Pink and even more Gorgeous

Well, I did leave it alone for a while. And it sure paid off.
Letting my creativity flow to create another set of designs helped me get the fresh look I so needed. When I went back to Pink and Gorgeous it struck me some of the elements drew attention too much, in a 'bad' way.... So, once again I scrutinized all elements, hit delete more than once. And voilà, there it is. Finally it has the understated elegance I look for in my designs.
What do you think?

The downloadable Graphics Pack is now available in my Etsy store! So head out there, grab the opportunity. And while you are out there, don't forget to check the beautiful items some of my dear friends from the Creative Pixel are offering. Just look for Robyn Gough Designs or Marcee Duggar Designs.

As a way of saying thank you for visiting my blog, here is a little freebie!

Pink and Gorgeous - Take One

Sometimes I need to leave my creations alone for a good few days when I’m in the process of designing a new Pack. I’ll have some backgrounds, maybe some elements, I’m liking the colors and the mood, yet looking at the pieces combined to a whole it will be unsatisfying.

So in stead of getting to a point where I’m so frustrated that I throw everything out, I’ll leave it be. Turn my back on it altogether, promising myself I’ll get back to it in a little while.

This happened while creating “Pink and Gorgeous”. The central reference – a soft blend of several stunning pink hydrangea – was my constant.

That first session of creation led me here:

Not too bad, I admit, yet not really good either. Resting it was.

When I came back to it I saw only one option. All the backgrounds had to go, only the frame and word art could stay. 

Relieved that I’d taken that though decision, the fresh start I made was still rocky. I had to shake the feeling of failure. By the time my count of background papers got to #15, I was back on track… Elements, like a cute button, were added. Steadily working, trying to keep in the flow, the Pack bloomed - “Pink and Gorgeous” is what it now really has become. In my humble opinion :-)

And now? Now I am going to let it rest again. My experience with these creations is that it needs to ripe some more. Looking at it after a good night sleep will tell me what it needs. And I will ask a dear friend to take a look too. 

After that: final tweaking and fine tuning... 

To be continued!  

Love, Maureen

PS: what do you think? Gorgeous? I'd love to hear.

Creating a Rainbow Peony Kaleidoscope

Every now and then I take my drawing tablet and just start to 'fiddle' about with brushes, colors, trying different settings as backgrounds. ArtRage is my go-to software in these cases.
Today I felt like doing just that. Starting with nothing, not wanting to create anything.
Sometimes this yields an artful creation that is both beautiful and inspiring. More pleasing than anything I can create with a clear intent behind it.
So today that is what happened. This creation came to life:

"Everything is okay"

Would you like to join me on a little walk along the path of creation?

Playing around with brushes and pallet knives in ArtRage gave me this. I decided I liked the way it looked, didn't delete it. It felt right in some way.

So I added another layer.
With a stencil an water color brush.

Still liked it...

so yet another layer was added.

This is where I noticed I no longer wanted to just "fiddle a bit, then delete swiftly".





I got the feeling of keeping it. Using it as a background for a gorgeous picture of a flower. Because that's what I love to do, you see.

So I exported the digital painting to Photoshop. Went to my file of pictures I took of a beautiful bouquet of peonies.

"So what if I place that one on top of this painted layer?" I asked myself.

Well, the peony and the background immediately fell in love with each other :-) 

Some experimentation with the blend mode of the layers, tweaking the saturation finally yielded this creation. 

It is like being witness to a small wonder, this slow, intuitive process of creation, when at some point everything falls into place. It amazes me every single time.

One thing I love as much as working with flower pictures, is turning creations into what I call: kaleidoscope creations. You can imagine how that works, don't you? Duplicate and flip three times:

"Everything is okay" 

Like the peony, I fell in love with this result. It sort of heals my creative soul, that felt rather ragged today.

So now the printed version sits on my desk, next to my laptop. Looking at it I know I will discover new little details every time I glance at it. Giving me tiny bits of healing for a while longer, which I welcome with all my heart.

I hope that looking at it will bring you some kind of good feeling or even some healing of any kind too.  

Love,

Maureen

PS: more info on ArtRage software can be found here