes--A Work in Progress

I am amazed at the brushes function. I am also still baffled by masks, so this weekend, I am determined to figure out the process, even if I have to watch a youtube video--or twelve. For now, though, I am experimenting with the brush function.  Then I plan to combine more of my developing skills.  With the portrait assignment looming, I have been thinking about my potential models--other than myself and my colleague Melissa.  As a grandmother, I have great options.  I decided to make a brush of sweet Griffin's face and to play around with type too.  Think of this as a work in progress.

This brush is my granddaughter Avery.

This one is just a line brush.
And finally I have added a little bird brush.  

a

Blog 7: A Scanner Darkly

Here are the directions for this blog post, which I will remove once my work is complete:

A Scanner Darkly – Blog Assignment 7
-          Using a scanner as an image capturing device
-          Thinking in terms of non-representation
-          Looking for successful compositions
Using random collage material – old magazines, material found on the ground, old photos, etc. – make an arrangement on a scanner bed to capture a large image – 8 x 10 x 300dpi.
Next, using the crop tool, set to 4.75 x 4.75, look for and crop a minimum of three images.  These images may be used for your CD Design project, if you wish.
Finish the work how you see fit then post the images to your blog site.
Due by Thursday, October 17.

The scanner in the room proved a bit uncooperative, so I have been trying to do some work at home, putting my massive folders of torn magazine images to good use--finally.  I recognize that at times I have trouble going for the fully nonrepresentational.  I also have a fondness for words, so they may creep in.  One challenge I see is how to take someone else's image and make it my own.

I am also having some trouble getting the "dafonts" to load form my flashdrive to Photoshop.  In class, I can usually download and use it, but at home I am still limited to Photoshop Elements (and I see now why it is less expensive, since it does less!).  I'm
also trying to see how to set the cropping tool for 4.75" by 4.75".  (And I feel very uncomfortable--or British--leaving that last period after the inches sign.)

I think the hardest parts of the CD assignment are:
(1. to make what I see in my head materialize;
(2. to stop coming up with more and more different ideas and to start fine-tuning.

I have a number of other colleges from which to work:

More Work in Progress

If I never accomplished another thing in this class, learning to work with my old photos has been worth every bit of time I have spent:  Here are the colorized versions and my filtered illustration. I have always loved this picture of my parents before they married.  This post is a work in progress. I'll be adding the original black and white soon.

Blog 6: Now Add Type!

I know that the human brain is drawn to text; my certainly is.  Now that we are beginning our CD cover project, we are getting to add a layer (or more) or text as we learn to incorporate type.  I see already that I have two problems:
(1. my trial of creative cloud expired;
(2. I'm lagging behind on the learning curve in learning about masking and remembering the fine points of drawing lines for type to follow.

Here are my very rudimentary creations so far:

This images was created from a photo I took at the Weymouth Center for the Arts in Southern Pines last February where I did a writing residency. We were pleasantly surprised on Saturday morning when riders and hounds arrived for a fox hunt.

I used the images and a little Powerpoint voodoo to make note cards for my writing group members.

I am also working on a street scene as part of my CD project.  This is a photograph of Rogers Department store, on the corner of Court Street and Mobile in Florence, Alabama, my hometown.  T. S. Stribling won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Store, loosely based (and not loose enough for some of the natives) on the Rogers family.  My father-in-law worked here from the time he came into town from the farm at eighteen, eventually managing the furniture department before leaving to open his own store Posey Furniture Co.

The Rogers family closed the store (to much chagrin) more than fifteen years ago and the building sat empty for awhile. My son and father run a haberdashery across the street. New York designer Billy Reid moved his flagship store to the same block when his wife decided she preferred small town life.  My own first job was in an office just up Mobile Street. The plaza there is closed during one week in August for the W. C. Handy Music Festival. 

 This third image also originated as a photograph I took at Weymouth Center.  While the scene here is rather serene, my most recent memories include tents, food, dancing, and other revelry on the lawn during a September 28 wedding, most of which I watched with my friends from the upstairs windows.




While I'm working:  Here is another playful attempt: