Making Metal

I have a lot of hand drawn vintage clipart. I loaded some of it on my computer. There were a few pocket watches in there. I have scoured the internet trying to add a metallic finish to them without loosing detail and ending up with the shape of a pocket watch with a metallic gradient slapped on it. Here I'll show you.

La Pocket watch graphic

I have added gradients, embossed, mutiplied, plasticised without much luck. If anyone comes up with a good tutorial let me know. Here's my result.

La Pocket watch done to death.

It's severely lacking in detail and doesn't have a lovely gold finish on it.
When I was just about to close up I found a tutorial that included doing what I wanted. I want to go to sleep so I haven't tried it yet. Here's the link:
http://photoshopper27.blogspot.com/2011/03/frame-brush.html

I was so happy to find it I added his site to blogs I Follow. I'll move it to the links section another evening. It has this and many other photoshop tutorials you can check out.
And if you can find a tut for adding a big, shiny skin on my graphic, post it here.
Goodnight all.

Is Using labels Cheating?

It all started when I finally bought new ink for the printer. My all-in one (Epson Workforce 500) becomes totally useless if  even one colour is empty. I can't scan or fax or anything.  And all the colours run out at almost the same time whether I print anything or not, so it's very pricey to replace inks and I avoid it.

In the meantime I made some collage sheets for my Etsy store. I did a page of French antique labels. Usually I go through the sme process as the buyer to make certain everything is alright. When I FINALLY got my ink and printed out the labels I thought there might be a better way of laying them out. Not a quantum jump to think of printing them on actual label sheets.

This is where my journey takes a twist. Most of my labels are round. There is nowhere in Vancouver that seems to sell round labels. Have you ever looked in a section of a store knowing that what you want isn't there, but you stand there hoping it will magically appear? I was that person last week.

So, yes, I am sad to say I settled. I bought a package of rectangular labels in hopes of washing away the horror and the shame of having failed. I made a pathetic stab at creating some French Travel tags (they are for sale in my Etsy shop). Like they say you can't put a square peg in a round hole.

However, they (2" x 4") fit nicely on Manila shipping tags and make lovely bookplates. I am inspired to make a wide variety of things with these large mailing labels. I downloaded the Avery software, DesignPro for Mac and it works really well. The program makes it really easy to line things up and I can print it out on regular paper. There are no telltale lines or boxes that print out. It looks like I'm an exceptionally neat and tidy person.  Ha!
And they have circles!!!!!

© NeonSun Studios. All rights reserved J. Currie 2011  TEXTURE:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jinterwas/5084624324/in/set-72157623759336739/

Grab My Banner

You may notice at the top right is my Banner (logo). Sometimes the smallest things  keep bugging me. Making a banner and adding the HTML is one of those things; specifically adding the HTML.
I found some instructions on an Etsy blog team. This led me to their site.
http://www.etsyblogteam.com/2011/02/html-basics-for-blogger.html

They have some basic instructions for doing it. On Blogger you will have to add a gadget called the HTML-javascript gadget and put your code in there. It took me a few tries to get it right. OK, several tries.

First you have to name a location of where the graphic is. I had mine on Flickr. When you click on a photo on Flickr to see a larger view there are 3 buttons above the picture. One of them is the SHARE button. If you click on that it gives you the option to copy the code for that picture.
Click on my logo to see the Flickr page that matches.



Remember:
- a href = go to (a website)
- img src = image search or search for image at this address
- textarea = is make a little text box
- alt = text that is under or over the photo

Fun With Postcards

Okay, go over here
http://my2econdskin.blogspot.com/

Jerry Jones has made some amazing postcard textures. Really lovely work.
I just spent part of my night playing with them. Here are a few.

© Neonsun studios 2011

©Neonsun studios 2011

  Stop by Flickr and check out some of the great art being made there. It's important to have someone to look up to. :)

http://www.flickr.com/groups/ghostworks/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/pareeerica/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/904485@N20/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1234982@N24/

Tons of tutorials:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/itsanaddiction/

I'm Back

Hello. I notice a lot of new followers. Welcome, it's nice to have you here.
Also I see a few old, regulars  (you know who you are) popping in.

I also noticed that I haven't posted in a couple of weeks. I decided I'd focus on trying to sell a few things on Etsy and have been doing some cut and paste ATCs. So I have been producing a lot; but not learning and stretching as much as usual. I miss that.

So nothing new for tonight in the form of technique; but just wanted to stop by and thank everyone for hanging in there.

I do have a new ACEO I'd like to share though. Thanks to TumbleFish Studio for my favourite strong man image. I'm growing quite fond of him.

Thanks to LandofNod for the great metallic background and other elements.

© NeonSun Studios. J. Currie, All rights reserved 2010-2011

Picasso, the Bicycle. NASA and my Eyeball

Maybe it's having the honor of seeing the actual Bicycle sculpture by Picasso last week. I remember hearing about it when I was a teenager. Something clicked and I've always looked for beauty and art in the everyday.

I found this NASA photo on Flickr in The Creative Commons some time ago. I've been itching to do something with this photo for awhile now.

 

  Then tonight it came together when I found a great Mask by Brenda Starr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brenda-starr/5176203937/in/pool-1402378@N22

I happened to have the other part of the eye laying around thanks to Loveandstyle at Deviant Art.

And it all came together at once.

Thank you Picasso.

NEW FACE, OLD BLOG

In the never ending quest for faster page loading I redesigned my blog.  You may have had some difficulties waiting for my blog to load. I don't want you to get fed up so I've done the change. It seems to have improved loading time.

So don't be shy, tell me what you think. Do you love it or hate it. Make a comment.

Ladies Adjust your colour and your curves

Okay, just a quick post before I fall asleep on my keyboard. Your homework is to play with Levels and Adjust Curves. Grab a graphic and a background to work with.  Click on the Enhance tab and you will find Adjust lighting-->levels. Believe me you'll have hours of fun.

But when you get bored check out Enhance-->Adjust colour-->Adjust colour curves. Even more fun. That's it. And don't forget to play. Promise yourself you are not going to keep the end result. Allow yourself to go wild.

If you do something you don't like the Edit-->Revert to get back to the original. Or you can delete moves by hitting Command Z (on the mac). That simple keystroke can really enhance creativity, just knowing you can go backwards. Have fun and play, play, play.

© NeonSun Studios, j. Currie. All rights reserved

It's just that easy. This photo consists of 2 layers, and a Drop Shadow. I defringed the image but not enough. I went in at 25 and I could have upped it to 35 or even 40.

3,000 Views - Somebody Must Really Like my Blog

WOW! 1,000 views in just over a month!

That's great! I guess I'm doing something right. I guess I should do a giveaway or something. Well, it's 3 am sofor now I'll just give everyone a big

THANK YOU FOR CHECKING OUT MY BLOG!