CATURDAY ART

 CATURDAY ART

CATURDAY ART ~ THE CHAIR

Purrhaps not "the chair" you were expecting to see.  

Although usually shown in her polka dot chair,
often throughout the day, while I sit at the table, 

June can be found sitting in the chair on the opposite side of the table from me.

It is nowhere near as comfy as her polka dot one!

And here she squirms, twists, turns trying to get comfy!

(good luck dear, I'm not too comfy on the other side, either ...)

We selected one of these images to alter in Photoshop

for todays Caturday Art, brought to us all by the talented 

Marie and Athena Cat Goddess, Wise Kitty.

CATURDAY ART

 

I liked this photo of June, taken at dusk one early winter evening.  But I also "disliked" it, feeling it did not have the interest or drama it could have.  Reworking an image with Photoshop does not always make it "better", but rather just makes it different.  So, I'll let the viewer decide about this image ... below, how it was altered:

1) crop and slightly rotate

2) outline all of the image excepting bulletin board on desk

3) convert outlined area to grey scale/black and white

4) enhance, strengthen color values on the bulletin board

5) pick up colors from bulletin board to "stripe" the placemat

6) using the dodge tool to highlight June's face/profile and

brighten the area behind her profile

7) tighten crop, add black shadow border

Different?  More interesting?  More dramatic?

Even if none of the above, a fun exercise in Photoshop.

And guess what else is fun?  OCTOBER!  For us it means that Zoolatry becomes BOOLATRY, a tradition here for more years than I can recall, so hope you'll be joining us.  Lots of "flashback fun" ... frivolous friends ... spooky, scary, but sweet meows 'n' woofs all month long.  And tomorrow, October 1, it's a must to visit The Cat Blogosphere, check out all the events for the month, grab any badges you want, and get ready to "boo ... " 

First, though, let's hop over to

Athena Cat Goddess

for the

Caturday Art Blog Hop!

CATURDAY ART ~ Autumn Equinox

~ Welcoming Autumn ~

LITTLE MISS TITCH

A BOOK OF STAMPS, PLEASE

CATURDAY ART 

(BY MAIL)

 

CATURDAY ART

 ... there were so many tools used for this and so many layers, 

have truly forgotten how we got to where we got ... when we finally stopped, 

said OK, done, this will be it ... 

so often, our art gallery images are just a lot of experimenting and playing ...

CATURDAY ART ~ LOTS OF DOTS

 June, posing pretty on this day, atop her polka dot chair.

We selected the first/top image for some "dot to dot play" for todays Caturday Art.

First step, silhouette her image.  Next, create a dotted background for a photo

frame, which is beveled.  Last, using the same dotted background ~ inverted ~ behind her.  

⬤⚫  LOTS OF DOTS  ⚫⬤

CATURDAY ART

presented by Athena and Marie

CATURDAY ART

Continuing with our "less is more" approach presented last Saturday,

here, just simple play of light vs. shadow and fading color intensity to near monotone.

CATURDAY ART

LESS IS MORE, I believe, is a good way to look at some of your photographs and if you've one that you like very much, if it is basically a good photograph to begin with ~ then using the "less is more" technique for enhancement is often the best approach.  This image of June, seemingly deep in thought, a bit of sunlight on her face seemed to me a good photograph on its own.  Using Adobe Creative Cloud, the only enhancements ~ each used sparingly ~ were the dodge tool to slightly lighten/brighten her face, the sharpen edges tool on her whiskers, and the blur tool on the background.  A very simple rule border frame worked best, I tried it first in several colors, but choose bright white for simplicity, and to keep the overall focus on her.  

CRAZEEE-CAT WEDNESDAY

 

Mine Mommy was bored with all the photos she'd used for wallpaper on her I-phone.  

Like flowers or dingbats, regular photos or other stuff!

So she made a new wallpaper!

She called it "crazeee-cat art" cause she used like

a whole bunch of different apps and tools to make it.

Do you think it still looks like me?

Purrsonally speaking, I think she should have removed the lampshade

that's sitting on top of my head!

Now, when her phone goes ringy-dingy-dingy she sees crazy me

and that's how it should be!

CATURDAY ART

No!  I'm not coming out to play

Yes!  Under this chair I plan to stay

Yes!  I see my sparkly spring toy

but I also know it's simply a ploy

You can't trick me you know I'm too smart for that

Yes I am!  meowed June the cat 

Go ahead now.  Take all the pictures you wish

For my paws will not move, my tail will not swish

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Next, pick one of these pictures 

do your photo-shop thing

Then hop over to Caturday Art 

it's now in full swing

CATURDAY ART

This is the picture we chose for todays Caturday Art, thinking it was an interesting photo ~ but far from acceptable "as is".  It probably would have been fine with just some minor tweaking, but I decided to go further, and really alter it a lot.  Here are a few of the basic steps and tools used to create the image below, all in Adobe Creative Cloud, lots of steps: not work, fun!

De-TAILS:

1. The image first needed to be rotated, straightened and cropped, I preferred to crop to a square.

2. Cropping meant losing June's tail, so it was copied/cloned and layered back on in the new image.

3. June was outlined/silhouetted and copied.  The copy was pasted onto the window shade layer and reduced in size and faded to a percentage that was acceptable so as to appear as a shadow.  

4. Then the same outline/silhouette was re-selected: it was highlighted fully with the dodging tool, and then selectively on the edges again with the dodging tool.  Lastly, the dodge tool, super small, was used to highlight her eye.

5. The far right window blinds were selected and the sandstone filter was applied lightly to this section.

6. A crackled filter was applied to the perch on which she is sitting.

7. At this point, the altered image was reasonably acceptable to me.  Sometimes though I just keep going, and this time decided I did want to do more.

8. I selected each section of the window on the layer behind June, and applied a different color tint, usually just 25-35% of a pastel color to that section and the entire background was slightly blurred/softened. 

9. All PSD layers were merged into a single PNG image and a thick black rule border was applied.  

Below: our Caturday Art image.

CATURDAY ART

CATURDAY ART

Two pictures of June, looking up at the ceiling and taken less than seconds apart.
Looking up at nothing, of course ~ but yes, causing me to look up, 
presuming she had spotted a bug, the big teaser girl.

The two pictures do look very much alike, but on close inspection are different.

I preferred her face in the smaller [bottom] photo so chose that one for sharp focus,
blurring the second shot for the background [and top] image.

Only finishing, a hairline grey rule border.

 

CATURDAY ART ~ A TOON

Earlier this week, on May 9 it was, our friends at Friends FurEver 
posted this "toon", but kindly gave us perrmission to repeat it as it really "meowed" to us right now ~

Here it is again, with a few alterations and apawlogies to the clever cartoonist!

[I wonder if Mr Metzger has met June?]

"SPOT THE DIFFERENCE" 🐾 A CATURDAY ART GAME

Were you ever waiting for an appointment, picked up an old magazine and came across one of those "spot the difference" photo games?  Maybe you found some, or were super-smart and found them all!  Or maybe it was time for that appointment and you never got a chance to finish ... well, put your paws here today, our game is really easy-peasy, only several to search for.  But that's your only clue [unless you know the definition of several].

Our game is open to all pets.

We do strongly suggest you email us your answers.
Just tell us your emailing them in any comment you might leave,
after all ~ if your search is successful, why leave them right here in the open for others to see?

The game ends tomorrow.  

Answers should be emailed (received by us) by midnight, ET, Sunday.

Winners?  Of course.  Plural, yes.

Sorry, we can't afford gift cards and other stuff like that [June does not allow me

to take funds from her food, treat and toy allowance, ever] ... 

but what we do and can offer is "art ~ images ~ pictures". 

Sure, I know many of you design and create your own with all the free apps available today, 

but we'll make one for you of your choosing, maybe your pet has a birthday, or gotcha day, 

or you're planning some special "thing" for your blog.

  

Each and every winner (the ones who Spot The Difference, all of them) can ask

Zoolatry for "one special picture/image" for their blog, anytime from now

until end of August 2023.  

Next Wednesday, May 10, we'll list the "answers" for any who 

couldn't find all the differences or were just curious but didn't play, 

and we'll list our winners, too.

Now, time to Spot The Difference ...

As always we are proud to join and be part of

CATURDAY ART

sponsored by the very creative Marie and beautiful Athena

of Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty.

 

"WOODWORKING" by June, Caturday Art

"Woodworking by June"

Unfortunately, her choice of 'canvas' is not what I would have preferred it to be.

JUNE ~ ART GALLERY

 

CATURDAY ART ~

 ABOUT TO SPRING

CATURDAY ART ~ HOT HOT HOT

Hot Colors Repeated Repeated Repeated

 

CATURDAY ART ~ COLORPLAY

Caturday Art Blog Hop

by Athena and Marie