Graffiti Piece Finished!

In my last post (here) I showed the photograph inspiration for this piece, commemorating my first Future Dog Guide puppy, Dime. Thanks to some very tired puppies, I found more studio time and managed to get this piece in my Graffiti series done!

I free motion stitched the bricks using a cream thread before adding the letters to make up Dime's name.

As with the first in the series, I carried some of the brick and paint elements over the side so they would add interest to the sides of the canvas.  You can see that in the next two images.

And finally...the puppy wall...I can't wait to foster more puppies and keep adding to this commemorative wall!

Dime Graffiti Has Been Started...

Another busy weekend has just passed, but I did manage to fit in a bit of time in the studio to start my Dime piece in my graffiti series. I did the first piece (see post here) with Yoshi, my current Future Dog Guide puppy, as the subject and I liked it so much that I've decided to make a keepsake piece for each of the puppies I foster.  That of course meant I had to go back and do one for Dime, my first foster puppy.

This is one of my favourite pictures of Dime, so I had to incorporate it in the piece.  I imported it into Photoshop and started having fun! 

Once digitally altered, printed and transferred onto fabric, I pulled out some of the new acrylic paints from the DecoArt Media samples that were recently sent to me, and I started adding elements with various found objects, stencils, and a small paint brush to add to the digitally altered image I had created.

Hopefully I'll find time in the next few days to get to the sewing machine to add some stitch.

And for those interested...puppy update...

(L - R) Shamus, Gracie and Yoshi, all Future Dog Guides

This weekend Yoshi and I babysat Gracie for another foster family.  While she was staying with us, we participated in two more Santa Claus parades, one Saturday afternoon, and the other on Sunday evening.  

Fortunately the parade in the afternoon and a long evening walk tired the girls out enough to give me some studio time Saturday night.

Yoshi (7 mths) in back, with Gracie (5 mths)

It sure is fun having a puppy friend for a sleep over! Yoshi and Gracie had some wonderful 'bitey face' sessions and really enjoyed running around the yard together.

From Photograph to Art Quilt...a sneak peek...

Back in April of last year, I took a photograph of a monarch butterfly and I digitally altered it in Photoshop.  You can see both the original photo and the altered one by clicking here.

I loved the colours in the altered photo so much that I wanted to use it in an art quilt.  I transfered the photo to fabric, went through my stash of fabrics and selected a number of pieces that I thought would work with it, sketched out a couple of ideas on paper, and then got busy with other things...

Finally, in October I got back to it and actually started working with the fabric and the image.  I wasn't happy with what I was coming up with, so again it was put aside so I could let my ideas 'simmer'.  Then came Tracey's GOE challenge for us to finish a UFO...which I turned into a personal challenge to try to finish all of my UFOs (or at least as many as I possibly could).  I've been working at the quilting of this piece for a few hours today, so I thought I'd give you a little sneak peak.  It still needs a lot more machine work and then some hand stitching, but I'm hoping to have it done by Wednesday evening, when our little group meets.

Just Had to Play Along...

original image

Kim's challenge in Beyond Layers today was to use an image she provided, as well as the latest texture she gave us (both seen to the right) and create our own version, on which we had added a quote.  Well, seeing as the texture was named after me, I just had to play along!

If you're interested, here's my 'recipe':

kk_linda texture

• duplicate the background image
• crop
• add kk_linda (blend mode: soft light 100%)
• duplicated background image again and moved it to the top layer (blend mode: soft light 100%)
• add 2nd layer of kk_linda (blend mode: vivid light 19%)
• add 3rd layer of kk_linda (blend mode: multiply 75%)
• added an adjustment layer:  cooling filter (82) at 8% density
• did a levels adjustment
• added a subtle frame by using the rectangular marque tool to do an inverse selection...used a colour fill adjustment, selecting a colour from the image and then used a multiply blend mode at 29% for that layer
• add text - font is called 'sweetly broken'

Picking Favourites...

This week, for Photo Art Friday, Bonnie's challenge was for us to choose our favourite photo art piece from the year.  The idea was that if you were going to create a photo book of your images for the year (a great idea by the way!) Bonnie wanted us to consider which image we would put on the front cover.  This is a lot tougher than you might think!

As it turns out, I did make such a 'coffee table' book of all my favourite photography back in the spring.  At that time, I chose to use this image on the cover:

However, since then I have taken a lot of new photos and created a lot of new photo art.  I love last week's image of the gorilla's hand:

The other one that I might use is this one of the monarch chrysalis just before the butterfly emerges.  In the summer I put a couple of monarch caterpillars in a terrarium and photographed the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly (you can see it here).  I used one of those images to create this:

So, it's a toss up between these two right now, but since I won't be creating another photo book for a while, there will be so many more to choose from when the time comes...

These photos are being linked to This or That Thursdays and Photo Art Friday.

Gorilla Love

Bonnie's photo art challenge this week is to create an art image using her texture 'Signed & Sealed'.  Yesterday my friend and I were at the Toronto Zoo and I got a great shot of a gorilla's hand.  My image today was simply a matter of adding four layers of Bonnie's texture, 3 using a soft light blend mode (100% opacity for all three) and the forth was added using a pin light blend mode at 73% opacity.  Simple but fun!

Thanks for the great texture Bonnie!

This photo is being linked to This or That Thursdays, and Photo Art Friday.

Vintage Photography

Mouse over photo to see the 'before' image.

Today I spent a little time playing with a new 'recipe' that Kim Klassen shared in Beyond Layers.  It allowed me to transform this modern snapshot of my friend Carol and her loveable dog, Molly, into a vintage photo.  In addition to using Kim's 'Kristen' texture, I also added a mask overlay to give me the softer edges.

If you want to learn how to do the mouse over technique, read my previous post here.

These photos are being linked to Our World Tuesday, Texture Tuesday, Sweet Shot Tuesday, and Photo Show Off.

How to Use the 'Mouse Over' Technique...

Credit where credit is due...
this fun 'mouse over' image is thanks to this site here.

So many of you have been admiring/enjoying/commenting on my use of the 'mouse over' technique to show the before and after of images of my digitally edited software so I decided I would share the technique in a post.

I used to just link people who asked about it to Kim Klassen's website because that is where I learned the technique.  Kim generously shares (for free) so many wonderful tips and tricks, as well as beautiful textures, and one of them was this mouse over technique.  

Kim also has many amazing workshops and online courses which I can highly recommend.  I have taken Photoshop: the Essentials, and am currently enjoying Beyond Layers.  (Please note that for obvious reasons I would never share a lesson or technique taught in a class that has a fee attached to it!)

Okay, back to the 'mouse over'.  First of all, you need to upload your images (before and after) to a web based site like Flickr or Picasa (those are the ones I use) because you are going to need the image URL (which you can obtain by right clicking on the image once it's in those web based sites).

Next, you need the following code (copy and paste everything between the squiggly lines into a blank document and save it on your computer...Go ahead, do that now...I'll run and get another coffee while I wait...):  Important:  part way down in the code you will see http://lindakittmer.blogspot.com/ which is MY blog URL.  Replace my blog URL with your own, and then save the document.  Do this now so that you only have to do it once and not every time you use the code!  Be careful not to delete the punctuation as computer code is not forgiving.  You must maintain the exact syntax or it won't work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">

<br /></div>

<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>

<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://lindakittmer.blogspot.com/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img onmouseout="this.src='http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7059/6866348739_39f5e72a84_z.jpg'" onmouseover="this.src='http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7066/6866348525_2b0a727255_z.jpg'" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7059/6866348739_39f5e72a84_z.jpg" /></a></td></tr>

<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mouse over photo to see the 'before' image.</td></tr>

</tbody></table>

</div>

<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">

<br /></div>

<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">

These next two lines aren't part of the code, but you want to copy and paste them into your document to remember what goes where: 

first and third photo addresses are the “after” images

second photo address is the “before” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, now to actually put it into your post...

You'll notice that you can either post by using 'Compose' or 'HTML' (I'm using blogger...sorry I don't know about other blog interfaces).  You'll see the two buttons on the left in the tool bar of the post screen.  Go ahead and start writing your post as you usually would.  When you want to add the photos, click on the 'HTML' button.  You should see what you have typed so far, along with computer code for spacing, etc.  

Open that document you saved with the above code, highlight and copy the code, and then come back to your post.  Put your cursor where you want the image to appear (that should be below what you have written so far) and paste the code.  

Now you have to substitute your images URLs for mine (since that's what you've got in the sample code).  Go to Picasa, Flickr or where ever you uploaded your photos, and right click on the after image.  Copy the code.  Come back to your blog post in progress, and find the first place that you see an image URL (http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7059/6866348739_39f5e72a84_z.jpg).  Carefully highlight it (remember the warning above about computer code syntax) and paste your own image URL in place of mine.  Now, scan down and find the THIRD place you see an image URL and repeat the highlight paste with the same URL.  

Go back to Picasa, Flickr or where ever you uploaded your photos, and right click on the before image.  Copy the code.  Come back to your blog post in progress, and find the second place that you see an image URL.  Highlight and paste to over write my image URL with your own.

Do your happy dance...you're done!!!

It may seem complicated, but once you've done it once or twice you'll find it pretty straight forward.  Perhaps you'll want to print these instructions out so that you can follow along, step by step, for the first few times until you feel confident.  

I look forward to seeing your 'mouse over' before and afters in your future posts!  Please leave me a comment with your link so I can come and check them out.  Thanks!

Fisheye Fun...

This week I had some real fun playing in Photoshop.  I'm pushing myself to learn more about what I can do with the program, applying things I'm learning from various sources including Beyond Layers and through reading online information from Adobe.  I started with Bonnie's 'cobblestone road' texture. I added all of the coloured balls from a journal page I did by using the clone tool and then making additional copies of some of them, resizing them, changing their colours using hue/saturation adjustments, etc.

Once I had done that, I decided I needed a focal point so I opened the photo of a gull that I took in the spring and I used the quick selection tool to isolate the gull (by doing an inverse selection and deleting the background).  Once I put the gull in it still wasn't speaking to me so I decided to learn how to do a fisheye effect.  Instead of using a black outer frame, I selected a dark gray colour from the cobblestones and then played with the opacity of the layer so that the balls and cobblestone still came through.

I added a gaussian blur to the edge of the fisheye.  Because I had squared off the image after putting the balls on the background layer, I had lost the lovely framing that Bonnie's texture had, so I added another layer of the texture on top, adjusting the sides so it was square (sorry, I can't remember the blend mode I used on that layer).  The final step was to add another very subtle layer of blur to the entire image and then use my round signature brush on the blue ball in the bottom right corner.

These photos are being linked to Our World Tuesday, Texture Tuesday, Sweet Shot Tuesday, Photo Show Off,  This or That Thursdays, Photo Art Friday, Shoot, Edit, Submit, Fabulous Friday, and Photo Friday Link Party.

Sunsets: Focussing on the Fading Light

Inspired by Kim (Texture Tuesday) and Bonnie (Photo Art Friday), this post a collection of sunsets and sunrises taken over the last couple of weeks.  

My husband and I go for a leisurely boat cruise each evening, and many of these shots are taken while either out on the boat, or from the dock once we return from our cruise.

I love the glowing reflection of the sunset on the lake.

 "Red sky at night, sailer's delight."

We certainly like to see the beautiful pinks and mauves that signal another beautiful day to come.

I love the wonderful silhouettes of the trees.

Another glowing reflection of the sun on the water.  This is actually the sunrise.
Sometimes, before the pink sky come these wonderful blues and oranges.

I especially love the evenings when there are some clouds in the sky to add texture and dimension to the shot.

Here I captured my husband's silhouetted profile  in the foreground of the shot.

This shot was taken only a moment later, but I love how there is a double sun - other worldly...

This is one of my favourites.  I love the variety of colours in the sky.

These photos are being linked to Photo Show Off, Texture Tuesday, Sweet Shot Tuesday, Our World Tuesday, This or That Thursdays, Photo Art Friday, Shoot, Edit, Submit, Fabulous Friday and Photo Friday Link Party.

Faith is...

While travelling with our 5th wheel trailer last week one of the windows was broken.  I loved the pattern created by the safety glass so I had to snap a couple of photos.  I've used one here as a layer over this image that Kim challenged us with in Beyond Layers.  

I thought this inspirational quote by Helen Keller finished it off well.  Hope you're having a good start to your week.

New Look for My Blog!

Well, as you can see I've spruced up my blog to give it a new look.  I've been wanting to do this for a while and I finally got around to it, in part because of a wonderful template from Kim Klassen in our Beyond Layers' group.  What had been holding me back was figuring out how to create a photo collage in Photoshop, so Kim's timing was perfect!  Thanks Kim :0)

Now all I need to do is figure out how to get my background (hand stitched and beaded silk fusion) to extend all the way down the sides instead of just at the top of the page. Sigh..

Sketchbook Challenge Journal

As you may know, I've been participating in this year's Sketchbook Challenge, but with my own fibre twist.  Although I have recently started playing a bit with a pen and paper sort of journal, when the year started and I decided to participate in the Sketchbook Challenge, I decided to make a fabric journal using my interpretation of the monthly themes.  In addition to the Sketchbook Challenge pages, I decided to include some of the wonderful art quotes that I had collected.

You may have seen some previous blog entries as I finished pages, but the last 6 months were sort of neglected.  Well, I finally got back into it (art everyday!) and the journal is finished.  All of the images were altered/enhanced using Photoshop before being printed onto fabric and then incorporated in the journal page.

January's theme was Highly Prized.  Casey, my dog, represents the unconditional love and natural mothering instincts (even to a kitten) that I prize.  She knows how to relax, loves to go for walks and even at 11 years old, she romps like a puppy in new fallen snow.

February's theme was Opposites.  For this one, I played with light and dark and experimented with the effects that changing the background colour would have on the colours I was using.

March brought the theme Spilling Over.  It also had me struggling through some real frustrations with my health and the image literally represents what was going on with me.  Enough said.

Branching Out/Out on a Limb was the April theme.  I decided it was time to take a risk and try journalling on paper.  I drew a silly character, did some writing then photographed it.  I added the title text in Photoshop and it was ready for printing.

May's theme was Resists so I went back to using paper and paint for this page.  As always, I added the title text in Photoshop.

The theme Pathways for June had me playing with photo collage.  Yes, that's me as a little girl, but since our road trips involved 9 people when I was a kid, we travelled in a big station wagon and not a VW bug.  However, later my oldest brother did have a bug and it's just so much more fun than a Galaxy station wagon!

 July's theme was Elements. Since I procrastinated on this page, it wasn't done until recently, thus allowing me to use a photo I took of my Chinese lantern's late this fall.  I love the intricate lace and the bright orange seed exposed inside as the orange skin erodes away.

 For August's theme, Everyday Objects, I cheated a little by taking a photo of a piece of fibre art I had recently finished on which I had thread sketched a pair of scissors.  I guess it's not really cheating since the original art is mine too!

September brought the birth of another great niece.  The theme was Unfurled, and I couldn't help noticing that the first photos of Abigail had her fits tightly clenched but as time passed her little hands seemed to unfurl.  

October's theme was Views.  This theme had me going back into my photo archives for this photo which I took in a church in PEI in 2007.  I love the reflections and shadows that the design in the window created.

Imaginary Animals was the November theme.  Last week I went to see the Marc Chagall exhibit at the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario).  Chagall seems to incorporate a chicken in many of his pieces and he had other interesting animals, some certainly imaginary.  When I got home I was inspired to draw this imaginary creature using the bright colours Chagall used in some of his works. I also loved the quote, also by Chagall.

December's theme is Trashed, Ruined and Decay.  This summer, the town of Magnetawan suffered a tragic fire that ruined the old historic general store as well as June's Restaurant.  For the town folks and all the cottagers in the area, it is a tragic loss.

And the final quote.

Thanks for visiting!  Please leave a comment~I love to hear from you.