Owner: Marazine URL:http://marayagalleries.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007 08:04:23 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Art, collage, techniques, ideas (some serious and some not). Frequent updates and lots of original art. Writing services offered. Site statistics:Click here
Open the Door 2007-08-08 20:19:00 Red DoorFor my first image, I took a page from Debi's book - for the last workshop, she had achieved such a delicate result by laying down almost transparent layers of the original image and fiddling with these layers. I thought I'd try it, and I just love what it helped me come up with.First, I copied the original image, but cropped, to a new file, with low opacity. I also turned it to Grayscale so I could use the Duotone feature. For this first layer, I chose two hues of red.Second, I created another layer, copied the image again in low opacity, but left it coloured. This is such a great trick, it really feels like you're laying a vellum on top of an image. I then repeated the process with a third layer, just like the first one, but with purple Duotone, to give more depth to the colours which were now rich and juicy.Third, I used the Dry Brush in the Artistic Filters over and over, calibrating it slightly differently and using the Fade function in Edit every single time. I can't
Time To Play Again! Digital Art Workshop Deux 2007-08-06 16:37:00 C'mon! Time to get back inside! Disentangle yourself from that chaise-longue, toss that frozen margarita (or better yet, refresh it), kick off your Crocs and sit down to a new digital exercise. You wanted more of a challenge, so here it is:Pisa Door, by Ban Sidhe - courtesy www.wetcanvas.comI found this copyright-friendly image on a terrific art site that hubby suddenly remembered to share with me, http://www.wetcanvas.com/. It's a fantastic resource for artists and wannabes like me, thanks in no small measure to its bottomless image library - by far the best source for public domain images I have found in my research. To participate, all you have to do is copy the image to your computer - it's a fairly large file, so you may want to resize before saving it. Then go to town with your digital creativity (creative digitality?) IF YOU'RE NOT ABLE TO GET THE LARGER IMAGE WHEN YOU CLICK ON THIS ONE, TRY THE ONE POSTED LATER BY ITSELF. IF NEITHER WORKS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. Now for some Read more:Again
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Frustration Update 2007-08-10 13:55:00 No luck on the web editor front, still not able to upload anything. Plus my second printer is kaput. I really wanted to provide a link to the completed Lily wall, and a good start on the Door one, but short of smashing my computer (a colleague used to call it a confuser) against the wall, I'm stumped. It's obviously going to take still longer to see a refurbished Maraya. I'm looking forward to building a much more interesting site, with a lot of reference materials, and hopefully more workshops and more artwork. Fun, fun, fun. Frustrating, frustrating, frustrating.Meantime, I did the last version of the Door (previous post) late last night, I was kind of groggy and forgot the steps. There weren't that many anyway, and most of them are uninteresting:- I drained the colour, then did a tan-ish duotone, then went back to RGB.- I also used the Cloud (or was it Difference Clouds) feature in the Render Filter in low opacity in Overlay (I think). This sort of washed-out quality is not hard Read more:Frustration
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Shhhh... 2007-08-09 21:31:00 I'll try to explain the steps tomorrow - right now, I feel as sleepy as...
Cat From Outer Space? 2007-08-12 09:53:00 I seem to remember a movie like that from eons ago. Anyhoo, here's Fawzan's first take on the Door (I don't know what to make of the writing on the window, but I know where he got the idea of the green light from...) What are they doing to you? - F. BarrageI'm starting to hang things on here. (For the previous workshop, check here.) Read more:Space
Top And Tail - 2 Things challenge 2007-08-18 08:49:00 Can I still participate in an old 2 Things Challenge? My friend sent me these pics of my cat and her kid, and they're too perfect to pass up. I know, talk about not following any rules: not only am I ridiculously behind the times, I'm also using someone else's photographs. But it is MY cat.
Grown-Up Meme Game 2007-08-16 07:55:00 For Debi: Moi At the Apple Farm, Oct. 2006 - That's the best I could do at short notice, we don't want to scare the little kiddiesSo many topics to deal with, so little time... Consequently, I will, in typical Rima fashion, settle on an escapist break, a (sorta) grown-up version of this unoriginal but still-funny online meme game, where you get to answer prying questions with just one word. I promise to not psychoanalyse. Here are my 23 questions. If you'd like to play along - and please don't let me feel ridiculous by leaving me to twist in the wind by myself - copy the list, and put in your own answers like I did below. It's slightly less cruel than, say, asking (no, daring!) you to post a portrait. Or, if you're really, really brave, you can combine both. What is your favorite object?Do you have music on right now?What is the state of your hair? What is your favorite drink?What do you fear mostWhat is your favourite season?Who did you hang out with this weekend?What are you n Read more:Grown
All You Have To Do Is Try 2007-08-21 10:08:00 http://www.marayagalleries.com/workshop/6door.htmNot one to follow any rules, not even my own, I've decided to display all of Irene's contributions to the Door project, not just the 3 I limited everyone else at. No fair, I hear everyone crying, how come she gets more? Settle down, kids - First of all, I really couldn't bring myself to pick and choose from her work. Second, you have no idea how happy I was when someone who says she's a total digital art novice decided to join and came up with ALL OF THIS! Kind of like how I felt with Bobbie and Frances and the lilypad.I have to be true to my heart: Irene is hereby getting unfairly rewarded for a) being fearless, ; and b) showing us some kind of incredible imagination for a supposedly non-artist. So here it is, the completed wall with everyone's weird and wonderful creations. I haven't finished reorganizing the website, so you can't click around in there to find our workshops yet - link directly to that page here. Enjoy!
Summer Kiss-Off - Digital Art Workshop 3 2007-08-26 09:37:00 " Bathing Beauty" - from www.wetcanvas.com image libraryDespite my best efforts to stall, summer is almost over. I didn't do 1/3 of what I promised myself I'd get done. Wonder if I can cram 2 months worth of work in 5 days?So here is a befitting kiss-off to the hazy-lazy and decidedly crazy days of summer: a bathing beauty waiting to be reinterpreted in our Digital
Art Workshop
series.Since I'm in ultra-slacker mode, I won't rewrite the supposed rules for your participation. However, in case you'd like a good laugh while completely disregarding them, you can still find them here.To see the previous workshop results, click here and here.Good sailing everyone! (and while you're at it, check out hubby's poetry challenge - there's a prize!) Read more:Summer
Update on Photoshop Instruction (and PSP too) 2007-08-22 14:24:00 After having posted the previous links, I remembered an excellent, clear, basic Photoshop
tutorial online. It comes in several parts and can be downloaded or printed out. (There is no need to print out the exercises, you can come up with your own).It even shows how to create your own brushes or patterns, which is a lot of fun too.A good basic beginning at:http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshop/l/bllps5out.htmThis one's not bad either but not as good or detailed: http://iit.bloomu.edu/vthc/ps.html As for PaintShop Pro, I don't use it myself, but if you do, this seems like a pretty good site (I'd say print it out, probably easier to read off of the page):http://www.mardiweb.com/web/pspbasic5/psp5basic.htmGo take a look. Read more:Update
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Create Your Own 2007-09-01 21:31:00 Your own Photoshop brush or pattern, that is. It is all very easy, and to make it even easier, I'm including a pictorial to go with this very small step-by-step tutorial. 1. I painted this pattern, using different colours for the background and foreground.When you define a brush, Photoshop will only use the shape of the brush you're creating, but will reproduce the pattern in its original colour.2. I then chose Define Brush from Edit to create my new brush.3.You will find your newly defined brush (and pattern) at the end of your existing list of brushes or patterns4. You can see how, when used as a brush, the shape of your brush will appear in the colour (s) you've chosen 5. Using the same design, I also created a fill pattern by clicking on Define Pattern in Edit. 6. When you use this new pattern, it will be appear as in the original design. See? Told ya it was simple.
We Can Do It Together/Ensemble, on peut tout changer 2007-09-26 20:49:00 Thanks to Jin for turning us on to this very worthy cause, and to Neda for coming up with this terrific challenge - Merci, Jin et NedaTime to get those creativity muscles in gear, folks.This challenge (this time I am calling it a challenge) is in honour of BLOG ACTION DAY, which will take place on October 15.This time, I am not giving you a specific image to work off of, nor am I asking you to practice your digital image manipulation skills. You can if you want to, but you don't have to stick to that one venue.The rules are simple for this Action Day Challenge:Come up with an image to promote the environmental cause of your choice.Write one line of text to accompany your image.Any artistic medium can be used: you can do a painting, a collage, a photomontage, anything that you feel comfortable with. These are only suggestions, not guidelines.Submit only ONE entry please. Seriously, I mean it this time. Here's why:Once an entry is received, it will be displayed on the home page of Mara Read more:Ensemble
Time Well Wasted 2007-09-25 11:35:00 I made this handsome demotivational poster at www.despair.com (bird pic from wetcanvas.com)You can create your own too, just follow the links!Andi had a post about this hilarious website, a geeky and witty take on the ubiquitous, mediocre, and gag-inducing motivational industry posters and cards.Since I am at the bottom of my creative cycle (meaning my mind is an abysmal blank), I think it's only fair to share these fun sites with you. After all, it's right there in my header, the bit about "fun finds" - so why should I be the only one here spending endless hou.., uh, minutes playing online?So, in no particular order of preference (all games are free if you play online):MSN Games has a new version of Scrabble hereSpeaking of Scrabble, a legitimate cheating tool is available on the official website hereMy all-time favourite time-waster is Alchemy (here)Of course, it would be unforgivable not to mention the grande dame of all dilatory games: Bejeweled2, equally favoured by 7 and 47-yea Read more:Wasted
Lift Up Someone's Spirits Today 2007-09-14 16:13:00 This is my friend and niece-in-law Hala, she of the scrumptious edible artwork (read about her here). She's in hospital this week - again - and as you can tell from the bandana, although the head gear is very becoming, this is no walk in the park for her.So this is my request, dear gang of photoshoppers and others, can you help me cheer my friend up? Use this portrait below to create something fun and send it along or display it and let me or her know about it. This is her blog: http://hala2.blogspot.com/ Read more:Spirits
, Today
Sticky Fun With Gel Transfers 2007-09-11 13:21:00 Image transfers using an acrylic medium as a base is one of those artsy-craftsy things I had some vague notions about, but never actually tried to do. Until I found a great gel medium made by a canadian company called Tri-art which said right there on the label that this product is perfect for photocopy transfers and so I decided to give it a try. Only I didn't use a photocopy, and didn't exactly follow the directions.This is what I did - I cut out a coloured photograph out of an old magazine, to fit the size of a piece of white cardboard I had laying around. Using my fingers, I covered the cardboard in what I thought was a thin layer of the gel. I must have put too much gel, because as you can see in the bottom left corner of Image 1, the magazine paper fell apart as I was trying to smooth the surface out. 1. Glued-on image with parts rubbed out.I put the image face down - of course - on the cardboard, so that the gel medium can bond to the ink and transfer the image on to the cardb Read more:Transfers
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