Images

Butterfly Collage

by D.M. Sessous

CreativeSprint is starting back up October 1. I’ve decided to use Photoshop as my medium for this challenge, with the theme still being butterflies (of course). So, I’ll be playing around a bit trying to sharpen my rudimentary PS skills, and hopefully posting a bit more often.
Here’s a little something that came as a result of this evening’s messing around…

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Getting my #CreateSprint on…again

by D.M. Sessous

Well, I wasn’t sure if I would do this again as I currently find myself trying to keep up with my Butterfly-a-Week personal challenge. The more I looked at the email in my inbox, though, the more it called to me. I had so much fun creating things, posting them and looking at what everyone else posted. How could I pass that up, really?

So, here I go again…

Won’t you join me this time? Please visit CreativeSprint and check out the stories. If you find it as inspiring as I do, sign up for the 30-day challenge. It starts October 1, 2016 so you have time to get some mind-space around the idea.

The beauty is, do what you can. If you find a challenge too daunting, use it as a springboard to challenge yourself to come at the idea another way – choose the opposite/inverse, play with the words or collaborate with a friend. It’s a creative challenge after all and at the very least, it will get your juices flowing and ideas filling up your journal or sketchbook.

I hope to see you out there!

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Hidden Butterfly

by D.M. Sessous

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Week Five: (Day 12) Camouflage…Create or alter something so that it disappears into its background.

First of all, so sorry about the HUGE time gap between posts. My life got a bit chaotic (as life sometimes does) and I’m returning to a sense of normalcy now.

That being said, I decided to approach this challenge in a more abstract way as opposed to photo-realistic. Butterflies have great camouflage, but they only mimic the texture of bark and leaves.

So, I took lots of pictures: a few with my wood blank in front of the background to get a sense of scale and a ton of the tree with the vines. I cut the photos apart and the decoupaged them to the blank.

Unfortunately, so much time had passed between when I started this project and when I finished that the lighting had changed. And in hindsight, I should have used the photos that’s came out more “yellow” than the ones that came out more “blue.” But, she seems to blend pretty well.

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Pages of a Book-er-fly

by D.M. Sessous

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Week Three: (Day 8) Transform an old book into something new by cutting, folding, gluing and so on.

So, I absolutely needed a book that I don’t care about. All the books I own are ones I want to keep. So, it’s off to a thrift store…thank you 2nd and Charles for your free book bins.

The first idea I had was to cut away the page edges or the center (like a book safe) so when the book is opened, there’s a butterfly shape.

The second idea was inspired by a recent trip to a shabby-chic consignment shop. There were a few wreaths on display made from old sheet music rolled into cone shapes.

Then, I discovered book folding…and that was all she wrote. A few YouTube tutorials and and couple of hours on Photoshop later, I had a plan and a template. I ran out of pages on my first attempt (thankfully, I picked up two books) and now I have a bookshelf-worthy book-er-fly.

 

 

Dragon World Book One: Update

by D.M. Sessous

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So, I’ve been chipping away at my first fantasy novel for about 5 years and…

I’m happy to report that I’ve finally finished my first draft! That’s 65,240 words, 32 chapters and 233 pages.

Applause! Cheers!

Confetti and balloons fall from the ceiling!

Tears of joy stream down my cheeks!

Now that the celebrating is over, I begin the daunting task of editing. I’ll keep you posted on my progress and will post again when my first few chapters are ready for public consumption.

I do have a Dragon World page, so please check it out to get a feeling for the world I’ve created and the characters that live in it.