Picture Inspiration Catch Up

The days and weeks just fly by at the moment, and I have so many things I want and try to do, that I never quite seem to manage to keep up with everything, as with Picture Inspiration. But although I've been bad with keeping up posting, both here and in the forum, I have been taking pictures all the time. So here's a bit of a catch up of the last four weeks:

Week 37: Texture love. In week 37 we were exploring textures, that is post processing photos with the use of texture images. Which is something I love and have been doing a lot, even though not so much recently. The mist on that Saturday morning made the shore on the other side of Lake Zürich completely disappear, leaving the little sailing boats looking a little lost and giving the whole scene a sort of timeless feel. I used three different textures to enhance this feel, two by Shadowhouse Creations, and one by Flypaper Textures.

Week 38: A Delicate Balance. The task was to find a delicate balance between image and texture. It was a grey morning, and I loved how the mist hung in between the colourful trees. However, the original picture was rather bland and boring, and needed some processing to bring out the colours. Apart from the usual levels, saturation and light adjustments, I used a subtle texture by Shadowhouse Creations to make the autumn colours shine and to add to the texture of the trees, without making the additional texture too obvious.

Week 39: Leaving Textures. We were leaving texture processing and were focusing on mere texture alone, which the season offers in abundance at this time of year. The leaves all around were of course perfect for this prompt. Not only are they in itself full of texture, but they cover the ground with a blanket of texture as well.

Week 40: Grateful Day. We don't have Thangsiving over here, but this does not mean that we don't have a lot of things to be grateful for, big and small, essential and trivial. So what am I thankful for? There are things I take for granted but which aren't really so self-evident, things that could be better - but also a lot worse, things I worked hard for and deserve, and things where I'm really just lucky, little luxuries that simply make me feel good. Among the last is the fact that, despite my job and long daily commute and all the other every day stuff, I still find time and energy to be creative. And it add so much value to my life.

We received the prompt for Week 41 yesterday. And this one is really going to be a challenge!

Autumn has arrived

The Altweibersommer (Indian summer, literally translated something like "old hags' summer") seems to be definitely over, and autumn has arrived for good. The temperature has dropped significantly, it's cool, grey and rainy.

But if you take a few seconds to stop on your way from rushing from the train station to your warm, welcoming home fter a long day's work, after a long, exhausting week of commuting and working, there are autumn's colours emerging everywhere around, or, as Robert Louis Stevenson calls it "Autumn Fires".

Well, I'm certainly looking forward to seeing more autumn fires flaring up everywhere around me, and I'm really, really, glad summer's heat's over for good :) (even though it really is rather chilly right now...maybe time for a hot white chocolate??)

Sunday morning art journaling & a new texture

*** you'll find the texture & download at the end of this post ***

I love spending Sunday mornings in my study/studio. The morning light coming through the window lightens up the room and inspires me to take out my paints and stuff and just do something with them. This morning, I finished another double page for my Inspiration Journal, a little booklet made out of old book covers on which I create paintings to inspire and encourage myself on my creative journey.

I also finished the front cover of the Inspiration Journal the day before. I wanted to keep it simple but also inviting to open the book. I just love this paper with those happy smiling pigs. In German speaking parts, pigs stand for good luck, and some good luck vibes seemed a good idea for my journey, wherever it will take me, and whatever road I will find the courage to follow. I might add some details to the wings, later on, but all in all, I'm quite happy with the result.

My Inspiration Journal isn't actually book yet. It's just a pile of painted book covers at the moment, but it's all coming together nicely, and once I have all the pages finished, I'll punch some holes and voilà, my own little inspiration book.

As I had some paint left, and I don't really like to waste my paint, I decided to use it on a sheet of canvas, and make a simple texture for photo processing out of it.

And here's the result, my little Listen To Your Violet Heart texture. You can use it with or without the text, just as you like. I'm not quite sure how it is, to be honest, but maybe you'll find some use for it, the text (a stamp) didn't quite turn out as I wanted in the scanning process. And I'm still learning what works best as a texture for processing photos with.

Here's the link for the download (or click on the image above), if you'd like to give it a try yourself.

Here are two examples where I used the texture - turning a sunny winter landscape into, well, something a bit, hmm, quite weird, I admit - I was just in the mood to play around and be a little bit silly ;).

I guess you just have to like the colour purple/violet for this :)

A day in the mountains ~ in search of the berries

My mum knows a few excellent spots for blueberry picking up in the mountains around Klosters, and on Saturday morning, we went up there looking for those juicy berries - my absolute favourites ever since I was a child.

We went up to Monbiel, parked the car, took a look back down the valley, and then walked off, following the path, gently upwards, leading us eventually to the woods.

I kept looking back, taking pictures. Mainly because the sun was right in front of me, and very bright up there, but also because the view really is nice, and I just loved those big clouds hovering over the peaks.

Following the path along green alpine meadows full of wild flowers in all shapes and colours. And a few fences for Fence Friday, which I managed to completely forget (I was much too exhausted last Friday to do anything at all once I was back home in the evening. More about that coming later on, making a big chronological mess, but who cares anyway :) ).

And always looking back, taking in the ever changing views. Wouldn't it be nice to live up here, in one of those cottages? Or at least spend a week, or even just a few daysm up here? Just imagine the silence in the evening!

Did we find the blueberries in the hidden clearing full of blueberry bushes in the woods, and return home ladden with those freshly picked wild mountain delicacies, turning them into delicious pies, mixing them with creamy yoghurt, or just eating them straight out of the dish? Well, we'll see...

P.S. Although it's already feeling quite like autumn up there, it's not yet quite that yellowy looking, but still very green all around, both the and  trees. The autumn touch mainly comes from the marvelous texture by Shadowhouse Creations I've used here. I just love that texture!

Painted Texture - Jazz

I finally managed to get my painting stuff out and produce a hand made, painted texture, rather than a Photoshop one. It's fun to do and I've learnt a lot of great techniques and tricks from my fabulous painting teacher in the last 15+ years and I got a lot of inspiration and a few new tricks from the texture e-course (where I'm slowly catching up and am hoping to get through all the remaining lessons before the classroom closes next week). So, now I just have to start making more textures :-). It's good to take out those paints and brushes and use them for something a bit different.

What is quite new to me is the size of the paper, canvas, cardstock etc. I'm working with. I'm so used to a rather big canvas or sheet of paper, but for textures, that's no good. If it's too big, it won't fit on to the scanner. So I'll have to get used to working with about an A4 size now. The advange is that it takes a lot less working space, which is good as I have to work in my study/library/studio and have to be carefuel all the time not to splash any paint on the walls or carpet of a rented flat. I so wish to have my own proper little atélier one day...

So that's what I've come up with on a productive Sunday:

Not sure yet, really, if it's any good as a texture and with what kind of pictures to use it. It might actually be a bit too "strong" in its own way. Well, I'm still learning :-). But it sort of seems to work with this:

Feel free to download the texture here (or click on the texture image) and give it a try. And if you like, let me know if it's any good or not :-).

While working away at the texture, I've been listening to a CD which I rediscovered the other day and which is just perfect to listening to while getting creative with brush and paint: Choose your boots by Fredrik Lundin Overdrive. I discovered jazz relatively late and usually prefer the old jazz stuff along with any music from the 1920s and 30s. But there's some modern bands I really like.

My favourite track is "The long haul", but I couldn't find that on Youtube.

I've been racking my brain trying to find a suitable name for the texture, and finally, I've come up with one - I'm just going to call it "jazz" :-)

New texture - Autumn leaves (I know, I know...)

It's Sunday again, which means that I have the time and energy to spend some time at the computer working through some of the online classes and experimenting with creating textures. And that's what I've come up with, using several layers to create a texture. The layers are scans of book covers, old paper and a piece of hand made paper with leaves and dried flower petals in it, which is absolutely gorgeous.

One of the biggest problems with creating your own textures really is finding a suitable name for them. I'd like to try to avoid just giving them numbers, but deciding on a name just seems to take up at least as much time as creating them. Well, I decided to call this one "Autumn leaves textures".

Another great problem with a texture is the question of where to use it. The texture itself might be vey pretty indeed, but is it any good for being used with a photograph? And if yes, with which picture and in what way? This texture has much of an autumn feel, I think. I was therefore looking for some pictures taken earlier this year, with some brown tones. I found one which I thought might be suitable and gave it a try:

I think it works quite well and I like the sort of painterly effect of it and the bright whitish patches help to intensify the cool feel (this was taken in late January/early February on a very cold and grey day) and goes well with the snow on the roof.

Admittedly, this picture (and the texture) does not fit the spring season at all. At this time of the year, we're weary of the cold and the bare look of everything outside and welcome the warmer weather and each tiny little piece of fresh green and colourful blossom that appear outside. But unfortunately, I'm still without my camera *sigh* so all I can do is using my old pictures - and experiment with creating textures :).

If you would like to try it out yourself, feel free to download it here or click on the image of the texture above.

But oh I wish I had my camera back! I feel like I've been waiting for ages! Spring is early this year and it's been exceptionally warm in the last day or two and the trees are all rapidly beginning to bloom. The magnolia tree in my street will be in full bloom very soon, as will everything else - and I can't take any pictures of it all :-(.

So I'll just have to go on experimenting with textures in the meantime, I suppose. I've even started with a painted one and hopefully, I'll manage to finish it today and scan it next week. I've also set up my easel in my study and started working on a big canvas to make a new picture for the living room. I've slightly altered the colour scheme and the picture which is there now just doesn't really fit anymore. That's the convenient thing with painting - if you want a new picture, you can just paint one. It's much cheaper than having to buy something and it saves you the trouble of having to find the matching colours as well. And it's fun to do as well :-). It just takes some time...

Grunge brush set & my first texture

I've been busy all evening - while watching Miss Marple solve mystery after mystery :-) - with creating a first proper set of brushes. I call them Seaside Grunge Brushes, because I used an image of some very rusty texture which I took last autumn on Torquay pier as a base. I haven't had much time yet to try them out and see if they're actually usable, but I'm nevertheless quite pleased with them :-). And now that I've got a first taste of making brushes, I certainly will do more of them :-)

Here's what they look like:

Seaside grunge brush set

Feel free to download here (or click on image) and use them - and let me know if they're any good :-):

Of course when I had finished them I wanted to try them out quickly, so I created a simple brown background and started stamping them down - and out came a texture :-).

Texture No 1

Again, feel free to download here (or click on image) and use it. I hope it's useful... I only tried it out once and very quickly to see if it worked at all:

 

I hope that I got all the download links right here. Let me know if there are any problems.

Well, making brushes and textures certainly is great fun, and not as difficult as I thought. It's fun to do them all in PSE, but I must say that I'm also looking forward to making some brushes and texture using good old paper and paint and other stuff.

Anyway, time to turn in, long day tomorrow... Have a wonderful start into the new week!

London Wildlife

I went through some of the many folders on my external memory drive last night and found some images I took last summer in London's Bushy Park after a day spent at Hampton Court.

In my guide book, it said that the park was full of deer and that you'd have a good chance to see some. It wasn't long after I saw the first deer grazing a little distance away. And there were loads more to come. It's really amazing how close you can walk past and take pictures of them. We have a lot of deer in Switzerland as well, but they all live in the forests and you hardly ever get to see them, at least not so close.

I had made the one or other attempt at processing them, back in summer, brightening it up, saturating the colours a bit, and so, but I didn't really know what and how to do with them (the originals are rather dull) and so I just gave up. But last night, I just felt like giving it another try. I felt that I finally knew what to do with them.

There was this group of fawns (is that the right term? and it's probably not 'group' but 'herd' or some other term one's never heard of before) lying in the shade of the trees in the evening sun (it was a very hot day). I just love those two on the ground on the left and foreground with their silly smiles on their faces :-).

Later on, there was a group of stags grazing quite close to the path. I took loads of pictures, first from far away and then closer and closer. I couldn't believe how close I could get to them - and none of them ever even lifted his head to look at me. Ignored me completely. I must say, I was rather glad about that though :-).

It was a lovely day out there at Hampton Court and in Bushy Park. And a lovely holiday, all in all. Amazingly, in the two weeks I spent in London, it rained only once, and that early in the morning, providing wonderful and dramatic clouds over the Thames and London Bridge in the afternoon. Apart from that, it was hot and sunny every day and I came home tanned and sunburnt - and with everyone looking very suspiciously at me when I told them I'd just come back from a holiday in London :-). I'm going to London again this summer. I've been there many times but there are still so many things and places to discover, and I find something new every time I go. I don't think I'll ever get tired visiting that city :-).

~ rhythm ~

I've signed up for yet another course involving yet another 52 week's project, along with 52 of twenty eleven (where I'm again behind) and 52 weeks of no colour (where I'm just about keeping up). The new project is Picture Inspiration at Big Picture Classes. I enjoyed Picture the Holidays and Picture Winter but the daily prompts were a bit stressful and really just too much for me. But once a week should be manageable. I hope :-).

The course started last week and this (the second's) week prompt is rhythm. We were given a number of definitions and had to translate one of them into a picture. I chose the definition pattern of masses alternating with voids. I love bare winter trees (I only really came to appreciate them now, after I got my camera and finally learned to see), the mass of dark branches in all sizes and the voids in between them. I took the picture a few weeks ago, but I just thought it fitted the prompt so well and I did the processing today :-).

For week 1, we had to take a self portrait so that we could all see each other, as we are going to spend the next 52 weeks together. A good idea, of course, only that I don't really feel much like taking selfies at the moment. I have no energy at all right now (health issues...) and I'm tired all the time. I took some pics in the bath room mirror and then tried some b&w processing and added a framte, until I got a result I could halfway live with. I also added some Gaussian blur under the pretext of softening it up but it's really just an excuse to disguise the fact that the picture isn't really quite sharp but slightly out of focus.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the journey and I hope that I'll manage to keep up :-). I'm really happy about seeing many of the "girls" from Picture the Holidays and Picture Winter again in the new course and taking the journey with them. I know I'll find lots of inspiration in the class gallery. I also like the community spirit in these classes and I really hope that I'll manage to keep up with everyone's uploads and with commenting better than I did in the last two classes.

The quote is by Cecil Taylor, the textures and the frame are from The CoffeeShop Blog and Flypaper Textures.

Light & Shadows

~ there are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast (charles dickens) ~

Photography is a great medium to take a different look at things and put them into perspective. I took this image for the Flickr group 52 of Twenty Eleven for this week's theme Shadows.

Some recurring health issues are casting a shadow over my general state of wellbeing at times. The bright side to it is that it could be worse (but hopefully never will be).

But that's life: full of lights and shadows. And at the end, it is really mainly a question of attitude and the point of view you choose to adopt. (Says a born pessimist and expert prophet of doom and gloom... ;.) )

Textures by borealnz

{Day 25} ~ The Magic Machine

Prompt for Day 25 for Picture Winter: "The Magic Machine"

Today, we were asked to look at our "most trusty messenger", at "our coveted computers" and to "find the beauty in the technical".

I expected this to be quite difficult, to take a picture of my computer which is somehow special, and not just, well, a picture of my computer. I was quite surprised about how much fun taking and processing this image actually was!

And my computer has certainly become my "trusted companion" in the last months, even more so than before. I spend a LOT of my time with it, even more than with my beloved camera.

{Day 22} ~ Centrepiece

Prompt for Day 22 for Picture Winter: "Centrepiece"

The assignment was to picture what's at the centre of our table and to "picture it in a way that says something about  you and your beloved table".

What you always find on my table are my beloved black+blum Loop candle holders. I first saw them at the shop in the Desing Museum in London a few years ago and simply couldn't resist. I bought just the one simply because there wasn't room for more than one in my suitcase (that was when hand lugagge restrictions were still extremely strict). But I managed to mail order two more from an online shop soon after. So I've got three of them, two satin and and one chrome finish, holding 6 candles altogether and I love how you can combine and interlace them or use them individually.

Some time later I found the matching fruit bowl (at the moment filled with tasty oranges). The third thing you'll always find on my table, as everywhere else in my home, is a pile of books. Some photography books at the moment.

So what does this say about me? That beside all the old stuff I that I love so much, I also have a passion for (affordable) modern design. In fact, my secret dream career has always been that of a (furniture) designer, but I've never even considered pursuing that. And that I have to have books around me at all times, everywhere.

The black+blum objects are also quite fitting in another way, as the designers are an "Anglo-Swiss partnership". Well and here's me - an anglophile Swiss. So there you go. My life on my table :-).

Texture by Kim Klassen.

{Day 18} ~ Centre of Attention / {January} ~ The Beginning of a Year full of Inspiration and Creativity

Prompt for Day 18 of Picture Winter: "Centre of Attention"

Today's assingment was to "pay attention to one subject that tends to keep showing up in your work - something that captures your eye, time and time again, and begs to be the center of attention for your creativity".

Well, brushes might not be the thing that most keeps showing up in my work, although I have taken far more and regularly ictures of painting brushes and other paining stuff than you've seen here on my stream. However.

I painted long before I picked up "serious" DSLR photography last spring, but my creativity has been suffering for a long time. 2011 will be my creative year, so I've decided, and already in the first three weeks of this new year, I have found so much inspiration around me which has helped me to develop my photography skills.

I know that I will never be an artist and never be able to produce true real art, and I don't aspire to do so, I'll always be an amateur. But I very much hope that I will also find the inspiration this year to make painting again one of the centres of my attention and the passion it once was, along with photography. And I'm looking forward to combining the two, I already can see so many ways in doing so.

And I just love images of painting brushes and painting stuff :-)

Texture by Shadowhouse Creations.

*  *  *

I am also using this image for my "Beginnings" page for One Little Word. My word for 2011 is Inspiration. The prompt for this page actually was to take a self portrait. And I will. Later. But I felt that this would be a so much more fitting image, as this is the beginning of my year full of inspiration and creativity.

I haven't really taken the time to work on this project until today. I always wanted to but then all the photo post processing got in the way. And I was also unable to order the supplies as all the three main thing - the album, the plastic refill packs and the card stock were not on stock. And although I kept receiving messages that some small quantities of stock had come in, they were sold out again so quickly that I never managed to order them all three together. And with the shipping costs from the States to Switzerland being what they are, there was no way I was going to order them individually. But album and cardstock at least are now on their way, together with some other scrapbooking stuff, and the refill pages I'll hopefully soon be able to order over here in Europe.

I'm so looking forward to start to get working on the project. I think it's a wonderful idea to have a special word for the whole year and I think that this class will really help to keep focused on it.

I'll soon write more and in greater detail about this class and project, and will be starting at the beginning, but I just had to create this page today and add it here as when I did the processing work on this photo today for Picture Winter, I just felt that I had finally found my "beginnings" photo.

{Day 17} ~ Stark Raving Magnificent

Prompt for Day 17 for Picture Winter: "Stark Raving Magnificent"

Today's assignment was to "capture some kind of starkness today", to "think minimal beauty", to "think simple".

Firstly: I didn't take this shot today but on Boxing Day, which was a perfect winter wonderland day spent with the family.

Secondly: I just can't think minimal and simple enough to do without using textures at the moment.

Thirdly: but I think I captured at least some minimal simple beauty with this winter road shot and as to starkness, well I must admit I had to look it up in hte dictionary to figure out what exactly that meant (and I'm afraid I've already forgotten it again...).

And finally. I just like how this shot turned out :-)

{Day 15} ~ Cooling It

Prompt for Day 15 for Picture Winter: "Cooling It"

The assignment for Day 15 was to "cool" an image to give it an extra feel of winter and cold. This image was already quite bleak and gloomy when I took it (it was one of those days) but not quite as gloomy as this result. I achieved the cool feel not with some "sliding" in PSE as suggested in the assignment, but with some layers of different textures.

I'm not quite sure what to think of it. I like how the textures worked but I'm not sure about the image as such. Maybe the image I started with wasn't the right one in the first place. But sometimes, one just has to try it out and learn from one's mistakes :-)

The Wine of Life

Die Kunst ist zwar nicht das Brot, aber der Wein des Lebens (Jean Paul)

I have tried to find a good English translation of this quote, but although I found a great number of Jean Paul quotes in English, I didn't find one of this particular one. It means something like "Art may not be life's bread but it is its wine". Well, I think you get the meaning.

My painting teacher had this quote, scribbled on a piece of paper, stucked on to the wall for ages. Didn't see it today, but it might just be behind some other stuff on the wall :-).

Texture by Shadowhouse Creations.

{Day 14} ~ Beyond the Chill

Prompt for Day 14 for Picture Winter: "Beyond the Chill"

These bright pink blossoms are everywhere at the moment, bringing a splash of cheerful colour into the rather dull and snowless winter days at the moment.

Texture by Kim Klassen

{Day 10} ~ Balanced

Prompt for Day 10 for Picture Winter: "Seeking Balance"

I'm cheating a bit with this one, as I tooks this picture earlier this year, in summer. But it just seemed to fit today's prompt so well and I've always wanted to do something with it.
I did the processing today, so it's only half cheating ;-)

Textures by rubyblossom and Kim Klassen.

{Day 4} ~ A Little Sunshine

Today's prompt for PictureWinter: A Little Sunshine

I found the prompt for Day 4 really hard. We were supposed to look for something that reminded us of the sun, like happy polka dots, something to "substitute for sunshine when you really need it". And that's the problem: I'm not really a sun person and I'm not looking for sun. I'm very happy about the misty, grey days & hope they're here to stay for a while. 'Winter Blues' doesn't exist in my vocabulary, but I know all about 'Summer Blues' - weeks and weeks of long, hot, sunny days. So depressing. The only "sunny" thing I could think of in my home were these cards from my colour memory set. I wasn't happy with the photo so I played around with some texture, brushes and fancy fonts. I must say, I really quite enjoyed that part :-).

So here's a bit of sunshine from me to everyone who is feeling the Winter Blues and in need of a bit of sunshine :-)

Texture by Shadowhouse Creations

{Day 1} ~ A Day for Rest

After having finished Picture the Holidays yesterday, the new year starts with a new challenge: Picture Winter.

Prompt for Day 1 was: A Day for Rest. I spent most of the day at the computer, learning the basics of how to use PSE and no it's time for a mug of hot white chocolate and putting up the feet :-)

Textures by Kim Klassen