Take a Word Challenge: Vintage

This digital piece was inspired by some vintage photos I've gathered of people motoring around in their newfangled machines. (I'm reminded that my grandparents always called my parents' car "the machine".)

Image credits: dover, graphicsfairy, milla, magic moonlight, holliewood, hero arts.

So-Artful Challenge: Victorian Romance

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Our challenge this week was to create a piece of art inspired by Victorian valentines. The above image of the romantic couple was provided. In my digital collage, I added further embellishments.

Image credits: sherrie jd, milla, all u need.

Sunday Postcard Art: Home Sweet Home

Here's my digitally created "sweet" home. I think of my own home as representing warmth, safety, and love; but sometimes I do wish there were lollipops growing in my front yard, and a chocolate candy doorknob...

Image credits: rubyblossom, holliewood, irene alexeeva, all u need.

Art Creations Friday: Combine Photo and Background

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We were challenged to combine the photo of the woman with parasol (above) and the textured background (above) into an art piece. She looked to me like she might want to fly, so I'm letting her, in my digital collage.

Credits: mediamilitia, joessistah, artefacts.

Friday Foto Collage

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This is a new weekly challenge run by the talented Peggy Gatto (http://fridayfotocollage.blogspot.com?). She challenges us to alter a photo based on a theme and vintage photos she provides, or using old photos of our own. This week, I couldn't resist doing a quick humorous collage featuring her image of this not-very-happy-looking couple. And I'd like to wish happily married Peggy a wonderful 48th wedding anniversary this Sunday!

Image credits: beth rimmer; jaci XIII flickr creative commons.

Theme Thursday: Red and Black

Always one of my favorite color combinations! Here's my digitally created pre-Valentine's Day collage.

Credits: artzee chris, tumblefish, graphicsfairy, beth rimmer, holliewood, cemerony.

Three Muses: Fashion

Here's my fun fashion-themed digital collage for this week.

Credits:Holliewood, fiddlette designs, dover, graphicsfairy, artefacts, grungetextures, google images, clearly vintage.

Inspiration Avenue: Broken Pieces

This was another challenge theme that made me think. The question was posed: What can we, as people and as artists, make with broken pieces? (http://inspiration-avenue-team.blogspot.com/2011/01/weekly-challenge-january-24.html)

I had no particular idea in mind, just started combining "broken" images. When I found the Viriginia Woolf quotation, it all came together, and here is my resulting digital collage. It looks somewhat haunting and poignant, I think...

Credits: Holliewood, flickr creative commons, dover, artfreebies, digital whisper, finecrafted designs.

Collage Obsession: Wheel of Fortune

What a great theme for a challenge! Take a look at what others have created for this challenge also, at http://collageobsessionchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/01/fate-fortune-wheel-of-fortune.html.

Image credits: beth rimmer, miss mint, google images, graphicsfairy, dover.

Take a Word Challenge: Botanical

Another colorful spring-like collage in the middle of a bitterly cold winter here in Maryland. It was 9 degrees outside this morning when I was getting ready to go to my two exercise classes...brrrrr...

Credits: Holliewood, dover, artefacts, enchanted gallery. The lettering effects were created by me in Photoshop.

Sunday Postcard Art: Pens and Pencils

Here's my digitally created collage for this fun theme. I owe thanks to Carol Zika and my husband Nelson for the brainstorming sessions that led to this concept. Thank you both!

Credits: graphicsfairy, cemerony, Holliewood, digital two for tuesday. The zentangle is my design.

So-Artful Challenge: The Edwardian Era

I was only vaguely familiar with the Edwardian era, and actually didn't realize that toward the end of the era was the Titanic catastrophe. The So-artful blog explains the era in more detail (http://jeanette-soartfulchallenges.blogspot.com/2011/01/edwardian-era.html). So now I've learned some history!

My digital collage features a family finely dressed in Edwardian style who narrowly escapes the tragedy.

Credits: Holliewood, Dover, graphicsfairy, wikipedia commons.

Art Creations Friday: Calendar Photo

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We were given the image of a vintage Coca-Cola calendar to use as inspiration for an art piece. I played with PSE filters and effects to give the photo a more dreamy and delicately colored look.

Theme Thursday: Love

I know it's still Wednesday evening (at least here on the U.S. East Coast), but I'm posting my Theme Thursday creation early. No image was provided for this challenge. First, I found a beautiful quote, and then the images I chose seemed to come together spontaneously to form this digital collage. Serendipity.

Credits: kyz flickr commons, rubyblossom, milla.

Three Muses: Artist of Choice

Image of original Chagall painting


Another creative idea for a challenge theme! We were challenged to choose an image from an artist we admire, and incorporate it into a piece of our own art. I chose La Baie des Anges by Marc Chagall, for its mermaid theme, colors, whimsy, and sense of childlike play. I expanded her surroundings in my digital collage to include other colorful and fanciful ocean creatures. This is another piece I can gaze at to counteract the chilly effects of winter around me!

Image credits: Google images (Chagall painting), Holliewood, cemerony, artfreebies, dover, graphicsfairy, vintage moth.

40 Followers---and a Freebie Background for You

I just noticed my blog followers now number 40! That's quite a leap from earlier this year, when I couldn't seem to get past 12 (and quite a few of them were related to me). Thank you, everyone! For the most part, the increase is due to the other artists who participate in the online art challenges I've joined. Their comments on my work have been so supportive and motivating! And I look forward to seeing each of their aamazing artwork too-- I learn from them every day.

As part of my thanks, I'm posting the free design above for my blog followers. You may use it in art you create for your personal use; please don't distribute the image itself. I'd also appreciate it if you would credit me, Sherry Pollack, if you use the image. I've never posted a freebie before, so if anyone has trouble downloading it, well...let me know and I'll have to call my son (a.k.a. "tech support") in Texas and ask him for help. I think if you click on the image above, then right click for saving options, you should be fine.

Enjoy!

Sherry

Collage Obsession: Crazy Carnival (Carnivale Pazzo)

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This was an unusually creative idea for a challenge. We were given the image of carnival strongman Luigi (sometimes known as Mario), shown above. In the words of Rick St. Dennis, this week's very inventive host at Collage Obsession:"... my challenge is Carnivale Pazzo-use Luigi to make a composition that puts him in the spotlight at some strange, steam punk, grunge, edgy Carnival on the edge of the abyss or maybe its a more friendly upscale carnival performing for the Queen of Hearts in Wonder(under)land-as long as it's PAZZO-thats CRAZY in Italian." Rick has used Luigi/Mario as a subject of artistic experimentation before; see his comments at http://collageobsessionchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/01/carnivale-pazzo.html.

This theme was significantly outside my comfort zone (no pretty women's faces, no flowers, no birds!!!) but... I ended up totally absorbed in seeing how weird and dark I could make my digital collage. (It helped that I was submerged in a nasty cold while I worked on it.) Now I feel so badly for poor Luigi! But I have a feeling he'll survive to be the subject of many more art pieces.

Image credits: google, wikimedia commons, graphicsfairy, artfreebies.

So-Artful Challenge: The Artistic Journal

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Ahhhhh....art journaling...a subject I'm wonderfully familiar with. As I've said here before, for the past several years I've been privileged to participate in an ongoing Artful Journaling class here in Columbia, Maryland, with artist Carol Zika. We blend creative art techniques with creative writing, and have a blast doing it :). I also do art journaling and travel journaling on my own, outside of class. For this So-Artful challenge, where we were given the image of the blank journal to fill, I superimposed a scan of one of my in-progress journals, then digitally added layers of more images from previous journals.

Image credits: Holliewood, for the paint dot effects.

"Take a Word:" Butterflies

This quotation was my inspiration for this digital collage. If you look closely, you'll see that the butterflies were "constructed" from of images of flowers. (I recently discovered the "cookie-cutter" tool in PSE 5.) As I gaze out at a chilly gray day, hear reports of upcoming bad weather, and nurse an annoying cold, this collage warms me.

Image credits: dover, artfreebies, enchanted gallery, holliewood, broderbund clipart, rubyblossom.

Sunday Postcard Art: Altered Mona Lisa

We were challenged to alter a photo of the Mona Lisa in any way we chose. Fun! Here's my digital college showing a little-known hobby of Mona's. Could it be the secret to her smile?

Credits: google, Holliewood; pink patterned background: mine.

Art Creations Friday: Boy Climbing Lightpost

For ACF's 100th (!) challenge, we were provided the image (shown above) of an excited little boy climbing a lightpost. I amped up the adventure factor for him in my digital collage.

Credits: digital 2 for tuesday; holliewood; graphicsfairy.

One Powerful Hour: Warm Winter Wishes

This time I just made the one-hour limit. Whew. I did have fun with this one- it really warmed me up.

Credits: google (scarf); dezinaworld (hat); magpie on the house (face); KME (checkerboard); wikimedia commons (sweater pattern); SJD (skirt).

Theme Thursday: Spring

I guess it's not too early to start thinking about spring, at least not at Theme Thursday. I think I'll print out this digital collage and hang it where I can see it during the coldest of the upcoming winter days (no blizzards, please!). You're welcome to do the same!

Image credits: artfreebies, percy and bloom, graphicsfairy, clearly vintage.

Collage Obsession: Jewelry

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This is a subject very close to my heart!!! As you can see from my digital collage, I'm not the only woman who doesn't feel dressed unless she has on her "bling!"

The image of the woman in red and green jewels, on the lower right of the collage, was provided. Other credits: artfreebies, dover, graphicsfairy, pringle hill studio, milla, holliewood.

inspiration avenue: What Inspires You?

What doesn't inspire me? I'm inspired by color, nature, faces, patterns, connections, ideas... Here's a digital collage that attempts to represent how inspiration feels to me.

Credits: Michael Maggs wikimedia commons (peacock feather background); Dover (butterfly); the eye is my design.

Three Muses: "Nature's Creatures"

We were challenged to use our imagination to create this piece- no image was provided. Here's my digitally created creature-loving lady.

Image credits: dover, irene alexeeva, artfreebies, holliewood, artefacts.

So-Artful Challenge: Vintage Lady

my digital collage




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We were challenged to use an image of this vintage lady this week. I took inspiration from the soft colors and dreamy mood of the original image.

Image credits for my digital collage: Kim Klassen, Christing O flickr, stampington, vintage prints, graphicsfairy.

Sunday Postcard Art: Hobbies and Pastimes

Like me, the woman in this digital collage loves to be surrounded by many art pursuits, things to read, and chocolate chip cookies. (I don't have cats or birds but love to include them in my work.) No image was provided for this challenge.

Credits: Holliewood, dover, graphicfairy, artfreebies, ms. bailey, rubyblossom. The sketch on the easel is mine.

Take a Word Challenge: Beauty

For the upcoming week's Take a Word challenge, Marie has again given me the opportunity to provide the sample art piece. Here's my "Beauty" digital collage. Thanks, Marie!

Image credits: Woman's face, most of background, and clothing are my designs; other credits: Miss Mint, graphicsfairy.

Nice Compliment!

I was thrilled this morning to see that one of the art challenge blogs, Soartful, has featured my "Celebrate" piece in today's posting, pointing out my use of a photo that "didn't turn out" as a digital background. Thanks, Jeannette! I experiment quite a bit with techniques like that one, and it's nice to share them with others.

Here's the link.
http://jeanette-soartfulchallenges.blogspot.com/2011/01/vintage-lady.html

Art Creations Friday: Woman Holding Child

The image of the woman holding the child was provided. I incorporated the background and bench from rubyblossom, and other images from "last door down the hall."

Theme Thursday: Vintage Children

I chose to use the image of this little girl because her expression reminded me of my own profile photo. For this digital collage, I used images from Holliewood's Sweet Shoppe digital kit; I desaturated some of the colors to add to the vintage feel of the piece.

One Powerful Hour Challenge: Clocks

This is not only a weekly art challenge, but a time challenge. Participants are challenged to create a piece of art on the assigned theme, but can spend no longer than one hour on it. This was actually a welcome relief to me! Digital collage can be endlessly revised, adjusted, tweaked; it's hard to know sometimes when to stop. I liked having a firm time limit for this one--and finished it in well under an hour. Hmmm... I just realized how appropriate the clock theme is here...

So-Artful Challenge: Celebrate

The image of the celebrating lady was provided. I altered her a bit, then placed her on a background of my own design, adapted from a nighttime photo I took in NYC that "didn't turn out." Enjoy!

Three Muses: "Old-Fashioned"

For this theme, I created a digital heritage collage featuring my late parents, Harry and Bonnie London, in the early years of their relationship and marriage (and the early years of their twin daughters' lives). The background is a copy of a postcard written from my Dad's mother in Eastern Europe to his father in America, before they married and settled in Baltimore, Maryland. I'm thrilled with the way the piece turned out- it gave me a happily nostalgic and peaceful feeling to look at it when it was finished. :) I'm not sure which baby in the photo is me, but I'd bet that I was the one on the left, making faces....

Inspiration Avenue: Dreaming in Color

We were challenged to create a piece using a color or colors with which we are fascinated right now in our art. I could never, every choose just one, or one color combination. I'm in heaven when I have many colors arrayed before me, like in a box of crayons :).

Image credits for this digital collage: Holliewood Studios Art Box; lettering is mine.

"Take a Word" Challenge: ZETTI

What is "Zetti"-style art, you ask? Well, I wasn't sure either, so here's a link that helped me if you'd like to investigate further. http://ezinearticles.com/?Zettiology---What-Kind-of-Art-is-That?&id=3704797. Basically, I view Zetti-style as funky people with mismatched parts, black and white striped legs and other accents, crowns and pointy hats, lots of color... It's supposedly a style originated by Teesha and Tracy Moore. So here's my take on the theme.

Image credits: The lettering is mine, courtesy of the Calligra-Fun class I took online with Martha Lever. Other credits: crowabout studio, dover, graphicsfairy, milla, SJD, broderbund clipart, cemerony.

Sunday Postcard Art: Celestial

Here's my dreamy digital collage on the "celestial" theme for this week.

Image credits: Holliewood, milla, Dover.