Lost Aussie on the loose

Contemplating Stuff and Maybe a New Class

Last Friday night I was dressed to the nines, long black gauzy thing, high heels, eating a lovely fillet mignon, sipping a bottle of great Napa Red in a posh restaurant, capping off the night dancing at a nightclub.
This Friday it's a reasonably nice Zin', leftover vegetable terrine for dinner and music courtesty of the Bose speakers in my studio.

I'm kind of happy with either scenario.

Tonight though, I am hunched over my tablet and pen and paper at the ready as I've got a spark for a new class idea and fancy dinners are far from my mind .....

It's still in the turbulent stages, image hunting to see what will work with what.  Lots of notes and scratchings on paper.....

But I have that little spark in my head.... and that's what counts.....

So stay tuned!.....

Different Strokes for ...

I think I have spent most of the day sitting behind the computer, sorting, editing and tweaking images.  My brain is rather numb at this point.  So it would appear is my Big Mac, for even though it is well RAM enabled, I'm photoshopping files that are topping around 1GB ....quite a bit of work indeed!

Anyway, I thought you might be interested to see some different interpretations of the Moroccan photos and as always, you can tell me what you think!

The grunge and gritty version ....

Then a more gentle and painterly one...

and finally a mish mash of allsorts ....

Personally my fave is the top one - full of grunge, grit and drama but each style is fun - nothing like a bit of creative expression to end the day!

xoxoox

Abstracting Pink

I've been working on the last few lessons for my Paint, Sketch, Play class.  Struggling with a few techincal issues as I shuggle along my old PC - which is grumbling at all the RAM intensive work it's having to do and although I work almost exclusively on Mac's now, unless I want to switch to video editing with FInal Cut Pro, PC's still have much more user friendly software for that sort of job. 
So hop from one computer to another I will, until the job is done.
(stock image by la_esmerelda deviant art.com)

PS...If you want to check out the awesome art my students are posting... you can go and see it here.
I am tickeld "pink"?? at the qualitly of their work!!  You BET!!

Subway Painting

Since figuring out how to make my camera work in low light places I have started to garner quite a nice collection of images shot whilst riding the train in the New York Subway.  These candid shots always seem so authentic and in some ways, more than many other pictures I take, truly represent the people of New York.

This guy was snapped late last night, on the subway train back from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Dozing a little as the train rocked and rolled!
I've painted him using techniques that I will be teaching in Week 3 of my Paint, Sketch, Play online class.

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.

A Little Update

"faces of eve"
Marie Otero © 2012

I know many of you are anxiously awaiting news of the next Online Class and rest assured it's on the way.  A small hiccup - as life is often want to offer in that DH has a new job and one that puts us just a tad too far away for him to commute each day.  Upshot is that as of this week our house is on the market and a move to Connecticut (or thereabouts)  is in our future.

Needless to say it adds a few more chores and things to be done - apart from photoshopping and preparing class.  So I do apologise if I am not being as timely and efficient as usual!

Hopefully you can bear with me as we chug through this transition.  I do hope to post the class details this weekend and still plan to start class around the 20th of April, 2012!!!

hugs a bunch

Taking Warhol For A Ride

I'm working on new class sample images.  And twists and changes on what you might necessarily expect.

That would be me, right?  Take the bar and push it higher?

And then if you want the traditional look ....

...with some added elements ...
I'd hate to offer a boring class :-)

xxox

Some Things I Did Today

I'm finally pulling my head out of the Venetian clouds and settling down to do a bit of work. Mostly on the new painting class I keep promising .... yes, yes, it is coming along.  Albeit much slower than I would wish.

There will be a variety of styles that I will be teaching and I have had a few requests for things to include in the class.  Christine asked me about how to do comic book style images and so I will be including that style of work in the class too.

And I am still in love with painting with patterns and texture ....

and then of course, there is the more traditional look....created with another one of THOSE Venice photos!

So you can see, I have been busy.  I have not forgotten the promised new class.  Now just to work all these ideas into one coherent and replicable syllabus and I'll be good to go!  Ha!

Patience Grashopper!

(oh and inbetween, I've created 25 fabulous new texures and overlays using my Venice pictures.  They'll be posted over at HERE soon!)

 

Get Ready - Action

Sky Dreamer © Marie Otero 2012

I was going to have another ranty post about bad customer service and my 40 minute wait at the Genius Bar today to have my sick (read probably DEAD) laptop taken care of.

Or the crappy technical support and lack of responsiveness from the teachers/assistants in an Online Class I am taking.

In the end, when I sat down to my computer I decided that I couldn't be bothered with all that blah and hopped off to the go-to place for faces, started fiddling with an image which lead me to working on creating a set of PHOTOSHOP PAINTING ACTIONS that I will be offering students in the (slowly evolving) class that is currently on my drawing board.

I mostly make Photoshop Actions to suit myself and my own workflow and this is the first time I have worked on them so they might have a wider application to a variable audience.  So far so good.  And a nice break from writing html code.

Oh and someone asked me what paper I was using to print double sided work for the Sketchbook Project, its Jet Print Photo Matte.  I think it's been discontinued but I bought several reams of it a year or two ago off Ebay and it's just the best.

Portrait Image credit http://charligal-stock.deviantart.com

And A Little More ...

Thanks so much for the fabulous response to my thoughts on a Painterly Class.  The more I think about it the more excited I get!!

 
I love to find creative ways to use my own photographs as well as stock material and I think this class will be just about PERFECT for combining the two.

The above image incorporates some stock from SenshiStock over at Deviant Art as well as my own photos of Caumsett Park, personal textures and a couple from Shadow House.

Hm'hmm humming to myself here as thoughts percolate inside my head :-)
(You rather have to be here :-))!

On another and less savoury note, my blog has been targeted by spammers of late.  Typepad does not seem to be able to help very much and so for a while, I have instituted the dreaded IDIOT CODE for comments.

I am sorry about this but lewd, rude and porny kinds of stuff are not the links/comments I want on posts, whether they are old or new.

I appreciate your patience in the mean-time.