Gerry Landreth

Most of the gradients I use are preset and I will tweak them depending on the project. Susan has a good outline of that process in a later post.

I will finish the rest over the next couple of weeks. This gave me a chance to practice techniques I hadn't used in a while. The pictures are stock images from the Morgue File, and the font is Samantha Upright.

I am preparing for a procedure, so I will be checking in and saving the work for later. It will give me something to do while recuperating. Plus, I get to peek at other posts for inspiration!

It was another hot and humid weekend here. The AC went out, making it a bit more uncomfortable than usual. Having lived through long hurricane-related power outages in Miami, I learned to cope. The upside is that I had power and lots of fans. Fortunately, it was a faulty capacitor that was under warranty. When the repair guy explained what a capacitor does, I resisted telling him I knew what it did. After all, I've seen Back to the Future 1, 2, AND 3!

@Cassel That composite was in a long-overlooked folder. I initially created it to help my mom, who was in early dementia, visualize the trees before they were planted. I never added shadows to it, so this was a good opportunity to experiment. It also gave me a chance to practice sky replacement. Thanks for another great workshop. I always learn something new.

Day 7. Shadowing the pin was quite a challenge. When I got to the second project, I better understood the process. The second picture is our front yard. I was trying to visualize planting a couple of trees. The trees are lifted from a website. The picture was taken on a dreary day, so I replaced the sky to make it more believable.

I searched for "layered clusters," which narrowed the results. The file types available for download are JPG, TIFF, or PSD.

Day 6. I found interesting layered clusters at Digital Scrapbook. I deleted the shadow layers and started from scratch.

Day 5. After reading the comments from others about this assignment, I'm in good company. The first two were done entirely with the warp brush. The third one required a hand-drawn shadow. I was using a mouse, but I suspect it will be easier with a tablet. I'll go back and see if that works better.

Day 4. I'm improving at visualizing what I want but slightly less at making it happen. Carole: regarding the feathering in yesterday's exercise, I may or may not have done that. I redid it many times and got turned around on several of them. At least, if I didn't, I felt better that I was in such good company.

Day 3 I have always been fascinated by lifted shadows. More practice is needed. When I first tried to pull one, it went everywhere. After several more attempts, I realized the brush was set to NOISE. Oops!

Day 2. The picture is of one of my great nephews, Felix, who was a Ninja Turtle last year for Halloween. Carole: When you reminded me that chalk doesn't need a shadow, I thought, "Yep. Overthinking again."

Shadows Day 1 - I tend to overthink, well, pretty much everything. I'm looking forward to working solely on shadows this week.

My mother canned every summer for decades. My sister and I were scarce when it came time to shell peas. Recently, one of my nieces talked about how she hated to shell peas and her sisters chimed in with the same sentiment.

Day 7 This is always a fun workshop. Reading all the stories is an added bonus.

Momma always told me to put a teaspoon in other greens, like turnip or collard greens. When I would forget, she was adamant about reminding me several times. I'll try it in spinach next time.

Day 6 The first time I heard the word "homophone" in English class, something clicked. Gerry vs. Gary. Guerilla vs. gorilla. They sound the same but mean very different things. It was a new word that I knew would be important. (See how I did that?)

We always have turkey and ham. After a couple of years of cooking a full turkey or turkey breast, I realized that no one really liked turkey. The next holiday, I took the easy route and picked up thick-sliced turkey from the deli counter.

Finding an alligator in the pool wasn't unusual in Florida. They can climb chainlink fences. I've been back in Alabama for eight years, and they are cropping up here. Maine is a bit cold for them, but I recommend checking before jumping in.

Day 5 Nothing is like a watermelon picked fresh from the field with the dirt still on the bottom. Every time I buy it pre-cut at the grocery store it confirms that statement.

Day 4 Momma was the sports star in the family. She's the one in the center of the front row. My sister tried to follow in the tradition but failed miserably. She swung at a pitch and almost hit the pitcher with the bat that flew out of her hand. That was her last game.

Day 3 I was more of an annoying child than a mischievous one. Having a younger sister was a perfect foil. The picture is from Pinterest. Our station wagon setup was not even close to that elaborate. Ours was a large Igloo cooler and a grocery bag of paper plates and plastic utensils. @Cassel The Universal Birthday Party was a way to get everyone together for my mom. I knew that the number of opportunities for gathering was dwindling. Although her decline made it difficult to do it again, she had good memories of it, which was what I had hoped.

Day 2 This is a story of a special birthday party.

Day 1 The co-worker in the story took two years of working together for him to spell my name correctly. And it was only after I called him on it.

That is amazing. You did an excellent job.