Thursday, April 22, 2010

'Summer Breeze' Challenge

"...in every lovely summer's day I'll always think of you - Sarah"
2.5" x 3.5"
Mixed-media - hybrid digital collage, glass, gel pen

'I'll be seeing you in all the familiar places
that this heart of mine embraces...
in a chestnut tree or a wishing well...
in every lovely summer's day
I'll always think of you...
I'll find you...' 

- lyrics of a Sarah Vaughn song

Ingredients:
Kimberly's digital sketch, my scanned original photos,
my scanned vintage ephemera,
my scanned custom flower embellishment,
glitter glue, gel pen, digital software products.


Howdy and welcome.

This is my entry into Kimberly's Summer Breeze challenge. The original line drawing of the lovely lass is done by Kimberly. Then I altered the drawing with my custom digital artwork and scrapbooking embellishments. Altering this image was fun - and challenging!

All the patterns and background are my original creations from my original digital scans of vintage ephemera and from my original photos. (I prefer to work with my own art and not have to worry about copyright issues. Using my own work is so much more fun, too.) I worked back and forth between Microsoft Digital Image Editor and Photoshop Elements (PSE). Many layers, lighting effects, contrast, saturation, gradients and levels of transparency were used.

After I got all the frames, patterns and backgrounds the way I liked, a heart was added. Then lyrics were added from a Sarah Vaughn song I'd been listing to on my iPod while waiting at the car repair shop. Her gaze seemed to echo the song's mood perfectly. That was serendipity.

After printing the digital image on photo paper, I sealed it with soft gel  medium gloss (Golden) and let dry overnight. Next day, I added glitter glue (Stickles)  to her hair, to her bangles and 3 dots on the left, then added dots of red gel pen to the heart and strands of hair.  Then let dry overnight.

Following day, I scanned the embellished image and changed the image size to standard ATC dimensions. Next I created a digital flower brush in PSE using a scan of a flower embellishment I'd constructed ages ago for scrapbooking. I applied the digital flower brush three times on the right, applying a shadow to each of the 3 digital flowers, and applied gradients on each flower, too! 

Signed it and submitted to the challenge. Then I went on vacation!

Later, I may post some step-by-step images of my process.

Don't you just love the pattern in her dress? It's made from a Photoshop brush I whipped up. Have you tried to create any digital brushes? Have you used any store-bought brushes from digital kits? What do you think of these patterns and backgrounds?

Thanks for stopping by - and I'd love for you to come back again!
Peace,
LuLu 

21 comments:

Kimberly's Mixed Media Art said...

She is gorgeous. I like how you added the lyrics. Nice work, missy.
K.

Lori Saul said...

Beautiful art and words -so expressive!

LuLu said...

Howdy Kimberly,thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!

Those lyrics were totally serendipitous. I'd been listening to that song (over and over) on my iPod while waiting at the car repair shop. At first I was going to add lyrics from one of my original 'angst' songs - but Sarah's lyrics seemd to fit your Summer Breeze challnge better.

So glad you liked her - took forever! (And of course, I still think she needs more 3-D embellishment.

I'm going on vacation momentarily - girl's roadtrip! But please come back to visit often.

Peace,
LuLu
www.lulu-too-beaucoup.blogspot.com

LuLu said...

Howdy Lori,
Thanks for stopping by to visit - and for your comment. Glad you like her!

Hope you'll come back to visit often.

Peace,
LuLu
www.lulu-too-beaucoup.blogspot.com

lynne h said...

ah, lulu, i can hear sarah singing... your piece is beautiful and it evokes the song so well.

thank you for stopping by my place, and here's to serendipity (and sarah : ) ...

xo

lynne

LuLu said...

Howdy Lynne,
Thanks for your visit and commenting.

Would love for you to visit often!

Peace,
LuLu
www.lulu-too-beaucoup.blogspot.com

Diane said...

Hi Lulu, thanks for visiting my blog and leaving an encouraging comment! Here I am, only a few weeks into my collage a day project, and right now the vibe is--WHAT WAS I THINKING?? Thanks to supportive strangers (friends I haven't met yet) like yourself, I know am gonna keep at it!
Hey, I like your blog and your artwork, very creative! So cool that you write too, you know if we only communicated through visual art, we'd all still be on different planets! Hugs to you,

diane

LuLu said...

Howdy Diane,
Thanks for your visit and commenting. My first 'art' was writing poetry - when I was in elementary school, I wanted to be a poet when I grew up...

Would love for you to stop by to visit often!

Peace,
LuLu
www.lulu-too-beaucoup.blogspot.com

Carol said...

Love your blog. Lots of Gorgeous creations. And lots of fabulous information to share.

Rena Sawatski said...

Hi, thanks for visiting my blog and commenting on my Garden Path samples. Love your piece for the Summer Breeze challenge. I am afraid I am totally useless when it comes to digital art.. the layer part just throws me off completely,, I am very visual and need that "one on one" to learn that type of thing. Good luck with your entry.

Femmy said...

great atc Lulu!!!

LuLu said...

Howdy Femmy,
Thanks for your visit and commenting. This challenge WAS challenging. Glad you like it!

Would love for you to visit often!

Peace,
LuLu
www.lulu-too-beaucoup.blogspot.com

LuLu said...

Hi Carol,
thanks for stopping by and for your comments!

Glad you're enjoying my blog - I'm havinf fun doing it.

Would love for you to stop by to visit again when you have a moment or 2!

Peace,
LuLu
www.lulu-too-beaucoup.blogspot.com

LuLu said...

Hi Rena,
Thanks for stopping by and for your comments.

Digital art seems to come easy to me, probably because I'm in information technology (computer programming and stuff) part-time.

Hope you'll come back to visit often.

Peace, LuLu
www.lulu-too-beaucoup.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

it's nice to have met you via the blog linky link!

come by and visit with me too!

ciao bella
creative carmelina

LuLu said...

Howdy Carmelina,
Thanks for visiting!

Pleasecome back again realsoon.

Peace,
LuLu

BLOG Art: www.lulu-too-beaucoup.blogspot.com/
BLOG Heritage: http://www.the-family-connection-tfc.blogspot.com/

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Kelly said...

This is really beautiful. It's funny... that song was just going through my head a few days ago as I was reading Mary Higgins Clark "You Belong To Me" (very suspensful book). I have never used a digital brush but that sounds like something I would love... I must look into it. Thanks for sharing.

LuLu said...

Hi Kelly,
Thanks for stopping by - and for your nice comments.

Peace,
LuLu

amy, hannah, and ellie said...

This is really cool! What a creative mind! We are new to blogging and will definitely be checking back often to follow you. We hope you will check out our blog too- apronsandart.blogspot.com
Great work- we can't wait to see more!
Amy

LuLu said...

Howdy Amy,
Glad you found me! I expect to be posting more soon.

Been having PC problems - but should be ok now.

Thanks for your comment - and please stop by again.

Peace,
LuLu

Mary C. Nasser said...

The Summer Breeze challenge sounds wonderful!
Your piece turned out great!

So glad I found you through the “All Kinds of Artists” Artist blog hop!

I am your newest blog follower. :)
Looking forward to seeing your upcoming posts!

I welcome you to check out my art blog, too!

Best,
Mary C. Nasser
http://www.marycnasser.com/blog.html

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