Susan Ewart

It's hard to veer out of a style. It's uncomfortable. I think having a style is good; really good. I follow a photographer and he talks about that too, and he's known for "his" style which is how he worked for 40 yrs in the industry (high end ad campaigns). he advocates, learn a technique and experiment with it like crazy, until you are known for it. For example, if you were making your layouts for resale, you'd get a following and they'd be buying because of your signature style. (ie. I buy June Hunters Crow prints because of her style). Just because we are doing this for our own pleasure doesnt mean we cant do it in a professional way, right. Of course I also advocate trying thing outside your style because discovery and learning comes from that. And styles also change over the years. I love your style. I love a lot of people's styles and many different art forms, it sparks the imagination to something totally different.

I tried a bevel and cutout and would keep it if I sent it digitally, but for printed I always would worry about the shadows as they really darken when printing. It's funny to me that I try what others are doing because it looks fabulous on their layout. then I do it on my layout and it looks like a dogs breakfast...and I have CATS! hahaha. Kidding aside, I didnt interpret any of the post as critical. I like to hear from everyone on what they like and dont like because I can then try something I would never have thought to try and see if I like it or not, or it sends me on another path of discovery. Everyone's thoughts are valid and important to my learning and opening my narrow eyes.

Good thinking Ann, I will do some experimenting.

It's nice to see the lake you talk about. I grew up on or around lakes, I love the solitude of them in the very early morning.

Really beautiful Julian. Your colors are perfect. Love the frame darker like that.

I know I'm having a brain moment, but how do you get the frame to be super solid black and white? You calendar is going to be as Awesome as it always is. Cant wait to see it all together.

I LOVE everything about this. What perfect color and the date boxes. I had thought about deleting the un-used boxes and now seeing how great it looks I will do that. I'm happy to see another flower photographer, it's super inspiring to see all the members who shoot flowers.

Thank you so much Corrie, it means the world to me. I'm on the right track of what I like to do. I'm not sure what prompted me to use all lower case but I like it. I'm still experimenting with much of the pages so I will also be several weeks playing around to get it all right. My posted pages may be all over the place in design, it's so I can "live" with it for awhile then see what appeals to me in the end.

I'm in too. I know I need a refresher.

Love the addition of the outline. What a great idea. Photos are as usual, BEAUTIFUL!

Wow! Thank you so much Julian. You have made my day. I had a log absence from photography and now it's become my passion again. This is a really nice font from Creative Fabrica called Daisy & Violette https://www.creativefabrica.com/product/daisy-violette-stylish-modern-serif/ It has lots of glyphs and is the style I like. One thing I found is when i was using it, the glyphs went outside the bounding box and were cut off. I realized after a while (a good long while!) that the BOLD was on and I had turned off bold by accident and there the whole glyph was. So when you are changing from the Arial Bold font, toggle off the bold on the tool bar above. At first I thought it was my font program.

Thank you Michele, it's reassuring to get another point of view. Some of them, like this I liked, but others I kept being distracted by it. I need to stop making things identical. I am bad for that.

Cristina, these are so sweet. I love how you did the Months like the date blocks and your colors are perfect for all the months. I couldnt see the first two months though 😥, it's just a little box that I clicked and got nothing.

yes please have a tutorial or workshop of artsy masks

Here I have two versions. One I'm playing with the date box - I just stretched it to see if I wanted it bigger (I do). I will watch the YouTube video Sue T mentioned and think about trying a different style. and I played with the frame/mask which I added a texture to and then a different texture to the background. since I'm wishy-washy on what I want to do, I'm going to try different things and live with them for a bit and hope a good idea comes out of it by the end. You'll notice my photos seem darkish, it was intentional, I seemed to be into the darker moody stuff when I photographed them over several months. They dont look great at this resolution though.

I'm also posting unfinished stuff because PSP is being quite cantankerous tonight. I am living with a few things in the mask to see if I want to leave it or delete the part in question - the stem running through the frame. I've cut it off completely from going out of the frame part of the mask, in one month, and cut off only in the frame part of another one month.

I'm slowly catching up. I'm learning a lot from what everyone is doing with the mask. Most of my photos are photographed with a black background for this so it's nice to see what everyone is doing to change it up. I'll decide on the texture and background changes later.

Fabulous eagle shot!

I want one! So cute. Love the backgrounds you are doing Ann.

I love your flower photos Sharla, and that January Calendar is outstanding, perfect backbround, I can "feel" the cold.

I havent added the background yet, but I agree with you, the grey makes them stand out. I will probably use a desaturated color when I add the background layer.

Thank you so much.

I am behind too. Unexpectedly busy week as well. Hopefully some time after work tonight to work it.

Ooooh, I LOVE Red Pandas! So sweet.

I have seen it I believe...and of course always meant to go back and try the techniques, then I see something shiny and forget all about it.