Showing posts with label seashells. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seashells. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Getting in gear!



"Sand dollars and sand swirls study" by Hilary J England, oil on canvas panel, 8" x 11"


I am getting geared up to go live with my http://www.indiegogo.com/ campaign to fundraise for the Florence Biennale.  It was hard work, and there is still alot of hard work that needs to be done, but I am up to it. 

First and foremost, was making a video under a deadline.  Making a video was like trying to take a crash course in Chinese...certainly was not an easy thing to do!  Shooting the footage was easy enough, but when I got it into Photoshop to edit it--what a nightmare!  I had never used the Photoshop Premier Elements before (their video editing software), and it is NOT user friendly for a novice.  I was literally ready to rip my hair out of my head by the end of the sixth hour!

As time wore on, and other tasks started to press on me, I had no choice but to abandon the Photoshop in search for a more basic program that didn't require a Master's to operate.  I settled on good ole Window's media player, but, to add to my frustration, the video footage I shot was in Quicktime, and was incompatible with the Window's program.  At this point, I put up my white flag, and scrapped the whole thing...I had to make this deadline, and had to do it with some degree of sanity and at least a cohesive video.

I decided to go with a good old, albeit it somewhat simple way of communicating the video....slideshow format of the work, interspersed with on scene photography, background tracks, and viola:  the video was done in about an hour and a half.  Whew! 

So, when Indiegogo goes live, I will post the link!  I am excited to work on this project, and look forward to the positive end result of it...

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy my study of sand dollars...I've got the beach studies out to keep up the warm vibes!  Maybe Spring will come early after all.

Crow in the Mist New oil painting

“Crow in the mist” by Hilary J. England, 12” x 16” oil on canvas  I was out walking along in the cold damp fog the day before the big snow, ...