Lost Aussie on the loose

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

Photoshop At Work - the Sketchbook Project

I'm finally turning my hand to getting my Sketchbook Project complete.  I did a whole bunch of work in the book towards the end of last year and then decided that I didn't like how it worked, the feel of the paper etc and so in a fit of pique I just tore it all out and decided to start again.

This time I have used heavier paper that will take transfers, cut and paste, collage and double sided digital printing without the paper getting all ruckeley (is that even a word?) and horrid - you know what I mean, where the paper gets wrinkley and bubbley because you have used wet media.  Anyway, I digress.

I've sorted the problem.  I'm using some medium weight digital fineart paper that will tolerate some water (not rain showers) and is amenable to double sided printing.

I've set myself up a handy dandy template in Photoshop that has layers with guides,clipping masks for placing images and instructions for when I am not paying too much attention and will orient the paper correctly depending on which side I am printing.

Thanks to the use of adjustment layers (in Photoshop) I can balance colors on versing pages and get a good match of tones so that there is some continuity and visual appeal.

Not all the pages are digitally printed.  Some have collage or transfers and others cut and paste, tip-in style.

It probably would have helped if I had decided on how many pages the book would have from the get-go, but hey, that would have been just a TAD TOO organised!

There will still be some "winging and wishing on a prayer"!

Since I've paid to have the book digitized you should be able to see it online (eventually!)!!!

Written In Stone

  This will go in the Sketchbook too.

Sometimes you just have to put it out there.

Especially when it's important.

Upon Reflection

Another piece destined for the Sketchbook Project.  This one cooked up with a photo taken in Las Vegas (where else do you find Golden Statues?) and some pics of weeds that I pulled out of the garden today.

The digital effort cost way less than the gardening one did. Three hours bent over with a spade will doubtless have me cursing under my breath for the next few days as thanks to a rather horrid car accident 20+ years ago where I broke my back and spent six weeks in suspended animation, tricks like heaving and digging seem to reap rather nasty rewards nowadays.

Regardless, things need to get done.  The garden has to be put into Winter shape before I go down to Australia in a few weeks time.

My "To Do List" is growing..... even if the garden is not.

Girl On Film

I'm working on some pieces that will be part of my Sketchbook Project.

I've successfully deconstructed the book that I was sent and I am having fun incorporating my digital images into the newly formed pages of the book.  Some transfers, some direct prints onto other papers.

I think the finished book will be a little bit "lumpy" and interesting.  I hope.