Rudolph and Christmas Eve

Rudolph: Well, the deer said I should go into the dark woods and look for magic mushrooms. 

These look pretty magical, do I eat them 
all?

Whoops....
 

The Reindeer King:  Awaken Rudolph! You have been transformed 

and can now do your duty on 

Santa's Sleigh!

Rudolph: Wait, wow! What? Hey look at my big red glowing nose! It worked! It worked

                 But I feel like I am in a dream!

The Reindeer King: No dream, but you didn't have to have so many mushrooms.

Rudolph: Wow, I feel magnificent. I can see things too. Wow Dude!

King: It's Christmas eve my son. Time to get back to Santa and the other Reindeer. So many have
been searching for you.
Go now!
No time to lose!

Of This and That

See? I've been playing with my little not Fairy Houses and the little resin squirrels and rabbits.

I wanted to give them a unique look. So I have been watching some tutorials and experimenting on my own.

I'm going to eventually figure out a work flow to make these look quasi painted and sketched as if they were from a children's' book.
~~~~~~~

In the meantime the weather is fluctuating like crazy. On Thursday the wind chills were dangerously cold. I hiked with a mask and goggles to see some of the creek's frozen beauty.

It was worth the walk. The winds were cold on the ridge, but once I got into the valley felt warm.

I followed the snowmobile trail which is also called 'the ridge road' down into the valley. The shadows were pretty neat.

The creek is always fascinating and changes often with the weather.

This will all melt away today with the temperatures soaring into the high 40's.

I'm wondering if there will be a snow melt...runoff occurring this afternoon. It'll be worth the walk down there to see.

Come Tuesday winter returns and the creek will change itself again.

Friday was a nightmare day. But I'm just going to call it that and leave it be.

Stuck inside

Being stuck inside is always a bit of a bummer.

But then sometimes I get out somethings and do some painting, or some still life...
Or
Toys and do some photography.

It can be nice and serious stuff.

It can be whimsical...

Or completely made up stuff that I've messed around with adding layers...

Or some fractal edits and creations...

Or, I can edit through a program called DeepDreamGenerator...DDG and get some more odd and interesting 'art'.

Strange...

Frightening...

Angelic...

Or go back to using things around the house such as discarded toys and old tea cups...

Whimsical...

Cute...

And...things on hand.

I hope not to be stuck inside too long today. Charlie has a yearning to go for a walk.
At the moment, he is content to lay on the porch and watch the world go by.

Textures and photos, and the Grunge Movement.

Textures, grunge frames, overlaying of colors to a photograph seem to have finally caught on with the folks who teach Photoshop classes now.

You can even purchase a Texture stand alone, or plug-in program by Topaz Lab . I think they just released it last week.  I tried it, but decided I like the old way of doing things. Looking or creating layers myself and adding them together to come up with a 'piece'. Their plug in hated my processor and crashed non stop, so I ended up uninstalling it and going back to the drawing board.  

I first tried overlaying textures in 2008 and I can tell you I was pretty bad at it.

As I kept at it and reading and experimenting with it, I started seeing some improvement.

I even went a bit with the Grunge Look.  

However I do like straight shooting and not spending hours trying to edit a photo into a Grunge Fine Art Piece.

Fine Art Grunge Courses...Grab it now for only $395!
Oh wow.
I think I will pass.

I then tried some subtle 'Grunge' and Textures.  I found in certain images it really added a special feel to it.

Villa Louis in Prairie du Chein, WI.

Then there is all the reason in the world to experiment with Grunge, Textures, and ... composites.

This photo of a hound dog is my favorite.

So each year when November comes along and things are very dreary, I re-address other forms of artwork.  Sometimes it is graphic art and 3D type of fractals, other times I see what I can compose with a photo.

Yesterday I took some late afternoon shots of some of our mules.

I did edit them.

Old Mules:

A bit of texture added and vignetting.

Below is a screen shot of my workflow for this last edit.

Original shot:

and...

then the final outcome.

I look at it now and think it could use a bit more work, so I may take this back to the drawing board...or PaintShopPro and do a little more.

It isn't growing on me at all.  I like a softer backround and this is a bit too rough...

It is all according to personal taste and perhaps the fun of being able to alter something.

I've googled some photos regarding Grunge Wedding Photography.  In my own opinion, this is something a bit far out.  Some images just look dirty, which is what grunge is all about.  The Grunge Look.

Not sure this will catch on with me.  I'll dabble here and there but let's just say it doesn't tickle my creative bone too much.

Okay...final for now...

Wedding Photos and such...

I've been working hard on these photos from the wedding.

It is a labor of love.

It isn't easy figuring out which photos you know the bride and groom are going to want.
I'm in the process of sorting and creating artsy stuff for the Wedding Book.

I used PicMonkey for creating collages.  It was great fun to do and consolidates pictures that are worth having, but not as full page spreads.



 I have so many favorites that it is hard to choose!






Well, I must be off, I've got laundry to do aside from working on the editing of the shots.

Full view of the gallery can be seen at:
Jer and Sam's Wedding

Too wet to ride...so I may as well do this!