Just Doodling

Sometimes I like to just take a Micron pen and a piece of drawing or watercolor paper and just play...see what, if anything, develops. So I doodled for a couple of hours today and up came this doodle-flower. I added a little color...simple black and white can be interesting...but my paper was not a bright white...sort of a light cream. From the beginning, this doodle wanted to be bright black and white with touches of grey....so it sort of decided that I should add some color to make it sing a little. So here's the result. I placed it on a piece of fun dotty, green paper that I thought would add a fun look....notice that it's the same paper that I used for yesterday's birthday card. I like this paper. I like dotty patterns...especially on bright backgrounds. So that's my big accomplishment for today....a doodle-flower on a dotty paper background. Some days just turn out that way too....a bit dotty.

So Here's the Final Version!

.....And it's going into the mail today. I hope that Millie loves it as much as I loved making it for her. I hope that it makes her smile because it's been an especially difficult year for her. Well, it's off to the Post Office for me now. Then...back home. I need to finish a couple of unfinished art projects. My head is also full of ideas for new stuff. Art is my "drug" of choice. The more I do....the more I want and have to do. It's a good addiction.

Happy Birthday Millie

My baby sister's 67th birthday is in about a week...so I decided to take advantage of all that I was learning about Digital Layering in Gail Schmidt's class and created a special card for the occasion. I found a battered black & white photo of my sister taken when she was about 1 or so. I restored the photo and colorized it...then sat her at the head of the table...a birthday party with a few friends (digital elements from Scrapbook Graphics). Every element in the collage...each cup, saucer, chair, etc...were placed on layers of their own...then manipulated, shaded, colored, etc. until they looked like they all belonged together. The hardest part was the old photo that I had to start with...I really had to work to get it to look natural. I couldn't have done it without layers...and a couple of my favorite toys: Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 and Corel Painter 11.