Lost Aussie on the loose

Announcing - "Paint, Sketch, Play" - an online class for painting in Photoshop

Are you ready ???????

4 Weeks, 16 projects.  High end fun stuff that will float your Photshop Boat!!

Comic, Sketch, Warhol'ish, Smudge, Paint, Art History, Mixer Brush, Tool Presets, Landscape, Architecture, Portrait, Patterns, Presets, Plug-Ins, Abstract and HDR Toning and if you are good ... a little Illustrator for those who can.

This will be a cracker of a Class.

Are you ready ????????

The full syllabus is available for you to check out HERE.

The class is designed for Photoshop CS5 users but many of the projects will work in Elements.  You can also download a FREE trial of CS5 from the Adobe website to use for the duration of the Class.

Smithsonian Inspiration

I had some great sessions at PSW today inlcuding a fab one by Joe McNally who is a gifted photographer and excellent teacher.

Completely opposed to yesterday where I cooked in 80F heat, today it was cold and rainy and wet.  A good time to check out some of the Smithsonian so inbetween class, around and about the Portrait Museum I went.

I loved the statue in the Champions gallery of this baseballer - I'm sure he's famous.  I just thought he made a great subject to paint in Photoshop!

 

Have fun and I hope your weekend is a good one! See you tomorrow!

xoxo

American Icons

Serious buildings and Cherry Blossoms always seem to epitomize Washington DC don't they?  And I was not disappointed today, I saw a little of the former and some of the latter.

The Pre-conference workshop today was a bit of a bust.  90% of the material has already been presented via various webinars on the NAPP website over the last few months and I feel rather grumpy about being diddled out of another $100.  OK if you don't pay attention to their member material, but unfair if you do.

So, I have changed strategies and will only be taking classes for my camera and photography and seek to build new learning in areas that I am not so well versed.  Speedlight here I come!

Talk to you tomorrow......

Off to here....

Tomorrow I am getting up early (ugh!!) to take the train to Washington DC where I am going to immerse myself in 4 days of Photography and Photoshop at the PSW Conference.

I'm looking forward to a full fat schedule of classes and picking up some new tips and tricks.

I'll be sure and let you know all the details when I get back....
in the meantime there's chores to be done, a bag to be packed and my camera gear to be gathered.

See you in a few days time ....

After The Party

Yet another class sample image that I have been working on.... painting with blending modes.
What fun!

Here is the "before"

stock image courtesy of mizzd_stock @ deviantart.

I'm thinking the class will be up and ready to go for a start date of April 19th!  So stay tuned.  This will be a more advanced class and you will need a good grasp of your BASIC Photoshop tools to make the most of what we will be doing!

Are you ready?

Overthinking To The Point of Blurry

I'm getting ready to head off to Italy to take my dream workshop with David Nightingale.  To say I am excited would be an understatement.   To say I am terrified would not be too far from the mark either as I don't really consider myself to be a "photographer" per se and I am worried I will get lost amongst all the f-stop, shutter speed professionals.

I am pretty darned good at Photoshop and making the most of what my camera sees, but as far as capturing the "perfect shot" ... well, I don't know about that at all.

The whole business with tripods, flashes, assorted lenses ??? And the long list of what to take - (I wish!).

So I burned a hole in my Amex and bought a new tripod.  I added a flash, since I have never used one and supposedly they will teach us how.  I already had a good overall lens for my 5D to do wide angle and some telephoto. 
Add the good prime portrait lens and then for fun I'm going to take the fun Lensbaby along as well. 
I probably should have something longer 200mm - 400mm? but it's going to be really cold over there and I just don't know if I want the weight of a hefty long lens to carry around for 2 or 3 shots? Who knows?  I am at the point of overthinking this whole thing and figure I should just carry the lenses that I know I will use and not have to worry about.

After all, I know I can fix the pix in Photoshop right :-))    ....and there's always the iPhone for the tricky shots yes? :-)))

Let's just hope the canals are not frozen over and I don't end up having to push my own Gondola!

 

Pondering on Painting

 

I've had a lot of emails recently, kindly and gently asking me when there will be a new Online Class.  And the answer is probably quite soon.

I've been pondering long and hard about what I would like to do the next class about.  The classes take a lot of work to prepare and I like for them to be special, with lots of key learning and also appeal to the mixed media photographer/artist kind of person who is looking for something special and different.

The pondering usually takes as much time as the making of the class.  Once I have the syllabus nutted out in my head it does not take long to formulate class samples and then do the videos.... but it has to be straight in my head first.

So ... as a preliminary hint, I think the next class will be about Digital Painting - in Photoshop. 

I have lots of programs and plug-ins that will paint for me digitally but really you can do quite a lot in Photoshop without resorting to expensive plug-ins.

So let me know if this might float your boat!  The class should work with Elements just as well as Photoshop ....

Stay tuned!

One Perfect Day

You would hardly believe that it's Winter in the North East.  62F today and the beach was packed with folk strolling along the boardwalk at the Sunken Meadow Park.  It was lovely to take the air, with our coats flapping in the breeze, scarves and gloves left abandoned in the car.

The roller coaster of temperatures in the last week or so has been crazy, but sunshine abounds - so I am not complaining, no siree, not one little bit.  And the camera loves the magical light that comes with fading sun and cooling sky.

Aside from walking on the beach I also did a little window shopping today - spying out some new camera equipment as in February I am going to take a photography workshop with the talented and reknowned David Nightingale. 
One of my goals this year is to learn a little bit more about my camera and how to take "proper" photos so I am hoping this workshop will help me along in that directon as well as being something of a "dream come true" experience.

Doing A Little Demo

If you are in the neighbourhood, I am going to be doing a Mixed Media demonstration using Golden's Digital Grounds at Jacksons in Joondalup.  I'll be talking about creating your own mixed media substrates and the use and application of the digital grounds for inkjet printing.

Here is the blub from Jacksons Facebook page!

 

Video Mama

Project 1 for the new Photo Magic Class

My new Photo Magic Class starts soon and so for the moment, all thoughts of encaustic and other creative pursuits have gone out of the window!

I've actually had to try really hard to deliberatly switch mental gears and it's been tough, as all I have wanted to do is go "PLAY" in the studio after last week's workshop.

Anyway, it is what it is and I am liking the way the new class is coming together - and that is all that counts.

I've even managed to stitch together a quick "Intro" video for PSE9 users as I have a couple of noobie newbies in this session and I figured it would not hurt to give them a "leg up" - so to speak.

It's been a while since I did any serious video editing and I am a demon perfectionist when it comes to good production - no weird noises, no hollow rooms or echoing floor boards.  I don't even let the cat purr on my lap :-))  So the intro video was good practice for the next 10 for the week! 

Oy Vay... why do I do this to myself I ask - yeah but I really rather love it, so don't worry!