(or lack of them)
Monday! What a long weekend it was for me. Not terrible, but with some difficult moments for sure. Hope others fared better than I did.
Due to having my sets broken up by selling them individually at the Open Studios a few weekends ago I have needed to retake some square magnet photos. Heck, who am I kidding I have been needing to take photos of all sorts of products like these for ages. And yesterday I finally had a sunny day where I had time and my camera battery was actually not dead when I went to take them. I got magnets and mirrorsand quite a few shots. But still not everything.
For awhile I was trying to be like Kate And take pictures in my inexpensive light tent and then use Photoshop to give them a pure white background. I could do a fairly good job, but not even close to what she seems to do with ease. I've decided that spending the time fighting with my slow running copy of Photoshop Elements to get inferior photos could be better spent elsewhere. Like creating new work! Or quality time with my daughter and husband. Lots of things are better than Photoshop. Goes to prove that I was right not to listen to people that tried to push me into studying Graphic Design because there were lots of jobs (mid 90's) so it was practical. Guess what, lots of people listened to that advice.
So here I am with photos using my original backdrop, wood! It is much easier and I like how it looks and how it reinforces that these are made from actual woodblock prints and are not printed out from a computer.
The blee is sleeping and I have finished my morning tea and Wallaby yogurt, time for me to shower or something productive.
Showing posts with label photoshop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photoshop. Show all posts
Monday, October 22, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Don't Let Her Fool You
She's no angel today. Blee was an absolute nightmare this morning starting around 5am and going until 11am (colic?) screaming and crying inconsolably but she is so worn out for it she has been down ever since. Thank heavens for that because it was killing us! Nothing like this has ever happened with her before, actually she has been getting better and better sleeping at night and then bam this happened. I sure do hope it isn't a sign of things to come.
Thanks for all the support on Friday. It helped a lot and meant even more to me. I will probably say more later but I need to get back to cleaning my studio while I still can. If I hadn't started feeling better I don't know how I would have been able to cope with this morning. Also, she hasn't needed even an ounce of formula since the soap incident on Wednesday. And I don't expect her to need any today. Hurrah!
In other news I my Photoshop challenged self actually made myself a snappy banner and changed the layout of my blog to go with it. I really am quite proud of it.
I also did something similar to my shop banner. While I really liked my old one I had it for over a year and felt that it was a time for a change. Had been itching for it for awhile. Now this begs the question, should I update my avatar? I have changed it around a bit in the past but nothing ever stuck. Thoughts?
Thanks for all the support on Friday. It helped a lot and meant even more to me. I will probably say more later but I need to get back to cleaning my studio while I still can. If I hadn't started feeling better I don't know how I would have been able to cope with this morning. Also, she hasn't needed even an ounce of formula since the soap incident on Wednesday. And I don't expect her to need any today. Hurrah!
In other news I my Photoshop challenged self actually made myself a snappy banner and changed the layout of my blog to go with it. I really am quite proud of it.
I also did something similar to my shop banner. While I really liked my old one I had it for over a year and felt that it was a time for a change. Had been itching for it for awhile. Now this begs the question, should I update my avatar? I have changed it around a bit in the past but nothing ever stuck. Thoughts?
Monday, July 09, 2007
The Great Reorganization Project Begins
Good morning! I hope everybody had a lovely weekend. Mine was pretty good actually.
I'm finally cleaning and organizing my studio. Starting by putting away blocks in newly purchased drawers. Oh how I adore the Container Store! Finally all my small and midsized blocks of carved wood have been safely put away instead of lying around here and there in my studio like they were before. I mean really is that how I should treat my beloved woodblocks? The blocks that I haven't carved are safely stored on a shelf on my pegboard. The only problem I see with this drawer solution is that I don't seem to have much room left for future blocks!
Though if my Gocco experiments keep going like this then that top drawer that I have currently used for Gocco goodies may find itself free for more woodblocks! I haven't given up on Gocco completely but I am not a happy camper. After producing such worthless cards I had half a mind to take some of the blank cards I have left and make beautiful woodblock prints on them! If I had the energy I would have too! Maybe I will do that today. They could be really pretty but selling them at a price that is fair to me yet might be tricky. People will only pay so much for a card I think.
Bad news from studio cleanup is that I can't find one of my favorite newly carved stamps. It is a simple enough design that I should be able to duplicate without much of a problem, but I would rather not!
I'm still playing around with my lightbox and photoshop skills after getting tons of advice from people! Some wonderful souls even took my flawed images and fixing them for me! Having contacts that are photographers is certainly helpful. As tempting as having them fix my images in the future is I really need to learn how to do this myself! But maybe a few could be fixed while I am learning! For example this one that I put up on Etsy yesterday is certainly looking rather washed out compared to how it looks in reality. It could use some TLC but I struggled with it so much in Photoshop yesterday and wanted to list a mirror so badly that I put it up even with the flaws. I figure I can always change the photos later!
Pregnancy is sucking me dry again. Getting stuff done is hard, I am shocked that I was able to clean yesterday after the horrible night I had before including puking up acid at 2am! But I may have discovered a surprising cure for the horrible acid. It was suggested to me months ago but I ignored the suggestion because at the time Xantac was working great and it sounds weird and gross. But a swig of apple cider vinegar seems to help more than anything at this point! I was able to sleep through the night last night and that is a small but important victory for me.
Soon I need to go to the doctor to have a nurse look at the shot my midwife gave my on Friday testing for TB. This is so pointless and stupid because unless the sign of TB is having no sign at all I don't have it. The nurse is going to check the puncture area for any discoloration but there is nothing. I may not be a nurse but there is nothing there! But since I am not a nurse my eyes don't count. Can't even see that I had a shot at all! Imagine that, I don't have TB!
I'm finally cleaning and organizing my studio. Starting by putting away blocks in newly purchased drawers. Oh how I adore the Container Store! Finally all my small and midsized blocks of carved wood have been safely put away instead of lying around here and there in my studio like they were before. I mean really is that how I should treat my beloved woodblocks? The blocks that I haven't carved are safely stored on a shelf on my pegboard. The only problem I see with this drawer solution is that I don't seem to have much room left for future blocks!
Though if my Gocco experiments keep going like this then that top drawer that I have currently used for Gocco goodies may find itself free for more woodblocks! I haven't given up on Gocco completely but I am not a happy camper. After producing such worthless cards I had half a mind to take some of the blank cards I have left and make beautiful woodblock prints on them! If I had the energy I would have too! Maybe I will do that today. They could be really pretty but selling them at a price that is fair to me yet might be tricky. People will only pay so much for a card I think.
Bad news from studio cleanup is that I can't find one of my favorite newly carved stamps. It is a simple enough design that I should be able to duplicate without much of a problem, but I would rather not!
I'm still playing around with my lightbox and photoshop skills after getting tons of advice from people! Some wonderful souls even took my flawed images and fixing them for me! Having contacts that are photographers is certainly helpful. As tempting as having them fix my images in the future is I really need to learn how to do this myself! But maybe a few could be fixed while I am learning! For example this one that I put up on Etsy yesterday is certainly looking rather washed out compared to how it looks in reality. It could use some TLC but I struggled with it so much in Photoshop yesterday and wanted to list a mirror so badly that I put it up even with the flaws. I figure I can always change the photos later!
Pregnancy is sucking me dry again. Getting stuff done is hard, I am shocked that I was able to clean yesterday after the horrible night I had before including puking up acid at 2am! But I may have discovered a surprising cure for the horrible acid. It was suggested to me months ago but I ignored the suggestion because at the time Xantac was working great and it sounds weird and gross. But a swig of apple cider vinegar seems to help more than anything at this point! I was able to sleep through the night last night and that is a small but important victory for me.
Soon I need to go to the doctor to have a nurse look at the shot my midwife gave my on Friday testing for TB. This is so pointless and stupid because unless the sign of TB is having no sign at all I don't have it. The nurse is going to check the puncture area for any discoloration but there is nothing. I may not be a nurse but there is nothing there! But since I am not a nurse my eyes don't count. Can't even see that I had a shot at all! Imagine that, I don't have TB!
Friday, June 29, 2007
the gocco gods hate me
I can't believe it is already Friday! This week sure did go by in a whirlwind. I hope you guys have more exciting plans than the no plans that I have. I'm just going to be hanging around the house with Jon making art when I feel up to it.
I bought a Gocco silkscreening kit for myself for my birthday this February because I found a used one for a killer price. But I was far too sick at the time to actually use it. When I did try using it about a month later my screen failed to burn properly, I got discouraged and put it aside. I would say away but is having it sit under my printing press really away? I just wasn't feeling inspired or motivated to use it and I didn't want to waste the expensive and hard to get supplies.
Then yesterday I got to thinking about it again and thought maybe if I adapted an older design that I knew that I liked I could make it work. Plus according to Heather Jeany who works pretty much only using Gocco I could make masters using black printouts from my HP inkjet. Normally people say only laserjet works but she uses her inkjet all the time with fantastic results. And we have the same printer so it should work for me too.
Well it didn't work for me too. The screen didn't burn at all. On the bright side all I wasted were bulbs and I have a lot more bulbs than I do screens. But for some reason my batch of black ink must not have enough carbon in it. After venting with her on the phone for awhile I remembered that Jon's office has a laser printer. So I sent him a copy of the image at the correct size and asked him to print me out a couple of copies of it. He had to work late but at least I should be goccoing by the next day.
I put the Gocco aside and did some successful but tiring woodblock printing. When he came home the prints were huge. He hadn't unclicked the option to stretch the image to fit the paper so it had indeed stretched the image to fit the paper and is totally useless for me. The gocco is a small machine for making things like greeting cards. I've heard certain pens have enough carbon in them to work but I don't want to risk it and will wait until I can get a good laser print.
This image is a photoshop mockup of what I want the final card to kind of look like. The blank cards I have are an orange called "poppy" of all things and my poppy image will be printed in a sparkly gold ink. Once the cards are dry they will be packaged in a rich chocolate colored envelope. If I ever get this to work I think they will look quite lovely!
I really wish I could work on this today and not wait until tomorrow. I need to find something else artistic to do with myself. If I am feeling brave I may print some more. It hurt like hell doing it yesterday but the rush of creating again felt so good!
Hopefully greeting cards will be appearing in my shop on Monday. Too bad I am totally out of categories and am going to have to be clever to find a way to make a section of them. I may have to kill the neat but disposable favorites section.
I bought a Gocco silkscreening kit for myself for my birthday this February because I found a used one for a killer price. But I was far too sick at the time to actually use it. When I did try using it about a month later my screen failed to burn properly, I got discouraged and put it aside. I would say away but is having it sit under my printing press really away? I just wasn't feeling inspired or motivated to use it and I didn't want to waste the expensive and hard to get supplies.
Then yesterday I got to thinking about it again and thought maybe if I adapted an older design that I knew that I liked I could make it work. Plus according to Heather Jeany who works pretty much only using Gocco I could make masters using black printouts from my HP inkjet. Normally people say only laserjet works but she uses her inkjet all the time with fantastic results. And we have the same printer so it should work for me too.
Well it didn't work for me too. The screen didn't burn at all. On the bright side all I wasted were bulbs and I have a lot more bulbs than I do screens. But for some reason my batch of black ink must not have enough carbon in it. After venting with her on the phone for awhile I remembered that Jon's office has a laser printer. So I sent him a copy of the image at the correct size and asked him to print me out a couple of copies of it. He had to work late but at least I should be goccoing by the next day.
I put the Gocco aside and did some successful but tiring woodblock printing. When he came home the prints were huge. He hadn't unclicked the option to stretch the image to fit the paper so it had indeed stretched the image to fit the paper and is totally useless for me. The gocco is a small machine for making things like greeting cards. I've heard certain pens have enough carbon in them to work but I don't want to risk it and will wait until I can get a good laser print.
This image is a photoshop mockup of what I want the final card to kind of look like. The blank cards I have are an orange called "poppy" of all things and my poppy image will be printed in a sparkly gold ink. Once the cards are dry they will be packaged in a rich chocolate colored envelope. If I ever get this to work I think they will look quite lovely!
I really wish I could work on this today and not wait until tomorrow. I need to find something else artistic to do with myself. If I am feeling brave I may print some more. It hurt like hell doing it yesterday but the rush of creating again felt so good!
Hopefully greeting cards will be appearing in my shop on Monday. Too bad I am totally out of categories and am going to have to be clever to find a way to make a section of them. I may have to kill the neat but disposable favorites section.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
