August Letters JGR

Hi everyone-for my second alphabet I'm using 'found items' from my studio. As usual there is no plan, I just start working and see what ideas come to me. This time, I was going through a box of words and phrases cut from magazines. E was inspired by the phrase "Erase your flaws".

I decided to crop the edge of the background text slightly.

F is "No Fear" a concept I'm working on . . . still.
G - "Youth is in your genes". I guess we're never too old to be young again.
H is "How" as in how will I make all of those things come true? It was fun just to ride the wave of inspiration as it fell into place.
Have a great weekend, thank you for visiting!

JGR June letters

Hi everyone, I had such a blast working on these! I started off just trying this n that and along the way I stumbled upon this technique: If you have a moment I'd like to share it. Step 1) Hand-dyed tissue wrapping paper using orange/brown shades. 2) Bleach stamp with hand carved swirl shape using a random approach. 3) Scan into PhotoShop 4) Text in black, keeping it simple then add the secondary lighter shade in script for an accent. 5) Added grundge (sp) frame on two sides only. 

I didn't like the X in font so I substituted a thicker font.
For the 'Z' inverted the background color, highlighted the script z and then did a 'screen-grab' because I liked the contrast. I started to 'erase' the bounding box but I decided it looked interesting so I left it. That's the great thing about Art-lovely surprises happen sometimes. 
Thanks for viewing!

Noela's 'W'

...again, an easy letter based on the bent nail inside the lid of the box. 

...select, flip, mirror, clone.

Noela's 'S'

My next letter is 'S'.

...select, select bottom section, flip, clone, lighten.

I think as we are two thirds of the way through the challenge, I'd best refresh the memories of those who are not sure of what I'm doing.

I started with an old painted hand made wooden box which I found at a garage sale a few years ago. It currently sits on my bathroom vanity and is empty but it could hold all manner of treasures.

I took dozens of close up photos of the painted surface and the raw timber inside which had some stamped markings, then set about using 'photoshop' to create letters.

The letters don't exist on paper yet - only in cyber space, and as we near the end of the first alphabet I'll need to print them out and come up with some serious 'book' ideas. Any suggestions??

Noela's next letters

I am posting 4 letters today as I will be away for the next couple of weeks. This should bring me up to date as of April 12th.

...'j' select, rotate, clone,

...'K' select, rotate, clone,

...'L' select, enlarge and clone,

...'m' select, rotate and mirror.

I had a bit of trouble with the 'L'. There was a printed L inside the box, but I wanted to give myself a bit more of a challenge because the J and K were fairly straight forward. That bent nail on the box lid is being put to lots of good use!

Another week flies past

...and here is my next letter..."F"

....select, flip and clone

This one was a bit tricky. I am running out of different obvious raw material, so I need to be super creative with lots of 'cloning'. I love the variety of letters being posted and the 'real' calligraphy artists are leaving me in awe.

Noela xoxoxo

Noela's February letters

Here is the latest letter - a 'D'.

D - select, clone, stretch, add shadows

B - select, flip, paste and clone

C - flip, clone, stretch and draw

I posted 5 letters in January, so there are only three for February. The B is rather ugly, but I am OK with that as it will add some colour contrast to the final alphabet. After all, I am working to expand my 'photoshop' skills rather than to make a beautiful end product.

Just a reminder - this is the box I am using as raw material.

This week's letter - 'C'

Flip, clone, stretch and draw.

I used a new technique this week - actually 'drawing in' the shadow under the top part of the 'C'.

LETTER 'B'

My first five letters were the vowels, so now I will start to fill in the gaps.

'B'- select, flip, paste and clone.

The inside of my wooden box has some stamped writing indicating that the timber was originally from a gelignite box - a common source of timber for making recycled furniture and artifacts in the early part of the twentieth century. I have used the 'E' from gelignite, and a number '8' to make the 'B'.

First 5 weeks

As I have already indicated, I am using photos taken of an old painted hand made box to source my alphabet letters. For some unknown reason, my initial letters were vowels, thus I am a week ahead!! I am using mainly ACDSee [a simple version of Photoshop] to achieve these results. I will note when I use another programme.

Here are the original photos, the final letters, and some pointers on how I got to that stage.

a. Mirror image, flipping, cloning.

e. Flip, clone.

i. Flip, clone, colour changes.

o. Flip, clone, add contrast.

u. Change perspective [with 'Paintshop Pro 7'], clone.

There are some challenges ahead. I will need lots of artistic licence with some letters.

I am teaching these techniques at an ATASDA workshop  in Brisbane on April 24th and 25th.

'PHOTOSHOP' LETTERS

Hi all,

I am using photos of an old, home made wooden box with peeling paint, for inspiration for my letters. I am taking close up photos of potential letters, then using [as few as possible] 'photoshop' techniques to create the designs.

I'm not sure of how to present them as yet, but I guess they will be printed on hot pressed heavy weight water colour paper for a start. Any ideas?