My New Toy …. December 26, 2014

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I received a fantastic new toy for Christmas … an electronic drawing pad with stylus by Trust!

These are my first drawing experiments:

Painted Cat

Painted Cat

And here’s my drawing number one … a kitty(I feel like the pilot in the “Little Prince”!)  it was done using “Paint” … I had a few problems because the stylus was super sensitive and as soon as I touched the board with the stylus off it went … I have to learn to adjust it for this program.

This is my drawing number two … an etegami, made with “Artweaver” the program that comes with the stylus/drawing pad.  The stylus worked was better with this and it has a lovely calligraphy brush … which I have to learn how to use for smaller strokes.  I didn’t like how “Artweaver” doesn’t allow me to write my initials wherever I like and did that with “Picasa 3”:

Japanese trial_2

windy day
mother strolls with her child
in the sky starlings

G.s.k. ’14

I can’t wait until I can start experimenting with photographs!

One Four Challenge – Wk 4 – December 22, 2014

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This is the fourth entry to the One Four Challenge and I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with the photograph.  Last week many people decided to try to render their photo into a drawing or painting, and I thought that might be a good idea so I downloaded the program that so many were talking about:  FotoSketcher … both in the portable form as well in the installation form … gave it a whirl.

First of all I cropped the photograph and then I tried the various filters .. I did like the pencil sketch pretty much, but I wanted a painting … so I saved it then ran the saved copy through the app again … this was the result:

 

art trial_2r_small

I then saved this … went to Pixlr and PicMonkey to do the finishing touches … a little antiquing  and then a picture frame and of course the signing of the photograph.  This is the last effort:

Wk 4

Wk 4

at the gallery
impressions of decadence
an old boat

© G.s.k. ‘14

onefourchallenge

This post is linked to One Four Challenge – At Captivate Me

Feedback is welcome!

One Four Challenge – Wk 3 – December 15, 2014

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Last week I wanted to create a night effect, but the results, at least from my point of view were not entirely satisfactory.  The original view of the river is very greenish and I wasn’t able to get rid of that green, in fact as one viewer stated correctly, the river looked a bit toxic (which I’m afraid it probably is.)  Another reader suggested working on the water with Lightroom, a program I’ve never used before, to work on that selected area.

I do have a copy of Photoshop on my computer from my son’s school days, so I tried to work on the selected area with that program. Unfortunately I missed a passage and the whole photograph came out like this:

MoonNight_3psd

I went back to Picasa 3 with the results … and started playing with the filters … softening, sharpening, then softening again then adding a second border and finally I decided to try sepia and see what came up:

MoonNight_4_sepia

 

An interesting effect but not what I wanted so, I sharpened again and then cropped the borders, tuned towards cool (blue) sharpened, hit Ortonish, softened, added some fill lights, re-tuned again towards cool and added some shadows and then I added a new border this is the result which I named  Charon’s Boat, this week’s process 3:

Charon's Boat

Wk 3

 

haunting vision
Charon rows along the Styx
– eternal night

G.s.k. ’14

onefourchallenge

Linked to The One Four Challenge

Morning Haiku and Waka – December 14, 2014

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This morning I’m writing the morning haiku at Through the Eye of Bastet in honor of an inspiring photographer – Robyn Gosby at Captivate Me  and I’m sure you too will enjoy her fabulous photos just click the link!

Here’s her fantastic photo:

 

Illusion_RobynGosby_2014

Robyn Gosby – 2014

 

 

When I saw this photo I instantly thought of Issa and wrote this haiku:

birch leaf sways
Astrakhan cloak hides
a visitor

© G.s.k. ‘14

In classical form:

a swaying birch leaf
in an Astrakhan cloak hides
a morning visitor

© G.s.k. ‘14

Thanks Robyn!