RETROSPECTIVE: CATURDAY ART, Art Gallery

Art Gallery and Cat Art Repeated

Sharing with Athena and Marie's Blog Hop

CATURDAY ART

 

ALL AMERICAN CAT for CATURDAY ART

ALL AMERICAN ME!

⭐I think the photographer likes me⭐

CATURDAY ART

blog hop

by the amazing

Athena and Marie

 

CATURDAY ART ~ THE STARRY NIGHT

Today we pay homage to Vincent van Gogh [1853-1890] 
and one of his most recognizable paintings, 

THE STARRY NIGHT, painted in June, 1889.

Our inspiration was recently viewing the Netflix film, LOVING VINCENT [2017].
For any who appreciate visual arts, this was an amazing undertaking.
A Polish film, created by over 100 artists from around the world.
  These were the artists original oil paintings, drawings and more, 

interpreting the style of van Gogh and CGI animated for the film. 

The film tells the story of a young man who travels to the home town of

van Gogh, intent on delivering a letter, also curious to learn the

true circumstances of his death.  His journey progresses through the

full color painted illustrations, yet when he visits the memories of

van Gogh's final days images transition to black and white.

If you choose to watch this unique film, be sure to stay for the

credits at the end.  A book of slowly turning pages...

each page highlighting the artists who created the beautiful film

you just watched... a little film, ending a film.

Starry Night by

de kunstenaar juni ~ the artist june

[if written in van Gogh's Dutch language]

Original Image

SPONSERED BY ATHENA AND MARIE

CATURDAY ART

ALSO JOINING THE WONDERFUL

SATURDAY'S CRITTERS

CATURDAY ART ~ MONTAGES

Today's art ~ montages of June. 

Although for a long time June has been associated with our polka dot chair, 
it seems of late she favors napping on our day bed.

That doesn't mean she isn't often in the chair, it's a bit of a 50/50 thing now,

and of course the bed is always her nighttime choice.

Here, on the day bed ~ it is a "day" bed after all,

she will always find her spots among the clutter of pillows ~

on them, up against them, or laying her furry little

head on one ... and even other hidden spots!

And let it be known, there is far more "June" furniture in this apartment,

than "Ann" furniture.  She can and will occupy mine, at will, any time.  

However, it is not possible for me to do the same.  

Meowz.

Let's go visit the lovely Marie and Athena, Athena Cat Goddess, for

CATURDAY ART

CATURDAY ART

 Original Image

ALTERED FOR

CATURDAY ART

JUNE DOES CATURDAY ART

 Original image.

Reimagined, picture in picture,

and tightly cropped, faded, softened.

As if painted on a 

craquelure canvas.

CATURDAY ART

THE FLOWER MART

CATURDAY ART

This weekend is the annual Flower Mart here in Baltimore.

A wonderful event with hundreds of vendors ~ and it's all in the next block, 

Mount Vernon Square.  Mine Mommy says it is s'posed to be a beautiful day, so I think

I'll sneak along beside her when she goes this afternoon ... they do say we should all take time

to stop and smell the roses ... or all flowers!

 

CATURDAY ART ~ CARTOONING

 June and JuneToo "in the land of Zoolatry, the land of make believe".

🌞 CATURDAY ART 🌞

CATURDAY ART

We've always enjoyed doing montages, particularly "grid" montages.  They are not especially difficult or challenging, more so time intensive.  One begins by building around one (or two) favorite photographs and repeating/repeating - repeat again, from there.  Our program of choice is always Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop), but I'd think this could be done with many available art programs.  Once the main image is chosen, it is resized, smaller/larger/randomly into strips and the individual images within each strip can be color tinted, desaturated, flipped, or filtered using tools or techniques available in your art program.  Time intensive: you simply work the picture, repeating, until you have a final product that you're happy with ...

BELOW:  Left, a past image from our Art Gallery files of Dougie Dog, using two photos and primarily doing pastel color tinting.   Right, a past image of Angel Zoey, featuring her in black and white centered, surrounded the the same photo in varying tones of sepia.  These two past pictures encouraged me to try a grid montage for polka dot June for Caturday Art today.

CATURDAY ART

CATURDAY ART ~ "I Fixed It", an image created by JUNE

 Late one afternoon, mine Mommy went off somewhere, to do something.  
I looked around, here and there.  

And you know, it's always bothered me a bit that all around, wherever I look,
 I see photographs of all the peoples she knows ~ 
and of course, some artwork-kinda-things.

What I do NOT see are photographs or pictures of me!
So with my own photoshop skills 

(I watch her intently every day, learning how to do this stuff), 
I decided to fix this.
Won't she be pleasantly surprised when she comes home!

HERE: A photograph of me watching mine Mommy watching me.

AND NOW: The same photograph after I fixed it!

I think I did a rather good job.

It's definitely an improvement for our little studio apartment.

Do you think she will like it when she comes home and sees it?

JOINING MY FRIENDS AT

CATURDAY ART

CATURDAY ART ~ REVISITED

Revisiting Caturday Art images from the past, 

working with shadows and satin tools

in sepia and diluted black and white.

 

DON'T GO IN THE WATER!

SHARK WEEK!

And so it begins ~ tomorrow, Sunday, July 7

hosted by our adorable pup friends ~ 

"sharkettes Sunny and Rosy" of

THE LLB LIFE

for none do it better!

Don't go in the water, 

but you can dip your paws

HERE.

Shark photo: Baltimore National Aquarium

CATURDAY ART

 

CATURDAY ART ~ SKETCHBOOK

 SKETCHBOOK

Once upon a time I'd sketch with pens and India ink, using a photograph for my subject or even a live subject before me, but now my preference is to sketch with all the wonderful tools to be found in Adobe Creative Cloud.  

The image above: LEFT, original photograph, RIGHT, final sketched image.

Both then laid onto a clip art "sketch book pad" to appear as if originally sketched there, shadowed and cropped.

To do the sketched image, many tools were used, some that I've forgotten, but basically first step was to silhouette (outline) June from the background, quite easy as the background was a solid tone, done through masking and a magic wand tool, plus a little eraser clean up.  Next: convert image to black and white, desaturate.  Next step: use different pen and sharpen tools to intensify her furs, and/or erase some furs, highlight others; add a small amount of "noise" (very small dots) onto her nose; soften/blur inner ears; erase tool for more white space around chin, cheek and neck.  

All of this is kind of a "rinse and repeat" process.  If it looks acceptable, the layered PSD file will be saved; if not, there is a "undo" command and one can try again.  The layers can be saved as separate images to work on later, add or not add depending on whether you like them or not.  

I always felt there was some similarity to painting with oils or acrylics in that you could "layer" over what you had done before if you weren't happy with it.

Nearing the end of developing a black and white image with enough detail to have a sketchbook look ~ the layers can be merged and saved.  A single layer now.

Now, add color (or not).  Percentages of sepia, pinks in her ears, light sage green in her eyes ... rust and rose to the nose. Color is often applied with the "normal" tool, but here you would use the "multiply" tool (in a % of your color code) because normal applies a solid color, whereas multiply in any percentage allows all the detail of the image below to show through.  How long did this take, perhaps 2 and 1/2 to 3 hours, all of challenging fun and learning.  Most of which I forgot promptly after finishing and could not repeat.  Each time the final image is new and different from any other done before, that's the way art is, at least for me.

CATURDAY ART

CAT CLONING

CATURDAY ART

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU

obi-wan-kitty

CATURDAY ART

CATURDAY ART ~ WINDOW WHISKERS

The original photo, above, was quite dramatic on its own with detail, sharpness and lighting.

For Caturday Art "One", below, we simply did a tight crop, 

used the smart sharpen tool to further enhance June's whiskers 

and the edges of her fur.

Also the background angles were slightly "straightened" as I tend to be bothered

when objects in the background appear off-kilter, 

and my attention is drawn there, rather than to the subject.  

The background was softened and

cleaned up with the blurring tool.  All tools from Adobe Creative Cloud.

Thinking it would be fun to go a little bit further, 

this same image became Caturday Art "Two", below.  

Now with an overall sepia filter and a tighter crop.

Then the outer image was blocked out as a solid sepia frame, "cut" into sections

with hairline rules and each section was applied with a different percentage

of tone (lighter) to alter the frame.

Whether this version came out better ~ or worse ~ or just different,

well, it's said that's in the eye of the beholder! 

CATURDAY ART

brought to us each week by 

Marie and Athena, Cat Goddess Wise Kitty

 

CATURDAY ART ~ In My Easter Basket

Thank you, bunbun ~ I would've liked a few little "peeps" too!

 

CATURDAY ART

 

June, framed by cherry blossoms.

CATURDAY ART

CATURDAY ART

Repurposing a photograph to create a new and different look.

BTW: the inimitable Marjorie Dawson, of the blog Dash Kitten provided detailed
step by step instructions, with easy to follow images on the use of layers
to create and design unique and interesting images of your pets.  If you did not
get a chance to see her post earlier this week, please CLICK HERE.

Our art gallery image this week took the original below.  
Step one: a tight crop to remove unnecessary
background area, which is often only a distraction, then resize/reduce image.

Step two: the reading glasses were highlighted, copied as a layer, the base

layer converted to black and white.  

Step three:  shadow detail was added to the reading

glasses.  Various areas of the image were either slightly sharpened or

softly blurred, to draw the eyes attention to the center of the image,

and hairline rule border added.

IT AIN'T BEEN THERE BEFORE !

PUT SOMETHING IN

by Shel Silverstein, from A LIGHT IN THE ATTIC

Harper & Row 1988

Isn't this what we all do every Saturday for our Caturday Art creations?  We "put something in" ... and do our best to design and offer to our viewers and readers something "that ain't been there before"!

Often a crazy picture (pet oriented of course) to make our friends smile!  And those of you who are good with video/audio and YouTube delight us with those loony goony pet shorts that would never be as much fun as still shots.

Can't say I recall any comb-whistling (maybe one of you has that in the works?  Smol Oona I'm looking at you ...) ... but when all is said and done, whether it has been silly, sweet or beautiful ~

YOU HAVE PUT SOMETHING IN

and 

IT AIN'T BEEN THERE BEFORE!

A few of our "old put something in" art gallery images, clockwise from top left.

  (1) See the kitty in the window.  (2) It's all happening at the zoo.  

(3) My coloring book.  (4) Christmas twins.