02/01: 2 DAYS INTO THE NEW YEAR ALREADY ......

Already I'm falling behind with my plans to organise/prioritise more efficiently.

We have been/are doing extra days at our voluntary job (Pilgrims Hospice eBay Office) but even so, I need to crack on with artwork now.    I will be working on two coloured pencil pictures which I started last year and which I need to finish if I'm to submit them to the Jury for the UKCPS Int'l Exhibition.  The deadline is next month but I have some commission work to crack on with.

I got very bogged down over the holidays viewing Photoshop Elements tutorials .... I know many of you have been using photo editing programmes forever so this must seem pretty boring stuff to you, but I'm really having to start from scratch and take lots of notes.  Think it will be a long time till using layers etc becomes second nature.    Its all very magical when I get it right though  LOL

These are more of the 'gimmicks' I like

Quick and easy ways to change backgrounds/add simple frames.   This parrot was sitting on somebody's arm when I photographed him but looks much better with this vibrant background I think.   Needed to see something bright and vibrant after the continuous rain, wind and grey skies we've been experiencing in Kent

The jigsaw effect - Various sized jigsaw pieces.  Its easy to 'pull' individual pieces out and scatter them around.     The albino wallaby was one of several that live at Fuerteventura's zoo

So I thought he might prefer to 'escape' and see a little more of Fuerteventura - like the beach path close to our house in Corralejo.   He's on holiday now!

I've learned how to add images to photos and place shadows underneath them etc

and this is the beach close to our house in Kent.   On a recent walk I took lots of photos whilst the tide was out so I could use some of them as backgrounds in the future.    The zebras were photographed at Fuerteventura Zoo last year but I thought they looked more suited to a 'monochrome' environment

I still love the 'out of frame' type photos.    In a previous post I showed  giraffe and eagle pictures which were created using PSE's 'quick' buttons - there are limitations to what you can do with that.

I wanted to be a little more adventurous so I found a tutorial that explained the step by step route to achieving these effects ... I've had to take notes for future reference as the stages haven't really 'clicked' with me yet and I doubt I'll remember the instructions when I next try something like this.

This beautiful rooster was one of several roaming freely around the grounds of Fuerteventura zoo - handsome isn't he even though I appear to have lost part of his foot?

This young elephant was photographed at Howletts Zoo, here in Kent, UK.  He was relaxing up against a very ugly metal shelter/wall which looked boring in the photo.   I loved the way he crossed first one back leg, then the other whilst dozing

 and this is my Grand-daughter Sophie-Louise having fun in her garden.  I've just experimented with different backgrounds/frames etc as part of the 'learning curve'

One tool which will be really useful I think is the 'Content Aware' tool which enables you to remove blemishes or unwanted items from a photograph and the programme fills in the missing space with colour based on the surrounding area

Here are some photos I took a couple of years ago at the yard where my horse Roxy was stabled.  Roxy hated sheep, in fact she disliked most farm animals (cows, pigs ... you name it) she used to wrinkle her nostrils in disgust and jog sideways past them .. bless!

Anyway, these sheep were behind stock fencing as you can see

but this clever PSE tool allows me to remove the fence ... I've taken a few sections of wire out to show what I mean:

and this is Charlie looking over a gatepost

and with the gate removed.    Obviously I could 'clean' the edges up a bit but I'm very impressed with how simple and fast it is to remove unwanted elements.

Back to the drawing board now.  I'm doing a voluntary day at Pilgrims Hospice tomorrow but I WILL have both cp drawings finished and submitted to UKCPS on Monday then will be starting a commission. If I get time in between I'll be painting a few stones as I've washed and dried a selection in readiness.

I need somebody to crack the whip and stop me getting sidetracked LOL