You Call It "Copying". I Call It "Flattery"

They say that imitation is a form of flattery, and I've imitated(or copied. But really, "imitated" sounds so much nicer) a couple of pictures just because I loved the way the original pictures looked. The first one I made was inspired by Demi Lovato's CD cover.



I wasn't even planning on imitating this picture. I was at my friend Tonya's house and she was pretending to sing into an old microphone. I was already taking pictures of her being silly, so I thought, "Why don't I just wrap her up in that mic cord like Skye Sweetnam does in "Tangled Up In Me"?" So I told Tonya to stand still for a second while I went around and around wrapping her up. She was getting slightly aggravated at me because I asked her to continue singing and dancing, except this time, while she was wrapped up in cord. She did as I asked though, and this is what I came up with.



Not as good as Demi's, it was still a neat idea for a picture and Tonya loved it. I actually wouldn't mind trying to redo that picture, this time with a guitar and maybe another microphone. I'll also take a better quality picture of Tonya the next time around.

Another time that I've "imitated" a picture is with this picture.



I found that picture on Facebook on one of those, "What Cute Love Quote Are You?" quiz things and I really liked how cute it was. Simple, yet artistic. I got my favorite pen and drew a heart onto my fingers. After about 30 something pictures, I finally found one that would work. Got it off of my camera, worked on it with PhotoImpact, and voilà!



Not bad, if I say so myself. I had messed up a little bit drawing the heart but now I like how it's not perfect.

I'd say that 97% of the time I make original pictures, but as I've just shown you, every so often I like to look for photoshopping ideas and then tweak them a bit to make them my own. Hopefully no one will mind and it'll be all fine and dandy. If it makes everyone feel better, I think it'd be really cool if someone were to imitate a picture of mine. =]

Random-Yet-Newer-Pictures

This first picture is one that I really really really enjoy. It's composed of 2 pictures, the rainbow background I got off the Internet and a picture I took of my hand and colored pencils. I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 & PhotoImpact 8 to make this picture. To make it look like I was coloring in the black & white, I used my Bamboo pen.



Another picture I like is this one...



I made this one using a bunch of different pictures of my cat, Charlie. Again, I used all 3 of the photo editing programs that I named off in the very 1st blog. The Bamboo pen was extremely handy for making the whiskers. I made my skin and hair grayer too, to match the ears.

I've wanted to make a picture like this last one for quite a while now, and I finally did the other day. This one is made with just 1 picture, but I messed with the colors. I made the black berry appear more purply, I made my lips and shirt pink, and I made my hair sort of honey colored.



I really like that one. I remind myself of a berry-eating vampire. ;]

Some Star Wars Projects

My friend Tonya has been told many a time that she looks like Princess Leah. It's mostly because her hair is really long, but it got me to planning a new picture. Why not make Tonya be PRINCESS Tonya? After a bit of work, I finally came up with a good finished picture. It was the first picture that I REALLY worked on. I tried to match up Tonya's face with Leah's as good as I could. The whole picture probably took about a day to make(I'm sure that if I were trying to make is ABSOLUTELY PERFECT, it'd have taken much longer.).



I've had this picture on my Facebook for awhile, and just the other day my friend's mom asked me if I could make some Star Wars pictures for her 4 year old daughter. Well, I'm always up for a good picture project, so I took the job! Emma loves Queen Amidala, so I found some good pictures of her and I made these...





As much as everyone seemed to like "Queen Emmadala", I still plan on making some of Emma on/with Princess Leah and Darth Vader. If anyone has any requests, please tell me! I'd be glad to try my hand at it =]

Bamboo Isn't Just For Pandas

In a previous blog, I mentioned my Bamboo pen. Well, here it is.



Well, that's sort of like mine. Mine is a Bamboo Fun, but it's basically the same thing.

The Bamboo is pretty much awesome. Like, more than awesome. It's ingenious! Not only can you draw with it, you can use it to write emails(as in, actually WRITE), use it instead of a mouse, and you can trace pictures from magazines and such onto the computer. Here are a few things that I've done with it...







It's pretty amazing what you can do with it. I'm still getting used to, because it's a LOT different than using a mouse. It's really fun though, especially when you start looking around to see what all you can trace with it. =]

From Bad To Semi-Good

OK, so I had(....have)a terrible obsession with the Jonas Brothers. Though not as bad as it used to be, I still find enjoyment out of pretending I've had real pictures taken with the Jonas Brothers(most preferably Joe). From worst to best, I present The Jonas Brothers & Co.

Some Of The Firsts...

Ahh, yes...some of the very first pictures I ever photoshopped. Are they scary? Yes. Are they bad? Yes. Did they make me want to make more? Yes.










Sadly, these aren't even the really bad ones. Those(thank goodness) are on my mom's computer, a place where us kids don't venture. It takes a brave soul to show one's firsts. Hopefully anyone who reads this will have terrible memory and completely forget that they even seen these pictures. Here's hoping!

A Little Something About The Programs I Use...

Once upon a time, I was a very bored girl. I was sitting at home, not doing anything, when I started messing around with my computer programs. I found PhotoImpact, messed with a few pics, and I haven't stopped since.

The main(and my most favorite) program I use is PhotoImpact 8. I think the reason it's my favorite is because I've been using it for so long. I know how to get to what I need and I know how to get what I need done. It's really great for beginners, whether you want to super impose or just repair your pictures.

Another program I use is Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0. If you want to touch up portraits, add cool effects, or make impossible possible, then this is the program for you! Now, I'm the sort of person who would rather mess around with something to find out how it works(in other words, I throw away the instructions and spend countless hours figuring out how to do something really simple), but for this program I got a book for my birthday that really helped me to better understand Adobe. I'm really glad I got it, because at first glance, Adobe 5.0 doesn't look like it does too much. If you are planning on getting Photoshop Elements, I highly suggest that you also order "The Photoshop Elements 5 Book for Digital Photographers" by Scott Kelby. It's super informative and very easy to understand.

Another program that I'm starting to use is Corel Painter Essentials 3. It came with my Bamboo pen(more about that in another blog), and it's really fun. It's mainly used for turning your favorite pictures into works of art. You can make your pictures look as though they've been painted, drawn, colored with pencils or crayons, and much more.

And there you have it. That's all the programs I use for what I do. Nothing super fancy, just programs that are fun and easy to use. Feel free to comment!