...the Sea Whisper'd Me

On day 15 of Beyond Layers Kim gave us a prompt: Whisper. It was very interesting to start creating from a word-prompt only. The first thing that popped into my mind was the finishing line of Walt Whitman's Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking, and although I tried to find easier things that would've whispered to me, I couldn't shake the thought. That's Whitman for me, anytime. You wish you could get away from his wordiness and heaviness and all, but the words just keep rolling in my head and annoying as it is, I cannot help loving them. It's not a passionate love, but a persistent one. Very persistent.

So it had to be sea-related, but of course I knew I had no photo in the archives to convey the mood of the poem, and couldn't possibly go and shoot by the seaside, as it happens to be rather far away from here.

I decided, then, to go by the words only, not the poem. Perhaps I'll sometime get back to the poem, but I think that has to be done in photomanipulation... But here's the whispered result.

...the Sea Whisper'd Me

It's a picture taken on Baltic Sea, on 16 May this year, when we had just left Lübeck on our homeward journey. Actually, I was very happy the sea only whispered this time, instead of roaring. The North Sea between IJmuiden and Newcastle twelve days previously was rather rough, and I had my first experience of sea-sickness. Thinking about it now, it could have been much worse, but it felt like the end of the world at the time. At least I now know first-hand what sea-sickness is.

But back to the picture - used the textures here to make it even softer and at times I thought I'd lose the whole image when toning it down, but then, it's meant to be a whisper.

Resources used:
texture Optional by Jerry Jones
texture Awaken by Kim Klassen
gradient Sea Dreams 15 by ElvenSword

 And here's the recipe.

How annoyingly simple the recipe makes it look, again, and how much tweaking went into each step...

Black & White with a Touch of Colour

A rainy day. Should have mowed all the lawn yesterday, instead of only going as far as the first tankful of mower would let me. It's too bad one needs to let the machine cool down -- gives one time to cool down oneself, and after that it's a real effort to get going again, although I do, for some unfathomable reason, enjoy lawnmowing. But now the grass is so wet that the poor machine will choke immediately if I try to tackle the backyard.

Oh well, since Better Half is off town training today, and all that the doggies do on rainy days is snore on sofas and chairs around the house, hoping I won't be suggesting anything stupid such a going out, this gives me time to do some more catching up on Beyond Layers. I'm feeling really accomplished -- I'm already on week seven, which means I'm only four weeks behind! That's great -- when I started, the others were doing week 11 already.  And so far I have completed each and every assignment. *insert some the self-satisfied beaming here*

On day 14 of Beyond Layers Kim gave us two videos to study, with ideas how to turn a photo black & white and then add some colour into it to heighten interest. She also gave a more in-depth tutorial on how to create watermark or text brushes.

The brush part really was all familiar to me, but it made me dig up something useful. Kim explained how to resize a brush you're using by using the left and right bracket key -- well, in my Scandinavian Mac keyboard the keys would be totally something else, and while trying to find out which keys to use I landed on this useful hint. Wow, Ctrl + Option drag made changing brush size really quick!

I'm not going to share the brushes I've made, since they are my watermark stamps and anyone interested can see them in the photos I upload, but the black & white assignment was interesting. Thought I'd try using the b&w adjustment layer presets instead of the actions suggested (to be able to afford the Florabella actions I'd have to be making money with my photos or with something anyway). Originally I was quite happy with the results, but decided then to try out the Pioneer Woman b&w action. It gave quite another depth to the image so I ended up using the action.

And then I had a brainwave. Earlier I fretted over the use (or rather, uselessness for me) of brushes, and now I suddenly saw what one could do: use a bold splash brush to add colour to the photo, instead of gently touching the photo with a default brush. Now that was fun to play with.

First Splashes of Colour

Resources used:
Pioneer Woman Black & White action
Splatter Brushes by Fuzzimo

I still have to figure out why, when flattening an image or saving it for web, Photoshop sometimes discards the layer styles. It was most annoying to notice that after I had cracked my brain for a good while to get a bevel to the splashes, it all vanished when I flattened the image. Luckily I finally managed to keep the bevel, though I'm not sure how.

Ten Truths

On Day 13 at Beyond Layers, Kim challenged us to reveal ten truths about ourselves, and then create a fun photo to go with the revelations.

Ok, first I'll deliver the (at least) ten truths about me.

1. I never drink coffee. Only tea. My grandmother was a great coffee drinker and we used to go on picnics in the garden and drink coffee when I was a little girl. Okay, my coffee mostly consisted of milk and sugar with a dash of coffee, but by the age of seven I had had my fill. After that I have only had coffee if it really has been unavoidable. Luckily it very seldom is.

2. I love Dandie Dinmont Terriers. There has been at least one Dandie in our house for 21 years. Currently we have six Dandies, the eldest 15 of them years old and the two youngest ones 8 months.

3. Our dogs are wonderful though at times I too infuriating for words, like when they wake us up after mere five hours of sleep and insist on being taken out the very minute, or insist on barking all passers-by, or decide to have a barking fit on a quiet evening just because nobody is passing by. But I love them to bits.

4. I enjoy  travelling, either with or without the dogs. It's fun to pack the doggies in the car and drive somewhere, and it's lovely to be able to occasionally travel without them, too, preferably together with Better Half.

5. I am a great fan of J.R.R. Tolkien and Lord of the Rings. I used to read the trilogy through every summer for 20 years, but ever since the Peter Jackson films were released, I have only read the books once. The storyline and characters in the films have taken over. Frankly, I have lost count on how many times I have seen the films.

6. I do not watch films very much, but the ones I like I tend to watch again. Not twice. Not thrice. Over and over again. See above.

7. I love singing. I have taken singing lessons for quite a few years now. In classical terms, I am a mezzosoprano. I also sing in a 6-woman ensemble, our repertoire consists of barbershop, classic pop and some jazz standards, and I couldn't imagine life without the group.

8. I used to lose my voice totally with flu twice a year, just like my mother, but ever since I started learning proper vocal techniques this hasn't happened once. Knock on wood.

9. I enjoy listening to music in languages I don't understand. Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, to name a few. That way I can listen to vocal music even while I'm working on something that demands concentration without getting distracted by the lyrics.

10. I tend to do things in fits and starts. This goes for  Better Half as well... When the whimsy strikes us, we might suddenly decide to build a new flowerbed in the garden and do it all in a few hours, and then not touch something long-planned for weeks or months on.

11. I love hats. I don't wear them every day, except of course in the winter when one cannot go without, but far more often than others around here.

12. I am terrible at making choices. It takes forever for me to choose anything, from what clothes to wear and which tube of toothpaste to buy, to deciding the template to use for a scrapbooking layout or which photos to start processing. *sheepish grin*

Seems that I ended up with twelve, but that's alright. It was far more fun that I thought it would be, so thank you for the challenge.

Then to the fun photo. As the challenge included the word "fun", I chose this picture I took last year in June. I was sitting on a park bench, in the shade on a sunny morning of a hot day, and just for fun, I snapped this silly photo of my new hat and my leg and foot with a sandal. The picture has amused me a lot, I like it, and it is, after all, a picture of me. Kind of.

Morning in Park

Processing resources:
- texture Tone Texture 10 by Jerry Jones
- texture 118v2 by Sirius-sdz
- gradient Rivendell 13 by ElvenSword
- framing action by Chain

And here's a recipe card for that.

Ornamental Onion

Hooray, it’s Thursday and I finally managed to take part in the Texture Tuesday challenge again. It’s been a while, so happy to participate! The challenge this time was to use a flower photo with any of Kim’s textures.

I chose an ornamental onion, a tall and handsome Allium plant I photographed on 12 May this year in a garden in Dunfermline, Scotland. In processing, I used two of Kim’s textures as well as techniques we’ve practised on Kim’s Beyond Layers II eCourse. I’m so much behind on the course, but I’m catching up little by little, and I want to do each challenge, because I enjoy them a lot and don’t want to miss anything.

Ornamental Onion

Processing resources:
- textures Faved & Grey Day Slate by Kim Klassen
- a pink gradient from The Super Dooper Gradient Pack by Digital Phenom

Just for the fun of it, I thought I would create a recipe for this one. Or actually, not only for fun -- already now I notice that in some of the course challenges I have forgotten the steps I’ve taken. I’m sure this will help me review later on what’s good and what’s less good in the process or work flow, and perhaps that way I can also see what I have learned.

Making the recipe card was fun!  Resources used for the card:
- background paper Subtle White 7 by Jerry Jones
- gradient Rivendell 09 by ElvenSword
- fonts Snell Roundhand & Big Caslon

As a matter of fact, processing is never this simple... It’s not as if I’d just snap my fingers and say ok, this is what I’ll do. There’s a lot of trying out involved, browsing through numerous textures, then choosing one and, after a while of dabbling, deleting it when it doesn’t do something I’d like it to do, or does something I definitely don’t want it to do... But I’m making progress, it’s not all the time purely hit-and-miss anymore. I’m beginning to see what I’d like to end up with. Yay!

Brush Lovin'?

Day 12 at Beyond Layers was about using brushes in Photoshop. Nothing really new there, I have created some for my own use and used quite a few - I love them in photomanipulations and also for scrapbooking. I have used brushes in scrapbooking layouts and also to create my own scrapbooking papers. I have used pretty swirl stamps on cards and to print pretty envelopes, too. But I still have to figure out their possible uses for photos.

Ok, you could do what Kim has done and create word art with quotes, but I see two problems with this: first, how likely am I to use a quote in a picture? Not very. During Beyond Layers I have already done that far more than I thought I ever would. It's just not my cup of tea. Second, how likely am I to use the same quote again? The chances for that are really minimal, and even then I would most likely want to use a different font. And the whole point of stamp brushes is that they are meant to be used several times, right?

Actually I'm asking myself, what possible use could I have for these stamp brushes in processing my photos? I can see but two possibilities -- they are really great for things like a watermark, I use one on all my pictures. Another option might be to use a stamp brush to frame a photo, I could see myself doing that. After all I've tried that before when creating icons. Anything else? I really don't know.

So I obviously didn't go brush crazy, but I did the Day 12 assignment anyway and used one of the word art brushes provided. Here's the result.

Shipboard Sunset

The photo was taken on 2 May this year, somewhere on the Baltic Sea. The sunset was really beautiful, and the thin stripe in top middle is a plane.

Thank you for the resources used:
- texture Raised Effect by Jerry Jones
- texture Paper Stained Light by Kim Klassen
- word art brush from Beyond Brush Set by Kim Klassen
- framing action by Chain

Eyes Wide Open

At Beyond Layers, day 11, Kim shared a texture called Shine and her recipe for using it, so I decided to give it a go. The photo was taken on a rainy day like this, when this butterfly had obviously sought shelter from the rain and stood in our living room window for hours.
Didn't follow her instructions to a T, though, since my photo was not nearly the same as hers. But that's what I mostly do with recipes when cooking, too - follow them up to a point and then do my own variation.

Butterfly in Window

Processing resources:

- texture Shine by Kim Klassen
- font Miama by Linus Romer

Painterly Effect

Day 10 challenge at Beyond Layers was called Painterly Effect. The idea was to do more or less the opposite of what we have been doing so far (soft & subtle) and create a heavily texturized, painterly effect on a photo.

Having done photo manipulation for a few years, I found myself standing on rather firm ground here. Not as if I had nothing to learn! Kim did share some interesting new techniques with us, though, some of which I had never tried before. It's wonderfully refreshing to find new ways of achieving the same kinds of effects.

I thought it might be worthwhile picking one of my Scotland pictures for the challenge this time -- thinking about the landscapes there, painterly rather easily crosses one's mind. Here's the one, after I worked on it for a few hours.

On a Scottish Loch

For this one, I used a number of textures. I had an idea in mind, and to achieve it, I needed altogether four different textures and numerous other layers: black & white adjustment, several hue & saturation adjustment layers, levels adjustment, and the new one for me: smart filters.

Thank you for the processing tools:
- textures Old Painting 22 & Paint on Canvas II by Kerstin Frank
- textures Finale & Sienna by Kim Klassen
- a blue gradient  from Super Dooper Gradient Pack by Digital Phenom

I'm feeling quite happy with this. It was a fun exercise to do, and I am slowly catching up... ok, the others at Beyond Layers are be at day 20 today, but although I'm at times sorely tempted to jump ahead and join the fun, I'm going to do it the slow way, day by day, challenge by challenge.