Design firm relocates to Stark, offers software help - Canton, OH - CantonRep.com

Design firm relocates to Stark, offers software help - Canton, OH - CantonRep.com

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Hey Everyone, This is just a diversion from the normally Sewing/Craft/Doll related material to announce our first on line Photoshop Class! It will be at DollStreet, so of course, I had to have one of my Kokopelli dolls sit still for a photo so I could use him as an example. Hes quite a ham so that wasn't a problem!

Here he is in his original state posing at Dorthy's Bed and Breakfast in Albuquerque, NM and these are what you can do with them in Photoshop, and that's just the beginning.

We are starting with "Creating Your Art Business Card (ABC) in

Photoshop or Photoshop Elements
June 29th, 2009 www.dollstreetdreamers.com $20.00
To sign up go here: CLICK ME!

What’s the best way to learn? AH! By Doing! By Creating! By having a good time! Well, if you are interested in finding out what a great tool Photoshop or Photoshop Elements can be to your doll making and art creating (specially great for collage/mixed media/scrapbooking) its time to learn! Time to create your unique business/calling card. In this class you will get exact directions to design, “perfect” and print a business card that promotes your art professionally and your image beautifully. We guarantee NO computer gobbledygook, just simple art talk…

This is a two session class and we will delve just lightly into the basic ins and outs of our program. You will want to make some time to just mess around, because practice is the key to “getting it into your fingers” and once its in your fingers (and brain) you will fly through the creative door!

First Session:
• The Big Ten (Li’s questions to ask yourself before
creating a great design.)
• Sketching out your card
• Setting up a template
• Importing artwork/sizing etc
• Basic selection skills
• Basic color correction
• Layering and backgrounds

Second Session:
• Working with type
• Preparing your card to send to the printer for a trouble free production
• Review and Question/Answer
• Prepress Checklist and How-to handout

Your cards can be sent to an online printer, or a printer in your home town. I will be happy to help with the online printer and have a great one.

*You must have a computer with Photoshop or Elements loaded for this class. We do not supply computers or programs but will be happy to advise you on getting both! Also, If you use Elements, I can translate it for printing for you or you can have a friend who has the full version do that. Let your Imagination Flourish!


Photoshop and Elements $199+

If you are lucky enough to be an educator, a student, or the parent of a student, you can get great deals from Adobe here.
https://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/index.cfm?store=OLS-EDU&PID=2294914#view=ols_cat&store=OLS-EDU&loc=en_us&catID=SPECIALS


Adobe Elements $67 - $100

Elements for the PC on Amazon
Adobe Photoshop Elements 7


Elements for the Mac on Amazon
Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 (Mac)


Photoshop $199 - $699
Remember the Educator thing...

This is a great deal – I have never bought from here, but my sister has and it was a full program and they even had a good support team.
http://www.softwaresurplus.com/Guaranteed/Low.Prices?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=2089&Category_Code=Adobe&gclid=CJGA4u27kZsCFSQMDQodVja4qA

Adobe
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/compare/

Come Join US! To sign up go here: CLICK ME!

Great Books for drawing faces!

The links below are really for my drawing students
but the rest of the world is welcome to play too! Grin!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/501782/Andrew-Loomis-Drawing-the-Head-and-Hands

Mystery Quilt

My dad looked over to the couch where I was ripping fabric into strips and then measuring them before I snipped them into 1" x 1" basically squarish squares. "What are you doing? Is that a ruler in your hand - are you measuring stuff?" "Oh come one Daddy, I'm making a quilt... Obviously!" I tried to give him the hairy eyeball, but I my eyes were busy watching my self put little squares in the correct color piles. "You mean you are making a "quilty quilt? You?" Isn't he just cute. Hah! I 'll show him!

This from the man who spent 2 years of my childhood hunkered over his easel, listening to Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung, in English - this is an epic opera, in German, that makes Lord of the Rings sound like a visit to the park with Papa Smurf and Smurfette) at a brain-slapping volume, with a COMPASS, painting these....

Joe Hertzi Circle Painting

Yeah that was painted, back in those days, Hal was science fiction, and a Mac was a truck! He used a ruling pen to get them perfect. Of course he sold these right and left and probably still would if he would make some new ones. (now he is into beads...) He is ridiculously talented and can draw and paint like nobodies business so my mom was mystified and my sister and I joked about darts... Now... he IS my real father. Bearing that in mind, here is my quilt...

LI Hertzi's first Quilty Quilt

No perfect points here! Compass? Riiiiiight! Straight lines? Nope.

This is the result of a mystery quilt at the Quilting Stars of Ohio quilt guild. We got the directions, cut the pieces and then sewed it together at the prompts of the organizer, delightful woman, patient, very patient... I only ripped it out 4 times to get the green "squares" to line up... when I noticed the renegade pink triangle I simply rolled my eyes and quickly put the binding on so as to forestall any of my fathers genes from surfacing and forcing me to rip again! I actually like how the squares are not square and how the points on the sun are a tad blunted in places.

Next time I will actually use a ruler, and one of those rotary cutter thingies - no more ripping, and maybe I could make the seam allowances all the same... Ah, life is about learning, and laughing at ourselves, right?

Happy Day to all of you talented People!

http://www.photoshop4artistsworkshop.com
My new business!

Cloth Doll Artistry FINALLY in my hands!

Cloth Doll Artistry: Design and Costuming Techniques for Flat and Fully Sculpted Figures is the book by the delightful Barbra Willis and illustrated by none other than.... well... Me! Hah! Forget the breathtaking dolls, look at those simple, yet so very succinct and helpful illustrations. Yes, yes, the illustrations are supposed to be there to support the ideas in the book, to make the dollmakers journey towards the doll easy and fun... I know... and I hope they do, just needed to toot my little pink penny whistle for a moment.

All tooting aside, this is a wicked lovely book! My favorite sample doll is the Mermaid by Arley Berryhill - so rich in color and texture. Tulla, by Val Zeitler comes in a close second with the two hats atop the one head... (a big shout out to all of the contributors for their amazing dresses! each and everyone is beautiful!) And of course, my two all time dolly-girl favs, Elinor Peace Bailey and Patti Culea are up front and personal with their Color Boards.

Now, there is a picture of the cover on Amazon that doesn't hold a candle to the real one...
Here is the Amazon version, probably an early cover, before the book was finished.

And here is the one I got in the mail today. Nice, eh?

Lovely isn't it? The designer, Carol Holtz and the photographer, Bob Hirsch (he is a master!) did great jobs creating a very pretty "whole" out of all the "parts" provided. You will love this book if you want to do beautiful dolls and it is full of interesting tidbits of techniques that will translate nicely to your other projects. SO... Go get it, here is a handy link!

Be well and get thee to that sewing machine and make thee some beauteous dolls there, mateys!

Li's Studio on Craftside!

Craftside is doing this cool thing. They are interviewing artists and crafters about their studio spaces. I have to admit, upon seeing it right there on the blog, I wish I had tidied up more, but hey, this is really what it looks like!

Click Here for the link!

Great Doll Show in PA, USA

I am also in a great new show in PA! I wish I could be there for the opening, but its all the way across Pennsylvania which we all know from our childhood road trips, has the longest stretches between rest stops in the whole US of A. Well, maybe not, but I remember sitting in the back of our winged, sky blue, Chrysler on the way to Connecticut or Maine or somewhere on the right coast with a coast, praying for one of those green signs, vowing never take another drink of cool aid or anything else for that matter, thinking of the desert... My dad would finally stop, recite the "Getting There" chant which goes "We will NEVER get there at this rate! Go, go, go!" and finally I would catapult out of the car, knocking down old ladies, Labrador retrievers and people cleaning crumbs off their bermudas, to my haven of salvation, the door with the stick girl in a dress... OK, Enough about PA! Its a nice state, it contains some of my good relatives, still... its long.

The show is a bunch of really wonderful doll artists! Below is a work by Christopher Malone, one of my favorite artists! Isnt that rich? Look at the face and the hands! and the embellishment, YES! elinor peace bailey will be there along with Pamela Hastings, Annie Hesse, Sha Sha Higby, Susan Osborne, Christine Shively, Myself and a bunch more. I am so proud to be included in such a gathering! Wow! If you are in Pa and close to the right side of the state, go - look - enjoy - report back to me! Grinning!

Art Dolls: The Diversity of Figure & Form

May 15 - June 26, 2009

Opening Reception: Sunday, May 31, 4-6 pm

An invitational exhibition featuring artists working in mixed media to create unique, story-telling doll ensembles.

Have a wonderful week! Later, LI

Its all about the Boobs!

As I have lamented several times on this blog, I miss my dolly friends in California and specially Mz. Barb Keeling and her Cartoonist husband, Doug. They are two of the most creative people on the planet and a delight to hang out with! AND they have created a set of doll patterns, proceeds of which are going to cancer research, that use bras! They went one step further than I did with my Boulder goddess and her interchangeable boobs, and actually used a real-life, boob-related item.

Here they are rolling in wicked-cuteness and sporting cups of every size and color! If you want to make them, click on the picture and you will go right to the Keelings site.

Interchangeable boobs!

My Bouder Goddess pattern, old as the hills she is, has 3 different boob patterns for you to choose from. There are the "Curved and Pendulous," the "Out Front and Pointy," and the "Been There, now Down Here" versions.

If you have already purchased this doll with the three different boob possibilities, and the arm with the articulated fingers, don't buy this one, cause... well.. you already have it! Maybe make another one for your Bra Dolls to hang out with, and send me a picture - I will put it up on the art doll adventures website) But if you don't, click below and I will send it to you. And in the spirit of joyful participation with the Keelings, I will give a portion of the proceeds to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Boulder Goddess Cloth Doll Pattern
3 Boobs, 2 Arms
Doll is 15" tall
$8.50 each

Have a great day and send me a picture of your doll!