What I'm Working On: More Monoprint Mania

When making my monoprints, I’m usually using 9x12 drawing paper, which is larger than my 8x10 Gelli plate, so there are often empty white spaces here and there on the paper which I don’t particularly care for (as you can see in the first photo). What to do?

When I bring the print into the computer (either by photographing it or scanning it), I can crop the monoprint so that the white areas off to the sides don’t show. But I can also use a Photoshop technique called “Content Aware Fill,” and Photoshop will arbitrarily fill in those white areas using the surrounding pixels of color as its guide, as you can see in the second photo.

If you’ve never used “Content Aware Fill” in Photoshop, look it up! It’s an easy and useful tool that I use all the time, so much so that I created an action for it which enables me to simply select where I want the effect to appear, click the action, and hoo ha!

But back to the monoprint. I don’t think it’s all that wonderful, frankly, as it stands, but I may make an envelope out of the physical print and it’ll look pretty good. As a framed physical print? Nope. It’s not interesting enough to me. But wait!

In the computer, using Photoshop, I cropped the image down to a square format and added some circles (third photo). Okay, now that’s better. This is worthy of sending off to Fine Art America for sale. But there’s even more.

Using Photoshop, I copied my original layer, flipped it, and applying two different blending modes created the two zig-zag versions you see in the last two photos. Not bad. And they could even be sold as a series along with the one with the circles. They would also look good as throw pillows, don't you think?

So there you have a peek into my little world, where I’m using paint, glue, scissors as well as computer technology to bring everything together. And you wonder what I do with my time? Well, this is a big part of it.

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

ROYGBIV: VIOLET!

The last color in the spectrum is called violet, but it sure seems to encompass a variety of colors including purple. I mean, when does "violet" become "purple?"

I think of violet as being very light and purple as being quite dark. But then, frankly, I don't really care. Let others do the testing and I'll just do the looking.

So. Looking through my photos, here are three that I consider violet/purple. Look at the bluish tones in the hydrangea flowers and compare that with the reddish tones of the building in the third photo. The final photo seems to be somewhere in between.

That's it for now with the ROYGBIV extravaganza. It came in handy while I was gone, something I pre-programmed to fill the space, and something I hope you found interesting.

And what did I learn? To pay more attention to colors, to variations of color, and to not really pay attention to their names, but rather how they work together, don't work together, and how they can play very nicely with one another if you're careful.

Roygbivally yours,

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Abstracts anywhere . . .

While waiting for the elevator to reach the lobby, I spotted these two chairs. I had my cellphone in my pocket, so . . .

I moved in closer and had time to grab a few abstract images, all of which were processed with Snapseed.

I like the golden tones; I like the way the shadow forms a triangle in the second picture; and I like the graphic forms and will probably use them as collage compositions.

As standalone photos are they good? I don't think so. There's not enough depth of field in the second one and the rows of upholstery tacks, although a cool glittery gold, are kind of wonky. But as grab shots? As something to create while waiting for something mundane? Quite satisfying, thank you!

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

ROYGBIV: INDIGO!

Indigo is an intriguing color, and one of my current favorites. It's sort of dark and mysterious, luscious and rich, and often contains tinges of black, green, and grey. Looking through my photos, as I was trying to select examples for you, it was sometimes difficult to tell the difference between a dark blue and an indigo.

The first photo, of a security keypad, was taken in a darkened alcove. The original photo was more silvery, but I darkened it somewhat and then added a photo I'd taken of some clouds, which lightened the center part. The golden background sets off the indigo colors quite well.

The next photo, of a tree, clouds, and the ocean, was taken in Encinitas and, obviously, I tweaked it using an HDR-ish effect to bring out the texture in the clouds. The color indigo comes into play more at the right side of the frame. But look at that little splotch of sunlight on the sea just to the left of the base of the tree -- I love that small touch.

The final photo is one I took in Kyoto, a box I saw in a darkened alcove. The dark indigo surround makes the lighter, complementary yellow color of the box stand out beautifully.  And because I metered off the brighter yellow, the darker surround became even darker. Nice!

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

ROYGBIV: BLUE!

A peaceful, relaxing color, blue is universally loved. Ask anybody what's their favorite color and invariably it'll be blue. Rarely do you hear someone say "aubergine" or "chartreuse."

I found these blues first of all on Route 66, then in a boatyard on the Oregon coast, and then at a car show I photographed just half a car, copied it, flipped it, pasted it together again to create a cute little "bumper car" sort of creature.

Wishing you blue skies today!

©Carol Leigh

P.S. Just what color IS aubergine anyway? Think "eggplant." And chartreuse? Think light, bright yellowish-green. . .

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

ROYGBIV: GREEN!

It's interesting to see the variety of greens we have around us. The first two photos, both taken in Astoria, Oregon, have a yellowish cast to them. And then look at how blue the third photo is, the photo of the pine tree sprigs. The yellowish greens have a definitely lighter, airier feel to them; I personally am more drawn to the green colors with a bluish tinge.

Notice I didn't say anything about an apparently cranky cat on the railing. Reminds me too much of you-know-who here at home . . .

Moving onto blue next . . .

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

Portland to D.C. (Part 2)

After a stop at Kansas City, we continued on, landing at Reagan Airport. As I'm typing this, we are at the airport again, waiting for our flight back home.

All photos taken with iPhone and processed with Snapseed. Copyright Carol Leigh.

Portland to D.C. (Part 1)

Not much to do aboard planes except read, do crossword puzzles, eat pretzels (or, if you're lucky, Lorna Doones), and gaze out the window (my favorite). So throughout the trip I looked for things to shoot with the cellphone.

A lot of what I see are abstract patterns--perfect!

We left before dawn, so I shot runway lights using the SlowShutter app. What's cool about this is that you can see the effect develop on the LCD and you can stop the exposure whenever it reaches a point you like.

We flew into the dawn's early light, over mountains still shaded in blue, then over flat country, everything covered with snow. All photos processed with Snapseed. Copyright Carol Leigh.

Saying goodbye to the Captain

My father was buried yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery, where my mother is also interred. Incredibly moving military funeral. Handled beautifully by the Navy. He was a good man who valued education and hard work. Both from humble beginnings, my parents made each other better as they moved down the line. May they both rest in peace. Copyright Carol Leigh.

ROYGBIV: YELLOW!

Such a happy, bright color! Makes me smile just to see it. Here are three of my photos depicting the color yellow, and in each of them I used a pretty blue, which sets off the yellow quite well.

The yellow flower looks good combined with a bright blue background. The "Y" on a fishing boat looks good, too, combined with a scratched blue background. And then there's the photo of homes on a street in Tucson, Arizona, where I (in my extremely early years of Photoshop Elements) made the sky particularly blue. A very fakey blue to my eyes now. Come to think of it, the yellow's pretty fakey, too, isn't it? Oversaturated? Oh, yes, but ah, well.

Looking forward to the next post, GREEN!

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

ROYGBIV: ORANGE!

A friend of mine was thinking about making throw pillows, pillows that would have her photographs on them. She found it interesting how many of her pictures incorporated the color orange, a color she doesn't have in her house.

Take a look at your own work. Are you finding that, unbeknownst to you, there's a lot of orange in it?

Here you see a tree I photographed in Virginia during one of my trips back there to try to help out my dad. And then a photomontage I made of pictures I'd taken of various papers -- painted and otherwise. And finally a bright orange Chevrolet. I mean REALLY bright!

And now on to yellow . . . a color that doesn't show up really well on a bright white background such as this. Unless you highlight it, of course . . .

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!

iPhone photo of the day...

I found this carved crow in Langley, Washington. The green version is the original image; the black and white version was processed using an app called Brush Stroke. I like how the app simplified the image, yet added texture and depth to it.

Both versions shot with an iPhone.

Copyright Carol Leigh

Blogpost prepped on iIphone.

ROYGBIV: RED!

The colors of the rainbow can be remembered by the acronym ROYGBIV . . . And there used to be a gallery in Palm Springs eons ago called Roy G. Biv . . . clever. Don't know if the gallery is still there, but the rainbow colors of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet will always be with us.

I'm heading off to Virginia for my father's funeral, a funeral with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery where I believe bugles will bugle, horses will prance, caissons will roll, and guns will be fired. My father would have loved seeing it! Family will be gathering, which my mother would have loved. Temperatures will be in the teens, which none of us will love!

So as the colors fly in Virginia, I leave you with a few days of colors here, the colors of the rainbow, beginning with, obviously, RED.

Here are my photos of the flaming red on an old Chevy, a bright red building in downtown Portland, and the hull of a fishing boat in Newport, Oregon, loaded with crab pots in anticipation of a good catch.

And tomorrow's color? All together now: ORANGE!

©Carol Leigh
All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you!