End of an era in Photoshop class

What you are about to see is the final thing I created as a student in Photoshop class at ABC Adult School.  I would like to thank Brady Poirier for being not only my instructor, but also my friend and conscience over the last two years.  He never passed judgment on me, no matter how ridiculous my ideas were, and for that I will always love him.  I am confident that we will somehow cross paths many times in the future.

As I wrote in the caption, this is "My Big Fat Redneck Wedding."  The title is derived from the mid-1990s cult hit movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and like in the movie, this Southern version is as much a celebration of a way of life than a ceremony.  Yes, the bride and groom share the same last name, as they are third cousins; the bride's and groom's great-grandfathers are brothers Oysbert and Oliver Barefoot, respectively.  The wedding would have been held at Camp Paradise, which Hambone owns in Four Oaks, NC, and seen on my spinoff show What the Buck? when it premiered on Sep. 4, 2013.

The couple can't wait to put their bare feet into the mud, which if redneck superstition holds means that they have just married.  Otherwise, it would have been bad luck as no part of their bodies are supposed to be dirty until that moment.

Once again, it's been great and if I can think to make any more of these at home, I'll be glad to do it.  Whatever happens, this blog will continue with whatever I can think of.

(Outfits courtesy of camoformal.com)

Some more work as my class time winds down

With only one week left before I leave Photoshop class at ABC Adult School for good, I have two more pictures to share with you.

First is the cover of Black Crow on the Window, the new "mystery novel" written by Annie, B.W.'s great-uncle's wife.  This is the book I introduced here as Black Crow in the Window.  I changed the title here because the description I originally gave was not grammatically correct.  The crow (an illustration I picked up from Greeting Card Factory, made by a company based near March Air Reserve Base near Riverside, CA) is actually perched on the window sill.  To be "in the window," the bird had to be inside the house.  The window was from a classroom file, with the color changed to one resembling copper.  A pitch-black sky completes the atmosphere for the book cover.

Then, just this morning, I completed a second version of a photograph with the Plumpkins, mentioned here among other places before.  In the last picture, I simply superimposed the family members over a shot of a meadow.  Here, the montage is more realistic as I have placed them on ground level outside the barn in which they would live.  Full names are also included in the caption for all four, and all roll off the tongue so beautifully: Lulabettie Mae, Bunkley Ray, LaBloodrick Lorenzo, and La'BooTeasha Blondell.

New baseball, softball fields for family athletes

As I promised last week, here are more "renovations" of the sports facilities surrounding the campus of the Meadow School, an actual school for local children in rural Johnston County, NC and about four miles from where my extended family characters would live.

The Blackies' baseball team would play on the field shown on the top of the page.  The changes from the original image I found on Google include a new infield with grass replacing dirt inside, re-sodding of all grass areas, a refurbished outfield wall, installation of bases, a scoreboard with space for local sponsors (there are two here, Barefoot's Auto Mart and Belk), and a pine forest past the outfield.

The softball team, of which Harvey is part (as mentioned here and here) and which might be coed (haven't decided yet, but it would be interesting) is on the field shown at bottom.  I made fewer changes, but bases and a new scoreboard were installed.

Family, community get new football field

This post may be more appropriate for August instead of January, unless you are a fan of one of the eight teams still alive in the NFL playoffs.  But what you are about to see is one of my most ambitious projects since I made the family picture over a year ago.

When I "toured" the Barefoot family's home neighborhood of Meadow, an unincorporated community in Johnston County, NC, I came upon a satellite photograph of the Meadow School.  Part of the county's public school system, it opened decades ago as a high school, but was closed in 1969 and its students moved to a new consolidated school, South Johnston High in nearby Four Oaks.  Today, the Meadow School is still open and there are 587 students from kindergarten to the eighth grade, according to this PDF.  In my story, the site is where Belinda and Bryson attended a "holding school" until the family's own one-room schoolhouse was ready.  Below is the aerial photo of the site.

On the far right side is a football field.  The Meadow High Indians played their home games there, and the field may even have been used from some years after the high school closed.  However, the picture indicates that it has not been used for quite some time.  But once the New Earth is established, that will change.

As I've implied before, families will establish their own sports teams throughout the area.  A new league will form with eight athletic departments, all with no more than eight miles separating each of them.  All family names can either be found on street or community names in and around Meadow, as follows:  Barefoot, Beasley, Johnson, McLamb, Peacock, Raynor, Strickland, and Wood.

The Barefoot team will be called the "Blackies," after my nickname for the black bear.  I introduced it in this post during last fall's BMN Superfan season.

The main site for competition would be the Meadow School site.  I eventually plan to renovate the entire area as the Meadow Sports Complex, but this week I concentrated on the football field.  Here are the highlights of my renovation:

• Simulated the addition of grass by brightening up the field area and cloning away some of the worst spots
• Built a grandstand with seating for maybe 2,000 fans, at least on that side of the field; lighting for night games is also attached.
• Re-lined the field using the brush tool with white as the foreground colors, clicking on one side of the field and using the shift key for straight lines, some of them at challenging angles
• Added goal posts, yard markers, hashmarks, pylons, and a scoreboard with the stadium's name (guess who bought the naming rights?)
• Used a blank layer filled with light blue for the sky and the clouds filter to create, of course, the clouds
• Filled the remaining blank space from ground level with simulated blacktop
• Placed loblolly pines in the area between the horizon and the ground on either side of the stands

And here's what the whole thing looked like when I finished it just hours ago:

The change is nothing short of astonishing, and the Blackies are ready to go!

Big plans for my "family" in January

With the exciting picture of "beauty queen" Brandy getting 2014 off to a great start, I will use this post to elaborate on my plans to use the characters in the first month of the calendar year:

• Their "reality show" Gone Barefoot is about to begin its fourth season; once again, 16 episodes will air over two, eight-week periods.  The first episode would resolve a cliffhanger from the "Handy Jam" program which ended season three: Hambone was nowhere to be found when the roll call of the family occurred just after the dance social ended.  Where did she go, what did she do, and what did she look like?  And how will the rest of the family, especially the strict leader Buddy Wayne, react?  This season will also a new project that will involve all 13 residents, and possibly change their lives.
• B.W. will celebrate his induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame later this month.  In addition to the official ceremony, which will take place in Charlotte, NC on Jan. 28, the family has decided to organize an special induction event.  This would take place on Jan. 25 at the PNC Arena in Raleigh, NC, the nearest large sports and entertainment venue to the farm.  Musical guests would come from both B.W.'s world (Brittany Raylene, Bubba Brister) and the real world (Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, George Strait).  Hosts would be Phil Robertson, the founder of Duck Commander, and his wife Kay; both are part of the Duck Dynasty phenomenon on A&E.  The sold-out event would be televised not only on the BMN in-house network, but also on ESPNEWS and CMT beginning at 8 p.m. ET.  The picture I have made for this post would be the cover art for the event "program."  To create the "painting" of B.W., I used the crosshatch filter from the brush strokes section of the filter gallery, as applied to the original picture.  (Click here to find out about the real inductees.)
• I am also thinking of resuming the diary format that I had for some of my earlier posts.  The reason is that I will no longer take Photoshop at school after Jan. 31; although I will still have access to it with my home subscription, any projects will have to be done after my classes in other subjects.  If so, it may be easier to write about my "family" than to try to make illustrations under a tight, self-imposed deadline.

Happy new year from beauty queen Brandy!

My first post of the new year brings exciting "news."

Brandy, B.W.'s first cousin, has re-entered the Miss Idealia contest.  (Unlike other beauty pageants, losing contestants can return, probably because the talent pool is so shallow in comparison.)  Last fall, she went back to Lyman L. Bowling Hall in Stone Mountain, GA, and here's what happened...

CONGRATULATIONS!

How did I pull it off?

• Of course, Amanda Barefoot, herself a real-life beauty queen, supplies the face.
• The rest of her body, crown, robe, and sash all come from an online photo of past Miss America winners taken in 2009.  I chose the middle of the five models as shown below.
• The floral pattern and wooden floor come from Greeting Card Factory and I used a screen capture to convert them into JPEGs, which were necessary for use in Photoshop.