Night life ....

...... in Keswick. Finding out about night light shots on the photography course.

Displaced!

I created these three images using displacement maps in Paint Shop Pro. Took me ages to work out how to do it as the manual wasn't much help and too complicated but finally got there!

Something borrowed, something blue

Ok, so it's stretching it a bit! A borrowed hat and sunglasses and lots of fun! A photo of some seedheads altered in the Corel Painter programme. This programme has lots of possibilities but I'm just dipping my toe in at the moment, so to speak. Anyone else used it?

Those trains again!

I make no excuse for taking photos in railway museums or preserved railways because I love the sense of storytelling these old steam engines and carriages tell. I think of the pride of the craftsmen and engineers as they made the huge engines and painted them with such care. I imagine the excitement of passengers as they took a journey for the first time and I think of the scores of volunteers often fighting a losing battle to restore and reclaim the magnificent pieces of engineering. That's why I like taking the pics (and I like rust too!)

Trees and a plastic bag

This is the first time I've dyed a plastic bag! Didn't mean to but the fabric which was being dyed was inside it, and it was too good to throw away. Instead I used it as a texture to go with this tree -


- which became this image using this "recipe":
one of my brown textures - overlay 97
plastic bag texture colour 100
copy of tree normal 72




I opened a new page and copied and pasted selections of the image, duplicated the background and moved it, changed a few colours and added a frame, ending up with an abstract image.

Surreal sunset

Two rather ordinary photos plus a script made with the text tool, some "jiggery-pokery" in psp and ...

A new slant

Ropes

New rope - old rope and still working on some squares!  (Anybody else having trouble moving images and text around with the new system?)

Shell fragment

Just had a short break with family in the Yorkshire Dales near Skipton where we once lived. Skipton is now a tourist destination, there must have been at least a dozen tour buses in the car park. Had time to make this image of part of a shell layered with an altered airplane engine image in between playing "shops" and cricket!

New layers

This layered image was created with a photo of some hydrangea petals which were stuck down with gesso. a layer of text made with the text tool and a texture layer using a photo of an embroidered piece. The frame was altered with a blend mode then a narrow black border added.
A good way to spend a rainy day!

Morpeth

A few of the photos taken with some of the camera club on an outing to Morpeth. Although we've always lived in the area I discovered some hidden gems of places which I never knew existed. As for the pics - still so much to learn!

Paint Shop Pro layers tutorial

I've had a request for a simple layers tutorial, so I'll give it a go and hope it makes sense!
Open two images and decide which one you want for the background layer and which one is to go on top of this. I chose this for the top layer -

and this one for the background layer -


I duplicated the background layer in case I wanted to work on it (left click on image
>duplicate) then I clicked on the top layer in the layers palette and changed the blend mode from normal to luminance (you can play with the different blend modes until you find one you like). I left the luminosity at 100% but you can change this as well.


Go to layers>merge all and save under a new name.
(To bring up the layer palette - view>palettes>tick layers). Enjoy playing!

Quilt?

I'm going to call this a digital quilt. It's not made of fabric but has at least three layers using my photos and a border. Paint Shop Pro was a great help!

I've started, so I'll finish

I'm far from finishing, as I'm still making squares to add to the ones I 've already made. I decided to add a border of sari yarn to each one as the colours go well with the fabric.
In addition I painted a few squares with acrylics on watercolour paper with the help of some scrim ..



which I then photographed and printed out onto fabric adding some wool tops and stitching.



Got a few more ideas to work out!

Summer evening

WIP

I'm busy working on some embellished squares using voile and wool tops on felt with some added acrylics and stitching. I'm hoping to do some more so that I can build them up into some sort of hanging - all a bit hazy at the moment as things change as I go along. Still seem to revert back to my favourite colours although this is mainly because I need some more supplies of other colours. One of the best fabric warehouses closed down last year - can't think why as it was always full of customers.

But I've no excuse for using the same colours here! These are some of my sketchbook ideas when I was making a bag for a skateboarding GS. Had to keep it quite plain though - nothing too over the top for a skateboarder!

Layers

I've been playing with layers this week - each image has three or four layers, using my photos although this time I used a background layer from Shadowhouse Creations. I've also decided it's time to start something textile-y so the embellisher has had an airing this afternoon resulting in a broken needle. Too many layers!

Jaunts

Two little jaunts out this week, making the most of the lovely weather. the first to Crook Hall and Gardens in Durham, which we never knew existed - a real hidden gem and worth a visit.
You can just see Durham cathedral in the distance.
The second jaunt was with some of the members of the camera club to Bolam Lake, still with light in the sky after 10 o'clock. Lots of fun to be had with stones thrown in the water and trying to catch the shot. I learnt a lot from the others but still didn't get everything right. There's always a next time!