Art Exhibitions Websites

If we look at “Art Exhibitions Websites” as a keyword string we find the creme de la creme in terms of Art Galleries, Museums and other Art institutions competing for top positions – in fact oveer 165,000,000 ! Plus tons of Google Ads over many pages.

This indicates that in a so-called economic crisis Art still seems to be a hot commodity, although the Press often paints a very different if not sinistre picture.

Being an artist myself and having created Artist Portraits for television, I work on ways of presenting Art online in a way that everybody can encounter this fascinating medium that envelops us in energy fields that connect us to our inner truth. And it exercises our thinking muscle and maybe – just maybe – encourages to break free. Some Artwork resonnates, others doesn’t – however, there is a quiet dialogue, unencumbered by the treachery of the spoken word… so often abused to this very day.

Exactly that was captured by the Art Exhibition “The Human Abused” by German sculptor, Guenther Uecker, in February 2011, in The District Six Museum in Cape Town, South Africa. I had come to see my friend and his latest work after so many years – and spontaneous snapshots turned into a website featuring an Art Documentation.

Art Exhibitions Websites

While I reported extensively on this Art Exhibition at the time, what interests me now while designing my new Web Design Showcase – and obviously including Art Exhibition Websites – is the performance on search engines. While nothing much can be said at this early stage and given the massive search returns as per above, what is quite astounding is the fact that we already feature right at the top of page 2 in terms of Images for Art Exhibitions Website – see the screenshot below.

What does an Artist need online?

While most artists are represented by galleries, there are many artists who wish to be in control and present themselves on the Internet. So the question is: What does an Artist need online?

Here as in most of the other chapters where products and/or services are being sold it’s about presenting the artist’s oeuvre in an appealing way on one hand… but most importantly the artist’s website needs to be visible on Google where people would look for it.

Of course, artists normally brand their name and people interested in their work would look them up under that name – so they don’t need Google for that. However, why then is there such fierce competition  among Art Exhibition Websites?

If you are an artist, think about it and consider what you could do yourself and your career. Branding your work under your own name and in your own style should be conducive to building your reputation online. And while we do no longer work in Flash since the rapid evolution of the mobile web where Flash does not show, we have adapted the latest technology to make your work stand out and be found – even on an iPhone!

The Human Abused by Guenther Uecker

It’s only a year ago that I attended the significant Art Exhibition “The Human Abused” by Guenther Uecker in the District Six Museum in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Human Abused by Guenther Uecker

It was a wonderful and very emotional “Wiedersehen” with a valued friend after many years … and little did I know that my snapshot impressions would evolve into a website and a little movie – that I finally managed to load to YouTube – to celebrate his birthday on 13 March.

Web Design to document Art Exhibitions

The website I designed for Guenther Uecker’s art installation in Cape Town HERE – by the way on the first Semiomantics Ecolution Script in Flash – is just another proof of how fast technology evolves when it comes to the Internet: Flash was the absolute way to go in those days…

Today, with the explosion of the mobile trend and the power fights between the ‘big boyz’ at the helm we have to distance ourselves from flash and work with html5 and CSS3 where our work displays astonishingly well on iphones, ipads and other mobile phones.

As such, I will integrate my documentation on “The Human Abused” in the development of my Showcase featuring my latest work as an example how we can use Web Design to document Art Exhibitions.

More to follow soon. Meanwhile enjoy the movie!

How to Create Personalized Photo Albums

Here’s how to create Personalized Photo Albums via WordPress based Photo Blogs on Semiomantics XO – certainly one of the best WP Photography Themes if combined with Semiomantics Web Design.

Here’s a screenshot of my sketch on Photoshop earlier featuring a main slide for the category “Art” with a photo I shot at the exhibition on ‘The Human Abused’ by Guenther Uecker, for which I created a website HERE.

Followed by the execution on Semiomantics XO so far:

How to Create Personalized Photo Albums

After exposing their private work to the world in Social Networks like Facebook without any control, more and more Internet users look into ways as to how to create personalized Photo Albums and Photo Blogs where they are in the driver’s seat and decide what to show how, when, where and in what shape, size or color. Once we got our neck around the fact that nothing on the Internet is private… and that we should simply not publish or expose online what we want to keep ‘secret’, it’s definitely more creative, more exciting and more fun for sure to create one’s own online photo environment, learn some skills and have something beautiful to show and to be proud of – be it your wedding pictures, your great amateur or professional photography, your kids, hobbies or even just photographic illustrations of your thoughts, poems and articles.

Ever thought of that? Publishing Online?

How to start your own Online Photo Album

Your first step in starting your own Online Photo Album is definitely to think of a good name you can relate to, that’s short and punchy and that you can buy for only $12.95  HERE. No, I don’t earn a cent on giving you this tip – but I know why I use that provider and not another… I’ve learned my lessons and I’m happy I don’t have to worry about anything here – so that’s just a tip. Go to that site and do a search on nice names you like… always as a .com. See if what you want is still available. And don’t buy into anything ‘free’ on the Internet; being in control of your own name or the name of your business is fundamental and simply a professional must. So let this be your first investment into your Online Photo presence; this is where you should start.

If you need any assistance let me know! I will be back with more as my Photo Website evolves. . .

Guenther Uecker Exhibition

Having a background in the Fine Arts myself and knowing many artists and having documented and portrayed some for German TV, I was often asked as to how to ideally document an Artist online? How to make his Art available to many people in an attractive format, especially as the beautiful books on artists have become so expensive that only a few Art afficinados can actually afford them?

The fact is that there are so many people out there who would love to see grand Art presented in a way that is as direct as possible, given the truth that nothing can ever be as powerful as seeing a work of Art live, almost touching it… But not everyone can simply fly to a Vernissage… and the funds for Cultural contributions on TV are even meaker today than they were 20 years back, meaning less and less is being produced… so what is the answer?

Well I would say: the biggest pond out there to swim in to wherever our inspiration leads us is the virtual world, the Internet… and while it may still be in its early beginnings and we have no idea as to where this exciting journey will take us… the fact is that this is where we can reach a maximum of people… and this is what an artist needs: to touch, impress, share, shock… and in any case reach people to get his or her message across.

The powerful Guenther Uecker Exhibition of “The Human Abused” (Der Geschundene Mensch) in the District Six Museum in Cape Town, South Africa, on 3 February 2011, gave me an impromptu opportunity to show an attractive way of how it is possible to document an expressive sculptural installation using various media and combining all in a Website. A gobal Showcase… here to last. Here to be reached and enjoyed at no cost. Click the image above and it takes you right there – on a virtual journey… direct it with your mouse and let the movie play :)

Guenther Uecker Exhibition

My documentation of the Guenther Uecker Exhibition was not planned, but grew out of a series of snapshots and a wave of enthusiasm and memories that flooded up when we met again after some 15 years… with his birthday just around the corner. I always had an admiration for this truly ‘hu-man’ who remained loyal to expressing his feelings in his significant personal style, where the mental process transmuted into physical expression resulting in a universal language of signs and signals that could be equally understood in Germany, Israel, Russia and China. A man whose enormous and restless creativity spanned most of his life, a man who can listen and whose smile is authentic.

Brief, the Exhibition inspired my creative muscle called “Web Design with Passion” and resulted in the contribution you can see HERE.

The Human Abused on Semiomantics

Coming back to how an Artist could successfully present his Oeuvre Online, one needs to know that there are two important aspects to creating a website: the visual side and the hidden side.

The visual side is what attracts and captures, the layout obviously, but most importantly the media… photos, videos, pictures. The so-called content. Of course, that’s what we want to see especially from a visual artist – right?

However, first this artist must be ‘discovered’. No – I don’t mean by gallerists and museum directors etc… I mean on the Internet! On the Internet there’s – to this date – only one main place where even the most famous artist has to be found, i.e. ‘discovered’ by his fans or potential fans and buyers – and that’s on Google.

Google Top 10 to be precise. No exception! Once there, it’s the place to be for the next 35 or so years minimum. . . think about it!

So if you are an artist and you want people to find you in your specific niche or that they see where you have an Art Exhibition or simply where they can buy your Artwork – paintings, drawings, photos, sculptures, whatever the case may be – then you need to establish yourself – ideally with your name or artist’s name – on Google Top 10. Not beyond! Noone has the time today to look further – it’s where you have to be.

So how do you get high search engine rankings?

See, you may be a Master in the Fine Arts – but online this needs to be matched by the Master of SEO and Web Design. That’s the most efficient combination. So how would you start out to achieving this?
The answer is: With the best WP powered theme out there, called Semiomantics. Semiomantics Web Design stands for Excellence in Publishing on the Internet and it has an impressive track record.

Frankly, the proof is on Google! So let’s take a look at where my recent article “The Human Abused” on Semiomantics went on Google? Here’s today’s screenshot, just click on the image to see it in a bigger overlay:

What you see is that my article on my Author Blog, http://biancagubalke.com, made it to Postion 2 on Google Top 10 versus 643,000,000 search returns, in other words competitors! An earlier post showed that the high ranking was reached within minutes… interestingly, even after a few days and such fierce competition, and without any real focus on the theme, we have improved the position and we hold many more on related keyword clouds.

Impressive, isn’t it?

So you have 2 choices: either you buy Google Ads – or you invest in Semiomantics Web Design. Each website is custom designed and depends entirely on the needs of the artist – and his or her budget. Contact me and we can discuss it. Art is my passion… so if the above makes sense to you, let’s talk! Let’s get creative!

The Human Abused in Cape Town

Current developments… not only in South Africa but world-wide… remind us of the important message in German Artist Guenther Uecker’s Exhibition “The Human Abused” (Der Geschundene Mensch) in Cape Town as well as all the different locations it has been travelling to since its creation in form of 14 pacified implements for the Institute for Foreign Relations between autumn 1992 and spring 1993.

The “abuse of man by man” is a recurring subject in Uecker’s work and expresses his reaction to violence against foreigners in Germany… while reaching out in ways that help to overcome the pain and find ways for reconciliation.

Guenther Uecker’s message hasn’t lost its actuality… and I invite you to take a meditative journey through the exhibition of “The Human Abused” in Cape Town – in a most appropriate historical setting at the District Six Museum right in the Mother City. Click on the image or HERE.

The Human Abused in Cape Town

Loyal to our committment to ensure best website performance for all our customers on Semiomantics, our focus is not only on “the look” and attractiveness of a website or blog, but most importantly on its performance. Thus we monitor the achievements of the articles and posts we publish very regularly. Accordingly, let’s look at how yesterday’s article on “The Human Abused” performed on the principal search engine.

Interestingly, even without any further reference to “The Human Abused in Cape Town”, we find the brief article I wrote on 6 February 2011 still on Position 3 on Google Top 10 … and again on Position 2 with yesterday’s post – and this on 8,94 Million search returns on Google – have a look at today’s screenshot here:

The Human Abused on Google

Incredible results after just a few minutes of “The Human Abused” on Google Top 10 ahead of almost 300,000,000 search returns: carried to position 8 by a syndicating website of the YORGOO Publishing Network and just arriving on position 10 via this, my Author Blog – on Semiomantics XO of course – see for yourselves:

Semiomantics Web Design

Making it to Google Top 10 is the most important goal of any business-oriented marketer or website owner on the Internet. Noone looks beyond, really.

The SEO results of websites and blogs created by Semiomantics Web Design are and have been outstanding. Semiomantics Web Design stands for Excellence in Online Publishing and can only be setup by a few Semiomantics Website Developers who have acquired their knowledge and skills over many years of consistent studies and ongoing workshops and seminars to ensure they are always up-to-date with the latest Internet Technology.

Higher visibility on Google ensures more traffic, meaning more potential customers and, eventually, more sales. At Semiomantics we don’t sell a script; we sell results.

You are welcome to contact us via the Contact Form if you are interested in getting similar results in your own online marketing efforts.

The Human Abused

The Human Abused (Der Geschundene Mensch) – was an Exhibition by German Artist Guenther Uecker in the District Six Museum in Cape Town, South Africa – documented by Bianca Gubalke.

The Human Abused

The current anti-xenophobia march in Gauteng, South Africa, reminds me of the documentation on “The Human Abused” I did just a few months ago, beginning February 2011.

The significance of this exhibition that travels around the world is that it translates into a different meaning in each country, city… or even place – while addressing the same problem that seems to be deeply rooted within all of us humans… it actually puts into question what ‘human’ actually really means… be it on a simply private level or on a larger, if not national or global scale.

If the topic is of interest to you, please click on the image above or simple go HERE and enjoy the journey that brings the past alive and might make YOU think.

How to Create Interesting Images 2

Yesterday, I showed you the first part of the exercise we did on “How to Create Interesting Images” – as promised here follows Part 2 – with another variation of my “Noordhoek Symphony” – all based on the exact same two images of Noordhoek Beach and our Photoshop Tools!

How to Create Interesting Images 2

In our quest on How to Create Interesting Images, we worked with two Images, the first of which we went into in PART ONE – HERE for some horizon, noise and toning corrections.

The question now is how to combine Image 1 and Image 2 to obtain the original Artwork that resulted?

The answer is: with some imagination… and some technique… and of course: Photoshop and its brilliant tools!

One could do many things, however, for this exercise, we chose to keep the sky and the Chapman’s Peak mountain range in the back (the top half of the photo) while kicking out its bottom part and replacing it with parts of Image 2.

In other words: the image would show the sea with the seaweed in the lower section and the mountains and seagulls in the sky in the upper section! As we have straight horizons in both images, this is making life very easy.

How to Fade Images into one another

This is a simple Tutorial on “How to Fade Images into one another” – just follow each step and observe what it does… then do the next:

1. Make sure you have both images in your Photoshop Layer stack, put Image 2 on top of Image 1.

2. As we wish to keep the mountains and sky (upper part) of Image 1, we need to fade out the upper part of Image 2 – the image that sits on top of it – meaning: if we get this part transparent then the image from below shows through – logic and simple, right?

This is what you do:

3. Make sure that you see foreground color: black and background color: white on your Tools Menu to the left. Fine!

4. Make sure you are on the Image 2 layer (eye is open, layer is blue).

5. Now click the Vector Mask icon just underneath (3rd icon from left… between the chain and the bin). You will immediately see a white mask appearing to the right of the thumbnail on your layer with Image 2. Bravo!

6. Now click on Gradient Tool (G) on the left tool box. You see some little editing tools open at the top bar. Make sure you are really on the black to white gradient there and that the linear version is selected (the one to the far left of the 4 variations). Almsot there!

7. Now you simply place your cursor on top of the ‘sky’ on Image 2 9outside the image, anywhere!) and pull it down vertically as far as you think the fade of the sky of the top Image 2 should go. It’s like pulling down a curtain of transparency! Just try it and experiment to get the hang of it. You can push the top layer up or down as you feel it… and you can use the eraser (large brush, low opacity to progress gradually) to wipe out everything you don’t want to see. You can even paint with an eraser!

Continue refining both images – 1 and 2 – until you have the desired effect. Duplicate each to be on the ‘safe’ side and merge Image 1 and Image 2 to one image that you can now work on with any Photoshop filters or PhotoTools.

Look at your picture and let your imagination tell you what it could be about – then add some text in fancy fonts, like a headline. “Noordhoek Beach – Gene was here!” could be fun! We would all recognize Chapman’s Peak in Noordhoek, South Africa – but depending on the emphasis you place where, the rest could be astonishing!

There’s nothing than going ahead and trying it all out yourself – with my 2 images or your own. The principle of fading one photo into another by using the Photoshop vector mask remains the same.

Have Fun! I am looking forward to seeing our Team members’ results at tonight’s Ycademy Call!

How to Create Interesting Images

With all our birthday kids out and about last night, we decided to do some Photoshop work on “How to Create Interesting Images” – including some issues some members had asked me about. While I had prepared the exercise as explained further down, I followed it as anyone else. We were all captivated by the creative process – and here is my version of “Noordhoek Symphony”.

How to Create Interesting Images

How to Create Interesting Images – the exercise… started with two simple untouched digital photos I had taken on Noordhoek Beach:

Image 1

Here the exercise was how to correct the horizon and give the images some quick punch with simple Photoshop possibilities, especially using Levels. There’s also a fine noise reduction filter that did its job when correcting some speckles in the blue sky surrounding the top seagull. Worked just brilliantly – and fast!

Try this with the small version of my image above and see the difference.

How to correct a horizon

If you never knew how to correct a horizon, then this exercise was a fast and easy way of doing it.

We normally have an inert sense of balance and immediately perceive if lines are not the way they should be in an image. Well, I sense it instantly – and while it may be a creative element when placed and calculated correctly, the rest is just an excuse for not going the extra mile to get things right in a picture. An educated eye picks it up – always.

Unlike most people, I seem to have a little “eye factor” that makes my horizons slip to one side, always the same side. So I have to correct these errors immediately, when taking the image… or afterwards as I showed yesterday.

To correct a horizon this is what you do:

1. Pull down the ruler over your image in a way that it shows how the straight horizon should be.

2. Then pull a frame (marching ants) around your entire picture with the frame tool.

3. Now go Edit > Transform > Rotate and, with the little markers that appear on the corners and center points of the frame – and your mousetip turned into a little handle, rotate the image until the horizon is ‘straight’. It may now be higher or deeper – that’s OK as – once you’re fine and you go back to “Move Tool”, you can now move the image as you wish.

Just try it.

But we’re not finished yet! Depending ont he size of the correction, we now see that the picture goes sort of ‘overboard’ here and there as we rotated it. This is what we do now to get a fine, clean image:

4. Pull down the top (horizontal) and left (vertical) rulers and enclose the image in a way that all the bad parts are outside the ‘frame’.

5. Go Image > Crop.

Finished! You have a somewhat smaller picture – as we had to cut away some of it – but it should now look absolutely balanced and fine.

The Golden Rule of Thirds

We also mentioned the ‘Golden Rule of Thirds’, that we had worked on on Monday as well. You don’t normally want a horizon to pass straight through the center of an image… although it can work out if there is interesting ‘stuff’ lined up to lead towards it. . . as here we have the curves of the waves, but it’s not ideal.

So, in creating my final Artwork as you see above, I worked with this in a different way.

The question now is: how did I get from Image 1 to what we see as the final version above?

The answer is: by adding Image 2 to it in a spiffy way… which I will explain to you in my next post!

Hang in there if you are interested in creating interesting images from your digital photography material!

Comments are most welcome!

Happy Birthday Yorgo

Happy Birthday Yorgo – and may you enjoy your special “Schnapsjahr” starting with 25 May 2011! 55 makes the world go around!

Happy Birthday Yorgo

Happy Birthday – and a resounding “Hoch soll er leben!” from all around the world… and especially from all those on the Semiomantics Team whose lives you’ve touched with wisdom, generosity and vision on our mutual “Path to Profitability”.

Thank You from the YORGOO Team!

The Importance of Drawing

“Learning how to Draw” should in my view be a discipline taught as early as possible as it teaches young children a fundamental life skill: how to ’see’ and from there think in a focused, simple and clear way. . . ideally beyond the surface of appearances.

The Importance of Drawing

The Importance of Drawing here is that the ability to ’see’ helps to ‘visualize’. . .  and from there to find solutions to any question or task at hand, solving possible challenges in advance. This helps to develop a healthy, natural way of decision making and common sense within the young, sensitive and receptive person . . . and sooner or later a personal Style and sense for Aesthetics.

 

“Dali through my Eyes with Rose” by Bianca Gubalke

Practise Drawing

While you might think this only pertains to the Visual Arts – Paintings, Architecture, Sculpture, Cinema etc and Web Design when it comes to the Internet -, the fact is that being able to ’see’ and from there develop a feeling for what’s essential is fundamental for many other professions where it might be less obvious – be it lawyers,  doctors, sales people, teachers or farmers – just to name a few.

Here as in all disciplines, Consistency and Practice are key. It means one needs to Practise Drawing. . .  just like a pianist needs to play daily or a ballerina does her daily exercises one needs to practise drawing in order to stay visually aware as well as in control of one’s online skills as regards the tools and graphic programs we use when working via the worldwide web.

Personally, I firmly believe that “. . . the more I draw the more I see” . . . which is in fact quite a profound thought. . . but it would explode the topic of this post :)

Online Drawing Tools

While we are all familiar with offline tools to create Drawings – pencil, crayons, pen, charcoal, pastels, brush etc – , equipping ourselves with good Online Drawing Tools to operate professionally online is essential if you want to succeed in Web Design or create more refined Web Graphics and Graphic Art.And believe me. . . although it may sound strange to the newbie and eternal skeptic: online drawing tools are just as efficient and sensitive as their traditional equivalent in the offline environment. . . if not more. It’s totally amazing – but something that needs to be experienced to be fully understood and appreciated.

I recommend simply the best: Wacom tablets. . . find out more HERE. This advice comes from my personal experience and is totally independent :)

Work In Progress

Just as sketches capture ideas and are as such materialized moments and visions of the mind, these Drawings… that seem to have an unfinished touch and often – but not always – are the pre-stadium for some major Artwork…, do in fact contain the essence of what is to follow.

Drawings document the “Work in Progress” – my favourite part of the creative process. . . and as you see above I continue my series of Web Graphics on Salvador Dali. This time I could not resist his beautiful red Dali rose. . .

Dali Quote

“Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.”

I just love this one!

It’s yet another great Salvador Dali Quote to learn from. . . even if it’s just to get to know ourselves better :)

Web Design with Passion

No Web Design without a keen eye for Design and Web Graphics… and lots of Passion! Check out some of my Web Design 2010 in my SHOWCASE.

Happy Birthday Guenther Uecker

Happy Birthday Guenther Uecker and many happy returns of the day!

Guenther Uecker and The Human Abused

Following the exhibition “The Human Abused” by Guenther Uecker, leading sculptor and installation artist from Germany, we created a dedicated website on Semiomantics Evolution to celebrate a life filled with Art, Thought and the Joy of Living.

Guenther Uecker Exhibition

The Guenther Uecker Exhibition – “The Human Abused” – at the District Six Museum in Cape Town was opened on February 3rd 2011, by Hans-Werner Bussmann, the German Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, together with Bonita Bennett, Director of the District Six Museum, Riason Naidoo, Director of IZIKO Arts Collection, and African activist Denis Goldberg.

Guenther Uecker in Cape Town on Google

Faithful to our permanent testing of our online performance in terms of Semiomantics Web Design and Website Optimization, yesterday’s brief article on “Guenther Uecker in Cape Town” went straight to Google Top 10 as usual… here’s a screenshot on the higher ranking keyword “Guenther Uecker”  – see here:

Please click on the screenshot for a better view.

To be continued as our media project on “The Human Abused” by Guenther Uecker evolves, time-permitting…

Guenther Uecker in Cape Town

German sculptor and installation artist Guenther Uecker opened his exhibition “The Human Abused” (Der Geschundene Mensch) on 3 February 2011 in the famous District Six Museum in Cape Town, South Africa.

Guenther Uecker in Cape Town

The exhibition “The Human Abused – 14 pacified Implements” of Guenther Uecker in Cape Town, South Africa, should be regarded as the portrait of an artist in Germany and his protest against the “…abuse of man by man” in general and against the violence against foreigners in Germany in particular.

Based on the stations of the Cross, the artist created 14 installations in his typical language form: nails, wood, linen, stones, ash, sand and writings behind glass to provoke, to show, to warn – but also to reconcile and encourage the dialogue tht unifies.

The Human Abused

“The Human Abused” was created for the Institute for Foreign relations between autumn 1992 and sptring 1993 and is travelling around the world; after Athens it came to Cape Town as station 47. The artist is already on his flight to New York – and this at almost 81 years of age and as active and full of vision and plans as ever!

I created a short video based on some snapshots I took on what was probably the hottest day in Cape Town for a long time!

It will be available shortly.

Strange Visitors at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

With water and electricity cut for a few hours today, I met with a friend at one of my favourite places in Cape Town, South Africa… Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.

With spring exploding with flower carpets all over and a hot sun in the windless sky, I was fascinated by some very strange visitors at Kirstenbosch Gardens and especially the way they seemed to communicate!

Strange Visitors at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

More strange visitors at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens… no text needed here… the stunning scultptures by African artists speak without words…

About Expression

Simple forms… all about Expression…

African Scluptures

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens often features Sculptures of African Artists with their incredibly simple lines filled with eternal meaning.

Pablo Picasso and other famous European artists would not have evolved into who they became without an in-depth study of African Sculptures.

Exhibitions at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens Cape Town

It’s worth visiting Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in Cape Town, South Africa – there are always some spectacular exhibitions. Like these Sculptures – and the Clivia Flower Show as well as the Chelsea Flower Show.

Coming from… or going towards… that’s the question. An African question at all times… but not only.

Burnt by the African sun… for me it felt like the hottest day of the year – so time to escape my reflections in stone and return to Noordhoek.

QR Code Art

QR Code Art – what the heck is that now?

Following Yorgo’s creative invitation HERE I could obviously not resist to play with the interesting code, especially as Art, Web Graphics and Web Design are all along my line – and I always wanted to create a bookcover for Semiomantics. So here is one of my quick excursions in form of a direct application – more on it see below:

QR Code Art

Besides creating the QR Code Art itself, what interested me as well was the behaviour of certain fonts I plan to use on my Noordhoek Project at the coming Ycademy Seminar this weekend.

Custom Bookcover for Semiomantics Demystified

The custom bookcover for “Semiomantics Demystified” integrates my QR Code Art Design perfectly as you see below… and yes, it just started with the simple QR Code in black and white… nothing else!

Custom Bookcovers at WP Best eShop

Custom Bookcovers are available at my SHOP HERE – and as I am and always was passionate about books and even created bookcovers by hand in the traditional French way during my years in Paris, France, and later produced Graphic Artwork for large Publishing Houses in Germany – I would be very pleased to work on any bookcover project; just get in touch with me via the Contact Form.

Watercolor Online

Watercolor Online – is this possible?

I loved doing watercolors in the good old days before the PC entered my life, and I still admire artists who really know how to create this form of spontaneously controlled Artwork where everything needs to flow to give a satisfactory if not stunning result.

Either it’s good – or it’s for the waste bin… there’s no inbetween!

The question for me now is:

Can one really achieve anything online that gives a result that can be compared in terms of visual appearance to the traditional Watercolor Technique – Wet in Wet, Washing, Glazing and the subtle methods of dropping colors into the wetness, lifting superfluous pigments off and working over it all when completely dry with a dry brush?

Watercolor Online

Watercolor Online may not be everyone’s cup of tea, however, most people are equipped with digital cameras and can capture their favorite motives – in my case Pictures from my Garden.

Honey Bee on a Bottlebrush

To see whether I could get anywhere near the impression of  Watercolor Online, I manipulated a digital image I took of a Honeybee on a Bottlebrush in Photoshop… and while I obviously have a bigger original, here’s a small version of my series on the topic  “Honey Bee on a Bottlebrush”.

Another question was the presentation on something more ’tissue-like’ without distorting the image itself… and as I have a transparent background on my Author Blog here was the next challenge.

I’m working on more . . .

…

Malachite Sunbird

The Malachite Sunbird – or so-called Green Sugarbird – is endemic to the Cape Peninsula, right at the tip of Africa. It depends on the many nectar-producing plant species and the insects attracted to them on which they feed  – especially the sugarbush Protea, the Pincushion Protea Leucospermum and Pagodas Mimetes, as well as Eucalyptus trees, Agave americana, and the New Zealand Christmas Tree (Metrosideros excelsa) – all of which I grow in my garden here in Noordhoek.

Malachite Sunbird Stamp

The Malachite Sunbird and its joyful voice is such a typical presence down here in South Africa that I decided to dedicate one of my specially designed stamps to it!

Voila the Malachite Sunbird Stamp!

. . .

Malachite Sunbird

Malachite Sunbirds (Nectarinia famosa, 1766, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa ) are beautiful little emerald jewels on flurry wings. Attracted by the rich colourful proteas and many other flowering species in my garden, I have a couple of them breeding and it’s not rare they even come into my Studio… the event being an absolute highlight for MadMad, my hunter-hearted cat! It really gets the adrenaline up on all sides. . .

Malachite Sunbird

Malachite Sunbirds – also called Green Sugarbirds -  are extremely fast and often mistaken for colibris, who are much smaller though.  I had not yet taken the time to really wait patiently with my Nikon Coolpix P90 to eternalize these adorable little beings, but they come and greet me every morning and evening with their distinctive voices and cascading songs… and yesterday I quickly caught a male on the large Strelitzia Nicolai on my terrace – and this while the storm was roaring and stripes of rain dimmed the light.

Imagine the colours in full sunlight! It’s a photo still to be made… but the rains continue down here at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa – which is totally unusual for this time of the year.

Wildlife Art

From Digital Photography to Wildlife Art – I just love this combination and can lose myself completely in it. I did publish a few of the many artistic versions I created with Photoshop in my Gallery… and these are just some delightful experiments, however, they gave me some ideas for commercialization that I will be investigating and possibly putting into practice. Nothing I haven’t done in my ‘low-tech’ past as an artist. . . sometimes one just needs a hint to remember :)

Exciting!

Wegowell Publishing

Wegowell Publishing was lost and no longer seen… but it will hopefully be completely regained as Neil Dimanond sings… in other words: it was rediscovered, totally cleaned out, upgraded to 2.8.4 on Semiomantics and brought onto a new path to Google Top 10 today!

Wegowell Publishing

While wegowell.com was initially planned for quite another purpose, our plans have changed and the new “Wegowell Publishing” will be focusing on Media, Communication and Design – all topics I have been writing about, with an emphasis on Web Design and Web Graphics as part of Design.

Wegowell Publishing Logo

To relax a bit from the boring clean-out, I started experimenting and designed a picture that could well be the start of a sexy Wegowell Publishing Logo.

What interested me here was firstly the background design with its original color array; I hope it’s not only my new screen that gives me such sparkling colors :) You may have guessed right: I created it from an original picture I took in my garden.
Secondly, I wanted to achieve an interesting tension between two sets of fonts, of which one should be in the initials in big – WP for Wegotop Publishing – and in transparent fonts.

Transparent Fonts

Transparent Fonts are achieved when playing with the many effects in the Layer Style Options of Photoshop.

I am not aware whether transparent fonts are available otherwise, but here practice makes perfect and the more we know our tools and exercise with the diverse options, the better the results achieved.

I never really focused on transparent fonts this consciously before, so I had to find my way through the jungle of fine effects and nuances of light and shadow. . .  and there’s room for improvement.

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What is fascinating is always what we find along the way when actually looking for something else… and so Photoshop never stops to surprise and amaze me; it has its price, but it’s simply a magnificent program!

I will come up with some other variations for Wegowell Publishing soon!

Transparent Fonts

My Transparent Fonts are well on their way up on Google Top 10 – thanks to the Semiomantics XO Script performance!

Transparent Fonts

Transparent Fonts integrated in an African Seascape I created from scratch.

In this variation I researched Transparencies in different ways – water, water ways, distant horizons… brief:  space and time.

And the experiments with transparent fonts and transparent backgrounds continue. . .