Joseph Blake Bice

I was looking back on some old pictures of me, and recollected on some of my senior photos.  One I remember was a photo that was desaturated with a single color in it.  I liked the idea so much I took a picture of my friend from the military and decided to play with the colors.  This was the result.  I used Photoshop and blending layers, along with alpha channels.  I think, though, that he was awfully upset that I was going home and leaving him with crazy people.  Friends never leave, though! Not really, the communication distance just gets further.

Storm's Coming

So I was playing around with that space scene from the comets and thinking about Star Trek (yes, complete geek moment) and warp speed stars LOL so I played around with radial blur, then thought it didn't have enough, so I did another layer and made it larger and rotated it.  Well after I did this once more, I realized...it looked like rain falling.  So, being the nifty thinker I am (sometimes) I went and found a city scene (as my photograph of the Renaissance Center I took like the one above was apparently missing, and possibly deleted due to a computer crash) and played with it.  I wanted the sky to look dark and gloomy for the most part, but with the tail end of the nice bright scene leaving as the shadows creep in on the towering skyscrapers!  (Queue dramatic music here!)  So through shadows, many color layers, and my nifty rain layer being blended using blending options, I now have a beautiful rain scene in the city!  I was challenged, though, to try and make the rain into a meteor shower!  I might have to try that or maybe make it into some creepy fiery rain or something wild like that.  Anyway, the closer version is below.

Tribal Phoenix

This is one of the two swirl animals I made.  I drew this using a tablet in Illustrator and the 6D brushes.  There was no guide for it.  I just randomly laid down the lines and decided what looked good.  I came up with this!  I then took it into Photoshop and colored it, as you can see.  That was blended and brushed there.  I really, really loved how this turned out.

Trinket Necklace

I had seen a multi-chain necklace before in a gift shop, but I decided that I could make it better!  So, though it's still something I could add to, this is it!  I collected pendants for it over the course of a month or so with different sales and stores.  I stuck to things that had meaning to me.  The few times I wore it so far, there has been a lot of positive feedback, with a lot of suggestions for making others, perhaps even selling them.  It was a great adventure and fun getting back into my jewelry making, as I used to do silversmithing years ago.  Anyway, this used the pendants, chain, jump rings, and 4 different types of pliers, held with a lobster clasp.

Peaceful Dreams

So Princess was sleeping on my leg while I was on Photoshop and I had an idea.  I'd never used my tablet to sketch before.  So, since 1am was hardly late enough to go to sleep, I started sketching her.  It was fun!  I liked how it turned out.  This was completely Photoshopped, no sketching or guides, just completely freehand on the Wacom Tablet.

Tribal Jackal

One of two designs I made in Illustrator with a fixation on swirls.  I wanted something a bit abstract with swirl patterns, and, as is obvious from my choice in pet, I love long ears and a bit more jackal appearance to dogs, so I decided to play with that idea.  After designing it in Illustrator, I took it to Photoshop to color it, and voila!  This was the result.

Peel Back Reality

This started as an assignment, but I took it and played with it later, adding the comets (another experiment I did) and fixed a bit of a flaw on the original.  It's made using Photoshop and Illustrator.  The page turn is an Illustrator piece with a gradient to give depth.  This was made to be my background wallpaper for a period of time. Everything is from scratctch except the window, which is stock photography.

Princess Dress

Yes, I'm slightly odd, but not as odd as my dog.  Not only is she bouncy as can be and loves the camera, she also LOVES wearing clothes.  I'm not even kidding!  She helps put on clothes, turning onto her back to do the velcro on the tummy.  I made this as an experiment with my new adventures with machine sewing. Using brocade, satin, and tulle, with bias tape, I sewed it together using a pattern I made myself based on a couple things I'd bought before for her.  It was challenging though.

Detroit Tigers Paw

I went to my very first Opening Day, so I just HAD to make something fun for it!  I made a paw, using a foam blue paw as a base for it.  I then took orange glitter paper used for scrapbooking and cut it out in the shape I wanted, with a matching, slightly smaller version cut out of tiger-print felt, layered them, and hot glued them to the blue foam paw.  The letters, which took me a while to decide on, actually, are blue foam letters stuck onto white glitter paper (again for scrapbooking) and cut out in a boarder around the black foam lettering.  What you can't see, is there's a ribbon attached so it can latch onto the bag and hang for transporting in a more convenient way.  The photographer from Detroit News (newspaper) loved the paws (my mom made one as well) so much he took the biggest picture for the spread (one of the whole stadium) with us in the center.  It was an amazing shot, too.

Detroit Tigers Drawstring Bag

I made this from scratch, save for the stitching on the patch and such.  I made the bag from an orange color jean material and a navy blue cotton cord.  I added a Detroit Tigers patch (courtesy of Ebay, though you'd think you'd be able to find a Tigers patch in the Detroit area, right?) and words that say "Go get 'em Tigers!!" with a baseball and inside, my name.  I've also added a pocket in the inside for tickets.  The drawstrings go through eyelets I put in.  Each strap ended up having to have like 2 yards each of the cord, more than I'd expected.  The patches and letters are ironed on, and the bag is sewn together by both hand and machine, depending on the part.  I took it with me to Lakeland for Spring Training, which was great, but it's now a very appreciated part of my game outfit for the baseball games.  I had hoped for autographs, but since the Tigers are stingy, the Tiger D will just have to stand on its own!

Good Year Blimp - Photo Editing

So I went to Opening Day at Comerica Park on April 5, 2012.  Not only did I catch a cold there, but I also caught a few interesting pictures.  Seeing as how the sun decided to grace us with its presence finally when the game began, it didn't exactly give a good set up for aerial photos.  When the Good Year blimp went by, I couldn't resist the chance for a picture (original seen on the left), but unfortunately it turned out washed out due to all the sun.  Since I'm still learning photography, I decided to utilize my Photoshop skills to fix it instead.  With a bit of advice, I finally cleared it up a good bit using levels and a couple of noise filters to remove noise.  I'm actually very happy with how it turned out.  Maybe one day I'll be able to make it even more sharp without degrading it.  Maybe!

Eyeball Comet

Simply because someone, who shall remain nameless, mentioned that disembodied eyeballs are creepy, combined with my venture into making a comet, I had to make an eyeball comet!  Makes sense, right?  Basically, this is done in Photoshop.  It's a rare occurrence for me to stick to one Adobe program, but I did it, finally.  The stars are like 3 layers and the comet is a mix of noise, glow, paint, and of course an eyeball blended into the head of a comet.  It was fun to make, and even more fun getting a laugh out of it!

Jewelry Gift Box Logo Design

I do a lot of different manual crafts, like jewelry and sewing, and with my recent venture into jewelry, I was looking at my trusty source of Rio Grande, which I've trusted for my metal work for years.  When looking into boxes, I found that you could customize the box for a cost with a personalized logo in foil stamping, making a custom die and everything.  The directions suggest using thick lines, not thin ones, as they show up better, and said it has to be black and white only, no gradients or color.  Since this was the case, I decided to use the font I'd chosen for my logo and wrote out the words in that font, then took the logo and simplified it, taking out the letters and making the face a solid color.  Artwork & Jewelry by Stephanie Beauvais was added on the bottom in the end, and I seriously debated whether or not to include a email, but when tested, it turned out too thin, making it doubtful that it'd turn out well on the product.  I placed the image on a stock photo of their box found on their site to try and see what it'd look like, mimicking the blue foil they show in the example with my logo.