More Photoshop photos and a "program note"

Before I present some more pictures, you may be wondering what happened to the little TV show I made up, the wonderful mashup called Wear It Out.  The short answer is, I was so sidetracked by a lot of things that I have given up on the show.  My heart just wasn't in it to begin with after the first episode, then when the Adobe free trials began (I now have InDesign as well as Photoshop), it just clinched it for me.

At some point, I plan to jump straight to the finale and name a winner.  I'm also considering my plans for season 2 of BMN Superfan, which I would like to start on Sep. 25.

In the meantime, here are the new pictures, or rather new old ones:

A few months ago, I presented Popeye playing bunco during daytime of Handy Jam.  I have improved on it by placing it alongside the picnic shelter photos I took a few weeks ago, to make the picture montage I have wanted all along.  In addition to Popeye is his wife Annie and his daughter-in-law Jennifer.

The second picture shows Brandy dancing with Hylton Tripp during the talent show of the same event.  Tripp is a fellow student of Rebecca Peacock's at a ballroom dancing class; Brandy's "graduation" ceremony would be depicted in the third photo on this page, which I completed in school a few months ago.  The school would be in the nearby town of Peacocks Crossroads; yes, that place exists.

More Photoshop: It's a miracle! (Or at least a 30-day free trial)

I had thought of joining the Adobe Creative Cloud community for some time.  The seed was planted when my instructor, Brady Poirier, urged me and all of the other students to continue to work on Photoshop at home to reinforce certain lessons he taught in the classroom.  But I had only two options: buy the full version of the program at about $200 (which of course I am far from being able to afford) or buy a subscription to CC at $50 a month.

But I learned of a third option - a 30-day free trial.  That's what I have right now, and at this point I am leaning toward the monthly subscription, which is being offered to me at a discounted price of a little under $30 a month.   That's a savings of $240 a year!

I started it on Monday and since then here is some of my work.  And there's more to come!

First is a second version of the MacKnight triplets "publicity photo" from last month.  This time, I was able to make the accurate selections of Barbara Barber's body and violin, put in Brittany MacWilliams' head, and "paint in" a matching dress portion.  All other elements are the same.

Next is my second "business card" from B.W.'s extended family.  This time, it's that of one of his aunts, Ola, who is also one of 20 children from Allene "The Baby Machine."  I have Ola as owner of a photography and video studio that works in the southern Johnston County, NC area.  An interesting quirk is that Ola's age was reset upon resurrection from 37 years old to 12, but she was allowed to keep her business.  (Oops!  I thought the picture on the card was that of Ola as she would look after resurrection, but it's actually her sister Lollie, played by local Dae Barefoot.  Oh, well, that makes it an error card, which as collectors know make it quite valuable.:)

In her past life, she may well have looked like this (Brenda Barefoot, a real person not connected to my character, who was teacher Kim Blitchington).

Finally, I have a photo of Brittany Spears and her daughter Blanton Elizabeth, who everyone calls "Lizzie."  It's similar to this "publicity photo" for a fake TV show, but I improved on it by giving Brittany a more natural pose and recoloring the original subject's hair.  (The actual picture on which it is based is that of Lindsay Barefoot, another real local in Johnston County, and her son.  Hopefully, Lizzie is young enough so that gender is not easily distinguishable just by looking.)

Some "Handy Jam" photos

In this recent post, I described the annual family reunion called the Barefoot-Johnston County Family Reunion, commonly known as the "Handy Jam."  Since the event supposedly took place last week, I felt it was time for me to put up some pictures of the venue and what happens there.

Lunch takes place at a very large picnic area, located in a grassy area between the side of the house and the pond.  What you see here is a series of photos I took at Rynerson Park in Lakewood, CA (literally across the street from where I live) on Thursday.  First is an overall panorama, followed by the left side in my photo, the right side, and the "back of house" where the food is cooked and served.

Next is a picture of a bunco game with Popeye, Annie, and Jennifer that is set in that venue, but based on a different photograph.  I understand that the dice game is played predominantly by women, but I couldn't help but make Popeye the best player in the clan.

To represent the late-afternoon talent show, I'll show Labell Barefoot playing the fiddle.  Sorry, but this old black-and-white is all I could find.

Next up, you'll see a picture of an empty ballroom.  Imagine that this is the barn of the Barefoot house.  After hay and other items are cleared from the dirt floor, square wooden planks are installed and fused together to create a more professional setting.  This is where the formal dinner and ball take place at night.

The dinner scene is self-explanatory from the photograph.  As for the dancing, the best I could come up from my collection was a card celebrating Brandy's "graduation" from a ballroom dance class.

 

 

More from YouTube, Greeting Card Factory

Earlier this week, I posted my second video on YouTube.  This one has information on more Photoshop and Illustrator files I have completed; some are related to the Barefoot family, others are not.

See it below.

In addition, I have two more Greeting Card Factory files.  Both are of second cousins of Buddy Wayne; in both cases, B.W.'s grandfather Alfred Elijah and the cousins' grandfather Noah Sr. are brothers.

The first one depicts Ruby Elizabeth "Beth" Barefoot, daughter of Noah Jr. and Elma (Whittington).  I named her in honor of Elizabeth Gray Barefoot, also called "beththeamazing," who died of complications from cystic fibrosis in December 2012 at age 19.  My Beth Barefoot character is a lip-rocker.  Although the concept is nothing new - it was used by Milli Vanilli and cost the duo its Grammy in 1990 - it has gotten back into vogue in recent years.  Lip-rock, or lip-sync, is a concept in which groups mouth the lyrics to popular songs, then make videos from them.  (For an example, check out this video from, coincidentally, North Carolina: this is the winning entry from a contest sponsored by WRAZ, the Fox affiliate in the Triangle region that includes Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, and also extends south to Fayetteville and as far east as Rocky Mount.)  At the Handy Jam, she will perform with cousins Brittany and Danielle.

The other one is Matthew Brandon "Matt" Barefoot, who I've re-imagined as a football player.  I took this photograph of Ben Jones, an offensive lineman for the University of Georgia team, used a brush and a well-placed text "layer" to change the last name, and added some descriptive text.   If only he could play like that during a game!  Then again, the team's shoe and apparel sponsor wouldn't allow it.[sigh]  By the way, Matt's "parents" are Melvin and Rena (Blackmon).

Greeting Card Factory as a workaround

As I explained in the video that came with my last post, I have no access to Photoshop this summer.  I don't have the program installed, and I can't even afford $19.95 a month for Adobe's Creative Cloud, which allows its users access to its Creative Suite, of which Photoshop is a part.

So what's someone on a fixed income and with no job to do otherwise?  Use a program designed to, of all things, make greeting cards.

I received Greeting Card Factory as a free bonus program when I purchased my Dell Inspiron 1440 laptop in December 2009.  Of course, it is designed to make homemade cards, but other related items such as envelopes, plain-paper stationery, and even designs for the inside of compact discs, for those few people left who still buy them.  (An example of the last of these, for a mythical B.W. album, is below.)

When the program is opened, the default file is plain-paper, letter-size stationery in portrait orientation.  You can drop a graphic from a file as part of your design, and in fact I've done that all the time in my personal projects.  Once the file is in the programs, one clip leads to a series of options not much unlike Photoshop, including making freeform selections, brushing over parts of the picture, or adding text to the photo.  Although the selection tool is close to Photoshop, it is not an exact duplicate and there are limitations in comparison to Photoshop.  My rendition of the MacKnight Triplets is an example.

The MacKnights have no direct relation to the Barefoot family, but I included them in my second book, My Ideal World.  That was a mini-encyclopedia in which I took wrong answers, misnomers, and other quirks of pop culture life and gave them a new spin.  (Examples: Barenaked Ladies as an all-female pop group; Hootie & the Blowfish as a beach music band, and Marianne Muellerleile as a 1980s sitcom star.)  In this case, I named the young violinists Baylee, Ashlee, and Brandee, "girls' names" that I saw attached to males I read about in various newspapers and magazines.

For the faces - and two of the bodies - I "hired" Brittany MacWilliams, a concert violinist and teacher at the University of Louisville.  The third body, the one in the middle, is that of another violinist/teacher, Barbara Barber.  It is with Barber that I encountered the most issues.

Had this been a real Photoshop file, MacWilliams' face would have fit the rest of the body better, as I could have adjusted the rest of the body with a levels or curves adjustment.  Then I could have made a selection of MacWilliams' upper body, placed it on Barber's, then used clone stamp to take out the "other" violin.  Finally, I would have been able to take a selection of MacWilliams' hair and attached it to one or even both ends of Barber's to match the hairstyles of the other two young women.  All of these are very difficult or impossible to duplicate with Greeting Card Factory, but you can see my best effort above.

Oh, well, at least I got to add some cool bowties to the tops of all of their heads.:)  (Source: American Idol contestant Jermaine Stephens by way of my own R&B singer Brightful Birdsong.)

Barefoot family explained on YouTube

Although I have been a registered member of YouTube for over two years, I have not posted a video until now.  This is because I have neglected the webcam that came with my laptop!  However, a recent subscription to Skype, which was for reasons completely unrelated to this project, reminded me that the device exists.

At that point, I thought this was the right time to explain who my "family" is, and how I created it, on video.  So with that, I have posted my first-ever video on YouTube.  Click the link below to see it.

My last Photoshop work for the school year

ABC Adult School wrapped up its 2012-2013 classes on Friday.  The worst part about it for me is that I have to part ways with Adobe Photoshop, as I do not have it installed at home and cannot afford to pay $19.95 a month for Creative Cloud, which includes a version of the program.

So for now these glimpses of Barefoot family life will have to do.

Up first is an improved version of the Christmas gift idea that I put up in this post last December.  This time, I used content-aware fill and the clone-stamp tool to cover up the parts of the Jimmie Johnson car much better than I did before.  Red and green borders symbolize the yuletide colors, and I have also included a personal message from Buddy Wayne.

Next is what B.W., Ralph, Harvey, and Hambone are about to present to Popeye for Father's Day.  I took a watercolor painting displayed on the Internet and modified the frame that went along with it.  The caption reflects that this is a childhood depiction of Alonzo Barefoot, who we now call by a nickname he received as a teenager from a high-school classmate.

The last thing I created this semester shows Jesse "Boo Boo" Barefoot, a cousin of Buddy Wayne's, doing the classical summer belly flop into the family pond.  Boo Boo is portrayed by a participant in the Redneck Games in Dublin, GA, who actually dove into a mud pit.

I'll have to think of some things to do with my characters over the summer, but for now, have a great Father's Day weekend and so long.:)