Keeping it Calm, Cool, and Creative with Cats and Apps for Sunday
For this image of Mia, I applied a black and white paint sketch filter to it. I then brought the image into Photoshop and layered it with the original color photo to design my own creative masterpiece by touching it up with spots of color!
While it’s only a couple weeks into January, life has already hit me full speed. My day job has been especially tiring – from doing physical inventory counts to special projects that require an enormous amount of mental application. I’ve also had to take a road trip the past two consecutive weekends (averaging between 6 to 8 hours in the car each time) and as a consequence my brain is pretty fried right now. When I get both mentally and physically drained, sometimes the writer in me disappears and I find I need to channel my creative side as an outlet to help center my mind.
Sometimes it will be a crochet project, sometimes its gardening outside, or like more recently, it might be adult coloring. I had put off the adult coloring for as long as possible – I’d seen the books for several years but didn’t want to give it a try because I knew I’d be instantly addicted. With the long road trips I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try. Yes, I was instantly hooked, but it was a wonderfully enjoyable way to pass the time. For today’s post, I found myself craving something artistic, and knowing I had a full gallery of stunning photos of my cats to chose from, I decided to fool around with one of the photo design apps I have on my iPhone.
This was my first venture into adult coloring – I chose a drawing of Duchess and her kitten, Marie, from the Disney classic, The Aristocats – one of my all-time favorite movies. I then took a picture of my artistic creation and uploaded it to the picture filter on my iPhone to create this fun effect!
It’s called SuperPhoto and there are zillions of different applications to chose from. But, in my case, since I have an ancient iPhone (it’s a version 4 which is practically prehistoric in today’s modern times) I can’t get any of the premium filters to work and am limited to a handful of free ones. Oh well…they’re still pretty darn cool and it boggles my mind that all you have to do is upload a picture, pick a filter, and about 10 seconds later you have a new picture!! Here’s a few I had fun with – I hope you enjoy them and best wishes for a wonderful Sunday! Oh, and just a quick question – what things do you do in your life when you need to de-stress and clear your mind?
This is Peanut, Mia, and Rolz in a technique called “Enhance.” They are napping on a leopard print blanket causing the pattern effect to be all the more dramatic.
Regardless of the format, Jazmine is perennially adorable. This is her in a basic cartoon filter.
This filter is called “Dark Patches” and I love how it highlights the darker color patterns in Kizmet.
This picture of Peanut using a pencil sketch technique is absolutely stunning.
This was Zee sitting in my office with me. I snapped a picture, darkened it in Instagram, then applied a cartoon effect in SuperPhoto.
This photo was so much fun. I’ve always imagined Jazmine in a movie and for this image, I imported her photo into a collage program and customized her background as if she were on a secret adventure.
I took this photo of Rolz back in December when everyone else was sleeping and it was just he and I in the living room with the soft glow of the Christmas lights. I used the painting filter for this cool effect.
Zoey is a stunning girl no matter the circumstances. In this image I gave her more of an abstract feel by applying the stylize filter.
This is Mia and Rolz using the paint technique. I love how the filter picks up the tiny detail of the cat hairs on the blanket they are lying on!
This picture of Jazmine sunning herself in front of the stained glass window we have in our kitchen is actually just a basic X-Pro filter from Instagram.
It’s a Blog Hop!
These are so beautiful! I love coloring, too, and I don’t do enough of it. Your post inspired me to carve out more time for it!
Those are all most wonderful! My Mom loves to relax with her coloring books.
Never a finer set of selfies than these with some wonderful creative effects, especially Jasmines first one. purrs ERin
These are so beautiful! My day job has my brain fried as well, and I need to do something to recharge.
These are incredible, Deb! I spend so much time trying to edit pictures for the blog that I never step into the more arty side, and I should! When I’m mentally tired, sometimes I get lost in a book … or play mindless games on the computer … but I have to say that the most effective is snuggling with Bear and just appreciating him next to me. It seems like reconnecting with him fixes just about everything.
Very nice art, I especially like the one with the Christmas tree. Coloring is addictive, I have been doing that instead of crocheting.
These are Beautiful,I love to take Speedy out for an adventure if I can,Blogging helps or if that doesn’t work I get my paints out,xx Rachel and Speedy
Beautifully creative! Though I personally prefer my own photos “au naturel”, it’s always interesting to see what people do with theirs.
These are beautiful photos and filter effects! Hope you’re able to slow down sometime soon and not be stuck in a car on the weekends!
Very cool effects ! Purrs
Love all of the photos but especially the one of Jazmine. I have been coloring like crazy lately. One of my new years “intentions” was to GET OFF of the computer as many evenings (by BEFORE 7pm) as I possibly can and so far, so good. I prefer to use the coloring books rather than the coloring apps (that color for you). Love the dreamscope app (I think that might be what you used for Jazmine? If not, they have a filter like that) Hope things ease up for you soon.
Awesome artwork Deb – happy new year to you! Thank you so much for your sweet card over the holidays!
Look forward to catching up with you on a more personal note soon…
Wow! You really have tapped into your creative side. These are beautiful! I have not jumped on the coloring bandwagon yet despite the fact that my mother-in-law gave me a coloring book with pencils for Christmas. I’m afraid once I start, I may never stop! ~Island Cat Mom
The painting filter is my all time favorite. All the ones you used are excellent examples especially because the original photos and subject are also purrfect! You are right – creativity is great for centering.
What beautiful effects you used on those photos, Deb. Sending good thoughts your way, and hopes that the work stuff gets a little better real soon.
Gorgeous! We use Dreamscope a lot. You can use both SuperPhoto and dreamscope on your desktop too.
Wow those look like oil paintings, all smooth and rich and colourful!
Happy Sunday Selfie.
guyz…yur mom shuld total lee uze de Christmas tree seen on her card thiz yeer…
itz awesum !!
onlee 341 mor dayz til de dood in red stopz bye again !! ☺☺☺♥♥♥
Dat’s a cool colorin’ page. Mommy be chompin’ at da bit wantin’ one of those colorin’ books. Luv all da fotos. we luv Super foto. big hugs
Luv ya’
Dezi and Raena