Art the Easy Way: Collage

It happened on a blustery day not long ago, I came across a collage program featured on Tom Kaulitz's blog (yes, the guitarist for Tokio Hotel ;) ) It's called Shape Collage and it is so easy, so addicting and I have been spending a lot of time clicking away making collages. I recommend, if you want an easy way to make artsy compilations of your favorite pictures, then check this out! It's free to download the simple version and is way fun!

http://www.shapecollage.com/

While playing around with this software, I got a little more complex and combined my newly discovered Shape skills with my Paint.NET skills to make a fantastic collage of my favorite pictures taken while in Italy. So, it gives me great pleasure to present to you - drum roll, please -

Collage de Italia!!

This is made with all original, taken-by-me, on location photos. I would like to thank all my friends for appearing in these photos and making Italy my favorite place in the world. Loves you guys!

So, in conclusion: Shape Collage = awesome, Paint.NET = awesome, and the two combined with my awesomeness = totally awesome awesomeness. :)

Turning Over a New Leaf

I know it's been a long time since I blogged last, what can I say, I'm not the best on keeping on top of things, but I would like to start up again. However, I'll be blogging about art, poetry, inspiration, random things that I find interesting. So, without further aduo, let's begin...

The Happy Sponge Poem

I was flipping through the pages of my sketch book and found this awesome poem that I wrote a while ago. I call it The Happy Sponge Poem.


I am such a lovely sponge,
Filtering the ocean and looking pretty.
All fluffy and porous,
Full of life.

Not like the synthetic sponge
So square and plain.
Scrubbing floors and dishes
Day in and day out.

…Now, I wouldn’t mind
Being a car-washing sponge
Voluptuous and soapy
I’d be a sexy sponge.

But, alas, the sea sponge
Is the best!

Isn't that just the greatest!? I wrote it in Marine Biology when I was learning about sponges. My friend was going on about the difference in synthetic sponges and sea sponges and how the sponges used to wash cars are pretty cool because they are big and round and fluffy. Lol, we're strange, I know. But it's awesome.

An Ocean View

While at the beach this last Sunday, I got some great shots that made awesome pieces of art. So, I present to you my works....

This picture I call The Long Way We've Traveled It represents the journey of my life so far and how I've come to be where I am in life. It's the long journey of life that we all deal with and we all have to overcome to find our own glimmer of happiness. (Taken 11 Jan 2009 in Lignano, Italy)

My Heart Belongs to the Sand It looks like a simple picture, but I went through the whole thing and erased all the sea shells and footprints that were stomping all over the place. The concept I had in mind when I took this was simple: people don't always give you the kind of peaceful, relaxed feelings you get from being on a quite beach...or in the mountains, or anywhere in nature where humanity hasn't totally over run the place. (Taken 11 Jan 2009 in Lignano, Italy)

Behold, the Battlefield Everytime I go to the beach, I always feel bad when I step on the shells that have washed up on the sand. I wanted to convey that feeling through this picture through the pieces of shells and the whole ones. The sienna hue gives it that forlorn kind of feel, which is really cool. (Taken 11 Jan 2009 in Lignano, Italy)

Are You There? It's Me I just wanted to take a really cool close up of sea shells. XD The picture turned out better than I thought, so Va-la! it is beautiful work of art. (Taken 11 Jan 2009 in Lignano, Italy)

Life is so Much Better With Hugs

Yummy!

You know the one thing I love the very very very most...HUGS!!!!
*hugs nearest person*
No, silly, Hersey's Hugs! But they don't sell them here in Italy, even on Base. So, I've gone through withdrawls, severe, shake-uncontrolably, blood-shot-eyes withdrawls.

It's very bad.

So, you can imagine my absolute joy when I walked into the Commissary and saw HUGS!! I couldn't contain my excitement and I bought three bags...I wanted to buy more, but I refrained.
I've been munching on the deliteful little pieces of heaven for the past three days.

Man, they are so good.
Mmmmmmmm

The Woes of a Misunderstood Artist

Today, I was very happy and bubbly and energetic just like I usually am. Then, an unfortunate incident occured that put a little damper on my spirits (good thing it's the end of the day so it won't affect the rest of it.)

First, I need to explain a little something. I see myself as an artist, not like a specific artist like a painter or anything, but an artist of many talents. I write, paint, sketch, draw, use various mediums, the whole nine yards. Well, to be fair, I'm a Poet artist. I'm a poet first and foremost, then an artist in many senses of the word.

So, today - well, now that I think about it, it's been an ongoing thing for a while - someone close to me, whom I view as a great artist and a great inspiration, discredited me as an artist. Here's how it went... *coolie flashback vortex*

We're sitting around the table, a friend that we just met sitting beside us. We're still getting to know this guy so he says to us, "Which one of you is the artist?"
My someone-that-is-close-to-me immediately says, "I am."
Come on, let's be fair we're both artists, I put in.
"No, I am." then she proceedes to talk to this friend about her art and blah blah blah.

*coolie vortex ends*

I'm left there, feeling put down and discredited and....I don't know how to describe it. It's like telling someone they can't be who they are, they can't be short or can't be a woman. I already knew this person doesn't respect me as an artist and that was fine (she respects me as a writer, but not an artist), but to totally bash me like that was...cruel. No matter how good my work is, no matter how hard I try, she can't see me as an equal. I see now that I've never shown my work to anybody because if she can't respect my art, how can others? If the one person I trust everything to can't accept me and be my equal, then how can I let myself be exposed to others?

Maybe I just think too highly of this person's approval. I don't need approval from anyone to be who I am and to vent my creativity....

....

It still hurts.

Digital Get Down

Ok, so I'm kind of prejudice when it comes to art. I don't like digital art, to me, it just seems like it doesn't take true talent to make, same with abstract. Well, I took some pictures and experimented with some digital effects and stuff. It's not as easy as I thought! While I still prefer traditional art, digital art isn't so much a taboo thing anymore.

Here are a few pictures I touched up/altered on the computer. (I took the pictures first then messed around with them.)

This one is called Violets are Blue. It was actually very complicated to make this picture. I wanted the floweres to be a really strong blue, but then they took away from the rest of it. To fix that, I cut the leaves and the grassy part in the corners and put them on a new layer so that I could sharpen their color without changing anything else. Then I had to soften the reds a little in the top corner. Part of the rocks ended up on a different layer so that I could move the leaves around. I finally got it all together, just the right hues and everything. Va-la!

This one is Star of the Show. Really all I did to this picture was tone down the orange (the light when I took the picture made it look very very orange) and take out my palm from the background. Oh yeah, I also cropped it and took out the other half of the apple so it was more balanced.

Fountain of Stars. I just adjusted the contrast so that the trees were really dark and the water was brighter. I toyed with the idea of somehow putting shooting stars coming out of the water like droplets of water, but I figured it looked good like this (and it was too complicated to figure out XD.)

Life is a Balancing Act. This one is the most drastically changed and digitalized. I took a picture of my foot on a cement ball that we have in our drive way. Then, I edited out the ball and put the Earth in its place. I didn't intend for the background to end up like that, but I was messing around with renderings and stumbled upon this one that I thought looked cool. After it rendered though, I had to move it around and change the radius so that it was behind the Earth and looked like it was...well how it is.