Salon de Maria Blog

When I first embarked into the digital art world about seven years ago, I had no idea how amazing it was going to be.  I got my first digital camera and I was ecstatic that I didn't have to buy film and take it to the photo lab anymore.  And now all the excitement is back again with the arrival of my new Bamboo pen tablet.  I felt like a five-year-old on Christmas Day as I opened the box and unwrapped this little tool.  It's the little things that make me happy :)

With this pen tablet I can create freehand digital drawings and hand-write notes which can be turned into text documents in Word (although I still prefer to type...much faster).  There's a great deal of other stuff I can do with this pen tablet that I haven't explored yet.  However, the main reason I bought it was to draw freehand in Photoshop.  I bought the small version, but I know pretty soon I'll want to go "pro" and get a bigger one.

So I unleashed the creative juices today and created a couple pieces which I turned into Mother's Day greeting cards.  They're available at my CafePress shop.  Stay tuned for more!

Well, now it's back to the "drawing board" for more practice so I can start creating art like this "Cherry Blossoms" piece by Esther Kirby...



Buy your own Bamboo pen tablet at Amazon.com

Posted by Maria Palma at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Summer is my least favorite season of the year for the obvious reason - it's just way too hot. Well, in San Diego the weather doesn't get too bad, but right now I'm at my parents house smack dab in the middle of California. The temperatures can go into the triple digits on most summer days, just like today. However, being a person who likes to look at the positive in everything. I will say that I'm thankful that we do have air conditioning!

And in the spirit of summer, I thought I'd take an ordinary item like a house fan and make it into art! For this piece below I took a picture of a fan and used the different artistic elements in Photoshop to jazz it up a bit. In the Photoshop menu simply go to "Filter", then choose "Artistic", and then you can choose any of the number of artistic filters to create a piece of digital art with a click of the button!

Speaking of fans, for those of you who don't have air conditioning or would like to save on your energy bill, I did come across these tips for keeping cool without air conditioning. If you're in the market for a new fan for your home, you can find a variety of cooling fans by visiting: http://www.cool-off.com/misting-fans/

 

**Sponsored Post

Posted by Maria Palma at 04:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's been a long week without really being able to blog.  That's what I get for being addicted to the internet and blogging!

All is well, however.  I finally realized that it was a blessing in disguise.  It definitely gave me a chance to play around with Photoshop.  Here are a couple of graphics I created...

 

I never realized how much fun graphic design is! Hmmm...I may just take a class and learn something new! I did come across the Graphic Design Blog to learn more...This may become my new hobby ;)

Posted by Maria Palma at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Happy New Year to all you dear readers!  2007 has gotten off to a good start.  I’m already on my way to accomplishing one of my goals of learning Photoshop.  While everyone was partying on New Year’s Eve, I sat down with my laptop and surfed the web looking for tutorials and tips on Photoshop Elements (such the geek that I am!) 

Anyways, my first Photoshop creation is posted at one of my other blogs, The Good Life.  I then spent all New Year’s Day uploading many of the pictures I took in 2006 to my Flickr photo album. 

This whole digital art thing is pretty fun!  I like that I can literally create a “masterpiece” in a matter of fifteen minutes.  That’s one of my challenges with creating art - sometimes I’m not that patient.  When I paint I sometimes get anxious to have the piece done in one sitting and it just doesn’t happen that way most of the time.  Perhaps that’s why I love photography because it’s an instantaneous Masterpiece at the click of the button ;)

I was playing around with a new header for this blog... 

Posted by Maria Palma at 07:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)