Tag-Archive for » Digital Images «

Sea Sisters Digital Collage

Last week’s challenge at the Collage Obsession blog was to use some vintage photos of mermaids in a collage. I didn’t have time last week to create a collage for this challenge, but I still wanted to use those mermaids to create something to add to my Digital Collages collection. So even though I’m tardy to that party, here is what I created using the 2 mermaid images they provided.

Sea Sisters Digital Collage

Click to See Full Size

I started with a digital photograph of a rocky beach shore on Lake Erie that I took while on vacation a few years ago. I altered that photo quite a bit and added my usual watercolor effect, and then I added in the mermaids, along with some flowers for an extra pop of color. And that is my Sea Sisters digital collage. I really like how it turned out. :)

John at The Lake

My time in my studio has slowed down such a great deal the last month or two. I’m hoping that will change come this fall; but for now, when I am unable to spend the hours I’d like to getting down and dirty in the studio, I focus my creative energies on my digital art. It’s kind of funny too, because I never thought I’d be one to get so excited doing digital art. But I really do absolutely positively love it! I hope you enjoy my creations a bit too.

This digital sketch I’ve created is from a photo I took of the Hubs at Lake Michigan last year. We always try to spend a weekend by the water somewhere for our anniversary each year, so this was one of those trips.

John at the Lake Sketch

Click to Enlarge

Ahh, memories. That’s the stuff, isn’t it?

I Do Believe in Fairies

I’m sure it’s fairly clear by now that I love taking pictures of my granddaughter. I also have a thing for fairies. And it must be equally clear that I’m rather obsessed with digital photos and digital art right now. So please forgive me if I post another digital image creation of my granddaughter. Or should I say, the fairy who looks just like her…

Destiny Fairy

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I absolutely love how this turned out.  My husband even requested a printed version of it. Believe me, THAT is a compliment. And somehow I think there are more fairy photos in my future. ;)

Lilacs Digital Sketch

I’m still having a ball doing lots of digital creations lately. It is so nice to be able to do something creative, even when I can’t get into my studio. I created another flower entry for My Digital Sketchbook today. It’s from a picture of Lilacs in my daughter’s yard, taken with my new iPhone. So first I’ll show you the photograph of the Lilacs, and then I’ll add the digital sketch, so you can see the Before and the After.

Lilacs 2011 Before

Lilacs, Before ~ Click to Enlarge

Lilacs 2011 Digital Sketch

Lilacs, After ~ Click to Enlarge

First I must say that I think my iPhone takes great photos. Compared to my old blah cellphone, it’s downright amazing in that regard. And I also just love the watercolor effect that I give to all my digital sketches. And I just completely enjoy being able to get creative in all sorts of media, be it on canvas, paper, glass, or digital…or anything else.

It’s Destiny

It’s been nearly a month since I’ve been able to get into my studio. So unfortunately, I haven’t been able to do much creating of late. I’ve only been doing digital art during that time, mostly of Michael Jackson, since he’s pretty  much my favorite subject matter these days. :) But I did do one edit of a photo I took of my granddaughter, Destiny, on Easter. Thought I’d share that since I haven’t been able to share much else lately.

Destiny on Easter

I decided to make the background of the photo black and white, and leave Destiny in color to make her really pop out more. I love how it turned out. And I know I am not impartial, but doesn’t she look adorable in her Easter dress? ;)

I’m quite fond of using this technique in my digital work. It’s really a great way to add emphasis to almost any photo. Just so you can see some more of my work using this technique, here are a couple of edits I did of photos of MJ. I post all of my MJ edits on my ArtChick4MJ blog, if you have interest in seeing more of what I do there.

MJ Red Shirt on Black and WhiteMJ Smooth Criminal Blue Shirt

When I can’t get into my studio, digital art is my creative outlet and refuge. Whether it’s just editing digital photos or creating different types of digital collage or other digital art, it’s what gets me through until I can get into my studio again.

MJ Digital Photo Editing

I just wanted to add a note about another blog I have on Tumblr. It’s where I post all of my favorite photos of Michael Jackson, after digitally editing them to put my creative touch on them. I love playing with photos, and I love working with photos of Michael (he is really my favorite face to play with, digitally speaking). I thought I’d post my blog links here, for anyone interested in either MJ, or digital editing. I don’t do anything profound. In fact, sometimes my editing is very subtle. And sometimes, it’s very obvious. But I tweak almost everything I post myself just because I love doing it.

Here are couple of samples from my MJ photo blog at Tumblr, to give you a sneak peak. I’ll show you the “before” and the “after” of each, so you can see what I mean (click to enlarge each to see the full versions).

Remember the Time MJ 1

Remember the Time MJ ~ BEFORE

Remember the Time Profile MJ

AFTER ~ Remember the Time MJ

Come Together MJ Original

Come Together ~ BEFORE

Come Together MJ

AFTER ~ Come Together MJ

MJ in the Spotlight
MJ in the Spotlight ~ BEFORE
MJ in the Spotlight 2
AFTER ~ MJ in the Spotlight

I love black and white photography. Back in the day, I learned how to develop black and white film and black and white prints. I taught black and white film photography when I was teaching Art at the local high school as well. I just loved it. So most of my edits are in black and white.  To me, black and white is more creative, and more of a challenge. I mean, think about it: if you take a picture of a person, or a sunset, or a flower, and it’s in color, it’s going to look beautiful because of the colors. But if you take (or edit) that same photo in black and white, you don’t have the colors doing the work for you. So it really challenges you to capture the beauty of something (or someone) when it’s in black and white.

Digital photography is an amazing new world for me, and I’ve been having lots of fun with it. And I love that I can combine my love for MJ with my love of photography and digital editing.

If you’d like to see more of my digitally edited photos of Michael, please click the link below to visit my photo blog.

Art Chick for MJ

I look at it as my homage to Michael…a way of keeping his legacy alive, one photo at a time. Any photos that I have edited on my blog have a watermark of my blog’s URL somewhere on the photo creation. Since Tumblr has a “reblog” feature, allowing us to reblog posts of the other Tumblr blogs we follow, I do sometimes reblog other people’s MJ photos. But when that is the case I don’t watermark the photo. So that’s how you’ll know if it’s my creation or not. And that link will take you only to the most current blog posts. If you’d like to see an archive page, which shows thumbnail images of all of my posts/photos, follow the link below.

Art Chick for MJ Archive

That link just makes it easier to view all of the images, and then you can just click on each one to view the full size images of any photos that catch your eye. I hope you’ll stop by and visit. Be sure to leave a comment if you do!

Sunflower Landing

This is a digital image creation that I made from one of my own sunflower photos, Dylan’s Sunflower, that I took last summer. I’m calling it Sunflower Landing. I’ve created it for the 3 Muses Black & White Challenge.  We had to use the Black & White theme, but that was really our only limitation, and how we interpret that theme is up to each artist. Any medium can be used for the 3 Muses challenges too, which gives us a lot of wonderful creative freedom. And in this case, it gave me an excuse to play around with digitally editing and altering my own photos, which I really enjoy.

Sunflower Landing Photo

Click to Enlarge

I wanted to create an image that would appear as if it came right out of my sketchbook. So I took my sunflower photo and first changed it from color to black and white. Then I gave it a bit of extra contrast. And then I gave it a watercolor pencil effect that has no color. Next I wanted just a little pop of color, so I added the colorful butterfly to the sunflower’s leaf. And finally, I added a frame to the photo that makes it look as if I’ve torn it out of my sketchbook.

I used PhotoScape to edit this photo. Normally I would use PaintShopPro, but I only have that program on my laptop, and I keep PhotoScape on my desktop PC for when I want to edit photos from there.

I really love how this turned out, and it makes me want to do more with digital editing of my own photographs. It also makes me want Spring to hurry up and get here, especially after the 10-12 inches of snow we got yesterday!