Kookaburra ~ Happy Paint Party Friday !

Hello!

As I type, it's 5.56am Friday and I'm determined to be very organised and ready to enter Paint Party Friday today.

So.... I'm gathering my pics,  brushing off my 'mind cobwebs', sorting out my words, have set the "stand-up-and-walk-around" alarm, on the phone, for every 30 minutes and here I go :D) ...........

This is Kookaburra he started life as a first Birthday card for our Great Nephew.
For this post, I felt he looked a bit lonely with no background, so I decided to re-learn the photo editing programme Gimp (Version 2.8 which is free online) so as to combine with one of my photos of our eucalypt trees.
Here's the result:

A little further down I've included a pic of the original card.

Here's the source of my inspiration for Kooka...  this fairly dominating fellow didn't like Magpie having exclusive rights to the food we left out, so I  took some photos as he also enjoyed a feed:

~ The Process ~

I remembered to take some photos as I worked through the card.

Starting off with watercolours:

I quickly decided to change to acrylics and to apply some with a palette knife:

He needed a bit of texture for his beautiful plumage:

This is the end result... a card made with love for a sweet one year old:

As I say, for this post I wanted to add something more.
I used to work this photo editing programme with ease a few years' ago when I had a short stint on Redbubble, but I'd forgotten how to drive it!

So, to good old YouTube and the many generous people who make free tutorials... that soon got me going again:

I was actually very thrilled to be able to brush up on editing, and now I haven't stopped creating digital art using my paintings and photos... with my dear family as subjects... am having a lot of fun doing it.

I know there are many accomplished digital artists out there in Paint Party-land, however, if there's anyone contemplating learning digital editing, and can't afford Photoshop,  I'm going to share this very easy to follow video because it's helped open up another way of expressing art for me.  
I hope it's of assistance to someone else too:

Gimp tutorial - How to combine / blend two pictures together

Linking to Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday, where the happiest of artists gather... and everyone's welcome! 

A Tenant

Hello!

After a few dry days, I decided to check that our Bromeliads had enough water in their cups:

I had a lovely surprise, seeing a tenant in residence... look closely:

Here's a closeup:

I'm supposed to be writing a shopping list ... but...

Hello !
Yes, I should be compiling a concise list of what we need to buy today - especially as we're on day 4 of a low-carb diet.
None of this 'willy-nilly' grabbing of things off the supermarket shelves ... oh no, I shall get into sensible mode and do it ....  perhaps ;D)

but

I've also been wanting to get back to blogging because the week or so I took off kind of turned into a month that was filled with lots of things that needed to be done.  The older I get, the less organised I become but I've embraced that tendency rather than fight against it ;D)

So, just quickly, I'll pop in some photos and get my blogging back on track:

 A bouquet I picked a week or so back, the Grevillea is still flowering - through all the cold weather we've had.
We're getting an egg a day from each hen - beautiful bounty!

I painted a lot of cards for birthdays - it was a good incentive to get back my painting mojo! 

(They're pictured in their early stages drying)

 This is my painting room - my 'woman cave' lol ... I took this photo just a few minutes ago.  It's got everything, my favourite Op Shop bargain chair, CD player and many paints and brushes.

Plus, another painting started - yay!

 Spring is definitely in the air... this couple of Skinks are busy making their babies - I felt like a voyeur at times, this is their afterglow ;D)

Looking across from our verandah into next-door's garden... beautiful pink spring blossoms - lovely!

Well, My Darling has woken up and is making our morning cups of coffee so I shall say bye bye for now.
Thanks for visiting, and I'll catch up with each of you soon.
Sue xx