Tree Poetry: More Experiments

I'm trying to learn more about Photoshop, because it takes my random works of art and gives them...stature. This is a photo of Eucalyptus leaf and bark, placed over the blue fabric photo I used under yesterday's "dancer". The third layer and the poem are on top. Trying to put it together was strange, because everything Photoshop feels so theoretical rather than real. You can create results you can't undertand, or don't see how to reverse, or in a format that seems to exclude certain uses of the image. But I still think artists can rejoice that there is such a good tool available to manipulate and multiply the uses of our images. Now, if I can just learn how to bend it to my will without letting it humiliate me too badly.

The poem, by the way, is one I started using for calligraphy practice so long ago, by Karle Wilson Baker. Whenever I set out to do lettering, this one creeps back out of my memory and onto the page. It's nice, though. It goes on for four more stanzas, but I always liked the first and third. Maybe I'll use the whole poem sometime.

Desert Dancer

I've set myself the task of learning a bit about using "layers" in Photoshop. The image in black and white is a sketch of a statue outside the Phoenix Art Museum. The Blue image above it is a snapshot of a beach wrap I picked up last summer at Venice Beach. The combined image at top was created (eventually) but I'm not sure how. I think it was necessary to save the blue layer as a PDF in order to add it to the drawing which was a JPEG. Then the whole thing was locked together but when I tried to add it to the blog, it was still a (forbidden) PDF, so I had to re-save the final image as a JPEG again. Oh, well ... I'm just glad I have something to show for my first attempt. Enjoy.

Summer's End

Still working off and on with images gathered at the beach in July. Night at the beach drawing (above) is intentionally monochrome. The water and sand both had an iridescent sheen like pewter. Below, I tried to analyze wave motion, and light on moving water. Of course, drawing it on a paper bag was a poor choice of material, but was at hand when the problem presented itself. When will I learn to use good materials for every try?

A Few More Sketches While I Unpack...

Until I get settled, can't share any of the color and ambience, but...

Gestures like this quickie above are the drawing equivalent of what my photo instructor called "grab shots." But sometimes I get an urge to enlarge a tiny quickie like this, so that it covers an entire wall, because it seems that only in a little sketch can you get that spontaneous feeling or the largeness of the feeling you are actually trying to express. The ocean is SO BIG, and my sketchpad so small.

Back from the Beach with Fresh Imagery

Took a week to go to Laguna Beach, and spent the time with sensors on full alert. A former Californian, I'd never been to L.B. before. It sort of reminded me of the Sixties, only lots more expensive! Was everyone so beautiful then? Took lots of pictures: of ambience, light effects, reflections, buildings under construction, plants, people, and events. Remembered to draw: in the room, at the beach, anywhere I could. I drew in public too: what challenge number is that? There was time of course to play in the surf, too! It's amazing how a change of place shakes up your way of seeing. For me, it was like suddenly rediscovering color, and I want to surf that wave of energy for as long as it lasts.