King Tim Twinchie & Blog Question

Birthday month is winding up at Something Completely Different, and the theme for this week's twinchie was "crowns."  Through the serendipity of art, I happened to have this chipboard crown and this shrink plastic "King Tim" sitting on my art desk - right next to the last square of purple spray-inked plaster! Yes, seriously.  So, I trimmed the plaster and painted  its edges black, mounted it on a piece of 2x2" black cardstock, edged the cardstock in gold, painted the chipboard crown black (and then covered it with rock candy crackle paint) and then layered everything together!  The stamp is from the Tim Holtz line, and I always call it "King Tim." Happy Birthday SCD! Thanks for the inspiration this month.
On another  topic, yesterday, I put a little time into my blog, adding labels to about half of my posts.  Will continue the project to get them all labeled.  For you bloggers, I was wondering:
do you label your posts?
what are your most common labels?
is there a point where you have too many labels?
All suggestions/input appreciated.

Vintage Assem-dog (Photography Lesson)

It's aperture priority week in the Get Out of Auto Mode photography class I'm taking.  For my model, I'm using my Vintage Assem-dog.  He's an altered dog model (originally purchased on Dick Blick), which I created as part of an assemblage class I taught.  All photos are pretty much straight out of the camera (no brightening, sharpening, color enhancing, etc.), although I did crop them a bit.  The picture above was my favorite of the session, and I took it with my 50mm prime lens with the aperture set to 2.8.  This gave me enough blur in both the background and the dog to make an interesting shot.
I took two good photos at a higher f-stop and got crisper images, which I might use if I was trying to use the photo on an etsy page or as a clear illustration of the project.  The first one is at f5.6 and the second one is at f10:

The lowest fstop I can get with my 50 mm lens is 1.8, and I got this nice fade-away:

When I tried to get closer and still use a low fstop, the lowest I could get my f-stop down to was f5; I got this shot I liked:

One of the biggest things I learned was that, if I want to do this type of photography (not sure I do), the lens makes a huge difference!  My regular kit lens only goes down to f4.2 (focal length was 75), and here's the best shot I got with it:

I also played with the aperture setting using my telephoto lens. While I was able to get closer to the model, the lowest I could get my fstop and still focus was 5.3. The focal length was 160 (my telephoto goes to 200).  Here's my best shot:

I do like how the background went all dark!


Do you have any favorites of the photos above?  Are you a fan of fade-away, blurred art photos or do you prefer crisp all over?  I hope to do this exercise again taking photos of people  instead of my trusty assem-dog.  And I will probably use what I learned to photograph my other assemblage animals (one more dog and two cats).

Art Class Offerings (because I can't help myself)

The art journaling prompt this month at The Scrappy Tree is "Change," and I created this page with a quote about inevitable, unavoidable change from Anais Nin that grabbed me as soon as I read it:
"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful that the risk it took to blossom."
I used to teach art classes and stopped when my local scrapbook store closed. I've missed teaching, but never really found a good, easy venue to continue.  Until now.  My friend and art teacher, Connie Andrews, has taken the risk of renting a studio space for various people to gather and create art. I'm taking the risk with her because it is just too painful not to.  So, with a great deal of happiness (and a little trepidation), here are the classes I plan to offer for the next few months:


Art Journaling 1A:  Art Diary
Sunday mornings, June 13, 20 and 27. 9:30-11:30 am, with additional studio time available until 1:00 pm at no charge.  This three week class will give you the tools you need to get started creating an art journal as an art diary and to continue your journaling after class ends.  Cost for the three week class: $75 (plus a $25 material fee, which covers a fifty page artist book filled with handmade paper, a daily journal, and pens appropriate for art journaling).  Please bring gesso, scissors, a wet adhesive (glue, gel medium, etc.) and an assortment of paint brushes and acrylic paints. If you like, you can also bring an assortment of images and a heat tool. Due to the materials provided, the class is limited to six participants.  If you cannot attend any of the sessions, instructions will be available online and we may be able to schedule a make-up session.


Creating Cards with Ephemera
Saturday, July 24 -  9:30-12:00.  Come and learn how to use collage images, text and other ephemera to create visually balanced and aesthetically pleasing cards.  We will cover four designs/techniques, and the class fee includes materials to complete eight cards.  In addition, the class fee includes a wooden cigar box in which to package your cards, making them the perfect gift.  Please bring scissors, a paper trimmer, and your favorite adhesive.  Although I will have plenty of ephemera and rubber stamps, you are free to bring your own rubber stamps and ephemera.  $30.00


 Art Journaling 2A: Themed Art Journal  Plaster Gratitude Journal
Saturday, Aug. 14  - 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Learn how to incorporate a variety of collage and journaling techniques to create a cohesive, themed art journal.  You will also be introduced to working on plaster wrap, one of my favorite materials.  Please bring gesso, scissors, a wet adhesive (glue, gel medium, etc.) and an assortment of paint brushes and acrylic paints. A pre-work handout will be emailed to those who sign-up.  
Cost: $50


Art Journaling 1B:  Art Journal as Creative Play 
Sundays, Sept. 12, 19 and 26, 9:30 - 11:30 am with additional studio time available until 1:00 pm at no charge.  This class will give you the artistic tools and confidence you need to start art journaling regularly as a way to engage in creative play and/or create a sketchbook.   Cost for the three week class: $75 (plus a $10 material fee, which covers a spiral bound journal  and pens appropriate for the course).  If you cannot attend any of the sessions, instructions will be available online and we may be able to schedule a make-up session.

The studio is located at 103-1 Harvard , Princeton-by-the-Sea.  It is in the same building as Elegant Cheesecakes and just down the street from the Maverick's Surf Shop.  Jeff Clark (of Maverick's) has very considerately put up lots of signs directing folks to his shop, so you can just follow those and then keep going for another block.


If you would like to sign up for a class, please email me at rinda1961@yahoo.com or leave me a comment below with your email address, and I will contact you to confirm everything.
Thank you all for helping my art dream to blossom!

Playing with Speed (Photography lesson)

Part of the assignment for the Get out of Auto Mode photography class this week was to shoot in "shutter priority" mode at a low and a high speed, to see the different effects.  I decided to complete the assignment at DS Henry's baseball game on Saturday. For the photo above, I set the shutter speed to 1/40 (the camera set F25 and ISO 400). I like the effect of the blurred bat and hands.  For the photo below, I set the shutter speed to 1/1250 to freeze the action and you can see the ball coming in clearly (the camera set F8 and ISO 400):

 It was a good experiment, but I had trouble getting a really clear focus for the higher shutter speed.  Frankly, I think I just do better shooting in "sports" mode.  For example, this pitcher:

So, the next day when I went to DD Clara's swim meet, I put the camera on sports mode and got this nice picture of her best starting dive ever:

I'm glad I learned about shutter priority mode and can definitely see myself using it when I want a blur; but, for freezing the action (which tends to by my preference), I think I'll stick with sports mode.  Do you think that's wimping out?  Or just being smart?  Do you prefer sharp pictures that freeze the action? Or pictures that give you speed and movement through blur?
By the way, if you come back tomorrow, you'll see a cool (IMHO) art journal page about change, and be able to read a big announcement!

Art for Sale & Show

A week from today, my local mixed media group will be opening its second annual art show.  I showed five pieces last year and sold two.  This year, I'm hoping to do about the same.  As an extra treat, DD Clara will also be showing this year, too!  If you're in the area, please feel free to stop by and browse the show.
Here are the two big pieces I plan to show:

And here's DD Clara's piece:

One of the reasons I started my blog was to catalog my art, but I soon realized that it was hard to get a good picture of my artwork.  I'm pretty happy with these shots, which I took in program mode as part of the week 2 assignment in Get Out of Auto mode.  I set the ISO to 400 and let the camera do the rest. 

Monday Art Journal Page

Are you exhausted from the weekend?  If so, here's a simple art journal page to get your week off to a fresh start.  It's in response to the Creative Therapy prompt "How has art saved you?"  Background is glimmer mists and pastels.

An Adventure in Paris (SCD Twinchie)

Birthday month continues over at "Something Completely Different," as does their celebration of twinchies.  This week's subject is Paris.  This tiny (2"x2") bit or artwork features some images off a collage sheet I made of photographs I took in Paris.  The Notre Dame gargoyle is matted on plaster spritzed with Adirondack Color Wash (just like the other two SCD twinchies I made this month, here and here).  I have one more square of plaster left which I'll use for their call next week.  I wonder what the subject will be . . .