Pixel Dust Photo Art

Photo Art Friday, March 9th - 11th

2012-03-08T16:02:00.002-05:00

Welcome to Photo Art Friday!

Hope you are all well. I've had a bad sore throat for three days, and it feels like it is going to turn into bronchitis - can't stop coughing. Oh well ... this too shall pass, right?

This week, as always, you can showcase any piece of your photo ART, OR a piece of photo art that has elements 'hidden in plain sight'. For a more detailed explanation of what I mean by 'elements hidden in plain sight', click here.

Here are two examples of composite images that have elements hidden in plain sight - you just have to give your eyes and mind a bit of time to notice them. Don't forget you can click on the images for a larger view.

Created with pdpa textures, public domain images and text.

A composite of photographs processed with PSE Filter "Wave", and text.

For next week's PAF you have three options:

posting any piece of photo ART,

photo ART with element(s) hidden in plain sight - encore

photo ART that highlights the color GREEN

Three choices! Something for everyone!

Simply Irresistible

2012-03-05T15:48:00.001-05:00

Hi my lovelies. I've been busy making textures just for you. I'm thrilled by these new offerings - they really are magic pixel dust!

Let me show you some of these new textures applied to my old reliable pear photograph. (BTW, I use this same pear photo as one of the main pics to test my textures so that I have the same point of comparison with all the other hundreds of textures tested.)

Okay - here are some of this new set applied to the pear:

pdpa Simply Perwinkle Texture blended in Hard Light at 100% (texture removed from pear and leaves).

pdpa Simply Iridescent Texture blended in Overlay at 100% (texture removed from pear and leaves).

pdpa Simply Periwinkle Texture blended in Screen at 100% (texture removed from pear and leaves).

pdpa Simply Periwinkle Texture blended in Hard Light, 100%.

pdpa Simply Urban Grunge Texture blended in Screen at 65% opacity.

pdpa Simply Abstracted Texture. I rotated the texture before applying and blending in Hard Light at 100%. Photoshop Artistic Filter, Poster Edges applied and opacity reduced to 55%.

Photo Art with Elements "Hidden" In Plain Sight

2012-03-03T10:44:00.013-05:00

Hi my lovelies! Thank you for all the great submissions to Photo Art Friday this week. I am truly inspired by how many of you take on the challenge to try something new and different.

Next week, as well as any piece of photo art we choose, we have the option to create a piece of photo art with something in the image that is 'hidden in plain sight'. This means that you will have to add or imbed something (another image, a font, a phrase ...) into your image. Let me give you a couple of examples:

This is a simple composite image made from one of my textures, a texture from Jerry at ShadowHouse Creations and some public domain (copyright free) images from the WEB.

The first thing your eye is drawn to is the big image of the young girl and then the clock behind her. But can you see another image in there that is 'hidden' in plain sight? This example is pretty obvious. Don't ask me for any deep significance - there is none that I am consciously aware of - but I put a buddha in her hair. I'm sure it didn't take you long to spot it.

Another example:

The image at the right is two images made with the Photoshop>Filter>Distort>Wave filter. I have applied one with lots of little thread-y, filament-y looking pieces over another with jagged waves.

I then applied (see image below) this combined image over an image of a fence that had a texture applied (forget which one) and was blended in Photoshop's Difference blend mode.

As you see, this is a great way of using textures in your archives!

Then, I added some little things, using my Text Tool, into the image. See what you can find in the larger image below:

At first glance you see a simple, yet busy, abstract design. If you take the time to look closer, you see some type in the upper left corner that says "be curious ...". That type came with one of my textures.

Along the horizontal bar that crosses the image in the lower third quadrant, you may notice that I typed in letters to form the phrase "rise up". To the left of that phrase you can spot the word "now". Here and there throughout the image you can find numbers and letters (k, y, x, b, 9, 7, 18, etc.) that I threw in - just for fun - no special meaning.

Building on the above image we just viewed, I added more elements to the image below (a image of large, digital waves and an image of a woman). Her confident stance prompted me to add in more text, but I did not want it to be too obvious. Can you find it?

Above and to the left of her head you will find "and . . ?". To her right and typed in vertically you can find the phrase, "i dare you". Other numbers and letters from the previous image are still visible too.

No deep meaning in what is hidden or visible - in fact, people make their own meaning from the images you present to them - as they should. Once we submit our creations to be viewed, all kinds of varying interpretations will be attributed to them - it's human nature to want to make meaning from disparate elements. Human beings will always create a story with the elements provided to them and the story they create ultimately says more about them than you. This is how Rorschach ink blots work in psychological testing.

The possibilities are endless in terms of what you can add. You can do it simply to add visual interest, to highlight something that interests you, or to make a tribute, or even a social or political statement.

For example:

Using an image with irregular-shaped 'squares' as the starting point for what was not planned as, but ended up being a little statement about war. All images used to place in the 'squares' are public domain, procured from the WEB.

Your eyes naturally first scan over the images and text messages. But ... did you notice that the entire image is crawling with ants? (Left click on the image to get a larger view!)

Don't ask me what it all 'means' - I just follow my right brain impulses and use the images I have available to me in my archives. (At this moment I would interpret it as conveying the thought that those who create war for profit or to boost the economy are 'creepy', low-life critters ... ) Then I keep what I like and Undo what I don't. What meaning do you take or make from the combo of elements imbedded in this image?

Take another moment and see if there are other images 'hidden in plain sight' that you didn't notice at first viewing.

So ... my friends ... hope that gives you a better understanding of what the challenge is for next week's Photo Art Friday.

Think about something that you've been wanting to say or illustrate, but did not have the platform or venue to say it - then - with your archive of textures, photographs, images from the Web, Text Tool (with all the wonderful fonts available), Brushes, etc. etc., make your statement, tribute, homage, gesture, using digital images as your elements of expression.

Start with something simple (perhaps just one thing that is 'hidden') and realize that your initial attempts are experiments that will help you learn what YOU like, what YOU want to portray, what YOU want to say, what YOU wish someone would say or do ... and most of all what YOUR particular style and aesthetic is ...

Rememer, you inhibit your learnings if you need things to be perfect! Nothing is perfect and you become paralyzed if you impose this requirement on yourself.

Above all, let your creativity run riot, make glorious 'mistakes', and have fun.

Here's a graphic image you can use as a canvas to begin your creative experiments, (or you can always create your own):

For your free download of pdpa Statement Frames texture, simply click HERE.

Sharing with Lisa Gordon's The Creative Exchange!

Photo Art Friday, March 2nd - 4th AND A GIVEAWAY!

2012-03-01T07:50:00.002-05:00

Before we get into this week's Photo Art Friday showcase, I want to let you know that the talented and lovely Jeanne of Butterfly Tales: Metamorphosis From The Cocoon is currently doing a feature on Pixel Dust Photo Art and hosting a giveaway of three sets of my latest textures. Thanks Jeanne! What fun!

To enter Jeanne's giveaway there are a couple of requirements - one of which is to follow this blog. So before you head over to Butterfly Tales to enter Jeanne's giveaway, become a follower of PDPA (if you are not already) while you are here.

Here is a peek at the three sets of textures one lucky entrant in the Butterfly Tales' giveaway will receive:

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For next week's Photo Art Friday,

let's continue with a choice of:

1. showcasing any piece of photo art

2. showcasing a piece of photo art with something(s) HIDDEN in the art

Need a little more clarification? Okay, let me elaborate: There should be something in your art piece that viewers, who take the time to linger over your art, will discover - something that is not obvious at first glance. Place an image (or even several images) within your main image - something that is hidden in plain sight. (I will post a couple of examples of this type of image on Sunday or Monday.)

If you choose this second option don't identify what is hidden in the image in your post. Let the viewers try to identify it and tell you what they think you have hidden in your image, in their comments. After most of the comments have rolled in, you can then reveal what was hidden in a comment response.

So ... what do you think? This will be a fun challenge for those of you who embrace it - and for those of us who come to view it.

If you feel option #2 is too complicated or time-consuming you still have option #1, which is always the core of this photo art showcase.

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Now without further ado...

it is time for some photo art!

This week at Photo Art Friday we have the choice of submitting any piece of art made from our photographs OR a piece of abstract photo art.

I am submitting the following piece of abstract photo art:

This piece of photo art was made from a collage manipulated with Photoshop Filter "Wave", pdpa textures and web fonts. One of the final edits was blending the grouping in Difference blending mode which gives the font multiple tones. A black border was added as a finishing touch.

... grandmother love ...

2012-02-29T08:03:00.001-05:00

Meet one of the smartest, funniest, sweetest, most energetic and vivacious people I know. Best of all .... she loves me too. (The photograph was taken by Marilyn Gherashe, Photographer and edited in Photoshop par moi.)

... photo play ...

2012-02-27T07:50:00.007-05:00

Two versions of one collage.

(Don't forget to left click on the image to enlarge!)

Forgive me, no recipe for you this time. I could take a stab at recalling what was done - but I was in the zone, trying this and that - not stopping to take note of my moves. etc. I've always found stopping to note and name what I'm doing a disruption of the creative flow. Compare it, for example, to taking notes about what works and what doesn't in the middle of lovemaking - it really spoils the moment, process and product!

For those of you into textures, new sets of sheer textures are being posted here today! Here is one example:

Sharing this post with The Creative Exchange

Photo Art Friday, Feb. 24th - 26th

2012-02-23T18:15:00.023-05:00

Welcome to this week's Photo Art Friday!

First, let me thank all of you who participated in last week's edition.

All of your submissions were a joy to behold!

This week we have three suggestions to choose from for our submissions:

1. Any piece of photo art you choose.

2. A piece of photo art which you created using a layer mask.

3. A piece of photo art that is not pretty.

I have selected #3.

These three photographs were taken while DH and I were searching for parking in "The Plateau" area of Montreal one Friday evening. We were meeting my daughter and her husband at a restuarant (among the thousands in Montreal) that comes highly recommended called, "L'un des sens". I had a little Canon point and shoot with me. (The images in this post were processed in PSE 8 and RadLab.)

As we sat at a red light my eyes settled upon a lone figure sitting by an open window. In spite of the hustle and bustle at street level, I was captivated by this man in the window. He seemed to be sitting at a table eating. Was he was trying to make the best of his situation, choosing to dine 'al fresco' with the window wide open to catch the rays? As we tend to do, I constructed (completely fantasized) a story to go with what I saw.

In the above photo, you see what I was able to see from my vantage point in the car. The photo was taken through the windshield glass. Intrigued by the figure in the window surrounded by cement, city grime, and noise ... curiosity aroused ... I moved in for a closer shot.

Though concerned it was somewhat invasive taking his photo without his permission ... I persisted past any qualms and took the shot anyway. To ask his permission would ruin the moment and it wasn't really possible.

Even closer now, I can see his beard, dishevelled hair, caved-in chest, hunched shoulders and green drinking goblet. Imagine the story this man would tell. That ... the story ... intrigues me more than the image. These photographs have not captured beauty, but they have captured a moment in time that is ripe and heavy with story ... the true details of which shall forever remain unknown to me.

A collage of photos of the "Man in the Window".

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For next week's Photo Art Friday let's continue with having a choice of what to do, one of which will hopefully fit your inclinations and circumstances.

1. Link up any piece of photo ART you choose

OR

2. Submit a piece of photo-art that is abstract

Here are couple of textures that might prove useful for next week (and beyond):

For your free download of pdpa Blue Moon texture, click HERE.

For your free download of pdpa Dreams of Spring texture, click HERE.

As always, our virtual gallery opens its doors early - Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. EST.

A Fun Way To Use Textures

2012-02-22T09:24:00.003-05:00

Hi there! Just dropping in to show you another way to use your textures.

First think of words you would like to put into an image (you can view examples there) and go to:

http://www.wordle.net/

How To Apply A Wordle To A Texture

* go to Wordle and create your 'word cloud' - don't forget to click on "Randomize" to see different ways Wordle can configure your words

* when you see a configuration (word cloud) you like, take a screen shot using the button PrtScn on the top righthand corner of your keyboard

* open (or drag) your screen shot of your Wordle into your photo editing program (here I use PSE 8)

* crop the screen shot to eliminate Wordle.net's text around edges

* open a texture in your editing program that you would like to use as a background

* apply your cropped Wordle to the texture

* use your move tool to position it and to adjust the size to what you want

* try different blending modes until you see an effect you like

* once the word cloud is positionned, I like to try Filter>Poster Edges (reducing opacity) to see if it produces a pleasing effect - if it doesn't add to the image, simply click "Undo"

* use your own ingenuity and knowledge of PS to personalize your creation

* have fun!!!

Lisa's Creative Exchange

2012-02-19T21:08:00.002-05:00

This image started as a photograph of a restaurant in Old Montreal. I enhanced in with RadLab and then gave it a painterly effect using PSE Filter>Artistic>Paint Daubs at 100%, and then Filter>Artistic> Poster Edges at 80% opacity.

Am sharing this image with Lisa Gordon's "The Creative Exchange". Do join us there! The Creative Exchange takes place every Monday.

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Were you perhaps hoping you would find a new texture waiting here for you? Well, who am I to disappoint you. Hope you like it!

To download the free, high-resolution pdpa texture, entitled "Hope", click HERE.

Photo Art Friday, Feb. 17th - 19th

2012-02-16T16:07:00.002-05:00

Here it is! Time again for Photo Art Friday!

For this week's submissions you are encouraged to post any piece of photo art you choose OR share a piece of art where you use one of my textures AND THEN use a Layer Mask to finesse the texture application. It's always nice to have a choice, don't you think? Have you made your choice?

I chose the second option and am using my old, favorite test photo for textures, my reliable pear.

Here are the pear photo and the new texture I chose to apply to it:

Recipe:

* open photograph in PSE

* duplicate your layer (you can see I skipped this step)

* apply texture

* blend those two layers in Hard Light at 100% Opacity

* apply Layer Mask to texture layer

* select soft, round Brush at 45% opacity

* select black as foreground color for brush tool

* use your mouse as your 'brush'; paint texture off off where you do not want it

* look at resulting image and decide if you are done or want to make more edits

* I want to apply the Filter, Poster Edges so I select ...

* Layer>Merge Visible> Layer>Duplicate Layer, then select

* Filter>Artistic>Poster Edges

* reduce opacity of Poster Edges to 55%

* add signature

If you would like to add this new texture, "Splash of Gold" to your archives, click HERE.

The 'gallery' doors always open early (7:00 p.m. EST, every Thursday) so you have more than three days to share your artwork here. Hope you can make time to revisit the gallery after you have posted, to see what other delights arrive over the weekend ... and then share a little comment love.

If you still have questions about layer masks, you could include your concerns in your post and hopefully other participants will share their tips with you. My goal has always been that PDPA become a venue for learning and sharing as well as showcasing. This could be a great opportunity for just that.

For next week's Photo Art Friday you have three choices:

1. Submit any piece of your photo art.

2. Continue your work with layer masks and

share a piece on which you have used one.

3. Share a piece of photo art that isn't 'pretty'.

Yes, art isn't always made from what's

beautiful. How about sharing a piece of

photo art that is:

* ordinary

* everyday

* gritty

* grungey

* that captures the underbelly of life

* that highlights the flaw

* that is an artistic statement without having to portray beauty

This doesn't mean that your piece won't be appealing, stunning, arresting or captivating ... it just won't (this time) be based on presenting something generally considered beautiful ...

LOL ... it will probably be important to identify in your post which option you have chosen, so that commenters don't mistake choices #1 or #2 for number #3!

:-)

... a thousand words ...

2012-02-14T07:54:00.001-05:00

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On another note, there are a few new (varied and different) texture sets that have been added to the PDPA Texture Sets Shoppe. If you are a texture aficionado, take a look and see if they might be what you have been waiting for. Here are two of them:

Tips For Layer Masks & A Free Texture

2012-02-11T21:45:00.011-05:00

Hello my lovelies. Hope you are having a great weekend. I want to thank those of you who linked up to Photo Art Friday this week. What wonderful work you are creating and sharing here! Thank you.

Have a sweet texture for you this week called "DreamWonder". The image of the peony below has been treated with this texture.

Since one of the options for next week's PAF is to showcase a piece of photo art on which you have applied one of my textures and used a Layer Mask to remove parts of the texture where you do not want it on your photograph, thought I would use my application of this new texture on my peony to illustrate how I employed a Layer Mask in this piece of work.

Here is the final image after the application of DreamWonder and other edits.

pdpa DreamWonder texture

Here is the texture applied to the photo and blended in Hard Light at 100% Opacity. I actually quite like it just as it is, but let's see what it looks like if I use a Layer Mask to remove most of the texture from the petals.

Since textures do not come with a layer mask as other adjustment layers do, you have to add one. There are many ways to do this which I won't describe here. (you can do a google search for the info, or if you are lucky, one comes with your editing program! :-)

On the right in the Layers Panel, you can see the white rectangle beside the thumbnail of the texture. This indicates that I have added a Layer Mask. I use The Coffee Shop Blog's Layer Mask Action. The white thumbnail will show the adjustments I make to the texture now on my photograph.

To remove (conceal) texture from the peony:

* add a Layer Mask to the texture layer and make sure it is activated by clicking on it

* click on the brush tool in the tools panel on the left of the screen

* make sure that black is the foreground color in the color swatch, at the bottom of the tools bar

* in the top selection bar choose a soft, medium brush and lower the opacity of the brush, in this case I choose 45% opacity

* using the mouse to move the brush, make strokes on the peony petals only. each stroke removes bits of the texture already applied. you can see in the right layers panel the strokes made appear in black on the white Layer Mask thumbnail. since I have gone over areas of the peony more than once with my brush, some of the areas appear more black than others

Looking at what I have done, it seems to me that too much texture has been removed (concealed). I will add some of the texture back (reveal), again using the Layer Mask.

To bring back (reveal) parts of layer removed:

* if I leave black as the foreground color and start to stroke on the peony again, more texture will be removed (concealed). that is not what I want.

* to add back (reveal) texture that I just removed (concealed), the foreground color must be changed to white

* since I don't want to add back all of the texture I just removed, I go up to the top panel and lower the opacity of the soft, white brush down to 15%. this way a small degree of the texture will be added back (revealed) with each stroke.

* brush size is enlarged so that I can just use a few quick strokes to bring back some texture

* on the Layer Mask thumbnail in the right Layers panel, you can see the dark strokes from the use of the black brush are being lightened by the use of the white brush. this means some of the texture removed (concealed) with the black brush has now been added back (revealed) by the white brush.

I like the small amount of texture brought back to the peony, but the whole image a bit too intense. Intensity of color can be changed by lowering the saturation and the lightness.

To lower the saturation, in the right panel, I click on the round Adjustment icon and select Hue/Saturation. I lower both the Saturation slider and the Lightness slider to get the soft, desaturated look desired. Eh voila, done!

For your free download of pdpa DreamWonder texture, click HERE.

General Tips Re Layer Masks

* layer masks help you change the effects of one layer on the layer below

* click on the layer mask thumbnail itself to activate, not just the layer. when it is activated you will see an outline appears around it

* a white brush shows (reveals) the layer you are working on (in this case a texture layer)

* a black brush hides (conceals) the layer (in this case a texture layer) and shows you whatever is in the layer below (in this case the peony)

* the magic is that while it looks like you have erased parts of the texture when you use a black brush, it has not been erased (it has only been concealed) and you can bring back (reveal) what you concealed by switching to the white brush. you can alternate back and forth between white and black brushes as many times as you want

* areas of the layer you remove with a black brush will show up on the layer mask thumbnail as black (you are not actually painting black on your image - it is just how the tool shows you it is working). so in this case on the layer mask thumbnail you see the black image of the peony shape because I stroked over only the peony to remove texture

* reset your color selection swatch in your tools bar to default (black foreground/white background) by hitting the "D" key

* switch between foreground and background colors by hitting the "X" key

So good luck my lovelies! There is so much more to know and do with a Layer Mask, but hopefully the above information, along with previous tutorials you have read or watched, will help you.

If you still feel you need more practice with Layer Masks before you showcase a piece of photo art where you have used one, feel free to post any piece of photo art you choose next week. It would be nice, however, if you would tell us a bit about how your effort at using them went - perhaps articulating any questions you may have. Some of those with more experience may be able to provide the answer you need.

Sharing with Lisa Gordon's The Creative Exchange.

Photo Art Friday, Feb. 10th - 12th

2012-02-09T11:02:00.003-05:00

Welcome friends - to this open (no challenge or theme) version of Photo Art Friday! Here are a couple of images I have worked on this week. The word 'images' is a bit of a stretch, for these are simply textures of mine with text applied. The text is from posters recently created. On these pieces it was my intention for the words to be bunched up and difficult to decipher.

For next week: You are invited to link up whatever you wish to showcase, OR if you are up for a learning or practice challenge, I'd like to suggest the following:

Use a photograph to which you have applied at least one of my textures AND use a LAYER MASK to remove some of the texture where it does not enhance the image.

For those of you who use Layer Masks all the time this will not be difficult. For those of you who do not use layer masks yet, this will be incentive to learn how and to give it a try. Be patient with yourself, it does take a while to understand and execute - BUT at some point it will just CLICK! and you will wonder why you ever thought it was challenging.

Have you ever applied a texture to your photograph and while you get a fairly nice effect it just seems to leave the photograph looking a bit dark, heavy or 'muddy'? Sometimes adjusting the opacity is just not enough to remove the muddiness, and sometimes there are portions of a photograph that you do not want the texture to 'mask'. Layer masks are perfect for removing some of the texture from specific places on your work in progress.

For example, few of you/us share images with people as the subject, but if you did (and you've used a texture) you would usually want to remove the texture from the person's face. Sometimes you may want the texture to frame your subject, say a flower, but you want to remove the texture from, and display the purity of, the flower's petals. Layer Masks are a great PS tool to accomplish this.

Photoshop CS includes a layer mask. Some of you may, however be working with versions of PSE that do not furnish a layer mask. If that is the case you can get a layer mask in the form of an action (for free!) from Rita at The Coffeeshop Blog. Rita also supplies the method for installing the action in PSE and some tips on using layer masks.

Here is the link to get the layer mask action from The Coffeeshop Blog:

http://www.thecoffeeshopblog.com/2008/11/coffeeshop-layer-mask-action.html

Here are another couple of links to tutorials on the topic of how to use layer masks:

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/layers/layer-masks/

http://photoshoptips.net/2006/07/25/layer-masks/

If you want more info, just google "layer mask tutorials".

To recap re next Photo Art Friday's challenge: If you want you can take the challenge to link up an image on which you have added at least one of my textures and then used a layer mask to adjust the texture's appearance over your photo. If you just want to link up your latest piece of photo art and not take up the challenge, that is fine too.

I am publishing this post a bit early. Even tho' the last paragraph says the gallery doors are open, the Inlinkz tool only becomes available at 7:00 p.m. EST today (Thursday).

Ephemeral - a free texture

2012-02-06T13:22:00.000-05:00

Hi Friends - I've been unable to visit your blogs, comment, or post because of on-going Internet connection problems. Five times we have been told the problem is fixed, only to have it return. The technicians sent by the company seem to be bending over backwards to help, but we seem to have some little gremlin in the system that is having a lot of fun at every one's expense. Oh well, in the scheme of things this does not qualify as a big problem, does it? I'm trying to make the most of this window of functionality before we lose the connection again!

In the interim I've been preparing some textures for you. The first, here in this post, is a little different and I hope you will like it as much as I do. It's called "Ephemeral". I'd love to see how you use it!

To download your free high res copy of pdpa "Ephemeral", click HERE.

A reminder: This week's Photo Art Friday is OPEN to whatever you choose to feature. I'm expecting great things! (No pressure! :-)

My Contribution to The Creative Exchange

2012-02-06T12:18:00.002-05:00

An image of a twelve foot fountain that stands in front of a senator's estate on the bank of the Richelieu River near my home. This Canadian senator and his wife are not shy about ostentatious displays of their means and acquisitions. The backyard has two guest houses with giant Roman columns around an infinity pool. The fabulous gardens and meandering brook in both the front and back of the home attract many photographers (myself included) who want to capture the beauty, architecture and statuary.

Sharing this photograph with Lisa Gordon's "The Creative Exchange". Join us there for a feast of photographs!

Photo Art Friday, Feb. 3rd - Feb. 5th

2012-02-02T08:27:00.006-05:00

SURPRISE! That's the suggested theme for this week's Photo Art Friday - in whatever way you choose to interpret "surprise!".

I didn't encounter many editing surprises this week, so decided to 'craft' an image which illustrated something about surprise. I had women with shocked looks on their faces, staring down at bugs around their feet, a picture of half of my face with my one eye wide in surprise. But nothing really 'rang dem bells' for me.

Discouraged and in some sort of editing stupor or fugue, I chose a collage from my archives and manipulated it with a filter in Photoshop and suddenly saw this on my Photoshop screen:

Kind of liked this graphic looking effect and wanted to explore it a bit more, but literally could not remember which filter I had used to produce it! Had to go back and re-test and re-try until I discovered the right Photoshop Filter.

Chose another collage - one of the collages in my shoppes - wanting one that had a black background as I like the black bits in the first editing surprise. Finally settled on the collage made to feature my new Artsy Apparitions Texture Set.

First tried ZigZag but that was not the one. Next I tried Filter>Distort>Wave. Wave's the one!

When you click on "Wave" a box comes up that has sliders so that you can adjust the size and intensity of the effect. There is a little image in the box that allows you to see the changing effects as you move the sliders. This will be a matter of taste, so adjust the sliders to what pleases you and click on OK to commit your selections on the sliders. You also have the option to click on "Randomize" and the filter will automatically bring up different (slider) options.

Here is the effect WAVE produced on the collage. Kind of looks like radio-waves ...

Repeated the process with another collage (sitting on the image) with 12 images surrounded by black. Of course, you can choose whatever color you want for your grid lines. The grid lines between the photos in your collage are key for achieving something like the above effect.

Recipe Review

Create a collage with some of your existing photographs.

Choose a grid spacing line, width and color to separate the images.

Open the finished collage in your editing program.

Duplicate your image of the collage.

Filter>Distort>Wave (adjust sliders to your liking).

Click OK when you see the effect you want.

Here are a few other examples using the above recipe. The collage used in each example is placed on the Wave-edited image.

More textures in a collage with white grid spacing, manipulated with Photoshop filter Wave.

Love this one! Looks a bit like the material in the dresses on women painted by Klimt. The collage is of funky photos an old point-and-shoot would produce as I was shooting flower macros, when the battery was low. Click on the image for a larger view.

As you can see, the more you experiment with the Wave Filter the more interesting and complex the results become. Do click on the image to enjoy the little designs within the bigger design.

Here are a few more done today. Use all the sliders available in the Wave selection window as there are so many different variations possible!

So much effect from such minimal effort! Hope you will give it a try.

For next week's Photo Art Friday let's keep it totally open to whatever you would like to feature. If you want to share something related to Valentine's Day - feel free. Otherwise, the sky is the limit.

Free Fine Art Textures

2012-01-31T08:02:00.000-05:00

Hi there ... how are you doing today? Hope all is well in your world. I have a couple of great free textures for you today. Check them out:

To download a high resolution version of pdpa joie de vivre texture click HERE.

To download a high resolution version of pdpa Vellum texture click HERE.

A few examples follow of what Vellum did for this SOOC photograph.

Vellum applied in Difference blend mode and tweaked in RadLab.

Vellum, again blended with Difference and enhanced in RadLab.

Arsty Apparitions

2012-01-30T10:09:00.004-05:00

I've been busy making new textures and then making some photo art using them. Each texture in this new set of six contains a figure. The backgrounds in the textures give a painterly effect to any photo to which they are applied. Here are a few examples of what can be done with these textures.

Applied a new texture, "l'ennui" to my reliable old texture-tester pear photograph. Here's what I did to achieve this effect:

Recipe

Apply texture to photograph of pear

Blend in Hard Light 100%

Levels Adjustment to darken

Merge Visible

Duplicate

Filter>Strokes>Ink Lines>20% Opacity

Merge Visible

Duplicate Layer

Filter>Artistic>Dry Brush>27% Opacity

Merge Visible

Duplicate Layer

Filter>Artistic>Poster Edges>32% Opacity

"l'ennui" is part of a new set of textures that is available now in my Texture Sets Shoppe. Click on the image for a larger view!

1. Street Musician

2. The Gift

3. The Vapors

4. Over The Ocean

5. l'ennui

6. Excuse Me

pdpa l'ennui texture

Added "The Vapors" texture from the "Artsy Apparitions" Texture Set to this image of angel that you have seen posted here before. I love that with "l'ennui" and "The Vapors" you can have her arm and hand reaching out to touch something in your photograph.

Again "The Vapors" texture applied to photograph of a rainbow shining down on a field.

pdpa Over The Ocean texture

Over The Ocean added to image of the Richelieu River near my home. Followed much the same recipe (process, not necessarily blend or opacity selections) as given above for the pear.

Added Over The Ocean to public domain image of passageway in a derelict building. A photograph of barren tree branches, another texture of text and blending in Difference Blend Mode. A Levels Adjustment was made and applied RadLab Punch Out and Prettyizer effects finishes off a rather haunting, mysterious piece of photo art.

There is lots of fun to be had in your photo-art-making adventures using Artsy Apparitions Texture Set. You can check it out HERE.

Hope you are having some happy photo art surprises that you can share with us at our next Photo Art Friday!

Sharing this post with the lovely Lisa Gordon's "The Creative Exchange".

Photo Art Friday, Jan. 27th - 29th

2012-01-26T18:20:00.003-05:00

Hi Friends! Welcome to Photo Art Friday - the last in January, 2012. Not to worry, we are continuing in February and beyond.

For those who wanted to participate in a 'challenge' this week, it was suggested that we use three photographs and one of my textures to create a piece of abstract photo art. I hope it came through loud and clear that you do not have to participate if it is not convenient or of interest to you. The original idea of posting photographs that we have edited to look like 'art' stands for every edition of PAF.

For those of you who would like a challenge for next week, here it is. SURPRISE US! Link up something different, something out of the norm for you, something that perhaps surprised you in your editing or photography ... that, of course, looks like art from a photograph. (If you are not wanting a challenge, link up any photo art image.)

Here is my submission for this week:

Abstract photo art made from three photos of flowers and a couple of my textures and some RadLab effects.

As you can see in the Layers Panel on the right of the screenshot, I have applied one image of a flower on top of another blending them together in Lighter Color at 100%.

A macro photo of a Delphinium blossom is applied on top of the other two and blended with Luminosity at 100%.

Finding the previous result a bit dark, a Levels Adjustment is made adjusting the grey middle slider to the left to bring in some light.

An as yet unnamed, new transparent texture is added and blended in Vivid Light at 100%. I like the stripes Vivid Light introduces into the image.

One of my Abstract Art Textures - Moderna is applied.

After some experimenting, I settle on Luminosity blending mode at 77% opacity. Nice, but not eliciting and excitement from me ... yet.

I decide to add some Poster Edges (an Artistic Filter), but add a Levels Adjustment Layer to lighten the image a bit first. Poster Edges will darken the image so sometimes I lighten the image a bit before applying it.

Flatten the layers and then duplicate the one layer before going to Filter>Artistic> Poster Edges.

Poster Edges have been added, but deciding it needs a little more oomph, I decide to run it through the Photoshop plug in, RadLab.

Cool As A Cucumber eliminates any yellow tones in the image. I like it.

I keep the Cool As A Cucumber selection and add Prettyizer to it. (See right panel in screenshot.) Click Finish and RadLab applies the two selections, just like that. Love the result. Done!

The inlinkz box does not show up until precisely 7:00 p.m. EST Thursday evening. So if you arrive at 6:55 the box will not yet be visible.

Free Artsy Texture For You

2012-01-25T09:42:00.001-05:00

Hi there,

The doors for Photo Art Friday open, as usual, Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. EST. That's only 30-some hours from now!

The challenge for those who want to try their hand at some abstract art is to use three of your own photographs (or parts of 3 photographs) and one of my textures to create a piece of abstract photo art. Please include a brief description of your editing process so that every viewing includes a little learning.

For those of you who want to stick with the original 'mandate' (linking up an image that you feel qualifies as 'art') for PAF are welcome to do so.

Just in case you are needing a vivid texture to combine with your images I've got a great free texture for you here! I just had to share it with you.

To download the free, high resolution version of pdpa Topography texture, click HERE.

Remember, this is supposed to be a fun, skill-developing challenge. If it's feeling like too much pressure, or taking up too much of your time, you can link up any photograph that you feel qualifies as photo-ART. We want to keep it open and easy so that everyone can join in!

See you soon! :)

...back on-line with free textures for you...

2012-01-23T14:48:00.005-05:00

Hey my Lovelies - how are you? I've been incommunicado due to intermittent internet server problems. Am hoping everything is finally fixed - four days and three different technicians later!

Thank to all of you who were persistent and linked up your images to Photo Art Friday in spite of the glitches because of my connection problems. Some incredible artwork was posted!!! You are an awesome group and your efforts are appreciated.

The next edition will be here before we know it. The challenge, for those of you who accept it, is to use 3 of your own photos (or cropped portions of) and one of my textures to create a piece of abstract photo art.

If some of you feel that is too much of a challenge, post whatever photo art you have created and I know it will still be received with gratitude and enthusiasm.

Since it helps to have a little motivation ... and ... since everyone needs a little surprise "pick-me-up" on a Monday, I have two fab, free textures for you. One you can use in more traditional ways, and the other packs a bit more punch for your more artsy pieces. (Remember though, even the most vivid textures can be subtle in Screen blend mode or in Soft Light.)

If you like these two textures, be sure to check out my Shoppes (click on the buttons under my header). Great textures are waiting for you there. I change them up frequently so there is always something new to discover.

Okay - back to today's free textures:

Download this free pdpa texture "Etched in Stone" HERE.

Etched In Stone does fabulous things to your photographs. Look at what it does to this simple pair of pears:

No Filters or Plug-Ins (RadLab or Topaz) were used to further enhance this photograph. The texture, Etched In Stone was applied and blended in Color Burn at 82% Opacity. A Levels Adjustment Layer was used to bring in more light and my signature was added. I like the old world painterly feel the image has now.

Download this free pdpa texture "Heavenly" HERE.

PDPA texture Heavenly was applied to the photo and blended in Soft Light at 100% Opacity. No Filters or Plug-Ins were used - simply the texture and one manipulation. Love the soft, glassy effect from the texture. You can achieve more dramatic effects, if that is what you are looking for, in other blend modes. From there you can go to wherever your imagination and skill-level will take you!

Terms of Use: Copyright still applies to these textures after purchase or free download, as stand alone articles. I only agree to forgo my design ownership rights once the texture is incorporated into your photographic or artistic work. Once the texture is a part of your work, you are free to use it in any of your personal or commercial endeavors. Please respect international copyright laws and do not claim these as your own, try to resell or gift them as is, or use them as the basis on which you create your own derivative textures.

Apologies! Link-up now for Photo Art Friday!!!

2012-01-20T09:18:00.002-05:00

Apologies to those of you who have tried to link up. I have not been able to connect to the internet for most of the last 36 hours due to problems with our server.

The inlinkz tool is now up and I hope you will try to post your photo art again. So sorry for this inconvenience.

Welcome to this week's virtual gallery showcase of your photo art! The challenge this week is to either share a piece somehow connected to the number 3/three OR make an abstract piece of photo art using my two latest free textures. (If you do not have them yet, you can download them HERE.)

If you are new to Photo Art Friday, you can read the simple guidelines for participation on the Photo Art Friday page.

I chose to use the texture "Chinks of Light" with a few of my photographs to create a piece of abstract art. Here are three variations of several created that I like:

Photographs and texture processed in Hue blend mode at 100% Opacity.

Photographs and texture processed in Saturation blend mode at 100% Opacity.

Photographs and texture processed in Color blend mode at 100% Opacity.

Here are some screenshots to demonstrate the steps I took to get the above results:

In the Layers Panel you can see that I have applied one photo of spikey grass on top of another of a cluster of dried grasses.

The Layers Panel on the right of the screenshot, shows the addition of two more photographs. (A red metal bar with ovals of light, and a photograph of the face of some sort of goddess/buddha statue in my garden. The texture has yet to be applied.

Now, at the top of the layers panel you can see that I have added the texture "Chinks of Light". Pin Light is the blend mode at 100% Opacity. You don't really see the texture but it will bring an added dimension, if subtle, into the mix. Pin Light is not really producing an effect I like.

Here I try Hue blend mode at 100% Opacity and like the effect.

Saturation, 100%.

Color, 100%.

As you can see, making this sort of abstract art does not require any skill at using Photoshop!! It is more the choice and placement of images and textures that create the abstraction. The only Photoshop edits used here were the blending modes at full opacity. Really cannot get any easier than that!!! There's no limit to where you could take your creations after that.

Those of you with more expertise in Photoshop are certainly imagining many more digital manipulations you can use to create a piece of abstract art. Perhaps you will share your secrets!?!!

For next week's Photo Art Friday, the challenge to you is to use three (3) of your photographs (or cropped parts thereof) and at least one (1) of my textures to create a piece of abstract art. (Please add a little explanation of your process in your post.) If you begin experimenting now, I'm sure you will have something great to share by next Friday!

Loving Every Day

2012-01-18T17:25:00.006-05:00

February 14th is a day devoted to expressing love to those we hold dear - and it will soon be here!

We all know, however, that relationships need nurturing every day of the year. We know too that love relationships are one of life's biggest challenges - evidence the number of divorces, break-ups and un-happy unions.

During my twenty years as a psychotherapist it was painfully evident to me that a good number of people who think they know how to express love, actually do not. So over the years I developed a list of specific behaviors for my clients to help them learn the basic attitudes and acts that demonstrate love. Now, with my new Photoshop skills I decided to create a poster featuring this information. And, what better time of year to launch it?!

When you read this poster, you might ask yourself:

Are these are the behaviors that I demonstrate to my loved ones?

Conversely, are these behaviors demonstrated to me by those who claim to love me?

The good news is that it is never too late to learn how to be more open, affirming, allowing, loving, affectionate, etc. Sometimes we just need a concrete reminder. Having this poster hanging on the wall somewhere in your environs will remind loved ones how to protect and even increase the love in your heart(h) and home.

While teens might never admit to reading the poster, if it hangs in your home they will, with time, absorb the learnings (in spite of themselves!).

What better gift could you give your children than ensuring they know what constitutes loving behavior and, in turn, what they should expect from their future partners in terms of loving behaviors coming back to them?

Digital file "How To Love - A Primer" (version 1) - $9.50 USD

Digital file "How To Love - A Primer" (version 2) - $9.50 USD

If you want to purchase either of these posters already printed and ready to hang on your wall, you can do so at my Zazzle shoppe HERE.

If you would like to purchase only the digital file for this poster and then have your favorite copy center print it for you in the size and quality you want, you can do so by clicking "Add To Cart" on this page.

(No shipping charges for digital files! Yay!!!)

(Whether you purchase the printed version at Zazzle or the digital file here, there will be slightly more background surface on Version 2 than what you see on the image in this post. I had to crop it tightly to get Blogger to accept the large size image - even when saved for the WEB! Version 1 shows the amount of background border that you will also get on Version 2)

The poster is designed in a 18" x 24" format. At both Zazzle and any copy center you can, however, choose the size and paper quality that fits your needs.

May you be loved and loving February 14th and every other day of the year! :-)

Addendum re: Next Week's PAF & Two Freebies!

2012-01-13T15:43:00.002-05:00

First, if you are looking for this week's Photo Art Friday, you can find it HERE.

Thank you to all of you who have linked up so far. I'm impressed!

So many of you who link up with PAF have expressed how much you enjoy the challenge of trying new ways to use your photos. It made me think that such artsy enthusiasts could only have been disappointed to read in my last post that next week's PAF challenge was to connect your work to the number "3/three". So ...

Those of you who want to stick with the "3/three" challenge are more than welcome to do so.

BUT for those of you wanting something more demanding to kick-start your creative juices, I am challenging you to use one (or both) of the following free abstract art textures to create a piece of abstract art for next week's PAF.

You can follow this tutorial if you need hints on how to make something abstract from your actual photographs.

Free yourself from the constraints of how things 'should be'. Be a little wild and crazy with the edits you select. Be warned, some won't work at all, BUT ... you may just get lucky and stumble upon one that will blow your socks off!!!

Of course anyone can help themselves to these free abstract art textures. If you try to simply "save as" from the images in this post you will end up with a low resolution image meant for the web. To get your 300 dpi high resolution image go through the download process - it does not take long.

To download pdpa Chinks of Light texture click HERE.

To download pdpa Off Kilter texture, click HERE.

Terms of Use: Copyright still applies to these textures after purchase or free download, as stand alone articles. I only agree to forego my design ownership rights once the texture is incorporated into your photographic or artistic work. Once the texture is a part of your work, you are free to use it in any of your personal or commercial endeavors. Please respect international copyright laws and do not claim these as your own, try to resell or gift them as is, or use them as the basis on which you create your own derivative textures.

Photo Art Friday, Jan. 13th - 15th

2012-01-12T18:20:00.005-05:00

Hi there fellow photo art aficionados!! Hope you are fully back into the non-holiday swing of things. I've found it challenging to embrace my everyday schedule since the holidays ... seem to be suffering with a general lack of energy and enthusiasm. Maybe a little more sunshine would do the trick! :)

The sun is always shining, however, when I get to look at your photo art ... so please bring it on by linking up.

If you are new to Photo Art Friday, you can read the guidelines for linking up your photo art HERE.

This week the suggestion is to feature a piece of photo art using one of my free textures from the Free For You section of this blog. I decided to use the pdpa Faded Fresco texture with a photograph of some great old doors.

pdpa Faded Fresco can be downloaded in high resolution in the Free For You page

photograph of gorgeous old doors - graffiti and all

Photograph and texture married in Vivid Light blending mode at 90%. I used an Adjustment Layer>Photo Filter (a warming filter) to add more gold tones to the brass on the door. A black border was also added using the Crop Tool. Yes, the Crop Tool!

Here's How to Add a Border with the Crop Tool:

1. Choose the color you want for the border around your and make it your background color at the bottom left of your tool bar

2. Select your crop tool

3. With your mouse sweep across the photo from outside the upper left corner down to just outside of the lower right corner. The cropping lines will automatically cling to all the borders of your image. DO NOT CLICK THE GREEN 'COMMIT' CHECK MARK YET.

4. Using the bounding boxes on the corners of the crop tool lines, pull them out from where they cling to the image, to the size you would like your border/frame to be. I just eyeball it to get the border on all four sides to look equal. Sometimes this takes a little time, especially if you are trying for a narrow border. When you are finished this step, the crop tool lines will be hovering equally beyond all four sides of your image. When finished this will be your border. If you want to adjust the size, do so now.

5. If you want the crop line to move in small pixel increments, click on the bounding box and use the arrow keys on your keyboard (the arrow that would pull in the direction you want to move). The arrow keys allow you to move the line in much smaller increments than your mouse.

6. Once satisfied with the size of the border you have created, click on the green check mark to commit your edits and your border should 'magically' appear in the color you designated for your background color.

Same photo, same texture blended in Difference at 85% Opacity. A Levels Adjustment was made to bring in a bit more light. I used the white slider in the Levels Adjustment box to accomplish that. A border was not added to this photo-art edit.

For next week's edition of Photo Art Friday
let's feature an image that has some connection to the number 3/three. Be as creative with that suggestion as you wish! Remember, the on-going challenge with PAF is that the image that you link up should be a piece of photo-art.

Okay, mes amis, now it is your turn to link up your photo-art. Can't wait to see what you bring to our gallery this week!

Since I have decided I must concentrate a bit more on my art this year, I will not comment on each piece of photo art linked up. I will definitely click on each link and enjoy all of your submissions. Random comments will be made. :)

Know how deeply grateful I am for each and every piece of artwork you choose to share here.

... more abstract photo art ...

2012-01-11T07:59:00.001-05:00

This photograph of an urn teetering on the steps leading to an art gallery seemed like something I could pair with some of my new abstract art textures. Thought I would share the results here.

Here I used the texture "Gold Room" to marry with the urn. (Both are added to the new piece of art in the corners for the sake of demonstration only.) I rotated the texture 90 degrees (Image>Rotate) before applying it to the photograph. Blending in Linear Light at 85% Opacity and I had a new piece of photo art. How easy is that?!!

Same urn photo with the addition of my "Abstract & Embossed" texture (added to upper left corner for demonstration purposes only). These two basic components were blended in Difference blend mode using 90% Opacity.

I love how you can so easily achieve such different looks with the use of these abstract art textures. Hope you will try them out and share the link so I can take a peek!

Samples of individual new textures recently added to my shoppes.

I have added a few new textures to both my Abstract Art Shoppe and my Art-Easy Shoppe. Do check them out. You may find exactly what you need for an art project of your own.

The doors of Photo Art Friday open early - tomorrow evening at 7:00 p.m. EST. Link-ups of your photo art this week are to include any texture(s) from my Free For You textures. See you soon! :)

Free Texture Time!

2012-01-09T10:02:00.000-05:00

It's cold and snowing here in the NorthEast today. A good day to hunker down, make a big pot of nourishing soup (borscht is on the menu here), and tackle some household design/re-organization projects I've had in mind for a while.

Before I begin the heavy lifting ... :) ... there's a pretty, new texture I want to share with you. It's called Sweet Secret ... for no particular reason ... perhaps because I have a few. Don't we all? Here it is applied to my old texture-testing pear:

Texture applied to pear and blended in Vivid Light at 85% Opacity. A Layer Mask and soft brush was used to remove the texture from the pear itself. A Layers Adjustment was made to slightly increase the Saturation.

To download your free digital file of pdpa Sweet Secret texture, click HERE.

Enjoy!

Abstract Photo Art Tutorial

2012-01-06T10:48:00.001-05:00

If you are looking for Photo Art Friday - the January 6th - 8th edition click HERE.

Welcome to another tutorial on how to make a piece of abstract art using your own photographs and some abstract, vivid textures. The process demonstrated involves only the most basic Photoshop tools and edits. Anyone can do it. Trust me! Once you follow this work flow, you can add in all kinds of other edits, depending on your experience and skill set.

Know, however, that there are many ways to reach the same goals in Photoshop, I can only demonstrate the way I do things. They may not be the most efficient steps, but they get it done!

This tutorial was not pre-planned. I took the screen shots having no idea what the final results would be. So like any session of artistic exploration, you get what you get and if you save things you like as you go, you are creating a bank of material that you can go back to and tweak later.

What you want to grasp here is the process. Once you master the simple concepts of how to proceed you can then do the same with any and varied component parts. Then, once you are comfortable with the basic process you can add your own edits into the mix. Ideas for other and better ways to proceed will surely occur to you. Above all, have fun!

To begin I chose photographs from my archive that have interesting graphic elements on which I could apply a vivid texture. I used one photograph (pond algae) as the background and placed three other photographs (fence, burgundy leaves, purple flowers), as 'the muse' moved me, on that pond scum background, leaving some of the algae visible.

If you look at the layers panel on the right of the screen shot you can see that as you place each photograph it is added on a separate layer. You could use your bounding boxes on one or all photos change up the size of your photographs and/or to rotate them a bit so they are not all squared as in the example above.

Now I want to reduce the realistic details in these photographs and distort/simplify their appearance a bit. To do so a PS Filter will be applied. Before I can activate the Filter Tool, I have to flatten the layers and then duplicate the just made flattened layer.

Layers>Duplicate Layer (this is simply in preparation for applying the Filter).

Now select Filter>Artistic>Cutout.

When you select Cutout a drop box appears that allows you to make choices with sliders about the degrees of distortion you desire. For this piece you can see in the upper righthand corner that I chose: Number of Levels - 4; Edge Simplicity - 4; and Edge Fidelity - 2.

Above you see the result of applying the Cutout Filter on my composition of photos. The images are already looking a little less realistic and more abstract. Satisfied with that, it is time to select a texture to apply to the photo composite.

I select and apply my abstract art texture "Gold Room". With the Move Tool and its bounding boxes (not visible in this shot) I pull the texture to fit over the photo grouping.

The first blend mode applied is Difference, adjusting the Opacity down to 76%. But I want to see how other blend modes will marry all the elements.

Let's try Multiply. It's dark so I reduce the Opacity down to 70%. Hmmm rather moody - I like it. Love the sudden appearance of black in the upper right quadrant. Notice how a bit of black in some compositions gives a rich, grounded feel to the piece.

Let's see what a little more light will do by blending in Overlay at 81% Opacity. Nice, but I prefer the darker moody look. I'm feeling that the whole thing is not quite abstract enough ... yet.

Color blend mode usually produces a more monochromatic look. Let's try it at 100% Opacity. You may notice that you like results that are not my favs. That is how it should be! As artists we have our own aesthetic and therefore different preferences. Trust yourself and your preferences, its YOUR art.

Here's Exclusion at 100%. Perhaps more abstract but not my preference.

Here it is in Screen at 70% Opacity. I'm feeling like adding another texture to see if I get something I feel more excited about.

One more blend mode first, - Color Burn at 65% Opacity. Think I will apply another texture to this Color Burn blend result.

The photo/texture composite is quite dark, so because there is a lot of pale and uncluttered background in it, I choose pdpa abstract art texture "Abstract & Embossed", activating the Move Tool to place it.

First blend is in Screen at 100% Opacity. I'm liking the more abstract qualities achieved with the addition of a second texture.

Usually love Difference, but with this example it is too dark even when opacity is reduced to 69%

Exclusion at 100% opacity is rather muted. It's rare that I get anything I like in Exclusion - but you never know. I have been surprised, so usually give it a try. As you see it's a 'feel your way along' sort of process. You have to be prepared to keep experimenting until you feel a visceral "WOW" emerge in response to what you see on the screen.

Here we end our search with Lighter Color, 75% opacity. Think I will conclude with this one. I am not wowed by this result but I am satisfied. It will benefit from a Levels Adjustment later. I can also see where I would like to use a layer mask on one of the earliest layers to remove/soften the edges of the photos.

I saved (File>Save As) some of the previous blend examples that I liked. They were saved as PSDs to preserve the layers. I can always go back and make little adjustments to ones I like - and so can you! You can make a Levels Adjustment to bring in more light. You can adjust Saturation, or you can can add a Photo Filter in the Adjustments Panel to warm up or cool down your image, Layer Mask to remove things, etc. etc. etc. We'll explore those options in a future tutorial.

Tut-Tip Summary:

* Have several graphic photos, and abstract art textures available to you in your PS project bin

* Give your photos a random, graphic placement

* Rotate your photographs - turn them upside down so what they are in reality is not easily apparent

* Simplify and distort your photo composition with a PS Filter such as Cutout, Twirl or Liquify

* Be open to the need for a second texture to create a really abstract look

* Use previous editing experience to think of edits (e.g. Poster Edges) to 'abstractify' your work

* Don't get discouraged if your first attempts are not all you hoped they would be. I often abandon pieces that just don't have the photo art qualities I am looking for. It is a trial and error experience and we learn much from our 'errors'. It's only by repeated experiments that we become adept.

Hope you will send me a link to some of your abstract photo art creations! With your permission, I may create a future post to share some of them.

Photo Art Friday, Jan. 6th - 8th

2012-01-05T18:19:00.009-05:00

Welcome back everyone! Hope all is well, that your holidays were good ones, and that you have recovered from any sweet over-indulgences.

For our first Photo Art Friday of 2012 we are to share one of our favorite pieces of photo art from 2011. Can't wait to see your selections!

Next week how about if we share a piece of photo art that uses one of my textures from the Free For You tab under my header. If you have time, please name the texture and perhaps explain how you applied it to your photo in the post. Of course you are always free to use more than one texture.

One of my favorite pieces of photo art from 2011 is:

The above image started out with a photograph of books on a shelf in a bookstore. Added one of my textures to remove the high gloss of the book cover paper and add a little 'mystery' to the composition. Anyway, it qualifies as one of my favs of 2011. My list of favorites was quite long - yours too?

Okay, now it's your turn. Link up one of your favorites from 2011. Then on to a fabulous year of photo art sharing in 2012!

Abstract Art Texture Demonstration

2012-01-04T10:12:00.005-05:00

The response to my new abstract art textures has been really gratifying! I so appreciate your interest, enthusiasm and patronage. Some of you have asked for examples, recipes and work flow explanations on how to use the these dramatic textures. Here's the first:

I made this piece of abstract art in under ten minutes last night. The abstract art textures really facilitate the whole process!

The first thing I suggest when you want to create a piece of abstract art using your photographs and abstract art textures, is to gather some photos that you think might make interesting components in a piece of abstract art, into your project bin in Photoshop - or whatever editing program you use. You can see that you do not have to use spectacular photos - very mundane ones that have some graphic quality to them will work well. (I have only numbered them here to help you know which ones I used for a particular piece.)

For the above piece of art, I used a flower photo, #11 as my base (background) photo. I then applied the backlit green leaves, #10 to the flower.

pdpa abstract art texture "Splendid" is the one I selected to use for this experiment. I call it an experiment because you never really know what you are going to get until you try it. That's what makes it exciting for me. It can also be frustrating at times, however, because combinations you are sure will work, sometimes just don't. When that happens I just move on and select new photos and new texture combinations.

This screen shot shows the layers progression. The actual recipe is as follows:

* Open white flower (#11) in PS

* Drag backlit leaves (#10) on top of flower

* Blend backlit leaves and flower in Multiply, opacity 100%

* Apply (in my case I dragged) Splendid abstract art texture onto top layer

* Blend Splendid texture into layers beneath, in Hard Light, opacity 100%

* Made a Levels Adjustment pulling grey slider to 1.24 and white slider to 218 to bring in more light

* Add signature

Now how easy is that?!!! A great result with just three components and a few tweaks in PSE.

A few other tips:

* Always have several photos with interesting shapes, lines, edges open in your project bin that you can add to your composition if one photo is just not doing the trick

* Be open to using more than one texture if you think it is needed

* If you like what the marriage of one photograph and texture produce and you would like to use them together again, you can make your end result look different by cropping and/or rotating any of your digital components

* Play a bit with your photograph before you marry it with the texture. Try using some of Photoshops Filters on the photograph to simplify or distort it. I've used Liquify, Cutout, Splatter with interesting results. Then apply the abstract art texture to your Filtered photo

* While I want to demonstrate only what can be achieved using my textures in Photoshop and am not using any plug-ins to tweak my examples of abstract art, if you have RadLab or Topaz you can use them on your finished piece of work to see if they add a little 'je ne sais quoi' to the piece

You can see the abstract art textures currently available by going here.

New Abstract Art Textures

2012-01-03T17:35:00.002-05:00

Hey there photo art aficionados!! I'm excited to tell you about my latest texture creations designed to help you create your own digital abstract art.

While nuanced textures designed to add a bit of distress or to give an vintage look to our prized photographs will always take the dominant place in our texture archives, how about some textures designed as jumping-off points for real abstract art?

These new textures are little mini works-of-art in themselves, and although you can use them on a personal basis simply to print and hang on your own wall, I carefully created and tested them for you to use as graphic image components to help in the creation of your own abstract photo art.

Since these new textures are not your run-of-the-mill slightly scratched, smudged, wrinkled, desaturated textures (yes, I make those too!), they do have a slightly higher price point. But they are amazing value for the price. Do check them out in my new Abstract Art Textures shop.

I will soon post examples of abstract art I have made using these textures.

Oh Pablo ... if only ...

2012-01-02T18:38:00.002-05:00

Yes! And now photographers can find even more artistic expression by digitally editing their photographs into photo art!

Oh, Pablo - if only you could have lived long enough to discover Photoshop!!

Seems It Is Fav Photo Week!

2012-01-02T08:34:00.000-05:00

Seems that many of the photo challenges, including mine, are asking us to share our favorite image from 2011. Well - that is a good thing, because how can we ever choose just one?!! This way we have the chance to highlight several of our favs.

I've chosen these two images from along the path where I take my walks to share at The Creative Exchange. As with many things, it is not so much the item chosen as it is the meaning it holds. The phrase from Rilke, "...and to the numbers of beings abounding in Nature, add yourself gladly, and cancel the cost..." holds a special meaning for me.

I'll be posting another favorite from 2011 this week right here at our Photo Art Friday gallery. Hope you will join me - doors open Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. EST.

Did you pick up your free texture yesterday? "Goodness" is waiting for you right here.

If you would like to join Lisa at The Creative Exchange, just click on her button below.

Some New Year Texture Goodness ...

2012-01-01T08:32:00.000-05:00

Hi Friends! Here we are in 2012!!! I hope it will be a year packed full of goodness for each and every one of you. And to start it off with just that, here is a free texture for you called, what else - "Goodness". I've applied it to one of my favorite go-to test images - so you may have seen this image of a pear here before. :)

The texture was blended in Hard Light at 100% opacity. A Layer Mask was used to remove the texture from the pear and leaves. The artistic filter, Poster Edges was then applied and its opacity reduced to 20%. Simple is good, right?

To download your bit of New Year "Goodness", simply click HERE! :)

After a four week respite for the holiday season, Photo Art Friday will recommence this Friday, January 6th, 2012! I hope you have time this week to choose one of your favorite pieces of photo art from 2011 to share in our virtual gallery.

Don't forget that the doors to our little gallery always open early, on Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. EST and remain open for your links until the following Sunday at 7:00 p.m. EST. I'll have your glass of virtual champagne or sparkling water ready and can't wait to reconnect with you all!

Since we began PAF in September I have made a point of visiting each participant and leaving a little comment and a thank you. Due to the time and energy involved, I have regretfully decided that I while I will click on every link to see and appreciate every piece of photo art linked up, my comments will now be limited to a few, randomly selected each week. I hope you understand.

I plan over the course of a month or two to have dropped in to thank each one of you personally as the year unfolds. It is my hope that you will read about my awe, inspiration and deep appreciation for your participation each week right here on my blog.

So please mark this coming Friday the 6th as the first Photo Art Friday of the new year. Can't wait to see your best creations from 2011!

(Copyright still applies to these textures after purchase or free download, as stand alone articles. I only agree to forego my design ownership rights once the texture is incorporated into your photographic or artistic work. Once the texture is a part of your work, you are free to use it in any of your personal or commercial endeavors. Please respect international copyright laws and do not claim these as your own, try to resell or gift them as is, or use them as the basis on which you create your own derivative textures.)

A New Poster As Free Digital File

2011-12-27T14:10:00.011-05:00

If you have not been a follower of my other blog, "Original Art Studio", you may not know that in 2008 my thirty-six year old daughter was diagnosed with lung cancer. I wrote about my experience accompanying her on the journey from the shock of diagnosis, through major thoracic surgery, through recovery, to her body/mind/spirit adjustment to this new and alarming reality in her life. (You can read those posts on Original Art Studio here and here.)

One of my (and also my daughter's) coping strategies in any crisis is to learn as much as possible about all the related variables so that I/we can make informed choices and at least have some sense of understanding, even if during the crisis I/we have no sense of control. So once over the initial shock of the diagnosis and surgery, my daughter and I did a lot of research about cancer and what science knows about its causes.

As a result of that research, my daughter has made some radical changes to her life. (My husband and I have too!) She had removed herself from a toxic marriage just prior to her diagnosis and was still working at recognizing and releasing the toxic emotions that had (in my therapeutic opinion) grown out of control into a a tumor which symbolized how little room to breathe there was in that relationship. (Her cancerous tumor blocked 98% of one of her bronchial tubes. The blockage was in the part of the bronchial tube that is inside the lung.) After surgical removal of the tumor her challenge, as she saw it, was to remove all other possible toxins in her life. BTW she was never a smoker so that was not one of the toxins she had to remove.

Two books (out of dozens) that were pivotal in her change to toxin-free living were:

The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., and

AntiCancer: A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D.

Research on the internet led her to in-depth medical papers about her particular form of cancer ("carcinoid", a neuro-endocrine form of cancer - the same form of cancer that afflicted Steve Jobs although his carcinoid tumor was first discovered in his pancreas, which is considered much more dangerous). When she meets new doctors, they invariably assume she is a physician due to her comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the topic. As well as her full time jobs of parenting two beautiful girls and as a business professional, she manages a hot-line for her type of cancer here in the province of Quebec.

Add in my background in psychology and education - and my recent dabbling in Photoshop - to all our research and I decided to create a poster to share some of our newly acquired information and new anti-cancer lifestyle. Whether you want to use the information to try to prevent cancer (as I am), or to fight cancer if you have already been diagnosed (as my daughter is), I believe you can benefit from this poster. Perhaps it will motivate you to do your own research and make the simple life changes that help make your body/mind/spirit an anti-cancer environment.

As with the poster I recently created on Depression (you can download the digital file for it here or from my sidebar), I do not want to be involved in printing, packaging, profiting from, or shipping this as a tangible product, so I am offering this poster to you for free as a digital file. It was designed in an 18 inch by 24 inch file, 300 dpi resolution. You then have the choice of how you want to print it yourself.

You are welcome to download the digital file for non-commercial use only. This means you may not sell (or re-gift it in large quantities) as either a paper poster or as a digital file. If you post it on your blog, I ask that you make a link to this blog for your readers to make their download here.

Download this free digital file by clicking HERE.

While no regimen or lifestyle changes can guarantee anything, the recommendations in this poster can certainly help you clean up your physical and emotional environs - if that is your wish. My primary hope is that it motivates you to think seriously about the effects of what you absorb into your body/mind/spirit and do your own research to determine how you want to best live your one life.

BTW, my daughter is doing very well now. She is a now a vegetarian who also tries to avoid dairy, eggs, sugar and wheat. She is also a runner and in the best shape of her life - not that she was ever visibly out of shape.

While she is exhibiting no outward signs of recurrence, she is currently, at her doctor's request, undergoing a new round of scans and tests to verify that she is cancer free three years after surgery. This new round of tests is a concrete reminder that once you have cancer it can hover over your life like a dark cloud. Taking life one day a time, loving and appreciating every moment you have while you have it, is the best strategy for not letting the on-going threat of cancer be a toxin itself in your life. Byron Katie's book, Loving What Is helped and continues to help us absorb the emotional reality of having cancer touch our lives.

I hope you will take advantage of this free digital download, perhaps print it and give the printed poster it to those who might find it of use.

Good health and a very happy new year to you all.

... fill your holidays with delight ...

2011-12-25T10:27:00.002-05:00

Our dreams of a white Christmas came true! We're now enjoying a pristine winter wonderland that just makes the celebrations perfect.

It's very cold, but grandkids, step-grandkids, uncle and Maya the dog ventured outside for a bit of exercise and merriment.

Hope your holiday celebrations are full of loving connections and joy.

take a break ... grab a free texture!

2011-12-20T10:32:00.006-05:00

Hi my lovelies ... are you in the middle of baking, shopping, wrapping, planning, decorating, etc? Or are you one of those amazing (but infuriating! :-) people who is on top of everything because you start preparing for the holidays in August?

If you're like me, you are in the former category rather than the latter and thus very busy right now. And here I sit ... procrastinating ... in front of the computer ... looking for a little break from it all. Is that what you are doing too?

Okay ... let's make our procrastination worthwhile ... here's a fabulous free texture for you! I've called it "YesterYear" because it is full of vintage possibilities. (If you don't want the frame part of it, simply use the bounding boxes to pull it off the edge of your photograph.)

Download pdpa YesterYear texture, HERE.

Okay, enough procrastination, back to holiday preparations for me!

If we don't connect again before the new year, please know I wish you all the delights of the season and a very healthy, happy 2012.

Copyright still applies to these textures after purchase or free download, as stand alone articles. I only agree to forego my design ownership rights once the texture is incorporated into your photographic or artistic work. Once the texture is a part of your work, you are free to use it in any of your personal or commercial endeavors. Please respect international copyright laws and do not claim these as your own, try to resell or gift them as is, or use them as the basis on which you create your own derivative textures.

A Christmas Gift For You

2011-12-15T21:11:00.003-05:00

Hi my Lovelies, your 2011 Christmas gift has arrived.

Wrapped with love and appreciation, it contains two fabulous fine art textures for you.

One is a texture for all seasons. I call it Cinnamon. It has many different personalities depending on how you choose to blend it. Hope you love it as much as I do.

For your free download of pdpa Cinnamon texture, click HERE.

The second texture in your gift package imparts a wonderful feel to a photograph.

I have called it Backlight. Hope you can use it somewhere in your artwork.

For your free download of pdpa Backlight texture, click HERE.

May each and every one of you have a safe, joyful holiday.

Most of all, may you find yourself surrounded by loved ones ...

and ... a few photographic opportunities with photo-art potential ... ;-)

(I'll be back before 2011 comes to an end

so that I can wish you a happy 2012!)

Copyright still applies to these textures after purchase, as stand alone articles. I only agree to forego my design ownership rights once the texture is incorporated into your photographic or artistic work. Once the texture is a part of your work, you are free to use it in any of your personal or commercial endeavors. Please respect international copyright laws and do not claim these as your own, try to resell or gift them as is, or use them as the basis on which you create your own derivative textures.

Thank You To Gwynnie B. Designs!

2011-12-15T14:28:00.002-05:00

Look at what arrived in the mail today! I was the lucky entrant, in Gwynnie B. Designs' giveaway a couple of weeks ago, and won this book entitled "Art & Fear - An Artist's Survival Guide" by David Bayles & Ted Orland.

We all, as artists, find ourselves staring at the blank page, the empty canvas, the blank digital file and wondering if we can transfer our ideas from mind to matter. Each artistic effort is an encounter with the unknown. The unknown can evoke fear. The question is - how to manage fear when it arises. Can't wait to read this book to find the answer to that question!

Gwynnie B. is a person of diverse talents, from jewellery-making to photography, to art in so many forms, to design. If you have not yet had the pleasure of visiting Gwynnie B. Designs go THERE right now! She is a wise, wild, wonderful woman with a wicked sense of humor and such a keen sense of design. Gwynnie will delight and inspire you ... AND ... if you are lucky ... one day she may send you a book!

Thank you Gwynnie for this timely gift!

Defeat Depression Poster, A Free Digital Download

2011-12-12T21:04:00.007-05:00

Hey Everyone ... are you crazy busy? Of course you are. It's that time of year!

It's also the time of year when many of us can experience some form of depression.

As a psychotherapist I spent years helping people deal with depression. Soooo ... I thought why not pair up my knowledge of the topic with my modest digital-editing skills and make a poster that could possibly help many?

I do not want to profit from this poster. Nor do I want to spend a lot of time or money printing, packaging and shipping actual paper posters ... so I am offering it to you as a free, high resolution, digital download. Once you download, you can print it on the quality and size of paper you choose, frame it or not, etc. The poster was designed in an 18" X 24" format.

This poster Strategies To Defeat Depression is for your personal use only. Copyright still applies after your download. You cannot sell it, or make products featuring it (or portions of it) that you market commercially. To use this copyrighted digital file for profit constitutes theft.

Feel free to give this poster (once you have it printed) as your personal gift to family members, friends, schools, teachers, guidance counselors, etc., or direct them here to make their own download. It is my hope that it can point the way to relief from depression for many - especially at this sometimes difficult time of year.

For your free download of this digital file click HERE.

To see other posters (designed par moi) go to my new

PixelDustArtShoppe Store at Zazzle, or to my Pixel Dust Posters
page under my header.

photo embellishment

2011-12-12T11:38:00.001-05:00

Sharing with Lisa Gordon's The Creative Exchange.

Photo Art Friday, Dec. 9th - 11th

2011-12-08T18:15:00.006-05:00

Welcome to our last Photo Art Friday for 2011.

We began this past September and have already enjoyed fourteen photo-art showcases! Many of you have been showcasing here right from the start and I so appreciate your weekly link-ups! Those of you who have just discovered us lately, we are thrilled to have you join us! Thank you all!

This week's suggested theme is to share a photograph, processed to look like a piece of art, that touches on holiday preparations.

I've pulled out our boxes of ribbons, bows, ornaments, decorations etc., all of which were patiently waiting for their chance to make our home sparkle and shine. We moved away from traditional Christmas colors several years back and decorate now with pale turquoise and orange. Of course, all the other colors still make an appearance because we kept our special older ornaments.

Here are some pics of our turquoise and orange bows gathered into collages:

Same collage processed in a soft B&W.

Processed to look a little more vintage.

Our next Photo Art Friday will be January 6 - 8, 2012!

How about if we make the theme

"one of my very best photo-art edits of that great year, 2011".

May each and every one of you have a safe, warm, loving, connected holiday season with many moments of peace and joy.

I'll keep an eye out for your posts and will surely send out a few myself before 2011 turns to 2012. Keep your eye out for some unique, new freebies that will make their debut before the new year.

Three Free Textures for YOU

2011-12-06T21:17:00.001-05:00

It's that busy time of year. Are you in the midst of all your holiday preparations? Hope you haven't forgotten to take a photograph or two of your pre-holiday activities! That's our theme for this week's, soon-to-arrive Photo Art Friday.

The theme can be as broad as you want to stretch it - so could include shopping, traffic, people walking with their parcels, children writing to Santa, baking, decorating, gift-wrapping, card writing, etc. etc. Can't wait to see what you all come up with!

This is a collage featuring two textures I'm about to share with you and three applications of them to one photo. Don't hold me to it, but I believe they were blended in Hard Light, Color Burn and Difference. You can, of course, blend these textures with your photograph in Soft Light, Screen or Lighter Color for a more desaturated look if that is what you prefer.

Let me introduce you to pdpa Vintage Wine Label texture. It's sure to add a vintage feel to your photographs. You can download the high resolution version by clicking HERE.

And this is pdpa Intensify texture - and that is exactly what it will do for your photos. Don't worry it is not too strong! Try it in all the blend modes. I love the painterly effect you get along with the intensified colors. You can download the high resolution version of Intensify HERE.

And for those of you who like a texture with a little French script on it, here's one for you:

This is pdpa Lover's Lament texture. It will not, however, cause any 'lament' when you apply it to the right photograph. Download the free, high resolution version HERE.

Can't wait to see what you create with these three great textures. Enjoy!

See you at our virtual gallery showcase on Friday (Thursday evening for you earlybirds!).

... a berry beautiful tree ...

2011-12-05T07:53:00.001-05:00

It's a grey early morning here in the region of Montreal. The air seems to be laden with moisture, but the temps are not cold enough to turn that moisture to snow. With global warming and all the crazy fluctuations in weather, it seems we have to keep our fingers crossed for a white Christmas. I've got my fingers and toes crossed!

The photograph below was taken in late October. The tree had shed its leaves to reveal its branches heavy with glorious berries. I'm sure the birds were feasting on them throughout November. The photo has been processed in RadLab adding two or three of its 'treatments'.

I'm sharing this with the always gracious Lisa's "The Creative Exchange". Do visit her site to enjoy all the amazing submissions by photographers who link up there every Monday. She is also featuring a great giveaway this week!

December: the month for giving

2011-12-03T12:37:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone!

Have you seen all the fabulous photo art linked up for this weekend's Photo Art Friday? Do take a look and leave a little comment love. I'll be catching up on commenting tomorrow as I'm busy preparing a family birthday get-together for our son's up-coming 31st birthday. We've pushed the party up a week to today.

Do you have close friends and relatives with birthdays in late December or early January? My husband's birthday is December 26th! There should be some law against babies being born on that date. Few enter into happy birthday celebrations with relish the day after Christmas. Poor guy usually has his birthday bumped to another date. And we've bumped my son's birthday celebration up a week too. Good thing they are such agreeable, easy-going guys.

BTW, my parents were married December 25th. My father born Jan. 1st and then I marry a man who was born on December 26th and have a son born December 11th, and a grandaughter and myself born in January. December and January are very busy months! Oh well, we have all survived and everyone has been duly feted and appreciated.

Since I'm in present-giving, appreciation mode, here's one for you. Enjoy!

Download pdpa Holy Grunge texture by clicking HERE.

Photo Art Friday, Dec. 2nd - 4th

2011-12-01T18:20:00.008-05:00

Hello my lovelies. It's December!!! Where did 2011 go? The older one gets, the faster time flies, don't you find? Well, let's lift our last-month-of-the-year spirits with our virtual showcase of fabulous photo art.

I have to say that last week, with the Thanksgiving holiday in The States, I expected fewer participants. However, the numbers stayed much the same as previous weeks. Thank you to each and every one of you who participated. I so admire all your work.

This week the challenge is to post an image featuring work with a tool, method, style that we have been wanting to try.

For my part, I conducted an experiment transforming one very ordinary photograph into as many pieces of different photo art as I could. In all, I have twenty pieces of 'art' from this one photo, but don't worry, I'll only share a few with you here.

SOOC photo of statue in front of a Chinese/Thai restaurant we frequent on occasion.

Still original photograph, but cropped to highlight hands and torso of the statue.

First edit uses one of my single textures, similar to "Sandy Edges" in my Texture Singles Shoppe, rotated 90 degrees. Blended in Overlay 90%.

None of these edits were assisted with RadLab or Topaz. Only my textures and PSE Adustments were made to create these effects.

Don't recall and didn't record which texture was used, but I can see it was processed in Difference. When I use the Difference blend mode I rarely reduce the opacity below 85%. To do so makes you lose the special Difference effect. If your image needs more light, do a levels adjustment. No levels masking was used to remove any of the texture. Difference blend mode seemed to magically put the bronze into the lines on the statue!

Another texture, another piece of photo art, different than the ones before.

Here Art-Easy Deeply Engrained texture is blended with the photo in that good old Difference blend mode at 100% opacity.

Here I superimposed one of the already edited versions of the cropped statue on a photograph of a church for a little different effect.

Here I use one of my Art Easy textures (as yet unnamed and unreleased). Blend mode Linear Light at 90% opacity.

I hope this post encourages you to try many different things with the same photograph. You can easily produce very different and unique pieces from one little photo.

NOTE: Next week will be our last Photo Art Friday for 2011. We will resume our gallery vernissages in 2012 on January 6th. Not to worry, I will post some little reminders beforehand.

For next week, how about if we make a piece of photo art that has something to do with the bustle of seasonal preparations: shopping, wrapping presents, preparing xmas cards, decorating your home, etc. - anything to do with preparations for Christmas or Hanukkah celebrations. Perhaps you will be able to use it for greeting cards you create for next year.

While you're here, grab a free decorative button for your sidebar. There are now more than twenty to choose from.

Grab A Decorative Button For Your Sidebar!

2011-11-29T15:57:00.011-05:00

Here are some new blog buttons just for you. Buttons you can use to decorate the sidebar of your blog. Most are related to textures and photo-art (what else?) and I hope you can find one that expresses something you would like to say on your blog. If so, click on Decorative Buttons (see tabs under my header) where you can find the buttons currently available, their code to copy/paste, and instructions on how to do so for those of you that are not sure. More buttons will make their debut soon.

So take a look and let me know which button you like the most! Did I remember to say they are free? Enjoy!

ready for a little more gratitude?

2011-11-29T07:36:00.000-05:00

Texture Tuesday asks that the theme of gratitude be used for this week's challenge. Since one can never tire of gratitude, and I recently created a texture called Gratitude 2, I have no excuse for not participating!

Used my texture Gratitude 2 as a background and frame for an image of wild flowers already treated in RadLab. Then K.K.'s texture Yesteryear was added to seamlessly pull the whole image together. Yesteryear was blended in Soft Light at 23% opacity.

You can download my texture Gratitude 2 HERE. Check out my Free For You page and the previous post to add even more textures to your collection.

This Week's Free Texture

2011-11-28T09:35:00.005-05:00

A warm, double kiss embrace going out to all who participated in last week's Photo Art Friday! I'm so grateful for your participation - and so many inspiring images!! Thank you ALL.

Last year at this time I had two broken bones in my arm near my wrist. The photograph below was taken one-handed out of a moving car, during that time. Due to that it's not a great photo, BUT with the addition of a texture to give it a vintage feel it becomes a viable little piece of photo art!

This version has the texture Faded Fresco added and processed in Luminosity blend mode at 75% opacity.

This version employs the same texture in Screen blend mode at 85% opacity.

This is the pdpa Faded Fresco texture used above and you can add it to your collection of textures by clicking HERE. Enjoy!

(Remember, if you try to simply click on the image in the post and 'save as' you are getting a 72 dpi image. When you download it by clicking 'HERE' you get a 300 dpi image which is what you want for superior quality images.)

Sharing with lovely Lisa's The Creative Exchange.

Photo Art Friday, Nov. 25th - 27th

2011-11-24T10:12:00.001-05:00

Hi there everyone. Hope you have had a good week, and if you live in the U.S. that you are having a safe and very happy Thanksgiving.

Welcome to this edition of Photo Art Friday! (I am publishing this post a little earlier than usual, however you will still have to wait until 7:00 p.m. EST this evening to link up your images.)

This week the suggestion is to link up a piece of photo art sitting in your archives that never received the 'attention' it deserved. I think we all have some of those hanging around! I often find myself scrolling through old edits and finding one I had been excited about at the time it was created, but never got around to posting. The one I pulled out to use for this week is the second image displayed in this post.

After pulling it out of my archives, I couldn't resist playing with it a bit more. So immediately below is the old image now doctored-up a bit for Thanksgiving.

Yesterday I gave the already edited image a faded, rather chiseled look. I used a brush to add gentle rays of light and used the Text tool to add in the word 'Grateful'. I finished it off by adding some texture (Filter>Texture>Texturizer).

This is the image that had been sitting unused and definitely under-appreciated in my files. It's a composite image where a macro flower photograph was used as the background, an angel was added with a brush (brushes often act as stamps, for those of you not familiar with Photoshop), and one of my favorite, never-fail textures (#3) from my Vintage Manuscript Sets finished off the piece.

An alternate version also withering away in my archives that had the addition of the Filter, Stained Glass.

And another version done yesterday, that was gently blurred (Gaussian Blur).

For the next edition of Photo Art Friday let's go back to challenging ourselves to try some edits we have been wanting to try, but have felt were too hard or that we just haven't had the time for. The photo art could be produced from following a tutorial or simply the result of some creative play with new photo art tools and techniques.

... free texture alert ...

2011-11-22T07:33:00.000-05:00

Autumn Oak leaves SOOC

Same photo treated with RadLab Prettyizer and KK's Phoebe in Soft Light 35% Opacity.

Sharing with Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.

I hinted yesterday that there was another free texture on the way. It's called Smokin'!

To download this free pdpa Smokin' texture, click HERE.

Enjoy!

Every Monday Needs A Little Surprise

2011-11-21T08:26:00.004-05:00

Hi there dear friends - hope you all had a great weekend and are ~~happily~~ bravely greeting another Monday! :)

I did a little experimenting with the new free texture called Gratitude 2. If you didn't pick it up yet, you can do so by going here.

Here, Gratitude 2 is applied to a photograph of branches of red berries against a blue sky. This application was blended in Difference at 95% opacity.

Look at the surprise I had when I tried the Blend Mode Hue (100%) opacity. The background seemed to divided itself into arcs of color without my needing to do a thing! Love the effect! The word 'gratitude' also disappeared with the use of this blend mode, without my erasing it.

Here's basically the same effect using Saturation Blend Mode at 100% opacity. I love sweet surprises on a Monay morning. I hope some of you will let me know if you get similar effects with this texture in those two blending modalities.

Keep your eye out for another free texture coming soon. And don't forget ... this week's Photo Art Friday is an easy one. Simply link up a piece of photo art from your archives that has never had the attention it deserves. Easy peasy! :) See you soon.

Sharing with Lisa Gordon's The Creative Exchange.

an expression of ...

2011-11-20T10:55:00.004-05:00

For your free expression of Gratitude 2 fine art texture, click HERE.

Just want to say how grateful I am to be able to host such an inspiring showcase of your photo art each week. It was a delight to see each and every one of the link-ups for the last edition!

May our American friends have a grace-filled Thanksgiving celebration this week. May we all live in gratitude each and every day of the year.

Photo Art Friday, Nov.18th - 20th

2011-11-17T18:20:00.008-05:00

Hey there!!! So glad you came to visit. Welcome to Photo Art Friday!!! This week the suggestion is to post and link a piece of photo art that illustrates one of your favorite, "go-to" edits.

After the 'easy' challenge of this week, I intended to suggest that we go back to producing a piece of photo art that uses a technique, tool, style or form we have been wanting to try, but felt a little intimidated by. However, next week's Photo Art Friday falls around the American Thanksgiving holiday and I imagine a lot of you will be quite busy. So ... next week's 'challenge' will be to post a piece of photo art from your archives that never got the spotlight and attention it deserved. How's that for keeping it nice and easy?

After the Thanksgiving weekend, let's return to challenging ourselves to learn and share something new. Why not use these weekly link-ups to nudge ourselves into new digital editing territory? We can just do same old, same old - but why not use these artistic get-togethers to try out new things and ask for feedback or tips on how to kick it up a notch? If each of us shares our editing process, we will also learn a lot as we visit our fellow photo-artists' blogs. That way, we would not only be participating in a weekly artistic showcase, but we would be creating some great learning opportunities as well! What do you think?

Not to worry, as we move into the holiday rush of December, we'll go back to just keeping the weekly link-ups nice and easy.

For my piece of photo-art for this week (using my 'go-to' editing preferences), I will illustrate the progression from straight out of the camera to final product:

SOOC photograph of a shed and fence - taken in the late afternoon this past Tuesday.

In PSE 8 - duplicated the image and processed it in Color Burn blend mode at 70% opacity. I actually quite like this, as is.

One of my usual 'go-to' edits is, (what else?) the addition of a texture. Here, I used pdpa Gentle Fog texture processed in Hard Light at 85% opacity. Still needs a little something to pull it all together though ... Time to use one of my 'go-to' favorite PSE features.

One of my very favorite PSE 8 features is the Filter, "Poster Edges". I love how it can sometimes pull all the layers of an edit together. It does not always work, but I like to give it a try. If I don't like it, I simply "undo" it. To apply Poster Edges you must first flatten the layers of the image - and then duplicate the now flattened layer. Select Filter>Poster Edges. While I usually bring the opacity of Poster Edges down below 33%, in this case I liked the look at 70% opacity. That's it, that's all. Now it looks a little more artsy, don't you think? (You need to click on the image to appreciate the full impact of the Poster Edges.)

... update ...

2011-11-15T08:43:00.002-05:00

What are you up to this week my friends? I've been busy - what else - making textures. Yes, it is a serious addiction! :) The other day I acquired a plugin for PSE from RadLab, but I am now thinking I should have invested in texture ReHab!!!

Did you pick up the free gift set of seasonal textures in my last post? They are there, patiently waiting for you to download them.

Did you get the note in that post about the 'challenge' for this weeks Photo Art Friday? The suggestion for this week is to showcase an image where you use your favorite, 'go-to' technique for turning a photo into a piece of photo-art, and that you share your process and the technique/tool/manipulation. That doesn't seem like to big of a intrusion into your busy schedule ... does it? Hope not.

Below is a collage of the new textures that are now (as of last night) available in my Texture Singles Shoppe. They do not come in a set, but as individual textures so you can choose only the ones that suit your particular needs. They are all high resolution, have all been tested, and would all be stellar additions to your texture library. Do go and browse to see if there is a texture or two that calls to you.

New single textures making their debut in the Texture Singles Shoppe.

Hoping to see you on Friday, if not before! Until then, be well.

A Pre-Holiday Gift for You

2011-11-12T18:23:00.007-05:00

Yes - I'm a little early for holiday gift-giving, but this gift is something you may be able to use several weeks before 'the season to be jolly' arrives. I've prepared a set of four seasonal textures that you can use for your holiday-related digital projects. Hope you like them.

(Unlike, my usual terms of use, I want to allow you to use each texture as is for your personal use. That means you do not have to incorporate these into your own work, if you prefer to use them as is - personalizing them with text etc. in order to use them on your blog or for personal seasonal gift projects. Usual terms of use apply if you want to employ them for commercial (sales) purposes. Usual terms of use come in the zipped set.)

For your free download of this zipped digital Holiday Gift Texture Set, simply click HERE.

May all your holiday preparations be joyful and productive!

Thank you ALL for your amazing contributions to Photo Art Friday this week. You just outdo yourselves each and every week. I know it is a lot of work to prepare, post and link-up your artwork to showcase here, and I want you to know how much I appreciate the thought and preparation that goes on behind the scenes to link-up your digitally-edited image.

NEXT WEEK FOR PHOTO ART FRIDAY - let's share a piece of photo art that has been made using one of our favorite, "go-to" editing/processing techniques.

That would mean that we each should also give a brief overview of our edits to the image, highlighting the one that is our "go-to" favorite. That shouldn't make too much extra work for anyone.

So bye for now, I have to get on my horse and go find more virtual champagne to replenish my dwindling stock. You digital artists seem to really enjoy the stuff - I can't keep enough full glasses on the gallery table! And really...truly..., it's not me that makes it all disappear!!! ;)

Photo Art Friday, Nov. 11th - Nov. 13th

2011-11-10T18:15:00.008-05:00

Hey there fellow photo-artists - it's time to showcase your work here in our little virtual art gallery!

(If you are just learning about Photo Art Friday, you can read the easy guidelines for participation HERE.)

Did you have time to experiment with some new styles, forms, tools, compositions this week? Don't you love the gratification that comes with the mastery of a new skill? I don't even have to totally master a skill to feel gratified. Just getting familiar with a new photoshop tool or trying a new form of photo art gives me a shot of 'let's keep going' encouragement.

The piece I am sharing today is a tiny experiment with something I have never tried on a piece of photo art before. I am light years away from 'mastery' or 'competence', but I am pleased with my first try and, therefore, encouraged to keep working on the skill.

This is the photograph (already having had some manipulation in PSE) that I used as a canvas for experimenting with something new - for me.

The black marks on the flower in the original piece of photo art reminded me of buildings. So my idea was to experiment with my Wacom Bamboo pen and tablet (which has sat quite unused on my desk - for months) to turn the black marks into a bit of a cityscape within the flower.

I have to admit I need a lot more practice drawing with the pen and tablet on my digital images - I actually seemed to have more 'dexterity' using my mouse to draw. The Wacom Bamboo pen was great for the finer details, however. I have promised myself to make a point of using the tablet and pen each week to develop more ease using it. (You can also use your fingers on the tablet to move your cursor, instead of using your mouse.)

A couple of new textures (as yet unreleased) were then added to produce different backgrounds.

This version is my favorite. To my eye, the grey background works best with the yellow flower.

After a recent report (by a kind follower) of some difficulty downloading one of my free textures, I would like to ask a favor of all of you who download the freebies offered here:

If you encounter any problems with a download, could you let me know about it in an e-mail so that I can work out and eliminate any glitches in the process? Thanks so much! Quick feedback like that will not only help me, but all who like to collect new textures for their texture libraries.

Wicked

2011-11-09T09:46:00.008-05:00

It's unseasonally warm up here in the NorthEast - a real Indian Summer! I'm planning on spending as much time as I can outdoors today. But first ... have to share another texture with you and show you some of the amazing things it can do for your photos. This texture is called "Wicked" ... because it is wicked good! Wicked is, as you will see, related to Feelings, but packs a little more punch.

To download pdpa Wicked (in 300 dpi), assume a devilish grin - and click HERE. ;)

I applied Wicked to this photo of a convent in Montreal.

Also applied Wicked to this photo of a bldg. taken while my DH was driving.

Look at what a little Wicked-ness can do! Crazy, surreal and fun! When I saw that Wicked turned yellow leaves purple/periwinkle blue, in HUE blending mode (100% Opacity), I pulled out some other photographs with yellow leaves.

Again Wicked was appled to the photo and the two were blended in HUE at 100%. I did use a layer mask, as the building was turned to grey by the texture and I wanted to remove the grey to restore the building's natural brown color.

The version above was then 'treated' to the addition of some RadLab 'stylets', namely: Divine Light, Flare Up and Edge Blur (all toned down in intensity with sliders), to produce the above softer effect.

This version (with texture) was also manipulated with RadLab to produce a soft, dreamy, Spring-like effect.

This path full of golden and yellow leaves also received the addition of my Wicked texture, blended in Hue at 100% opacity. It is not a completed project and is filed away with images that merit more consideration and attention. As you can see, I love images that are not only beautiful - but that step outside of the norm, that provoke the viewer's mind to try and figure out what they are seeing.

Finally, added Wicked to this photo and liked the effect in Color Burn at 70% (see below).

Yes, this one is very dark, but I love the play of light and texture on the leaves, and will find some way to use its dark beauty in the future.

The inlinkz tool will go up tomorrow evening for our next Photo Art Friday showcase. Have you been working on a piece of photo art that is a little out of your norm? While that's what we were challenged to do for this week - we also left room on our virtual gallery walls for any photo art you may wish to share. I'll be looking for YOU! :)

Terms of Use for Free Downloads: You are free to use my textures to enhance your personal or commercial artwork. Please do not claim them as your own work, regift them or sell them as is. I also ask that you do not use these textures with the addition of slight adjustments to create derivative textures. Copyright still applies after download. I am only agreeing to forgo copyright once they are incorporated into your own art or photo editing work.

Abstract Art Using Textures

2011-11-07T07:29:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of pieces of abstract photo art made from a recent photograph and a recently made texture entitled, "Abstract Aria":

Blended in Overlay at 100% Opacity

Blended in Screen at 75% Opacity.

Photograph used for abstract photo art.

Texture "Abstract Aria" (posted here in low resolution 72 dpi, and with watermark) combined with above photograph to produce two pieces of photo art posted above. This texture is one of the four in my new pdpa Art-Easy Potpourri Texture Set.

Don't forget to pick up the latest free texture in my last post!

This post is being shared with Lisa Gordon's "The Creative Exchange". Join us there by clicking on her button: