Inspiration Avenue Challenge: Once Upon a Time (Two Looks)

Working on this digital collage was just delightful. I ended up creating two versions. The top one has a softer color and lighting scheme; the second one (after an impulsive last-minute application of the linear light blending mode) has more fanciful colors and lighting. The two looks illustrate what I love most about digital art- a few clicks of the mouse can produce a very dramatic change, and if you don't like it, you can (usually) undo it!

Image credits: CatScrap/milla; Dover; graphicsfairy; artefacts.

SCD Challenge: Snow

The latest challenge from Something Completely Different is on the theme of "snow." The snow-covered tree in my digital collage is from a photo taken by my husband during the onslaught of the 2010 blizzards here in Maryland (I shiver just thinking about them!). I used various PSE blending modes and filters to enhance the snowy, icy effect.

Other credits: graphicsfairy and Dover Designs.

Take a Word Challenge: "Home"

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For the house in this digital collage, I used a picture from a book of black and white Baltimore rowhouse drawings by J.S. Fuqua. I then filled the house image with some of the Photoshop Elements patterns I've created from my own original paper and digital artwork, and applied other PSE touches. To make the house truly a home to me, I added a menorah in the window, representing Hanukkah, which starts Wednesday evening December 1.

Other image credits: wikimedia commons, deviantscrap/holliewood.

So-artful Challenge: Image Collage

The following 3 images were provided:






This week we were challenged to create a piece of art incorporating at least two of the three graphicsfairy images provided (shown above). Other images in my digital collage are from stampington, land of nod, and dover.

Art Creations Friday Challenge: Bride

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This bride has such an intense look on her face--I just couldn't envision her in a setting full of flowers, lace, and roses. Here's my irreverent take on the wedding negotiations.

Credits: Dover, mediamilitia, graphicsfairy

Digital Whisper Challenge: Zip it Up

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These challenges continue to stretch my digital art skills! Here we were given the image of the zipper; this is what I created in response.

Image credits: Dover, deviant scrap, ScrapCat.

Happy Thanksgiving

Enjoy the day!
(I know this turkey doesn't look thrilled to be here, but I just want everyone to know I did pardon him.)

Music Monday Challenge: Winter Wonderland

I tried a different approach to this digital collage, using silhouettes and digital brushes for most of it. (No image was provided.) I couldn't resist putting in two realistic critters in the foreground; it was looking kind of stark with just buildings and trees and snow.

Image credits: Dover, obsidian dawn brushes, catscrap/milla, media militia.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

So-Artful Challenge: Trompe L'Oeuil

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The challenge this week was to create an art piece using "trompe l'oeuil." The black and white image shown above was provided. According to Wikipedia, trompe l'oeuil is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions. (The words mean "fool the eye" in French.) Not sure I quite got the hang of it (there was something strange about creating a fake 3-dimensional digital room with a supposed-to-be-fake-3-dimensional image on one of the walls), but it was an interesting creative exercise for me, especially the use of perspective (Note to Carol Z: do not look too closely! :)).

Image credits: deviant scrap/ holliewood, Dover, KME.

Inspiration Avenue Challenge: Ingenuity

I can't decide whether this young lady has actually created the inventive "light machine," or is just dreaming it up right now, or maybe she's looking at someone else's creation and wishing she'd thought of it. I'll leave it to everyone's imagination!

Image credits: grunge textures, pringle hill, deviant scrap, graphicsfairy, peppermint creative, Dover.

Three Muses Challenge: Shoes

Image credits for this fun digital collage: scrapcat, graphicsfairy; obsidian dawn brushes.

Take A Word Challenge: "Men"

Here's my musical take on this week's challenge.

Image credits: graphicsfairy, stampington, Dover, land of nod.

SCD Challenge: Numbers

This was a tough one for me! I tend to think in images and colors and feelings, not numbers. I have little affinity for numbers, can't calculate in my head very well, am afraid to be the one to figure out how much each friend owes at lunch, did OK in school math but certainly had no love for it, and am relieved not to have to study numbers (or use them too much) any more. But...after much trial and error, I decided to use the graphic shapes and designs and colors of numbers in this digital collage.

Many thanks to my engineer husband for listening to my ranting about this concept, and offering his help.

Image credits: obsidian dawn, scrapcat, deviant scrap/holliewood, peppermint creative, media militia.

Art Creations Friday Challenge: Girl Reading

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The image of the girl reading was provided as inspiration for this challenge. I wasn't sure where I was going with this, but my digital collage eventually turned into a tableau of items that might be on the desk of a studious little girl (she's studying French, a very familiar subject in my own past studies). As you can see, the original image appears as a picture in the book.

Image credits: graphicsfairy, Dover, deviant scrap/holliewood, artfreebies.

Digital Whisper Challenge: Fabric

"Circus Family"

We were challenged to incorporate fabric (or a photo or scan of it) into our artwork this week. I used a bright scrap of fabric (given to me by my very creative twin sister-- I think it's by Kaffe Fassett) for a background. Inspired by the colors and circles, and by watching the recent PBS series "Circus" (amazing!), I found myself creating a circus family.

Image credits: Dover, cemerony, artfreebies, pringle hill.

Theme Thursday Challenge: "Faces"

For this digital collage, I chose an image of an interesting face (a French actress, I think) from Last Door Down the Hall. Other images are from Deviant Scrap, artfreebies, Dover, Stampington, Pringle Hill and Artefacts.

Inspiration Avenue Challenge: "Incognito"

I used images from my own digital "library" for this colorful, mysterious collage. Image credits: Dover, CatScrap, Pringle Hill Studio

Three Muses Challenge: Automobile

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This was such a fun challenge! No image was provided, so I went a little nuts with some auto images I had. I just hope those poor men get where they need to go.

Image credits: Dover, graphicsfairy, artfreebies, KME FunNGames.

Collage Obsession Challenge: "Tenderness"

For this challenge, the image of the couple (in sepia) was provided. I chose to showcase them in a soft pink and gray color scheme.

Image credits: Deviant Scrap/Holliewood; Fidlette at CatScrap.com

Take a Word Challenge: "Moon"

For my "Moon"-themed digital collage, I was inspired by this poem by Carl Sandburg:

The child's wonder
At the old moon
Comes back nightly.
She points her finger
To the far silent yellow thing
Shining through the branches
Filtering on the leaves a golden sand.
Crying with her little tongue,"See the moon!"
And in her bed fading to sleep
With babblings of the moon on her little mouth.

So-artful Challenge: Thankful

This is my digital collage for the "Thankful" theme, very appropriate for this time of year. I chose to use my own images, keeping the piece very simple, since most of the things I'm thankful for are simple (yet often miraculous) pleasures. I used a personal photo of the ocean (at the Outer Banks of North Carolina), a sunrise image from wikimedia commons, and a quote that I love.

SCD Challenge: Wings

The theme of Something Completely Different's challenge was "Wings." Here's my winged digital paper doll, flying high above the city.

Image credits: Paper doll parts and houses- from my own designs; other elements from Dover, cottagearts, deviantscrap, graphicsfairy, clearly vintage, land of odds.

Art Creations Friday Challenge: Woman Pointing

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The image of the woman pointing was provided for this challenge. I decided that she should be pointing to something very dear to my heart: chocolate and pastries. Yum...

Image credits: greenpaper, graphicsfairy, ScrapArtist.com, CatScrap (favreau)

Theme Thursday Challenge: "Steampunk"

Here's my digital take on the "steampunk" theme (no image was provided). I only recently understood what steampunk art is, and this is my first real attempt. The definition I like best is "a blending of romance and technology." According to ehow.com, "steampunk art mixes modern ideas and technology with those from the past, namely the Victorian Age, when the Industrial Revolution was in full swing and steam was a major source of power. The genre started with literature, where science fiction and fantasy met Victorian-era scientists, but has since evolved to include all art forms, according to Web Urbanist." You can read more at ehow.com: http://www.ehow.com/about_6460244_steampunk-art_.html.

Image credits: graphicsfairy, wikimedia commons, deviantscrap, dover, artfreebies.

Yay- 25 Followers!

Just wanted to say thank you to all of my loyal followers (some of you aren't even related to me!). I just noticed I'm up to a big 25! Your numbers have just about doubled in the past couple of months, since I've been participating in the online art challenges. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You have no idea how it warms the heart of this humble art dabbler...

(Note: The thank you sign above was hand-lettered by me, then altered in photoshop elements to give it the color and pastel effects. Sooo much neater than real pastels!)

Digital Whisper Challenge: Pink Whisper

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This weeks DW challenge included the photo shown above, of a wispy dandelion in misty pinks and greens. I expanded the theme into a pretty but somewhat overgrown and neglected garden, guarded by a blackbird who apparently escaped from my last collage.

Three Muses Challenge: Blackbird

This was a fun challenge with a blackbird theme (no image provided). My blackbirds are getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving. (No, of course they don't eat turkey.They're vegetarians.)

Inspiration Avenue Challenge: Community

This challenge suggested using the theme of community, as it relates to food. No image was provided. My digital collage suggests the hope of a community coming together to erase hunger, wherever in the world it exists.

Image credits: stampington, graphicsfairy, dover designs, deviant scrap/holliewood.

Autumn and Angels--Two Challenges

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Here are digital collages for two of this week's challenges. The first one, the fall background collage, is for the So-artful challenge. The angel is for this week's Take a Word challenge (the word was "angel;" no image provided).

Credits for fall collage: Background from so-artful; Digital leaf stamps from easyelements; Frame from deviant scrap/holliewood.

Credits for angel collage: Dancer from Pringle Hill; Digital music brush from easyelements; Digital wing stamps from obsidian dawn; Whirlwind,scarf, and embellishments on dress from CatScrap.

SCD Challenge: Houses

This week's Something Completely Different challenge had a house theme (no image provided). I wanted my digital collage to look like a paper collage creation. So I adapted some house templates from Just Something I Made, and filled them digitally with my own alphabets and patterns (one exception: the ornate "S" pattern on the second house from the left is from Dover Designs). The doorknobs and moon are digital embellishments from CatScrap. Since I seem to be drawn to house images lately (winter is approaching?), you'll probably be seeing them in more of my creations soon.

Art Creations Friday Challenge: Little Girl on Bench

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The image of the girl on the bench was provided for this challenge. I thought Emily definitely needed some color added to her surroundings. While I was doing this, some new beribboned pets wandered into the scene, and that's when I realized it was her birthday! Sometimes you can't control what's going to be in a digital collage...things just happen...

Digital Whisper Challenge: "Wonderland"

my digital collage



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Inspiration Avenue Challenge: "Happiness is..."

I took a very personal approach to this challenge. Here's my digital collage showing some of the things that make me happy.

Three Muses Challenge: "Showtime!"

For this challenge, no image was provided. I digitally collaged several body parts and wardrobe items (and the background) using images from artefacts, artfreebies.com, and cemerony. She's ready for the show!

Take a Word Challenge: "Time"

There's a new art challenge! It's called "Take a Word," and each week a word is given to inspire art creation. This weeks word: "Time." The irony is that with each new challenge I participate in, the less time I devote to things I "should" be doing...

Image credits: Watch faces--Deviant Scrap/SJD; Houses: cemerony; clock background: graphicsfairy; Hand: Dover.

Two More Art Challenges

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Here are two more of my digital collages: the first one for Art Creations Friday (using an image of a woman painted by Mucha); and the second one for "Something Completely Different" using a color scheme of claret and blue. The Mucha woman turned out to have a rather wild side (or maybe she was dressing up as Tarzan's Jane for Halloween). And it was fun and relaxing to do the claret/blue collage, with no image provided, just the freedom to create with the rich colors.