Kaleidoscope #5

by D.M. SessousAugust 25, 2017August 25, 2017

Be who you are and say what you feel
because people who mind don’t matter,
and people who matter don’t mind.
–Dr. Seuss

Below is the original photo used to create this image. It’s the big blue sky pic I took on a recent trip to Illinois. No special lighting or retouching, simply a snap from my smart phone. Yes, the sky really was that blue…

Save

Kaleidoscope #4

by D.M. SessousAugust 24, 2017August 24, 2017

Opinions mean nothing; they may be beautiful or ugly, clever or foolish, anyone can embrace or reject them.
–Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

As promised, below is the original photo used to create this image. It’s a maple sapling growing between stone pavers in my backyard. Taken on an overcast day with no special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my smart phone.

Save

Kaleidoscope #3

by D.M. SessousAugust 23, 2017August 25, 2017

Moments of beauty sustain us through hours of ugliness.
–Brent Weeks, The Black Prism

Below is the original photo used to create this image. It’s water flowing along the sidewalk into a storm drain. This was taken last year on a bright fall afternoon, no special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my Kodak Share digital camera.

Save

Kaleidoscope #2

by D.M. SessousAugust 22, 2017August 25, 2017

Beautiful. And ugly. The world is always both.
–Ann Aguirre, Horde

As promised, below is the original photo used to create this image. It’s a lichen and moss covered tree trunk and exposed roots from my backyard. Taken on an overcast day with no special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my smart phone. In Photoshop, I also added a flower-shaped layer mask and a gradient fill for the background.

Save

Clay Butterfly

by D.M. SessousAugust 21, 2017August 13, 2017

Week Seven (Day 20) Buy or make some clay and then use it like you never have before.

At first, I wasn’t sure what I wanted with this one. I had mental images of a gooey clay blob-berfly, or a bulbous bisque statue like the kind you find ready for paint at the craft store. But, when I searched for clay images on Pixabay, many images of dry, cracked clay fields came up and I knew that was where I wanted to go. So, I have a dried out butterfly finding an oasis and transforming from dry/dead to restored to life and color.

**note**
(Day 20) is the prompt designation in Noah Scalin’s book, 365: A Daily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life! I am using this book as the catalyst and inspiration for these weekly posts.

Save

Kaleidoscope #1

by D.M. SessousAugust 21, 2017August 25, 2017

There is no perfection, only beautiful versions of brokenness.
–Shannon L. Alder

Yes… my very first digital kaleidoscope! Still so very exciting. especially with the “happy accident” of the butterfly shapes emerging in the corners. As promised, below is the original photo used to create this image. It’s my car’s engine, no special lighting or retouching, just a snap from my smart phone.

Save

Auto-motor-putter-fly

by D.M. SessousAugust 14, 2017August 14, 2017

Week Six (Day 18) Work with the things you find in your car (or a friend’s car if you don’t have one).

The engine’s in the car, right? My Mazda6 never looked so cute!

This prompt had me spiraling down the vortex of my detail-oriented, down-in-the-weeds self. I had all kinds of mental images of a “metal” effect on a gathering of flowers and adding a bit of “rust” for depth, not to mention using hubcaps for the center of the flowers and the headlights the petals. After hours of puttering around on Photoshop, spinning my wheels, I finally took a step back. I realized continuing down this road would cost me more hours and miles of research on technique. So, I took a brain detour and tried to think of where a car butterfly would go for “flowers.” My first thought was a junkyard, but that seemed kind of cannibalistic, especially if there were a lot of junked cars. In a flash of inspiration, I thought of using a shot of the engine block. A quick snap and color adjustment later and I was pulling into the garage…

Thanks for tolerating all my car puns!

**note**
(Day 18) is the prompt designation in Noah Scalin’s book, 365: A Daily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life! I am using this book as the catalyst and inspiration for these weekly posts.

Save

Eye-spy Butterfly

by D.M. SessousJuly 31, 2017July 26, 2017

Week Five (Day 17) Make something inspired by and/or that goes over an eye (yours or someone else’s).

I had high hopes for this one, as I love all butterflies, but I’m especially fascinated by those with eyespots. The fact that over hundreds of thousands of years these delicate creatures developed coloring that mimics the eyes of predators like owls and hawks is truly remarkable.

So, I took a selfie hoping to superimpose a butterfly, lining up the eyespot with my eye and blending the rest of the photo into the background. But, that was a bit too advanced for me. Instead, I managed to create a butterfly-shaped tattoo mask.

**note**
(Day 17) is the prompt designation in Noah Scalin’s book, 365: A Daily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life! I am using this book as the catalyst and inspiration for these weekly posts.

Save

Butterfly on the Water

by D.M. SessousJuly 25, 2017July 25, 2017

Week Four: (Day 19) Create something that floats on water. (It doesn’t have to be a boat.)

My attempt at a reflection of a butterfly on the water…

**note**
(Day 19) is the prompt designation in Noah Scalin’s book, 365: A Daily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life! I am using this book as the catalyst and inspiration for these weekly posts.

Save

Tater-fly

by D.M. SessousJuly 17, 2017July 17, 2017

Week Three: (Day 16) Make a unique print by cutting up a potato or sponge, and use it to stamp on a material of your choice.

Here’s my potato stamp butterfly. I took a photo of a potato and created the carved-out stamp part in Photoshop. Below is my take on applying it to a material of my choice… patterned on a field of sour cream, of course!

Make’s me want a baked potato real bad…

**note**
(Day 16) is the prompt designation in Noah Scalin’s book, 365: A Daily Creativity Journal: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life! I am using this book as the catalyst and inspiration for these weekly posts.

Save