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

  

Weeks 3-5 of Weekly Art Challenge

I have been off my game to say the least the past 3 weeks. I'm sorry I did not have a chance to update sooner on what has been going on in my life and why I have not posted any art work for my weekly art challenge.

Week 3 was just an off week. My daughter was at the end of her 8th month of pregnancy and having routine weekly appointments. She had 4 "routine" appointments this week. One with her regular OB, one for a non-stress test, as the baby is diagnosed with Down syndrome and a heart defect, so she's in a high risk pregnancy category, although she's only 26 years old. Then she was a weekly sonogram with a genetic, fetal diagnostic specialist. This week, she also had an appointment with the pediatric cardiologist to check the baby's heart. The cardiologist gave us a scare, as he saw something unusual in the baby's brain. But the fetal diagnostic specialist said it was nothing and gave us great reassurance.

Week 4 again started with my daughter's normal appointments - OB, non-stress test went well. I also had 2 appointments for myself, as I needed hand surgery to remove a ganglion cyst. I wanted to have it done so my hand would be healed before the baby came. I had to have lab work and a medical clearance from my primary care doctor. He needed a further medical clearance from my cardiologist because I have a history of heart problems. Seemed like this was getting a bit ridiculous for a 10-minute outpatient procedure!! I have a face sketched that I'd been working on from Jane Davenport's book (see previous posts), but haven't had time to photograph it yet. Figured I'd do this after seeing cardiologist and taking my daughter for her sonogram - both on Friday. Well the baby decided to have other plans for us!  During the routine sonogram, her heart rate plummeted. The doctor literally flew out of the room and ran back in, stating she'd called an ambulance and the baby needed to be delivered now! She also called the OB and the neonatal ICU doctor telling them we were on the way to the hospital. The hospital was 2 buildings down the street from the doctor's office! But my daughter had to go by ambulance. That was the longest drive of my life!!

By the time the ER doctor saw and evaluated our daughter and the baby, the baby's heart rate had returned to normal. After consulting with the NICU doctor, they decided to induce my daughter rather than do an emergency c-section, since the baby was no longer in distress. We spent the next 36 plus hours with her trying to labor, confined to a bed, and not being allowed to eat, in case an emergency c-section would still be needed if the baby went into distress again. Which she did 3 more times, but would then stabilize, so they'd let my daughter continue to labor. Finally, late Saturday, after the 2nd round of medicine for inducing labor, they decided to schedule a c-section, as she wasn't making any headway. So Sunday morning, our granddaughter was delivered via c-section. She was a month early and weighed 4 lbs, 8 oz and was 16 1/2 inches long. I was allowed in the OR during the c-section, so I got to see our granddaughter and cut the cord (wow- what an experience!!). Unfortunately, the baby was whisked away to NICU (neonatal ICU) before my daughter got to even see her.

The baby's echocardiogram came out as expected - same heart defect as seen in sonograms and her brain ultrasound was normal!! Whoo-hoo!! However, she would need to remain in NICU for several days.

Now my daughter was in the hospital and the granddaughter in NICU, so I spent most of my time at the hospital. I had hand surgery mid-week, but still spent the night in NICU, as our "son-in-law" had to return to work.  By the end of the week, our daughter was discharged, but the baby is still in-patient.

Week 5 has still been spent running to and from the hospital, as well as to and from my hand surgeon. Our granddaughter has been moved to a step-down unit and is doing very well. She is feisty and has won the hearts of all the nurses and the doctor! We are hoping she'll be home by this weekend, if she continues to do well!! My hand is improving and I got the bandages off and am allowed to use my hand again!! Yay!! I can draw and paint again! It's been so hard to try to do things with my left hand or with only one-hand! So I've been unable to do any artwork or sewing the last 10 days, anyway, even if I hadn't been spending most of my time with the grandbaby at the hospital.

Getting to hold our teeny granddaughter in the NICU unit at the hospital. 

Hopefully, life will get back to a schedule and I can get back on track with my weekly artwork. I do have my Dylusions Journall now to catch up with the Documented Life Project (DLP) by Art to the 5th Academy.  Thank you for your support and prayers!


Keep creating!!
Lynnita

Week 28 of 365 Days of Art Challenge

It's been an exciting week and has kept me busy enough that I didn't get this posted yesterday as planned. My daughter came over yesterday to tell me she was pregnant!! It's her first! So she's very excited, but nervous, too.

On to the 365 Days of Art Challenge - Week 28! Time just keeps marching forward! I did some more digital art this week. I worked with my Paper Camera app that I mentioned in last week's post (Week 27 of the 365 Days of Art Challenge).  I chose a photo that I took of my 2-yr old grandson playing the piano and then used the different effects available in Paper Camera to show the features of the app. 

This is my original photo - a vignette of my grandson singing while playing a small electric piano. I had planned to use a flower image, but the photo of my grandson shows off the various effects better.  

Vignette of 2 year old grandson singing while playing electric piano.
I originally edited this photo using Photoshop Elements. 

 Following are the 14 effects available in the Paper Camera app. There are various choices in each effect (background, brightness, colors, contrast, edges, foreground, lines, saturation, quantization, shine, slickness, strokes, water, vignette)  that can be manipulated to change the final outcome of the photo. Paper Camera can take a photo to work from or use a photo already on your tablet to create digital art. I thin this app creates some interesting effects to use in digital art.

I tried to put these in a video format. The preview worked great, but every time I then saved the final version, the program would crash. The company said it's a bug in the program and they are working on it. Hopefully next time I have so many photos (especially of a series), I can put them in a video!  

Acquarello produces a watercolor effect. 

Andy Pop is reminiscent of Andy Warhol's work.

Bleaching washes out the colors.

Comic Boom creates a comic book look.

Contour creates a monotone drawing. The color can be changed. 

Gotham Noir creates a rich black and white image.

Granny's Paper produces a sepia-toned image.

Half Ton creates a dot matrix effect in color. 

Haystacks is reminiscent of pointillism (creating an image using dots of color).

Neon Cola creates an effect like a neon sign - bright, bold colors against the dark night. 

Old Printer - The image appears to have been created on an old dot matrix printer.
You probably need to be over 40 to remember the old dot matrix printers. Lol!
(I'm certainly dating myself since I remember using these printers!)  

Pastel Perfect gives the soft effect of pastels.

Pen and Ink produces a blue monotone image.

Sketch Up produces a pencil or charcoal- like drawing of the image. 

Thank you for checking out all the effects that Paper Camera can create with me. 

Keep creating!!

Week 25 of 365 Days of Art Challenge

This week has been a challenge. Spent the beginning of the week at the hospital helping my daughter-in-law with our two grandsons. She called late Sunday night with news that my 2-year old grandson was in the emergency room, as he had managed to cut off the end of his finger My husband and I got dressed and went to the hospital, so I could watch the baby (6-weeks old)  in the waiting room, that way she could go back with our son and grandson in the room where he was being treated. A hand-surgeon was called in to perform surgery at 11pm that night to re-attach the end of the finger. He was moved to pediatric ICU. Unfortunately, the re-attachment didn't take. But doctors said it was iffy as there was only a couple tiny blood vessels to try to get blood flow to the whole tip. They had to do a second surgery Tuesday morning to remove it and then the doctors made a cap for his finger. He was able to go home later that day!

He was quite the trooper!! On Monday, he showed me the opposite hand with the pulse-ox monitor (that glowed red with a tiny light) and asked me to kiss it as it was his "owie". So cute!! But at least that meant his finger that was injured didn't hurt! He certainly made out with getting several larger cars, a car track that included a dinosaur, and a set of matchbox cars to play with in his crib and take home with him!

While he was sleeping, I sketched a picture of him. It isn't quite right, but it does capture his chubby cheeks, lips and nose.  His forehead needs some work. He looked so sweet and angelic sleeping! My daughter commented, "It looks like his arm is in a cast. I thought he just injured his finger.". His arm was completely bandaged up to his elbow! Can't expect a 2-year old to leave a bandaged finger alone! The doctors sent him home bandaged up to his elbow, with just his thumb sticking out. His thumb has a smiley face on it, so it's his happy thumb! He's adorable!!  He's running around at home with his usual, exuberant energy!

Pencil on mixed-media paper.  Two-year old grandson sleeping in the crib in pediatric ICU with
his hand and arm bandaged after loosing the end of his index finger accidentally. What an angel! 

Thank you for putting up with "Grandma" carrying on this week about her grandson's crisis!  I even managed to get a sketch done, too!!  

Have a great week!

Week 21 of 365 Days of Art Challenge

Another week done!! I can hardly believe how fast the year is going - it's almost half over! Where has the time gone??

Once I returned from the retreat, I was busy helping my daughter-in-law with 3 sick children and a newborn, helping another friend who is closing her quilt store after almost 14 years, and giving 3 demo's on Zentangles for a local quilt guild.  Rather than sketching this week, I decided to play with some of the photos I have taken recently. I have an a photo-editing app called Pixlr Express on my tablet that I enjoy using to edit photos. It doesn't do everything that Photoshop Elements does, but I find it much easier to use.

My first photo is a collage I created of my 2-year old grandson. He was playing a small electric piano and just having fun singing and dancing when he didn't think he was being observed - three of the photos in the collage reflect this. The other two photos are from two weeks ago, when his baby brother was born.

2-year old grandson playing the piano and taking a photo of his new baby brother. He has such cute expressions! Now if I can figure out how to blur the edges of the photos and make it look seamless... That's for another day!

These next photos are flowers and succulents I took on the Vina de Lestonnac grounds at the quilt retreat.

Combined two yellow flowers into one. I placed the center of the flowers close
to each other and highlighted the dark center surrounding the daisy-like flower. 

These are the two flowers that I combined into one photo. One is a daisy-like bloom on ground cover plants. The other is a yellow lily. 

Combined two succulents, one green and one red, aligning their similar centers. 

These are the original photos of the two succulents. I love the texture that appears when combined into one photo. I want to play more with this and see what else I can do.

I also took the photo of the red succulent and added doodles with the app to make it look like a Zentangle. It didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, as my stylus battery died, so I had to use my finger to draw. I saved it anyway and had planned to post it along with these photos. When I re-opened it to copy it to my computer, the doodling wasn't saved as I had drawn it - it was all over the place with half of the doodles missing! I was disappointed with this. Not sure if I did something wrong or it's a glitch in the app.  I will try again when I can use my stylus.

Thanks for stopping by.

Grandson is here!!

As you know, I don't usually post about my family, but who can resist bragging about a newborn!! Our newest grandson arrived in the morning on May 14 at a whopping 8 lb 15 oz and 21 in long!

Simon, 8lb 15oz, 21" long.

Proud Grandpa (PaPa)!

Grandma with the newborn

The proud papa, our son, with his exhausted wife and all the children.

Now, I'm off to California for a quilting retreat with Patt Blair! 

Fixing the Dishwasher

My son, his wife, and grandson were over a couple days ago.  I don't usually post pictures of my family, but these ones made me laugh! I thought you might enjoy them.

This is what happens when you leave the guys in charge of watching children!! Lol!!

Dad and Papa in charge of watching the grandson!

Dad and Papa still haven't noticed what I'm doing. Grandma
had time to take pictures before they finally caught on!

We girls just laughed! He was so happy just trying to figure out how everything worked! He is definitely Daddy's boy!! I love it - the mother's curse is working out very well!

Grandson

I've been trying to stick with art and crafty items for this blog, but I couldn't resist these photos of my grandson. He is just over 18 months old. He is all boy!! Full of energy, orneriness, snails, shells, and puppy dog tails.  He is learning right from wrong and is definitely testing his boundaries, as well as, giving Mom a heart attach!! He knows he wasn't suppose to be in the refrigerator, so he hid when he heard Mom coming! Good think Mom is on her toes!!

Mom won't see me if I hide in the fridge!!

Is she looking?

Peek-a-Boo!!

I'm thinking of making a whole-cloth painted quilt out of this last photo! He's just so cute!! Glad Mom keeps a close eye on him, though!!!  He is a handful!!

Grandson

I'm learning how to use my tablet's apps to play with photos. I used the app, Pixlr Express to edit the first photograph of my grandson. I focused on his face, blurring the background by a percentage. Then I used an antique scratching filter to age the photograph and finally added a white ripped paper frame.

My Grandson at 10 months old.

Another app for photographs that I really like is Paper Camera. It has several different "filters" that can be used to take a photograph or to edit a photograph. They are:

• Comic Boom (a painterly effect), 
• Sketch Up (a pencil sketch), 
• Acquarello (a watercolor effect), 
• Old Printer (a dot matrix), 
• Neon Cola (neon colors on black), 
• Contours (charcoal sketch), 
• Bleaching (washed out color),  
• Gotham Noir (a black/white photograph), 
• Half Ton (dotted mid-tones), 
• Granny's Paper (sepia effect), 
• Pastel Perfect (pastel effect), 
• Andy Pop (an array  reminiscent of Andy Warhol's paintings), and
• Haystacks (another painterly effect). 

The second photograph is my son and grandson in front of our house. My grandson looked like a little man in his hat.I used the Comic Boom filter. I was surprised when so many friends and family asked me if I had painted this picture. 

Son and Grandson (16 months old)