Instant Watercolour Painting

Here's how to turn this:

At the Smithsonian Flight Museum, Washington, DC

into this:

Little Butch

Open the photo (will be background).

Duplicate the photo (i.e. the background layer) 3 times.

On the first layer (from the bottom):

Filter>Artistic>Cutout, 4, 4, 2
Blend Mode: Luminosity

layer 1

On layer 2:

Filter>Artistic>Dry Brush, 10, 10, 3
Blend Mode: Screen

layer 2 (including layer 1)

just for fun here's what layer 2 looks like by itself

On layer 3:

Filter>Noise>Median>12 pixels
Blend Mode: Soft Light

Note: make all the layers visible to achieve the end result




Instant Watercolour Painting

I was having so much fun. Here's another one I did.


Beautiful BC Mountains

Just one more:


view from the tower in Policka

Policka, Czech Republic

I noticed the clouds disappeared so I may need to tweak some settings.

Clouds are back (I used cutout filter 8,4,2 instead of 4,4,2)

Chives

This is why I think chives are awesome:

• first edible plant to come up in the spring, so welcome after the bleak winter
• don't mind a cold, wet spring (which is highly probable)
• honeybees like them. I like to help honeybees out as much as I can.
• are an Allium and I love Alliums
• bring back fond memories for me. I remember Tato asking me to go snip some "schneetleek" to sprinkle on our homemade chicken soup and it was one of my favourite "grown-up" tasks and I was so proud. "Schnittlauch" is the German word for chives, but until today I thought it was a Czech word. Apparently "pažitka" is the "new" (to me and probably to my Tato but I can't ask him) word for chives in Czech. I'm wondering if perhaps this is due to czechification that happened after WWII.
• great topping for baked potatoes. Only freshly-snipped will do, dried chives taste like cardboard and don't even think about freezing them.
• plants spread well, which may or may not be a good thing
• divide easily. I was given this plant (rather its mother to be more accurate) by my neighbour to welcome us when we moved in, so it holds happy memories for me.
• do not get out of control unless you want them to (as evident in the border picture)
• thrive in any soil
• don't need pampering, i.e. I never water or fertilize
• will grow well in a pot. My Mom enjoyed fussing over hers on her small balcony, even though it didn't need much fussing.
• are easy to prune, just shear them off after blooming and they will send up fresh new leaves. I try to do this before the rain beats them down, or before they go to seed because otherwise there will and explosion of millions of seeds everywhere.
• flowers are edible too, tear them apart and they will be less oniony-tasting or at least you will get less on your tongue all at once
• flowers make a nice garnish on any plate
• make a great subject for Photoshop

Chives Are So Easy To Grow

Chives Make a Great Border

Filter>Artistic>Watercolour

Filter>Artistic>Palette Knife

Filter>Artistic>Smudge Stick

Filter>Distort>Diffuse Glow