Diane Clancy's Art Blog

I can use some “inner flow” internally at the moment. I have been pushing very hard to get this blog and Susan Elkin’s Blog up and running and to establish the habit of posting every day. It is cold and rainy and I miss the warmer weather we had a week or two ago. I am in a maintenance mode rather than an inspiration mode. But I do feel inspired when I look at this digital painting. That feeling of being uplifted by my images is one of the highlights of my work!

Inner Flow III, Digital © Diane Clancy

One of the ways that I decide if an image is finished, is by how it makes me feel. If the results of my creative process make me feel more connected to my soul, then it is a painting that works for me. I want to be creating more beauty and bring more light into the world.

This is a painting I created in Photoshop with KPT filters with many transluscent layers. This layering gives this image the depth of field that it has. My posts of Creativity – Balance of Play and Persistence and The Light Within give more details of using these tools to create layers and light.

Thank you for being with me as I have been enjoying “Inner Flow III” and, in the process, strengthening my own inner flow.

- Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Susan Elkin’s Blog, inspiration, digital painting, creative process, Photoshop, KPT filters, layering, uplifting

Abby in Butterflies is another example of someone’s special animal companion enhanced by nature. Again, this is a complex layering process where Abby is scanned into the computer, “cut out” of her own background and placed onto a neutral background. This neutral background is actually my aunt’s photo as before.

Abby in Butterflies, Digital © Diane Clancy

Then butterflies are placed gracefully encircling Abby through the computer program Painter and then manipulated further in Photoshop. For more details of this process, see the post Freckles in Flowers I. The order of the layering is especially critical with these butterflies. Notice that I have sized them differently to give them perspective.

As far as I know, I am the only one using this particular creative process for digital paintings. I made it up and perhaps others have also – but I haven’t heard about them. Most people use Painter in different ways than I do.

Thank you for accompanying me through this journey.

- Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: animal, nature, layering, Painter, Photoshop, creative process, digital painting, enhanced animal images

I am being inspired by Sue O’Kieffe‘s mandalas to share this digital painting with you today. Sue’s mandalas are very different from this, but tonight after looking at her blog, Sacred Circle Mandalas, the vibrancy in her latest mandala sent me searching for a similar “feel” in my own work.

Nature Reflections II, Digital © Diane Clancy

This image was created in Studio Artist (SA) from a pretty photograph of yellow and blue birds. This program specializes in transformation of images. If you would like to see another variation made from the same photograph, you can check out post Nature Reflections I. There you can find the start of the following conversation.

I have been asked the difference between SA and Photoshop. SA is vector based, like Illustrator, rather than bitmap or pixel based like Photoshop. In a vector based program, one can make a circle and it is determined by a mathematical formula. If one enlarges it to as big as a house, it is still a perfect circle since it is created by a formula or vector.

With a bitmap image, when one increases the size, the circle will get ragged because it is based on a certain number of little squares next to each other. When one makes those squares bigger, all the jagged edges of the squares are more obvious. Truly the circle never was a circle, but a circle drawn by squares.

More about this another day … I love the vibrancy of the colors – especially the purple.

- Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Sue O’Kieffe, mandala, digital painting, Sacred Circle Mandalas, Studio Artist, transformation, Photoshop, Illustrator, color, inspiration, nature

My “Enhanced Animal Images” are another kind of digital painting that I create. This particular image is of my beloved kitty companion of 18 years – who merged with the universal life force over 10 years ago. My 90+ year old aunt, that I have mentioned before, took this photograph years ago (in black and white). One day I decided to put Freckles into a field of flowers …

Freckles in Flowers I, Digital © Diane Clancy

I scanned the photo of Freckles into the computer so I could work digitally. Then I enhanced this image with layering as I did with some of the other digital images. The computer program Painter has a great feature called “image hose” and “nozzles.” One can load up a type of digital brush with images and then paint with the images. I have many layers so that I can non-destructively make changes and try different things out.

From trial and error, I have learned to have an individual layer for each kind of flower, grass or butterfly in general. Usually, I flip back and forth between Painter and Photoshop. Painter has these nozzles and other great features but I find Photoshop is easier to work in with layers. Again, the order of the layers make an incredible difference in the final painting.

Another great advantage with the layering of these enhanced animal images is that I can slip in another animal. Once I have a file (very large) with a neutral background (from my aunt’s first picture), then I can “cut” out another animal and slip them into the flowers. Of course, this can take hours even though it sounds easy!

- Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: digital painting, layering, Painter, Photoshop, enhanced animal images, animal, creative process, nature

The “Light Within” is the name of this digital painting. Each day I need to nourish that light within as I dance my way through life – balancing maintenance and creativity. Today I have gotten the code on this blog as well as I can for now. Please let me know if you have any problems with this blog.

Light Within, Digital © Diane Clancy

This frees me up to get back to other work. That light within is so important whether it is attention to close technical details or playing with paint spontaneously or figuring out what isn’t working with a painting or de-cluttering. In all these pursuits I must – to the best of my ability at the moment – align with and support that light within.

This image is made with KPT filters in Photoshop. There are several dozen layers in this image. (See the post – Creating “Inside and Out” – if you want more details on this layering process.) It often took an hour or more for each layer. So, you can see, an invloved process.

But fun! Changing the order of the layers, changes the look. Again, see the post listed above for more details. I put a black background to have the light vibrate. These layers of “light” look very different when there is a different color behind them.

My light within feels very nourished knowing that at least one person is reading what I am writing, looking at the images and following my creative process. I feel very blessed by my connections with those I have met.

- Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: digital painting, KPT filters, Photoshop, layering, creative process

When I took my walk today (determined to keep exercise important and not let it go to the bottom of priorities), I was wondering what to write about. What kept coming to mind is balancing play and rest, pushing and being in the flow. Balancing surging ahead and tackling things vs being at ease and focusing on what comes up. It seems to me that creativity is a combination of all of these.

Inner Flow VI, Digital © Diane Clancy

It is actually comforting to me that some genius-type people have said that creativity is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. I know I am capable of hard, consistent work. I feel less certain that I am a creative person – but I do have a lot of trust in the creative process.

Today has been a day of balancing creativity with lots of detail maintenance work. I have been focusing on the blog all week – learning a lot and enjoying that process. But a lot of details fell by the wayside. I have been working at balance.

This digital painting was created as I was playing – learning how to use some plug-ins for Photoshop (KPT filters). Often I create some of my cool (according to some) images as I am just playing around and letting myself just focus on learning. You see, I do like to learn. It is fun to just try to figure out how things work.

Whether it is a computer program or how someone’s mind ticks, I like to understand the world. So I was just trying to figure out how the filters work and I kept adding layer after layer. Some of my images made from these filters have over 50 layers.

Heart of Light I, Digital © Diane Clancy

This is a digital image with at least 50 leayers. Each layer is just a little wispy swirl of light. Just layer upon layer, upong layer. It took many, many hours to create! To me each of these two images are filled with light – but the quality of light is so different in each of them.

Layers in a computer program are like a sheet of clear plastic. If you make a drawing on one layer, and then make a drawing on another layer, and put them together, you can see the images together since the plastic is clear. Layers in programs are like that.

And another neat thing about computer layering is that you can take out any given layer when you want. Layers give me lots of ability to put images together and try things out in a “non-destructive” way. That is, you can try an image with or without a certain part of the image to see what works best. (To me, it is much easier than a pencil and eraser. Though with a pencil you can do things you can’t on a computer!) Finally (for now), you can change the order of layers … sometimes things will look different depending on which image is on top of another image.

Thank you for going on this journey with me exploring creativity and making a side trip into technical details!

- Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: creativity, inspiration, creative process, balance, digital painting, Photoshop, KPT filters, layering