Free Online Photo Exhibit!!!

My current students will be so proud to have their best work on display. This special and very personal exhibit will be on my personal Facebook page. Just search for me Shalita Compton on Wednesday evening, Sept. 26th at 7 p.m. I will open the exhibit to the public so everyone can view. My students have no professional training except what they have learned through the class. They have wonderful ideas that blossomed after I got to know each one individually. I assess their individual styles and help them to bring their creative genius to the top!!!

Secrets To Self Portraiture

How do I achieve thought provoking self portraits, you may ask. First of all I have a strong arm, and I know how to curl my fingers in such a way so I can hold the camera steady and hit the button with one hand. I do this while posing and being very still. That in itself took a lot of practice. I let whatever costume I am in serve as my guide for the overall color theme. In this particular self portrait I was draped in an antique white fabric. Those colors inspired me to manipulate my eyes brown (my eyes are actually hazel). I then added a textured background with flecks of coffee browns, sweet creams and antique whites. For the perfect light I took this shot while near a window. The light was coming toward me. I am a firm believer in natural light. I used PS elements to clone the background into the image. You would be amazed at the background that was there before. I can take images with the most horrific backgrounds and make them look studio quality! I also manipulated some shadowy areas in the fabric into a heart using the smudge tool and smoothed my hair. I am curious to know what you think about self portraiture. Do you think it can be as strong as normal portraiture? Do you think it is artistic? What are any other thoughts about it that you have?

Paper Trees, Easy and Cheap To Create!

Hey guys! Here is my version of the Christmas trees you may have seen around pinterest! They are all paper and tape (or glue if you prefer). They are a great temporary decorations for parties or weddings and very cheap to make. What you need: poster board (can be color poster board) the thicker the board the sturdier your trees will be. tape (I used masking tape because the backs would not be seen). scrap-

booking papers (all three papers I used were different but had similar color schemes). *Use poster board as your base. I used a black, white and gray color scheme so I chose black poster board to form all three trees. The poster board shows through on two of my trees. Keep this in mind if you want your board to be part of your creation. *Curl the first board into a cone shape and tape up the back. Use scissors to trim the bottom so your tree will sit flat. If there is any unclean edges just use tulle or other decorative element to wrap around the trees bottoms when you put them out. Use an entire board to make your biggest tree. You want one to be medium in height yet thin and one that is short and wide. Cut your other boards and roll until you have all three shapes. *Find scrap booking paper. You can find this on clearance at a variety of places. One piece I wrapped around the largest cone and let the fact that it did not cover the cone to be part of the creation. One piece I cut into circles and glued/taped onto the cone. The third cone was completely covered with scrap paper. All three are different but the colors are all similar. This gives your trees variety, which is really important in art and craft-making. *Be creative in how you tape the papers onto your trees. You will see that I polka dotted one tree, wrapped an entire sheet on one and the biggest sheet was wrapped diagonally so that the black shows from under it. *You can use bows or ornaments to dangle from the tops. I used both! Now that Christmas 2012 is over what other uses can I find for my trees?

Potpourri of Photography, Crafts and Christmas!!!

I have developed my own Power Points to teach photography to others online, now I have developed a craft/photography/Christmas gift class for all the other creatives out there looking for some penny pinching ideas! Want to know how I made those paper trees? Just leave me a comment and I will create a quick tutorial for them :) Contact me today if you are interested!!!

View Bug Image For Contest - ViewBug.com

View Bug Image For Contest - ViewBug.com

Soda Lid Photo Pendant

My hubby drinks Ale-8 like its going out of style!  Okay so if you are not a native of KY then you may not be aware of Ale-8, wow its BIG around here!!! So I found a use for all those pesky metal pop lids.  I make pendants and magnets from them!!!  Very easy, just use the lid to trace around an interesting part of some old photos. Make sure you don't mind cutting them up.  I used photos that were duplicates or that had some printing issues.  I chose a pelican (from a Florida trip), a pic of my son holding a toy, a picture of one of my paintings and a pic of some wedding flowers.  Paint your lid inside and out in a color to compliment one of the photos.  Let the lids dry.  Glue the circle photos into the corresponding lids using mod podge or E-6000 glue.  If you want to make these into magnets then all you do is buy the magnet strips and attach to backs.  For a pendant you can use some craft wire (in a coordinating color) and glue to outside of lid.  After that is dry make a loop in the wire as shown in the image and you now have a nice pendant for a necklace!!!! You can go a step further and add resin to the inside of the lids. :)