Diagonals and Happiness

This week, I've been working on my entry for the Spoonflower Shark Design Contest, and after hours and hours of work and still coming back to the same design, it occurred to me why I'm doing that.  It's because the visuals that automatically get my attention and make my shoulders relax for a moment always have diagonal lines them:

That Trellis just had to be in there...had to.

Most all flowers make me smile, but the ones that were on top of the Rocky Mountains just grabbed me by the heart and eyes...take a look at all those diagonals pointing back to their centers:

Look at me, Look at me!

In Art School, they teach you the Rule of Threes and all about Diagonals leading in from the Upper Left, Lower Right, Lower Left...you get the picture.  They point to things and make your eyes Happy that they don't have to look around for the Most Important Part!

And then there are the Complicated Diagonals:

The Diagonal in this group is...the group of Hot Pink and Purple blooms spilling down from upper center left to lower right.  

Those hot pink and purple flowers spill diagonally across the picture, but what gives me so much pleasure in this group is the gentle curve in the line...feels soft and sensual, like relaxing against someone you love.

The very Stylish Vera knew all about the lines in any arrangement~

Look at this early photo of my Mother-In-Law, Vera.  She knew that the single diagonal strap on her bikini top was the perfect style point to catch the eye...not to mention the placement of her right arm and left leg for this photo.  They lead your eye right to her face, and the strap emphasizes...well, you know!

When we were traveling from Denver up to Keystone Lodge, we stopped about halfway to check out Georgetown, an old mining town that looked intriguing - plus it had a rest stop.  When we got out of the car, we were greeted with cool, dry air.  Which made us grin.  And all around us were towering peaks...diagonals pointing to the blue sky and back down to the perfect valley!

And it was there that I snapped the Happiest Diagonal photo of the trip:

I have no clue who this man is; when he saw I was taking enthusiastic pictures of the mountains with my Iphone, he happily jumped in front of the camera and posed with his arms raised in the classic, universal sign of Happy Victory.  Victory for escaping the heat of the plains below.  We laughed at each other without speaking - he moved away to his car and we got in ours.  I can't believe we never spoke, but shared such a happy moment. A Happy Diagonal moment.

 

Rocky Mountain Flowers and Adobe Illustrator CS5

Here we are, back down close to sea level.  I miss the mountains and their clear air and astonishing vistas.

 Summer River running through Breckenridge.

 And I miss the Rocky Mountain Flowers that were bursting with brilliance and juicy with moisture.  Since I didn't take my Nikon (spur-of-the-moment-trip, you know) I had to settle once more with taking photos with my Iphone.  Which didn't do too bad.  Take a look:

Just look at the Juice in those Pansies!  Yumm.

Here's a group of very buttoned-down Daisies, with their white gloves on, hats tilted just right, and looking like they just stepped out of a Band Box:

All is right in their Daisy World.

Everywhere you looked, there were flowers.  Everywhere.  I took dozens of photos - how could you not??  What a library to work from for future designs...the colors are already worked out, and the shapes are divine.

The Hanging Baskets were great, because the flowers were looking down at you as you passed underneath.

If you take these shapes and colors, and reduce them to lines...Paths in Illustrator...then the sky is the limit for what you can do with the resulting shapes.

These Lupines were glorious - so happy in the cool Rocky Mountain air that they looked luminous.

So, back to work and the work is truly cut out for me now.  Realizing that it would take me months and months to figure out the vector tools in Adobe Illustrator CS5, I went online and started searching for local classes that I could attend.  And, I discovered a tutoring service, called WyzAnt.  There are tutors for Everthing - and they will usually come to your home.  The best part is, they are under $50.00 per hour, and you can get discount packages.

This afternoon, my new Adobe Illustrator CS5 tutor is coming to the studio to help me get my head around vector graphics instead of the raster images I'm so used to working with in Photoshop.  We'll see how far we get today.

Pansies Images Underway!

Rocky Mountain Sunset

I'll give you a full tutoring report tomorrow - if I can learn Adobe Illustrator CS5 in the comfort of my own home without breaking the bank, well - then - is this a marvelous world or what?