"Smooth Activeness"

One of my goals is to travel to California to see one of my best friends and get on a surfboard. I know I'll at least get to see her son surfing, though! I love water and the ocean, and I enjoy seeing the light blues mixed in with dark splashes and swirls. It's so smooth even though it's very active. That paradox fascinates me. So in this drawing, I put the circles in with sharp angles to show the "smooth activeness" I feel when I'm in water. The result I see is relaxing and yet moving me forward at the same time. I like it, and I'd like to play with it using paint.

Stray Sock Sewing

 

Some of my artistic works are created in fabric. For Christmas, my mom gave me a book called Stray Sock Sewing by Daniel. I ABSOLUTELY love and recommend this book for anyone with stray socks! This was the third "creature" I created: an Argyle Kitty.

Surfing, continued

So the earlier "surfing" attempt at GIMP was not in layers. Now that I've delved into layers more, I see the potential, and I didn't even have to get rid of the paper's texture. I've also finally put some things on deviantART. If you haven't been to that site, I highly recommend it, but, parents, beware as not all things on that site are child appropriate!

Unhinged

The creation continues...
I think the name "Unhinged" is very fitting for creation. Unhinge...it means more than just an opening, almost a falling apart of the expected...But in this case not in a bad way. I have to think more on it. I dreamed about it today in relation to my sewing clothing from old jeans and t-shirts and things, like in regards to recycling. I could even have some labels made up. Hmmm...
In the meantime, I've been working with GIMP quite a bit, more than my writing, anyway, but that's OK.

Above is a "hang ten" drawing a did for my buddy Ethan in CA...He's only 4 but already a cool little surfer. He liked my drawing, but it managed to get crumpled before it got scanned. It made for some interesting effects, though, and makes it difficult to work with, but I like it. I have to practice more with scanning and coloring. I think an artist's pad like one made by Wacom would make this a lot easier. I need to figure out how to get rid of the paper texture.

Even Better

OK...so I just THOUGHT I knew how to do the text, and then I tinkered some more. I really like how this one has turned out. It's my husband's tattoo with all the colors taken off...then a Texas added in, and then the circle text that I found under "logo"...last the "fading/antiquing look...It's a t-shirt design.

Tinkering

Yeah! More GIMP news. Since I'm teaching myself, there is a lot of trial and error. I figured out how to get the text to work...and I used "oilify" for the pic of my nephew from last night. I like it.

GIMP 2.4

So I've downloaded the new GIMP. (For those who don't know, it's a free, powerful software that allows you to create and edit graphics of all kinds.) I'm trying to teach myself how to use it.
My first file is above. I REALLY wish I could take a class on Photoshop CS3 or GIMP...anything with rendering CPU graphics...