May You Feel Peace

In southern India, my traveling companions and I stumbled upon an intriguing dilapidated building just bursting 

with goodies: statues of all description, rustic-antique furniture, paintings, this and that, everything tempting beyond reason.

Two of us could not resist some very crumbling, aged statues of 

Indian Deities.

We waffled back and forth, "no we can't get them home"..."well, we will never see these again."

"what should we do?"  The winner:

I purchased four, my companion...can't recall but she definitely packed some home.

These statues have a  rather interesting history. America in the 40's and 50's enticed women to purchase certain products and with the purchase was given a premium or gift. An example would be today's collectible green glass.  Well who knew, in India there was something similar. We learned that these marvelous, old statues were also a "gift with purchase." This bit of information from our sales woman was all it took to "entice" us to buy.

Besides displaying our Indian statues in our home, I wanted to set up a few photo shoots. The following is one.

There is quite a difference isn't there?

Here are a few steps that I took to move the original photo to textured completion.

I took dozens of photos with the statues, oranges, hornet's nest and dried leaves.  

Never, never once did I notice the label left on the orange!!!!!  So that was the first step to

remove the label.

The top half of the background was brushed with an "oil brush" designed by Melissa Gallo to paint the background in several shades of ochre so that it was unified.

The same technique was used to paint shadows on the white cloth.

Next I played with words and warping....this was a test of patience!

Time to apply textures. I used two of Kim Klassen's textures 

# 0801 and 2801. Each was adjusted differently: soft light and screen.

Adding the last texture, which has a grunge appearance, I removed the dark grunge color from the statues and high lighted the oranges.

I now feel Peace to have completed this project and wish the same for you in those things you choose to do. And may you always remove labels.......

Texture Tuesdays with Kim Klassen

Third Thursday, Already!!!

Hi everyone, it seems totally amazing that it is the 3rd Thursday in February..which means taking on the challenge offered on Brenda's blog How to Feather an Empty Nest. 
Brenda has an infallible eye and determination to get the very best photos she can. It is always enlightening to visit her blog. And her prose/writing matches the skill of her photography.

I have posted so many times this week that I am feeling a bit like a nuisance, but do want to support Brenda and take on the challenge of 3rd Thursday.
The challenge: do something you haven't done, I take that to mean: exploration.

Many of us who are enjoying photography and editing are no strangers to adding texture to our photos.  Brenda is doing a fantastic job...see her "shutter" photo for example.  For me it has been a learning curve.  Recently I learned of photographer, Melissa Gallo who is turning photographs into paintings via painted textures. I thought I would give it a try...well it is pretty late at night and it has been a long process, so what I have to offer is no where near what Melissa accomplishes. But I had fun trying.  I have as my models three photos:  Blossom, a beloved dog of my son and daughter; Baby Bits, our 1+ year old granddaughter; and a painting of two Indian girls who have fallen asleep during a Hindu Festival.

The painted textures completely changed the appearance of the original photos. And since it was my first try, I really don't have directions to share...it was truly hit and miss. But I think you might enjoy a different approach with textures.  

Miss Blossom in her Tutu

This was my first attempt at painted textures. I should have removed the distracting background before proceeding.  Learned that the hard way!!!


Baby Bits

Choosing the correct photo makes a big difference. The fewer distractions the better.  I should have "cleaned up" my original photos before using textures. 


Little Girls Sleeping on the Ground

This is an original oil painting I wanted to experiment on.
I actually liked what the textures could do....I came up with a number of variations but chose the following to share.

Quite a change from the oil painting.  
These were my first attempts. I definitely love the process and hope to improve with lots of practice....but when I ask myself?

I do think that Melissa has a great idea here and soon we will see more of this new technique.  I should try making my own backgrounds...certainly a lot of paint in my studio!!!

Thanks for viewing...what do you think of painted textures?
Maybe next month I will choose this same challenge and see how I can improve and cut the time down in doing so.  Until then thanks for sharing some time with me.