An Early New Years Resolution :-)

I seriously have been debating Not going back to painting. Since 2008, it honestly, if I am boldly honest with myself, has Not been working. Whether it is eyesight changes, bad working space issues, light issues, focusing problems - whatever, no idea, but it just is Not working. I painted better at 17 years old lol! It began with a personal portrait I was doing that was working so well it was like it was painting itself. Someone stood in front of the window I worked from the light of to measure it, and instead of getting up and waiting, I stubbornly continued. Big mistake, huge, to quote that movie lol! because I messed it up beyond repair. I had to toss the painting :-( I began 2x more and nada, nope, no way was it going to ever work again. I was using the portrait for a portrait painting in acrylic thread on an art forum too and had to embarrassingly cancel it mid way :-( The next 2 portraits I took on as commissions did not go well either. Something was wrong though I ignored it. I kept on trying, wasting money, materials and precious time - shit I don't have a lot of. So, ok, fine, I will drop it. And do I want to start trying abstract? No, doesn't come natural to me and frankly, not appealing a venture though I see abstracts I drool over sometimes. However, I can still draw and draw well! Boring as it is really lol! But, I was looking at something recently and I realized that there is a medium I may get excited over again. Yes, it's wimpy and wishy washy, low on punch with great dark darks, but it is enticing none the less. Silverpoint. Do I know anything about it? Nope. Am I going to dive in head first? Of course :-) Who lives twice around here? Not me! lol! Granted, my partner has some materials I can begin with (no, the medium still exists lol! it's not a 16th century dead medium or anything). So, in the new year, I will begin, probably with my old fav - a portrait. Maybe of my partner, maybe my daughter, not sure, but someone whom I am familiar with well. Silverpoint appeals for the very fact that I Love Silver, I love tarnishing and it is not a forgiving medium - hence it will be a challenge and maybe a struggle but I want to try it :-)

Waiting For Spring - May Redstart

Just a cute little shot from May 2013, not long before summer, of a Red-start at Thickson Woods. Miss you spring and summer.

Thrilled to Learn Something in Photoshop Elements!

This morning, wanted to go back to a photo I opened a couple days ago but hadn't time to work with till the weekend. I wanted to sharpen the bird and details such as the fish, but have the water less sharp and recede into the background so shallow the depth of field slightly.

In a few steps, my boyfriend walked me through me how to use the quick select tool, create a mask of the bird and water below, then select that shape and reverse the selection, add a gradient mask which will recede the sharpened details back to the original blurred background below but in a nice progressive stage. To make it more natural, a Gaussian blur goes on the whole black and white mask then :-) That's the short of it and I Like the result, it is what I wanted!

Itchin' to Paint

Unfortunately, Not painting painting, wall painting. Our place was light whittish pinky when we got it but to paint it all right away would have been very taxing on my partner, as he'd just done it for someone else recently, so I figured "we can definitely live with it" for a year. However, I bought one camel colour for the spare room and I may tackle it myself on some days off I have. If I painted a bathroom at 7 months pregnant I think I can definitley do it myself :-) I'm a lazy room painter, I won't fill holes and stuff, figuring I'm just putting the pictures and things back in the same spot anyway, buuuut I guess I'll do it right lol! Have my warm Mexican influenced colours pretty much decided on but they may change at the last minute. Never know :-)