Through a glass darkly

The pictures I take are only ever a starting point, most end up as photoshop brushes and the  rather crappy lo-fi ones from the last time are no exception. Totally unexceptional to look at just as they were they offered all kinds of possibilities once turned into brushes  . . . like the one above.  A few ideas . . . .

And then that rather dreary one taken the day it rained. I did add a bit of noise to this one, not something I usually do because it tends to look so obvious.

And a kind of sepia thing . . .  I started with a dark brown background layer and chose a pale milky coffee colour for the stamp.

And then for good measure stick 'em all together and see what you get. Has possibilities I think don't you? Must get some more black card I'm thinking and try some more photos.

Lo-fi effects with a Digital Camera

Welcome to the very Lo-Fi- DIY- Whitney-Way of  messing up your photographs. Why would you want to mess up perfectly good photographs taken with your perfectly good digital camera? Because everybody is going with the Lomo-Holga- light- leaking- crappy-lens-oh-no-everything's-turned-yellow look, that's why. I can't quite commit to one of these cheap and nasty Eastern European or Chinese cameras and so I've been looking at various stuff online like how to use your SLR as a pinhole camera. Isn't that just the most exquisite joke?

Here are a couple of sites that will give you some idea of what these cameras can do - 

Lomography , ephotozine article, Flickr Holga Pool,The Holga Darkroom.

I also found came across Jojo's Photostore  which has lo-fi lenses for your SLR. I can only drool over the website and start saving my pennies for my bloved camera does not have a removable lens.

So, I start thinking . . . . . what if? What if I take a bit of dark card, cut a vignette kind of shape out of it and tape it over my camera lens ( being ever so careful not to scratch said lens ) ?  I also played around with the exposure . . .  picture above, overexposed, picture below on normal setting.

This one was taken on a really grey rainy day which worked rather well with the whole bleached out look.

And here are the two bits of card I was playing around with. The round hole started out as a pinhole but the camera just got confused and gave up so I gradually widened the hole and, um, got a bit impatient and ended up with a tear on one side. Was goingt to try that one again but I'd run out of dark card.

These are the pictures I got with the round ( ish )  hole . . . .

Quite fun I think, I especially like the blurring round one edge though I don't know what caused that.

Then a few days later I thought I'd try holding a glass up to the lens. Actually, I was just going to sleep when I thought of it and it was all I could do to stop myself leaping out of bed and running downstairs to try it.

My two different kinds of drinking glasses . . . . .

And this is what I got . . . . . . .

Kind of cool don't you think? I really, really enjoyed using the camera like this. Not sure where I'll go from here but it's made me think about taking pictures in a very different way

The Valley of the Shadow of Death

Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy Rod and thy Staff shall comfort me.  Give me the grace to go gracefully toward the unknown.

Scribble Domain - something old, something new

I think it started with this  or maybe even this . . . . long afternoons in bed with a fine liner and pad of paper,  scribbling and doodling away. Kind of frees the mind. I've been wanting to get back to something cleaner, less fussy, more abstract. Like  sorbet after a lot of rich food.

So scribbling on paper led me to start scribbling in Photoshop with the mouse. I love that slightly wobbly line and it's a fascinating and truly rewarding experience, trying to get exactly the right arrangement of lines and space. That is what all art is of course but this seems to resonate more deeply with me than anything more representional. 

I wonder what happens when you take that scribble and do this . . . . .

Aha, you get one of those . . . . how interesting . . . ..

Hmmm, and now lets try this . . . . .  I was very pleased with the results. In fact I was so pleased with the results that I put them altogether in an Etsy shop and called it Scribble Domain. I have already sold a print to a lady called Lisa who lives in the States and who very kindly sent me a photo of it in her living room. Tres chic, don't you think?

That was a few weeks ago but I've been playing around with some new shapes and ideas and I seemed to be getting a kind of a Mid Century / Modernist vibe coming through. Oh deep joy!!!

For these two I used  oil pastel to do a shape which I then turned into a Photoshop stamp. Much cleaning of the scanner plate needed after that! I know, I know, I should have used a fixative and waited, blah, blah, blah, but I don't really do waiting. Maybe next time eh? So there we are, Scribble Domain, a new playground for me to try stuff out in. I will be trying out card and notebook designs at some point . . . .  I do, in fact,  have one notebook already listed and tons of ideas buzzing round my head. 

The Goneness of Gone

My father died a few weeks ago and I have been thinking ever since about the nature of goneness.  Death is at once both very real and totally unreal. Even if you have faith, even if you believe they go to a better place it's still a pretty difficult thing to get your head around.
Somebody is there and then they're not, it's a simple as that. But it's not. Because they go on living inside you.  The impact somebody has on your life becomes part of the very fabric of your being so they go on living despite not physically being there. 

Great thinkers and poets and writers down through the centuries have pondered the strangeness of this . . . .  I doubt if I'll come up with anything new, it's just my turn to think about, is all.

Strange Characters Indeed

Hmmm . . . strange things happen when you leave them to gestate on their own . . . . .

A couple of very odd characters . . . . not sure what I'll do with them . . .  I could list them as prints but would you want one of these on your wall? I wouldn't! Maybe small prints then.

This one is less disturbing than the others two . . . . more peaceful, more ethereal.

I'm out of just one or two inks again and must wait on the postman. At least with e-bay you know they will arrive pretty quickly. Still, just a teensy, weensy bit impatient . . .

Gestation

                                                  At Night I Dream of Broken Teeth.

Long periods of thinking are essential to any creativity. The fallow periods are especially important; when nothing appears to be happening. We know this but forget. Winter is essential for plants to rest and store up their energies. Our natural cycles are mostly dictated by everyday life . . .  work, families, shopping, cooking, socialising but there is always underneath that another pull and demand.

We home schooled our daughter for a few years in her early teens and once she had, so to speak, de-institutionalised herself, that natural pattern/cycle/flow became so much more apparent. There was an intense period of activity on a project or idea, followed by a plateau, followed by, apparently, nothing and then it would swing back round to the beginning. This was a rare privelege -  for her to live like that for a few years and for us to see this happening.

I lose this perspective all too often. I need to tune myself to the right rythym, the best rythym and stop going against the flow.

Maybe this one  ( above ) should just be called " Aargh!!". Too much fight, too much struggle. I find my creativity overwhelming, sometimes it's like staggering around with a mountain on my back. Sometimes I pull against it but it draws me back again.

Something gestational . . . .  it's just not ready yet . . .  too soon, too soon.