Cover: “Auschwitz” by Evan Tyler
A pre-made cover customized for author Evan Tyler and their upcoming book “Auschwitz”
Look for it coming soon to eBook!
And a matching Facebook Timeline Cover Image
Local Events!
I will be attending a couple Art Fairs/Events over the next couple months. I will be sharing a booth with Nature’s Angle Photography. If you haven’t check out their fine art photography prints, then you are missing out on some amazing Nature and Local Photography! We will both have a variety of prints available for purchase.
So if you are in the West Michigan area, come check us out!
Saturday August 25, 2012
Art Jam in Downtown Fennville, Mi
10am-6pm
Saturday September 8, 2012
Art in the Park in Rockford, Mi
9am-5pm
The annual Rockford Art in the Park exhibition takes place the Saturday after Labor Day in the Garden Club Park between the Rogue River Dam and the White Pines Trail in downtown Rockford. With the Rogue River as a backdrop, Garden Club Park is an idyllic spot for a fine arts celebration.
Artists from across the state of Michigan compete in this juried art exhibition, featuring works in pottery, stoneware, sculpture, jewelry. glassworks, painting, photography, fiber arts and more. Artists are on hand to showcase and sell their works. A “Best of Show” award as well as six “Best of Category” awards (Jewelry, Pottery/Stoneware/Sculpture, Glassworks, Painting, Photography, & Fiber Arts) is presented each year.
New Pre-made’s Up
I feel like I have been neglecting my Pre-made Cover section and I had a moment today to go through some older files, covers that didn’t quite fit the bill, things started that weren’t finished, etc and cleaned a few up to add to the pre-made section.
Pre-made Cover “Behind the Shadows” – $45
Pre-Made Cover: “The Axe” – $45
Pre-Made Cover: “The Oceanside View” – $30
I’ll be adding more once I get a chance to go through more.
For information about purchasing a pre-made cover, click here
15% off Framed and Canvas Prints!
15% off all Redbubble framed & canvas prints!
Offer ends Wednesday, August 26th, 5:00 p.m. US Pacific
High Key Challenge: Fashion Photography
The High Key Group at Redbubble just finished up another challenge. The latest theme? Fashion Photography! We see a lot of Fashion Photography come through the High Key Group, so we decided to do a challenge to highlight some of the great photographers. As always, the challenges are judged and voted upon by their peers. So on to the top 10!
Here’s Looking at You by Matt Sillence
Slappa Da Bass by Chavy-Voodoo
HollyWoodHoneymoonshh09 by shhevaun
Long Haired Lovely by ~ Ademac
Seductive part 2 by miruna uzdris
And don’t forget to check out these great photographer’s other work!
Arachnid’s Challenge: Crab Spiders
The Arachnid Group at Redbubble just finished another challenge. The latest subject? Crab Spiders! Check out the top 10!
Garden Beast VI by Ken Boxsell
Crab Spider on Frangipani by Frank Yuwono
spider in paradise by valandsnake
The Victim by robmac
Please Don’t Hurt Me! by Baynanno1
Come Into My Pink Parlour by Vanessa Barklay
Goldenrod Crab Spider eating a Fly by KaneSlater
Don’t forget to check out these photographer’s other great works!!
New Day, New Work
Man I had to go through the old posts to see what was the last new work I posted about! I guess it’s been a while. Unfortunantly, I don’t have a whole lot of new work. Not that I haven’t been out taking pictures, because I have, just nothing seems to be turning out all that great.
The latest images I have posted on Redbubble are:
Fender made some neat Zazzle Products too.
I’ve also been practicing with my Infrared Filter I bought last fall. My camera isn’t the best for digital IR photography, but I seem to be getting a little better each time around. Here are my last two pictures, the second is much better than the first in clarity, but I get the big ole hot spot in the middle.
And I was able to catch a couple cute pictures of my daughter.
Themed Feature: High Key “Objects” Challenge
The lastest and greatest High Key group’s challenge was Objects. I figured, since we’ve done animals, children’s portraits, and flowers, objects was the next best subject matter. It is quite fascinating to see what people will photograph with a broad subject matter, such as objects. So on to the top 10!
Listed from 1st place to 10th place. If you would like to see all the entries, click here.
Ballet Shoes by Francesca Rizzo
Death of a Light Bulb by Karri Klawiter
Perfectly Orange by Jen Cannella
Candy Cane Heart by Tamara Brandy
Don’t forget to check out these great artist’s other work!!
What’s New?
I haven’t posted in a while, so I thought I would do a quick post on what’s new and going on with me. I haven’t gotten out with the camera much this winter, but I did set up a couple floral shots. Hopefully, with the weather warming up, and grass getting greener, I’ll be able to get out and get some new work!
For more Zazzle products featuring these images click here.
And one candle image, that is only available on Zazzle.
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I also worked on a new photomanipulation. This was intended to be the ‘sequel’ to Ephemeral Partings, but it seemed to get away from the oringal design a bit.
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There are also a few new digital abstracts.
For Zazzle products featuring these images click here.
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I also have a few new t-shirt designs on both Redbubble and Zazzle.
Of course the designs are available on other products too.
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I was also asked to illustrate a Fire Saftey coloring book, which is in progress, and was able to create some products featuring 2 of the characters.
For more of my firefighter Zazzle products click here.
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I also started making business cards designs on Zazzle. You can view them all here, but here are a couple examples.
As you can see, I like the black cards. All of them are customizable, and the colored ones in the middle can have their background colors changed.
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Geesh, I guess I have been busy! But I have found time to take my kids to the park.
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Additionally, I just sent out a bunch of images to be printed. I hope to be hitting the art show circuit this year. I already have a few lined up. Wish me luck!!
Plant a Tree – Earth Day
Earth Day is coming up, and what better way to celebrate this glorious planet we call home, than planting a tree. Remember the days when you were sent home from school on Earth Day with a tiny pine tree to plant? Mine never survived, not to mention there really wasn’t room in the yard for another tree. So if you want to help contribute by planting a tree, but don’t have a place to plant one, buy a T-shirt!
A T-shirt? What the heck does a T-shirt have to do with planting trees? Well, I will tell you…
Zazzle has gotten together with American Forests to create “Tree-Shirt Releaf.” This will give customers the opportunity to have a tree planted for every T-shirt they buy between April 16 and Earth Day on April 24! At check-out use the offer code “plantatree09″.
Personally, I think this a wonderful idea! You get a great new shirt, and help the planet! If you want to go a step further, Zazzle offers organic T-shirts! (The all-organic cotton classic t-shirt. 100% organic fine jersey cotton, combed for comfort. Flattering, stylish fit on virtually any body type. Made in the USA by American Apparel.) When you find a shirt you like, just look through the shirt options!
Additionally, in celebration of Earth Day, many of the Zazzle contributors have created some great designs. Check a few of these out!
For more Earth Day designs click here.
Even if you don’t buy a T-shirt, GET OUT THERE AND PLANT A TREE!!!!
High Key Themed Challenge: Animals
The lastest challenge in the High Key Group on Redbubble was Animals. There was a lot of great work submitted. Check out all the entries here.
The top 10:
1st place
2nd
3rd
What’s 4 Dinner Mum? by Cindy Perrinjaquet
4th
Heavy Traffic by J.Harris Blacklist
5th
Sweet by Ken Boxsell
6th
Come Make a Snowdog With Me! by Johanne Brunet
7th
animal instinct by Angel Warda
8th
Pure by deannedaffy
9th
10th
Don’t forget to check out these great photographer’s other works!
New Product Line – Fire & Rescue
Once again, I was slowly building up enough images to blog about it, but I now have a new product line at my Zazzle Store for Fire & EMS. Each design is offered on several different products, and I’m still working on expanding the product lines.
FIRE:
Paramedic/EMT:
FIRE EMS COMBO:
Just a reminder, each design, and variations of them, are available on several other products such as: Cards, Posters, T-shirts, Postcards, Mugs, Stickers, Stamps, etc.
Themed Features – Flowers in High Key
The latest High Key challenge was Flowers. Check out these beautiful works of photography!
The Top 10:
lots of fun by gompo
Protea sugar and spice by Barb Leopold
Heart of a Magnolia by kilmann
Don’t forget to check out these artists’ other work too!!
Photomanipulations
I thought I’d do a post sharing some of my photomanipulations. If you’re wondering what a photomanipulation is, it’s just what it sounds like, manipulation of a photograph. Now granted, most of my work would technically be considered manipulated because I did manipulate it one way or the other. Some people can get picky with that, but most consider photomanipulation a style or category of art in which the artist generally takes more than one photograph, combines them and “photoshops” them to create a totally new image.
There are a lot of photographers who offer up their images to be used as stock for photomanipulation artists, as long as they get credit, and the end product is a completely different from the original image. Personally, I’m still not terribly comfortable using other peoples images for my own work, then taking credit. I don’t know why, it just feels weird, so I try to use as much as my own stuff as possible. However, that is not always possible, especially when it comes to models. I just don’t have anyone, nor the costumes for my own models. Recently, in my attempt to combat the winter blues, I have created a few images that are all stock, and I have to say, the results speak for themselves. Sometimes you just have to give in and go with the flow. Using stock is just so much easier. There is anendless amount to choose from, if you have something specific in mind, you can usually find it, and lets face it, using stock from photographers across the world opens you up to locations you could only dream to visit on your own. So let me take a minute here and say THANK YOU TO ALL YOU STOCK PHOTOGRAPHERS that allow us couped up, sun depraved, bored artists to create something we never could without you!
I suppose I should get on with it huh? A few of these I have had around for a while. The first 3 are my newest.
STOCK CREDIT:
Model: mizzd-stock Background: cave- steppelandstock combined with one of my own images.
STOCK CREDIT:
Models: woman- mizzd-stock, man – dragon-orb, wolf - breedstock
Background: nomuh
STOCK CREDIT:
Model: faestock
Background: all mine, that’s actually my front yard LOL!
The rest of these are a little older, you may or may not have seen them before.
No stock credit, all images were mine. Except for the brushes used for the butterflies. Unfortunantly, I don’t remember where I got those.
STOCK CREDIT:
Model: faestock Foilage Brushes: LadyVictoire Background: mine
STOCK CREDITS:
Model: faestock Background: mine
I hope you enjoyed!!
All of my work can be puchased as premium art cards, and most are available as matted prints, laminated prints, mounted prints, canvas prints, framed prints, and posters. All in varying sizes. To see more work and/or purchase click here. (or click on a particular image)
Example Card:
And most are avaible as various products at Karri’s Zazzle Store Front!
Feature: Out with the Old; In with the New.
The latest High Key Group challenge was Out with the Old, In with the New. (You know, to go along with the whole New Year thing) We left it open to interpretation.
The Top Ten:
First Place
snow in the field by muratodentro
The rest are as follows:
The Next Generation by Kristen Trapane
Keeping A Clean Act by Johanne Brunet
Don’t forget to check out these artist’s other great works!
Vector Images & New Characters
Since I started working on my scuba diving designs, which needed to be vectorized to make good t-shirts, I’ve been screwing around in our sign program drawing other designs too. I can’t quite get the whole drawing and vectorizing in Photoshop, so I have to make do with this other program. So once again, I’m gonna self-promote and share some of my new vector designs! A couple of these are available as t-shirts at my Redbubble gallery, and all are available on multiple products at my Zazzle store.
With my first series of vector image product, I would like to introduce you to Pynki Q! She’s just a lil blob of a thing I drew playing in the sign program.
As you can see, she’s available on stickers, in which you can change the background color. Also she has her own mug, shirts, and more!
And then there’s Pynki Q’s brother (or just the bluer version of Pynki Q), Pynki Q Blue!
Pynki Q Blue is also featured on stickers and is featured in his very own Birthday card!
And here is someone else I would like to introduce you too, he comes in several different colors, but is always happy to see you. I introduce to you Mr. Happy Bones! (I know, the names are gay!)
I also made a few customizable cards with a lovely floral vector I drew, that is also available on shirts. Just click the customize it button, and you can change the background color and the text to fit your needs!
And then there’s the lovely butterfly.
And a cute lil fishy!
The lil fishy lead me to draw this mini scuba cartoon, which I feel is a little better than the last one I tried. It is also available as a mug, sticker, and postcard.
I have a few more drawings done, including a guitar and a frog, but just haven’t uploaded and made anything with them yet. I hope you enjoyed my little preview of some of my new products.
New Store, New Products, New Designs!
If you haven’t noticed (and if you’re reading this, that’s not possible) I opened up a Zazzle store. It started just for my new Christmas images, then I brought in my older existing photography and digital abstracts, and now I’ve spread out to Scuba Diving designs! Why? Well, I was looking through Zazzle’s Scuba lines and noticed NOTHING for Michigan Great Lakes Diving. Can you believe it? I found state diver’s down flags for almost any other states but our glorious state! I just couldn’t have that! So I spent some time and created a Great Lakes/Michigan Diver’s Line.
So far I have the 4 basic designs made that I have spread out and tweaked on different products. I actually got to design some t-shirts! I was so excited! T-shirt designs don’t really usually turn out for me because I’m more apt at photography and photoshop manipulation, not so great with the whole vector image scene. These guys were fairly simple vectors though.
Now onto the Michigan Great Lakes Designs!
Mugs
Shirts
Of course there are slight variations, and different colors available.
Other Michigan Diver Stuff
To view all products visit the Art by Karri Store
Since I’m on the scuba diving subject, here are some other neat shirts I came across by other artists.
Arachnid Feature – Color on Color: Camouflage
I am one of the hosts from Redbubble’s Arachnid Group. We recently hosted a challenge titled Color on Color: Camouflage. The rules to this challenge was to take or create (we welcome all art, just ends up mostly photographs) an image, in which the Arachnid had to be the same color as its background. i.e. A green spider on a green leaf, or a brown scorpion on brown dirt. You get the gist of it.
We only had 18 entries this time around, but they were a great 18 entries. If you would like to see all the entries, follow this link. Don’t forget to take a look at the artist’s other work. Their linked names will take you to their profiles.
On to the top 10 images:
1st place went to Gozza with her beautiful piece, Practically Invisible
The rest are as followed:
You Have to Look Twice… by Ann Palframan
Color Coordinated Spider by LoisBryan
Goldenrod Crab Spider #3 by KaneSlater
Goldenrod Crab Spider by Leyla S. Ismet
Come Closer…I’m waiting… by Yool
I would like to thank the participants for their outstanding work!
Congratulations to you all!
New Cards
I know, I know, I know, my last several posts were about Christmas cards. But what can I say? They are just so much fun to make! Here’s my latest set, available in my Zazzle Store.
Simple, yet satisfying 
New Santa Holiday Cards!
I put together 2 more Christmas cards today. They are both available as high quality art cards at Redbubble, and in bulk on Zazzle.
*** TODAY ONLY (DECEMBER 2, 2008)***
****FREE SHIPPING ON ANY PRODUCTS AT ZAZZLE!!****
enter code CYBERZSHIP08 at checkout
offer valid till 11:59pm PST
On to the cards!
(note: clicking on the card images will take you to my Redbubble work, not Zazzle)
Click here for all Holiday cards through Redbubble
Click here for Zazzle Holiday Products.
Holiday Cards!
For the past month I have been trying to come up with an idea for holiday cards. My mind has been a blank. I tried a few things, but nothing jumped out at me. That is… until last night So I bring you my lastest work in the form of holiday cards.
It’s a start at least, right?
New Calendar: Flora
I just put together a new floral calendar called Flora. I have been holding off on doing a floral calendar because I wanted it to have a theme. I wanted it to have simular editing, either all manipulated, or all natural photography. But then I thought, huh, I constantly change my techniques, bouncing back and forth from this style to that, so why not allow my calendar to reflect that too? So I bring you my latest calendar Flora!
Additionally, I have added my lattest Digital Abstract, Techno Luminescence, to my Digital Abstract Calendar.
Almost all of my images in these calendars can be puchased as premium art cards, matted prints, laminated prints, mounted prints, canvas prints, framed prints, and posters. All in varying sizes. To see more work and/or purchase click here.
Example Card:
TTV: Through the Viewfinder
What is TTV: Through the Viewfinder?
Well, it’s pretty much what it says. It’s a technique using two cameras, an old box camera and the camera you actually take pictures with, in which you take a picture of what you see through the other camera’s viewfinder. Make sense?
What is the point you ask?
For me, I love the aged retro look you get with TTV. Yeah, you can make an image look aged or antiqued using textures and filter in Photoshop, but it’s just not the same. Most of the old box cameras are dirty, covered in dust, maybe some scratches, all of which add to the character of the image. (The dirtier the better I say!) Not to mention the challenge of balancing 2 cameras, and the whole flip flop issue. Most box camera’s used have a top viewfinder, that uses mirrors, so you have to keep your good camera at a 90 degree angle to what you want to photograph. Oh, and everything is reversed. Do you know how confusing that can get, you keep turning the direction you need to to center the image, yet in the viewfinder it’s going the other way?!?
So what do you need to get started?
First off, you need a camera to actually take the picture. I’ll assume if you are reading this, you already have one of those And to get a nice close-up shot of the viewfinder, you will need a macro lens, or zoom filters. You will need to be able to take a picture a few inches away from the object. If your camera has a macro setting that you are happy with, then by all means, just use that! Besides that, you will need some sort of old camera with a large viewfinder, and then something to block out the light between the 2 cameras.
After you have what you need, honestly, all you do is take a picture of the viewfinder.
Obviously the image above doesn’t have the light blocked out between the two cameras. I just wanted to show you the viewfinder.
My set up:
I have my Canon Rebel XTi for my primary camera (we’ll call this camera #1 from now on), an old box Argus 75 for my secondary camera (camera #2), my stackable zoom filters (I don’t have a macro lens), and my Tube of Darkness. Put together it looks like this:
You can pick up an old box camera fairly cheap at flea markets, antique stores, or ebay. Cameras like the Argus 75 were so overly mass produced in the 40′s, 50′s, and 60′s, you can find them all over the place. I picked mine up on ebay for $4.99 plus shipping!
Here it is pulled apart:
The Tube of Darkness:
To block out the light between cameras, I used a 3 inch cardboard tube that I cut down to 6 inches long, and a black (fuzzy) sock (lost the match) of which I cut the toe off. I slipped the black sock over the cardboard tube, so that there is equal excess material at the top and bottom of the tube. Then I slipped the tube over the open viewfinder on camera #2, and used saftey pins to secure it around camera #2′s straps, making sure it’s pulled tight, yet not to cover camera #2′s lens. And viola! a Tube of Darkness!
And since I use an SLR camera, I just dip my lens into the tube, and pull the top excess sock material over camera #1′s lens. The sock works great because of the elasticity, it keeps a snug fit over the camera’s, keeping out the light. Sorry, I can’t show you a picture of the SLR in the Tube of Darkness because I only have one camera!
I took the picture, now what?
Honestly, that’s up to you and your taste! First off, crop off all that excess around the image. Most people leave a small border around though. After that, editing is all up to you! I have heard that a lot of people like to used the Urban Acid Photoshop Action. I have tried it, but usually end up just playing with the tones and colors on my own, so I can’t give you an example of it. Then why not upload it to Flickr? There are a ton of TTV Flickr groups! Not to mention the ton of information you can find in those groups! The largest one, Through the Viewfinder, has a blog with a ton of information, including a list of a variety of different secondary (base) cameras that can be used. Check that out here.
I hope you enjoyed my lil tutorial/informative blog! Now I’m gonna shamelessly self-promote
More of my TTV images
This is the very first TTV I took. This is my daughter. What I love about this image, is that it looks like a picture that fell out of my baby book!
This picture was actually chosen as the picture of the day on Absolute Michigan’s Michigan in Pictures Blog!
“Museum of Newaygo”
All of my work can be puchased as premium art cards, and most are available as matted prints, laminated prints, mounted prints, canvas prints, framed prints, and posters. All in varying sizes. To see more work and/or purchase click here. (or click on a particular image)
Example Card:
Calendars!
Redbubble now offers calendars! So of course I had to make some! Currently I have 3 themed calendars, but am also willing to put together personal choice calendars. i.e. you pick 12 of my images and let me know, and I’ll create the calendar for your purchase!
So on to the calendars!
Digital Abstracts by Karri Klawiter
A collection of my 12 most popular digital abstracts.
A collection of 12 of my most popular old barn/dilapidated buildings.
Once Upon a Time: A Photographic Series by Karri Klawiter
12 images from an abandoned house in Allegan County, Mi. Most of which are done in HDR.
Almost all of my images in these calendars can be puchased as premium art cards, matted prints, laminated prints, mounted prints, canvas prints, framed prints, and posters. All in varying sizes. To see more work and/or purchase click here.
