Some Artsy Design Work for a Webpage

This week I was commissioned to do some cutesie/cartoonish/designed drawings for a webpage that was being created by a friend who owns a petsitting business.  I took the challenge, as it is something very different from what I usually do...fun, refreshing and gave me a chance to use my do some drawings and enhance them in Photoshop.  Here are 5 - I have done. 

 

Bright colors - simple images...all the same size.  Ooo, this'll date me, but this activity brought back memories of a time when I designed and lettered title placards for pastries in a bakery case...and that was before personal computers.

It Really is HOARFROST!!

Wow, 6 posts since Friday. That's cause I have more going on right now. But truthfully, it must be to ward off "cabin fever" with the intense cold! Ha!

A type of hoarfrost is on my window pane in the kitchen most mornings lately. It is the "Jack Frost" that you think of. Hoarfrost comes in other forms. I recently experienced some "radiation frost" on the fencing around the dog enclosure. It was really neat, but being in a rush to leave, didn't have time to take photos. Thanks to my sister-in-law's research I have an explanation here. See Teresa, you are sort of a "guest blogger" in a way.

"Hoarfrost consists of crystalline structures that grow from water vapor evaporated from liquid droplets suspended in air. Once hoar-frost crystals form, they can remain as long as conditions for their existence are favorable. Looking at hoarfrost crystals closely, they occur in an intricate variety of forms--needles, cups, plates, fern-like and feather-like--depending upon the temperature at which they developed."

Other than looking at hoarfrost today, I need to engage myself in some domestic affairs in the house. Although my house is tiny, it can become a "housekeeper's nightmare" if I don't keep things picked up. Right now, it looks as though a couple of hermits live here. Good thing is, no one sees it but us. Some days I see it and some days I don't. That's what's also nice about being where we are, I don't have to keep up appearances and can really paint when the mood strikes me.

In the meantime, I have unleashed a monster, hubster is really diving into his "Photoshop" past time. I love it when he has some new techno trick to show me! He's definitely learning! A new blogger may be in the wings! Stay tuned!

Note, one more interesting thing, the other day I put "hoarfrost" in my title and that day I had 43 visits, usually I have about 9 or 10. Don't get me wrong, I love visitors! So what's up people? Let's see how today goes.

Oh, and one more thing, BTW have you seen the movie "March of the Penguins"? If you haven't, like me (I know that one was out a long time ago) but let me have a little "Maltin moment" here...the photography and documentation are awesome! I was truly captivated and in wonder at the life of the Emperor Penguin, which I already knew about from teaching 1st and 2nd graders about in a "Penguins" unit, but WOW, it was very enriching to see that they had captured it so well with a movie camera.

The Learning Curve

It's cold here, I am not complaining. It is a good time to do some "Photoshop" instruction. Hubster had some OOLLLDDD photos that he wanted to enhance and save, so the two of us messed around with Photoshop this morning. Old photos taken "in the day" (34 years ago) are hard to enhance. At least you can correct with red, blue and green channels, which is what is wrong with them most of the time. A little out of focus and a little dark and then the skies are always so blown out! Here is a favorite of his. He always talks about this "splitty" that he and buddies went to Mexico in for two months. Campin' on the beach, having many adventures along the way, including breaking down in the middle of nowhere and no parts available. Had to leave it and go back to US to get parts (scary thought today, eh?) He would like to have one just like it, and we continue to look for one. Does anyone out there have an early 60's (like about a 1963) one for sale? Ha!