Shopping – Gator Girl Art

Some copyright helpful hints

Posted on December 2, 2012 by gatorgirlart

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.

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

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Imagine it and you can have it… in the tangible.

Posted on September 8, 2012September 8, 2012 by gatorgirlart

Good Morning all y’all!

Either my husband is so sweet or I am risking my marriage to write to you. Time will tell. It is our 28th anniversary today and he helped me to nail on the trim to a dresser that I am reclaiming and now I am blogging about the process.

About 2 weeks ago, I was looking for a dresser on Craig’s List and found the perfect one for $20 in Mid City. I didn’t have a car that day to pick it up. By the time David got home with the car, the dresser was gone. I thought, maybe I will find one closer and less expensive. I didn’t quite believe it. Then… last weekend, our neighbors moved out and put a cheap dresser on the curb. This dresser didn’t have the same quality as the one I saw on-line. But it made me happier, like getting a dog at a shelter happier. This dresser was going straight to a landfill. Besides being cheaply made, it was missing a drawer and the front of a drawer. To me this was perfect. I needed a flat place to store my prints instead of on the top of everything And I always need more general storage.

I painted the top, framed the open drawer with molding from the neighbor’s trash, bought two baskets at Target (exactly 17 inches deep) for a grand total of $30. This total does not include painting with Golden Acrylic paints. I couldn’t wait long enough to buy less expensive paint.

Furniture ariel view — Aerial View of Dresser

I saw the idea for putting baskets in place of the drawers on Pinterest.

I am not quite done with Let it be me. I am going to try something new (to me). I am going to paint melted bees-wax around the woman to soften the background. I tried painting something small with bee’s wax before, but not one of my paintings. Wish me luck. I really operate on a combination of luck and divine intervention.

This painting is representing the moment of surrender. The giving up of self to the greater power. Big step.

I am hoping to heal the world with painting. What are you hoping today?

Sincerely,

With all my heart,

Gator Girl

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Between Roots and Wings

Posted on June 15, 2012June 15, 2012 by gatorgirlart

Good morning all y’all!

We are mid-way in the year of the dragon, the year of possibilities. It is kind of overwhelming in an exciting kind of way, don’t you think?

Today, I decided to share the finished Raven Wisdom and the young woman with revolving names. I call her Hopeful Anticipation, but I will explain that later.

I delivered Raven to California last week. I don’t have a picture of him framed. The frame was really cool. I used dark green reclaimed wood from the Green Project. The best part of the frame was a shelf along the bottom to put shiny trinkets, gems and crystals that Raven might like. There are hinge holes on the right-side bottom of the frame where I hung a string of burlap with dangling wing and heart milagras.

I can see my painting becoming more urban. I like it. I offered a contest to name this painting. I liked many ideas. I decided to leave the words off of the original, because I like the painting this way, too. I didn’t want to limit her. Limitless Possibilities? See, her name keeps evolving.

My idea is to send the photo to the print shop for prints and giclees and add different words to the copies. It will make each copy an original. I will post later what that looks like. I will send a print to those people who sent me words that I use. It’s not too late for you!

I am totally engrossed with my new painting of Freida Kahlo as a skeleton. I don’t know if I will make prints, because the frame is totally part of the painting. I will post the process of Freida next week.

Until then,

With an ever expanding heart,

Gator Girl

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What’s not to love about eternal love?

Posted on January 21, 2012January 21, 2012 by gatorgirlart

Good Morning y’all,

You know how it feels when you think you are on the right track, when all the pieces in your life are just falling into place? I feel like that about our move to New Orleans. At my launch party two weeks ago, 2 paintings sold and I was asked to donate a print to the Pussy Footer’s Ball. My friends Heather and Mimi are each putting my name in the drawing for the opportunity to be chosen for the marching krewe.

The Blush Ball is an event for charity. They are raising money for the Metropolitan Center for Women and Children.

This is the painting that I donated for the raffle. I decided on a mixed media original designed for the Ball. I put my mother’s glasses on the person in the painting. I have always loved these glasses from the 50’s. I said “person” because she could be a woman or could be a drag queen. It just depends on how you see her. I love how paintings have their own intentions.

One of the paintings that sold at the party is Eternal Love. Both paintings had to have emergency photos taken at the print shop. The turn around was too quick to have Dorka take the photos.

These two happy campers are pushing up daisies. The semi-transparent butterflies are emissaries between worlds. I painted this with my husband, David in mind.

I hope that 2012 is starting off fabulously wonderful for y’all.

Talk with you next week!

Gator Girl