Digital photography brings out the artist in many of us, and software such as Photoshop and Lightroom add a little extra sparkle to our images.
However, sometimes an atmospheric image can be improved further with a push towards the art world, using specialist painting software.
Akvis ArtWork 7 claims to turn your photos into impressive works of art that, in some instances, can turn a mediocre shot into an atmospheric image that's worth framing and sticking on the wall.
This latest upgrade introduces Gouche - a versatile painting technique that uses dense and intensive colours. Its characteristics are brilliance and opacity. Akvis ArtWork's opacity feature and covering power will, the developer claims, enable you to create outstanding effects that can't be achieved with watercolour paints.
Gouache technique is widely used in decorative painting and when creating colour sketches and drawings.
Akvis ArtWork 7 is available for both PC and Mac platforms, or you can use it as a plug-in for Photoshop. The basic idea is to turn a photo into a painting. The program goes a stage further than the Artistic filters built in to Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, which haven't been updated or extended for many years.
Other effects on offer from ArtWork include Oil, Watercolor, Comics, Pen & Ink, Linocut and Pastel. There are even some extra arty touches such as canvas textures and stylised signatures to add a little flourish to your masterpiece.
Of course, software to turn photos into art is nothing new. Corel Painter has been around for years, but at £279/$429 and with a fairly steep learning curve, it isn't for everyone.
Akvis ArtWork 7 sells for £93/$99 and the latest version includes a Preview feature so you can tweak and assess your opus magnum before printing it out. Version 7 sounds like it could be a fairly essential upgrade, and should have you on your way to the Royal Academy in no time at all.
Source: www.techradar.com
Topazery Jewelry Reviews its First Decade as an Online Antique Jewelry Boutique - Beaumont Enterprise
Having recently celebrated 10 years of selling vintage and antique jewelry on the web, Topazery Jewelry reviews its accomplishments over the last decade. A celebrity first sale, a move to the big city and a feature spotlight on primetime TV are just some of the highlights the company has experienced since its humble beginnings.
Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) June 07, 2012
The tenth anniversary of Topazery Jewelry has prompted the online jewelry boutique to review its accomplishments over the past ten years of selling vintage and antique jewelry on the web. That retrospective reveals the company’s humble beginnings, its first celebrity customer, a major relocation, a TV spotlight, several expansions in antique style jewelry offerings and rolling with the punches as the World Wide Web changed and evolved.
When Topazery first opened its doors in 2001, the company operated out of an antiques mall in Charlotte, N.C. Back then, its focus was on antique furnishings and accessories, with only a small selection of jewelry comprising its inventory. In October 2002, Topazery founder, Jan Walden, decided to take her antique concept to the then still-in-its-infancy web and shift the focus to jewelry. That move was a calculated risk, with the notion of doing business entirely online still a novel and unproven model. “When we began selling online, Etsy.com didn’t exist and Amazon.com (the largest online retailer in the world) had just announced its first profitable year,” Walden explains.
With a starting budget of less than $1,000, Topazery.com debuted with a mere five antique and vintage rings up for sale. “As Topazery Jewelry reviews its first 10 years, it’s hard to believe the website had a total of just three pages in its infancy: Home, About and Jewelry,” Walden reminisces. Despite its Spartan ambience, however, the site’s sought-after antique jewelry offerings quickly attracted an audience. In fact, the first person to purchase a piece from the company’s online inventory was an acclaimed NBC news correspondent.
From there, business took off, prompting Walden in 2005 to pack up and relocate Topazery Jewelry’s headquarters from Charlotte to Atlanta. “That year we expanded our jewelry offerings and added a special selection of new antique style jewelry from several designers.”
That wouldn’t be the first time the company would take its focus in a new direction. In 2007, Topazery stopped offering jewelry designed by others and began focusing on its own line: The Topazery Collection. That same year, a Victorian style sapphire and diamond ring from Topazery was chosen for NBC’s hit drama TV series, “Crossing Jordan.” Airing in February 2007, the episode, which was titled “Mr. Little and Mr. Big,” prominently featured an elegant sapphire and diamond ring from Topazery Jewelry as part of its storyline.
Today, Topazery Jewelry is still a small online boutique with the same personalized attention to detail it provided in 2002. In the 10 years since then, however, the company’s professional team has expanded to include master jewelers, appraisers, gemologists, a writer, a webmaster and a photographer. In that respect, Topazery fully leverages all the benefits an online working environment affords.
“Because we all work out of our homes or private offices, I’ve been able to bring in the best professionals from all over the country without requiring them to uproot and move to Atlanta. I also don’t have to maintain a brick-and-mortar shop and wrestle with all the extra tasks that entails,” Walden relates.
Its online presence also allows Topazery Jewelry to put a full library of educational pages at its customers’ fingertips. As a result, they can learn about antique jewelry, diamonds and gemstones without ever leaving the comfort of their own homes. That educational focus is paying off for the company. And with its antique and vintage jewelry pieces ranging in price from under $100 to $15,000, everyone can find something special to fit their budget.
For more of the insider scoop as Topazery Jewelry reviews the past 10 years, contact Jan Walden at (678) 528-8901. To see the antique and vintage pieces that have drawn celebrity interest and led to a decade of jewelry-selling success, visit Topazery Jewelry online at http://www.topazery.com.
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012TopazeryJewelry/06TenYearReview/prweb9579774.htm
Source: www.beaumontenterprise.com
Antique tractor collectors gather for Evansville's 2012 Classic Iron Show - Evansville Courier-Press
EVANSVILLE — Gerry Blackburn didn't enjoy being towed in a wagon behind her husband Charles Blackburn's tractor. She preferred riding shotgun with him, so to solve the problem, he custom built a second seat on his 1954 Ford tractor so she could sit proudly next to him.
The Blackburns and their two-seated tractor will be participating in this weekend's 30th Annual Classic Iron Show hosted by the Southern Indiana's Antique & Machinery Club at the Vanderburgh County 4-H Fairgrounds on U.S. 41 North.
Opening at 8 a.m. today with activities continuing into the evening, the show goes through Sunday It will feature antique tractors, hit-and-miss and steam engines, crawlers and other types of equipment.
Activities will include a Giant Flea Market, toy show, working demonstrations, antique tractors, food vendors, a garden tractor pull Friday evening, live music by the SIAM Playboys on Saturday afternoon and a Saturday evening antique tractor rodeo.
The Lawn and Garden Tractor Extravaganza chose Evansville as the site for its 2012 show. It will feature more than 500 lawn and garden tractors.
Admission is $4 for people 13 and older, or $7 for a weekend pass, which includes the evening events.
The Blackburns, who are from Mount Vernon, Ind., have been members of the club for six years, and have attended the show for 15 years. They rarely see other tractors with two seats, and Gerry Blackburn, 74, loves the ride.
"I'm glad he did," she smiled and said. "I enjoy it. I never got to do anything like this until we got married eight years ago."
Charles Blackburn, 82, has been collecting, buying and selling almost 30 tractors since 1992, and currently owns three. He's had his favorite, the 1954 Ford, for 41 years. For more than 30 years, he used it to mow grass, but retired it from that duty. His three children surprised him and restored it for his 80 birthday.
"That's part of the family," he proudly said.
His other tractors are a 1950 International and a 1973 140 John Deere Lawn Tractor.
"We like getting together with all the other guys and wives that do the same things and talk tractor," Charles said.
Gary Mann, a club member since 1980, said Southern Indiana's Antique & Machinery Club has about 200 members, but expected at least 100 people traveling from out of town — Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan — to display their equipment.
"We restore and take care of antique tractors, equipment and engines," Mann said. "We try to keep things going for the future. You restore the past for the future so kids can understand that this was the way things were done many years ago, and it was a hard, rough labor with equipment then compared to what it is today. And a lot of the stuff we have out there, some families and kids have never seen before."
Cynthiana, Ind. resident, Joe Kautzman, 70, was brought up with Gravely tractor's, and that's all he owns.
"My dad bought a Gravely when I was in grade school, probably a '50 model, and I used it all the time," he said. "We had a big garden, and I used it in there all the time ... And I've had them ever since."
He stays busy with the upkeep of the more than four dozen tractors that he owns. Other than the pieces he uses for parts, he keeps all tractors in use, including a 1940 walk behind Model L.
"My neighbor buddy, I got him converted," Kautzman smiled and said. "He's got about a half dozen now."
Mann said there's something to please everyone, the event doesn't favor tractor lovers. A barrel train is an attraction for the kids — wheels are attached to 12 55-gallon barrels and hooked together, then pulled by a tractor.
"We take them around the displays and drive real slow to let them look at things," he said. "And the parents get a break, too, cause they can go get something to eat or drink then come back to wait for the kids. Some adults even try to crawl in and ride. We haven't had anybody get stuck yet."
Source: www.courierpress.com
Antique tractor & power show returns June 9 - Brush News Tribune
Formerly known as the Cottonwood Forge Antique Power and Tractor Show, the event was reorganized as of 2011 by a group of devoted Morgan County residents.
“A group of about 16 of us have gotten together to make everything go," said co-organizer Barb Holter. “It's a real good group and everyone has their own special abilities to make the organization work. We have a lot of support from local groups that are helping us too."
The second annual event is slated to feature the ever-popular Poker-Run which will have participants stopping at local businesses to pick up playing cards for the contest and also to receive special discounts. Tractor games, such as a slow race, pole race and wagon backing as well as vendor booths, entertainment, a parade of power, corn shelling and wheat thrashing demonstrations also are on tap for the festivities.
Tractor owner and country music singer Sally Goerner will lend her national anthem singing talents to the event once again this year and according to Barb Holter, who co-chairs the organizing committee with several other Morgan County residents.
The live auction is being discussed to include items such as toys, tractor t-shirts and more and gift certificates donated by local businesses will likely be used this year as door and game prizes.
Morgan Community College's Center for Arts and Community Enrichment (CACE) program also has plans to continue the photo contest again this year, featuring pictures taken at the event that will be judged and put on display in July at MCC. The contest is open to people of all ages and includes four categories of photo subjects
including Place and Faces, Preserving the Past, Parade Photos and Personal Perspectives categories.Entries must be turned in by the end of June and can be sent digitally to MCC Director of Communications and Marketing Katie Barron by e-mail at Katie.Barron@MorganCC.edu or in hardcopy form by dropping them off at MCC. For more information on the photo contest, call Katie at 970-542-3108.
Last year's first annual event featured 83 tractors and drew participants from Brush, Fort Morgan, Sterling, Alamosa, Yuma, Haxtun, Holyoke, Otis, Akron, Colorado's Front Range area, Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas.
Attendance in 2011 was at approximately 675 people. After festivities ended that year, co-organizer Barb Holter commented, “I feel it was a great success and we are stoked to do it again next year. We worked so well together as a committee and I would like to thank all that helped”.
She also stated that at last year's event, “We were pleased with how the parade/poker run went and had very positive comments all day from tractor exhibitors and participants that were so impressed with the cooperation we received from the police department”.
The first annual event enticed 52 sponsors for the event and 25 business donated items to the auction. Door prizes also were donated by businesses such as McDonald's, Wendy's, Taco Johns, Sonic, Willow Coffee-Tea & Smoothies, Arby's and Pizza Hut.
More information and a tentative schedule can be found through the show's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/morgancountytractorshow, or by visiting the Brush Chamber of Commerce website at www.brushchamber.org/events/tractor_show.html
Event organizers hope to get the show its own website soon for further information and pictures from past events.
Source: www.brushnewstribune.com
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