In Just Under the Wire

This week's art challenge from Laura McHugh East was to paint a watercolor of April showers bringing May flowers. 


I had a very busy weekend - getting all my items tagged for next week's Open Studios (see photos on my Facebook page (Laura McHugh's Art here). Then, today I went to a party and hung out with my grandson making cookies. 


So it is 11 pm, and I just remember that I forgot to do my homework for this week's art challenge! I rushed out to my studio, which looks more like a store right now.

In this box are paintings I've done over the past several months. I knew I had a beautiful painting of flowers and the sun in there, so I grabbed and scanned it.

Then it was time for some Photoshopping goodness, because though the graphic collaged at the top hints at clouds, there are no raindrops to be found.


I experimented with several different brushes and the extra features that let you multiply and scatter the brush effects. I don't use this part of Photoshop much, so it was new territory for me. I found a brush that gave a hint of rain and added more to the clouds in gray. Then I went back over the areas with a lighter color to give some atmosphere to the clouds. I also fixed up the sun a bit to add more contrast.

I exported the image into Picasa to add the borders and voila! April Showers Bring May Flowers. 

 

Truth be told, our weather on the west coast has been so weird lately that our flowers are all in bloom, prematurely. My roses are set to blossom in the next week or so, and I am really looking forward to that.

Happy May to all of you!

"April showers bring May Flowers"........

make a watercolor painting with and theme "April showers bring May Flowers"........this was my  challenge for this week......I knew  I was going to be out most of the day Saturday with my Husband enjoying Shad Fest 2012 along the Delaware River in Lambertville NJ (check out my other blog vintage2glam.blogspot.com )...
So I packed up my art supplies and while John drove us about 1 hour to our destination I thought this would be a great time to create this week's challenge........

I just grabbed my black sharpie markers and started creating....I took a class a few months back called Magaly Ohika's Freeform Class.....Had so much fun creating art like a child that I thought I would do this challenge in a free form style...

I have a problem sitting still...I always get bored on car rides...or I should  say I use to get bored on road trips...but now I make sure I have  my bag packed with all my art supplies to keep me busy and help pass the time....

I take a vintage towel that I love and cover my lap and lay out my supplies and start playing....

what could be better????I get to create, see the sites, enjoy some music, talk to my hubby, finish a challenge, and not be bored.......

I love using my water color pencils by  Faber-Castell, and water color crayons by Staedtler

you can be messy like a child when coloring, kind of hard to be neat while driving in a SUV on some back bumpy country roads....

almost done...

  

now to add the water...love love love my Koi water brushes...they make painting on the go so easy....

"Aprils Showers bring May Flowers"

Kizoa slideshow: RAIN - Slideshow

"RAIN" Laura McHugh WEST decided the challenge this week................and I must say I was kinda nervous about it...it hasn't RAINED here for some time now and it was getting close to my deadline for getting something together.....but I have to Thank Mother Nature..... cause she came through for me today....we are getting rain and I am so happy, so are the flowers and plants in my garden....here is my version of "RAIN".....

April Showers Video

Wow - this week's challenge was...well...challenging! It was posed by me, so I'm not sure why I found it so difficult!

 

It was to make a video or take one outside of the rain. Last week, this would not have been a problem, but this weekend we had record high temperatures and nary a drop of rain. So I went the power point route, using iMovie to stitch it all together and post it on Facebook.


First I went searching on the internet for my images. I had envisioned the movie in my head last week while driving around. I often find my creative inspiration when in the car, and last week had me on the road for hours.

I found some rain backgrounds and alternated 3-4 different versions of the rain in a powerpoint. I found the image of a black and white umbrella and added a sequence of 15 images, slightly rotated across the screen, in Power Point.


I put the slides in sequences back and forth and added some title info at the end. That was the easy part.


Then, I was struggling with how to animate it for viewers to see. I thought if I made it a PDF that would work but it did not. And, I couldn't get the transitions short enough to make the umbrella smooth, so I made all 68 slides into .jpg files and dragged them into iMovie. 


Once in iMovie, I was able to specify the slide lengths (much shorter - 0.1 sec/slide) and then exported it to Facebook. I tried to put it on You Tube, but there is a problem making that happen wiht the account settings since Google took over...so here is the Facebook link.

"Springtime Mobiles"

Hello friends...this week was my (Laura McHugh East) challenge idea and I thought a "Springtime mobile" would be a nice challenge....so here we go.....


I saw a Mobile months ago on a very interesting blog that I love so much.....Dottie Angel

 

 

and that was my inspiration...check her blog out she is so awesome using vintage fabrics....I am in heaven when I am reading her blogs.......so talented miss tif.....
 http://dottieangel.blogspot.com/2011/12/on-11th-day-of-joyfulness.html


I also saw something that caught my eye... painted sticks...who would know......something so simple could be so cool......

http://www.the4yablog.com/2010/07/painted-sticks-by-ginette-lapalme.html


So here is my interpretation from  these 2 interesting blog posts....

I searched the yard for some fallen branches a few weeks ago and set them in the garage to dry......

this past friday was a perfect day...weather was so nice and I was able to get outside and paint..I love to paint!!!!

just put the paint on a coated paper plate.........

I got all my favorite paint colors and covered my patio table and began to paint the branches.....just stripes of color..

 I painted the large branch but also a bunch of little branches for another project.....

I love doilies and have collected them for years.....so I grabbed one, cut it to fit around the branch and sewed it with embroidery floss in a bright yellow....

here's another gadget I love the BIG kick.....I just cut out white paper flowers from Tim Holtz die collection.....layered the flowers and hot glued them onto my branches....

well here it is.... I added plain white paper flowers, and a sweet little birdie....

I cut out a butterfly from scrap book 2 sided paper.....free motion stitched clouds, rain drops, all spring time  motifs........

I am so happy that I saw Dottie's Angel  blog for the inspiration......and the painted sticks and loved the mix of the 2....

I Love it......

can't wait to bring this to school and hang in my classroom....

free form stitching on my sewing machine......

one of my crochet flowers with vintage buttons and beads

I think I am going to have to make another one  but a little smaller to fit over my kitchen window.....

scrap  paper butterfly.......

here it is resting in our home's entry way....hope this is some inspiration for you to make a Mobile...Go ahead have fun!....Would love to see what you make.......