Thursday, February 16, 2012

i like nonsense





"i like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.  fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living."

"in my world, everyone's a pony and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!"

- dr. seuss

big thanks to the graphics fairy for most all of the clip art used in the collages
http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/

15 comments:

  1. These 2 collages are fantastic!! So much to look at and admire. :)

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  2. In addition to "seusing" this up (never heard Seuss used in connection with this type of art) this is great for steampunk art too. I did a blog post on steampunk if you want to see it here: http://katspurrfectboutique.blogspot.com/2011/03/what-is-steampunk.html. I love what you have done. Thanks for sharing at Brag Monday.

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  3. P.S. I love the quote on top of your blog. That is one of the many things great about the internet, finding fun famous quotes.

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  4. thank you shelley and kat... glad you like my "farting around". trying to remind myself to have fun with my art and make what makes me happy. i will check out your blog post kat- the steampunk stuff is so cool!

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  5. I love nonsense, Dr. Seuss, and these three kids. Thanks for sharing!

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  6. Too cool! This is my first time to your blog and it fascinates me and awakens the child in me. I will visit often. Your work is fun and uplifting. Thanks for sharing.

    Cyndi

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  7. thank u juju and cyndi. good to be a child again... to quote the good dr. seuss "adults are just obsolete children and the hell with them!"

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  8. What can I say ... so beautiful and inspiring. And I love the design of your blog.I too will be visiting often,

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  9. Saw your link through Graphic Fairy - I love your pics - what a unique and inspirational idea. Stunning

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  10. nettie and sharonh...thank you! appreciate the feedback!

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  11. These are awesome! Do you do tutorials? Id love to make my own version of these of my kids for my mantle but Im not great at figuring these things out in photoshop on my own.

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    1. Thank you so much Jen! I haven't done any tutorials as of yet. These were done in photoshop using a LOT of layering/ masking/ extracting. helps to have a good selection of clip art that will "fit" to the image too. do you use graphics fairy?? see link at right. she has a good bit of free stuff. also helpful are the Dover clip art disks... you can order online through amazon last i checked. as far as tutorials you could google one that focuses on layers and layer masks. that is the most important part of making one of these collages.
      i have an older book that i used to learn how to do a lot of photoshop stuff... called Digital Collage and Painting by Susan Ruddick Bloom. I'm pretty sure they have an updated version available.
      I hope that helps!

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  12. Thank you so much! I will keep a watch out incase you decide to do a tutorial full of your magic tricks ;) I just discovered the graphics fairy through pinterest which then lead me to your page and your awesome art. I am SOOO inspired! Im seeing a dinosaur and an old plane with my son, and a circus elephant and ballet goodies with my daughter... or something like that. :)
    I will have to check out that book. It sounds helpful!
    One more question, I love the "color" of your black and white, do you use an action or convert yourself? It really resembles the colors out of a vintage postcard. LOVE IT!
    I will need a lot of practice at the layer masking but Im excited to play around! The one thing I really am awful at is taking the person out of the original picture... do you have any tips on getting the person out of the original so that you can add it to your collage? Or will I find that in the books etc you mentioned? Im writing you back before I looked them up :)
    thanks again!

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    1. I like your ideas for collages- and you could probably get most of the clips from the graphics fairy! very cool! for black and white conversions i mostly use software from NIK called Silver Effex Pro or just do it via photoshop myself. I love black and white and rarely do color work- learned b&w photography in darkroom so something just clicks for me where color doesn't.
      What I do w/ extracting probably isn't most efficient way but it works for me. I use the Lasso tool to quickly select just outside the subject, then copy and paste into a new file. Then select Layer-Layer Mask-Reveal All and use brushes to brush away what is left around the subject until it fits into the scene i've placed it into. I like using layer masks like this because you haven't lost anything from the original image- you can delete the mask later or add back what you cut out.
      When you use the layer mask reveal all and then brush, setting foreground color to black erases pixels, and setting it to white will add them back.
      There are millions of tutorials online if you google something specific like "tutorial photoshop layer mask reveal all" you may get lucky and find something for free! Good luck and thanks for writing! Let me know how it goes!

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