August Collection

Welcome to my gallery. What is the August Collection? All the artworks I completed for this month.

What inspired Once Upon A Time and Forbidden Gates? I have been fascinated by fairy tales set in exotic locals with an abundance of green leaves, flowers and hiding furtive entities. I live in the desert and I crave a forest or jungle for my images so I went to the grocery store. I took out my cellphone camera and captured pictures of flowers. Interestingly, no one asked me questions even though I am sure they noticed me taking photos. I opened my photos in GIMP layering them over one another till an abstract form emerged. I even made a horse out of flowers which you could see trotting Once Upon A Time.

Source: ravensartshack.deviantart.com via Ann on Pinterest

Forbidden Gates by ~ravensartshack on deviantART

What Surprised you about making snow woman? The surprise came after I completed my image. First, I created snow woman in GIMP by using a fractal filter on a gradient the using the filter map to sphere. I stacked my blue spheres and took a photo of a feather for her hat which I isolated by using free/lasso select. When I took a walk through a gift shop in Red Lion I was surprised to see only snowmen. My question is why aren't there any snow women?

How do I know it's a snow woman?

I don't know, maybe it's the twinkle in her eye, the feather in her cap or the numerous shopping bags?

Source: ravensartshack.deviantart.com via Ann on Pinterest

Kelpie Rider

According to Celtic legend a kelpie known as a water horse always had a dripping mane because it came out of a lake to lure riders to their peril. What if riders were not lured to their death, but to their transformation? Was a kelpie born or sired like a vampire? Sometimes the kelpie are depicted as attractive humans. I would like to think that when I drew Kelpie Rider on paper I captured her the moment she noticed her transformation.

Source: ravensartshack.deviantart.com via Ann on Pinterest

Sisters

I drew them with my Bic pen and colored pencils on paper. Her rich red lips hold a secret. Moments pass. An irresistible urge bubbles within her. Her lips part while her words depart. The other sister learns what the other has been keeping from her.

  
Sisters by ~ravensartshack on deviantART

Source: ravensartshack.deviantart.com via Ann on Pinterest

I designed  Shop Till You Melt iPad case.

Shop till you melt Snow Woman iPad case by RavenKing
See another iPhone design online at Zazzle

I designed a Kelpie Rider pillow.
 

Eerie Girl pillow by RavenKing
View other Eerie Pillows

 

Blue Mystery iPad sleeve by RavenKing
Browse Blue iPad Sleeves

My Locked in Enchantment Kindle case design

The joy I receive from reading a story or poem on my kindle inspired me to design a kindle case.  I wanted to make armor out of gold sequins that suggest a reinforced door in a castle with a hint of light coming from the key hole to symbolize hope.  The lock is not simply a barrier, but a challenge in the hero's journey.  What will be discovered?

Now for the nitty gritty tech talk.

  I made a sequin brush with GIMP software (free) by first taking photos of sequins. I opened my photo in GIMP and used the tool elipse select (oval shape) to zero in on the sequin. Click on Edit drop down box then click on copy. Click Edit then click paste as new image save as a png file to save the transparency. I made two separate png files of sequins so that I could arrange it. I clicked Edit then Copy. I clicked Edit then Save As Brush. I then named my brush. For the armor background I kept the ppi (pixels per inch) at 300. I painted from top to bottom of my vertical rectangle using my new sequin brush. For my keyhole image I began with a circle and vertical rectangle in dark brown. I changed my brush size and opacities to fit the shapes. For a final touch I boosted the contrast by clicking on the Color drop box and selcting Color and Contrast. The interface made it simple to adjust adjust settings. This makes the image pop.

Come see my design at my RavenKing store.

Locked in Enchantment Kindle case by RavenKing
Browse Lock Caseable Cases

Making my music video: Koktail Rings

Hi there. I hope you enjoyed your new year! I made a music video that I hope you will like.
genre: instrumental, classical.
duration: 4:53.
sounds: piano, orchestral strings, xylophone, marimba and flute.

All sounds came from keyboard including: piano, orchestral strings, xylophone and flute. I hooked up the audio interface with to the keyboard's audio jack and computer and speakers. I recorded straight into audacity software (free open source). I adjusted volume levels. When I pressed the record button I was filled with anticipation as my fingers hit the keys. I was improvising. The fun part came when I layered the recorded xylophone sounds with more piano chords. I stopped the recording and listened for artifacts: pops and clicks. I like Audacity because it makes recording simple and it has useful features like noise removal and clip fix and sound smoothening. I exported my musical pieces to wav file so that I could mix them in LMMS software ( free open source) If you don't have a midi keyboard and audio interface you could still make music with LMMS because it has its own virtual instruments and numerous effects and is compatable with many vst plug ins. Mixing music is an art form in itself that I am learning. It is a good idea to place each musical piece in a separate track to adjust the volume separatly plus adding effects like amp and reverb.

Making an animated photo with GIMP (free open source) is simple. You need two photos of the same size. I wanted to make it seem as if the keys were popping out of the typewriter. I first reduced each photo to one letter like "W". So I added a few keys as layers on the photo. When it came time to animate I simply added the second and third photo as layers. I changed the file extension to .gif. I click save as animated Gif. Do not save as flattened photo because this would result in a still photo. I adjusted the the delay to 319 milliseconds. I select to replace each frame. When I used the image in windows movie make each animated gif lasts about 5 seconds on the time line. The bigger the photo the more bytes are used. A simple three layer animated gif in 640 x 480 could use about 600 kilobytes but a two layer gif made of 1600 x1200 image could make a 1.5 MB.

Happy Creating! :)

.

LMMS

http://lmms.sourceforge.net/

Audacity

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

GIMP

http://www.gimp.org/

My First Animation with GIMP

feature length: 25 seconds

This is a Raven's Art Shack exclusive peek at Blink.

The simplest form of animation involves the blinking of eyes. You need only two frames, one for closed eyes and one for open eyes. An animated .gif needs a minimum of two layers. I drew the original with red ball point on loose leaf paper. I captured her image with my digital camera and closed her eyes with the smudge tool from GIMP software (open source and free to download). I added the original image as a layer. I select save image as Blink with extension .gif. The window pops up and asks if I want to flatten or save as animation. If I flatten the image it will be a still picture. I select save as animation. I pump up the delay to 368 milliseconds and 410 milliseconds for the second animation. I select to completely replace the frame. Voila I have created my first animated .gif! Yeah!

Making an animated .gif picture is simple with Windows movie maker. Upload the picture to the software. Click and drag the image to the timeline. Each image takes about 5 seconds of timeline. I composed 25 seconds of music using LMMS software (open source and free to download) using about 12 bars of music at 140 bpm.

Why create an animated gif? This kinetic art form is simple and fun to create. In the future I plan to make my own book trailer after I finish writing my first novel.

P.S. Welcom blog hoppers!

Quest for Beauty

Quest for Beauty

I think we are always looking for beauty in our daily lives. I find it when the sun shimmers on glistening snow. I even find it in virtual plug ins, algorithms. I don't pretend to understand them, but they are beautiful. Algorithms live and dance in software. It makes the arp in a virtual synthesizer purr, grumble or roar. It is in your image software that transforms pixels into brush strokes. Amazing wonders.

Right now I am writing my novel and I keep a watchful eye for visual and audio stimulation. I want to define the purpose of my blog. Art enriches lives by expressing thoughts and emotions. Yesterday I discovered GIMP software. I took a picture of my favorite cyclamen flower and tried cloning for the first time! I Ctrl+ click the area that I want to transport on another area of the picture. The clone function allows me to conceal parts of the photo, make spheres, brushstrokes or add extra flowers. When I Ctrl+click I find that when I move my brush the control area moves so I can trace the shape of the cyclamen and create as many as I want where I want them! Wow!

I hope you discover new things in your own personal journey too! :)