New Obsession: Tiny Random Shapes

They started with a watercolor doodle, but after a week, they became a celebration of Tiny Random Shapes, and, perhaps, a modest and harmless obsession. The original paintings are all watercolor (lots of pigment, not a lot of water) painted with a Raphael 2/0 brush.

First Green 

First Green became digital Purple Leaves
cool stuff at zazzle

Tiny Random
Multi

Tiny Random #2 (digital)

Bigger Tree (7.5 x 10.5")

Tiny Tree (Original 5x7")
zazzle postcard

Tiny Bubbles (8x11) zazzle postcard

Tiny Bubbles Inverts in Photoshop (zazzle postcard)

Tiny Green Out the Window (Digital)

Wrapped Kimona (8.5x11")
postcard at zazzle

By the end of the year, I will have put all of the 2012 Image-a-Day project paintings onto postcards at zazzle.com. If you see an image that you would like on one of zazzle's zillions of products, or on fabric or wallpaper at spoonflower, contact me directly at susangainen@comcast.net.

Image-a-day other visions geometric magic (and a challenge)

Although I do this everyday, taking a tiny watercolor painting and creating digital magic continues to astound me.

Using Photoshop, I scanned in Puzzle Pieces #1. After posterizing it (more Photoshop magic), I created #2 and #3 by copying and flipping the image horizontally and vertically. I take great care to line up the flipped images each time because each new image builds on the previous one. Once the lines are off, I have to start all over again.

Then, the fun begins. Once a pattern is set, then I get to use Photoshop's magical tools.

Red Puzzle Pieces.

Green Puzzle Pieces

Blue Puzzle Pieces

Puzzle Pieces Invert Two

Puzzle Pieces Invert One

Puzzle Pieces One

Image-a-day and the OTHER VISIONS challenge

With nearly 300 images, the collection of digital "other visions" will comprise the the bulk of my 2012 Image-a-Day project when it is complete. I welcome suggestions for organizing and cataloging these images. 

Prizes!

The prizes: an "other vision" poster in your choice of design for the two best suggestions. Deadline: October 22, 2012.

Where are OTHER VISIONS now?

Some are at the nanoscapes website under "other visions." A small number of the designs are on products at zazzle.com, and others are on fabric and soon on wallpaper at spoonflower. Find a Puzzle Pieces Postcard at zazzle.com now.

Because I post each day, my Facebook and Pinterest friends can see all of the images in date-of-posting order.  

Beginning on October 25, 2012, "other visions" designs will begin a limited rotation on this website. I have defined three categories: fabric, tiles and stained glass, and wallpaper.

Round Boxes Dots named finalist in "Abstraction" Competition

Round Boxes Dots was selected as a finalist from 940 images by the Jurors for Exhibitions Without Walls For Photographers and Digital Artists’ ABSTRACTIONS competition.  Submissions came from 197 photographers and digital artists from 35 states and 15 countries.

The ABSTRACTIONS show link will be live from April 21 to May 31, 2012.

Round Boxes Dots was the March 17, 2012 image in my 2012-Image-a-Day Project.

Find a button and a magnet with this design in my zazzle store.

Image-a-day on pinterest: wallpapers for my Virtual Victorian

4 foot cat

Now that I have committed again to making an image-a-day, I have to drag myself back to work on large nanoscapes and small friends, including the four-foot cat painted on primed aluminum (left) which is nearly finished.

Indigo Wallpaper small panel so that you
can begin to see some of the
detail.

My daily delight and obsession is making a tiny painting which becomes the "image-a-day." Now that these are stacking up (there are 84 pins on the Image-a-Day board on Pinterest), I have begun to imagine good uses for them. One project is the Virtual Victorian House which has plenty of space for these images as they are imagined into tile and rug designs. Every Victorian needs wallpaper, and now I have wallpaper designs, too.

The Indigo Wallpaper is a tip of my hat to fabrics imported to England from China. The French Lines design is a Fleur-de-lis gone wild.

French Lines Wallpaper

A Virtual Victorian has many advantages: its windows need not be replaced; its roof does not leak; and its plumbing is always modern. Sadly, it has no ghosts other than the ones that come from my imagination.

Image-a-day 2012: daily digital nanoscapes

Now that the distraction-turned-direction has become folded into my image-a-day commitment, I find myself making small watercolors paintings with an eye toward how they might looked multiplied and flipped horizontally and vertically, in addition to what might I might make happen to their colors under the flying finger of Photoshop.

What else? Each of these designs could be cut and painted tiles, quilt tops, or stained glass. Some could be effective needlepoint designs, although the diagonals might be tricky. Not for me, thank you. I have abandoned the idea of glass and tile because of the safety equipment requirement, and I have made just one pieced quilt which left me in awe of every quilt artist on earth. I  painted some nanoscapes-inspired needlepoint canvas which was challenging and not as much fun as I thought it should have been. Thus, I am left to paint, which I do every single day.

What happened to the pinterest posting?  I had been posting daily to pinterest, but when I read this post, I cancelled the account. Having been reassured by two people who are wise in the ways of these things, I requested another pinterest account, and the image-a-day images will go back up as soon as I am re-activated.

When can I buy these images? Watch for an announcement in mid-March.

Images from this week:

Tropical Tile

Blue Dots

Wild tiles

Raleigh Blue 2

Pink Tile

nanoscapes: defining other visions

The true, actual, and legally registered corporate name for nanoscapes is "nanoscapes & other visions, llc." Having taken tiny watercolor painted nanoscapes postcards to a new world with Photoshop, I have a better sense of what "other visions" means.

Each image created out of a 300 dpi scanned painted post card. I am committed to this 2012 Image-a-Day project and to posting these images to Facebook and to pinterest. What else will they become? Stay tuned.

Blue Dot

Green Glaze

Multi-glaze

Square

Purple Roller Coaster

Blue Tiles

Dancing Ribbon

2012: an image a day from nanoscapes & small friends

IMAGE-A- DAY

January 1, 2012 from a camera photo
of "7 Hippos Marching"

I posted an image a day to Facebook from October 2010 to September 2011, and it's time to start again.

Image-a-Day 2010-2011

Those images were thematic and either related to specific months (pumpkins for October, leaves for November, lost-left-handed gloves of January, raindrops for April, ears of corn for July, pencils for September), or joyfully random (introducing the LLLama family in May and 30 new small friends in June).

Because both nanoscapes' geometric abstractions and whimsical small friends will be part of this project, the theme for 2012 will be "surprise!"  This first image is part of a 7-hippo family portrait which will join the small friends website next week.