Cath Sheard Art

Tag: Photoshop

  • Latest Challenge: After Marilynn’s Hands

    The most recent challenge was to base a work, in some way, on the works of NZ artist Marilynn Webb. To be more specific, the rules say: Artwork must be an original interpretation based on the artistic style or subject, a straight reproduction, or your individual interpretation of the Master Artists’ work.

    Being me, I chose what is perhaps a less iconic work to be inspired by – contrary to the last, that’s me. The piece I have done is digital, based on original paintings of mine, plus a scan of my hand used as is and then manipulated in Photoshop. The finished piece is: Cath’s hands, after Marilynn’s.

    marilyn webb hands

    Maerowhenua River - The Place of Maeroero by Marilyn Webb
    Maerowhenua River – The Place of Maeroero by Marilyn Webb

  • Bones

    The NZ Art Guild challenge that finished a week or so ago started with a photograph of some bones. We could do anything we liked, and boy, did I like. Here’s the details of the two works I produced for the challenge.

    Original photo ref of bones

    1. Title: I love Anthro Bones #1.  Medium: Fluid acrylic on cream colourfix paper, 9×11.5″
    Inspiration: I knew straight away there were amazing hearts in the bones so I took the photo down to stencil setting in photoshop to simplify the edges and make the hearts shapes stand out.

    anthro bones 1

    2. Title: I love Anthro Bones #2. Medium: Watercolour, gel pen and oil pastels on Daler-Rowney 300gsm rough watercolour paper, 8.5×11.5″
    Inspiration: In photoshopping the image to stencil to see the hearts betters, I decided the image needed some “bling” so I used white gel pen and neon colours to give the heart of the bones some sparkle.

    anthro bones 2

  • The moon in pastel

    1 moon
    For those who have visited my blog from time to time over the last three years or so, my moon obsession has no doubt become familiar. I am one of those people who suffer from “full-moon-itis”. You know what I mean. It’s full moon and you’re wide awake, making art at 3 in the morning, or drifting idly round the house longing for sleep.

    The moon is waxing gibbous,  74% of full tonight. I know this because I have a moon calendar so I can see, as well as feel, the moon’s phases. As I came home from work tonight the sky was clear blue, the 3/4 moon was up and there were parallel jet plane trails just underneath.

    I grabbed my camera…and the results make me want to get out my pastels next weekend and attack some full sheets of Colorfix. I’ve had a quick play with these in Photoshop, cropping and colouring. In any form, the moon fascinates me and when the colours are inverted – wow!

  • Creating a base layer

    salles-ed-2Although I can do all kinds of things I suspect I have only scratched the surface of what can be done with Photoshop.  Not that I am wanting to create digital art as an end in itself, more that I want to create things that I can use in my art that are solely my own work. That way there are no tricky copyright issues and that has to be a good thing, right?

    These pieces started with photos I took last night at a friend’s place and have two or three layers each. I’ll be transfering them onto canvas and them painting more layers over the top.

    honchii-in-paddock

    sallys-puss

  • Trying a new direction

    Circles 4
    Circles 4

    This weekend I have been working (playing) with new directions; nothing serious, just seeing what happens. This wee one is a 4×4″ box canvas – it has a lot of layers, some scumbling, some stamping, some glazing. I’ve also been working on a new set of four 4x4s ready for the new gallery in Christchurch.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    I’ve also been working on a digital entry for the latest Masters Month challenge, Andy Warhol, with the NZ Art Guild. I took a self-portrait using my Nikon D40 then manipulated it in Photoshop Elements to get a Warhol style self-portrait poster.