I mentioned a few days back that I had been learning my craft a bit with tutorials. I most often go to PSDtuts.com for this.
I am working on some images that require natural elements (trees, foliage, etc) and so I decided to try their tutorial on painting a fantasy tree scene. Not really my normal style, but I was excited to try some digital painting. I’m pretty happy with the results, actually. This was painted from scratch, with my mouse, using only tools that come in Photoshop by default. It was a bit of a “paint by numbers” exercise, but it did get me drawing and learning a LOT of new techniques in the process.
I had the pleasure of taking in Edward Van Vliet’s exhibition at the Fringe Gallery, “Recipes For Kneeling”, this past weekend.
I brought my camera and my 50 mm F2 lens. I did not bring a tripod
I’ll have to return to get some better shots, but I like the mystery of this one. It shows my hands opening one of the 12 books, ready to look inside. What did I find there? Well, I’ll post more pictures soon. But for now, why not head down to the Fringe Gallery (in the basement of the Paint Spot on Whyte_ and look for yourself? It’s worth the trip, and the show runs until October 31.
OK, you asked for it (well, at least one of you did), and here it is – the photo I took at the Pinhole Photography workshop a couple weekends ago. For those who don’t know, pinhole photography is REALLY primitive. My camera was, literally, a Turtles tin with a hole pricked in the front with a pin. A long strip of photo paper was then placed inside the tin and the tin was sealed up (in a darkroom). There was a piece of electrical tape over the hole, so when I pulled the tape back, the shutter was open. When I replaced the tape, the shutter was closed. This particular shot took 43 seconds to expose (apparently the pinhole is like having an aperture of F300!). That explains the blurry effect, as you need to keep things perfectly still for pristing clarity (and even then it’s unpredictable. The three statues were actually on the same plane (there is no corner there in reality) and are about the same size. Because the photo paper was bent away on each side, you get the cool distorted effect the farther you move from the center of the image. I really love the surprise element!
I know, not technically from this weekend, but I just got it back Thursday morning, so I’m counting it.
On the top of the scanned image you will see the final print, and on the bottom, the photo negative I actually took with the pinhole camera. It’s a neat effect to see them side by side.
Since moving my sound equipment downstairs into a more permanent area, I’ve (surprise) been using it more!
That includes Logic and especially my midi keyboard. I’ve been hammering out some song sketches and debating over which to share here.
Well, here is one with no lyrics yet, but a lyric line in my head which you’ll have to just guess at for now. What I’ve got here for you is just the start of the basic track for this song – I still need to finish writing it.
But, it is something I did this weekend, and it’s creative – so here it is!
PS >> Last weekend I found myself in Barrhead and rural Alberta shooting photos and video all day. While I had a very “Creative Weekend” I didn’t have time to update the site. Oh well, I won’t punish myself if you won’t.
This weekend, in addition to hammering out “When You Are Up”, I took in the pinhole photography workshop at The Carrot. I’ll post my results when I get them back, but for now, let’s just say I had a VERY good time and learned a LOT about how photography works. Just an empty Turtles tin, some electrical tape and a piece of photographic paper my friends – that was my camera. I can’t wait to get the images back.
Enjoy the tune – and let me know what you think. Perhaps I shouldn’t take the time to develop it further? Perhaps I should take a week off and make it my magnum opus?
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Well, better late than never. This weekend was super busy, so I find my creative weekend extended to Monday morning. Oh well.
This is a photo I took about a week ago looking out the front door of The Carrot. I actually remember this amazing hand-painted sign from when I was a kid, which is amazing because I have no idea when or why I’d have ended up in this part of town back then.
So, without further ado, I give you, the Fountain of Youth …
So, did you create anything this weekend? Care to share?
I took a trip to Victoria last week and a bit, and saw some BEAUTIFUL sites there. That is, in fact, why I was not able to post a Creative Weekend project last week.
However, I got plenty of fodder for future projects, as I shot many, many photos on my new 8 GB camera card.
Today I decided to process the first of these, and to process the heck out of it just for fun. I’d wanted to do some vintage filtering on a photo for a while, so I found a good post on PSDTUTES, right here, and followed along through the relevant parts.
Here is what I came up with. I think it will be gracing my desktop for a little while – and feel free to invite it over to your house too.
The font I used is freely available – it is called Bleeding Cowboys and you can snag it somewhere like dafont.com.
So, come on now, what are YOU going to create this weekend? Will you share it with us on the forums?
Well, I pushed this weekend to the edge but I made it!
Here on Sunday night I’m posting some photos I took today. They are more generic “design element” type images that I will likely use in some designs in the coming months. Feel free to use them in anything you’d like as well.
These images were taken after my son and I fired his new “paintball gun” (no worries, it is a kiddie version, folks) at our white fence. I let the drips run a bit and then ran and got the camera. I’d like to try a bit harder next time to get certain things to look a bit different (more crisp, less noise and perhaps more “splat” and less drip). But, for a first go ’round I’m happy with what I got. All you need to do these photos yourself is your very own kids’ paintball gun! Only problem is, I’m not sure where my friend found that thing to buy my son.
I also made a desktop background out of one of them that you can download here. All the rest of the blank splats are in the attached zip file (beware it’s a biggie – these are large files in high res).
Well, I read a great, inspiring tutorial over at PSDTUTS today that let me in on a little secret …
Photoshop CS3 can edit and animate video.
So, I decided to give it a go with a little stop motion animation I did a while back with iStopMotion, a stellar little mac app for animation.
It is amazing to think that you can apply basically any photoshop technique to video now. Color correction, distortions, perspective, it’s all fair game.
I didn’t do too much with it for this project, unfortunately, but it was fun to mess around.
It wasn’t fun to wait for it to render though And I need to fix that aspect ration somehow.
Well, this week had to be one of the craziest I’ve had for a long, long time. Not much time for “free creating” to be honest.
But I need to hold my feet to the fire! Here is a bit of a photo manipulation I did to help illustrate a chapter for a live story my church is telling this summer. I know, I know, on assignment – BUT – I did this extra graphic because I felt like it, and I did not do it for pay, so it counts If you like it and can find a use for it, be my guest.
This is based on a really cool original image that’s in the public domain. I removed a boat and I colorized the water, and then added some cool vignetting. You can see the original below.
I showed you mine, no show me yours …
“>
(and here is the original)
Oh- and speaking of Creative Weekends, don’t forget to check out the ArtWalk and the Street Performers festival this weekend. Plus, my show with Allosaurus and David Barnhoorn is tonight at the Velvet Underground. A Creative Weekend indeed!
In order to keep myself creative, I’m starting The Creative Weekend.
My vow to you the reader is to create something new, and not for pay, each week. It can be whatever I want it to be, but it must be new, and it must not be for a client. I will post it here and invite you to comment/give me feedback on it, AND to post your own creative productivity of the week.
For this, I am using our new forum. Yes, it is totally new. The old forum will soon be dead. Why?
A) It was not used
B) It was not integrated well into the rest of the site (which is likely why it was not used)
The new forum will take your comments from this post directly to the forum, where you will have some more control over them, and be able to share more content with us.
Anyways, without further ado – my first Creative Weekend project is a photo I took recently. It was spotted just outside the Gate of Happy Arrivals in Edmonton’s Chinatown.
Use it for whatever you like, and please link back to my site if you do (if you can do so easily). Enjoy, and let me know what you think.
ALSO – share YOUR Creative Weekend project with us. (anytime over the weekend).
Well, I pushed this weekend to the edge but I made it!
If you like it and can find a use for it, be my guest.
