Yeah, this is how geeky we really are... we sit around thinking up stuff like this

illustration by Cindy Garber Iverson

Sometimes it's hard to believe some things are possible

I've long been a fan of digital collage artists and designers such as Wendy Paula at Mulberry Muse (I've admired Wendy's French-inspired work for years), but I never had the courage to try my hand at it... until today.

Possessing the technical knowledge (and tools) necessary to build a collage piece hasn't really been my issue. The process of finding just the right vintage illustrations to combine together just always seemed daunting. I just didn't believe I could actually do it. I finally decided last night I should just try it--determining that if I failed, I could fail privately and no one would know the difference.

I really wanted to do something Christmas-y. I found a lovely antique fashion plate of a woman in gown trimmed in red. That was a good start.

Then I had to put in her a setting. I wanted something a bit on the whimsical and fanciful side. I thought it would be neat to have her walking through a snowy forest. I went over the Graphics Fairy blog to hunt around and see if she had anything I could use. She did! What I found was a bonus, because I had also envisioned incorporating a reindeer or moose image too.

As I set to work on the long process of digitally restoring, enhancing, and altering the antique images, a story began to form in my mind. Here's the story that unfolded as the digital collage came to fruition...

On Christmas Eve, the annual festive holiday ball was being held at the estate of one of the wealthiest families in the county. Close to midnight, the belle of the Christmas ball walked out onto the veranda for some air. 

Just off the veranda was a pretty-ish sort of wilderness. The newly fallen snow reflected the light of the full moon and glistened back at the twinkling lights of the ballroom.  

As the belle stood alone at the edge of the veranda, she thought she heard the soft jingle of sleigh bells coming from within the forest. Her ears must be deceiving her, she thought. The horses and sleighs that had carried all the guests to the ball were housed in the stables far away on the other side of the estate. 

The belle was flushed from dancing and the glowing fire in the hearth of the ballroom. She didn't feel the chilly nip in the air on her bare arms as she stepped off the veranda into the edge of the woods to investigate.  

Only a few steps into the snow-covered thicket, she was greeted by a timid yet curious reindeer. She should have been frightened, but she was not. Why she wasn't, she didn't know--she just knew she was enveloped by a calm serenity. The reindeer lowered its head and gently nuzzled the belle's outstretched gloved hand. 

Just then the belle heard a rustle and the faint jingle of sleigh bells again. From behind a tree not far away, she thought she heard a soft and jolly baritone chuckle. 

"Could he really be real?" she asked herself, "Can I really believe?" 

Free ecards or invites

Personalized Christmas cards

Swallowtails, palms and why procrastination is sometimes a good thing for an artist

"Swallowtail on lilac" by Cindy Garber Iverson
digitally painted photograph
Fine art reproductions available here 

Around here it's still too hot outside to start the big garden projects Hubby and I have lined up. Based on the weather forecast, we'll probably have to wait until the first of November to get a cool down significant enough to go out and start moving big rocks, digging post holes with an auger and breaking a sweat. No one wants to do that when it's threatening to be 90F (32C).

And lest anyone think this is due to global climate change... it isn't. This is typical for October.

"Queen palm" by Cindy Garber Iverson
digitally painted photograph
Fine art reproductions available here 

Because our days are shorter now, I don't get the lovely twilight hours I get during the summer to putter in the garden. So that means I'm mostly inside in the studio creating and keeping busy.

I've been creating some "for fun" pieces the past couple of days. It's nice when I can just hunt around in my photo archives and pull something that strikes me fancy. Then I bring it into Photoshop and start to play. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's just nice to have my stylus in my hand making "brushstrokes" and digitally painting something. I find it therapeutic. I have lots of time to get lost in my own thoughts and ponder things. It's a form of meditation for me.

And sometimes I'll have something that I got about two-thirds of the way done years ago and then never got back to finishing for one reason or another. Like this...

Send this as a free ecard here

I don't know why I never got around to finalizing it, but I'm glad it stayed in the archives for the past few years. I've learned more about my digital tools since then and have a better idea of how I like to use them to achieve a certain style. Because I waited on this, I was able to finalize a version that I think is more representative of what I do now in that style. Had I pushed myself and finalized it back then, it would have ended up as one of those pieces that I would always look at and say, "Eeew. That's definitely a practice portfolio piece." I have too many of those already. I'm glad this didn't become another one. Trust me. It would have based on what it looked like when I reopened it earlier today.

The swallowtail butterfly photograph (above top) was a photo I took 5 years ago and didn't really do anything with. Again, because I waited, I know my tools and my own style better now then I did then. I can create something now that I wouldn't have even ventured to create back then. I didn't know how, and I couldn't have envisioned at all.

Then there's the case of a photo like the one of the palm tree (above middle). I took that only a month ago when visiting my brother and sister-in-law. They have gorgeous queen palms lining their backyard. I took the photograph, got it home and wasn't impressed with the backlit result I'd gotten. It wasn't until I had the time to just play with it yesterday that I happened upon the right post-processing techniques for that particular image. If I'd pushed it when I first took the photo (and was busy with other creative work for clients), I probably wouldn't have gotten the result I wanted.

Sometimes procrastination pays off.

Why I love being an artist now more than ever

The above art is available on acrylic, metal, canvas and paper by clicking here 

This week I've had the awesome opportunity of working with a client on a piece of art for their home. The process I've gone through is a perfect example of why I love being an artist now more than ever.

I did the above mixed media piece a while back and have had it available in fine art reproductions for quite some time. The piece is a digital composition made up of an original watercolor painting, scanned objects (pearl jewelry) and an authentic vintage photo taken in San Francisco that I found in a family photo album.

How did I do it? Here's the cool part (well, it's cool to me) because there's no way I could have done this back when I was in art school before Photoshop existed (yes, there was a time when that was the case).

First, I painted the woman in watercolors (above). I actually painted her in two separate paintings. Her head was painted on a large scale (12 inches tall) so I could paint all the detail I wanted in the eyes, face and hair. Then I painted her body beside the head on the same piece of paper at the same height of 12 inches. Why 12 inches? Because that's width of the watercolor paper that fits on my large scale 12x17 art scanner.

You may have noticed that the woman's head is slightly more elongated in the original than in the final piece. That's because I decided to scale her head down a bit, so she had a more heart shaped face. I did that when I was marrying everything together in Photoshop to create the final piece.

Then a couple of years later (last week), I get a great email from a potential client asking if I could possibly recreate the piece with different colors to match the client's powder room in their late 1940's San Francisco home. The colors of the powder room? Sky blue with black and white octagonal floor tile. So retro wonderful!

Because the original art piece was done in pieces, I responded that I'd give it a go and see what I could come up with.

Voila!

The above art is available on acrylic, metal, canvas and paper by clicking here

There is no way I could have pulled this off without Photoshop. I was able to digitally divide the original painting even more than it had been before. After dividing out the various pieces of clothing so it looked a lot like a paper doll, I used Photoshop's powerful color manipulation tools to change the colors completely. Instead of an olive coat, I created a beautiful blue one. I manipulated the hot pink gloves, shoes, belt and skirt to be various shades of blue (I personally love the pale blue gloves). I changed the tone of the pearls so they weren't pink. I made the woman's lips more red. And I even changed her eye color.

Finally, I was able to give the client two different options to choose from--an all blue composition with a dash of coral (above) and then a multi-colored composition that has blue, coral and wheat (below). I think I prefer the all blue one best, because the woman really pops against that background.

The above art is available on acrylic, metal, canvas and paper by clicking here

I'm always surprised at how much I'm able to do now artistically thanks to the technological advances of the past 25 years. Being an artist now is better than being an artist at any other time in the world's history. And I'm sure I'll be saying that in another 25 years from now.

P.S. If you ever see something I've done that you love but want me to recreate it in different colors, email me. I'm always game for a challenge. I don't charge for the recoloring work. I can make it available for you to see what it would look like in a fine art reproduction and then you can decide if you wish to purchase it or not. 

The upside of having summer temps in October... autumn hibiscus

"Autumn hibiscus" 
digitally painted photograph by Cindy Garber Iverson
(available on fine art prints, canvases and cards by clicking here)

It doesn't feel like it's officially autumn around here (it won't until November), but I gotta say the hot temps are worth it when I see these beauties next to my front door. Cue the Hawaiian music please...

Orchids and dragonflies

There are many things I can grow in my garden, but one thing I can't grow is orchids.

However, my mom (who lives in a different micro-climate in the Bay Area) has the good fortune of having the perfect sheltered outdoor setting to grow cymbidium orchids where they are sheltered from frost in the winter and the hot rays of the sun in summer.

I was beyond delighted yesterday when she dropped by our cottage for a visit and brought me a sprig of yellow cymbidium orchid buds beginning to bloom!

Today, I took the opportunity to photograph them. In my mind, I could see the exact framing I wanted... the lighting... everything. It was just a matter of replicating what I saw in my head. Sometimes that's pretty difficult. Fortunately, this time the process of converting my mental image to a photograph wasn't too bad.

And once I got the photographing done, of course I had to "play" and create a digitally painted photo with it that I could use as the base for a new stationery design.

I wanted a sort of "zen" feel to the finished image... something restful with a strong sense of nature woven through it in a subtle way. As I worked on it, I decided that dragonflies were a must. I used a very old Japanese silk painting for reference and drew minimalist dragonflies to overlay faintly in the background. Little by little it took shape until I was seeing on the computer screen something similar to the image from my head. When I can successfully make that transition it makes all the painstaking effort worth it.

The above image is available as a free e-card or e-vite at pingg

This image is also available on customizable printed invites

Enter Lady Spring

I was laying in bed last week just beginning to wake up, when I had an image come into my head. It was the image of a Marie-Antoinette-type woman whose big bouffant hair became clouds. The more I thought about her, the more she formed in my mind until I finally had to go into the studio and sketch her out (that doesn't happen very often for me). Since then, I've been working on her when I can. Despite missing the first day of spring, I finally completed her today.

The composition is a symbolic representation of the entrance of spring and reads from left to right with the beginning of spring (March) being on the left progressing through to the end of spring (May and June) on the right. I wanted to represent how spring comes in chilly and ends with beautiful blue skies. I did this in two ways. First, I made her dress a lighter grey on the left-hand side with the dress becoming a deeper blue as the eye moves right. Second, the movement in the background on the left represents the wind and bluster of spring's beginnings and then the calm tranquil background on the right represents what late spring is like.

I adorned Lady Spring with blossoms from the spring garden. The trim on her dress is made up of hundreds of almond blossoms (the first flower of spring). The almond blossom petals are carried on the winds of March which are represented by the fan she carries. Lady Spring also has crocus, periwinkle, jonquils, lilacs, daffodils, roses, and tulips adorning her gown.

Lady Spring is followed by her puffy grey tabby as a nod to the old adage "March comes in like a lamb, and goes out like a lion". Kitty has her own little adornments of spring blossoms around the base of her tail--jonquils and almond blossoms.

I did the entire composition digitally in Photoshop from beginning to end (even the first sketching that I usually do in pencil on paper). I used a lot of new techniques I haven't used before too. Usually when I do that, I'm not very happy with the result because the methods are so new, but this time the art came out just like I was seeing it in my head. That's a sign to me that I'm making creative progress.

"Enter Lady Spring" is available in fine art prints, canvases & greeting cards by clicking here

Once there was only Constance...

Last week, I had the choice opportunity to do something I love to do... customize an existing illustration for a specific need.

It started with an email from Norien of the Trenton Chapter of The Girl Friends Inc. She had found my "Play it again" design (above) online and wondered if I would consider doing a version with a woman of color for invitations to an upcoming event that the design was perfect for other than the fact that the singer (Constance is her name) is a redhead with a very fair skin tone.

My answer was, "You bet!"

It was such a privilege to be creating something for one of the 45 chapters of The Girl Friends, Inc.--the oldest social/civil organization of African-American women in the United States founded during the Harlem Renaissance in 1927 by eleven young women based on friendship and community.

Norien told me what the event's theme colors would be, and based on that a new version of "Play it again" was born showcasing a new singer I named Lena (below) after one of my personal icons, Lena Horne.

I then modified Lena's layout to create a custom suite of party accoutrements including everything from a design to be printed on CD's that would be handed out to those in attendance to a version of Lena on cupcake box tags.

Unbeknownst to Norien, I had been looking for excuse to set aside some time to do various versions of Constance. After I completed Lena, I took advantage of the head of steam I had and created girlfriends for Constance and Lena.

Astrud (below) is inspired by one of my all-time favorite singers, Astrud Gilberto. Known for her amazing Brazilian samba and bossa nova her most famous recording is "The Girl From Ipanema" from 1964.

And Doris (below) is inspired by a young Doris Day when she was a big band singer for Les Brown before she ever appeared on the big screen. Did you know that Doris was destined to become a dancer until, while a young teen, a car she was riding in was hit by a train? The accident severely crushed her right leg. During recuperation she taught herself to sing while listening to Ella Fitzgerald on the radio.

I love the quartet of girlfriends. And Constance isn't lonely anymore.

You can send any of the above designs free as an ecard or invite by clicking here.

I'm finally publicly sharing my Disney California Poppy Series paintings

Over four years ago Hubby and I visited Disneyland. While there we stopped in the art gallery on Main Street and ended up having a very long chat with the cast member who worked in the gallery about the paintings on display that were beautiful interpretations of classic Disney characters by various artists employed by Disney. It was wonderful to see the iconic characters revisited through the eyes of each artist. That conversation fanned the embers of the dormant creativity that was beginning to burn inside me again. As we wandered through Disney California Adventure later in the day, I conceived the idea of doing a series of mixed media shadowboxes that incorporated my own watercolor interpretations of different classic Disney characters into compositions with California poppies and call it my Disney California Poppy Series.

The first I created was Tinkerbell. It was a first in another way too because it was the first time I had painted with watercolors in a very long time. I reproduced the original painting into hi-res prints that I handcut, layered, glued to wood blocks, and embellished to create the shadowbox art below.

The Tinkerbell shadowbox hangs on my studio wall today as a reminder of what motivated me to begin creating and painting again.

I painted and created a shadowbox with Snow White next.

In order to have copies for my portfolio that I was slowly populating I also created digital versions of the shadowbox art in Photoshop (which is what you see above).

But I didn't share my work publicly. I guess I thought that because it was connected to Disney that I couldn't. I figured that unless I was an official licensed Disney artist I wouldn't ever be able to share my work with others beyond my family and close friends. So I've kept my paintings private for all these years. That insecurity about sharing them eventually led to me abandoning the rest of the series all together. I put away the many sketches that were all ready and waiting for me to paint them and bring them to life with full color.

Since that time, I've watched as social networking platforms such as Pinterest have caused an upsurge in the sharing of art. As I've nosed around I've come across many beautiful reinterpretations of Disney characters (click here to see some). Some of my favorites have been of the iconic character Mary Poppins (click here to see some).

It finally hit me that I probably should share my own work even if I wasn't an official licensed Disney artist!

That's the first big leap I'm taking with this post. The second big leap is that I'm also sharing a work-in-progress that I need to finish (something I rarely do). It's always been hard for me to share unfinished works or rough drafts of anything. I drove my college art history professors crazy because I'd never want to show them my papers in rough form. If I was ever a published author (something I'd like to be someday) I'd probably drive my editors nuts too, so I really need to overcome this tendency.

So taking my cues from illustrators I admire, and I am sharing a piece of art before it is complete.

This is Alice on a Golden Afternoon in the California Poppy Series. I'm thinking she won't become a shadowbox. Instead I'll complete the painting of each character and then digitally marry them against a background I paint once I know what I want.

Picking up where I left off after years of a hiatus is going to be tricky, but I think I can do it. Alice is my next big creative hurdle I must clear. Wish me luck.

In a not-so-far-distant land...

On the edge of a very big city called San Francisco, is a misty magical forest.

And in the middle of the misty magical forest is a beautiful palace.

The palace is guarded by a lion.

The lion lies at the palace gates every day

and gazes out beyond the misty forest to the sea and the hills beyond the sea.

Through the mist, the hills on the other side of the sea

appear to be giant's toes dabbling in the waters.

The old lion thinks he is guarding the palace from the giant...

and no one tells the lion otherwise.

Just inside the palace gates,

one of the world's greatest thinkers sits and thinks very sage thoughts.

Inside the palace live many important people.

Courtiers converse with grand dames of elegance and refinement.

Queens grace the halls wearing their royal jewels and finery.

And despite the lion guarding the palace from giants that will never invade,

The world's greatest thinker pondering the universe,

And all the royalty walking and conversing with utmost refinement...

The palace cat must still endure all manner of indignities

at the sticky fur-grabbing hands of the palace tot.

All photos taken

at the Palace of the Legion of Honor museum of art

in San Francisco, California

Learning from Georges Seurat about the brushstrokes of life

Hubby surprised me by taking an extra day off after the long Labor Day weekend and suggested we go into the city and visit the Legion of Honor, an art museum permanently housing some of the most famous pieces of art of all time. I was thrilled! It felt like we were playing hooky for the day and going to see great art just like Ferris Bueller did in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

And like Ferris and his friends in the film, we had the choice experience of viewing an original painting by Georges Seurat. Thankfully, photography is allowed in the permanent collections so I could capture the experience of seeing a Seurat up close.

Each brushstroke is so beautiful when examined at close range. Some are brilliant colors with texture and vibrance. From this perspective each can be seen individually.

Taking a step or two back, the detail of each brushstroke recedes while the interplay of each brushstroke with its adjacent neighbors becomes more apparent.

Another few steps back, and the brushstrokes stop looking like brushstrokes. Then they seem to be dots that make up larger forms.

Finally, at a distance the individual dots aren't even apparent as the eye sees the whole picture of forms, shadows and highlights that Seurat created with thousands of small brushstrokes of many colors.

In that quiet gallery, many thoughts ran through my head...

Life is made up of moments, each like a tiny brushstroke with its own unique texture, brilliance, vibrance and color. Each relationship that influences my life, good and bad, adds a brushstroke with special nuances. Each experience I go through, good and bad, adds a brushstroke.

In Seurat's painting, muted, dark, or grey brushstrokes are necessary to create dimension, to accent the highlights or to anchor a form. Not every brushstroke can be a brilliant and vibrant color.

The dark and grey times in my life are like the dark and grey brushstrokes.

If I over focus on one of those dark or grey brushstrokes, I miss seeing how that one brushstroke fits into the greater whole of my life--how it is necessary in order to create the shapes and compositions that make up who I am.

Not every experience or relationship in my life can be brilliant and vibrant. Some must be muted. Some must have hints of grey. And some must be dark. I need them to give my character dimension. I need them to accent the high points because I cannot know the sweet without the bitter. I need them to anchor my soul in the faith which is born from affliction.

Behind the Scenes: "Building" a Snowman (a work in progress)

As I often do, I tried to cram one too many designs on my "to do" list for my 2010 holiday designs. I was done and then decided to do "just one more". I was mostly done with it when I lost my head of steam. When this happens with a seasonal piece, I put it aside until the next year rolls around--which is what will happen with this snowman sketch.

Poor little snowman... it isn't his fault.

Then I decided he would be a good behind-the-scenes subject for a blog post. So Mr. Snowman does get to have some fun this year after all!

Above is the rough scan of the pencil sketch of Mr. Snowman. I do all my preliminary sketching by hand in one of my various sketchbooks (one for small sketches, one for large sketches and one for on-the-road sketching).

After I've scanned in the pencil sketch, I bring it into Photoshop CS3 and perform clean-up with the help of my Wacom Cintiq digital tablet. I do this because I want all the specks and flecks that are picked by the scanner up from the white paper to not transfer when I print out the outline sketch onto watercolor paper.

Next I print out the snow man on a piece of 12x17 watercolor paper using my Canon Pro9000 ink jet printer. I choose this size because that's the largest I can scan once the painting is done. Even if the original sketch isn't that large, I enlarge it to fill the paper.

Then I secure the watercolor paper that has the printed outline on it to my painting board, I break out the watercolors, and I begin painting.

Oftentimes, I will scan the painting after completing one stage (in this case the black hat and coal buttons). This is a good practice for me just in case I do something I don't like later in the painting process. If I do, I can always reprint the outline and repaint the elements I didn't like and then digitally marry them with the elements I did like from previous scans.

There is a quality of painting that I can only get with watercolor and haven't been able to replicate digitally. I paint the shapes and elements that I want to have that quality. In this case, I wanted a certain look to the shading as well as a certain brushstroke for each piece of the fringe of his scarf. At that stage, I scanned the painting again and brought it back into Photoshop CS3.

After some clean-up using the Wacom Cintiq again, I decided to apply one of my photo textures to Mr. Snowman to make him look more like he was made of snow (see the texture below).

Click on texture above to download for free

I also added some additional shading and highlights over the top of the snow to get this...

Although Mr. Snowman may look like he's done, he really has a way to go. I have to paint the additional elements like the holly berries for his hat and the patterns for the gifts he's carrying. Those will get painted separately and added digitally. Mr. Snowman is also going to need a snazzy background so he isn't floating in white space. And I'll have to design the layouts specifically for each thing he goes on. A 5x7 card layout is much different than an iPhone case and that's different from an e-card/e-vite (the list can go on and on). I may even offer him with different colored scarves and mittens... I don't know. All that work will happen when I begin putting together my 2011 holiday designs.

Mr. Snowman will wait until then. Luckily, he won't melt.

Pearls of color filled with air

Digitally painted photograph

The above image is available in fine art prints and photographs by clicking here

Behind the Scenes: Little Halloween Witch (and her kitten) from sketches to painting

It's time for another "behind the scenes" post about my latest painting "Little Halloween Witch" so you can see the progression I went through to create it.

Every painting always starts out as a rough pencil sketch in one of my sketchbooks (I have several). Usually the sketches aren't in scale with one another. Rarely are they the size of what the finished painting will be. And often elements of the same finished composition aren't even on the same page in the sketchbook! Sometimes I don't know if I'm going to combine elements into one composition until much later in the process.

The sketching phase is the time to just get shapes and elements worked out. LOTS of erasing happens during this phase (you can even see my eraser lines if you look closely).

Once I like a sketch enough to take it on to the next phase, I scan it into the computer using my Epson Expression 10000 XL flatbed scanner that has a large glass especially for art. The digital version of the scan is cleaned up in Photoshop so all the eraser lines and boo boo's. It's at this point that I correct any proportion issues within the sketch by cutting and pasting pieces.

I'm left with a clean sketch that I reduce the opacity on so it looks like a light pencil sketch. I print the sketch onto regular watercolor paper that I send through my Canon Pro 9000. Even though my Canon can print up to 13x19 prints, I cut the watercolor paper down to 12x17 so it's the maximum size that my scanner will take once the painting is done.

Next, I tape the watercolor paper to a drawing board using white drafting tape. Then it's time to get out the brushes and paints! This is my favorite part. I love turning on iTunes and painting.

This painting process can take hours or days. Sometimes I can sit down and do a painting from start to finish all in one sitting (the black kitten for this painting was like that). But usually I work on different pieces of the painting, set it down, walk away, and then come back with fresh eyes and a clear head after a long break (sometimes overnight). I often do that several times. Even though I paint with a portable fan nearby to dry the paints quickly if need be, sometimes it's good for me to let the painting sit and let all the moisture in the paper really dry so I don't have to worry about cross-bleed between colors that are touching one another. That's the real secret to watercolors. Dry paper works like a "dam" with the paint that will usually only spread on moist or wet paper. When I'm painting something like the little witch's hair against the black hat, I definitely can get bleeding from one to the other. I have to let the paper completely dry or it would ruin it. That's when overnight drying is essential.

Even though the paintings look like they're done at this point, they usually aren't.

I scan them into the computer again using my flatbed art scanner. Then with Photoshop, I clean up any "oopsies" that happen (like when my hand spazzes and the paintbrush flies across the painting leaving a trail of purple paint in its wake).

After clean-up, I go in and digitally paint highlights like the little white sparkle in the eyes. I could do this last step with watercolors, but I have more flexibility if I do it digitally. I can try various placements and opacities on the highlights without altering the original painting.

The final step is to take the finalized art and place it in a composition so it can be used as stationery or reproduced as a print. Sometimes the two compositions will look very similar to one another and only differ in size to accommodate the end product. But other times (like this time) I can get creative and do a crisp "tight" version for use in e-cards/e-invites and then an "artsy" version for prints.

I still can't decide which one I like better. I think I like them both for different reasons.

Click here to send this e-card/e-invite for free

Click here to see this painting in fine art reproduction prints, canvases and cards