In full bloom

  

I managed to keep the dyeing momentum going and turned out another cotton jersey tank top, bringing together several large flower stencils that I already had made for other projects. Nightshade is what Dharma Trading Company calls that lovely blue-cooled purple of their Fiber Reactive Procion Dye. I also used their Plum Blossom to give some variation on the blossoms. And, of course, Golden Yellow for the centers. 

 

 

After the dye had cured, I re-stenciled over the flowers with resist before silk screening on the foliage in Avocado green, so that it would be behind rather than over the flowers. (This was not entirely successful.) This foliage is another design from Dover's Chinese Stencil Design book. The foreword in the book only says that the designs are from a rare collection of Chinese stencils, without giving any specific dates or eras. Old enough, I'm sure, that their creators would be astonished to see their designs being brought to life via Photoshop and the Silhouette Cameo cutting machine that I used to make the silkscreen film.

 

When all the washing-out was done, the yellow centers were not quite as distinct as I wanted, so I embroidered them with a simple satin stitch, on the front only. 

So, voilà, another new top ready for next summer.  And more dyeing and printing practice to get me ready for my next project...whatever that may be.

Rekindling a passion

It's said that you never forget how to ride a bicycle, and I doubt that I would ever forget how to sew no matter how much time went by. Alas, I found that the same was not true of printing with dye on fabric.

I certainly never meant to abandon doing it. From the beginning I found it a delight. With each piece I created, I was eager to learn more, to try out new techniques. And then? Well, other projects, other interests, life... I cleaned the bottles of aging dye concentrates out of the little fridge I had bought just for them, put away the silk screens Mr C had made for me, folded up the table I worked upon, but I always planned to start again, soon.

And finally, later rather than sooner, I have. For this first project, I decided to adapt a design I had used on a couple of scarves to a tank top, so I could concentrate on the process rather than the design. I did a mock-up in Photoshop with the dye colors I planned to use. Then I relied on Color by Design: Paint and Print with Dye by Ann Johnston, which has been my guide for past efforts.

Because some of my dye powders were past their average shelf life, I tested the colors I intended to use; thankfully all were fine.

 The fabric is a sturdy cotton jersey from Dharma. The stencils I already had from the scarf project. The passion flower is an Art Nouveau design by E.A. Seguy from an old Dover Book. I adapted a leaf for an additional stencil. The background design is a motif from Dover Books Chinese Stencil Designs. First I stenciled on the leaves in green and the petals in resist so that they would stay white. Next I stenciled the stamens of the flowers in a dark purple. I also used that color on the stencil of the little sprinkles, some of which I also stenciled with resist.

Next I brushed on the overall color diluted with a thin print paste. Here, in order to make the color pale, I made it too liquid with the addition of urea water which dissolved some of the resist I had put on in the previous step. Finally I silk-screened the Chinese motif randomly over the front and back using a stronger version of the base color. Fortunately the resist that kept the petals white did not completely dissolve as I had feared, but it wasn't as crisp and clear as it should have been. I tried to remedy this by going over the petals with white Lumière paint, but it was difficult to align the stencil perfectly the second time. 

All in all, I'm pleased with the result. These tanks tops are what I wear around the house during our sweltering Texas summers, and I'm glad to have another one to add to my collection. I've already begun working on a design for my next one, even as summer is slowly slipping away. I'm hoping to keep some sort of dyeing project going from now on.  Time will tell...

The magic of Blend Modes in Photoshop

 

For creating digital images as art, Photoshop offers so many features that it would be difficult to single out any particular one as being the most essential or most useful. And what you use also depends on the type of art you're doing. Of course, it's knowing how to use the ensemble of Photoshop's fantastic tools that lets you realize your vision. Or, not infrequently, conjure up an image that comes as a complete surprise.

Blend modes – how a layer interacts or blends with the layer underneath — are basic to using Photoshop effectively and achieving seemingly infinite effects. Everyone who uses Photoshop regularly probably knows the groups of blend modes that darken, that lighten, that affect midtones, etc. But what I find addictive is simply running through all the blend modes on a layer to see what magic might occur.

Which is what more or less happened with the Jardin du Luxembourg image above. 

Fabulous fabric

The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World was mired on my endless to-read list until the author Virginia Postrel gave a presentation via Zoom to the Dallas Area Fiber Artists. Such a enthusiastic and entertaining presentation that I immediately ordered the book and proceeded to read it. And then to rave about and recommend it to everyone I could think of.

You needn't be a sewer or someone who works with textiles in any way to appreciate and enjoy this book. You need only be a curious reader for the fascinating lore and surprising historical connections to keep you turning the pages. And to keep you turning to your nearest and dearest, asking “did you know that...?” Such as, did you know that the word “textile” comes from the same Indo-European root — teks — as “technology?” Because, as Postrel explains, “textiles are such an old technology that we rarely think about them.”

In seven chapters on Fiber, Thread, Cloth, Dye, Traders, Consumers, and Innovators, Postrel takes us through time and around the globe, showing us how the need for and the desire for and the making of textiles affected diverse societies and contributed to our modern world. Textiles played key roles in Italian banking in the Renaissance, in the Industrial Revolution, in the development of modern chemistry, in computer programming. And within all these broad categories are many individual narratives of people, some famous, some unknown, who bring life and scale to each chapter.

I am in awe of the extensive research Postrel did and even more in awe of how she turned a work of non-fiction into great storytelling. As I said, she is also a compelling speaker, so I suggest you go to her YouTube channel and let her tell you about the book herself.

Without a pattern

Landscapes, flowers, nature seem to be my natural digital subjects. But there is always the internal exhortation to try something different, especially when admiring what other digital artists are doing with the human face and figure. For more inspiration, I also collected a Pinterest board of women's images in various artistic styles. Yes, I could do this!

I began by extracting the woman from the background in a Pixabay image by Pat La Paz and giving her a painterly look with Impression in Topaz Studio 2. On my photo of the flowers taken at the Dallas Arboretum, I used copies with Akvis Sketch and Topaz Impression, as best I can remember, since those initial steps were many days and layers and blends modes back at the beginning of the month. Then more blend modes and layer masks to incorporate the woman with the flowers. Plus some background textures from Kirsten Frank.

And then? Frustration! I thought I knew the sort of elements I wanted to add to complete the composition, but nothing worked, nothing looked right. I returned again and again to study other images, to try to plumb their secrets and apply similar effects to mine. And here is where I began to think of the analogy of making a dress without a pattern.

It seemed to me that this was akin to seeing several beautiful dresses and deciding that I wanted to make a similar one. Not an exact copy of any one of them, but something with the same sort of skirt as this one and bodice like that one and sleeves from another. Only there was no such thing as a pattern to show me how to cut it out and construct it. Even as a very experienced sewer, I still need a go-by, especially when trying to make a complex garment. Alas, there was no pattern for what I wanted to do digitally.

Of course, Sebastian Michael's excellent PhotoshopArtistry and Awake: Photoshop Mastery Edition courses contain a wealth of how-to information as well as inspiration. And if specific help is needed, a quick search will turn up a variety of YouTube videos (thanks to which I finally succeeded in painting a new hairdo on the model). But all this instruction then has to be applied to something unique: one's very own creation, like that hypothetical hybrid dress.

Eventually, with the addition of a butterfly from Pixabay, a French letter from the Graphics Fairy and a château from one of my own photos, I declared La Belle aux Fleurs finished. And I'm ready to try another. And another. Just as, over the years, I sewed and sewed until I had an easy confidence in my garment-making skills. I may still need that pattern when making a dress, but I no longer have to rely on it completely or follow it exactly. In fact, the more I have learned to go beyond the pattern, the more my satisfaction in sewing has increased. I only hope it won't take me that long to reach the same point in digital art.

 

Watercolor camellias

 

 

If you take brush in hand to sweep a luscious wash of color onto a sheet of fine, textured paper, you may be shaking your head at my efforts to duplicate your results digitally. So, are my watercolor camellias ersatz? Obviously I am working with pixels rather than pigment, applied using Photoshop brushes created by KyleT. Webster, with a GrutBrushes Art Surface paper texture as my base. And, I admit that underneath all is a photo from which my composition emerged.

Emerged, yes, ever so slowly. To me, one of the advantages of making art digitally is the ability to try and retry, to discover new techniques, to toss away what doesn't work and keep refining until what you see begins to accord with what you imagined. Quite a few hours sped blissfully by before I put my signature on this deceptively simple image. And the fact that, unless I print it out, I have a virtual rather than an actual artwork is perhaps an advantage, as I can enjoy seeing it anytime on my computer screen, rather than having it tucked away and forgotten somewhere in a drawer.

Ultimately, I think what a “real” watercolor and this digital watercolor have in common is that they both spring from a desire to create and the delight that comes from being able to do so in whatever medium you choose.

A jewel of a tool

 For creative photo editing Topaz Studio 2 is a jewel indeed. It can be used as a standalone application or as a plugin for Photoshop or Lightroom. With its panoply of filters you can do everything from subtly enhancing an image to rendering it as differently and dramatically as you desire. But all those filters with all their adjustments can be intimidating. Where to start? Which ones to use? How do they all work?

After bumbling around, I started watching Dave Kelly's extensive series of YouTube videos on Topaz Studio 2 which cover everything from showing you exactly what each filter does to how to use them in combinations for artistic results. It was thanks to those sessions that I was able to transform the photo of Cedar Creek Falls snapped at Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas into a scene that I might actually frame. 

 

 

Original photo

 

In Topaz Studio 2 I used a combination of AI Clear, Precision Contrast, HSL Color Tuning plus the Impression filter. It's really in looking at a closeup of the two images that you can appreciate the full impact of the changes. (The sky was replaced in Photoshop itself and the birds were added via a brush from the Birds of a Feather collection by Midnightstouch.) I'm just in awe of all the creative power at my fingertips. And as Dave Kelly is always exhorting his viewers, don't be afraid to experiment! All the choices, all the possibilities can be overwhelming, but the more you use it, the more you'll appreciate this jewel.

Zooming along

 Like so much else in our Covid-inflicted world, our bookgroup has gone online. After ten virtual meetings, we are getting the hang of it. (Like remembering to mute and unmute!) And while we are missing gathering around the long wooden table at La Madeleine, the advantage has been that those of us who have moved to other cities and other states can continue to participate. We can claim to be coast-to-coast now, with members in Maine and Seattle, Washington. In November my sister-in-law from Arizona and a member's daughter in Washington DC were guests as well.

So here is our very varied slate for 2021. January's book, Leaving Berlin by Joseph Kanon, is a “spy thriller” set after WWII in divided Berlin as the Soviet occupation is tightening its grip. The story keeps you turning pages, but you learn a lot about both the politics and the actual life in the city at that time.

The next book, A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki, couldn't be more different. I had listened to it as an audiobook last year, but there is so much in this book that it was definitely worth a re-read. I'm looking forward to our discussion in February. As always, I invite you to join us.