Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Needle Felted Works. Book
I finished the next book and placed order yesterday. Here are a few of the photos I selected.
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
Book report
Three books have come in now, created on Shutterfly app. I'm very happy with printing, binding, service, and colors. Less happy with the text I added.
It looked larger on screen, but in book, it's mostly too small. There were a lot of options for fonts and sizes, but the spaces allowed on the pages were not adequate to add blocks of text in good easy to read sizes.
Book #2 the gift for my son had practically no text. Its fabulous. We spent at least an hour admiring it together while he explained the shots I had selected. Where they were, what happened along the way. What angle it was taken from. With the help of Google maps on my tablet, he showed me exactly where some shots were taken, so I had the fun of seeing what was at the end of the roads... Matt's wife was out of town and he had some rare time to kill... I'm glad he killed it with me.
Book #3. On abstracts is really nice. I had figured out better layouts and edited down the number of photos to use. I'm very happy with it, except for text size. I really thought I had figured it out but I was wrong.
Book #4 is a remake of the abstract book. I was notified today that it was shipped, so before long it will here, this time with 40 pages. Some pages only have text. I hope this works. I'm still in a learning curve. And I'm stubborn. I dont like to pick up the phone and talk it out with their techies. I want to figure it out myself.
Book #5. Was to be a remake of one of my altered books. I ended up not happy with it, so deleted it. Same with book #6. Another altered book. Will delay further work on these. Maybe later....
Book #7. Oh boy. My needle felted works. Hopefully. I have yet to photograph them. I think the colors and textures will show well. I'm just finishing one, then will turn to photographing half a dozen to see how they look on screen.
That's it for now. I recommend putting some of your favorite art pieces in book form. I'm collecting emails of friends who will get a free book offer from Shutterfly. It's like giving them a present...or a new addiction.
It looked larger on screen, but in book, it's mostly too small. There were a lot of options for fonts and sizes, but the spaces allowed on the pages were not adequate to add blocks of text in good easy to read sizes.
Book #2 the gift for my son had practically no text. Its fabulous. We spent at least an hour admiring it together while he explained the shots I had selected. Where they were, what happened along the way. What angle it was taken from. With the help of Google maps on my tablet, he showed me exactly where some shots were taken, so I had the fun of seeing what was at the end of the roads... Matt's wife was out of town and he had some rare time to kill... I'm glad he killed it with me.
Book #3. On abstracts is really nice. I had figured out better layouts and edited down the number of photos to use. I'm very happy with it, except for text size. I really thought I had figured it out but I was wrong.
Book #4 is a remake of the abstract book. I was notified today that it was shipped, so before long it will here, this time with 40 pages. Some pages only have text. I hope this works. I'm still in a learning curve. And I'm stubborn. I dont like to pick up the phone and talk it out with their techies. I want to figure it out myself.
Book #5. Was to be a remake of one of my altered books. I ended up not happy with it, so deleted it. Same with book #6. Another altered book. Will delay further work on these. Maybe later....
Book #7. Oh boy. My needle felted works. Hopefully. I have yet to photograph them. I think the colors and textures will show well. I'm just finishing one, then will turn to photographing half a dozen to see how they look on screen.
That's it for now. I recommend putting some of your favorite art pieces in book form. I'm collecting emails of friends who will get a free book offer from Shutterfly. It's like giving them a present...or a new addiction.
Saturday, January 19, 2019
New Books
Well Shutterfly was a fun site to hang with during storm and headcold. First I created the book of Country Roads. It's really hard to edit down my watercolor studies to a 20 page format. I have nearly 100 paintings to choose from. But I managed. Can't wait to see it in print.
Then I started the next one celebrating my youngest son's offroad bike group. OMAR. Old Men Adventure Riders. They have such a good time and visit such remote, interesting places, often in the high Sierras. I used photos they shared on FB. This is a present for Matt. I think he will love it.
Then I got another free offer, so created a book of my watercolor abstract studies. Again, I've done more than 100, but have given many away. Making the selections and laying them out is the hardest part. I really worked hard on this one. Including more text. Got it to perfection and placed order..but it would not upload. Several failed attempts, then contact with their support team, suggesting my tablet may be having memory overload. So, ran clean up service, and tried again. But then found my book had been scrubbed out of the system. Damn! Double Damn!!
This morning I redid it. From memory, this time "my" memory. It's not quite the same, but I was anxious to see if I could upload and place order during this free period. Yea!!!
It worked. Now it's just wait and watch for packages.
If I like them, I may recreate some of my altered books this way. I would like to see how they look. Then I can donate the originals to a special collections library, or sell them.
Then I started the next one celebrating my youngest son's offroad bike group. OMAR. Old Men Adventure Riders. They have such a good time and visit such remote, interesting places, often in the high Sierras. I used photos they shared on FB. This is a present for Matt. I think he will love it.
Then I got another free offer, so created a book of my watercolor abstract studies. Again, I've done more than 100, but have given many away. Making the selections and laying them out is the hardest part. I really worked hard on this one. Including more text. Got it to perfection and placed order..but it would not upload. Several failed attempts, then contact with their support team, suggesting my tablet may be having memory overload. So, ran clean up service, and tried again. But then found my book had been scrubbed out of the system. Damn! Double Damn!!
This morning I redid it. From memory, this time "my" memory. It's not quite the same, but I was anxious to see if I could upload and place order during this free period. Yea!!!
It worked. Now it's just wait and watch for packages.
If I like them, I may recreate some of my altered books this way. I would like to see how they look. Then I can donate the originals to a special collections library, or sell them.
Monday, January 14, 2019
Falling for a freebie
It all started when I signed up for the Betty Crocker recipe site. They send daily posts with the most delightful recipes that I can adapt to my special dietary needs. So far we good. But one day they sent an offer to produce a 20 page 8 x 8 inch hard covered book FREE. Shutterfly produced some books for me several years ago, and now that this offer came in, I'm going to make a new book.
Most of the photos I planned to use were taken on my cell phone. I downloaded Shutterfly app to my tablet and started to work my way through the process of selecting photos. My goal is to use my watercolor studies of country roads. And maybe later a second one of my watercolor abstracts.
Many of the photographs needed to be reshot with the tablet in order to facilitate uploading to Shutterfly. Now I need to edit down the number of favorites.
A book I had done on another site years ago is too chaotic. I tried to put in pics representing too many types of art. Much like my life. LOL It does show examples, and progression, but it's not cohesive.
I don't want this one to be cluttered up.
Its winter with dreary grey or rainy days, so I like having a project. And I'm glad to find out that I can do this without using the computers that are either hard on my eyes, or in the case of the larger screen, has an operating system I dont like.
I can hardly wait for Spring.
Most of the photos I planned to use were taken on my cell phone. I downloaded Shutterfly app to my tablet and started to work my way through the process of selecting photos. My goal is to use my watercolor studies of country roads. And maybe later a second one of my watercolor abstracts.
Many of the photographs needed to be reshot with the tablet in order to facilitate uploading to Shutterfly. Now I need to edit down the number of favorites.
A book I had done on another site years ago is too chaotic. I tried to put in pics representing too many types of art. Much like my life. LOL It does show examples, and progression, but it's not cohesive.
I don't want this one to be cluttered up.
Its winter with dreary grey or rainy days, so I like having a project. And I'm glad to find out that I can do this without using the computers that are either hard on my eyes, or in the case of the larger screen, has an operating system I dont like.
Monday, December 31, 2018
2018. The last leaf.
It was 34 degrees when I let the dogs out at 7:30 this morning. Brrrrr.... lately it has been between 30 and 34. Today there was a brisk wind with a chill factor well below the 30s. In California we don't normally hear wind chill factors with our weather reports, as its seldom so brisk.
By the time my friend Ruth and I got from the parking lot to the more protected entry courtyard, we were half frozen, but spotted a beautiful leaf I picked up to draw. There won't be many more after this blustery day. A Winnie The Pooh blustery day. Stripping the trees bare as if in a rush to get ready for the coming season of new growth and blossoms galore.
So for the final leaf art piece of the year, I finished off my nature series in the Strathmire Toned Tan sketch book. That's the second one I filled since starting the first one in January 2014. Many pages in both are devoted to these pear leaves.
I already bought a new one so I can continue this series.
Happy New Year, my friends!
Sunday, December 2, 2018
In the works
Its time to decorate the golf cart for neighborhood parade. My neighbor and I do this together. Our theme this year is digs. I wanted to something non traditional and fun. Starting with a couple oversized plush toys and adding in smaller ones collected but never on display. Will post pictures later.
Holiday touches
Im not decorating as much for Christmas this year as I am not hostessing my mixed media group here at home. Instead we will meet in the studio at the gallery. Mainly because our senior member is coming from out of town and is unable to climb the 5 steps at my place. Here are some of my vignettes at home.
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