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My Day Photoshop Tutorial Announcement

Dogs Leap for Joy at Watercolor Effect in Photoshop

Action! I made a Photoshop Action to reproduce my own Watercolor Effect. Woot! Not only that, but it works. I’m working on the poodle portraiture for the poodle groups, and I’m having lots of fun, learning new things, and coming out with some artwork that people are enjoying.

These are the ones I’ve done so far, and I’m going to keep on doing them, as long as it’s fun. Click to enlarge them. It’s going to help me with the drudgery part to have this watercolor action at the ready!

I got the tutorial written up, too, but haven’t advertised it yet. It’s HERE.

We got the refrigerator fixed yesterday! It did turn out to be the compressor, and, while the part was covered under warranty, the labor for it was $700. Yeah. Now we get to buy all new stuff to fill it. I’m not a huge fan of a packed fridge, so maybe it won’t have to be quite so full this time.

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My Day Photoshop Tutorial Announcement

Poodles in Action

So today I chose my 14 favorites. I asked these people then for permission to use their photo, and, from these, I’m going to choose a few to do this effect and write it up. I’m tickled by this result and I am thinking about how much this reminds me of my Art Challenge. Still thinking about how to do that this time around…

I got this idea for a tutorial, and so I wanted a dog in action. I went onto 2 of my poodle groups and told them what I was doing. And got over 160 pictures from people from all over the world!

On Saturday, Jack noticed a bit of water leaking from the ice/water dispenser on our fridge. He took the ice thing out of there and it seemed to stop. On Sunday, of course, we awoke to everything warm in the fridge. Ugh. Phone calls and appointments and food into the garbage.

Thankfully, we don’t travel heavy in the refrigerated food department. We probably had just a couple hundred bucks worth of food, once you add in the mayo and ketchup. But waah! Guy’s coming out tomorrow. There’s some kind of class action going against LG for their compressors.

It’s another hot day today. We’re talking about taking a trip into the mountains, but, evidently, everyone else is doing the same thing, because all the campgrounds are full for the foreseeable future.

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My Day Photoshop Tutorial Announcement

New Photoshop Tutorial: Making a Signature Brush

I’m looking out at our lake though before the 9th green, just outside my window. Big news here is the heat. While we’re not breaking any records, we’re above average this week. Average for Phoenix right now is a staggering 106°! So I’m happy inside.

I did some good work yesterday, writing another tutorial: Making a Signature Brush.

Here’s my capstone image for this tutorial. Love it! I still haven’t worked the code for getting new visitors – or old ones back – to my site. I suppose that, someday, I’ll look back on this post and laugh. I hope so anyway.

Jodie’s back to doing great. We went on our normal walk with her and she did fine. Then she had a little runabout in the backyard with both of us. She loves that so much! Now she’s being my faithful co-worker right by my side napping.

I made this.
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My Day

Frustrations and Questions

Some days you’ve got it and some days you don’t. I’m trying to come up with something — some cool effect in Photoshop. I want to do something that hasn’t been done before. Ok, that’s the hard part. In my Photoshop career, I’ve come up with a few things all on my own. Most of the things I have come up with, though, are the result of people asking me how to do something.

One technique that is entirely mine is the one that I used with my Poster Effect tutorial. The part where I used Dodge and Burn to bring parts of the image into the whiteness or blackness — that was original and I first published that in 2004. Now, it seems like everything has been done and redone. But I’m still finding people in the tutorial groups asking basic questions. That is making me think that there may yet be a market for my style of teaching.

“My style,” of course, is coming off as old-school. I personally hate video tutorials. I see them more of a “look what I can do” presentation, than as a real teaching tool. Not that there isn’t a place for showing off, but I don’t think that people learn well by watching others do stuff. Most of the “tutorials” out there today are youtube showoff videos. Yawn.

Jodie’s tummy is all better today. She does so well with Pepto Bismol. What’s vexing her today is her ear. The groomer plucked all her hair out of her ears. Sounds gruesome, but it doesn’t hurt the dog, if it’s done right. The problem is that I don’t think it was done right. The poor dog has raw places in her left ear which are oozing and sticky. :/ The current literature on poodles is saying DON’T pluck. So I won’t have that done anymore. But wahhh. I really wish that she had not done it at all.

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My Day

Toadstools on the Forest Floor: New Art

Jodie is still sick. :/ She seems to respond very well to Pepto Bismol, so she’s stopped vomiting as of yesterday afternoon, and no diarrhea since this morning. I’m attributing it to stress from being groomed. Her life is pretty sedate here these days with all of this home-staying, so it seems reasonable that she’d get upset with hours of getting bathed, dried, combed, and clipped. I know I would!

Jack made me a riser for my monitors! It’s perfect and beautiful and I’m going to love it. He even built in two drawers for me, and there’s a cubbyhole underneath. He made it in white melamine so that it matches the wall unit that we put in this room last year.

And I finished my digital painting! As with so many of my photorealism projects, this one went on so long that I got sort of tired of looking at it. I know that I got tired of painting moss! At least I made this one big enough that I can print it, if I ever decide I want to do that.

And Michele and Jack have actually mentioned that they might be able to go on an RV trip with us this summer! Of course this is contingent upon lots of pieces falling into place, including the kids’ school calendars which are different from each other.

It seems as if we’ve escaped being infected with Covid for another day. So yay!

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My Day Photoshop Tutorial Announcement

Four New Photoshop Tutorials

I’ve been a tutorial-writing fool! I’ve added 4 new ones since my last blog entry: Making a Spiral, Custom Border, Basic Shapes, and Poster Effect. I’ve also joined some Photoshop Groups in Facebook, to get a sense of the climate out there, what’s needed, what’s already there, etc..

Collin in a Warhol poster effect

What I’m learning is that there are many people doing what they call “tutorials,” but which are what I call “show-off videos.” Yawn. And the overwhelming lot of these are doing effects that I was teaching 15 years ago. I wonder if what’s old is new again, or if these people were just not born yet.

Janee’s Bubble Border

There’s still much new that I need to learn and, while I’m at it, write tutorials about! 3D stuff looks intriguing and there are lots of new-to-me things to explore in the menus.

I got to the frustration point with that digital painting I was doing, and have not picked it up in a few days. Maybe today would be a good day to do have a go again.

We took Jodie to be groomed again yesterday and, once again, she was sick today. After we took her to be groomed 6 weeks ago, she got so terribly sick, so I am wondering if it’s something that they did to her, some kind of cleaner that they use on their cages, a treat that they give, or if Jodie is just so used to her serene and placid life here that the stress of the grooming salon is too much for her. Whatever it is, it’s terrible. Jack and I gave her a dose of Pepto Bismol this noon, and she is feeling much better now, at least.

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My Day

Tired of being tired

Yeah, I know everyone is. I’m tired of staying home all the time, with no hopes of ever getting away. I’m tired of eating at home all the time. I’m tired of not being able to see our friends. I’m tired of not being able to travel to see our family. And I’m tired of moaning about simple things like this, when there are so many people actually suffering with this virus.

My Before photo

So today, I’m actually working on some art in Photoshop! Woo hoo! I don’t know yet if I’ll stick with it; sometimes I get into one of these photorealism challenges and just quit before it gets to be anything good.

I’m tickled that my site interface works. And I’m excited about the prospect of inviting people to come and see it and my site. Before that happens, I’d like to have some real progress on my tutorials and my Tutorial Index page. And before that, I need to peruse the FB PS groups and see what sort of things people even need help with these days!

We walked almost 3 miles with Jodie today! We went over to the Palo Verde Clubhouse and then down Michigan to Basha’s, where Jack went in and got us apple fritters. 🙂

Jodie has gotten much better with walking with us. When we first started with her, right after we got back from Death Valley, near the first of February, she was just 4 months old, and she really hated walking. She’d go fine for about 5 minutes, and then stop and sit in the road. Treats wouldn’t keep her motivated. Ugh. So we just decided to let her alone for a time.

A month later we took her out again and, this time, she started to limp, as if her right shoulder were sore. So, after some days of just letting her rest, I started taking her out, with her Gentle Leader, for very short walks – 5-7 minutes. Afterwards, I’d bring her home, crate her, and Jack and I would go do our 30-minute walk. Eventually, we worked her up to a full 30 minutes, and we’ve been doing that for about a month. And now she loves it! Her tail is up and wagging, and she alerts on every rabbit, bird, and dog!

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My Day WordPress

My New Interface is Working!

So, yeah! Go to myJanee.com and ta-da! It not only shows up, but it shows up without gaps and the links work! I figured all of this out with some discouragement from my WP FB group, and a great site that helped me with the Image Mapping – Free Online Image Map Generator.

My FB group members told me that this sort of interface is just not done anymore, nobody does it, the coding is stupid, and anyone who uses this kind of code doesn’t deserve the air they breathe. Well, ok, they didn’t exactly say it like that.

My thinking, in going ahead with creating this interface, is that this is my site, dammit, and I’ll do what I want. I also am doing this site for MY people, MY students, and I hope you all like what I’ve done. And I love the art that I did. So there!

So that was my whole day yesterday, and about an hour of this morning. But it works and I’m happy!

Next thing .. well, I’ll tell you when I get it underway. For one thing, I’m getting itchy feet and want to travel! So I want to plan a little trip. With temps around here in the 100’s, I am thinking “mountains.”

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My Day

My New Interface

As soon as I figure out how to make it clickable, this will be my new website interface! All original pixels. I’m going to reorient it, though, so that it’s taller than wide. Or… I wonder if I can have a different one for people viewing on their mobiles. Hmmmm…

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My Day

Creativity in a Pandemic

myJanee.com’s own QR Code!

I’m feeling really creative and having loads of fun with Photoshop! I find that I wish I had students to share this with again, and I hope that someday somebody will read these posts.

I’m enjoying learning the new things about PS in the atmosphere of putting together my new interface! I was thinking “industrial” in my last post, and that’s the direction I’m headed. You know those labels that they put on motors and such? Those labels riveted or screwed onto a piece of sheet metal — that’s the look I’m after.

I discovered some new pattern stuff and I just remembered which rabbit hole took me into patterns. QR Codes! Yeah! Over to the left are some little forays I took into patterns. And I did discover how to generate a QR Code.

But, yeah. You can expect a new and much improved pattern tutorial. TV lines are still very much in fashion, but the 60’s kitchen wallpaper? Not so much.

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My Day

Seeing the “long” in “long run”

I’m actually learning new things, among my frustrations. Photoshop isn’t frustrating; it’s WordPress. It seems that, in order to do any of the things that were easy-peasy with my FrontPage, GoLive, or Dreamweaver, I’m expected to download (or usually buy) a plug-in. I realize that this flexibility is supposed to make things better, and, I suppose that it will in the long run. But for now, all I can see is the “long” in “long run.”

For today’s art project, I’m working on a new and improved version of this graphic that I made for my Home Page. This version to the left, uses my old-style icons for all of the where-to-go items.

My new one is going to have actual things you’d expect to see on an old scratched piece of metal. I’m thinking industrial!

Then, of course, I’ll get to write tutorials, detailing how I created each of these! I think that my Torn Paper tutorial was my most popular of my Archive Tutorials.

I’m feeling a little Rip-Van-Winklish, coming back to this world, after so long away. The truth is that, in actuality, so much has changed — even the styles of graphics that are popular now.

I wasn’t really locked in the basement for all of those 12 years. I was doing creative things — like designing interiors for homes! While it wasn’t ever a paid job, and my training has been OTJ plus a couple of classes, I’ve done some neat work over the years. Maybe I’ll make a webpage and post some pics.

Yesterday, I did some file work, finding the files for my old wp part of my site. I made this so that it opens into a new window. I still haven’t worked out how to make those pages part of this new site. … or how to make my Archive pages part of the new site, really. Challenges abound! Good thing I’m young.

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My Day Photoshop Tutorial Announcement

Amazing Gradients New Tutorial!

I’m working on some fun things — Photoshop art and writing! I have posted my third tutorial re-do. I did a little remake of my Amazing Gradients ideas.

Diamond Trail

If this looks like something fun, you’d be right! The tutorial for making this is here.

I continue to learn little bits about WordPress. I have a feeling that, once I get it, I’ll be unstoppable, but for now, LOL, I’m feeling quite stoppable!

I’ve joined a WordPress group on Facebook, and they seem to have answers, as well as many, many members, so we’ll see how that goes. Ok now I’m going to set out to learn some new Photoshop technique so I can write a new tutorial. 🙂

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My Day

Working to Change My Life

Ok, so I’ve had a few small successes! I’ve figured out how to make a new page, customize the header and footer for all my pages, change fonts, make links, make blog postings, and add pictures. I even linked my new site to my old site, with an Archives link.

myjanee

So here we are at the end of May in 2020 and what’s going on? Any student of history knows that this is the season of the Covid-19 Pandemic! We have been inundated with instructions from health experts and politicians, from futurists and economists, from psychologists and pastors. The handling of this pandemic in the USA has been a real mess.

Jack and I are living our lives in the manner recommended by infectious disease experts and epidemiologists for people at high risk for bad outcomes from this disease: we are self-isolating. We go out of the house to walk every day. We go to the grocery store or a short list of other stores only as necessary, and, when we do, we wear a cloth mask, sanitize before returning to our car, and then wash our hands upon our return home.

We are not letting anyone into our house, garage, car, etc.. We don’t socialize, except on Facebook, phone, or text. We are eating exclusively at home. We get food at the grocery and cook, or we have, upon rare occasion, gotten takeout.

We’re letting ourselves get a bit shaggy! Jack is bearded now and hasn’t had a haircut in 3 months. I’m looking a bit better, because he’s cutting my hair, and doing a great job!

Our dog groomer is open, thankfully, and offering curbside drop-off and pickup. So Jodie’s looking fine. 😊

We’re doing better than a whole boatload of people. Jack has been busying himself with Covid projects — building stuff. He’s made cabinet organizers for my bathroom, a sweet can organizer for our pantry, a dog treat container with a J on the lid for an opener. For the RV, he did a remake on our RV dog crate that makes it from a dog couch to a crate, made an under-fridge drawer, and built the cutest little convertible tables you ever did see. For his shop, he made a screw organizer, a table for his router, and cleaned and organized from top-to-bottom.

Me? I’ve done more cooking and baking in the past few months than in the past 10 years, I think. I made a bedding system for our new RV. Oh, yeah, we did trade our 15 View in on a 19 View. Different floorplan.

I’ve been doing a walk every day, working on training Jodie, um… playing lots of games on my phone, and keeping up with Facebook and all of my groups. I know, I know. That’s why I’m on here now. I’m working on changing my life.

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My Day

Catching up on life

I figured out how to edit WordPress’s idiotic “Hello World” posting! Every time I take a step away from this website recreation thing, I feel like I’ve lost 5 years. Oops! Maybe that’s because I have!

I’ve actually just been engaged in other creative pursuits — mainly involving choosing, remodeling, and moving into and out of different houses! Since I updated my Photoshop education end of my site, I’ve lived in 5 real houses, 2 park-models, and 6 RVs. I’ve also bought 3 cars, 2 of which I still own.

I survived widowhood, and I’m married again. His name is Jack and neither of us changed our names when we got married.

My dog Maddie died in 2010 and my cat Eddie died in 2014. We were painfully petless till 1/5/20, when we added Jodie to our lives. She’s a standard poodle and she’s just a joy! The photo on the left is when she was just 4 months old. Now she’s almost 7 months.

Jodie at 6 months