Friday, May 1, 2009

Patterns-Patterns-Patterns

Just finished teaching a couple of workshops in Photoshop Elements.  It's such an interesting program. Sometimes the difference from the actual Photoshop program drives me crazy.  I miss my pen tool,  I miss the single line marquee tool, I miss curves, I miss the way you can make textures, but Elements has some good characteristics.  Whatever Photoshop program I use, there are always new ideas to try:)

A rock with 10 layers of texture created in Photoshop Elements is inspiring me for pattern making.  Actually, I always think of this as a rock, but it really is a piece of a tree in the Petrified Forest in Northern Arizona.  Those trees are actually around 200+million years old.  The crystal properties of the trees feel like rocks to me.

So many ideas on what I want to work on are going through my head.  Some new surfaces I would like to try to print on .  Plus my book about prints on uncommon surfaces is coming together even as I write this.  In a few weeks when I go to Kansas City for the Surface Design Association Conference, I will get clear on some of the information I would like to include.
If any of you have any comment on what you would like to see in a book on printing outsider surfaces let me know.  The book is never finished till it's finished and that won't be until the end of the year.


Tomorrow night is vendors night at the conference.  After that I will fly to Colorado to celebrate our grand daughters birthday.  Seems like she was just born, my how time flies.

Then back to my studio.  This week, a couple of youtube videos are on the agenda.
Topics of videos?   The 2 workshops I am teaching at ArtFiberFest at the end of June.


5 comments:

  1. Our granddaughter just turned 7, so I know what you mean about time flying!

    Good luck on your workshops--you and your attendees will have a blast, I'm sure!

    These patterns you are displaying here are absolutely gorgeous!

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  2. Thanks, Carol, these patterns were made when I got done teaching the second day of Photoshop Elements workshops. We worked on patterns and textures and then I was looking for more ways to do patterns in Elements. Tricky thing that.

    So your granddaughter is 7? Do you 2 do any fabric or paper artsy things together?

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  3. We do, but she would rather build something, using hammers, saws and drills, with her Grandpa!

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  4. Kathy, I'd also be interested to hear if there are things in Elements that you find useful that are NOT present in CS.

    --Lorraine

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  5. Hi Lorraine,
    There are some neat things in Elements that are not present in CS. One that comes to mind is the cookie cutter tool, this tool crops a photo into a shape. You can also do a jagged edge around a photo with this tool. It's an awesome tool. Although it eats the layer you use it on. Good way to use it more then once is you want to create several shapes, is to make lots of copies of the layer you want to use for the multiple shapes.

    If the CS program is more then someone would need to manipulate photographs, Elements is a sweet program and I do love playing with it. It is also fairly simple, and although I never use these features, it will do things automatically in some palettes.

    I love the challenge of creating ideas and techniques in Elements. This next month I will be doing a lot of that and then loading the pdf's on my Kathyanne Art site.

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