…coming soon… it’ sitting in the press getting flat.

Meanwhile here are the graphics for the covers of  “(K) Kicks”

(K) Kicks 1

(K) Kicks 2

The book pretty much sucks — it’s a one day after all. But I like the graphics.

I have a desktop widget that acts as a sideshows photo frame on my development machine. Having something pleasant to stare at when my mind goes blank on a problem is nice.

This morning, during a particularly intense “now how the hell is that supposed to work” spell the photo below came up.

fish fountain in Oaxaca

Click on the photo to see a much bigger version of the original.

I like the photo but it was taken with my little point and shoot and has way too much depth of field. I really don’t need to be able to identify the make and model of the cars in the back ground. So I loaded it into Photoshop and spent half and hour or so making a quick and dirty improvement. A little selective selecting and copying. Then a couple of rounds with the blur filter and I got this.

a nicer version of the Fish Fountain photo

Again click on the photo for a much larger version. Don’t look too closely though. The illusion of shallower depth of field works fine in the 400 X 300 pixel version above but you can see the seams between the layers and some other artifacts in the larger version. Still for half an hour of futzing around I ended up with a much nicer photo to use on a web page.

I’ve got a shiny new copy of Photoshop CS3 and have been experimenting.

In Photoshop Creative Collection v3 (no link available) there’s a technique that mimics pen and ink. Something that is similar to some watercolor and ink work that I did a couple of years ago.

I did the tutorial and got this effect.

Which I liked well enough but I think the ink lines are a bit crude. Perhaps as a result of my not being a true ace with the graphics tablet, yet.

I’ve gone on to experiment with some other images and am slowly developing a version of the technique that I like.

For some pieces I’m building the color in Photoshop and then printing the piece and inking it my hand. I like the results I’m getting from printing on 140# cold press watercolor paper. (Usually the smoother side.) It takes ink from the inkjet well and the slight texture gives the hand inked lines a nice variation.

I’m also trying to find ways of creating a black-line layer within Photoshop. It’s tricky to get the overlay to have enough information to pick out the details of the image without overwhelming the nice blocks and blobs of color that I work so hard to make.

This is part of a piece based on a photograph that my husband took in Oaxaca. I used a handful of filters to create the black overlay. (I can go back and look them up if you want the gory details.)

I think this has promise.

Oh and if you were here with me looking out my window you’d see this.

snow — Yikes!