This is the original of a cactus in bloom at the Gardens last weekend. It’s smaller than I would like, but it still would make a good small print. I tried a lot of different filters and cropping and adjustments, until I was satisfied with this one. This is the “dry brush” filter, and I like the effect. It would not have worked without the bright pink blossoms for contrast.

Then I decided to take one of the pieces of marbled paper and see what I could do. This is a pattern, a variation of a chevron, that we have been trying to do and having no success with. So I might as well get some mileage out of this piece of paper. One example is the dry brush, after some color adjustments, and now I have a piece that could work with water. It seems like once we get a really good background we can then play with possibilities for a foreground image.

Here is a different chevron pattern. I did a lot of different filters and wasn’t satisfied. I reoriented it and was somewhat happier. I need to go back to some earlier lessons and review how to get a basic line drawing to work with – evidently not the “sharpen” filter – I think it’s the “blur” and then an “inverse.”

Then I really went to town with copying pieces of the pattern and putting them on a new layer and adjusting that layer, as well as using a few gradients. This is tentatively titled “Swimming Upstream.”