CRE8365 Day 31 - One Daisy

Today was a conflicted day for me, it's been cloudy, overcast and rainy, we NEED this moisture, no doubt about that, but all these overcast days are not so good for my solar system (we are 100% solar powered), today it was foggy all day, which is normally a cool thing, it makes everything look mysterious. But because we aren't getting much sun, I have had to curtail my internet usage quite a bit, now THAT bums me out, I've just been doing the minimum I could on my computer and internet has been a challenge.

I have had to remind myself about the good things about living the way we do, this simple life, we have food, we have great friends and neighbors, we are healthy, we have shelter, my walk with my Lord is stronger than ever, so who am I to complain?

Today, I went through all of my photos and found a simple daisy, white petals with a yellow center, it reminded me that spring is coming, dreary winter will soon be over, and life is good.

I did this using Autodesk SketchBook Pro mobile, and finished it in Photoshop.

 

On a happier note, I have completed the month of January and received this button

 

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CRE8365 day 29 - Jack Rabbit

Day 2 of playing around with Autodesk SketchBook, I was planning on doing another big headed critter, I looked for reference pictures of jack rabbits, a critter we have a plethora of out here, well the big headed part didn't happen, maybe next time it will. Our jack rabbits are pretty big, but thin for their size, their legs are long, especially the rear legs, and they have very long ears that you can almost see through they are so paper thin, that's how they dissipate heat in the summer. They are skittish animals, I love seeing them, except when I am driving, they run zig zag in front of your car, and just when you think they have finally left the road, they race back in front of you to do it all over again.

I looked at several different reference photos to get the jack rabbit and prickly pear cactus just right, I am pretty happy with this one, one detail you might notice is the grass in front of the cactus is called Texas Grama . I did have to finish it in Photoshop to bump up the color saturation and contrast. Use your right-click to view full size.

http://cre8365.com/

CRE8365 day 28 - Big Headed Acorn Woodpecker

In keeping with yesterday's theme of big headed birds, I decided to try my hand at rendering a big headed Acorn Woodpecker, this one was done on a different program, I decided to go ahead and get an app called Autodesk SketchBook, there is a free version, but I went ahead and purchased the Pro version, at just under $5.00 I felt like it was worth it to have all the extra features.

I played around with the different brushes for a bit, then got down to business with this image. Some of you might recognize this from the Christmas cards I did, I used the reference photo of the Acorn Woodpecker and made it's head (eyes and beak) really big in proportion to the rest of it. I also added in a bit of a background with Scrub Oak tree leaves.

I am blown away by the new tools I have at my fingertips, the layers, the blending, the ability to turn the image and zoom in so much on my tablet.

Here is the picture:

http://cre8365.com/

I had someone ask me on FaceBook if I was digitally editing existing pictures, meaning opening an existing picture and applying filters and such to get a painterly look, and to that question, my answer is no, all of my images here are completely created from scratch, whether on paper or digital, everything from the initial sketch to the finishing touches are all mine, I may use a reference photo, but that photo is on my laptop, and I am drawing on paper or on my tablet. I am flattered that someone thought my picture was good enough that I edited an existing photo, but no, it's all me :)

CRE8365 day 24 - Rojo the parrot

I drew this image using an app called "Draw and Paint Pad", it's for Android based systems. This is the first thing I've done with this program, I am not as comfortable with it as I am Sketch Guru, but I suspect that will change as I work with it more.

After several starts and stops, I decided to draw a parrot that has been in my family since I was an early teen, she is a Red Headed Amazon parrot, aka Mexican Red Headed parrot. I did this from memory, and in reality she doesn't have that huge blue spot on her cheek, but there is a small bit of blue, you have to be really close to see it. And under the red feathers on her head, it's bright yellow, but you'd never see it unless she allowed you to scratch her head. Mostly though, you see the green body and the red head. I do have the beak a little larger than it really is, I suspect that is a subconscious reaction to being bitten by that beak a few times :)

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CRE8365 day 17 - Sunrise Photographs and VW Bug sketch

I really felt bad about yesterday's creative endeavor, so today I wanted to make up for it, I actually did 3 things today, the first 2 are photos I took this morning, the sunrise was so pretty. My camera is a lower end mid-range camera, good enough, but it doesn't capture the colors that human eyes can see, the biggest issue is having bright sky and dark land. So I ran the pictures through Photoshop and enhanced the color to make them look more like they really looked to me. I did make them a bit more colorful, but they are really close to how it looks to me.

Later on in the day, I decided to get out Sketch Guru and paint from a picture I took earlier in the year of my old VW bug, it's sitting in my driveway, I love driving that bug, especially out where I live, we have 70+ miles of unpaved mountain roads, those old bugs really go on those kinds of roads. Hubby gave it that paint job, green camo.

http://cre8365.com/

Come on over and join in with the creative fun!

CRE8365 day 16 - Primaries Digital Art

This was the first day I had trouble doing something creative, my sleep schedule had been really off, I was falling asleep, but still wanted to do something, anything, so I went to sumopaint.com and played for a few minutes, after a few starts and stops, I came up with this, not my best work, but it is creative.

 

I call this Primaries....

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CRE8365 Day 11 - What do you see?

OK, today's creation will be best understood by those who have dogs and/or small children AND glass doors or windows.... I have had both, but now, I just have dogs, though it is only one of them who does this. I'll stop being cryptic soon, and for those who might say "ewwww", I say that I am seeing the the creative side of everything, and yes, I do clean my windows, on occasion.... :)

I'm sure you have looked at clouds at some point in your life and saw faces, shapes, animals, my hyperactive imagination sees those things in nearly everything I look at, I was laying down after church today, trying to take a nap, the sun was shining through the bedroom window, I began to see faces and shapes in the dog nose smears on the window (OK, go ahead and say it.... ewwww). Especially on the left side of the smear, a profile began to take shape, my sleepiness vanished and I had to try to capture that image.

It's surprisingly hard to capture a smudge on glass with a camera, on purpose, I'm more often trying to hide the dirt and smudges when I'm snapping pix around the sky castle, I finally got in the right spot where I could see the smudges and more importantly, the camera was able to capture it.

I took the image and sketched this design using Sketch Guru.

Here is the original image, you can see the "face" on the left side of the dog nose smear, you might have to click on it, make it bigger to really see it.

So, what do you see?
Here is a closeup of the image above

There is a book by Carla Sonheim called Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals that teaches how to "see" faces and animals (mostly animals) in the random cracks of life, I have this book, it's been a major inspiration for me. You can see another image I created with this technique here (link).

Come over and check us out!

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CRE8365 day 9 - Girl in glasses digital sketch

Today's theme is Rose tinted spectacles, so using Sketch Guru (finished it in Photoshop), I created this pink bespectacled girl in a slightly whimsical style. I see this style done on YouTube quite a bit and it looks fun.

Come on over to http://cre8365.com and join in the fun, I have been having all sorts of fun, not only doing my own thing, but seeing what everyone else posts each day, I am making some great friends as well.

CRE8365 day 8 - Acorn Woodpecker in Derwent Inktense

I slept in today, it was so nice to wake up then turn back over and go back to sleep, that's when I have the most interesting dreams, some of them are bookworthy :)

The dogs began to go nuts which told me someone was here so I got up, sure enough one of our friends had come by, we missed him on Christmas so he didn't get one of my Christmas cards, I wanted him to have one so I asked him to stay a little longer while I whipped out another card. I enjoyed drawing and painting this while he watched and chatted with PB.

As an artist, on occasion, someone will ask me "YOU did this?" or they might say "You DID this?" or "You did THIS?", and I say "Yes", well this time the recipient of the card watched it being created, so there was no doubt as to WHO did it :)

This went along with the theme for Christmas this year, well last year technically.... this is an acorn woodpecker.

 

I am using this as my daily CRE8365 picture.

I also created this image, it goes along with today's theme, "perspective".

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CRE8365 day 7 - Old Rock digital sketch

Today's motivation on CRE8 is "old rock", I immediately thought of an old rock (stone), with a craggy man's face... so that's what I drew. I used a program called Sketch Guru, it's free and has some pretty good pencils, I'm still not terribly comfortable with digital drawing, but this program makes it pretty easy. This is an Android app, there is one by the same name for Apple BUT alas, it's not the same program.

If you haven't already been to CRE8365, then click the link and head on over to check it out, this site is fantastic for motivating me to create something each and everyday.

CRE8365 create something each and everyday

Hello fellow doodleheads and artists :)

I always want/need more inspiration (read:DEADLINES) in order to create something everyday, fortunately I ran across a site that prompts us to create something, anything at least once a day and post it to their site.

http://cre8365.com/

I got in on the first day of the year, but because they are based in Spain, it shows that I joined on the second, oh well, doesn't matter, as long as I create something each and everyday to post there. Some days I do something quick just to get it on there, other days I take more time and create something more interesting.

Here are my creations so far,I did miss a day because of bad weather interfering with my internet.

I'll do my best to post my images each day from this project. If this appeals to you, then check it out, it's fun, there are some wonderful supportive people there.

http://cre8365.com/

I also created a Pinterest for my daily creations.

http://www.pinterest.com/wrethaoffgrid/cre8365/ 
You can join this anytime you wish, it isn't something you had to have gotten in on in the beginning, that's a convoluted way to say JOIN NOW, no matter what the date :)