Smoke ‘n Mirrors

by | Cool Apps, Photography, Ponies in the Morning | 10 comments

Right now Sophie and Studio Quat are facing off becoming reacquainted. Studio Quat is becoming House Quat, she’s moving in with us. Along with all sorts of crap treasures from Mama’s house, the old studio grande. 

Notice how I don’t capitalize that one. It has been … decommissioned. Like a battle ship. Or a church. Or something.

I’d planned on moving SQ to the new, improved! Studio Grande but that is not to be. At least not now. The studio, like my house, is a victim of moving Mama’s stuff. There is not a single clear surface. And when I do get them cleared I’ll be faced with concrete. Remember the concrete countertops? Well, at the tender age of 17, I figure Studio Quat deserves upholstered furniture and puppy playmates.

I’m sure she’ll eventually agree.

Meanwhile, it’s hard to paint…so I’m not. But you can’t keep a creative girl down. That’s where the ipad and iphone come in handy. I can sit at the sofa at the end of the day, feet up on the coffee table and make fun stuff.

oolala the arty life

This is one of the pony pics. A snapshot taken with the iphone. Unedited. What you see is what the camera saw.

oolala the arty life

This is it arted up in in the ipad using Paint FX: Photo Effects Editor. There’s a free version and a premium one. I bought the premium, cost me a whole 99 cents. For under a buck this thing has a lot of creative potential. All sorts of filters. And you can layer them.

I can’t tell you which ones I used in this because I didn’t set out to write a blog post when I played with it. I know I used a lightening brush to bring out my hair.

oolala the arty life

Here’s another version of the same photo. I used three apps here. The first was Captions HD. It’s a fun little app, amazingly versatile. And once again, cheap. I can’t find the receipt but I’m sure it wasn’t anything more than a buck or two. Good thing for making cards and such. Then I added some layers in Paint FX. And then I softened everything in Glazes, an oil painting app. At $2.99 Glazes was a splurge… but cheaper than a latte so I have no complaints.

Saki 'n Moi vintage

And the last one for today, a totally different feel. This is a combination of two apps. The first is a new app I bought tonight, another splurge at $2.99, ArtMasterpiece FX HD. The original effect is a sketch with the feel of an old master, the kind of thing I had to draw over and over back when I was in school. It was quite nice but I can never leave a good thing alone so I threw it in Vintage by Jixipix, which changed it up even more.

So there you have it…one photo, and not a very good one at that, transformed into three totally different looks. Easy-Peasy. Addicting. And fun. OMG, So. Much. Fun.

So that’s it for now, my sweetums. Which one of these do you like the best? Would love to hear what you have to say in the comments below. And if you know anyone with iphone or ipad be sure to share this with them.

Making Peace

by | Art | 6 comments

I loves me my layers. Layers and layers and layers of random paint. It’s a good thing, you know, something to do in between muse strikes. Something to do with left over paint.

Eventually I get around to finishing them. Today I did another for the ‘Feather’ series. I seem to like feathers these days.

layers

Here’s the original 12X12 canvas. Got a couple of layers going, don’t know how many. And yes, the workspace is a mess. It’s embarrassing. But as long as there’s room to work and I can find things it’s okay.

first marks

Decided to make some marks.

more marks

More marks. More color.

feather beginnings

More glazes to tone down the marks. Then I block in a feather. But not in the obvious place, not over the quazi feather that’s still visible under the glaze.

curves

I really don’t know where this is going but I’m following the curves indicated by the breaks along the upper edge of the feather. Which gives me two orbs. Two globes.

coming together

Needs some contrast. I fill in the back ground so the orbs pop. Throw in some gold accents. More glazes.

Peace

The final result…’Peace’.

Work in Progress

by | Art | 6 comments

I really intended to have some quality time in Studio Grande today. But first I had to get a massage. Because a girl’s got to be good to herself once in awhile, you know.

And then there was the barn that needed cleaning. And a truckload of hay to buy and unload.

And OMG, I haven’t exercised in days. So I had to do that too.

And check my email. Do you have any idea how crazy full my inbox was?

Next thing I knew it was time for the five o’clock news. Umm…where did the day go?

All was not lost. Studio Quat got her lovin’ and I put in some time (damn little) painting this evening. Wasn’t in the mood to finish the one I showed you in yesterday’s post. I ended up working on one of the smaller ones instead.

And I didn’t finish that one either. But I’ve got some photos to show the progress.

early

This is early in the process. Just getting some color down. Some marks.

WIP 2

More layers of stuff. Paint. Water crayon. Just having fun.

WIP 3More! More! More!

WIP 4

Now it’s beginning to get interesting. Stencils and stamps are involved for texture.

WIP 6

More layers and more layers. Glazing made the water crayon run and mute the colors. Eventually I encouraged a feather. And that’s where I left it last night.

WIP featherTonight I wanted the feather to pop. But I wasn’t happy with the colors of either the feather and the background. So stamped into the paint to make things more interesting. Then I glazed over the background to pull it all together.

This is still most definitely a work in progress but it will be a few days before I can do the studio thing again. Day job, you know. I’m planning on finishing all three over the weekend.

You can hold me to it. In fact I hope you do.