Waiting for Midnight - New Year's Eve

Another year has come and gone and as we close on 2011 I wanted to create a fun piece of digital art using some of the Ackermann Repository images I've been posting in the last half of this year.

Waiting for Midnight by EKDuncan 2011

Many Regency era balls and gatherings went late into the night and onto the early morning hours; so as we wait up to ring in the new year, my pretty ladies are wishing you all a very Happy New Year.

I celebrate the passing of 2011 as the year I learned Photoshop and started to create digital art.

I look forward to a more exciting 2012 as I expand on those creative skills and add to them.

Thanks to all my blog followers and those who have let me know how much you are enjoying my posts and the images.  I hope you find my posts for 2012 just as enjoyable.

Here are the items I used to create 

"Waiting for Midnight"

Regency Ladies
Fashions for 1827 & 1828

41 of my favorite Ackermann Fashion plates

I took 41 of my favorite Ackermann Fashion plates, removed the backgrounds and created 

png of them so they could easily be used in digital art creations like the scene above 

"Waiting for Midnight". A zip file of them can be downloaded from my deviantArt account 

by going HERE and clicking the download button.

Ackermann's Repository published 2 fashion plates in every monthly issue from 1809 - 1828

and they are all posted by year here on my blog - here are the quick links for them all.

Ackermann's ran series 1 from 1809 - 1815

Series 1 -  Vol 1 & 2  - 1809
Series 1 -  Vol 3 & 4  - 1810
Series 1 -  Vol 5 & 6  - 1811
Series 1 -  Vol 7 & 8  - 1812 
Series 1 -  Vol 9 & 10 - 1813
Series 1 - Vol 11 & 12 - 1814
Series 1 - Vol 13 & 14  - 1815

Ackermann's ran series 2 from 1816 - 1822

Series 2 - Vol 1 & 2 - 1816

Series 2 - Vol 3 & 4 - 1817

Series 2 - Vol 5 & 6 - 1818

Series 2 - Vol 7 & 8 - 1819

Series 2 - Vol 9 & 10 - 1820

Series 2 - Vol 11 & 12 - 1821

 

Ackermann's ran series 3 from 1823 - 1828

Series 3 - Vol 1 & 2 - 1823

Series 3 - Vol 3 & 4 - 1824

Series 3 - Vol 5 & 6 - 1825

Series 3 - Vol 7 & 8 - 1826

Series 3 - Vol 9 & 10 - 1827

Series 3 - Vol 11 & 12 - 1828 

Regency Scenery & Curtains

Blue Curtain

I used both the "open window" and "curtain only" images in my digital scene.
This allowed me to add extra "drop shadow" in Photoshop for the curtain portion of the image.

Curtain only - png

Blank window - png

Original Ackermann's 1820 Curtain Furniture Plate

 I love to play and tinker with images so I can use them in my digital artwork.
Here is an example where I took one of the Ackermann Repository curtain plates
and adjusted it to my creative needs.

You can view all the Original Ackermann Repository curtain plates HERE
To see all my post using Ackermann Repository curtains click HERE

The EKDuncan "digital art ready png versions" of the Ackermann Curtains
are on my deviantART account - HERE


Back Room

EKDuncan version of the below Ackermann's Image

I created a room by duplicating and flipping the below image in Photoshop and then
adjusting some color filters to get the look I was going for to add to my scene.

To learn more see my "Create a Room" post on my other blog "My Fanciful Muse".

The Original Ackermann's Furniture Plate

 1824 Regency Clock

EKDuncan version of the original clock

 There had to be a timepiece in my scene so if you look to the very back of the room
you will see a clock sitting on the table against the back wall.

1824 - Ackermann's Repository - Original Image

 

Framing the Scene

I don't like to leave my scene "hanging" in space so I usually frame them.
In "Waiting for Midnight" the frame is a composite of a real frame and a fireplace surround
from and 1813 issue of Ackermann's Repository.

EKDuncan frame composite

Original 1813 Ackermann's Furniture Plate of a "Smoke Conductor"

If you look real close you will notice the blue portion of this fireplace surround was used
as one of the elements of the frame around the Midnight scene.

The metal frame portion and other real frames from my
personal collection can be seen on my deviantArt account -  HERE


I hope you have enjoyed this last post for 2011 and I look forward to starting
2012 with a few more posts from Ackermann's Repository.


 Wishing you all my best.

PS - to see other fun digital scene I've created using
Ackermann Repository images, see the links below.

Happy Christmas
Beautiful Day for a Walk
Regency Ladies with a Gothic View
Regency Ladies with a Curtain View
Regency Beauties - Set the Stage
Ladies in a Midnight Garden
Regency Ghost Scene

Masquerade Ball

Garden Party with a Roaring Rogue

The Regency Ladies of Fashion

Christmas Ornaments using Regency Fashion Plates from Ackermann's Repository

I had planned to create a series of Regency inspired Christmas ornaments using a variety 

of the lovely ladies from the Ackermann's Repository issues 1809-1828 to add to my tree 

this year; but as you all know, sometime life gets in the way of art.

Digital Christmas Card by EKDuncan using digital Christmas ornaments of Regency ladies

It's sad to say but the night before I was to create my fun pieces of 3-D art; 

I received a call that my mother had stomach cancer and was being admitted to the 

hospital for surgery the next day. So naturally, I packed up some necessary item, 

hoped in my car and headed out of town.

I'm happy to report that the surgery went well and she is on her way to recovering.

As of this post she has been in the hospital for 4 days with 4 more to go before
she gets to go home - just in time for Christmas.

I've used my spare time here in the hospital to create digital versions 

of the ornaments I had originally intended to make for my tree.
I've also taken some of those digital images and created the above Christmas Greeting.

******************

I love reading romance novels, especially Regency ones and if they are 

Christmas Regency Romances - that's the icing on the cake for sure.

This series of ornaments calls to mind a lovely book I read last weekend by Larissa Lyons.

"Miss Isabella Thaws a Frosty Lord" it is a delightful Regency Christmas story
that I thoroughly enjoyed reading; and it was the inspiration
for the digital Christmas Greeting I opened this post with.

 "Miss Isabella Thaws a Frosty Lord" takes place in 1813 Regency England at a house party
through the 12 days of Christmas; which in Europe starts on Dec 25th and runs
till January 6th - the Epiphany. (see my EKDuncan Epiphany post from 2010).

The Regency romance that inspired my digital Christmas card.

  This Christmas story by Larissa Lyons is a touching romance about two lonely people
with little chance of happiness; who fate finally smiles upon and they get their happy ending .
There is a bit of sadness, some funny scenes and several memorable moments involving
mistletoe - thus my use of mistletoe for the ornaments to hang from in my digital card.

There is also a scene in the book involving a fur muff Isabella received as a Christmas gift
- Notice that three of my ornaments are of ladies with a fur muff and one of them is
an 1813 fashion plate to boot.

I hope you enjoy seeing the digital ornaments I created and that you get a chance to read
"Miss Isabella Thaws a Frosty Lord" this Holiday season.

Enjoy!


**********************

Here are the Regency inspired ornaments 
I created using a variety of
Fashion plates from Ackermann's Repository.

Regency inspired ornament using a variety of Ackermann fashion plates

Ornament using 1812 & 1814 fashion plates from Ackermann's Repository

1813 Fashion are in this ornament - same year as in the romance novel

1813 Morning Dress with Muff - same year as in the romance novel

1816 Evening Dress is in this ornament

1816 Walking Dress with Muff

1817 Carriage Dress with Muff

1820 Ball Dress is in this ornament

1825 Ball Dress is in this ornament

1825 Dinner Dress is in this ornament

1827 Ball Dress - Ornament version 1

1827 Ball Dress - Ornament version 2

1827 Dinner Dress - Ornament version 1

1827 Dinner Dress - Ornament version 2

1827 Evening Dress - Ornament version 1

1827 Evening Dress - Ornament version 2

1828 Ball Dress for this Regency inspired Christmas Ornament

These lovely Regency ladies and more can be seen on THIS post.

The ornament frames are digitized versions of actual scrapbooking dies I was going to
create the 3-D ornaments with.  The digital version actually allowed me to create a more
dramatic gold edge, so it was fun to play with those shapes in Photoshop.

3-D Ornament I created a few weeks ago and posted to my other blog -My Fanciful Muse

This is a Christmas ornament I created a few weeks ago and it gives you an idea of what
the Regency ornaments might look like if they were actually created from mat board and paper.
Click HERE to see the post for my Christmas Fairy Ornament.


I hope you have enjoyed this post and I wish all of you, as they would say
in Regency England,  a Happy Christmas.

41 Regency Fashion Plate Ladies from Ackermann's Repository

I've been posting for several months now about images from the Regency era publication 

Ackermann's Repository; which was published in England from 1809 to 1828.

These monthly issues were full of wonderful hand-colored plates of 

Fashions, Furniture, Curtains, Landscapes, Gardens, Architecture and more.

In July 2011, I posted all the Fashion Plates for Ackermann's Series 1 (1809-1815)

In August 2011, I posted all the Fashion Plates for Ackermann's Series 2  (1816-1822)

In September 2011, I posted all the Fashion Plates for Ackermann's Series 3 (1823-1828)

There were over 480 Fashion Plates published in the 20 years they were in publication 

and I've created png images from 41 of them to use in my digital art projects.

This is a reference chart for the 41 png images showing a variety of fashions from 1809-1828

I've posted these to my deviantART account in an easy to download zip file to share with you all.

Click HERE to go to that page and then click the Download button on the top right once there.

 I just could not resist sharing this ladies with you once more and I hope you 

will use them to create some fun digital art or craft projects of your very own.

Here are some of the digital art projects I've created 

so far using many of the images from above.

Beautiful Day for a Walk by EKDuncan

 Click HERE to view the original post and to find out about the other images in this digital scene.

Regency Ladies with a Gothic view by EKDuncan

 Click HERE to view the original post and to find out about the other images in this digital scene.

Regency Ladies with a Curtain View

Click HERE to view the original post and to find out about the other images in this digital scene.

Regency Beauties by EKDuncan

 Click HERE to view the original post and to find out about the other images in this digital scene.

Midnight Garden by EKDuncan

 Click HERE to view the original post and to find out about the other images in this digital scene.

Regency Ghost Scene by EKDuncan

 Click HERE to view the original post and to find out about the other images in this digital scene.

Masquerade Ball by EKDuncan

 Click HERE to view the original post and to find out about the other images in this digital scene.

Garden Party with a Roaring Rogue by EKDuncan

 Click HERE to view the original post and to find out about the other images in this digital scene.

The Regency Ladies of Fashion by EKDuncan

Click HERE to view the original post and to find out about the other images in this digital scene.

I'm having so much fun creating with these images that I wanted to share 

these fun FREEBIES with you guys too.

Enjoy!

Beautiful Day for a Walk - Regency images from Ackermann's

I thought I'd do one more fun curtain scene before moving on to post about 

other furniture plates from Ackermann's Repository.  

For this fun piece of digital art I combined a variety of Regency images including ladies of fashion, a scenic element for the background, a beautiful set of draperies, a background made from one of the needlework patterns and to top it all off  a digitized image of one of my favorite antique frames.

I hope you enjoy it!

Digital Art using vintage Regency images from the pages of Ackermann's Repository - EKDuncan 2011

This entire scene was created in Photoshop using a variety of 

Ackermann Repository images, some fun filters and and blending modes.

I love the aged antique look of the original Ackermann's images I've been posting but there are times I want a slightly different look, so I've been playing around with the "photo filters" in Photoshop.  

For this scene I've brighten-up and given these old images a "cooler" tone using "cooling filter (80)".

(New Adjustment Layer - Photo Filter - Cooling Filter (80) is what I've used in Photoshop)

Here are the images I used to create 

"Beautiful Day for a Walk"

1818 Residence of Prince Homburg - Germany using Cooling filter

1818 Residence of Prince Homburg - Germany (Original)

This is what the original image looked like before I applied the cooling filter in Photoshop.

I find it fascinating how a slight change can drastically alter an image.

This is the altered version of the original 1820 Curtain furniture plate I used for my scene.

This is only one of several versions for this curtain I've created.

The rest can be seen and downloaded from my deviantART account by clicking HERE

along with a variety of other Ackermann Regency Curtains I've altered.

This is the original Curtain plate from Ackermann's Repository that I created my altered version from.

More Original (non-altered) Ackermann Curtains can be seen HERE

These are the two Regency Fashion Plate ladies 

I turned into png images to use in my scene.

Altered Version using the Cooling filter in Photoshop

Here is the Original antique image from Ackermann's

This and other 1818 Regency Fashion Plates 

from Ackermann's can be seen HERE

Altered Version using the Cooling filter in Photoshop

Here is the Original antique image from Ackermann's

This and other 1817 Regency Fashion Plates 

from Ackermann's can be seen HERE

I had a bit of fun creating the "fill-in" for the top portion of the frame's arch and making a new floor.

I did this by altering a background digital paper I created in a previous post
using an antique needlework pattern from Ackermann's.  
That original blog post can be seen HERE

I altered the original EKDuncan pattern to create this new look

Other EKDuncan digital background papers created from Ackermann Repository images 

can be downloaded from my deviantART account by clicking HERE

An altered version of a  frame from my personal antique collection

Other EKDuncan frames can be downloaded HERE

 
I love creating these fun digital scenes in Photoshop and I currently have several
Regency Scenes using images from Ackermann's Repository.

Here are the links if you want to take a look at the others I've created.

Regency Ladies with a Gothic View

Regency Ladies with a Curtain View

Curtains Set the Stage

Midnight Garden

Regency Ghost Scene

Masquerade Ball

Garden Party with a Roaring Rogue

The Regency Ladies of Fashion

Till next time...