Comfort Cottage

A Never Ending Story

Hello there!  How are you today?  I hope you'll drop me a comment today and tell me what you're up to.  I'm looking forward to a day at home.  Yesterday started with a bang.  My nineteen year old college sophomore son was diagnosed with pneumonia.  Of course, I spent the day running him to the doctor, whose appointment secretary insisted that there was no record of him having ever been a patient there.  It turns out that she looked up the wrong name.  That'll do it every time :)

I'm so happy you are joining me for Texture Tuesday.  To find out what it's all about, and to see many wonderful examples of digital art, please pay Kim a visit at Kim Klassen Cafe. Thank you, Kim, for providing us with such wonderful photoshop textures and inspiration!

This week's theme is Love.  It took me awhile to figure out how to approach this.  I went through my photos and finally, this one jumped out at me.  It is yet another one I took in Maine.  The lovely pair of flowers reminds me of the beauty of two hearts joined in love.  Not even when parted in death does their story end.  It lives on in the hearts and souls of all who loved and were loved by them.  It's effects spread out like ripples on the water.

 

 

I used one layer of Kim's Scripted Edges texture set to Linear Dodge over the photo.  I added a layer mask to the texture layer and brushed the texture away from just the pink blossoms.  It seemed to help bring them forward.  The font for the word "love" is Felt Pen.  The layer is set to Screen at 73 percent opacity.  The font for the rest of the text is Porcelain, set to Normal.

Thank you so much for visiting!

Until next time,

 

Vintage Maine

I'm a little late with my Texture Tuesday project, but better late than never!  By now, you all know of my passion for all things Maine.  I took three of my photographs and turned them into vintage, well-worn postcards.

 

The first one is the marsh across from Seawall on Mount Desert Island.  I used two layers of Kim's Nature's Beauty texture over the photo.  Both layers were set to Soft Light at about 70 percent opacity.  I used the Vintage Companion texture over top of a layer of off-white for the border.  The texture layer was set to Multiply at 80 percent opacity.  I applied a brown photo filter the Vintage Companion texture at about 80 percent.  The font is Cygnet Round set to Bevel and Emboss down.  I reduced the 0pacity to fade it.  To give the photo that grainy look that vintage images have, I added added CS5's noise filter and checked the Monochromatic and Uniform boxes.  To imitate the look of worn-off color, I used the Eraser tool with various grunge brushes on the photo.  I also reduce the saturation of the photo.

 

 

My method for the second one is the same. 

 

 

I took this photo at Stonington Harbor on Deer Isle.  My method was a little different.  I only used one layer of texture over the photo - Bent Edges, set on Linear Burn at 21 percent.  I reduced the saturation of the photo and set the opacity to 94 percent.

 

 

If you would like to enjoy all of the beautiful work of Texture Tuesday's participants, head on over to Kim Klassen Cafe.  Kim offers free textures if you sign up and wonderful tutorials to get you up to speed in the wonderful world of digital artistry.

 

Until next time,

 

What's New?

Have you ever just needed time to regroup and catch up?  It's been awhile since my last post, and I feel as if that's what I needed.  I've been working madly to finish a Christmas quilt, and also to process hundreds of photos from Maine.  Then there were various doctors' appointments and a trip to Intercourse, PA with my sister.  In the middle of all that, the engine in my van literally blew up on Monday.  My son was heading home after a day of classes and he swears that all he did was turn the key :)  His description of the sounds of the dying engine was hilarious (kabooom, poppoppop, wumpawumpawumpa...).  Today, I finally finished a painting from my art journal that's been on the drawing table for the last two weeks.

 

 

I'm really working at the "rejoice" part today :)

I hope you are all doing well.  I've missed you!

 

Until next time,

 

Life Divided

Ten years ago today we experienced a tragedy of unfathomable proportions.   On that crystal-clear morning, my condo was piled high with boxes, and I was fretting about how in the world I was going to accomplish everything I needed to before the big day.  I was also very excited.  You see, after twenty-two years of marriage, all of our hopes had become reality.  We had purchased our dream home,  and on that fateful morning, I was preparing to go for the final inspection.  Over the previous four months, we had watched it being built.  We watched it rise:  from a deep hole in the mud to a beautiful two-story home.  Our home.  The American dream:  our dream.  We had waited so long and suffered so much to realize this day.  And then the phone rang. 

The sound split the air much as it split all of our lives that morning.  In that moment, life was divided into two parts:   before September 11, and after September 11.  I turned on the television to a surrealistic horror story.  The American dream gave way to America's nightmare.  In a fleeting instant, we bade sons and daughters, sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, and our innocence goodbye.

In the agonizing aftermath, we mourned.  It was a pain like no other.  Collectively, we cried, knowing that somehow, nothing would ever be the same again.  But somehow, as the phoenix, even in death, rises from it's own ashes, the character of America rose from the wreckage.  It rose from a Pennsylvania field, in the spirits of forty men and women who gave everything they had left to give for the love our country.  It rose from ground zero from the souls of more than three hundred firefighters, who considered the lives of others more important that their own.  It rose from the heart of every courageous person who has ever donned a uniform in the service and protection of us all.  And it rose from those left behind who refuse to let them be forgotten.

It has been said that those who fail to remember their history are destined to repeat it.  Let us teach our children, lest we forget what has been lost, and what has been gained.  For although we mourn our loss, we have been given a priceless example of what it is to be uniquely American. 

 

 

 

Until next time,

 

 

Solitude

I hope all of you had a fabulous Labor Day weekend!  I spent most of it dabbling in my studio, of course.  Today is Texture Tuesday over at Kim Klassen Cafe.  I used one of my photos from Schoodic Peninsula for the challenge.  I love the idea of a story board, so I combined that with two of Kim's incredible textures for this week's challenge.  I created the composition with Photoshop CS5.  I've included a description of techniques, so if you're not a Photoshop or Photoshop Elements user, feel free to ignore it!

 

Techniques

I began by filling the bottom layer with a solid, weak gray.  I used two layers of Cracker Jack 2 under the photo layer.  I wanted the crackle to be well-defined without being overpowering, so I adjusted the opacity of the texture layers until I was satisfied.  I set the photo layer to multiply.  On top of the photo, I used two layers of Serious Magic set to screen.  I sized them to fit the photo.   To give the photo a more faded look, I reduced its saturation by about 10%.   The font is PegsannaHMK set to soft light. There are two layers and I used a drop shadow under one layer.  I reduced the opacity of the drop shadow by about 50%.  For the color chips, I used the rectangular mask tool to make a small square.  I then modified the mask to feather by 20 pixels.  I added the color using the pastel brush from CS5's dry media collection. I made four more copies of the color chip and used the eyedropper to select colors from the photo, adding a different color overlay to each chip.  I merged the color chip layers and set them to multiply.  Finally, I used the eraser tool and a grunge brush to get rid of the photo's hard edge.  I condensed the whole composition using the merge visible command.

 

If you would like to see how all of our digital artists used Kim's textures, just click on the Texture Tuesdays icon in my right sidebar and it will take you to Kim Klassen Cafe.  Thank you, Kim, for hosting the challenge and for your wonderful textures!

 

Until next time,

 

Wonders

It's Friday already!  This has been a busy week here.  We've had the usual hustle and bustle of getting our son ready for his second year of college...textbooks, clothes, parking permits, etc.  I had to smile when he came home from school (he's commuting) and told me his feet hurt from walking so much and that he thought he needed a new pair of shoes.  We discovered that he is indeed still growing.  His shoes needed to be a half size bigger than they were eight months ago.  He towers over me at 6"2" (At least, that's how tall he was last year.  Now...who knows?)  Yesterday, my husband and I marked our 32nd anniversary.  After our summer of gallivanting about the country, we were contented to celebrate with a pizza :)  While he was at the office today, I finished a new piece of art.

 

 

I used my Caran D'Ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayons and inked with a Sakura Pigma Micron .05 pen.  The verse is Psalm 65:7-9.  After painting all those flowers, it seemed to fit!  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.  I'll be linking this post with Beverly at How Sweet the Sound later today for Pink Saturday.  Please stop by her blog tomorrow to see all of the Pink Saturday posts!  Later this week, I'll have some photos of Deer Isle and Stonington, Maine to share with you.

 

Until next time,