Distressed Effects

September Theme
Journaling with Photos
Week 37 – September 12
Art Challenge: Digital Imagery & Design
Journal Prompt:  What Makes Your Heart Sing?

You guys may have been afraid last month when we asked you to draw portraits, but I have to admit that this week’s challenge SCARED ME!  You can ask the other Art to the 5th girls – when it comes to anything digitial, I run for the hills! I have managed to avoid learning Photoshop Elements for years now even though I am dying to learn. My right brain and I don’t really like any left brain stuff, so I have to take baby steps and start with something simple and work my through it.

I use my phone camera more than my regular camera for taking photos – I always have it with me and I can usually get some great shots.  But the best part is that there are so many amazing Apps on the market so you can literally have an infinite amount of combinations at the swipe of your finger.

Since Digital Imagery has been elusive for me I decided to choose one of my favorite photo Apps this week because it is simple, yet beautiful and you can create a masterpiece in quick order . . . Distressed FX.

The great thing about Distressed FX is that it is iPad compatible, so I can really see the photo up close on my iPad instead of trying to see it on my tiny iPhone screen.

I chose this picture from a recent trip to Greece. This was taken on the Island of Santorini in the village of Oia. I opened the picture in the Distressed FX app and it looked like this . . .

This app has so many possibilities – on the top row, you can place a “gel” over the photo, which I did below – isn’t this the COOLEST?

After that, I decided I wanted some texture so I added this . . .

How about a few birds? I added them here . . . 

Next I took a photo of the Greek Flag I shot and superimposed it onto my original picture.  Awesome.

Here’s the finished photo.  Not too intimidating and super fun!

And here’s a few more . . . I combined the first two, edited and superimposed them, and the final result is on the right.

I chose the cabin to do my art challenge this week.  I spotted this on the side of the road driving through Norway and a little further up was the beautiful poppy field and waterfall.  I love these pictures and love the way they come together. These truly make my heart sing!

I printed the photo onto Moab Somerset Museum Rag and let it dry.  After it was completely dry, I sprayed it with fixative and let dry again. I then trimmed it to fit in my journal.  I painted around the edges in Hooker’s Green and Lime Green Acrylic so I had no white border, then decided to use my finger to rub some white around the edges, giving it a peeled paint look.  I had big plans to paint over the top of this, but once I had it glued down with gel medium, I couldn’t bring myself to do another thing. The art was in the editing of these photos.

I’m looking forward to your challenges and learning some cool techniques from you guys this week! Happy Documenting!

InLinkz.com

We are happy to have Susan Tuttle as our Featured Artist this week.  Stop by HERE to see her creation!

For more information on this week’s challenge you can find us here:

http://arttothe5th.squarespace.com/
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Looking for previous challenges? click HERE

Visit our blogs: Sandi Keene, Roben-Marie Smith, Rae Missigman

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