I guess there must have been a pier here at one time.

The hills in the distance were hazy in real life.

The bunches of grass on the tips of the posts is very interesting....

Photography

I like the look of these posts sticking up from the water.

Altered Book- theme- Demons

I signed up for one of those round robin swap thingies. First time I've ever done that.

Got a book to work in with a theme of "demons".

Right up my alley. I have always loved drawing demons. Some are creepy, scary- some are beautiful creepy, some are just weird.

I started playing around with different demon drawings.
I even did a brand new sketch to use as a base for this.
I like him a lot- he has rather feline features and striking eyes.

This first attempt is just too chaotic- even for me. LOL

So... I decided to print out some individual pics and play around with them and see what I could come up with.

Pencil sketch colored in Photoshop.
I love the depth of color and textures I can get working digitally for adding color to sketches.
I printed this one on glossy photo paper and then added dimension by using a stylus and paper stumps to model the form of the face. I backfilled it with molding paste so it wouldn't get flattened out.

I did water color washes on the edging paper. I am beginning to appreciate water colors.
I took a beginning class from Cory Celaya and have managed to overcome my terror of this medium. ;)
I used a woodburning tool to distress the edges of this. The paper has numerous cuts and slits in it.

Details of demons

This is an old sketch of mine colored in Photoshop.
I printed it out on heavy cardstock and used a stylus and stumps to dry emboss parts of it. I even used an Exacto blade and cut through in places where the image has wounds.
Then I cut away portions of the background paper and played with some water colors and distressing techniques.

Finished Altered Book round robin piece.
I'm very happy with the way this one turned out.
So happy in fact, that it is difficult to send it away.

Does anyone else have that problem? A reluctance to send off artwork you have become fond of.

Stop with the wings and hats

Can we just stop with the wings and hats on everything.

Photography class

I'm really enjoying taking an on line photography class. It is taught by Jessica of Cre8it.com. She is such a wonderful instructor.

I'm ending up with a lot of pics that aren't quite right for the assignments, but they are pics I like.
It's really making me remember to take photographs more often- and that is what I need to do- take more pictures, get more practice.

I'm actually figuring out what the different manual controls are! I have options other than Auto mode now. :)

I enhanced a few of these in Photoshop.

Odd Cloud

I got a shot of a very strange cloud in eastern Oregon last week. I don't know what caused this phenomenon, but I am very glad I had my camera with me.