Something new

Happy Monday!

 Today I want to share something totally different. I tried my hand at illustration on the computer! While I have used the computer in many ways this was the first time I used Photoshop to colour any of my illustrations. I have to say I really enjoyed the process because it is so different from the way I normally colour my pieces.  Although I am not sure that I will use this technique often I am enjoying exploring its many possibilities.

I did start with pencil to paper and then scanned the images into the computer. I love the way that the scanner left an ombre effect on the backgrounds of the images.

 

All the images I then traced with my pen and tablet and the brush tool. I made separate layers for each of the colours and worked slowly from there. I am sure that there is a faster way to do what I did but I was happy with the results so it wasn't really important how long it took which wasn't really very long!

Speaking of trying new things...this week will be the first for a another project I have been working on. In the process of looking up and forward, I have been interviewing various owners and operators of businesses here in Playa. I want to get to know more of the people that are here, find out what brought them, how they came to their brilliant business ideas, and just generally discover what makes them tick. I am doing this in the hopes of searching out more of the culture in the area because finding like minded individuals with passions for art and design, good food and good music is what makes me tick! The interview subjects are from various backgrounds simply because I have a multitude of interests. I am seeking out owners of business that appeal to me and that I enjoy frequenting. So stay tuned this week and let me know what you think. Is there any place in Playa that you think I should visit? Let me know...

See you soon,
Megan

Experiments

Hello all, happy Friday!

In the spirit of looking up and looking forward, I find myself experimenting with the tools of my trade. I feel the need to grow into something different, to evolve a divergent head space. Today's photos are ones of experimentation. I wanted to play with the way I view light, I want to paint with it.
These particular shots are all long exposure at night.

Skeletons

I shifted the camera with both random and purposeful movements. My favorites being more the former than the later. 

River

Serpents

confetti

I think the last would be really cool as a large print on back light paper.


I think I am going to try LEDs next with me moving instead of the camera, stay tuned....


M

Looking up

Happy Friday Everyone!

I know it has been awhile but today is the day I jump back in to the blogging world! Sometime life just catches up with you or maybe you can't quite catch up with it.....either way sometimes you drop the ball. That is what happened to me over the summer. By the end of August life felt just like my parents described it to me when I was younger. Someday, I was told, I would get older and it would seem like the days just fly by, every time you turn around another week will have gone and you too will think what the heck just happened. I thought that they were full of it frankly. Summer days lasted forever and summer seemingly never ended. Now however, is exactly how they said it would be. Days zip by and I find myself thinking is it Friday? ALREADY!? What happened to the rest of the week? And so dear readers here we are...

Today is about looking up and looking forward, because you have to start somewhere right? So I am making some changes, adding some different responsibilities to my days. More photos and projects will appear here and I hope that you will join me for the ride.

 

 don't forget to look up....

Princess drinks

Hello all!

 Sometimes in a place of so much bright colour you are tempted to look just at the light. The magic of a black and white photo is that you focus on the shades of light and shadow you might otherwise miss. Last week we met up with our friend Michael for some sangria and I took the opportunity to point my lens at everyone. 

Not to be left out of the festivities my niece Caia was having a special juice that looked just like our princess drinks (everything special is currently referred to on a scale of princessness. The most special is anything that is like Mummy mermaid princess). She enjoyed it so much she had finished her first in few minutes. Not a shy and retiring child that I was at that age, she went up to the bar to get herself another.

 

Patiently waiting for her princess juice...

She did this I might add all by herself. Climbed up on the bar stool and waited very politely while we all gathered at the far end of the bar to watch. In the end Craig stepped in to help her down with the juice.

absolutely worth the wait!

2 1/2 going on 30.

Have a fantastic day full of princess drinks,

Megan

colour love

Hi there!

I have always been flummoxed by the idea of a favorite colour. How on earth can you possibly choose just one? I cannot even narrow it down to a family of colours. As a kid I would often say green, which also happened to be my Mom's favorite colour...but I could never really settle on a shade. And then I would think about other colours and how much I enjoyed them and want to pick another colour as well.

Today I still love colour...the subtlety of shades, the fade of ombre. Colour infuses everything we look at. I found this great template over at Pugly Pixel and it was the perfect excuse to start a little feature about colour. All the photos are ones that I took specifically because I loved the colours..I hope you do too.

some pretty shades of green and gold.

Have a spectacular weekend everyone!

Megan

Summertime

Hello there!

Today I am sharing a few more photos from my summer vacation. I miss Toronto! While I was there I had the chance to visit Hamilton, Ontario. I can tell you is was nothing like what I had expected. We were there to install some of Judith's works for this show. These are two of the works...

Afterwards there was some time to explore.....

There are of course very cool modern buildings as well but I don't have photos of them. It was the hottest day I had in Toronto and I was a little wilted by the end of our explorations.

I also loved putting together some pretty fabulous food this vacation, though not on the same day! While in Toronto, I have to say I took full advantage of the fact that I could eat the things I like without having to consider what my husband would eat. Sorry René! Judith and I both love fish and it was so nice to eat it!

These are called Blackberry Crush...you can find them here. Simple and delightful...

 Judith's shrimp in avocado. Still classic and delicious.

The main course

Ice cream cake brought by lovely dinner guest Margret.

 I hope that you are all enjoying a beautiful summer with fresh food and fancy drinks.

Megan

That's me!

Saint John, New Brunswick

Hi! Cara here. So, it turns out I actually have a lot of photos I like from Saint John, New Brunswick. Here is some of what I took during my four-hour excursion around the must-see sights of the area--toddler-free--just myself, my camera and roughly ten other individuals with digital SLRs accompanied by a local professional photographer (whose name I unfortunately did not write down at the time).

Located on the north shore of the beautiful Bay of Fundy, Saint John is famous amongst other things for the Moosehead Brewery, the Reversing Falls, its lobster, and being Canada's first city. Here is some of what I saw:

An ad for Moosehead brewery, founded in 1867 by a woman! This is just off the pier; you can see the reflection of our cruiseship in the bus window. This is near King St., the steepest street in Canada.

The Bay of Fundy experiences the highest tidal rise and fall in the world; in high tide when the Bay waters get funnelled into the St. John River rapids, it causes the water to flow in reverse. One of the main attractions in Saint John is the Reversing Falls where you can witness this. It was quite lovely, but I wasn't prepared for the unabashed presence of grey, smoke-spewing industry so close to this natural wonder. This is taken from the lookout point at the Reversing Falls; the natural wonder ends up being how the birds can breathe flying through the smokestacks of the Irving paper and pulp mill. 

This little guy didn't seem to mind the crowds.

New Brunswick is sparsely populated and 80 percent of it is woodland. I was blown away by how much space and untouched natural beauty is there. However, photographically, I was most looking forward to the "working wharf" segment of the excursion because I was imagining grizzled, sea-worn men, word-shy and labouring in the grey mist with their lobster traps. As it turns out, the wharf was a tranquil and almost deserted place visited by a few kayakers. There was mainly inanimate evidence that the fishing industry is still strong here, so I got a lot of photos of fishing apparatus. It was a ghostly but sensory experience, with the smell of sea air and wet sand, the lapping of slow waves, and the chilly wind in my face.

The only sign it was literally a "working wharf," and they seemed like a cheerful bunch.

That's it for now. I hope you all have a wonderful week. There are a lot of exciting things brewing for Field Day in the next month! Stay tuned for updates and more travel journal posts!