Digital Art Lessons

Last week I had the pleasure of introducing a fellow artist to digital art. We had a wonderful time and since then I’ve enjoyed seeing her continue to get creative with the medium. I thought I’d share with you a few of the images from our afternoon. I did introduce some techniques for creating digital art on a blank page (canvas, if you will) as well as introduced her to fractal artwork but the bulk of our time was spent with photo manipulations. This first one and we basically just played with the various filters in Photoshop on a single image to make it into something more artistic. This is what we came up with:

First digital project, Nov. 2012, instruction

The next creation we used three different images and layered, altered and blended them into something new:

Second creation, Nov. 2012, digital art instruction

Pretty cool! We were both pleased with how this one turned out!

At her request I had been “running” the computer and doing the work while she watched, took notes, asked questions and gave input on the creations. For the final photo manipulation of the day I put her in the “drivers seat” and watched/guided her through the process. She did an amazing job!

Student work, digital art lessons, Nov. 2012

How awesome is THAT!?!

I really enjoy sharing through teaching! You are always welcome to email or call me with a request for a class. There is also a calendar on my website that shows dates that I am available for instruction, as well as a page with the various topics that I am happy to share. Don’t see a date or topic you’re looking for on there? Just ask!

Happy creating,

Lynne

Film, Lenses, Apps and Photo Play!

For some reason my first artistic love, photography, has been calling my name the last month or so.

near the lower falls, Cataract Falls, Indiana © lynne medsker

As I write this I’ve got two rolls of film (yeah, you know, film…the stuff people used to put in cameras to take photos) ready to be developed. It’s kind of a back & forth dance, I am really excited about playing with film again (and some new toys) yet I don’t really need batches of 4×6 prints laying around the house. So I guess I’ll just have it developed and scanned to a disc so I can play with it in Photoshop if I am so inclined.

near the lower falls, Cataract Falls, Indiana © lynne medsker

Several years ago when I gave up on using film I still had a large stash of it so it’s been in my freezer for at least 8 years, some of it longer than that. We were always told in photography class that it could live in the freezer “forever” and not age or expire. I’ll be curious to see if that held true or not. Of course I’m playing with odd lenses, double exposures and other fun stuff so I may not really be able to tell film quality from experimentation.

near the lower falls, Cataract Falls, Indiana © lynne medsker

It was fun just going through all the rolls to see what I had stashed away. Today I pulled out a roll of B&W infrared film. Oh, the possibilities!  I had forgotten the anticipation of waiting to see how your images turned out until I had these rolls ready to go. 🙂

near the lower falls, Cataract Falls, Indiana © lynne medsker

In the meantime, in this age of instant gratification, I’ve been spending a lot of time playing with different smart phone photo apps. Some of these images have been run through two or three different filters/programs before I was happy with them. Again, like the smart phone art, they aren’t really large enough to do much with but they are fun and I am just enjoying being creative. A weekend camping trip to a nearby park gave me lots of opportunities to play – I like the “old photo” feel and look of these images! Of course my favorite is this one, with a silhouette of my grandson playing in the water. 🙂

near the lower falls, Cataract Falls, Indiana © lynne medsker

I guess I can’t talk about smart phone photo apps without mentioned Instagram! If you have an account I hope you’ll leave your username so I can follow you and see what kind of fun you are having! If you want to look me up my username is photoladylm. You can download the program for free on both iPhones and Android phones if you want to experiment with it!

near the lower falls, Cataract Falls, Indiana © lynne medsker

Once I get the rolls of film developed/scanned I’ll post some of the images here (hopefully there will be something worth posting!) and also give you the scoop on the new cameras I’ve been playing with. Until then, happy shooting!

Lynne

More smart phone art & a reminder…

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately! Life’s been full of busy-ness and the last couple of days I’ve felt kinda lousy too. Hopefully both those things will improve soon and I can get back here on a regular basis.

kaleidoscope #5, digital art via smart phone © lynne medsker

In the meantime I thought I’d share a few more images created with some smart phone programs and then enhanced a bit in Photoshop. I’ve gone a bit crazy with these but since all I’ve done the last few days is lay around on the couch it was an easy thing to get obsessed with.

kaleidoscope #13, digital art via smart phone © lynne medsker

I think they appeal to me because they remind me a lot of mandala artwork. Plus my laptop is out for repairs so I haven’t been able to create any fractal art lately, I had to find an outlet somewhere. 🙂 These have really but fun, even though the files are so tiny they aren’t really applicable for much as far as reproduction. Sometimes art is just for the sake of creating it!

“kaleidoscope #11” digital art via smart phone © lynne medsker

Now for the reminder portion of the post!  If you enjoy digital art, or just want to see some samples of what it’s all about – don’t forget to check out my other blog – digital+art+daily! I’ll be posting these newly created images there for the next several weeks.

Smart Phone Art!

I’ve been playing more & more with both photo programs and art apps on my smart phone lately. Seems like I’m having to squeeze in time for art right now so a few minutes on the phone is better than none! Here is some kaleidoscope art I’ve created over the past days.

phone Kaleidoscope #1, digital art © lynne medsker

I will admit to sprucing it up a bit in Photoshop before I was totally happy with the results but I like to layer and add textures before I ever seem to be happy with digital artwork anymore. 🙂

phone Kaleidoscope #2, digital art © lynne medsker

phone Kaleidoscope #3, digital art © lynne medsker

I’ve got lots of posts to write about recent classes and other topics, I just haven’t had the time to sit down and get them ready to publish. Soon I hope!!

Feathers

"feathers" photo/digital collage © 2011, Lynne Medsker

I had a little quiet time on a hot afternoon so creating in front of the computer in the nice air conditioning seemed like a perfect idea. Not quite sure what prompted me to think of feathers but I pretty much had them on my mind before I even began. From there it was just arranging and playing with the layers of images and colors until I was pleased.

I hope you are finding some activities to keep cool & comfortable. I hear a drop in temperatures is coming this weekend, I am anxious to be outside and enjoy some shade & breezes. I am also anxious to get into the studio and make some art – it’s been TOO long! Life has been getting in the way but I am seeing some openings in this crazy schedule. Look for new creations soon.

Lynne

Modifications

Sometimes after I’ve created a digital and/or photo art piece I revisit it to see if there are some modifications I could make to improve it.  It works in some cases, in others – not so much.  I recently did a set of images created from photos I took in someone’s flower gardens.  I really liked the original images but wanted to submit them somewhere else where the stipulations were “no extensive use of the color red”.  And of course how had I decided to color these images?  Yup, mostly red hues!  So back to the drawing board (or more specifically Photoshop screen) I went.  Here are the original images, followed by the modified ones.

"Dream Garden #1" photo/digital art (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

modified "Dream Garden #1" (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

"Dream Garden #3" photo/digital art (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

modified "Dream Garden #3" (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

"Dream Garden #2" photo/digital art (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

modified "Dream Garden #2" (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

I have mixed emotions about the outcomes.  The top image I pretty much like the before & after version about the same, the middle image I think I prefer it with the changes and the last image I like the “before” version best.  What’s your opinion? I really love the flexibility of working within the digital realm.  The ability to change color schemes, sizes, orientation and content are all just a button-click away.  The downside, of course, is the uncertainty of knowing which colors to choose, how to best present the image and just trying to make up my mind which version I want to display.  Pros, cons and personal preference abound – as with most things in life!

Staying flexible,

Lynne

Playing with Photoshop

When I posted my new ATC images I mentioned that I’d taken some photos of the materials that are laying out for visitors to create cards with.  Sometimes things like that catch my eye and I can’t resist capturing a few images to play with later.  Often all that happens is the capture, I’ve got folders full of images to play with “someday”.  But this time it was fresh in my mind so when I uploaded from my camera I got right to work on them.  Here is one of the photos that I took of a pile of alphabet stickers:I layered images like this along with some images of tiny scrapbooking items to make several collage type images.  The ones that just used the alphabet images I called “alphabet soup” just for fun. 🙂  After I’d created a few of those I went back in and cropped out smaller compositions, this time using a square format.  After they were cropped I altered them using different filters, blending techniques or by changing the colors.  Here are a few of those “close ups”:

"alphabet soup, closeup #3" (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

 

"alphabet & scraps, close up #3" (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

I even took it a step further and did a few more close ups of the images I’d already cropped.  Here is one that I really liked, it has a mosaic filter applied to it for a different effect:

"alphabet soup, close close up #2" (C) 2009 Lynne Medsker

After I’d done about a dozen or so of these type images I decided to select some of them and put them together in a digital “quilt”…I even added some marks to look like stitching on the seams.  The original one had all the pieces in different varieties of colors .  It was pretty cool but also pretty busy, to the point it was a bit distracting.  So I decided to colorize the entire image to make it feel like a consistent piece.  This is what I ended up with:

"alphabet quilt" (c) 2009, Lynne Medsker

I’m anxious to make a big print of it when I get home and see how it looks on paper vs. a computer screen.  It was fun to do some digital playing…the longer I am here to more fun I am having!  I’m keeping my fingers crossed I can keep this creative streak going once I get home.

Lynne