Creative Blessings of "J O Y": Fixed The Text and I Am Definitely A Happier Camper...

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Yesterday I posted my two canvasses I had done with techniques I am learning in Christy Tomlinson's SheArt Workshop. I also mentioned that I was not happy with the text layer I had added at the very end of working on the second canvas. Well, it bothered me all night. The first thing I did when I got up this morning, was to take a look at it and contemplate what I might do to improve the situation. I knew I wanted the text bigger, but if I used paper, the text already laid down would probably show through when I added the medium. So, I ran a piece of beige cardstock through my printer with larger text, cut it up and added that on top of the text already on the canvas. Yeah, it worked! I then outlined the text blocks with the black pen and added my last layer of medium. I love that there are ways to "save" or modify your image in mid-stream, so-to-speak. I have watched Christy do it so spontaneously and without any anxiety whatsoever - I love that! I guess that takes practice too. I have been using my baby wipes a lot! If I lay down something I find I don't particularly like, I use a baby wipe to get it up quickly. Either that or these techniques are pretty forgiving about adding additional layers to cover up areas which might not be your favorite. Pretty cool.
Here is the fixed version of the second canvas:

I dove into the photoshop workshop today and OMG, my brain is scrambled eggs! It is such a powerful software package with so many layers and tools. It will be fun in time, when these tools become second nature to me, but right now I am taking notes like a crazy woman.

My studio (and where my computer is) is the third (sectioned off) part of a three-car garage so I have to come out my back door into the garage and a few steps to enter my studio. Just a few minutes ago when I going into the house for something, , three mid-sized racoons looked up at me in surprise and then as I opened the door and scurried under my DH's workbench. We are experiencing such a terrible drought here in southern Texas that we have seen tons of animals coming out to get food and water any way they can. We are licensed wildlife rehabilitators (semi-retired now), but we still do what they call "hack out" of animals since we live in the country on some acreage. There are specific ways to get the animals acclimated and used to foraging for themselves before releasing them back into the wild. Often they are brought in for rehabilitation when they are babies - many of them orphaned or injured who never had the opportunity for their mom to teach them these skills. We get them once they are almost ready to be released and go through a hack-out procedure to get them ready to go out on their own. The reason I am telling you this is because we have a large cage full of squirrels right now and in the garage is a very large sack of "rodent chow" which is used to feed the squirrels. This is what the racoons found and were having quite a feast outside my studio door. We can't get too upset with them, since they are so in need right now, but eventually we do have to chase them out of the garage and shut the door - the dogs eventually get a good whiff and the barking begins! We have four dogs, two inside and two outside(fenced) - so you can imagine the noise until the racoons have moved on or the dogs get hoarse! Here are a couple pics of our outside dogs - the bassets - Bailey, the darker one and Beasley, the more white one. They are brother and sister and such a delightful pair!