Design Spotlight: Susan Westervelt
Today, the Design Spotlight falls on Susan Westervelt, whose soft and gentle style is very appealing.
_________________________
This is one of my favorite cards because I am fascinated by flowers, especially tulips, and capturing their exquisite detail in photos.
I am a passionate photographer and have been as long as I can remember, beginning with a Brownie when I was a kid.
I live in Phoenix, Arizona and am looking forward to a time when I can travel and photograph my adventures. I have two grown daughters and three grandchildren. I enjoy spending time with my family, painting, sketching and, of course, snapping away with my camera when I’m not working.
This is my third year participating in a 365 project or Photo of the Day. It’s been fun. Creating greeting cards from many of my photographs is a natural extension. I love seeing life through the lens.
I’ve been inspired by many wonderful photographers and artists here at Greeting Card Universe.
Share this:
Dash of Inspiration – A Digital Artist’s Journey
A Dash of Inspiration, A Cup of Creativity by Doreen
A Digital Artist’s Journey
The year was 1995, I was an owner of an art gallery with three other artists. Two were painters, one was a textile artist and then there was me; a photographer who was still developing film and prints in my own darkroom. These partners decided to have a show titled ‘Faces’. Their idea was to create HUGE faces to put out in the garden and in the windows. I was at a loss . . . it would cost a fortune for me to pay a lab to produce photographic prints that were 36-inches or larger, not to mention I’d have to pull out the old 4×5 view camera in order to capture photographs capable of being enlarged to that size. That evening, I sat down at my computer and for the first time opened the only photo-processing software I had; Micrografx Picture Publisher.
This began a very fun, but fruitless journey in applying funky digital filters to my photos and thinking I was creating awesome works of art just because I thought they cool. A few years later, thinking I had a portfolio full of worthy digital art, I began submitting to publishing and licensing companies only to discover that in the professional world of digital art, these post processed pieces were a red flag to the pros, indicating they had been created by an amateur and the declines flooded my mailbox. It was a hard lesson, but one that was necessary for it brought tremendous growth.
Needless to say, whether you call it digital art, photo manipulation, digital post processing or a digital composite; there are three basic elements to remember:
- Use QUALITY photos – applying digital filters such as; poster edges, watercolor, dry brush, soft focus or even vignetting as a means to hide serious flaws in the original photograph is not a way to prove yourself as a professional and in fact my only enhance the flaws, making them more of a distraction.
- NEVER use default settings – digital art creations, if created on a drawing table rather than the computer, would fall into the category of mixed media. These digital wonders are created using a bit of this and that to come up with a look that is not only professional, but also a finished piece that keeps your audience in awe of how you created it. If those of us who consider ourselves experienced digital artists can look at your finished pieces and tell you what filter you used, you have not been successful.
- Create using a LIGHT hand – professional digital artists use layer masks and paint these post processing filters to only those areas of the image that might benefit from the filter and using varying opacity for a more natural look. The finished product will have several layers with bits and pieces of processing to various parts of the image.
Much of what I’ve learned over the years started by referring to books and following the step by step instructions. Once I applied what the book suggested, I would then spend time modifying my technique and application to suit the results I wanted, usually developing a technique that is unique to me. Free tutorials on the internet to grow in this aspect of digital art are hard to find. The pros who share their techniques, charge for this whether online or in books. Scott Kelby’s books and tutorials are fantastic, simple to understand full of step by step instruction. The Photoshop WOW books are wonderful and so are books by Matt Kloskowski – there are many of them to choose from once you decide you’re ready to move into the digital art world be sure to learn from the pros.
Here are a few links I found which may be a step to better digital manipulation
Overused Post Processing Effects – by Hannah Gordon
Digital Darkroom Techniques — 5 Post Processing Techniques To Add “WOW” Factor To Your Images
Harnessing the Power of Layer Masks – Advanced Photoshop Tutorials by Jay Kinghorn
5 Crucial Post-Processing Adjustments For Professional Photographs
Photoshop Tutorial – How To Make a Vignette Effect – by EngageTutorials
This image of mine is made up of two photographs. The couple on the bench taken in the city, and the mountain scenic. This composition was painted using watercolor brushes of various sizes and opacity settings. Notice the water – Although I needed to paint it with watercolor brushes so that it would blend with the overall scene, I added a layer mask and painted over the water with the light touch of a smoothing filter to give the water a more realistic feel and add depth to the image. The clouds have a light touch, yet the mountains a heavy hand to show texture in the rocky formations.
Share this:
Critique Clinic – March 2-4, 2012
How does it work? For three days a week (Friday-Sunday midnight), I will open the clinic to any artist who wants an honest peer review and critique of a card which gets plenty of clicks but no sales, so something’s probably not quite right, or you’ve got a new design you want to test drive, or you’re unsure about the marketability of a card. Or perhaps you’re a newbie who isn’t sure if a recently submitted card is up to a marketable standard. Anyone is welcome to participate. In fact, I encourage everyone to at least look at the cards in question and read the critique comments – you may learn something. The purpose of the clinic is to help artists improve the commercial appeal and marketability of their cards.
THE RULES
- ONE card per artist only.
- Card must be for sale at Greeting Card Universe.
- We will take an unlimited number of artists, including those who have submitted recently, HOWEVER I reserve the right to close a clinic for the day if the submissions become overwhelming. If the clinic has been closed, and you submit a card, your comment will be deleted.
- To submit a card for critique, post a link to the card at GCU in the comments section of this clinic post. Allowances will be made if you’ve had a card declined, or made a new design you’d like advice on. Give us the link where we can see the card, such as your private gallery, Flickr, etc.
- Any artist is free to comment and/or give a critique of a submitted card. HOWEVER, post-and-run comments like “great card” or “you suck” will not be tolerated, nor will abuse. Criticism should be constructive, not destructive. Play nice or you will be banned.
- I also won’t tolerate temper tantrums if you decide your “artistic integrity” is being stepped on because you asked for a critique, and someone told you the photo you’re using isn’t in focus. If you can’t take honest criticism, don’t submit. Once gets you a warning; twice and you’re banned from submitting in the future.
- Artists who critique may do so by giving their opinion, posting an example of another card, or pointing the submitter to a video, on-line article, or other helpful suggestion.
- Don’t forget that artists who are giving you tips and helpful advice are volunteering their time and trouble. Be nice. A link back to their store on your website or blog is appreciated (but not mandatory).
- You are free not to take any advice offered. There’s no guarantee any card will be a bestseller, so don’t come into the clinic with unrealistic expectations.
- Rules may change as we go along and we see how things turn out, okay?
So without any further ado, I declare this week’s Critique Clinic open!
Share this:
Design Contest – VOTE!
TIME TO VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE
ST. PATRICK’S DAY CARD!
The submissions are in for our Design Contest: The Wearin’ O’ the Green! Here are the submissions made by our artists, and below you’ll find a poll. VOTE for your favorite St. Patrick’s Day card until March 7th.
Whoever receives the most votes will win a $10 Amazon.com gift certificate or 5 free card credits.
Every vote counts, so be sure to promote on Facebook, Twitter, other social media sites, forums, groups, etc. Submitting artists should not forget to alert the artist whose card you’ve chosen to nominate.
On March 8th, I’ll announce the winner. Good luck!
_________________________
1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 
9. 
10. 
Share this:
Challenge: Pin It to Win It
Greeting Card Universe has added a “PIN” button to all pages to make it easier for everyone to “pin” cards to Pinterest. What’s Pinterest? some of you ask. Here’s the scoop from their website:
“Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.”
The really cool thing about Pinterest is that you can create your own themed boards (I have one called “Cards I ❤ So Much” among others). You can re-pin what other people have pinned, too, and get followers (as well as follow others). It’s addictive. I pin many things including my Squidoo lenses, greeting cards, products, photographs, graphics, etc.
Joining Pinterest is invitation-only. If you want an invitation, leave a comment on this post or you can make an application via Pinterest and wait for approval.
If you’re already pinning, let us know so we can “follow” you.
To make this fun, let’s have a little challenge, shall we?
YOUR CHALLENGE
St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, so over the next week, I want you to create a new board – Favorite St. Patrick’s Day cards – and pin FIVE cards from GCU in a St. Paddy’s Day theme. You have until March 7th to leave a link to the board in the comments of this post. On March 8th, I’ll do a random drawing of all participants for a $10 Amazon.com gift certificate OR 5 free card credits to the lucky winner. Let’s have some fun!
Share this:
Design Spotlight: Vicky Rubin
Today, our Design Spotlight is focused on Vicky Rubin – thanks for the insight!
_________________________
Like many of us on GCU, I have been drawing and doodling my whole life. I’m lucky enough to be a published children’s book author and illustrator. Greeting cards and picture books have many things in common. The interplay between the text and image is important. I think it’s hard to do a successful humorous card (or book). When I see them, I’m impressed. My cards that sell are the ones where the words and art work together the best.
Mostly I work on a Wacom Cintiq, and sometimes on a Tablet PC–there is not much difference. Usually I work straight from the tablet. I tend to change things as I go along, so the flexibility of the tablet is great. I also work in watercolor with pen and ink, sometimes with crayon and pencil.
It was exciting to get Design of the Day the other day with this new card. It’s spring-like, and I’m glad spring is here. It came from a doodle that started out as a Fourth of July card—the flowers and hearts were like fireworks. (As I said, I change things a lot as I go!)
With all my characters, I focus on facial expression and (in this case) gesture, and try to keep it simple. In this case I didn’t do much writing of text, as the card is decorative and didn’t seem to need it. The cards I get bogged down on, that are too complex, end up not communicating as well. I see my style getting ever simpler and looser.
Looking to the future, I definitely plan to add more cards. Having worked in print publishing (as a copyeditor), I have not always welcomed the changes wrought by the Internet as audiences moved online. Happily, GCU helps us get our work in front of people.
Thanks for reading!
Share this:
Dash of Inspiration – A Matter of Perspective
A Dash of Inspiration, A Cup of Creativity by Doreen
A Matter of Perspective
I ran across a fun collection of photographs in a post called Unusual and Bizarre Building Designs By Aquil Akhter courtesy of Noupe.com and enjoyed it so much, I thought some of you might as well. I was immediately thrown back in time to one of my first photography classes where one of our assignments was to rent an old 4×5 View camera and head out to photograph, develop and print architectural subjects. Wow, was that ever an unusual experience and one that truly gave me an appreciation, not only for the skill required to take marketable architectural photographs with buildings that don’t look like they are falling down and level horizon lines, but also for those amazing photojournalists who lugged the old 4×5 beasts around the world to provide us with images of life beyond our own country – odd where inspiration comes from sometimes!
So, my flash-backs have provided this week’s inspiration bringing you 50 Beautiful Examples of Architecture Photography by Noupe.com, as well as tutorials for both photographers and a simple tutorial on how to draw perspective. I also included some shapes and brushes for your tool kit – as always read the TOU carefully.
The Architectural Photographer’s Rules of Thumb by Alan Blakely
Photographing Buildings by Geoff Lawrence
9 Architectural Photography Tips by Natalie Johnson
Avoiding & Correcting Linear Distortion in Buildings by Photo Tuts Plus
How To Draw Two-Point Perspective, with Karl Gude
57 Building Shapes – Vector Buildings Courtesy of All Silhouettes.com
Cityscape and skyline brushes by ~cLuddy at deviantArt
Share this:
Critique Clinic – February 24-26, 2012
How does it work? For three days a week (Friday-Sunday midnight), I will open the clinic to any artist who wants an honest peer review and critique of a card which gets plenty of clicks but no sales, so something’s probably not quite right, or you’ve got a new design you want to test drive, or you’re unsure about the marketability of a card. Or perhaps you’re a newbie who isn’t sure if a recently submitted card is up to a marketable standard. Anyone is welcome to participate. In fact, I encourage everyone to at least look at the cards in question and read the critique comments – you may learn something. The purpose of the clinic is to help artists improve the commercial appeal and marketability of their cards.
THE RULES
- ONE card per artist only.
- Card must be for sale at Greeting Card Universe.
- We will take an unlimited number of artists, including those who have submitted recently, HOWEVER I reserve the right to close a clinic for the day if the submissions become overwhelming. If the clinic has been closed, and you submit a card, your comment will be deleted.
- To submit a card for critique, post a link to the card at GCU in the comments section of this clinic post. Allowances will be made if you’ve had a card declined, or made a new design you’d like advice on. Give us the link where we can see the card, such as your private gallery, Flickr, etc.
- Any artist is free to comment and/or give a critique of a submitted card. HOWEVER, post-and-run comments like “great card” or “you suck” will not be tolerated, nor will abuse. Criticism should be constructive, not destructive. Play nice or you will be banned.
- I also won’t tolerate temper tantrums if you decide your “artistic integrity” is being stepped on because you asked for a critique, and someone told you the photo you’re using isn’t in focus. If you can’t take honest criticism, don’t submit. Once gets you a warning; twice and you’re banned from submitting in the future.
- Artists who critique may do so by giving their opinion, posting an example of another card, or pointing the submitter to a video, on-line article, or other helpful suggestion.
- Don’t forget that artists who are giving you tips and helpful advice are volunteering their time and trouble. Be nice. A link back to their store on your website or blog is appreciated (but not mandatory).
- You are free not to take any advice offered. There’s no guarantee any card will be a bestseller, so don’t come into the clinic with unrealistic expectations.
- Rules may change as we go along and we see how things turn out, okay?
So without any further ado, I declare this week’s Critique Clinic open!
Share this:
Design Contest: The Wearin’ O’ the Green
DESIGN CONTEST: THE WEARIN’ O’ THE GREEN
Let’s find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, shall we?
St. Patrick’s Day is coming (March 17) and I’m in the mood for some lovely leprechauns. Choose your favorite St. Patrick’s Day card – designed by another GCU artist, then give us a link in the comments section of this post. One submission per artist, please. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy!
Deadline to submit your entry is February 29th (we might as well make Leap Day count for something, right?). Voting commences on March 1st and will continue until March 6th. The winner will be announced on March 7th.
NOTE: Artists who make a blog post about the card they’ve chosen will receive a special advantage – also submit a link to your blog post, and I’ll award you three extra votes!
The artist who receives the most votes will win a $10 Amazon.com gift certificate or 5 free card credits – their choice. Be sure to drum up votes on Facebook, Twitter, other social media sites, forums, groups, etc.
I want to see lots of entries in this contest, folks, and good luck to all!
Now go put some green on your blog before you get pinched. 🙂
Share this:
Design Spotlight: Liz Van Steenburgh
Our Design Spotlight today falls on Liz Van Steenburgh of Starstock Greetings – thanks for letting us catch a glimpse of you and your work!
_________________________
I’m Liz Van Steenburgh from Starstock Greetings. I’m a self-taught photographer and graphic designer from rural New York State.
After many years with a strong interest in photography and other creative endeavors, I took the plunge about 7 years ago with a cheap $100 camera and joined a few stock photography agencies, when they were all brand new businesses. Being a stock photographer has taught me quite alot about photography and creativity in general. I now work full time for one of the major stock photo companies in a much less glamorous position 🙂
My focus soon turned to graphic design, and I learned about GCU through my friend and fellow contributor, Denise, from dbvisualarts, and started making cards from my stock photos. Needing a little more variety, I started buying commercial-use graphics and clipart from people with much more talent for Illustration than I could ever hope to have.
Thanks to their talent and generosity in offering products and licenses that allow me to create cards and products from their work, I now enjoy a fairly successful graphic design business, making cards, invitations and other printable items. I really enjoy mixing graphics, type and colors to come up with something new. I also enjoy blending my photographs with grungy textures to give them a whole new (old) look, as I’m a big fan of that whole aged, textured, torn and tattered look.
Despite all the graphic art I have purchased and all the photographs I have taken, my best selling card series at GCU doesn’t incorporate graphics OR photography. I made this using some basic Photoshop shapes and 1 bow brush. It continues to sell constantly, much to my amazement. I guess there’s something to be said about “less is more”. I hope it encourages those who may feel that only professional photographers or artists can succeed, because this card clearly shows that is not necessarily the case at all.
Thank you for the opportunity to share a little bit about myself with all of you.
GCU Community 