Digital Playtime:

Japanese Maple Buds by K. Marszycki

Sometimes the only thing to do to wait out this winter weather is to play --

It's been awhile since I played with digital images, textures and overlays. I worked on these two last week during the "Great Blizzard of 2015" (which kind of petered out here in western New England) -- oh, well.

I've never enjoyed painting still life; I don't particularly like paintings of still life -- and yet I do love a photographic creation of still life. There are so many awesome digital artists throughout the world, it sometimes staggers the mind when one cruises around sites, such as Redbubble, Tumblr and Flickr.

Study in Yellow by K. Marszycki

And then there are those who share willingly their digital textures and more, offering tutorials on how to alter or enhance an image. The top artist who comes to mind is the awesome Shadowhouse Creations.  But it's also a good mental exercise to attempt to create one's own digital textures, even if only to see if they are usable --

floor tile texture

Here's an image of an old beat up  floor tile that I took when walking through a store renovation last summer.  The shelving units had left years of debris and damage, but some of the tiles were absolutely amazing!

And this tile was a must, with the telltale pink heart shape smudged in the debris and dirt. I then added bits of scanned French postcards I collect from ephemera shows and antique shops.  Seemed appropriate with Valentine's Day only about 2 weeks away --

Heart's Desire (digital image by K. Marszycki)

Well, now that I've spent several hours in digital playtime, I suppose it's time to go back outside and continue digging out the cars and walkways.  Ugh.  I am so over this white stuff, ice and cold -- but the upside is that the light is lasting longer these days and there's about 34 days to Daylight Savings!

In the depth of winter I finally learned that

there was in me an invincible summer.
          Albert Camus