Camera Craft Giveaway!

Hello friends!

Hope you enjoyed your weekend! We had some great family time and as an extra bonus I got to spend Sunday afternoon with some local artists, painting in the sunshine! Blissful!

So…today I’m super excited to let you know that I am giving away one FREE spot into the AMAZING Camera Craft Class – (a $200 VALUE) by Galia Alena! I am one of the lucky contributors and I know its going to be a tremendously inspiring class with a lineup of beautiful teachers all sharing their love for photography! Check out more info on these lovely ladies here.

Photography holds a special place in my heart and I attribute my realignment with my creativity to it. Learning how to observe, appreciate and seek beauty in the everyday re-ignited my passion for art and for that I will be forever grateful! I’m so honored to share some of my knowledge within this wonderful online class!

So…you may be wondering how do I enter this fabulous giveaway? Well…here’s all the details…

To enter…just leave a comment here on my blog letting me know how photography has affected your life or why you might want to learn more about it. To increase the number of times I enter your name you could do any or all of the following to spread the love, just be sure to pop back and let me know in the comments:

☆ share this competition or the class on your blog, twitter, pinterest, google, facebook page or other social network platform

☆ like my facebook page (or invite some friends to)

☆ subscribe to this blog

I will be announcing the winner on Thursday! Thank you and good luck! If you want to join in this amazing journey click HERE. The class begins at the end of the month!!

Don’t miss this opportunity! I look forward to your comments!

Have a beautiful Monday!

xo,

P.S. Stay tuned – because tomorrow I have another special treat for you!! ;)

 

 

Online Photography Workshop – Camera Craft

Hello!

Happy Friday! On this gorgeous summer day, I’m excited to share with you that the lovely and talented Galia Alena asked me to be a contributing teacher to her new online Photography workshop – Camera Craft! Of course, I accepted!

Here’s the workshop description straight from Galia…

Camera Craft is designed to help demystify your camera and the technical side of photography, empowering you to follow your inspiration, and make expressive and beautiful images. It is photography 101 and it is so much more. I want the participants to walk away feeling like they have enough of a grasp of the technical stuff that they can really let their creative voices sing. Between all the samples and the guest contributors you wont be able to help but be inspired.

I’m so very thrilled to be a part of this AMAZING course!

Photography, as many of you know, played a huge role in leading me back to my creativity. Essentially, it led me back to what I love – ART – and for that, I’ll be eternally grateful to this magical art form! The class will actually be divided into two 5 week modules – “The Art of Seeing” & “Into the Light”. REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN FOR BOTH.

The Art of Seeing starts 31st of August

Into the Light starts 26th of October

As a contributor, I will be sharing a few tutorials on some of my post-production editing, including a peek into how I edit photos on my iPhone! Super fun and addictive I assure you!

Galia has an incredible line up of contributors including, Misty Mawn, Danielle Cohen, Stacy de la Rosa, Liz Lamoreux, Jeannette Le Blanc, Erin Faith Allen, Eileen West and Ashley Fincham!

To learn more and sign up go here. If you happen to purchase from my link it would make my day too!

Thanks so much again for all your love and support!

xo,

Creating Art on the IPad : A Walkthru my process

Hello! How are you? Summer is winding down and I’m SO ready for Fall! It’s my favorite season and I always seem to find much focus and peace as we all settle into our routines.

Today, I wanted to share my process on how I created one of the pieces of digital art from my last post. I got lots of responses and wonderful feedback – thank you so much.

Okay here we go…

Using Procreate on my iPad, I create a painted background using various brush tools. My favorite are wet round brush and old brush. I also downloaded the water brush kit from the app store. It has beautiful washes and watercolor effects. Fun!

You build in layers so this would be my first layer or my bottom layer.

Next, I select an image that inspires me. I usually find these on Pinterest. Now, this is the cool part! Look, I love to draw faces and people but for me drawing freehand on the iPad was awkward and clumsy. Maybe I just need a ton of practice but I couldn’t achieve the detail I wanted! I was frustrated so I went on the hunt for an app that might be able to create digital sketch effects like those on Photoshop – enter USketch. You can run any photo image thru this app and it will create a sketch. Very cool right!? I have erased certain elements of the image to suit my needs. This is a separate layer that lies over the top of my painted backdrop.

***tip – you could also take photos of your own sketches and use those! Just use the iPad camera snap away and its ready to import into Procreate ***

Then I start to lay in color behind the sketch on another separate layer. I used the wet round brush for most of the color but make sure you try the smudge tool too to soften your edges and blend colors. You can see here too that I imported a honeycomb pattern and placed that over the painted background. I erased it in places and reduced its transparency to soften the effect.

I imported this vintage rose image from the Graphics Fairy and made it a multiply layer so it is transparent. Another awesome app I use is called Eraser. It will remove the white background from an image so you can overlay/collage it with ease into your composition. Very handy for creating digital art! Love it!

Finally I added in these bees. Another find on the Graphics Fairy. Used the Eraser app to get rid of white background, duplicated the layers and moved them into place.

Finally, I added some drips and splashes of paint as well as a few tape like shapes to create some linear elements. And she’s done.

This is such a pleasing way to create digital art! Very forgiving and easy to learn. Let me know if you have questions! I would be happy to help.

Have fun and enjoy your weekend!

xo,

Ivy

Creating art on the iPad

Hi there friends! I know it’s been quite a while since I last posted but this summer has been so busy! A few days ago, I actually got the chance to sit quietly with a cup of coffee and watch another video from my class with Jeanne Oliver.

This time she was exploring the power of creating artwork digitally on the iPad using an application called Procreate. Being a Photoshop lover, I was skeptical but I’m so glad I watched because Procreate is surprisingly addictive, easy to use and quite robust. I began to create small digital illustrations on my iPad and have been obsessed ever since.

Here are a few pieces I have created already…

I have been having so much fun making these. It’s amazing to create art while on the go. Stay tuned, I will be breaking down the process of how I completed this last piece very soon – complete with some handy tips and tricks!

Hope your week is going well.

xo,

Ivy

Still Life: Coral Peonies

Hi there! How has your week been? We are doing very well here,  just getting ready for summer and enjoying lots of warm sunshine. Grace asks everyday, “How many more school days till Summer?” I remember that feeling – you can hardly wait to have lazy mornings in your pj’s, endless afternoons running around the neighborhood with friends, hoping to hear the ice-cream truck approaching. No homework. Picnics in the park. Going to the beach. Wearing your swim suit all day. Childhood summers – I have many fond memories…

Nowadays, filling the house with fresh peonies is a sure sign that summer is around the corner. Friends and family have been bringing me bouquets almost weekly! My two little Peony bushes only gave 6 blooms this year. I hope next year will produce a larger bunch. Let me know if you have any tips on making more pop!

I have been challenging myself to arrange some still life compositions to shoot outside of the product shots I take for the shop. This series featuring three amazing, King Peonies in coral was such a delight to photograph. I had to cut myself off. Enjoy…

In case you are wondering, the backdrop is a vintage map of Rome and the other props are vintage goodies I have laying around my studio. It was fun to pull objects together and find harmony and balance in their arrangement. I did my editing in Photoshop using the Rad Lab plugin and I shot with my Canon XS Rebel with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Lens.

Have a lovely Thursday!

xo,

Ivy

Photo Love : RadLab Giveaway

Hi everyone! You all know I’m kinda obsessed with my camera and I find so much joy in not only taking pictures but “making” pictures too! I love the versatility and endless possibilities available when using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Experimenting with layers, textures, filters and brushes brings me much happiness and I have to tear myself away from the computer at night! Creativity gives me a caffeine like buzz!

Anyway, my latest favorite tool in conjunction with PS is RadLab! It’s a plug-in that works within PS, PS Elements or Lightroom that you download and oh my goodness – it is addictive! It makes editing photos so super easy (seriously) and I love that you can save what you did in a “recipe” and then apply it to another photo. This works out brilliantly when I’m editing photos for the shop and I want to achieve a consistent look. RadLab makes my post-production SO much faster!

I love it so much that….TODAY I’M GIVING ONE LUCKY READER RADLAB FOR FREE!!!! (worth $150.00)  Yah! To enter, all you need to do is leave a comment and tell me why you want RadLab. The winner will be randomly selected and announced on March 5th! ***Please be aware that you NEED Photoshop Elements 7 (or later) or Photoshop CS3 (or later) to use RadLab.***

I wanted to share a snapshot I took of Grace last summer. It’s not a great shot by any means but with a little RadLab magic it can become something so much better!

Here is the shot after RadLab…

Here is my recipe for this effect:

(if you don’t have RadLab then this won’t make much sense to you, so bear with me.)

{RECIPE: Lights On 100% – Oh, Snap 100% – Punch Out 49% – Contrast 5% – Cool as a Cucumber 70% – Claire-ify 25% – Vario-tone 100% – Iron Mouse 31% – The 600  63%}

Note: I also did some sharpening of her eyes with the sharpen tool and brought more light into her pupils by using the dodge tool.

Voila! A much better pic with better clarity, high-key drama and fresh, crisp color!

Of course, I couldn’t stop there…I went on to do a digital collage piece with this photo. Here it is…Grace helped me and picked out the flower for her hair! :) I’ll show you how I did the digital collage another day.

Had a blast creating these. I hope this encourages you to experiment with your programs no matter what you may have. PicMonkey is a fun, free editing tool to learn on and Photoshop Elements can be purchased for under $80.00, (which is a steal compared to Photoshop) but offers plenty of power to get creative with your shots. Oh and the fabulous folks at RadLab gave me this 15% off coupon code just for my readers! Enter – GRACEANDIVY  at checkout.

Now go play!

xo,

***Full disclosure – I do get a small affiliate cut if any of my readers buy RadLab, just so you know. However, I am promoting it because I truly LOVE it and not for the money. This is the first time I’ve ever had an affiliation with any online product or business.***