M e t v IImages ae My CCreative Promoting Digital Photo Artistry
www.mycreativeimages.com March 2019
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Editor’s notes March brings new life, growth longer days and the feeling of renewal. This month’s magazine will open your eyes to the possibilities of photo digital art and maybe awaken the thirst for more as we revisit the work of two artists featured in February with two special sections dedicated to the work of Bernie Tuffs and Barbro Paulsson. If that wasn’t enough to brighten your day then you are in for a treat as you sit and soak up the colours textures and stories hidden in the photo digital work from the other 8 talented artists featured this month.
Contents
Artwork by James Hurley
Vivien Capper 4 Bernie Tuffs 6 The Bernie Tuffs Interview 14 Norma Slack 16 Claude Trew 18 Tiyana Marjanovic 20 Susan Jones 22 Mike Gaskin 24 Dawn Spears 26 Barbro Paulsson 28 David Walker 36 James Hurley 38 Become a Featured Artist 40 Previous Issues 41 Support the magazine 42
Enough from me, turn the page and check out this month’s amazing photo digital artwork from a group of very talented contemporary artists. PS you can now purchase a copy of this magazine and enjoy the artwork every day rather than just online.
All images in this publication are sourced / created by the artists, unless otherwise stated on their websites or social media pages and as such must not be copied or sold without the express consent of the artist. This publication is created and owned by James Hurley, Šwww.mycreativeimages.com 2018. Please feel free to share the magazine but do not make changes to any of the content.
MyCreativeImages.com - Promoting Digital Artists
Vivien Capper Hello. My name’s Vivien and I’m from the beautiful county of Kent, England though currently living and working near Rome in delightful Italy with its exciting, lively way of life and vibrant colours and designs. I started out as an artist in 1982 developing Indian ink artwork of a variety of subjects especially figurative artwork and abstract floral designs. I then progressed into creative photography and digital artistry thanks to Sebastian Michael’s courses at ‘Photoshop Artistry’ and the advanced course ‘Awake’. My inspiration is drawn from my love of nature, figurative artwork and Italian design. I love using many textures, patterns and colours. I’m thrilled to have some of my artwork in various publications including: Living the Photo Artistic Life no.38 April 2018 and My Creative Images issues 1 to 5 (April-August 2018). I also gained an ‘honourable mention’ in the Shift Art Challenge in April 2018. More recently I was the winner of the Shift Art Challenge with a piece ‘The Mysterious Cobbled Street. If you would like to see some more of my art visit: https://artboja.com/art/6bn7zq/
Bernie Tuffs Hello! I’m Bernie and I live in the little seaside town of Margate and having lived here all my life, I couldn’t live anywhere else now! I’m continually inspired by the scenery here, with skies and light that so excited famous artist J. W. Turner, who said of this area, “…the skies over Thanet are the loveliest in all Europe”. Apparently, a love of the sea stayed with him all his life and I can well understand that! Painting with light holds a real attraction for me - the gentle light that is still strong enough to dispel darkness. I’ve always been arty, progressing from childhood sketching, through gouache and then oil painting, then paper crafting and scrapbooking which led me to digital scrapbooking and finally to Sebastian Michaels and Photo Artistry. Now I feel I’m home and am having so much fun with my art! If you would like to see some more of my art visit: https://artboja.com/art/utucc4/
Child Of The Stars
B
Beckoning Spring
Emergence
In Silence Remembered
Waiting
The Bernie Tuffs Interview
by VivienJane
M y Creative Imag e s – B e h in d t h e sce n e s
This month it’s a pleasure to interview one of our fantastic cover artists Bernie Tuffs who is based in Margate in Kent Bernie describes her work as a mix of Photography paired with artistic interpretation through Photoshop. The variety and beauty of her artwork is just amazing which should be evident from the art on the previous pages. This month she’s going to share some of her creative processes with us and tell us where she gets her main inspiration from.
Do you consider yourself to be more a photographer or a digital artist?
Although I love my photography, I’d have to call myself more of a digital artist. Photography for me is fun and such a pleasure, but my Photoshop Artistry is a passion and a necessity in life…it calls me and compels me to create!
When did you become interested in photography and digital art?
I can remember buying my first digital camera about 17 years ago. Before that I loved photography but was using film all the time – very expensive when sending them off to be developed! Back then I was a paper scrapbooker and was addicted to textured papers and embellishments…something that didn’t leave me when I joined the digital world. I can remember a friend trying to teach me Photoshop back then and I got nowhere. Digital scrapbooking was very much seen as the poor relation and deemed by other paper scrappers as an easy option! I begged to differ! Fast forward a few years and I took an Open University photography course which included a version of Photoshop Elements. We only used it for basic editing, but it was the start of everything for me. I found some online tutorials that actually made sense, websites with free challenges, inspiration and video tutorials, and started down my photoartistry path. Then, I suddenly heard a buzz about a fantastic Photoshop course that was really something else – so many fellow artists were signing up and raving about it and the art they were sharing was amazing – it was Sebastian Michaels’ Photoshop Artistry https://www.myphotoartisticlife.com/ I joined, and my knowledge and output exploded! From there, I joined Sebastian’s AWAKE course and am now also enrolled in his advanced KAIZEN group. It’s a case of never stopping practising and learning and I love it all!
Can you tell us a bit about your creative process and where you get your inspiration and ideas from? I’m really envious of artists who start a piece knowing what they want to put down on the digital canvas! That rarely happens for me! I usually start with a photo I’m particularly attracted to for some undefinable reason and go from there. I’m particularly inspired by nature. I’m lucky enough to live in a seaside town which also has agriculture and farming, so there’s plenty to inspire. Using models in my art has been a new experience for me, and one which I’ve enjoyed a lot, but I always like to add in natural elements in some way, even if they’re blended and unseen. I think that probably reflects my own desire to be part of nature, connected to the wildlife and plant life, not separated from the great outdoors by my four walls. Since my eldest daughter bought a foal to raise, I’ve had even more opportunities for that, and for taking lots of photos of textures to use in my artwork! My youngest daughter (16) is a new professional photographer and accompanying her on her photoshoots, always out on our beaches or in parks or forests, gives me my nature fix on a regular basis too.
What equipment and software do you use and which item is indispensable in your studio?
My camera is a Canon EOS 1000D and I use Photoshop CS6, with occasional use of Topaz products. I’d have to say I couldn’t do without the Photoshop.
What’s the next step in your artistic life?
I want to continue trying different things, learning through my courses, and getting to know the intricacies of Photoshop even better. As I said, I’ve always loved texture in my artwork, be that paper or digital, and so I’m planning on sorting the hundreds of texture photos I have and creating digital textures to share with other artists and perhaps even sell. I’m also going to print more of my artwork!
What would your advice be to an aspiring photographer/digital photo artist?
Do it because you love it. Don’t compare yourself to others or worry about how fast or slow your progress is. Just do it and love it. See the positive in every step of your journey – even pieces that don’t turn out as you’d like! You will have learned something from that! Oh, and keep your digital supplies well organised! As you can see, Bernie puts a lot of time and passion into her projects and artwork and produces some wonderful art. For more information contact Bernie ArtistBernieTuffs@gmail.com
Norma Slack I am a digital artist, writer and poet from beautiful Northern Ireland. I currently live in County Down, within sight of the majestic Mourne Mountains. I have been an enthusiastic photographer for many years but it was only when I discovered digital art that I finally felt able to create images that reflected both my emotions and vision. Every day I work towards improving my skills within the fascinating world of the digital workspace. For me it’s a place of magic, a place where I can give free reign to my imagination and create the type of art I feel connected to. About eighteen months ago I began to combine my new digital skills with my poetry and have recently published my first illustrated poetry book, Thunder In My Soul: a collection of illustrated poems. The book is now available at Amazon. It is a project I feel a strong emotional connection to and has been a labour of love. A free sample, along with a selection of my art, can be viewed on my website. You will also find me on Instagram @artbynormasue or on my website: https://www.normasue.com/
On the Beach
Beyond the Mirage
Pink Gerbera
Claude Trew I am a retired lady who is a keen photographer and I belong to a local camera club. However, while I enjoy entering the competitions organised by the club, I feel that the style of photographs that are most successful in club competitions is inhibiting my creative output. I am following some online courses to try to improve the artist in me. So far I have enjoyed every course I have done and hope to share my work with a bigger audience. This is an ongoing process.
Alone
Giant out of the sea
Help me
Tiyana Marjanovic Mr and Mrs Imagination All my life, my imagination has been my greatest love, while art, visual art, film and comic books are my passions. A marriage made in heaven! Artistic creation makes us beautiful and art has no time for religion or politics, art has time only for beauty. Simply, those with the imagination do not care if you leave your toilet seat up or down! This is probably why I did study Art, History of Art, Photography, Visual arts and Theory of Film. I always wanted to be close to beauty, creativity and eventually marry my imagination. Despite the fact that, like so many of us I slave for money, I never leave my partner to wander unattended for too long. So I create, and like any good wife, I cherish my imagination. We do play all the time and as partnership goes: we are stronger only when together. Meet Mr Imagination, my better half. See more of Tiyana’s work on website: http://www.tiyanaart.com/
What if
Magnificent
Dream
Susan Jones My name is Susan Jones. I live a short train ride from London and love to spend time up there with my sister and our cameras. I love studio photography with models dressed up, and having fun playing with the images in Photoshop. My new ambition is take the models on to the street and start doing shoots on location. You can see more of my work here: https://artboja.com/art/3e60mz/
Katie
Blushing Bride
Mike Gaskin I’m Mike Gaskin whose artistic name is NorfolkMike. My main work is Landscape Photograph and Photo Artistry. I have always had an interest in composite photography work and also paint, working mainly in watercolour and Acrylic. I come from Dersingham, Norfolk England, close to Sandringham, the Queen’s Estate. Norfolk is also well known for its big skies, beautiful coastline and countryside, which is the main area of interest for my Landscape Photography. I am a member of the international Photo Artistry Group Kaizen and have had a number of compositions published in its magazine ‘Living the Photo Artistic Life’ You can see more of my work here: https://artboja.com/art/uj6q3g
The musician
Night walker
Face in the city
Dawn Spears I have been producing art in various forms for over 30 years. I have worked in many different media, from watercolour to ink, graphite, and coloured pencil. More recently I have turned to photography and digital art and used these skills to branch out into book covers as well. I absolutely love coming up with ideas to do authors’ words justice. Every one of my book covers are original art pieces. I create them using a mixture of my own photographs and artwork which I blend with my own 3D renders. I try to avoid the use of stock images, meaning my buyers can be 100% assured that their book cover is completely and utterly unique. You can view all my book covers at: https://selfpubbookcovers.com/ DawnyDawny For bespoke work I can be contacted through my website: https://www.dawnydawny.com/
Angry Angel
Ballet Shoes
Eye of the storm
Wing
Barbro Paulsson My background is in theatre and film. I have been working with photography and exhibiting my photographs since the late 70’s. My images are available in private and public collections in Sweden and internationally. They have also been published in collections, newspapers and magazines, as well as used for album covers, book illustrations and author portraits. 2018 Grand Winner (Gold) Street and Animals, Street Photo Awards 2009 Photographers Forum, Colour Finalist 2009 IPA, Honourable Mention, Fine Art Nude The following images were part of the exhibition mentioned in the February issue. To see more artwork on my website: http://www.bpaul.eu
Dog in Window. Nominated 2018 Grand Winner (Gold) in the category “Street and Animals”, Street Photo Awards
Winter walk “Snow floated down every once in a while, but it was frail snow, like a memory fading into the distance.” ― Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Girl with Cat ‘Cats don’t have names,’ it said. ‘No?’ said Coraline. ‘No,’ said the cat. ‘Now you people have names. That’s because you don’t know who you are. We know who we are, so we don’t need names.” ― Neil Gaiman, Coraline
View “Spring, however, was still spring, even in the town. The sun shone warm, the grass, wherever it had not been scraped away, revived and showed green not only on the narrow strips of lawn on the boulevards but between the paving-stones as well.” Resurrection, Leo Tolstoy
Hillbrow “How did it get so late so soon?” ― Dr Seuss
A meeting in a Futuristic Future “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” ― Carl Gustav Jung
Tower in the Night “The sky grew darker, painted blue on blue, one stroke at a time, into deeper and deeper shades of night.” ― Haruki Murakami, Dance Dance Dance
Wanderlust “And there’s no end of voyaging when once the voice is heard, For the river calls and the road calls, and oh, the call of a bird! Yonder the long horizon lies, and thereby night and day The old ships draw to home again, the young ships sail away;” Gerald Gould
Magi “I might not have any magic available to me, but that didn’t make me any less of a wizard, one of the magi, the wise. That’s the true power of a wizard.” ― Jim Butcher, Fool Moon
Mystical Melting Dream House “It seemed to Coraline that it was crouching, and staring down at her as if it were not really a house but only the idea of a house—and the person who had had the idea, she was certain, was not a good person.” ― Neil Gaiman, Coraline
David Walker David Walker is a Photoartist from Yoxall in Staffordshire. He has been active in the field since 2013 and was one of the “first wave� of artists who developed in the genre. Over the past few years David concentrated his art in the realm of realism with a preference for landscapes, seascapes and city scapes. He tends towards the impressionist style but also enjoys the 18c English Masters works in country landscapes. The vast majority of his work is based on his own photographs. David moved from photography to PhotoArt after being dismayed at the narrow thinking of camera clubs and photographic judges. He found their approach to their art very confining and became disenchanted with the negativity that abounds in many in the world of photography, although he does acknowledge that there are some very talented photographers who treat photography as a proper art! See more artwork on my website: https://artboja.com/art/9zpbui/
Approaching the island
Dancing with fractals
Monument to Multiculturalism, Toronto
Concern
James Hurley The Artwork This is a digital mixed media grunge piece created from a stock portrait photograph I purchased from Shutterstock with textures and vector items from Envarto Elements, overlayed colours and brush work. What Inspired its creation This is part of a series of work inspired by my own landscape photographs, see the examples to the right, and the dramatic changes in weather that you encounter in the Cumbrian Fells. More about me As a photo digital artist my customers come from two distinct groups, those that want a portrait photograph taken and then blended into a scene and those that want some unique artwork to decorate their home or office. Both have one thing in common, they are looking for something different, something created specially for them, something that they can be proud to hang on their wall and show off on their social media pages. If that sounds like you then get in contact with me, let’s chat about what you are looking for and see if we can create something special just for you. Email: James@mycreativeimages.com Website: mycreativeimages.com
Choices Caught in the unforgiving heat but drawn to the promise of warmth and suggestion of the fulfilment of personal desires. Scared of crossing into the shadows and not wanting to take the less trodden path due to uncertainly and the inability to see the path. Which direction do you walk?
Support the growth of the magazine The sole purpose of this magazine is to raise awareness of individual photo digital artists by sharing their work on as many social media platforms as possible. The ultimate goal is to create an online network of photo digital artists with a physical location where I can display their work and help them promote sales. However, I will need some help to do this. If you love art, you love giving people a helping hand now and then and want to see more photo digital art then connect with me via my website or social media pages and lets see if we can make a difference together. Help me continue to grow and share the amazing photo digital art featured in the “My Creative Images” magazine with as many people as possible.
Ways to support the growth of the magazine Purchase a professionally printed A4 magazine mycreativeimages.com/product/buy_a_copy_of_ the_magazine/ If you want to support the magazine please visit the “Support the growth of the magazine” page on my website: www.mycreativeimages.com/help-the-magazine-grow
For copies of the previous issues of this magazine please visit: https://issuu.com/mycreativeimages
M e t v IImages ae My CCreative Promoting Digital Photo Artistry
