Arnside Icebergs

COMPLIMENTS OF THE SEASON AND ALL THE BEST FOR THE NEW YEAR TO  MY VIEWERS.

Freezing weather continues. Burst water pipes necessitated moving the washing machine to the other side of the garage, and investing  in an electric heater to put behind the machine.

Christmas presents and a case of good wines from The Wine Society ordered on the Internet many days ago did not arrive until today saving the need for contingency plans.

City Link have been the most tardy. Royal Mail managed better. The wine arrived by the Society's own van.

The photos were taken today and show real mini icebergs. This is part of Morecambe Bay, which is of course salt water.

The crag in the background is Whitbarrow which has been the subject of some previous posts - it  extends a couple of miles or so to the north of this southern edge of its escarpment.

This one is looking west towards the full extent of Morecambe Bay. The railway viaduct leading to Grange over Sands can just be made out.

Once again all the best to everybody.

Photoshop painting - Land Rover

A new picture is underway. This is the embryo stage. I trace the outline from a photo through a semitransparent layer and then return that layer to light grey opaque. The sketch remains visible. Painting proceeds and the photo is only used as a visual reference thereafter (I have a full screen version alongside on my laptop screen). The initial outline is only used for rough orientation and becomes obliterated in the painting process. I have started some painting on the roof.

My photos folder on the computer contains a file called “relics”. On my travels I snap anything that qualifies for that description. The new painting shows an abandoned Land Rover in a farmyard seen on a walk not far from my home.

Photoshop Elements painting

Here is the completed picture (previous posts refer to its subject). The fencing in the bottom righthand corner was a final addition involving exploration of the Line Tool. This facilitates drawing straight lines. The fence includes cross-wires, and after merrily drawing away I found that the creation was not embedded with the original layer so that If I moved that layer the fence stayed put. When I switched on the layers palette I found that the fence had been created by automatic production of 129 new layers! After some experimentation I found that by using the shift key and selecting the first and last of these layers they were all selected and then I was able to "merge layers", and then merge the merged 129 with the original. There is always something new to learn in Photoshop.

The picture will now be taken to my tame printer on a pen drive and he will print it onto good quality  paper at a size a bit larger than A4. The result looks  convincingly like an acrylic painting with discernible brush strokes and much more detail than is apparent on this small reproduction.

The template for my blog does not allow me to use "extra large" format for my photos. I know it is possible to change the template, and it is also possible to save a copy of the blog in case of disaster, but I am still reluctant to try in case I loose the whole thing. Has anybody else out there tried anything similar?

Photoshop painting and Arnside in the snow

Here is another update on the painting. There is still work to do. The tree behind the houses has to be detailed and various other bits of fine tuning.

Arising from my comments on the last post here are two pics taken today from Arnside Knott. Normally we can see the full range of Lake District hills but today it looked as though snow was blowing from that direction.

Photoshop painting

Just a quick update on the picture.

I have been away for a week so have not had a chance to do much more, but you will see that I have now put the walking figure in place and the path he is on.

For any newcomers the picture is part of the refuge complex at Thines in the Cevennes from my walk of the French gorges.  Here is an extract from my journal describing my visit.

The approach to Thines was sensational. On arriving the gîte is located alongside the ancient church with a dividing wall and gate through into the gîte. There is a notice to say the guardienne does not arrive until 7:00pm. No meals are provided but food can be bought and there is a good kitchen. Just below the gîte there is a little gift shop and café so I went and had a cup of tea and some biscuits. The tea turned out to be Earl Gray which I had without milk or sugar, and I found this to be one of the most refreshing drinks I can remember.

I had a good look round the village including the very old church with many grotesque stone carvings and an atmosphere reeking of medieaval church domination.

Above the village is a large carved stone memorial to yet more resistance fighters who died in the war with an information board alongside in the manuscript writing of the sculptor describing his deeply emotional feelings whilst he was creating this work.

It was a long wait until 6:45 when the lady guardienne arrived, and by this time there was a party of three young French lads and another middle aged Dutch couple who had arrived. Whilst I was paying for my lodgings I noticed that the others all seemed to have bottles of wine and realised that they had bought these from the shop below as the guardian did not sell wine. It was now 7:00 and I knew the shop closed then so I asked the guardian if I may be excused before continuing with my food purchase, and I rushed off down the steps to the shop. The door was closed but I knocked and was allowed to go in a purchase a bottle.

On returning the guardian took me down to a lock up room below the gîte which was her food store room with fridge and freezer. I bought some spaghetti, a jar of bolgnese, some cheese, bread, jam and butter and a tin of fruit and some tea bags.

Back in the gîte we prepared our separate meals, but ended up all sat at the same table eating and drinking together and the company with the three mischevious French lads and the good humoured Dutch couple was very agreeable providing a merry evening.

Photoshop painting update

Here is an update on the painting. It may look as though not much has happened, but a lot of time has been spent since the version on my last post.

You will see  I have sketched in the figure in the foreground. The background will be mostly trees, but these are fairly spaciously established on limestone hillsides which should be evident when I develop that part of the picture.

Caravan and Camping Club grid refs. Whitbarrow. Photoshop painting

Here is a copy of the reply from the Caravan and Camping Club relevant to my last post. I hope this may of interest to fellow backpackers.

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On Wednesday I had a two hour walk round Whitbarrow, my favourite local locale. It was a jewel of a day weatherwise. Here are a couple of pics confirming this. There was a fair covering of snow on the Lake District hills in the second photo. I think this is  unusual in mid November.

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I have gone back to painting again on the computer using Addobe Photoshop Elements.

Here are a couple of my previous efforts followed by the current work in progress.

1. A Yorkshire farmhouse.

2. Ben Alder

3. Part of the refuge complex at Thines in the Cevennes. From my walk of the French gorges.

On the w.i.p  you can see the Photoshop layer behind the painting which is the original photo. The layer with the painting on has a white background, the opacity of which can be reduced so you can see the original photo below. I can then draw the basic outlines of the main features and then bring the white background back again. After that I only use the original photo to look at to help me with the colours etc. The work is done using a Wacom pen tablet. I intend to make further posts as this painting develops. This is a hugely time consuming pastime.