Search your feelings. You know it to be true.

In maybe-by-someone's-measure of connected news, there's a show starting soon at North Portland's Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center. I'll have one piece, an old one, hanging up there. So here's the link, for those brilliant enough to know that collages are better up close. Or just for those want free snacks badly enough to leave the house on a Thursday-- even in the probable sleet and/or hail.

IFCC Do North 2009, March 26th thru April 25th.

Yeah, and you all thought the cards (2 1/2" x 3 1/2", w/an image area of 60 X 85 cm), were small. Each of these has a completed size slightly bigger than a quarter. I bought a couple of oversized hole punchers at the local craft emporium at the end of 2007, and I love them. So much easier than using a stencil to make circles.



( Want Love ? Get Closer. )

Just a month ago, the studio corner pictured was a festering landfill of paper fragments, removable tape bits, dust, coffee rings, cat hair tumbleweeds and human tears. Now, about 66 art card roughs await their appointment with acid-free board and a gallon drum of gesso. My apologies (as always) for the crappy photo quality.



Thanks as usual to varro for his help, and for just generally being a good sport.

( The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Detail )

"Artistic: Cut Paper" over all. The figure was color adjusted with "Command U." The ornaments were given that coarse texture with "Sharpen: Sharpen More." Other minor adjustments.



All done. Now does anyone wanna' lend me two grand so I can have a new computer ? :p

Very little alteration here, compared to most of 'em. The wall behind the toilet has some "Artistic: Dry Brush." The figure has a little repainting, and the plants have some redrawing with the pastels. (Some of the leaves used to be the tops off the pineapple that made an appearance in an earlier card, btw.) The porcelain altar was lightened with "Command L." That's about it.



The computer is dead. Again. No, I didn't drop it this time or even hurt its feelings. Just a MacTantrum out of the blue. Or into it. Anyone want to keep me company today when I go to sell my plasma ? Shit. Fuck. Piss.

Backround has some brushwork. Desktop has some "Artistic: Colored Pencil." Skirt is "Sharpen: Sharpen More." Other adjustments to color and such.



Sorry I missed yesterday. Super-exhausted...

The reworking, with some Art History Brushes, pastel-style, in the background. Some adjustments to type and color. "Sketch: Halftone," Circle-style.



The tastelessness of the gag is somewhat undermined, because the stove is electric, not gas. Pretend you didn't notice, all right ?

The redo has mostly "Blur: Radial Blur" and some color changes. Some brush strokes and Smudge in the pattern area. Sharpen in the area around the eye. Other minor adjustments.

The reworked version. Mostly "Brush Strokes: Accented Edges," in various and sundry modes. The spoon was repainted, and the head is "Sketch: Reticulated." Other minor adjustments.



Some of you prefer the originals, I know. That's okay. Sometimes I do, too. However, I'm trying to teach myself a Useful Skill here. Frankly I don't see why I should suffer through the on-disc tutorials featuring some underpaid schmoes' wretched and/or badly dated corporate calling cards. Nobody's paying me, after all, in either money or some supposedly useful and/or hideously overpriced degree.

I'm glad to be in the home stretch of posting these, though. I wanna' make some new stuff from scratch, and soon !

In unrelated news, work was so lousy today that I nearly forgot all about how damn hot it is. :/

The reworking has a "Sketch: Stamp" filter for the background. The faces have "Artistic: Colored Pencil." The paint can has "Sketch: Halftone." Other line and color adjustments, mostly involving Fill and Polygonal Lasso.

In which I try for the look of those old 1930's Soviet movie posters*, and miss it by miles: (Umm... kilometers ?)



Some days I'm just too damn lazy to make sure the ruler is straight. That's the main problem. :o

However, the re-working, in which I go crazy with the "Cut/Paste" function, Free Transform and varying degrees of "Brush Strokes: Spatter," actually turned out well:



At least I think so. The cats are fed. I'm going to catch a few more hours of sleep.

*Link borrowed from here.

The following is a mostly real conversation:

ms_xeno: So how do you like this card and its reworking ?

mr_xeno: It's nice. The green and black is a nice combination.

ms_xeno: No no no !! The card on the RIGHT !! Without the green and black !! That's the reworking. Or do you think that I'm such a genius painter that I could render a surface like that using colored pencil and water over a surface no bigger than a baseball card ?

mr_xeno: Well, okay.



(Sigh.) Anyway, that background is "Sketch: Plaster," with tones swiped off the whiskey bottle using the Eyedropper tool. Smart Blur and color adjustment on the figure. A little Free Transform on the "hat" and fiddling with the type. Etc. Also, I did something that I don't practice doing often enough: I copied a snippet off another card and pasted it into this one.

And the re-do. "Artistic: Smudge Stick" in the background. Some fun with Free Transform, the Blur tool, and color adjustments. "Sketch: Halftone" on the roof (in one of the modes, but I forget which one).

The re-working is mostly a filter called "Sketch: Note Paper." Some repainting with the help of Lasso and Fill. Some moving of the type, as well. Some "Blur: Smart Blur" on the hand and bottle.

The reworking, well, it's pretty damn obvious where the big changes were, right ? "Texturize: Stained Glass" and "Texturize: Texturizer," with the "Brick" option. There's redrawing of the bench-pallet thingie in the lower left corner. Some Smart Blur on the fish, and some "Artistic: Colored Pencil" in the hair-- a trick gimmick I've become embarrassingly dependent on in a very short period of time. The ceiling has some "Texture: Grain, (Type: Horizontal)."



Not a very patriotic posting, but the blue type is from an ad for blueberry pancakes. So at least it's seasonal.

The re-do, with "Sketch: Halftone," a little Cut/Copy-and-Paste, some Sharpen, and some redrawing. The type was re-oriented with "Free Transform: Perspective."



This is one of my favorite card-sized comps.

The re-do. "Sketch: Chrome" on the face. "Pixelate: Mezzotint" on the ground. Plus a couple of brushes here and there.

The re-worked version has "Brush Strokes: Sumi-E" on the "wave" (right hand side). Also some repainting/restamping, with some "Sharpen" on the fish and on the cake plate.

In the reworking, there's a filter behind the figure called "Sketch: Torn Edges." No, I don't know why it's called that, either. "Sketch: Halftone" is beneath the figure's feet. Of course there's some repainting and recoloring, too.



The purple background is from an early or mid-1960s magazine. Purple was a pretty scarce commodity in the 1950s. Unless grape jelly was involved. I just thought that you should know.