This blog has moved into new territory and can now be found at:
'The Thirsty Creative'
http://thirstycreative.wordpress.com/
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
Monday, 10 August 2009
Bloomsbury Inspiration
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The August sunshine brought a number of visitors on the day I visited but Charleston House maintained it's unique atmosphere that seemed to radiate throughout: an enigmatic 'Englishness'. Whilst waiting I also enjoyed a good sized, tasty, salad for £5 although at busy times (and 25 minutes later), a larger kitchen and more staff would be an advantage for what is I expect the busiest time of the year.
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Inspired by Vanessa Bell's desire to create a home for her two boys and this amazing house where every surface has been personalised with paintings, textiles, mosaics, ceramics, like many visitors I expect, I set to work on bringing at little bit of Charleston into my home. After my visit I really felt in the age of cheap fast interior design, perfection on a budget, that we're missing that homely feel, so prevalent at Charleston House. Living on a budget is wonderful for getting my creative juices flowing and the boys are always enthusiastic about 'personalising' their space....with permission this time.
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Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Dodge and Burn Baby
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I wanted an almost 'chiaroscuro' effect but with loads of white space to create something that was still very clean. Taking four elements, a pen and ink drawing from my sketchbook, a photo, a pattern (in this case a vector pattern I drew in Illustrator) and a monoprint I set to work last night conducting another Photoshop experiment. Armed with my Wacom Intuit A5 Tablet, the kids plonked in front of Star Wars, I set to work.
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Working in a structured manner designing websites, over the years has made me a little stale and reluctant to leave my comfort zone. Like many Photoshop users I'm a big fan of blending modes in the layers palette to create the depth of effect I've wanted and also with looming deadlines, they always offered the quickest results. However I've found the dodge, burn, blur and smudge tools have been an excellent way to create subtlety in specific areas (this week, especially the around the eyes) and have whet my appetite to consider creating an entire painting in Photoshop...we'll see...
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Moving beyond the familiar and working in a new way has been quite liberating and set my mind alive with new ideas. Looking for new elements to include in images has suddenly made the everyday pretty interesting. As always with Photoshop, experimentation is the key and corny as it sounds, my best discoveries have been my mistakes.
Labels:
Art,
burn tool,
digital collage,
dodge tool,
graphics,
Illustrator,
monoprinting,
pen and ink,
Photoshop CS3,
sketchbook
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Excellance in Beauty
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A printed newsletter commissioned by my lovely friend (and super fantastic therapist!) Lorraine. A font of beauty knowledge, Lorraine's advice, recommendations and obvious passion is indispensable to all self respecting females (and males) out there. Click the image to read some super top tips for a bikini confident body this summer.
Produced in InDesign CS3.
Labels:
design for print,
Graphic Design,
indesign,
newsletter
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Sunday, 5 July 2009
Beaded Lady
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Following on from a previous post, I decided to paint this in the end. Indulged my pedantic side and stuck on every bead and button by hand...
Mixed media, (acrylic and oil on canvas, beads, buttons and suede)
Monday, 29 June 2009
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