Tangie Baxter’s Photoshop workshop.

So once again I have gotten completely off-track with posting on my blog. My goal was to post at least twice a month, so I suppose I can still achieve that for May…where has May gone anyway? Quite frankly, I feel like it’s still April. And it’s almost June. Time marches on, and I’m continually scrambling to keep up with it.

I recently purchased Tangie Baxter’s Photoshop for Mixed-Media & Art Journaling workshop from Scrapbookgraphics.com, in my continuing quest to learn Photoshop so I can create some decent digital art. As soon she introduced this workshop I knew I had to get it, and I’m so glad I did. I’ve almost completed the beginner’s workshop (I bought the bundled pack containing all three workshops – beginner, intermediate, and advanced), and I have learned so many helpful tips. I so enjoy working through the lessons – I really look forward to it, and once I start it’s hard to stop. I can’t wait to move on to the other two workshops. I consider myself an advanced beginner, so some of the stuff in the beginner workshop I already knew, but I wanted it anyway because there’s always more to learn.

I would love to try her Art Journal Caravan workshop. Since it runs for a year however I’m not sure I can make the commitment of time that would allow it to be reasonable to do. I may consider it for next year.

Thanks for stopping by!

Dawne

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photoshop friday – retouch and transform.

This past Friday I started the section on retouching and transforming photos. I learned how to change the canvas size, which is pretty cool. Even cooler was learning how to use the Actions palette to automatically make a frame around my photo. I have heard of actions before, but I didn’t know there were any included in the Photoshop software. Neat! Of course I had to try out a bunch….

This is the brushed aluminum frame.

Photo corners.

Spatter frame.

Wavy stamp.

Wild frame.

Wood frame.

ok, I got a little crazy with the frames!

I also played a bit with the Clone tool.

Just a simple stamp with the clone tool…

Here I tried to be a bit more artful. I used the clone tool, cropped the photo, adjusted the color balance, and used the spatter frame action.

Thanks for stopping by!

xoDawne

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photoshop friday – playing with color.

I mentioned a little while back that I have been attempting to learn Photoshop, and Friday is my dedicated night for doing just that. Right now I’ve been reading about making quick and simple image adjustments. As I read I often open a photo to play with to help me understand and remember what I’ve read. I thought I would share some of my playtime photos.

Here is the original photo.

Here are two versions of the photo – I was playing with the Color Balance option, under Image/Adjustments.

Here again I was playing with the Color Balance, and I adjusted the Highlights as well.

I have so much fun playing with the photos – it’s so neat trying out all the different adjustments and seeing what happens. I don’t fully understand the underlying science of what exactly the adjustments are changing – the light values versus the dark values, and all that technical stuff. I just love to play around and experiment!

Anybody else out there trying to learn Photoshop, whether on your own or through a class perhaps?

Thanks so much for stopping by!

xoDawne

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even in the dark, the birds still sing.

let’s change directions.
I decided a little while ago to change directions in my digital art attempts. I thought, hey, maybe I should actually take the time to learn Photoshop before I start diving into tutorials. Perhaps then I might have some inkling of what I am doing!

So to that end I’ve been reading through the Help section and learning quite a bit. I haven’t gotten into the fun stuff yet (like the filters and tools) but I’m getting there.

I bought some kits from Scrapbookgraphics a little while ago too – how could I resist? I have to be ready when the day comes that I can finally play and create digital art.

And I just love Scrapbookgraphics. They have the coolest stuff!

I bought Fairy Tea Party, by Ellie Lash (this one is for playing with Lily – I’ll start teaching her Photoshop now, so she’ll be an expert by the time she’s eight!). Fragments and Inner Artiste, by Lorilei Murphy (Rosey Posey Studio), and Industrial Velvet by Tangie Baxter.

Perhaps someday I will be able to create my own digital kits.

beadfest here I come!
One of my goals, starting this year, is to take one class every year. And I’m excited to say that I have registered for a class at the upcoming Beadfest Bead and Jewelry Show in August. I will be attending Kim St. Jean’s class, Bezel Bootcamp. I get to learn how to solder with a torch and create my own bezel!

There are so many intriguing classes being offered; there were several I was interested in, and one in particular, creating a cuff from etched pieces of metal. It was so gorgeous! But I thought Bezel Bootcamp was a more appropiate fit with my other jewelry goals for the year (that being to learn how to solder, albeit with an iron). I’m eagerly looking forward to the class, and I hope I learn a lot.

coincidence?
In my last post I mentioned how I’ve recently had this strange urge/desire to draw, although I’ve never thought of myself as being talented in that area.

Well…I got the new (May/June) issue of Somerset Studio…

…and inside was this article by Colette Copeland….

….in which she writes about how she never thought she could draw until, as she writes, “then one day, just like that, I woke up from this self-imposed and mystifying “I can’t draw” belief. I grabbed a pencil and started to draw. I became so hooked that I would have drawn on the walls if I didn’t have the self-control to curb the urge. The more I did it, the better I became at it. So, for those who think they can’t draw but who want to, I encourage you to try it! It’s the only way you’ll know if you can or can’t, and if you want to or don’t want to.”

I am taking this article as a sign that I may not be way off with this drawing thing. Maybe I can do it, maybe I can’t. As Ms. Copeland said, the only way to find out is to try.

And I just adore her artwork in this article – her birds are so charming!

xoDawne

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you’ll certainly shoot your eye out.

mommy mommy look at this!
I have been plugging away at Photoshop. Learning, at an excruciatingly slow pace. The simplest things take an exorbitant amount of time. Frustration sets in; I have to refer to Help every step of the way. But finally, finally, something comes of it!

I made a button!

And vintage paper lace!

ok, the paper lace didn’t turn out so well. I’m sure I followed the directions exactly – maybe it was the color? The point is, I learned how to do a clipping mask. Which, now that I know what it is and how to do it, opens a door into incredible possibilities. I also learned about guides and the grid, and how to set new guides, and how to use (and not use) the Snap feature.

And, I was so happy – the tutorial for the vintage paper lace called for a digital scan of vintage paper to use as an overlay – which I amazingly enough had in my collection of clip art. yay!

xoDawne

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the transition to long pants is always difficult.

digital art galore
I picked up my first copy of Somerset Digital Studio (at AC Moore, using my 40% off coupon, of course – those magazines are expensive!).

So far I have merely paged through, but I am completely in awe of the artwork in this magazine. It is beautiful, amazing, and stunning.

With every page I turned two thoughts kept popping into my head:
1. wow!
2. how’d she do that?!

I really want to learn more about digital art, but it’s daunting trying to learn Photoshop on my own. Plus I have my usual time issues. But this magazine is filled with inspiration and enough how-to’s to get me on my way.

Neat stuff!

happy birthday
Last weekend we went to a birthday party for the son of a friend of ours (he turned three). It was at a local park; it was a bit chilly outside, and cloudy, but luckily it was not too bad.

Here are a few pictures:

Lily enjoying the chocolate birthday cake.

Lily at the playground.

Lily, asleep on the way home. (She took a long nap too – yay!)

~toodles~

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will you never learn? you’re just an empty cage, girl…

So I got my inchies last week from the latest Artella inchie swap. Here they are:

Aren’t they cute? My favorites are the ladybug, the cupcake, and the pot of gold. There is another inchie swap going on, but I have other things I need to work on right now, so more inchies will have to wait.

I have my digitally-altered book almost completed. I’m pretty happy with how it has turned out. I do think some of my letters are stereotypical, and not very original. But I’m doing this as a fun thing, and the letters are not meant to be taken very seriously. Here are a couple pages:

This book was so much fun to work on. I kept each page to a similar layout to make it easy on myself, and being a beginner in Photoshop I kept the techniques simple as well. I’m loving the transform function – it’s my favorite!

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