“Emerald Arches” Tall Mugs by Sarah Vernon | Redbubble

Features / Art Universe 12 December 2015 / Digital Art at Its Best 6 October 2015 / Everyday Women 3 September 2015 /

Emerald Arches came about when I was playing around with a makeover for Stephen King’s novel Green Mile. One particular blending of an image and a background, the former discarded as far as Green Mile was concerned, shrieked at me to be recreated as my next art piece.

The photograph is a painting from 1842 by Jules Victor Genisson on Wikimedia of the interior of Amiens Cathedral. Blending it in ‘overlay’ mode via Photoshop with 2 Lil’ Owls texture 2LO Distressed 7 made my heart leap!

I wanted to bring out the edges as if the original had been an architectural drawing with a colour wash. This I achieved by adjusting the brightness and contrast and sharpening the edges until I was satisfied. I could have used Photoshop’s rendering tool on a duplicate layer but this is never satisfactory as it always looks unnatural and manufactured rather than actually drawn by hand.

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Source: “Emerald Arches” Tall Mugs by Sarah Vernon | Redbubble

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Déjeuner de Luxe #Art

Déjeuner de Luxe © Sarah Vernon – Crated

Paul-François Quinsac (1858–1929) was a French artist who specialised in mythological and allegorical subjects, figures and landscapes.

His painting A Beauty in Violet (1909) was the perfect backdrop to create a faux-Victorian advertisement with vintage elements from The Graphics Fairy, including an intricate twirl for a headpiece, embellished with one of my embossed flowers that I created in the early days.

Déjeuner de Luxe Flask by FirstNightDesign

Déjeuner de Luxe Postcard by FirstNightDesign

Available at the following galleries:
Redbubble
Crated
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America [14 fulfillment centers in 5 countries]
Saatchi Art

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Pre-Raphaelite Beauty #Art

Pre-Raphaelite Beauty © Sarah Vernon – Fine Art America

This adaptation of an autochrome photograph from Wikimedia by Robert Demachy (1859-1936), which was taken some time between 1907 and 1915, took a great deal of work to get just right.

Female nude draped in a blue veil, autochrome by Robert Demachy

The original image is enchanting but as soon as I saw it, I wanted to turn it into a painting with a hint of the Pre-Raphaelites about it — yes, one of those rare occasions when I knew what I desired and didn’t wait for one of my ‘accidents’!

I used various textures to give it colour and texture before using a detail of the clock from this image to create the top right-hand detail. I duplicated this detail and warped and shaped it to create an art nouveau pattern for the drape. I also removed her left arm as it looked slightly odd!

Pre-Raphaelite Beauty Mugs © Sarah Vernon

I had to think carefully when uploading it to my galleries as a lot of the groups (such as on Redbubble) don’t accept nudity. I had to tick boxes about ‘mature content’. I’m not sure I’ll do another nude any time soon!

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Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been;
I am also call’d No-more, Too-late, Farewell — Dante Gabriel Rossetti, (The House of Life: 97. A Superscription, 1-2)

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Not as she is, but as she fills his dream — Christina Rossetti, In An Artist’s Studio

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The term ‘Pre-Raphaelite’ is in danger of becoming one of the most misused tags in art history — Christopher Wood, Author of The Pre-Raphaelites

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Available at the following galleries:
Redbubble
Crated
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America [14 fulfillment centers in 5 countries]
Saatchi Art

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | The Bride Beautiful #Vintage #Photography

The Bride Beautiful © Sarah Vernon

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“Dead people are easy to love. It’s the living ones who are hard.”
― Laurence Overmire

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This late Victorian beauty in her exquisite wedding gown is an ancestor. At least, I have assumed she’s part of my family. Unframed, she was among my father’s possessions when I was sorting everything out after he died in 1997. Was she a Vernon marrying someone else? Was she another lady marrying into the Vernon family.  She lay among a pile of other—recognisable—family photographs but I had never seen her before. There is nothing written on the back and it is too late to ask him about her identity. I have wondered ever since, a wondering that may well lead to a work of fiction!

It could be, of course, that she is from my mother’s (Hoskyns) side of the family and became accidentally mixed up with my father’s photographs. Her eyebrows suggest she’s a Hoskyns. Alas, I will never know.

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“You are the fairy tale told by your ancestors.”
― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

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There was little restoration needed: I have merely brushed out the imperfections and made the sepia tones a little more vibrant. I almost adapted her in my usual way but when I added a French Brocante document as a faint background, Mr FND said, ’No!’ He was quite right.

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“No one can be free who has a thousand ancestors.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Emily Climbs

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I did do a Google search in case the lady was a known person but all it came up with was ‘Best guess for this image: Lord Tweedmouth‘, which made me hoot with laughter.

Available at the following galleries:
Redbubble
Crated
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America

Take care and keep laughing!

Beauty, the video

Utterly absorbing video in which famous paintings are animated. Thank you, James, for posting.

Just add pictures

I was shown the video below earlier today. It is constructed by animating well-known and beautiful paintings. The result is stunning, and really rather moving. It is well worth a look.

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First Night Design | Emerald Arches #Art

Emerald Arches © Sarah Vernon

Emerald Arches came about when I was playing around with a makeover for Stephen King’s novel Green Mile. One particular blending of an image and a background, the former discarded as far as Green Mile was concerned, shrieked at me to be recreated as my next art piece. The photograph is a painting from 1842 by Jules Victor Genisson on Wikimedia  of the interior of Amiens Cathedral.  Blending it in ‘overlay’ mode via Photoshop with 2 Lil’ Owls texture 2LO Distressed 7 made my heart leap!

I wanted to bring out the edges as if the original had been an architectural drawing with a colour wash. This I achieved by adjusting the brightness and contrast and sharpening the edges until I was satisfied. I could have used Photoshop’s rendering tool on a duplicate layer but this is never satisfactory as it always looks unnatural and manufactured rather than actually drawn by hand.

Amiens

Like so many towns in Northern France, Amiens is, for me, inextricably linked with The Great War. The Battle of Amiens — also known as the Third Battle of Picardy — took place ninety-seven years ago this month and was the one  that would eventually lead to Germany signing the Armistice. The town also suffered during the Second World War and was occupied several times by both the Allies and the Axis powers. Perhaps if I had ever visited Amiens, I would associate it with something else, not least the 13th century cathedral — a World Heritage site — which is clearly an exquisite example of Gothic architecture, and the town’s renowned macaroons.

Gare du Nord (old postcard published by Caron No. 328, postmarked in 1909).

Emerald Arches Greeting Card

Emerald Arches Duvet Cover © Sarah Vernon

Available at the following galleries:
Redbubble
Crated
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK
Fine Art America
Fine Art England
Saatchi Art

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Springtime by Jean Luc Delagree

A beautiful video by a new friend, Jean Luc Delagree, of springtime in Barnes, South West London, an area I know well having lived most of my life in Richmond and East Sheen. Enjoy!

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Child in White by Pierre Auguste Renoir

Child in White by Pierre Auguste Renoir Postcards

The French impressionist painter, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), painted Child in White in 1883. His sitter, Lucie Bérard (1880-1977), was about three years old at the time and was the daughter of his friend, the banker, diplomat and businessman Paul Bérard.

Child in White by Pierre Auguste Renoir Greeting Card

Child in White by Pierre Auguste Renoir Stretched Canvas Print

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“Why shouldn’t art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world.”

“Work lovingly done is the secret of all order and all happiness.”

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Take care and keep laughing!

How to Wake Sleeping Beauty

How to Wake Sleeping Beauty

This charming vintage advertisement from The Graphics Fairy is illustrated with Sleeping Beauty, the inference clearly being that if you buy Sanford’s Camphor Ice, you will be able to wake any sleeping princess!

I have made one addition to the original. Can you spot it? You will need to click through to see an enlarged version where it will be easier to tell.

Take care and keep laughing!

Related articles

• British choreographer to debut new twist to Sleeping Beauty in Iowa (radioiowa.com)