Strange Symmetries

Okay...so here's where the "other obsessions" part of my blog title seeps into my art. I was up all night because I couldn't sleep so I played with some old Victorian photographs, using the Photoshop Tutorial technique that I posted yesterday. I created the weirdest, oddest, portraits ever... I'm questioning my own sanity at this point. Ha!! But they are oddly intriguing. They look a little like exotic insects.
Here they are: Strange Symmetry

Photoshop Tutorial - Fantasyscapes

Here's another tutorial. This one's very easy. Its simply taking a landscape photograph and duplicating it and flipping it to create a mirror image using Blending Modes. The little fairy is optional. :)
The "fantasyscapes" would make nice backgrounds for ATC's, collage work, or digital art.
I think I'm going to burn these tutorials to a disc eventually and offer them for purchase. Thanks for giving me the idea, Keron! Stay tuned.
Link to this tutorial: Fantasyscapes

Creating Illuminated Letters

While working on the website for Brahms Bookworks I created some illuminated letters in Photoshop. Here's a tutorial about how I did that. The finished letter can be further detailed by hand with gilding or gold paint after it is printed. But if you create an alphabet this way, the letters can be used over and over again in a hand made book.

Here's a cool trick that's not in the tutorial. After the letter is colored digitally, play with "image/adjustment/hue/saturation"...slide the hue scroll back and forth and see the variations of color you can achieve with a single color scheme.

Here's the tutorial.

Ziggy

I'm in love!! We got a new dog last week. He's an 8 month old, very bright poodle, who we named Ziggy. Neither Jon or I have ever owned a dog before so we were unprepared for the heart stealing, tail wagging, tiny tongue kisses up the nose, so happy to see us in the morning we can't stand it, kind of puppy behavior. :::sigh::: So of course we had to take him down to the studio and make a fairy portrait! Isn't he the cutest? Did I tell you how bright he is? And cute???

...and in a fairy scene.

Brahms Bookworks

Yeah! I just finished a new web site revision for Brahms Bookworks. Brahm makes incredible old world style grimoires with handcrafted hinges, padlocks and medallions. Brahm and Robyn are the nicest people around and we all love the way the site turned out. :)
Check it out here: Brahms Bookworks