Sparkle the Designer Cat's Blog, page 428

Caturday Art: The Sketch and Paint Edition

One of the effects my human plays around with a lot is creating a sketch and paint effect, as if someone had added detail on top of watercolor. She started off with this photo (completely unretouched here):

To make the sketch part, she used part of this old Photoshop video tutorial, but she made some changes.

After cropping and color correcting the original photo, she duplicated (Command+J for Mac or Control+J for PC) the original layer and desaturated (Shift+Command+U for Mac or Shift+Control+U for PC) the copy layer. Then she duplicated the desaturated layer and switched the blend mode of the copy layer to Color Dodge, as you can see above. Then she inverted it (Command+I for Mac or Control+I for PC) and you’ll never guess what she got!

It didn’t stay that way for long, though. She went up to the menu at the top of Photoshop where it says Filter and went to Blur->Gaussian Blur. This is where my human and the tutorial started parting ways. The video’s instructor wanted a graphite look so she dialed the Gaussian Blur way up. My human wanted more of a sketch effect, so she kept it lower. This is one of those filters you have to play with because it is going to look different depending on the photo and what you are looking for. Then to bring out the detail of my fur, she went to the Levels Adjustment.

You can easily access the Adjustment layer by going to the bottom of the Layers panel and clicking on the black and white circle. The Adjustment Layer will be in the drop down menu. The instructor was looking for something different than my human with this step. My human was going for more detail, especially in my muzzle fur. Instead of brightening the picture like the instructor, she actually made the details darker.

Next, she duplicated the image the way it was done in the tutorial — she went to the Image tab in the top menu bar, went to Duplicate and when the window popped up, she ticked off the “Duplicate Merged Layers Only” box. This created another file, with just a single layer.

My human used the Unsharp Mask tool on this single-layer file. You find it by going to the Filter menu at the top of Photoshop, and finding Sharpen in the drop-down menu, then going to “Unsharp Mask.” Then you see a box open like the one above. This is another tool that you will have to eyeball to see what looks good to you. Along the way, my human also erased some sketchy detail in my eyes and nose so they looked cleaner.

Next, my human went to the original file she was working on and copied the original color layer only (she did that by selecting the whole image, highlighting the color layer and hitting Copy, not Copy Merged (Copy Merged copies all the layers). Then she created a new layer on the duplicate picture, pasted in the color image and moved it underneath the sketch.

She heavily blurred the color layer with Gaussian Blur, clicked okay, then clicked on the sketch layer to highlight it and changed its Blend Mode to Multiply. This made the color show through the sketch. To finish it off, she added a layer on top with a canvas texture and changed its mode to Multiply too, so that the texture would bleed through. This was the final result:

My human worked on a high resolution file, and you can really see the texture there, not so much on this smaller version. There are all sorts of things you can do with this — changing the Gaussian Blur will move the colors around, and you can use different textures to see how they look with your own image. Getting the sketch right is the real key.

For more Caturday Art, visit Athena!
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Friday Outtakes

It’s been about a month since my last round of outtakes and you seem to enjoy them so here are more!

My human wanted me to pose in the Grumpy Cat Party Box, but I didn’t want to. She thought giving me some skritches would make me more amenable. She was wrong.

I like this photo of Binga. It looks like she is taking a selfie.

Sometimes I actually go to the camera instead of turning away.

This was taken the evening my human came back from her San Francisco trip. I was happy to see her… until she started taking photos! Then it reminded me of how peaceful things were while she was gone.

This isn’t really an outtake, but I thought you’d like to see this photo of Binga trying to bribe me to give up my sun puddle. Didn’t work.
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Grumpy Cat Birthday Party Pack Winner!

Here I am, hanging out with my new BFF, Grumpy Cat! She is very annoyed that I have a winner for my Party Pack giveaway — and they were very prompt in replying to my email!

Congratulations to my winner…

Sue D!

Since Sue does not blog, you probably don’t know her, but I am so glad her name got picked because she has entered several of my giveaways and this is the first time she has won. Even better she fosters cats, and she adopted her kitty Joey from Tender Care Animal Rescue. She also has an Etsy store full of cool digital Victorian designs to download: https://www.etsy.com/shop/CountryAtHeart2008 — Check it out!

Now I had better get going because it looks like the party has started without me!

Thanks so much to the Friskies Party Mix humans for helping me put on this awesome giveaway!
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

“Weird” Cat Habits? As If!

The other day I came across an article on the Pet360 website called “5 Weird Cat Habits.” You know I had to dig in and find out what this writer considered “weird” — and I was peeved, to say the least! I thought she would pick out things that seem to genuinely bewilder humans, such as our fits of activity fondly called “the zoomies,” the way we sometimes just stare at a blank wall (hint, it’s not really blank), or our chattering when watching Bird TV. Instead, the habits she picked out ranged from average, everyday cat behavior to gestures of generosity and kindness! Let me address each of these “weird” habits, one by one:

1. Kneading. Weird? Really? Doing something that feels good and dreamy is odd behavior? Then I guess humans need to stop meditating and having spa days. Kneading is how we kitties relax and recharge after a hard day of supervising humans and soaking up sun puddles. It’s also a great way to get the day started because it helps us focus. There are few more pleasurable ways to be in the Now than a good kneading session.

2. Chewing on plants. Huh? That’s weird? Then, I guess, so are humans eating salads. I was just flummoxed by this.

3. Face rubbing. This is not weird. It’s perfectly normal behavior. When something belongs to you, don’t you want to make sure everyone knows that? And since we cats don’t have the thumbs to use pens, we have to use our faces. Hey, it’s better than peeing on stuff.

4. Bringing gifts. Now that was just low! We cats go through all the effort of hunting down and catching something, and instead of keeping it for ourselves, we give it to our humans — and it’s called weird behavior! I’m insulted. And hurt.

5. Rolling. This happy gesture of greeting is considered weird? I just think that is sad. You want to know what is really weird? Humans who believe that just because we flopped down on our backs in their presence, they can go ahead and touch our tummies. Now that is weird, and bad etiquette.

Tell me kitties — is there any weird behavior, human or feline, going on at your house?
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Toys Or Bird TV?

And it’s also Marg’s birthday! Make sure to visit her and wish her a happy one!
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Box Bothering

Big boxes like this one don’t come around very often, so my human has been smart to keep it around for us cats. But nokitty can expect to keep a box as awesome as this one to herself for very long!

See what I mean?

At least I am polite and not passively-aggressively marking it — like some other kitty!

Even the biggest box can get crowded when a tortie is involved!
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

My Commenthon Results

I just want to say, all of you are awesome! I got 111 comments total on my 2000th post commenthon, so I easily hit the $50 maximum — but I could not have done it without the enthusiastic response to my blog post, and all your shares on various social media sites! It really made me happy.

I went to random.org and it picked… Kitty Cats Chronicles’ rescue, Circle of Friends Animal Society in Georgia! My human is sending them the donation money today! Thanks for thinking of them, kitties!
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

10 Ways to Get on Your Cat’s Good Side

I know the last thing you humans ever want is your cat’s disapproval. And that is a legitimate concern, when so many of your gaffes get the airplane ears of disdain. But don’t worry, I am here to help you out with 10 ways to stay on your cat’s good side. You’re welcome.

1. Stop staring! We cats really hate you humans looking at us all the time. If another cat or other animal does this, it’s a challenge and a hostile gesture. Granted, if we have lived with you for a long time, we know you are not trying to challenge us, but it’s still very rude and a bad habit. The best thing you can do is hang out with us and not look at us so much! Watch how we do it and mimic that. It’s really that easy.

2. Always use unscented litter. Seriously, that scented stuff stinks. Don’t tell me you think it smells good because you are just fooling yourself. And it really hurts a kitty’s sensitive nose to have to inhale that disgusting odor every time we want to relieve ourselves. Natural is always better.

3. Don’t bother punishing us. Put down that spray bottle! We cats do what we want, and no amount of punishment is going to teach us any different. “Punishment” to a cat means a) wait until the human isn’t around to do whatever caused the punishment, and b) humans are mean and confusing creatures. If you don’t want us to do something — then come up with a more attractive alternative. If your first alternative doesn’t work, it means it wasn’t more attractive.

4. Give us really awesome treats. Yeah, those crunchy things in bags from the pet store are okay, but we cats would really prefer something like shredded chicken, raw chicken livers, some nibbles of sardine (if fish is permissible in your cat’s diet) or a few choice cuts of beef. Real food, as long as it’s not spiced up or cooked with onions or another ingredient that’s cat-toxic, is really the best treat of all. My human feeds me KFC by hand! (Binga gets it tossed at her — she’s a finger biter!)

5. Let us keep our ratty scratching posts! One of the worst things a human does is toss out a cat’s favorite, well-loved scratching post and replace it with a brand new one. The new one usually smells weird and it just doesn’t have that comfortable, lived-in feel of the old one. That doesn’t mean never buy us new scratchers. Definitely do, but let us get used to them in our own time — while still enjoying the old one.

6. Feed us on plates or wide bowls. There is nothing more unpleasant than having your whiskers hemmed in while you are trying to enjoy a meal. Really, our whiskers are extremely sensitive and having them touch the sides of a small bowl is more annoying than you can imagine. So feed us on a flatter surface, or at least in a bowl that is low and wide, so our whiskers have room to spread out.

7. Give us front row seats for Bird TV. How would you like it if your television was placed really high up and you couldn’t get a decent view? Or if it was half covered by a piece of furniture? So make sure there is a ledge or a table (with cat bed, of course), right at the level where we can sit and watch the birds do their thing. Even better, make sure you add a few bird feeders right by the window too — bird actors perform better when they are well compensated.

8. Give us vertical space! This is especially important if you live in a small apartment and have more than one cat. Most of us cats love being up high — it makes us feel on top of the world. And with multi-cat families, creating vertical space is like adding territory. It’s as easy as putting up some secure shelves, or staggered bookcases. Fasten down some carpet on the surfaces so we have something to grab onto when we jump.

9. Learn how we like to be touched — and stick to it. I know you humans aren’t really dumb (well, most of you), yet you still insist on petting us in ways that at best aren’t terribly interesting or at worst are downright annoying. It’s pretty clear when we enjoy what you’re doing — we are purring with our eyes partially or completely shut and we’re totally relaxed. We’re not tensing up, rippling our skin or staring with dilated eyes. Cheek and chin skritches are generally safe — you can work your way down from there. If we start tensing up, purring and vocalizing at the same time or flipping our tails, that means you are done and please stop now.

10. Play our favorite game with us! You do know our favorite game right? It’s called Kill, Kill, Kill! You play the prey and we play the stealthy predator. There are infinite versions of this game, depending on if you are using a wand toy, tossing a catnip mousie or a pipe cleaner, or your feet under the comforter. You should play this game with us every day. It keeps our minds and bodies active — and maybe yours too.
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Sunday Catinee: Open Door Policy

I was exhausted watching this kitty open all these doors to go outside! I would have just asked the human to put down the camera and open them for me… but then, we would not have had this video:

If you can’t see the above video, click here to watch it on YouTube!
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!

Caturday Art: The Pop Art Edition

My human is having a really hard time with this one project. She keeps returning to it and something goes wrong and she winds up doing something else. Here is the photo she plans to use:

At least this time she got as far as cropping me out of the background. Because this idea of hers is very stylized, she made the edges very crisp and smooth. If you are cropping something and want nice, clean edges, here is a quick way to do it — my human swears by this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANcO0l9I5p0. Here is what she wound up with:

After this, things went horribly wrong and my human had to (temporarily) abandon her project in favor of something else. Because of the nature of the cropped image of me, she thought it might be fun to turn it into pop art, so she used the following tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t35mitYWf70. But in the middle of the tutorial, she had to adjust the photo of me.

Since I am fuzzy and have a very light-colored muzzle, the effect in the video doesn’t look very good, unless she does this first: after desaturating the photo of me as the guy instructs, she goes to Photoshop’s “Smart Sharpen” filter and cranks up the adjustments on Gaussian Blur like crazy. The photo winds up with a lot of strong detail and almost looks like a sketch instead of a photograph. Only after she did that was she able to continue through to the threshold step:

She also did a few things differently. For example, when it was time to add the halftone screen, my human used a much smaller number for Frequency than the guy in the video did because she wanted the dots to be really large.

She also added a bit of color. It was really easy — she used the Quick Selection tool (keyboard shortcut W) to pick out the whites of my eyes and color them green. She used the Lasso (keyboard shortcut L) for my ear color, and a combination of both to color my nose. Then she filled the selected areas using the Paint Bucket tool. How did she choose the colors? Easy — she picked out hues from the original photograph, although she made my eyes more vivid. Here is the finished product:

For more Caturday Art, visit Athena!
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Having problems with your human or the other cats in your house? As the internet’s “Dear Abby With Claws,” I have answers to many annoying problems in my two award-winning books! Visit my author’s page on Amazon to buy one or both of my awesome Dear Sparkle books!