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. 

 

Moonlit Château

 

 Sometimes it's one thing to clearly see in your mind's eye what you want to create and quite another to make that creation a reality. I began on this piece in early December, worked on it on and off throughout the month, and just put the final layer in place this morning. At last!  Perhaps I could call this Slow Photoshop, somewhat like the Slow Sewing movement.

One of my inspirations for this piece was the Day to Night lighting effect demonstrated by Glyn Dewis in the November Photoshop Virtual Summit. Here is my original and not very good photo of the Château de Montreuil-Bellay in the Loire valley in France. After removing most of the background, I was able to greatly improve it using primarily AI Clear in Topaz Studio 2. Then came many, many layers to tone it and work on details for the moonlit effect. 

The sky with the moon is overlaid on another sky with all the stars and both are from Pixabay. The deer and the stag are also from Pixabay while the trees and shrubbery to the left and the grass in the foreground are from my photos. There's even a texture from Kerstin Frank thrown in for good measure.

I could probably have continued piddling around on subtle improvements, but I think I have come close to the vision in my mind's eye. And while it took me a long time to get here, the journey with Photoshop is always amazing.

 

On our walk

 

Monarch butterflies have been plentiful in Dallas this fall on their annual migration south. (One year I even found a tagged one which I still have carefully preserved.) Out on a walk one afternoon this month we came upon this glorious vine that was hosting several. I discovered later that it's a Mexican flame vine, Pseudogynoxys chenopodioides, a plant species related to asters. Now, to be honest, all those Monarchs weren't so artfully arranged when I snapped the photo, but Photoshop lets you compose the picture that should have been. Also used Topaz Impressions for a more painterly look. A delight to do.