Little Love Session

What?  Yes, today I would like to share about a Little Love Session -- a Valentine's Day photo session of my friends Bob and Linda's granddaughter Claire.  Claire is the love of their lives, and she thinks her grandparents are pretty special too!  I remember the discussion they held before Claire was even born, asking one another what they wanted to be called.  Linda chose "Nana" and Bob chose "Bif" -- for Bob is Fun.  I just love those two!

Well as I said Claire is the love of their lives and their home is filled with photos of her, including those of photographer Christan Parreira.  Christan takes amazing photographs and he took the following photo of Claire -- along with several others that you can see by going to his blog:

Photograph by Christan Parriera

When I saw the photo I just knew that it would make a great painting, so I contacted Christan and asked permission to paint Claire's portrait.  He and his wife so graciously agreed, so here it is...the painting created from Christan's wonderful photograph...

To learn more about Christan or to contact him about a photo session for you, please check out his blog at http://www.christanp.com/index.html
 
And, if you are interested in having a portrait painted of your favorite person, pet, place or favorite thing, please contact me to discuss.
 
Today's Quote:  "Grandchildren are the dots that connect the lines from generation to generation." ~Lois Wyse

About.Com Graphics Challenge

For the past several weeks I have participated in the About.com graphics challenges.  Each week, a new challenge is made to all levels of individuals, to...

Use your imagination to create an image based on this theme, using any graphics software you like. Then post your completed images as a reply in this thread and tell us a little bit about what software and techniques you used. Remember, some of us are just learning, and would like to know how you did that.

I have found the challenges to be great fun, "challenging", and I am learning quite a bit from my fellow forum members.

The first challenge I participated in was #220.   A forum member, Renato (Wyxk), suggested we create a POSTER FOR HAITI, due to the recent devastation in that country. His thoughts of a friendship poster to perhaps lift the spirits and hope of people came from a recent challenge. We were asked to use our imagination to come up with a visual message and perhaps give a glimmer of hope in a time of need. No starting images were provided and this is my submission:

Challenge #221 celebrated aritst JACKSON POLLOCK and encouraged us to discover our inner Jackson Pollock and try out his style of expression.  No starting images were provided and this is my tribute to the painter dubbed, "Jack the dripper"...

The next challenge I participated in was #223, a challenge to create a Birthday card to celebrate Photoshops 20th Birthday.  No starting images were provided and this is my submission...

(Photoshop is a program that allows you to create your graphics on layers)

Graphics Challenge #224 was a bit of a stretch for me.  I grew up near Los Angeles, so I have seen a lot of graffiti in my day, but I have never actually done any "tagging" of my own.  This challenge was TAGGING, stating, "Graffiti or tagging has long been a form of expression - it can also get you into trouble. We've set you up with some trouble free starting images for you to tag and cover with graffiti however you wish. Get out those paint cans and have some with it!"  And so I downloaded a couple of "graffiti fonts from 1001 Free Fonts and created a couple of images...

 and applied them to one of the starting images...

and applied them to one of the starting images to get....

Graphics Challenge #225 was to create VISUAL PUNS. We were encouraged to come up with an image using a literal translation of a product, plant, object, etc.  No starting images were provided and these were my submissions....

Sunflower...

and Sand dollar...

The next challenge, #227, was called "Wearing o' the green", in honor of St. Patrick's Day.  No starting images were provided, and I introduced a quick Celtic knot painting that was painted entirely out of a special digital paintbrush that I created from Zoe's paw print. 

This weeks challenge is to THINK SPRING.  No starting images are provided and I am still in the "thinking" stage. As soon as I create an image and make my submission I will post it for all to see.

And so, if you are looking for a challenge, I encourage you to join the forum and participate.  It is a great group of people and the challenges keep the mind sharp!

Today's Quote:  “I have always grown from my problems and challenges, from the things that don't work out, that's when I've really learned.” ~Carol Burnett

Break Time is Now OVER!

Not that I’ve actually taken a break in life, but the blog break is officially over. These past couple of months have been busy with work, household chores, the book, family and friends. In other words, LIFE!


My finger is doing better, but I have a feeling it will never fully recover. I have limited strength and an ever-present “pop” every time I bend it. So, I guess I just need to put on my big girl panties and move on!

My jewelry wardrobe continues to grow, as I “experiment” with the whole jewelry-making process. My sister gave me a jewelry making book for Christmas and a charm bracelet book for my Birthday. All my husband has to say about it is, “Oh No!”

Last month I had the pleasure of organizing a bridal shower with a friend, for a friend. It was a small, intimate affair, and so instead of a cake we had cupcakes. I made them, and wouldn’t you know, it led me in another direction. Cake Decorating Classes! In my attempt to make something “pretty” for the shower, I realized I hadn’t the skill to create what I wanted, so I did my best

and signed up for the Wilton Cake Decorating class at my local Michael’s store. You can be sure I will now include cake decorating as a topic for future posts.

Work on the book continues.

Zoe's PawPrintArt will be expanded to include paintings painted with a paw print paintbrush the I made in Corel Painter.  The paintbrush was created using an image of Zoe's paw and will be used to paint entire paintings.  It's kind of a strange concept, I know, but here is a very fast, very rough painting that I painted so you could see what I'm talking about.  It is a Celtic Knot, done in celebration of St. Patrick's Day.

If you look closely, you will see that every bit of this painting was painted using Zoe's PawPrintArt paintbrush that I created in Painter! 

Well, I guess that's the past couple of months in a nut shell.  I'll be back with regular postings about art, jewelery making, cake decorating, the book, and whatever else I can share with you.

Today's Quote:  "Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today."  ~James Dean