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Angel Appearing with Attitude

Hi all y’all!

On a beautiful winter day and the longest night of the year, Happy Winter Solstice.

I am painting my favorite painting. It has all the elements that I love. It is definitely New Orleans and full of magic and attitude.

Shotgun Angel in progress
Shotgun Angel in progress

It is a little know fact that Shotgun houses have their own angel. When she appeared on my canvas, I immediately fell in love. She is going to have cool cellophane wings. The nice people at Rouse’s Market gave me a cellophane sleeve without buying the flowers.

Here is Alligator Bliss in progress.

Alligator Bliss in progress
Alligator Bliss in progress

The glitter paper on his leg shows through the glass, but you can’t tell what it is with the glass on top.

This is my finished Alligator Bliss. I tried building up the background with molding paste. It made the swamp grass look pretty cool. I wanted parts of the painting raised to balance the safety glass I used for scales. That is also why I put tile along the bottom.

Alligator Bliss
Alligator Bliss

Do you notice the  yellow dotted paper on the alligator stomach? It is the same piece of paper I used on the curly hair of women. I am on the look out for another piece of bubble paper, now that I am hooked on its usefulness.

I made this little Christmas decoration for my daughter and her girlfriend. It is their dachshund with antlers and one of their rats. Cami, the dog, looks like a deer in headlights. The rat is quizzical. I painted it on a left-over piece of our dining room table.

Cami and rat
Cami and rat

Wishing you all the blessings of the season. Time for this gator girl to look over the past years events and make plans for 2013. Time sure does fly.

lovingly,

Gator Girl

 

 

 

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Gator Agents

Hi all y’all!

I have been living my alternate dream lately. I have been spending a lot of time with my grand babies. They are growing up so fast, I have to slow everything down and observe the wonder of it all.

For a while I had trouble switching gears from creating art to child care. Then an epiphany. When my girls were growing up, I had to work. I wanted to stay home. Now I want to work, but my grandkids need me. I just needed to switch gears in my mind and realize my timing is off. All in good time. (I am becoming quiet fond of old-timey sayings lately.)

2013 is around the corner. My word for the coming year is visibility. This is the year, I put my art out into the world. Fly Be Free Art. I am thinking restaurants, galleries…

My Gator Agents will be an integral part of the plan.

Gator Agent Anne-Claire
Gator Agent Anne-Claire

 

Gator Agent Katy
Gator Agent Katy
Gator Agent Joe
Gator Agent Joe
Gator Mascot Buddy
Gator Mascot Buddy

I have 3 main agents. (One is remaining incognito at this time.) I have an up and coming star-agent as one of my east coast representatives. So far I have two agents based in Los Angeles and two agents in Philadelphia. I am not sure what kind of role Buddy will play at this time. That is why he is pictured here as a mascot.

Really, the sky is the limit at Gator Girl Art, LLC. If you would like to become an agent for Gator Girl Art, please email me at nancy@gatorgirlart.com or fbfgator@gmail.com. Give me a brief description of what you plan to offer. All emails will be read and replied to.

Sincerely,

With hope and faith in the future,

Gator Girl

 

 

 

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Some copyright helpful hints

Hi all y’all,

I am totally happy and relieved today to have completed my first parade as a Pussyfooter. I have an idea now what Mardi Gras will be like. The Krewe of Jingle Parade was 2 and a half miles and family friendly. The Krewe of Muses Parade will be 13 miles and big crowds. I’m thinking insoles.

 

waiting for Nena
Waiting for Nena
My first parade.
My first parade.

 

After the parade.
After the parade.

 

I woke up one morning last week thinking, “I wonder if anyone just downloads my paintings?”. On the blog, I usually post works in progress. I sometimes put low resolution copies on-line. But sometimes I put high-resolution copies on-line. I know some of y’all are doing the same thing or thinking of doing the same thing with your art. I don’t like to think so, but maybe all art lovers aren’t ethical.

I contacted my could-be-daughter-in-law and she sent me this link, http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/watermark-images-photoshop/. I downloaded a free 30 day trial of Photoshop CS6. (Make sure you close all windows before you start the download and beware it takes 15 hours to download.)

The things you can do with this program are amazingly fun.

This is so funny… WordPress won’t let me show you my cool watermarks, because they are copyrighted. Good job WordPress!

I will tell you how I made the watermark that I like best:

1. I used a low resolution picture to be double-protected.

2. I drag/dropped the picture onto Photoshop CS6.

3. I made a Text box.

4. In white, I wrote Gator Girl Art in a cursive font.

5. Selected Layer, Layer Style, Blending Options, 50% opacity.

6. To rotate the watermark diagonally,  I selected the Marquee Tool, right-clicked the text, and selected Free Transform. Hovering over any corner, you will see a small curved arrow letting you know you can rotate the image.

There are many, many ideas if you go to the article. The watermark I like the best is embossed.

In a perfect world, my daughter could marry her girlfriend and photo images wouldn’t need watermarks. Someday…

Until next week,

All my love,

Gator Girl