photoDUDS

digitally alter Gelli Prints

Mixing real paint, real paper and Photoshop has always worked for me. Photoshop allows me to fix things that are not quite right with my prints once they have dried. I can digitally erase or add things precisely where I want. What control I can have after making a fun mess with paint!

Each digital paper is created with SEVERAL layers in Photoshop. Various blending modes are used and sometimes I also adjust the colors a bit.

Here are some digital papers I made from that Gelli Print in my last post.

dinny's garden | digital paper dinny's garden | digital papers Be Mine dinny's garden | digital papers collage

All of these digital papers are available for sale at photoDUDS

photoDUDS | Be Mine Digital Paper Pack

Inspiration that’s blooming now…

Lately, I’ve been having fun mixing “real world” art with the digital world and realizing just how much I enjoy it. Since I  started art journaling, my art style has evolved into something more artistic and less structured or “designed”. The freedom while art journaling is wonderful – NO rules to follow and the only person I need to make happy is myself.

For  a future photoDUDS release I’ve been playing in paint and using my Gelli Arts Plate. SO many prints were created, I just couldn’t stop. By scanning the best bits, I have the control to position elements the way I want in Photoshop. That is freedom too!

Here are some of the bits after I have combined them in Photoshop.

dinny digital designs painted mixed media Photoshop

dinny digital designs painted mixed media Photoshop

dinny digital designs painted mixed media Photoshop

These are going to be 16×20 templates. Here are some of the details.

dinny digital designs painted mixed media Photoshop

dinny digital designs painted mixed media Photoshop

How I use watercolors in my digital designs.

I like to incorporate real watercolors into my digital designs. It gets me away from the computer {for a short time} AND I can get messy. My initial inspiration for this product was a repeating triangular shape. I didn’t have any real color scheme in mind because I figured I could make it whatever colors I wanted later in Photoshop.

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I drew a hexagonal shape with pencil on my watercolor paper and started painting. I couldn’t let that extra space go to waste, so I drew parallel lines on and figured I could fit a few  smaller triangles. What was I thinking, I could totally be more efficient in my use of space! So I did a little math and tried this.

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I really liked the direction this was going. But, I could get MORE triangles from a sheet of paper if they were smaller. So I did these.

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I really started to like the colors. I did a few more sheets of triangles, in similar colors. Some of the triangle I did not like – but that’s what Photoshop is for. I erased the pencil lines before scanning. Here is the photoDUDS card I created with these watercolor triangles. I removed some of the triangles with a mask in Photoshop.

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photos: Beth Forester Photography

MOSAIC, senior grad cards will be available in the photoDUDS store on Thursday. There are 8 different designs in the set, all with similar water color designs. I also painted some squares.

back from ImagingUSA – Phoenix

So, I’ve been back from ImagingUSA for a week. I finally feel like I’m getting caught up on all those little things that didn’t get done before the show.

Despite of our booth and DVDs showing up on the last day of the show, I think what we put together in a hurry worked really well – thanks to IKEA and some quick planning on our part! Fortunately, weeks before the show, we did plan to buy 1 IKEA Expedit bookcase and hand letter the sides. The night I arrived in Phoenix, we planned an entire booth around that bookcase.

I designed the type and product layout prior to the show. I printed out full size versions of the type and brought that with me. I used Chalk Ink Markers because they make less of a mess than real chalk, would not just rub off is someone brushed against it and could easily wipe off with water and a wet rag. I traced the letters onto the cabinet with chalk, then used the markers for the final type. After doing the first section of lettering, the Chalk Ink Markers started to chip off. I panicked, but figured it just gave it a real hand lettered look. For some odd reason, the cabinet on the top, must have had a different finish because the markers did not chip off of the lower unit.

I was really happy with the results. This is how the lettering turned out.

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