Blue Forest: Journey Begins

It’s that time of year, when I get excited about creating new art for the Cherokee Heights Arts Festival. It’s such an honor to be selected to show my art again alongside so many talented creators.

This blue forest painting came into my possession. It’s nice. I like the colors. But it could be better.

There’s some buzz online about upcycling thrift store art. Looks like fun — I’ll give it a try. What could go wrong? Plus it gets around that fear of a blank canvas.

I came across a fabric collage piece at BloesemDesign and was smitten. Such a playful combination of fabric and string. I’m inspired!

#makersgonnamake #chaf2023 #biggestlittleneighborhoodfestival #mariettasquare

Coffee Love

Coffee love — the only reason to get out of bed every morning!

Aster Mandala

My roundish doodle around an aster became a mandala. It was fun to draw, and it provided a new challenge.

I’m noticing right away, though, that there could be more contrast between the background and the linework.

Here it is again, after some layer adjustments:

Which one do you like better?

Leaf Season

Cooler weather brings fall colors.

Orange Flower

The colors I used to doodle on the sides were sampled from the glowing orange part of the flower. I was originally going to doodle over the flower itself, but it already looks pretty busy.

Ismene Says Peace

My Ismene stencil is back — because why make a stencil if you’re not going to use it multiple times?

I really liked how my yellow lines against black turned out in my Hope piece, so for this I wanted to try white on black.

Doodles and Daffodils

In this piece, I’ve played with transparency vs. opacity. I alternated black lines over a solid yellow background with yellow lines over the dark parts of the photo.

I used a grey mask behind the text. The yellow text was still a little hard to make out, so I added a drop shadow, plus bevel and emboss, to give it more dimensionality.

Love Doodle

This doodle is layered over one of my red flower pics. In between the layers is some masking. Black masking lets the photo show through entirely. Grey masking at the upper and lower doodled parts looks more translucent.

The yellow matches my new flower series. The font, Segoe Print, matches my Ismene piece.

Do any of you have a favorite source for flower bulbs? I want to plant more Ismenes.

Lantana

Another flower! This one is similar to my Stokes Aster and Honeysuckle. I used the Posterize adjustment in Photoshop, and added the text in Eras Bold ITC font.

Ismene