The Lizzard Zone

In late 2005, I was feeling like I needed to get a new hobby so I looked in the local community college's "not-for-credit" offerings and found a Photoshop class. I soon found that I had Photoshop on my computer and decided to take the class. What a blast it was! While there is a LOT about the program I don't yet know, I've been having a lot of fun playing with pictures. Here are a few of my masterpieces, if they can be referred to by such a lofty title. Enjoy! The newest are on the top.

	For the twins' 2nd birthday, I made this. The poem took shape in late 2010. Click on the picture to see a bigger version.

	After a Photoshop class in late 2010 talked about displacement maps, I was intrigued. Shortly thereafter, a tutorial was in the photoshop magazine that I get, so I had to try it out. Not bad! Click on the picture to see a bigger version.

	I made this because I after enjoying the Vancouver Olympics. Mostly, I made it just to see if I could and how it would look. It was easier than I thought it would be. Click on the picture to see a bigger version.

	Here is an updated family picture for 2010. Mostly, I did this because I saw the filmstrip thing in my photoshop magazine and wanted to try it out. Click on the picture to see a bigger version.

	My husband did one of these and has had his students do some as well. It made me decide to do one too. Basically, I just tried to capture some things about myself. Click on the picture to see a bigger version that can actually be read.

	I learned how to make this cool lookin' picture in a Photoshop class I took in 2009. I think it's MUCH better than the other collage I made for the year 2003 (shown a few pictures below). Click on the picture to see a bigger version.

	A step-by-step tutorial in Photoshop User Magazine allowed me to make this rather cool picture. I really enjoy going through these, not so much to make the picture that it describes but to pick up some of the techniques and shortcuts.

	To celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary, we went to Cannon Beach on the Oregon Coast. It was an awesome weekend. We wandered through the shops, ate ice cream coneswhile walking on the beach and explored the area around Haystack Rock during low tide.

	Happy Halloween! Or, as this picture indicates, Howloween! Here are our jack-o-lanterns! One is the outline of Mikey (notice the curly tail). The other is supposed to be a football jersey with the name of "Cosmo" and the number 28. Cosmo is, of course, BYU's mascot. "28" is a play on words that my cute husband came up with earlier this year. Simply put, my name sign is based off of the sign for "late". If you fingerspell "L8", it's the same as "28". Click on the image to see the bigger version.

	I was playing with some of the filters in Photoshop and managed to make this cartoon-looking picture from a real photograph. Not too shabby.

	When I wanted to experiment with various Photoshop features, I decided to make a "highlights of 2003" picture. I learned a lot from the project that, if I were to do again, would make a better picture. So, the next one will be improved but this isn't bad for a learning experience. My favorite part of this is how the picture in the center just jumps out. Very appropriate since the wedding was the biggest event in my life that year.

	I back up my pictures onto a DVD-RW until it gets full. Then, I burn them on a permanent DVD for storage. My pictures from 2002-2006 all fit onto one DVD and I was about to put a plain, boring label on the DVD when I thought "hey, wait a minute!" I made this picture in Photoshop with some of the highlights of those years. I even played around with gradients and textures and made a much better label.

	This is a picture that I made for Stamps (for either Valentine's Day or our anniversary). Rather simple, isn't it?

	I play softball with a team of co-workers each summer in a recreational league. I have a lot of fun though I'm not the most skilled player on the field. My team, the Fireballs, won our league championship in 2006. I made this picture for fun - kind of a "what if we had our own field?" kind of scenario. The picture of the field is just one that I got off the internet somewhere since I didn't get around to taking a picture of a field we actually played on.

	Stamps needed some help with a project he was doing with his students. They each drew part of the design and I put it all together and made it be what the kids had envisioned. When complete, they were each given their own copy to keep. My favorite part with this project was experimenting with textures as she'd never really done that in Photoshop prior to this project. Pretty fun idea.

	For fun, I decided to make a new background for my computer. It was a while in the making but eventually became a collage of things that I like, are special to me or that I just felt like including. Basically, it's her idea of what makes me, well, LIZZARD! How many things can you identify? Learn anything new?

	I am a HUGE BYU Football fan. I'm not just a fair weather fan either -- I'm in it for the long-haul. After a few disappointing years, 2006's team was a welcome breath of fresh air! At the end of the season, their record was 11-2. They won the Mountain West Conference championship by two games and wiped the field in Las Vegas with the feathers of the Oregon Ducks (incidentally, the team that I could never cheer for). To commemorate the season, I made this picture. Click on the picture to see a bigger version so you can actually read the scores!

	For my 27th birthday, my dad came to visit. So I went with the cute boys of my family to enjoy a nice hike to a beach and enjoy nature. Afterwards, I made this collage of some of the pictures from the hike. My favorite feature of it are the ocean waves in the sky above my dad's head in the picture.

	After a romantic date at the beach, I made this as a Valentine's Day present for Stamps. The background is a picture they took during said romantic date. The lizard obviously represents our favorite Lizzard. The fox represents Stamps - as his name sign is similar to "fox". Isn't it cute? I can't help but smile when I see this picture.

	After my parents divorced, Ineeded a new way of displaying pictures of my family on mydesk at work since no new family pictures would be taken. When Istarted learning Photoshop, I realized Icould make a collage of current pictures rather than displaying a picture that was outdated. So this picture was created. Clockwise from top left are TSO & Timothy (best friend), Lizzard & Stamps, Lizzard's mom, Mikey the pooch, Manto (brother) , Lizzard's dad and Kim & Ross (sister).

	This is from Girls' Camp 2006. One evening after most had retired to their campsites or beds, a man came wandering into camp. He claimed that he was late for dinner with the President of the United States, George W. Bush. While some of the men at camp stayed with him and waited for the cops to haul him away, everyone else was gathered into the lodge - just to be on the safe side. Many of the girls started referring to the stranger as the "Bush-man". The following night at dinner, some girls left a spot open at the dinner table, saying it was for President Bush. Thus was the inspiration for this picture. Click on the picture to see a bigger version.

This page was last updated on 01-Sep-2011 19:34
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