'Reflections'

Happy Tuesday friends! Wanted to share this photo I snapped a few months back after one of our very first rainstorms here in Sacramento, Cali. Enjoy!

Cheers!

<3 Noonie

For the Love of Old Buildings

If you're a regular here on BSOM you'd know that I LOVE antiques from antique makeup to old photos. (If you haven't checked out my previous posts about antiques you can find them here + here + here) There's just something so mesmerizing to me about these old items which is what drives me to collect them. I often think about who owned the item before, what they were like + how lived it's all just so fascinating to me. What really gets me about old photos is that the people in these photos probably never thought that 100s of years from their lifetime would their photo be hanging in a strangers house, which is just so intriguing to me. 

I'm not only fascinated by antiques but also old buildings/areas of town. There's just so much history that can be seen in these old places it blows my mind to think about how many people have come + gone over the years. Sacramento has a ton of old areas/buildings that are still intact, the most well known area being Old Sacramento. Old Sac is cool to wander around but the areas that really intrigue me are the run down, sometimes boarded up buildings. I know these places aren't always going to be around, as it's only a matter of time before someone tears them down/remodels these old areas/buildings which is why I've decided I'd really like to preserve these places by way of photograph. Which is exactly what I've already begun to do! Snapped the above photo a few weeks back of this old building that sits along some railroad tracks. My guess would be it's an old train station because of where it's located. But I just loved the eeriness of this building especially how it looked at night. 

Plan of Action: Gather a list of all of the older parts of town + get my camera ready! :) 

Can't wait to share more shots with ya! :) 

Until next time friends...Cheers!! 

<3 Noonie

*POP* Photography

Mixed media artwork has always fascinated me. I've only dabbled a little bit in this realm of the art world but it's been in the back of my mind for sometime. Today I finally scratched that itch with simply a photograph + some Watercolors. I'm definitely not going to claim this idea to be my own as I had saw this technique that I'm about to show somewhere online a while back. I don't recall the website but if I had to guess I'd say it was probably Pinterest. Love me some Pinterest. Anyways I just really liked how simple this next little technique/project was + the results look pretty damn cool.

Here's what I did....

First things first I went huntin' for a photo that I had taken to use for this project.

Once I found the one, I edited it to make it a black + white picture. There were about 6 black + white options to choose from with the photo editor I used, but I suggest using the lightest one of the bunch so there's less ink which will make the image easier to paint. I opted to try the Sepia edit for my 2nd printed image (can be seen at the very bottom), which I ended up liking better than just the b+w edit.

Once I had my image edited it was time to print this bad boy.

You'll want to use a thick but flexible piece of paper. I used a piece of Bristol Drawing Paper but you can also use watercolor postcards. The main thing to remember for this step is you'll need the thickness so your paper doesn't warp from the watercolor, but you need the flexibility because this paper is going to go through your printer and you don't want it all wrinkled either.

Printed image in hand + watercolors ready it was time to get to the fun part...adding the color!

Now I have a couple of sets of watercolors laying around, the good ol' Crayola set + a nicer Van Gogh brand set. I love all of the colors that are included with the Crayola set, but they definitely are not as pigmented as the Van Gogh set. I decided to use the Van Gogh set for this project because I needed the extra pigment in there.

I of course wanted the muni to be the main focus of this photo which is why I highlighted it with the yellow. Once I had my yellow down I decided the piece still needed a little more *pop* so I added in the blue to the sky. Plus I wanted to box in the shape of the muni because the top of it is white + kind of blended in with the sky.  

Final Product

Since this was my first time trying this technique out I did make some mistakes along the way! Here are a few of my suggestions if you're going to try out this mixed media technique...

+ Don't use too much water when applying the watercolors!

Otherwise you'll find up with a watery looking mess...no bueno!

+ Don't even try to go over the white areas with white watercolor!
Otherwise you'll end up with a dirty lookin' greyish color.

Left side of trolley: Too much water applied
Top left: White watercolor on top of a white area looks dirty

+ Make sure you clean the brush often, by often I mean pretty much after each stroke. I was constantly cleaning the brush off + applying more paint to make sure I got the brightest most pigmented color I could. If you don't keep your brush clean you'll spread around the muddy colored paint! (Your paint will get muddy looking quickly because of the printer ink.) 

+ Use consistent non stop strokes when applying the paint!

Otherwise you'll end up with "jagged" looking paint strokes...unless that's what you're going for! In my case I was not going for this look, I wanted smooth lines that were all going in the same direction for a more consistent look.

+ Be creative with the colors!

Since this was my first try at this technique I just wanted to use "realistic" colors, which I was totally happy with. Buuuttt I played around with more abstract-ish colors for my 2nd piece + I like the way it looks a lot more!

Photo taken by Nelli on her European Excursion!

Totally love this techqniue + I definitely plan on creating some more mixed media pieces using it! I already have a 3rd photograph sitting waiting for me to add a little *pop* to it, so I better get to it! :)

Until next time friends...Cheers!!

<3 Noonie

New Camera

Hello folks!

I am excited to announce a new edition to our family: the Canon Rebel T3i

I recently purchased her as a graduation gift for myself. So over the next few months I'll be learning about the camera and all it's doohickeys. 

The good news for you is that the photo quality for my blog posts should be greatly improved! 

If anyone has tips or tricks I would love to hear them! I'm new to the DSLR world.

Now, without further adieu I introduce you to Maria (and her first photo)!