April SONG Challenge - Walk

[Cassel]

 

Once a week, there is a radio show that has been on for many years. It is called Vinyl Tap. It is 2 hours of songs that are picked around a particular theme. Sometimes, it has to do with a word, sometimes, a topic, sometimes it is another particularity (like "unlikely duets").

 

So, today, I was remembering a kid song that we used to sing when our daughter started to walk and it was a song from Sesame Street, with the Oinker Sisters called "I got a new way to walk". This made me think that you might find various songs with the word WALK in the title (that includes variations with "walking" too). What song, with the word WALK could inspire you to create a fun project?

 

Are you up to the challenge?

[Ann Seeber]

Been working all day on the April Song Challenge-Walk. Here's These Boots Are Made For Walking and all the various artists that followed on the heels of Nancy Sinatra who made it famous first. The interesting one was the thrash metal group Megadeath who put it in an album in the '80s and got censured by YouTube for rude lyrics! ;-) Those are the lyrics that are on my layout.   I used Cassel's music background in sepia, a border background created from the Megadeath art, a few musical notes in Picture Tubes and the rest is all found art on Google which I curved using the script.

[Mary Solaas]

My Song Challenge is "I'll Walk With God". Mario Lanza is one of my favorite singers. He sang this for the movie The Student Prince. The background is a photo of sand from Clipart Library. The picture is from the web; the frame by PSP. The flowers are from Pixel Scrapper - apjess; the narrative is from the web; the paper for the narrative is by Gina Jones - Pretty Bird; the lace ribbon is by Cass-Fire & Ice (colored purple by me); the title font is Lucida Calligraphy 72 and the narrative font is Arial 14.

[Minka]

I'll probably have a lot of song entries ... but first one that comes to mind is "I Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash.  It was my parents signature song, if you will, so I probably heard it played thousands of times in our house ... while they danced.  They were great dancers.  So the story goes, my Dad would call my Mom whenever it played on his watch on ship in the Navy.  We got used to seeing them break out in a dance whenever it was played even years after it's release.  Not unusual there.  You know, just hearing the opening signature beat now brings back a ton of memories.  It's pretty distinctive.

[Ann Seeber]

Minka-That is an OUTSTANDING layout! I should have waited as it inspires me to emulate you! Did  you curl the paper? I love the title design. Johnny had such a distinctive voice and I'm always a sucker for a bass/baritone! LOL

[Lynda DiGregor]

Minka, I agree with Ann. Love your"Walk the Line" One of my favorites. Great job!

 

Ann, That is a blast from the past...best songs ever.

 

 

 

 

[Minka]

Thank you Ann and Lynda.   Once in a while we get a winner, right?  Maybe it's that MOJO when you think about parents you miss terribly!  :)  My parents met at a USO dance hall while my Dad's ship was in for repairs.  Soon after his extended drydock stay - when his ship was put back to sea, he wrote and asked if he sent the ticket - would she come to Virginia from Maine and marry him.  She said yes ... and they married at the base Navy chapel.  She was a single mom with two daughters 2 and 3.  He was father to all - with my brother and I coming along years later on.  They had 51 years of dancing together.

[Ann Seeber]

Minka: your story brought happy tears.. Thank you.

[Minka]

Mop up your brow, Ann.  You shouldn't have waited at all.  You did an outstanding job yourself with Nancy's Boots.  Who the heck knew so many unlikely folks did covers? I sure didn't.  Music is often mind boggling and so are musicians!  I'm feeling the need to YOUTUBE one of those versions as I just can't spin it in my head.  LOL

[Ann Seeber]

Minka: Nancy's boots are found art. I didn't do it! Here's the original..

[Minka]

I meant with the whole posting, Ann.  Not just the boots.  The Nancy Sinatra Boots theme of it. :)

[Michele]

Minka, I love, love, LOVE your tribute to Johnny Cash. Where did you find that curled paper? It's perfect for your layout. If hope you don't mind me pointing out something little (and I could be wrong as my eyes aren't always working great). I think the shadow on the curled paper is coming from the right to left and your elements appear to have shadows from left to right. It's just a tiny thing and I didn't even notice it until I looked at it several times.

 

Ann, curling the album covers was a really nice touch. And I also didn't realize how many people had covered this song. Ella and Megadeath??? I never thought I would mention them in the same sentence. LOL

[Minka]

Thanks, Michele.  The curled paper was from a very old scrap set dug out of my files and it was not large scale so had to resize in AI. It, unfortunately, had just a wee bit of shading already on it, but I opted to use it anyway as it was the look I wanted.  Preshaded product can often give that blurred look you don't want - especially if it is going the wrong way.  I didn't see a way to avoid it without giving the scroll a too sharp edge.  I'm not unhappy with the finished project, but I will admit SEVERAL FAULTS on it.  Which is where I thought you might be going!!  If you look more closely (put on some specs) there is NO shading on a couple of the items as they required me to do something I am absolutely horrible at and it shows in great fashion with shading.  Tubing!  So a couple elements I included had no shading at all, which is where I thought you might be going.  Seems I skated on those.  LOL  I think by adding a little color variation under the elements but on top of the scroll it accentuated the scrolls enlarged blur.  I only did that as the scroll was fairly translucent in some areas. Anything I shaded myself used the same settings.  Also ... in cutting it to pieces myself ... I found the bg online and wanted the lines in the floor to show and then decided they should flow opposite on the edge/rim.  I think that might have created even more shadowing confusion.  Art instructors have taught me for years and years that light and shadowing can come from many angles ... say you have a window on one side and candle on another or maybe even a lamp on a third ... if a scene has volume, each of those plays of light will have significance.  When doing a flat picture/graphic without any of those elements being the volume they might ordinarily be in a real life setting, it's tricky!  Very few projects are without fault ... and I am certainly not in that category.  But overall, it was okay - a "feel good" one to do with personal memories.  You got a sharp eye there! :)

[Mary Solaas]

First off - love the postings you have been doing Minka and Ann.  As always you all are very professional in output and I too remember those songs and the feelings they portray.

 

Well, I have been trying to post my latest: You'll Never Walk Alone.  I don't know if it's because of the overlay I used or something that happened during the night to my machine, but I have had trouble getting this off the ground.  Maybe that's a sign?????  Anyway, Rogers and Hammerstein have always been my favorite team in the music world as I love all the work they did.  Hammerstein knew how to inspire with his words - almost every one of their musicals had an inspirational or thought provoking theme and song.  This is one of my favorites.  What I am trying to express is the emotions and thoughts that go through you when you are faced with life's storms and so I did not use shadows this time - everything is to portray the thoughts and emotions you feel.  So let me try again (I reduced the size even further in case that was the problem with uploading).

[Michele]

Minka, "overall it was" GREAT, not just "okay," as you said. I actually learned a lot just from your response. <3

 

Your page is very sweet, Mary.

[Ann Seeber]

Mary: Your choice of You'll Never Walk Alone from R&H Carousel brings back wonderful memories for me. I was a pre-teen and went to see the film SEVEN times in a row! I was enthralled with Julie and Billy. And of course, Spring is Bustin' Out All Over! LOL Wish I had thought of doing it myself for this challenge but I have another in mind, also, after doing These Boots. Thank you, Carole! This challenge is inspired!

[Minka]

Mary - you are wise and I don't even think you needed to tell us that you were going for emotion.  Your piece has a total ephemeral vibe.  Like passing over ... or brief second in time.  Sort of like movies divulge when portraying ghosts that disappear into thin air.  That kind of thing.  Well ... shadowing is good, great even, but it's not always inclusive in art.  Many graphic arts don't use shadowing at all.  Your's works and you know what, that's what counts, right?  Great choice on song, too.  I thought of that one, but went with Cash instead.  I hope more people play as there are a veritable smorgasbord of songs with WALK in the title.

 

Did anyone besides me go looking for color charts after Carole's class the other day?  I will admit I already had some favorites I made and stored, but I did go look.  There is great inspiration out there in any of the painting supply houses, but then again, there were a ton of options readily available on Google.  I found a load of ones, that were generated by movie films.  Movies have great lighting and often use colors we don't often keep in our day to day visionary scheme.   If you get time, go look, some of them were awesome.

[Mary Solaas]

Minka, thanks.  I, too, wish to comment on the beautiful layout you did for Johnny Cash.  Loved the scroll you used to backdrop the pics and elements; also loved the letters - with the "line" in the background.  Everything worked.

 

Ann, thanks for your comments.  I remember "State Fair" also - it may have been the 1st movie of Rogers & Hammerstein that I saw (way back when).  Enjoyed the 1st one more than the last one that was made with Ann Margaret.

 

 

[laurie solaas]

I think Walk like an Egyptian is one of my favorite old songs. Whenever I hear it, I can't help but sing along. My background paper came and the border came from Pixel scrapper. I created the 'walk' word by using a stone texture from Filter Forge, and the man was created by copying an old Egyptian print from the internet, isolating the man, and then flood filling to make a silhouette. I wish I could have added little sparks of light on the 'Like and Egyptian'. I was unsure how to do it. I played around trying to figure it out, but eventually gave up when I was unsuccessful. Also, folks, is there a way to kern individual letters?

[laurie solaas]

Memphis in April is beautiful because it's when all of the Azalia bushes show off.  My favorite Memphis walking song is Walking in Memphis by Marc Craig.

 

Ann, one of my favorite songs, when I was a little one, was These Boots Were Made for Walking. The little boot you found was a cool addition to a nice piece of work. Minka, I love your walk the line, and Mary, your overlay is super cool.

 

 

[Minka]

I wish we could see elephants in their natural habitat.  I mostly wish elephants could be SAFE in their natural habitat ... but seems like they aren't.  I have to admit, the only elephants I've ever seen were in circus environment.  I know they treated them well as you could actually see the bond between handler and animal, but realistically how would we feel if we were to perform on command?  Probably not the happiest.  I don't know, better than being shot I guess - for no other reason than someone could.  I hear some of the African nations have posted guards to protect what little is left.  I hope it's not too little, too late.  I've always loved this song and as it's not a hard song for newbies to play, it's often included in many beginner music books.  It's just a darn fun song.  I watched a YouTube video of Henry Mancini on the Glen Campbell TV show from 1982 where Glen's team played the song and Henry accompanied on the piccolo.  Remember when we had tv that was entertainment?  LOL  The font is called (appropriately) elephant, from dafont.  I snagged the elephants out of youtube videos.

[Minka]

Well already I have a beef with myself.  That should be piccolo on there.  :) I'll go back and change it, but YOU will have to pretend.  Won't subject you to looking at it twice.  :)

[Bonnie Ballentine]

I had a photo of a river so I googled "walk by the river" and found this song. I had already decided to use Carole's template (rotated) and built my layout from there.

 

As I worked, the project evolved...taking on a mind of its own. I ended up with 3 projects and am not sure which one I like best so I will show you all three.

The song is "Walkin' By The River". One artist who recorded it was Ella Fitzgerald. The chorus is, "I'm walkin' by the river "cause I'm meeting someone there tonight!"

Walkin' By The River

There's dew upon the ground

And not a soul in sight;

I'm walkin' by the river

'Cause I'm meeting someone there tonight!

I hear a distant sound

I see a far-off light;

I'm walkin' by the river

'Cause I'm meeting someone there tonight!

The murmuring waters say

There's no time to delay

So hurry on your way, my friend!

If you don't get there soon

There may not be a moonTo guide you to that happy end!

My heart is riding high

My blues have taken flight

I'm walkin' by the river

'Cause I'm meeting someone there tonight!

My heart is riding high

My blues have taken flight

I'm walkin' by the river

'Cause I'm meeting someone there tonight!

[Bonnie Ballentine]

Second:

[Bonnie Ballentine]

Third:

 

The girl is from Unsplash.