My Humble Homage

When we started this assignment, I looked at a number of the artists on the suggested links, but decided to select my teacher and colleague, Thomas T, not so much as blatant brown-nosing but because I do like so many of his pieces I see around.  I started with this picture from his Moonhead Studios Blog:

While I have more I want to do with this one, here's my rudimentary attempt:

(Since his picture had that disappointed mood, I thought a closed bookstore would be perfect for my picture.  I also plan to work on the color to give it the warmth of his picture.  Finally, instead of the dog (or my son's dog), I may try to add a picture of someone--Ben perhaps--walking by with headphones, oblivious to his environment.



And next I have my next version below:

 This is another of Thomas's pictures I appreciated.

My version:

I didn't actually realize until I finished that while his text refers to life as a dream, mine, from Midsummer Night's Dream is from Puck's final speech, in which he tells his audience that if they are offended they can just imagine it was all just a dream.  I may add texture later. I notice the slightest hint of a pattern (Simplicity? McCalls?) in the background of Thomas's picture.

Portrait: Part II

Working on the portraits project makes me aware of  how much I have to learn.  I find that if I try a process and then repeat it two or three times, I am more likely to remember how I did it. I am also getting more comfortable with experimenting, knowing that I can do and undo.

The self portrait is most challenging because I find the close-up view daunting.  (Who is that woman with the furrowed brow?)  I don't mind smile lines around my eyes, but those forehead lines, made as I read, are not as endearing.  I also find that when I take picture of people (which I am always doing) who are reluctant subjects, I tend to say, "Don't worry. I can Photoshop that out."  I've had requests to make people look younger, slimmer, with "fewer chins."

Here are my first few self portrait attempts. Be on the lookout. More are sure to follow.

I have also been working on my portrait of Melissa McCarriher (Did I spell it right, Melissa?)  The challenge was getting the entire face. Her nose didn't always show up when I got the eyes, and the mouth didn't work. I finally learned to make the most of the magic of layers!

Portraits in Progress

For some reason, my favorite so far is the top portrait--my elegantly bald husband.  I learned to use masking and the lyrics to the Cowsills' late great hit "Hair."  I love some irony...and I love this bald man!

 Top to bottom:  Dick Posey, Melissa McCarrahar, David and Gracie Garrett, Sadie Burns Finlay, Avery, Griffin, Stuart, and Avery (again) Troup.

 

 

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.  

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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.