I Miss You Grandpa - Remembering Grandpa Christy Te Extraño Abuelito - Pensando en Abuelo Christy

I Miss You Grandpa

Today's artwork was photographed by my parents. I only did the post-processing to make it art and something to share in his memory. He died last year in February at the age of 90. This photo was taken just a few years before.

Te Extraño Abuelito

Mis papás sacaron la foto. Solo edite la imagen y puse efectos para que sea arte y algo para compartir de mi abuelo .  Falleció el año pasado en el mes de febrero y tuvo 90 años.  Esta foto es de unos pocos años antes que fue a estar con mi abuela Alta en el cielo.

Gerardo 3 Portrait

Yesterday afternoon I did another photo shoot with Gerardo. I got some great photos in the the late afternoon light filtering through this tiny house's third floor window. His face was a mix of light and subtle shadow. I was up until about 2:30 am working on this portrait. I hope to get 1-2 more from yesterday's photographs.  Since you are wondering, yes, his hair is shorter.

Gerardo 3

In this portrait he is curious or surprised about something I said so his eyes are extra wide open!

Great Geometric Kaleidoscope Ties as Gifts for Father's Day or Holidays

I love how my geometric abstract kaleidoscope art looks on neckties. Here are a few of my favorites as ties which make great gifts for your son's graduation, Father's Day for Dad or Grandpa, Christmas, or for his new office job. Ties are the most noticeable accessory for men, so why not have some that are unique and fun?

Mauve Kaleidoscope Art 1

1

Gray Kaleidoscope Art 32

Gray Kaleidoscope Art 31

Blue Kaleidoscope 10

Blue Kaleidoscope 9

Blue Kaleidoscope 6

Gray Kaleidoscope Art 23

Gray Kaleidoscope Art 22 Snowflake

Gray Kaleidoscope Art 21

Gray Kaleidoscope Art 18

Gray Kaleidoscope Art 20 Snowflake

Gray Kaleidoscope Art 15

Gray Kaleidoscope Art 19

Gray Kaleidoscope Art 1 Tie

Mauve Kaleidoscope Geometric Art 1

Mauve Kaleidoscope Art 1

I took a recently made gray/black/white kaleidoscope artwork and selectively painted over parts of it.
For your viewing pleasure, here is the unpainted version.

They're both available in my Imagekind gallery. This artwork is slightly different from the others because I added a little graininess to the background. I imagined the art being part of a stone or concrete wall.
Which do you like more?

Pilar 1 Artistic Portrait with Effects

Pilar 1 Artistic Portrait with Effects - Finished!

You'll see the simple version of my portrait of Pilar, my neighbor, in my previous post. Here is my finished, complete version. I hope you like it.



I applied quite a few effects and filters each in its own layer. I used dodge on her eyes and burn on her shirt and quite a few other little details including changing the setting of clone stamp to lighten or darken, or change the percent of burn to almost nothing...

Pilar 1 Simple Portrait

While you probably know me for my floral artistic photo artwork, I also experiment with other types of art. This morning I had the opportunity to take Pilar's photo to make her portrait. By 1pm I was about to finish this "simple portrait". It is simple because It doesn't have any special effects or filters, just your basic touch-ups and adjustments.

Pilar 1 Simple Portrait

I hope to have a version with effects available later today.

Pilar lives nearby, and she sells tacos de canasta and tacos de guisado with her daughter from Monday to Friday and often Saturday, so if you see my Twitter and Facebook messages about the great tacos for breakfast, now you know who prepared them!  (The next person who comments about Taco Bell will be unfollowed! That was very insulting.)

A pleasant side effect to having me do your portrait is that you will look many years younger since I try to minimize sun damage, wrinkles, large pores (my personal problem!), and scars.

Here is the "before" photo.

Red Petals Kaleidoscope 1 Artwork

Red Petals Kaleidoscope 1

This kaleidoscope is really a mix of different kaleidoscope images into one. It is mostly light red and gray with some green and black. I mention petals because the outer layer is petal like and the color used came from a red rose flower photo I had taken.

Red Rose Flower on White Artwork now at Zazzle for Great Gifts

Red Rose Flower on White floral artwork is now available at Zazzle as visual art gifts. Here are few products available using this floral artwork.  FYI - The white background normally appears as transparent on shirts until you "customize" it on the product page.  Great for Valentine's Day, weddings, or just to show you care.

Red Rose Flower on White Stamps

Red Rose Flower on White Mousepad

Red Rose Flower on White Greeting Card

Red Rose Flower on White Kid's T-shirt

Red Rose Flower on White

Red Rose Flower on White

Red Rose Flower on White

Here we have a plain red rose flower on a white background. This image is only different from my normal floral artwork because the white background is a very bright white.  While it doesn't look great on a monitor, I think it would look nice on your wall. I'm also adding this image to Zazzle products.  It does look great on the preview products.

Red Rose on White

If you're interested in a print, consider my customized frame and mat selection. I think the green mat with red frame really attracts attention.

VW Beetle Artistic Photos Updated

I like to periodically go back and review past photos and images and take a fresh look at the subject and consider applying new techniques, filters, or styles to the artwork. Last night and this morning I refreshed three VW Beetle car photos. I fixed some details I missed and applied some filters to make each work smoother. All of these photos are available as custom framed museum quality fine art prints at Imagekind.

Artistic VW Beetle Photos

I really love these classic cars and I think black makes them look even better! They were still being made in Puebla until recently (last year?), and they're still very common in Mexico since they are easy to repair and get parts.

Gray Roses 1 Less Color (Mostly desaturated)

Gray Roses 1 Less Color

The only constructive criticism I got for my Gray Roses was that there was too much color in the artwork, so here is the same work with the saturation to about -60 or so.



My goal in creating the first gray roses artwork was to explore the concept of a gray rose,  so I wanted to have colorful leaves as if the gray flower color were normal, but I imagine that some people might find the colorful leaves to be too bold or distracting.

Which do you prefer? (see previous post for colorful gray roses)

Gray Roses 1 Artwork - What if roses were gray?

Gray Roses 1  - What if roses were gray?

Today, I asked myself, "What if roses were gray?", and here is the result. In this artwork, I'm experimenting with digital painting, but this time I'm painting the background instead of the main subject. I also used dodge and burn very heavily in this work. It is a little blurry, but I think that adds to the concept. I painted the background with a light pink and a light blue.
Please add your comments!

Modern Blue Agave (Maguey) Art - Blue Agave 1 Glow

Blue Agave 1 Glow

This pretty blue agave plant is from a nearby park. I put it through some of my favorite effects and I really like how it turned out. It makes me think of something that'd look great on a modern wall in an arid or desert climate like in the south-west USA or most of Mexico.  The original plant's leaves really are blue.  A version of this image without the effects is also available in my Imagekind Agave Gallery, so you can compare them. This artwork has blues, browns, and pink in pastel colors.  Don't forget to add a comment!

Painted Roses 1 - pink and purple

Painted Roses 1

After spending the last couple hours on this artwork, it is time for a break. Yet again I'm trying new methods and techniques. A new friend on Twitter asked me if I ever painted over my flowers, and  I honestly answered that no, I don't since I don't (still don't) have a drawing tablet and painting with a mouse is not easy.

Today, I decided to try painting over flowers and while I much prefer the natural colors and textures present in the original photo, I understand some people don't consider art to be art if they can't see brush strokes and other imperfections, so that should make them happy.

In case you haven't noticed, I have comments enabled in Google Friend Connect. You can use your FREE Google, Yahoo, AIM, or OpenID account to log in and use your twitter photo.  It is easy to join and comment on any of my artwork posts and you can even rate them! I'm not offended by constructive comments either.  :-)

Extreme Self Portrait

This post is to show you why you shouldn't leave Photoshop open when you're bored. It really isn't a good idea unless you like crazy images. This image is inverted with blue-green and purple highlights and quite a few other filters adjustments and effects.

Extreme Self Portrait

New Self Portrait and Avatar

I decided it was time to finally replace that old photo of me pre-digital camera with something I took and post-processed myself. Here is my self-portrait which I'm also using as my avatar on social networking and forum sites.

Self Portrait

(if you want a print, you can get one at Imagekind!)

Bird of Paradise 10 Artwork Gift Zazzle Today's Best

I'm excited to say that for the first time one of my artwork photos has been selected as a today's best at Zazzle. I've been working hard every day at making great art so it is fun to see some recognition. Please let me know in the comments what you think.  I actually like some other products with this image better :-)



I have many other products using this image from stamps to t-shirts. The colorful version should be available at my flower and plant photo art gifts gallery at Zazzle later today. Both the antique and colorful versions of this artistic photo are available at my Imagekind galleries as museum quality fine art prints (with custom framing options).

Links to this image at Imagekind for framed prints

Antiqued Bird of Paradise 10

Dreamy colorful Bird of Paradise 10

Bird of Paradise 10 - Dreamy

Bird of Paradise 10 - Dreamy

This is another older photo that I decided to rework after improving my Photoshop skills. It is of another bird of paradise flower (and plant). I tried to give this a dreamy feel.