Wealie's World » photoshop

Swirling Doodles Make Great Patterns

Ruth Weal — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:15:06 +0000

I’ve been busy doodling again and my current doodling obsession has been back with curves and swirls. I haven’t stopped at just the doodling though, I’ve been making use of my new Adobe Illustrator CS5 skills to make my original doodles into some funky patterns that make saleable artwork. However, the process from a wandering doodle to a vector pattern is not an easy one.

I always work best with pen and paper and rarely doodle in any other way, but transferring those designs to a computer and retaining their detail and textures always has some drawbacks. I scan all my doodles in as bitmap files using my scanner, but this creates a lot of noise and a large file size. I also often use unusual inks, especially bright vibrant gel inks like metallics, glitter gel inks and Zebra Super-Marble Gel Rollerball pens, which give you three different colour inks in each pen. The ink looks great on paper, but some of the detail gets lost in the scanning process. You can buy a pack of 6 Zebra Super-Marble Gel Rollerball pens from Amazon for only £4.69, which I used to create many of the original doodles shown below.

In Photoshop CS5 I do my best to clean up the noise and bring up the contrast so the design is more visible, but to make a pattern that can be blown up and/or reduced in size without losing quality and retaining smooth edges requires converting the image into vectors. To do this I use Illustrator CS5 where I have to painstakingly draw round each of the individuals curves and swirls of a doodle and then colour the shapes. Then I’m able to play around and make my patterns. It probably sounds like a painstaking and time consuming affair and you’d be right, but it is also a labour of love.

For your viewing pleasure below are my original doodles scanned and tidied up in Photoshop together with the vector patterns that I created in Illustrator.

Happy doodle trails!

Wealie x

Swirlycules - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Swirlycule Pattern - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Curlicues - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Firery Curlicues Pattern - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Green Curlicues Pattern - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Swirl Dance - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Swirly Frame Pattern - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Coloured Swirl Dance Pattern - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Swirly Emblem - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Swirly Emblem Pattern - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Octoswirl - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Firery Swirls Pattern - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Swirlpool - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Swirlpool Pattern - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Primeval Swirls - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Primeval Swirls Pattern - Copyright R.Weal 2011

Dark thoughts run deep

Ruth Weal — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 21:56:27 +0000

I don’t see darkness in quite the same way as many people. For me it isn’t quite so simple as black and white, or good and evil. For me the darkness is an equally valid part of our beings, the yin to the yang, bottom to the top, without it we are at best unbalanced and unfulfilled, at worst lacking in an essential knowledge and control of our more impulsive shadows.

Those who have never explored their darker self, nor tread the beat of their darker thoughts are only half the person they could be and therefore cannot truly claim to know themselves. Sometimes those who have only lived in the light are ill prepared for when life slips them into darkness. They sink beneath the rough waves, born away on a current of strong emotions which they are unable to understand or control.

In all things there must be balance, day has the night, the light, the darkness, man stands beside woman, youth becomes age and life becomes death. The secret is how we exist between the extremes and the quest for the balance that we find within them the greatest pursuit of life.

The picture and poem “Dark thoughts run deep” explores aspects of my darker side, my ability to get caught up in abstract thought, which can if I’m not careful lead me to abstraction. I have an ambivalent relationship with my Dark sister, my shadow muse, she is the well source of my art and inspiration, but she also has the power to pull me down into sorrow and depression if I listen too intently to her insidious whispers.

Embrace the darkness, but remember always to keep a hold of the light.

Wealie x

Dark thoughts run deep - Copyright R.Weal 2008

DARK THOUGHTS RUN DEEP

Dark thoughts run deep
They can steal us from the very day itself
Absorbing us in their ceaseless quest for answers
Immersing us in the emotional depths of our core
Removing us from the opportunities of living
Making us less even as we explore ourselves more
Dark thoughts run deep it’s true
But we must remember that we are here and to live is what we do!

Ruth Weal
27 April 2008 7.07 pm
Copyright R.Weal 2008 ©

Ghost of Me

Ruth Weal — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 00:01:08 +0000

Well this isn’t really a Halloween post, but the title does have a Ghost in it

Ghost of Me is the self portrait below that I tripped out in Photoshop to get a very different feel. It was one of the first times that I played with selective re-colouring and I purposefully chose larger than life colours to convey a sense of unreality to the picture. It’s me, but it’s not me, almost only an echo, or ghost if you will, hence the title. I used the same base self portrait for another photo, “Fade Me Not“, which has an altogether more challenging attitude about it. It’s amazing what a little tinkering can do to change the mood of a picture, if only life were as simple!

The poem “As My Destiny Wends” started to take shape in my mind as I was editing the picture. For some time I’d been toying with the idea of having a poem that was just made up of a series of seemingly unanswerable and self referencing questions. The look in my eyes in Ghost of Me seemed to have an imploring, questing sense to them once I’d added the blue re-colour. The eyes invited that sort of poem to work with them and who was I to argue. So the questions just poured forth and a rather esoteric little introspection of the workings of the Wealie mind at that time was born!

Here’s hoping we all find our feet on the path where our destinies wend!

Wealie x

Ghost of Me - Copyright R.Weal 2007

AS MY DESTINY WENDS

How do we find truth when light obscures the door?
Where do we find answers when the questions are never more?
Who then will be my guide when the path is never set?
Why then should I trust the word of those I have not met?
Wherein lies the truth if the lie is at my feet?
How then will you recognise which face of mine to greet?
Who then can tell me how this calamity will end?
Will I ever know where my destiny will wend?

Ruth Weal
5.50 pm 20 March 2008
Copyright R.Weal 2008 ©

Between the rapture and the ruin

Ruth Weal — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 23:53:28 +0000

Today’s article is about life and what it is that truly defines our existence, that makes our lives of worth and value. It took me a while to come to terms with the fact that it wasn’t the great moments of my life that defined it, but the great divide between them. I spent far too long searching for those perfect moments or wallowing over the moments of pure anguish to realise that I was wasting the days I was actually living in. I was merely existing, in a perpetual waiting room, listening for my number to be called so that I could move from one great moment to the next, only to find that the moment passes in the blink of an eye and then I was back in another waiting room, eerily like the last.

Don’t get me wrong, the great moments are obviously important, they shape our views and opinions, send us down one path and close off another forever, but we only ever exist in a finite space and time and those great moments are over almost before they’ve begun. I live right here, right now, in this space, in this very moment – I’ll likely remember it for the rest of tonight, I may remember it tomorrow, maybe even in a week, but the clarity of it will surely fade with time, because the importance of this moment was fairly low in the scheme of my life. But like all the memories I have of keeping this blog, it will join the amalgam of feelings I am building, of the contentment and catharsis, the joy and fulfilment that I associate with this space where I freely share something of my art, my views and feelings.

Maybe an example will help clarify my meaning! I can’t remember every experience of writing or painting, but I remember painting Convergence after my Nan died, how that individual piece helped me to make sense of my feelings. Then there’s the poem “Witness to the Storm” that was such a powerful and liberating experience of writing my very spirit and essence onto the page in a visceral and enlightening experience. Those two memories stand out loud and proud, they were pivotal pieces of art that happened and became defining moments in my life, but even as important as they are, they fail to match the overriding sense of purpose, rightness, contentment, catharsis and achievement that my experiences as a whole of creating art over the years of my life has given me. That body of work to date started as early as 7, when I used to make up stories for my little sisters and comes right up to now, to this blog post I’m writing at this very moment. Together the collective span of artistic experiences have and will continue to shape my life immeasurably, the collective emotions of those memories are far more important that one single stand out experience.

So that’s what the poem “Between the Rapture and the Ruin” is all about, those seemingly insignificant moments that make up the majority of our lives, that when brought together have the weight and gravitas to create those emotional caveats around our repeated experiences and to elevate the mundane and familiar memories to a status beyond import. The rapture tonight is my words, weaving around me, spilling forth like a font of spiced wine, captivating me as they haven’t for a while and the ruin is a picture, a place I have visited so many times in my life, a beautiful ruined castle that speaks to me on a deep and personal level – Corfe Castle in Purbeck, Dorset, on the South West coast of England.

I took this picture in 2009 on my birthday, it was a beautiful, hot, sunny day, with some truly atmospheric cloud formations that worked very well with the high contrast, black and white treatment. It seemed a fitting picture to put with this poem.

Take a moment why don’t you to contemplate the great divide between the rapture and the ruin in your life and hopefully you’ll find something magical too, maybe even an ephemeral wisp to hold on to.

Wealie x

Corfe Castle - Copyright R.Weal 2009

BETWEEN THE RAPTURE & THE RUIN

Life is not the moments that define it
Not the rapturous joy
Nor the ruinous pain
Life is the moments in between
Each sunrise
Every sunset
Everything you have ever been and all you are not yet
The cumulative clamour of your every heartbeat
Every reckless breath
Each considered thought
All your comforting words and thoughtless taunts

Life is not the moments that define it
It is the passing through of the seasons
The time that so easily slips unnoticed through the fingers
The complete volume of all your tears both sorrow and joy
Your every seasoned plan or Machiavellian ploy
Each tremulous smile
Every small slight
The sum of all your warm kisses and bitter delights
Every delicate touch
Each blundered fumble
It’s every moment through which you’ve soared or tumbled

Life is not the moments that define it
It’s the passage in between
Grant me not great joy
But spare me great pain
The sincerest wish I ponder
That there is a man with whom I might wander
Who will share with me contentment
Between the rapture and the ruin
Be a part of me like a second skin
On whom I might always lean
Who’ll live with me in the ephemeral wisps of the moments in between

Ruth Weal
14 April 2008 8.22 pm

Copyright R.Weal 2008 ©

Written in an ephemeral wisp, of a moment in between

Dark Goddess

Ruth Weal — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 23:00:38 +0000

Lady Luna Faces - Copyright R.Weal 2007

I’ve been fascinated by mythology
since I was a young girl, lapping up
any stories of King Arthur, Robin Hood, Sinbad the Sailor and anything Egyptian, Norse and Arabian. I distinctly remember the first time I saw Ray Harryhausen’s depictions of Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans, which created a passion for any Roman and Greek mythology.

In the 1990s a series of 99p mythology books graced my bookshelves in pride of place, which opened me up to a whole new world of mythology that I had previously only touched upon lightly in my Religious Education classes back at school. Suddenly my mind was alive with Hinduism and the Maya.

All the places I dreamed of travelling to were rich with sources of mythology and colourful cultures that still celebrated them.

I remember watching documentaries on different cultures and histories with my Dad, dreaming of climbing Mayan temples, entering darkened Egyptian tombs and attending colourful Hindu festivities in India at the mouth of the Ganges.

However it is the concept of the “Goddess“, the idea of the sacred feminine and the triple goddess, the maiden, mother and crone that has always drawn me the most.

Triple Goddess Symbol waxing, full and waning

More specifically I’ve been drawn to those goddesses that are associated with independence, strength, fertility, sexuality, love, creation and the moon. The Egyptian mother goddesses Isis and Hathor, the Sumerian goddess of creation Innana and her Babylonian and Assyrian incarnation Ishtar, the Greek moon goddesses Hecate and Selene, who is also known as Luna and the Roman goddess of the moon and hunt - Diana. I’ve also been drawn to Kali, the Hindu goddess of eternal energy, a dark and terrifying force.

The moon itself has always had a strange and mystical pull for me, stripping away the bonds of social constraint and freeing me to find the darker realities within myself, which is where I reach out and find my creativity. My art comes from a dark place, it isn’t pretty and it isn’t always easy for me to birth it, but the process is cathartic, taking the darkness out of me and leaving me able to function in a society that I often feel disconnected and removed from.

The poem Dark Goddess is about that dark place within me, which almost seems to have it’s own feminine personality, which commands and demands me to create, whether it be poetry, paintings or photography like the picture above “Lady Luna Faces”, which is a combination of self portraits overlaid upon a full moon capture. Both the poem and the picture were created at the bidding of the Dark Goddess within me, my dark muse, my alter ego, sometimes she calls me to oblivion and depression, other times she lifts me to great heights of passion and creativity. She is a double edged sword a powerful force and perhaps at times scarily redolent of the goddess Kali incarnate within me.

May the dark goddess bless you this night and the force of all creation burst forth within you.

Wealie x

DARK GODDESS

Goddess I am yours, come channel your night within me
My darkness calls out to thee
I feel your silken breath upon my skin
I taste your power sublime within
Let me be your vessel this night
Le me show them how darkness can be bright
Enfold me in your dark embrace
Paint your visage across my face
Birth me from your darkened womb
Free me from my daylight tomb
Let the day be gone
Let me voice your siren song
Seduce them through my darkened eyes
Dispel from me all society’s lies
Dance away my every duress
Peace and solitude in my hands do press
Bless me with your righteous kiss
Dissolve me in the night’s true mist
Goddess I am yours to command
You have only to guide my hand
Dark Goddess your daughter calls to you
What would you have her do?

Dusk’s Women

Ruth Weal — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 22:16:32 +0000

I may have mentioned before that I’m more likely to witness dusk than dawn. I feel a strange affinity with that time of the day, maybe it’s because I love the night so much and the dusk is always the herald of night’s arrival. However, I do feel there is a very mystical and visceral quality to the dusk that always draws me to capture it in images and try to convey some of the emotions it engenders in words.

Tonight I want to share with you two Photoshop creations using the same sunset shot in the background. The original sunset shot was heavily manipulated and then overlaid with stylised self portraits. The finished creations were called Lady Dusk and Dusk’s Daughter respectively and each had a short poem written to accompany the picture, to give a full artistic creation.

Of the two I think Lady Dusk is my favourite, it’s altogether darker in both the visual and poetic compositions, with the poetry exploring the mystical element of the dusk, the quickening between night and day. Dusk’s daughter is a much lighter, brighter and optimistic visual style, with a very short verse that is all about rebirth. Both the pictures and their verses are below, be sure to let me know which one’s your favourite!

Tread safely in the light and find me in the newborn night.

Wealie x

LADY DUSK

Born of the twilight
Between the light & the dark
The bridge between the worlds
A sacred piece of ancient art
Daughter to one
Mother to the other
In the waxing & waning
A lady born wild and free
Everything you wish and wish not to be

DUSK’S DAUGHTER

As the sun fades my blood kindles
As the warmth wanes my soul awakens
As the dusk dawns I am reborn

Don’t cry before the rain

Ruth Weal — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 01:50:23 +0000

This picture inspired the poem of the same name. Whilst out on a photography trip in town it started to rain. Taking shelter under the bridge I saw the patterns of the rain on the river and the title of the poem and picture “Don’t cry before the rain” entered my head.

I combined an existing self portrait that I had taken in a moment of sadness with the picture of the rain splattered river and this was the result. As I uploaded the pic to flickr the rest of the poem was born.

I hope you like the picture and the poem.

DON’T CRY BEFORE THE RAIN

Don’t cry before the rain
Let it come and wash away the pain
Let the raindrops conceal your tears
Let the water balm your pain and wash away your fears
Let the storm remake you anew
Let the wind blow and return to you
Don’t cry before the rain
Let it come and absolve your sins and never be the same

They called her the gypsy

Ruth Weal — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 17:08:59 +0000

I took this picture when I got home after attending a fantastic Buena Vista Social Club Gig that I attended with my dancing friends back in 2008. We had an after show party and several of the band members joined us, which made for a very memorable end to a fantastic night.

When I got home I felt inspired to do a little photo shoot and this was one of the shots. I later found out that the band members refered to me as Bonita Gitano Bailarín, which translates as pretty gyspy dancer, hence the title of the photo - The Gypsy.

As you probably guessed the image has been manipulated, I played around in Photoshop with it and using layers converted to sepia and recoloured the shawl back to red to get the distinctive two tone feel. I spent quite a lot of time editing the pic, but I was definitely pleased with the end result.

When it came to uploading the photo to flickr I remembered a short poem I wrote “A Spell”, which just seemed to fit with the image.

A SPELL

Night & Day
Black & White
Powers of Earth, Water, Wind & Fire
Grant me Strength of Heart
Bless me Clarity of Vision
Let me be my Own Decision