Under Water Again

Once again we are visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium and here are anchovies and a shark species.  The little fish swam in tight formation changing direction and darting as a single body, its quite a contrast to the easy moving shark.  This photo was worked over in photo shop with some texture added a bit of noise and dry brush to get rid of some of the flat feel from taking the image through thick glass.   Its also an ATC card!

Kelp Forest

When I got to visit Monterey Bay Aquarium I could not pull myself away from the Living Kelp forest. This exhibit sits right next to the ocean and draws in fresh water for the creatures living there, and it has 3 levels to view it, from top, middle and floor.   There was so much life and activity it was absolutely captivating.  I will try and share more photos from our vist and some art I created from them as I go along.  This taken from floor level, and one of the exhibits goal is to let you see what divers see when they go below the surface.

Layers and Layers

Yikes, this is not what you were expecting I would guess, but its about layers today.  As I ventured into more textures and layering in my photography I began to want to try similar things with the little Artist Trading Cards that are being swapped and traded by the thousands daily.  I have never been much of a drawer but I seem to be able to work along the lines of playful whimsy and here is an example of Elven Ride.  Its drawn on the 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch card and then done in washes of watercolor, many layers of watercolor!  And then layers of pencil and layers of pen and you can just get crazy with layers!    The more layers the better it looks.  SO among my photography I will be showing some of these great little ATC's.  This was traded the minute it was posted for trade.  Have a multi layered day!

Time has gotten away from me.

 Lately I worked hard to restore my computer back to factory settings, and this put me behind in some photography work I was getting really hooked on.  My photos with textures and layers are getting new life in photo shop.  These two ostrich are sharing secrets and were awareded Editors Pick at BETTERPHOTO.COM

This great rusted out hub from an old tractor was also awarded Editors Pick.  Its done in textures and layers from my original photo.  Taken last spring in Boswell Oklahoma.

Here is some play that is just wild called weird lines!  Honest its a filter called Weird Lines!  Here I have a blemished daisy from last summer and just could not come up with anything to save the photo.  I began to experiment and came up with this rather odd looking thing that reminds me of an ocean creature.  Awarded Editors Pick also for May.

Some of these will be part of my Artist Trading Card swaps in the Digital Art arena.