April ATC Challenge - Architecture

This month's ATC challenge for Blue Twig Studio was architecture. This was a tough challenge for me. I really struggled with what to do for architecture. Finally, I had to just do it, as the deadline (April 30!) was quickly approaching.

I feel like I chose a couple of easy ideas, but I like how they turned out! For the first one, I created a simple landscape with a 3D house made of cardboard, so it looked as if it had siding and a slate blue stone roof. I tried to create a welcoming house with blue shutters and a warm, yellow glow showing through the windows and front door. The house has a walkway surrounded by stones and flowers. A tree is on one side of the house, and a bush on the other. The sun is shining, while birds soar in the sky.

House, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", acrylics, gel pens, Souffle
pens, and Sharpie on watercolor paper. Front view.

House. Side view to show 3D effects. 

The 2nd ATC card is designed in a Zentangle-Inspired Art fashion, using ancient Greek architecture enhancements for the tangles. Swirls, feathers, fancy leaves, and geometric shapes were used to embellish the many columns, pillars, archways, porticoes, and other entry ways in ancient Greece.

Ancient Greek Architecture, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", Bristol
paper, 0.005 and 0.02 black Sakura pens.

May's ATC theme is "Tea Party". Only one card is needed to join! ATC's are only 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", so they are small pieces of artwork. They can be simple or as complex as desired. Lots of fun, they are a good canvas for experimenting with that new technique you wanted to try. They can be done with paper or fabric or a combination of materials. Embellishments can be up stand or dangle off the card.  A winner is drawn at random to win all the cards! (Unless more than 20 cards are turned in, then a 2nd winner will be drawn). See Deb Prewitt's blog for more details and where to send your card.


Keep creating!
Lynnita

Week 14 of Weekly Art Challenge - Blended Photos

I've been out of commission for a few weeks now with my weekly art challenges. My granddaughter was born premature the beginning of Feb and spent 3 weeks in the hospital. She along with my daughter and son-in-law are now living with us, so it's been an adjustment. She is a special needs child with a heart defect and Down syndrome. She's a little angel and such a blessing, but she's keeping us all busy with appointments and not sleeping at night - all the things newborns come with!

I've decided not to do the Documented Life Project 2015 by Art to the 5th Academy, that I originally wanted to do. Initially, I didn't get started on time, as the journals were back-ordered. By the time it arrived, my granddaughter had been born.  Unfortunately, I do not have a dedicated studio. I use either the kitchen table or cover my quilting table to create art. I cannot leave all my paints out every where with the kids living with us, like I could when it was just my husband and I. He didn't mind having my artwork spread out everywhere.  It's easier for me at this point to continue with sketching, doodling, or creating digital art every week. So this is what I'm going to concentrate on for the time being to help me get back into the habit of being creative each week and posting a weekly "sketch" each week.

For this week, I'd been working on digital art by blending photos. I used Pixlr Express photo editing software on my tablet. They added blending photos to the app, which I'm enjoying exploring. This is what I've created this week.

Tree taken on a foggy morning in Ohio blended with a sunset in AZ. Used the additive blending mode.

This is the same blended photo as the first picture. Added a special effect overlay.

The same blended photo with neon light overlays and firework overlays added.

Same photo again but with various light overlays and flower stickers added.

Pixlr Express is a fun photo-editing software with the basic editing features. It also has many added features, such as special effects, overlays, stickers, various brushes to create painting effects, fonts, etc. Right now I'm focusing on experimenting with the blending photos, overlays, and effects features.


Keep creating!
Lynnita

Week 6 - Weekly Art Challenge - Blended Photos

I'm late posting my Week 6 art challenge. I'm hoping life will return to a normal routine soon. We finally got to bring our granddaughter home from the hospital on Wed, after spending her first 2 1/2 weeks of life in the neonatal ICU at the hospital. She was a preemie - born a month early. She's doing well now and steals the hearts of everyone who has seen her. The nurses and doctors were wonderful! We are working on a signature quilt for her - the medical staff were so happy to sign a block for her. Waiting on a few more people to finish their blocks, but I'll post a photo of the quilt when it's finished.

With spending so much time at the hospital, I didn't get to do any painting, so worked on blended photos on my tablet. I focused on blending photos of my grandchildren with nature scenes that I had taken. I'm still learning what all I can do with the photo-editing program, Pixlr.   

Photo of a foggy winter morning in Ohio highlighting a bare tree, blended with a closeup of our new granddaughter's face. A heart overlay was added. The face is difficult to see after the blending, but I like the overall effect.

An Arizona sunset with a starry night overlay blended with the same photo of our new granddaughter's face. A border of swirls was overlayed. This blended photo makes me think of her dreaming of  all the possibilities for her life - "the skies the limit"! 

Photo of a palmetto leave taken at a quilt retreat in CA last year blended with a photo of our 9-month old grandson. Added an overlay of  'xoxo' and a border of a key variation. He looks cute peeking through the individual leaves.

Some of my photos came out interesting and some not so good, but it's fun to try to blend very different photos, as well as similar photos. I like the various effects that can be created by blending photos. I still have much to learn, but it sparks my creativity. Eventually, I'd like to print some of the blended photos to use in mixed-media artwork and some to turn into quilts. I have more exploring to do before first!

Keep creating!

Lynnita

  

Week 2 of Weekly Art Challenge - Blended Photos

I am still waiting on my Dylusions Journal to start the Documented Life Project (DLP) by Art to the 5th Academy.  For 2015, DLP gives a prompt each week to create an art journal page. I've been wanting to do more mixed-media art journaling and thought this would be a fun way to meet that goal. Posting my results each week will also help keep me on track. However, I'm off to a late start, since my journal has been back-ordered. Thankfully, I've found another place to order it and hope to have it by the end of next week. (Thanks, Deb!)

In the meantime. I've been continuing to play with my photo-editing app, Pixlr Express, on my Android tablet. The first few photos are ones I took while in Ohio in December and played with the enhancements, effects, and overlay features of the app.

Foggy, cold morning. Picture taken from the driveway looking east.

The same foggy, cold morning. Taken from the front yard looking east. 

Looking out through the ice on the driver's window of the car at a tree beside the driveway.

The program was updated recently with a "blending photos" feature that I've been exploring. This feature allows 2 photographs to be blended with different effects - darken, multiply, color burn, lighten, screen, color dodge, add, overlay, soft light, hard light, and difference. I'm still learning what can be created with these effects. These are a few of the photos I've blended.

Combined the first foggy morning photo with the iced car window photo,
using the multiply blending effect 

Combined the 2nd foggy morning photo with the iced window photo, using the difference 

blending effect. More of the texture from the ice shows in this combination. This effect 

reminds me of an interference pattern.

I blended the iced window photo with one of the "Draw Happy" faces I posted
last week (see post here). This makes me think of a mixed-media painting. I like
the texture and color the iced window photo adds to the black and white sketch.  

Combined the tree from the 2nd foggy morning photo with a palmetto photo I took last
year in CA at a quilting retreat. I used the multiply blending effect.   

I combined the above blended photo of the palmetto and tree with another of the "Draw Happy" faces I posted last week (see post dated Jan 10, 2015).   I used the "add" blending effect. I really like the results of this combination. I can see printing this on fabric to use for an art journal cover or to create an art quilt. 

It's exciting to create new "photos" by blending them. I really like the results and can see printing some of the blended photos onto paper or fabric for mixed-media art, fiber artwork or quilts.  I'm just starting to explore the tip of the iceberg, as I haven't even begun to check out all of the "Overlay"and "Effect" features of the photo-editing software after blending two (or more) photos. The sky's the limit!!


Keep creating!
Lynnita