Explore and Dream

Posted on by rebeccasnowhartnett

Lately I’ve been experimenting with drawing wreath designs and writing quotes with fancy lettering.  I have always admired calligraphy, but I have never had any instruction on the subject.  I have horrible handwriting because I’m usually thinking faster than I can write, but I found I’m pretty good at copying letters!  On Pinterest there are tons of graphics showing the alphabet written in different fonts and I’ve been practicing writing quotes that I like using fancy letters.  I just reference the design on the computer and try to recreate it free-hand.  There are also lots of examples of wreath designs and other details you can use to surround your quote to make it look nice.  Sometimes I find a quote that has a nice layout and just recreate the whole thing using a fine tip pen, and other times I combine a quote, fancy letters, and embellishment designs from several different places.  It’s been really fun!

I scanned a few designs into my computer to edit using the free app I have, “Autodesk Pixlr”.  It’s a very basic photo editing software, but it can do some pretty cool things!

For this particular graphic, I used a wreath design from one place, words inspired by the quote “Explore.  Dream.  Discover” from Mark Twain, and drew it using a font I found somewhere else.  Then I scanned it and edited with “Autodesk Pixlr”.  Here are several versions that I edited.  I think they turned out pretty cool!

IMG_0006 Edit
Here is the original
IMG_0006 Edit 2
Then I used a process on the app called “double exposure” that has a few different settings. Basically, you can upload another picture and combine it with the one you’re working on. For this edit, I used a photo I took of some purple hydrangeas and set it so it shines through the design.
IMG_0006 Edit 3
I used the double exposure technique again and used a picture I took of a yellow and green plant to shine through the design.
IMG_0006 Edit 5
Here I used double exposure with a picture I took of a blue sky with white puffy clouds, which shines through the design.
IMG_0006 Edit 4.jpg
This edit used a different setting on double exposure.  I used the same picture of the sky that I put in the previous edit, but this time the original colors shine through the words, and an image using negative colors fills in the rest of the image.

Which design edit is your favorite?  Leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!

-Rebecca

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Published by rebeccasnowhartnett

2 thoughts on “Explore and Dream”

    1. Thanks! It was so fun trying the different settings to see how they worked. I plan on doing more edits in the future!

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