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Everything is on sale! 15% off entire stock
Hey fine readers! In honor of the month of Mothers Day I have reduced all of my stock by 15%. There are many, many fine items that can be picked up for mom that are under $10 including shipping! Hop on over and check it out at Adornments by Malinda J. No codes, no hassles, everything is already priced for purchase!
Sweetheart pendant
Initial pendant
Tangerine is for Spring!
As I reported waaaay back in December, the Pantone color of the year for Spring 2012 is Tangerine Tango. We’re now beginning to see the spring fashions in stores and I can’t tell you how much I ADORE the tangerine! It will move very well from Spring into Summer when it will look absolutely fabulous with that tan (fake bake I hope, we all know the sun is aging!)
Here are just a couple of examples of what has been seen on the runway that I particularly like for their comfort factor as well
Tangerine Gypsy Pants
Tangerine shirt dress
Grecian style tangerine dress
HDR or High Dynamic Range Photos
If you aren’t familiar with HDR it is simply a method of capturing a greater range of tonal detail in your photographs. Traditionally, this would entail taking the same photo with at least 3 different exposures and combining them to get the best of each exposure leaving you with a stunning depiction of your subject. However, Photoshop to the rescue! Using Photoshop to mimic these results could not be easier.
Following is a before and after example of the results of this easy trick.
Before HDR technique
After HDR technique
As you can see the results are visually quite stunning! The colors really pop and the contrast is so much stronger while still preserving the integrity of the shot. If you are interested in learning this quick and easy technique check out the easy instructions on Make Use Of. Enjoy!
Twighlight in the City – Acrylic on Canvas
I’m currently working on this painting, I thought I was done until I saw it through the camera’s eye. Even though the camera really highlights flaws and doesn’t seem to pick up the sweet nuances I do believe I still need to work on this one. I would love anyone’s opinion! I’m thinking I need to bleed the top colors together more in the middle and overule some of the blue…or bring the blue up? It has a washed out look in the middle on the phot that I can’t see with my naked eye. What do you think?
Twilight in the City
The Red Haired Lady
Practice, practice, practice! That’s what any good teacher will tell you to do in order to improve your painting (or drawing, or sculpting, etc) skills. I’ve been doing just that. My teacher, Christy Sobolewski’s (also knows as Gulfsprite) last lesson was on painting imperfect faces. It was an excellent lesson for those of us (and I do believe that’s just about ALL of us!) who think our work is crap if it’s not perfect. The goal was to sketch and paint a pic in under an hour. No painstaking shadowing, no tricky complex lines, just get the gist of your subject. It was so freeing to actually not care what the outcome was and I produced a couple of not bad portraits. This one’s style actually combines some techniques I’ve learned from Amy over at Flutterbye. She is another wonderful teacher I’ve had the privilege to work with. You should check out her site, it’s really awesome and TOTALLY free!! Ever wanted to bind your own book? You can learn how at Flutterbye, that and many other fun things! There’s something for everyone over there, you should really drop by if you are interesting in learning some new creative techniques. FUN techniques and an absolutely fun and unique teacher. There’s only one Amy, she makes me laugh every time we have a conversation. And her free vids are informative as well as funny. Anyway, please meet The Red Haired Lady!
The Red Haired Lady