Memories

[barnburner]

There's a fairly long story that goes with this, but I'll save it for the gallery, if this gets there. Suffice it to say, that this house was where my Aunt and Uncle, and my 5 cousins lived in Arkansas when I was a child. Off to the left of the picture, is a huge creek, where my cousin Jerry (now deceased) and I, had some Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn type adventures - playing in the swimming holes, pulling each other out of quicksand, dealing with snakes and other creatures,etc.. Just wonderful memories.
They had to move to California 50 years ago, and it was only a year ago that I got in contact with my cousins Joyce. Since then we have became very close, and stay in contact daily. This place was very special to her,as well as myself, so I am attempting to reconstruct it as it was when they lived there.
This picture was taken 20 years after they moved, so a lot of changes have to be made to get the timeline right. Trees have to be taken out, other trees put in, etc.. I'm also attempting to expand the picture to the front, and to the right, in order to hopefully be able to include some of the cotton field in bloom.
So as not to rely totally on my memory from such a long time ago, I'm sending daily updates to my cousin, so she can correct any errors before I get too far along.
So, here we go..

[IrishRose]

What an awesome project, Barnburner... I think this is wonderful to do for you and your family... especially with all the great memories. You can do it!!! I look forward to your progress. Ah, those were the days, no? I'd love to go back sometimes!

[barnburner]

What an awesome project, Barnburner... I think this is wonderful to do for you and your family... especially with all the great memories. You can do it!!! I look forward to your progress. Ah, those were the days, no? I'd love to go back sometimes!

Thanks Rose! Yeah, those were the days..
It's funny, I had other cousins in that area of Arkansas, that I enjoyed being with, and,that had running water, indoor toilets, fans,etc. - but, this was my favorite place to be, and it had none of those. It was hot as blazes in the summer, and freezing cold in the winter - and I LOVED it!

[IrishRose]

Barnburner...

I hear ya... sometimes simpler is better, and when you realize that you CAN survive with all that 'stuff' is when you can separate the men from the boys. I think it's wonderful that you have memories like those. I think all kids should have to go through summers and times that are a bit challenging so they can look back and think.. wow, look what I achieved and I didn't even have a tv, or an iPod! Great stuff!

[barnburner]

Made a little progress today. I've learned one of the perils of trying to match locations of buildings, trees, etc., based on a photo taken from a level viewpoint - very little depth perception. Luckily, I had my own memory to help out, and used the transformation option to move a few things after I was done with them.
Because the owners at the time of this photo had installed an electric pump house, you can't hardly see it, but there is a porch with a well (haul it up by hand, before the next owners installed the pump), behind the house. Intended to add that today, but my eyes have had it for today.
Lots and lots of detail work to be done on the house tomorrow. Hopefully I get it done tomorrow.
When my cousins lived there, there was no skirting around the bottom of the house, so I've got to take care of that also.
All in all, thus far, it seems to be headed in the right direction.
It appears it's going to be difficult giving the house the "old" look. I used the picker to try and match the color, but I need to try and figure out a way to keep it from looking like it was freshly painted.

[IrishRose]

This looks great!!! You must have worked on this painting a long time today. I can understand the frustration of trying to get the right look from what you remember. But it looks awesome right now and I know you can pull it off. I will be watching. No worries, take your time, this is terrific and a learning experience for me!

[barnburner]

This looks great!!! You must have worked on this painting a long time today. I can understand the frustration of trying to get the right look from what you remember. But it looks awesome right now and I know you can pull it off. I will be watching. No worries, take your time, this is terrific and a learning experience for me!

Thanks so much Rose. I both appreciate and need the encouragement..
I told my favorite cousin Joyce about this project, and
she is really excited about it.

[janetcwest]

say barnburner, how do you get that color panel set up the way you have it?
I assume you chose a custom palette from the photo. How does one make one like that?
Janet

[FireFytingNut]

I was about to ask the same thing Janet! I like that panel!

Barn, I think this is such a sweet, touching story that really personalizes your image to the max!! I will look forward to seeing the end result! It's looking GREAT so far!

[barnburner]

say barnburner, how do you get that color panel set up the way you have it?
I assume you chose a custom palette from the photo. How does one make one like that?
Janet

The pallette that is showing in the picture is one I downloaded from the supplies section of this forum.
I'm thinking it was from "MisterPaint", but it's been
quite a while ago, so I'm not sure about that.
As far as this project goes, I've used both the pallette you are looking at, used the picker to match colors off the photo, and other pallettes.
You can make your own custom pallette by just splashing a bit of the colors you prefer on a new imagine file (.png .jpg . tiff,etc), save it where ever is convenient on your computer, and load them thru the custom picker.