Some Holiday Fun

Been having some fum with my holiday gift guide on the other site.  Here is the banner I made for this year.

I seriously had way too much fun with this.  I may have to find a different theme next year.

Quick Update

Wow!  I'm surprised I was able to get everything up last night.  I ended up draining my laptop completely.  There's still some formatting issues to work out on the post, since I copied most of the image info directly from my deviantArt pages.  I'm also still tinkering with a layout a bit.  I'll fix the banner too, to make it more seamless. 

Wild! #1

Taken at Caldwell Zoo in Tyler, TX.
This was taken through the glass.

Prints:
16x24 Convas - $450 (+ shipping) 

Rockport, TX - Bay

Part of the bay view from behind Charlotte Plummers Seafood Restaurant.
(Sorry for the small thumbnail.  It ran over the layout when I made it larger.)

Rockport, TX - Boat 1

This is the back of the boat that the pelican was on.


Prints:
Framed 5x7 print - $45 (+ shipping)

Rockport, TX - Fishing

Entered into the Rockport 2013 Photo Contest

This is my 3 year old daughter enjoying fishing for the first time while on vacation.

Rockposrt, TX -- Crane 2

Here's another shot of our friendly crane. This is after he ate a fish.

Rockport, TX - Crane 1

While down in Rockport, I took my 3 year old daughter fishing for the first time. We were joined by a crane who was quite happy to hang around & pose for pictures...as long as we gave him the smaller fish that we caught. I cropped this down a bit from the original image.

Rockposrt, TX - Pelican

I was down in Rockport, TX for vacation, and was able to get lots of photos down at the docks behind Charlotte Plummers Seafood Restaurant (great food!). Here is one of the many pelicans that were around.


Prints:

16x20 Canvas - $450 (+ shipping)

Stock Pack -- Woodsmen of the World Memorial

These were taken at Dry Creek Cemetery in Poetry, TX. The names have been removed in respect to family.

For the most part, you can use these for most any project that is non-commercial or commercial, as long as you:

• Credit me back with a link to both my account and the image & send me a link to your work (I like to fav them).
• DO NOT redistribute my stock in any way, for profit or not.
• DO NOT use my stock in conjunction with something you found on Google or some other site that is not a valid resource. That is copyright infringement (which is illegal) and I will not be associated with it.
• DO NOT use my stock for anything promoting hatred, prejudice, or showing animal cruelty.
• DO NOT use any of my stock for pornographic or fetish work.
• DO NOT use my stock to create more stock.

A full copy of the rules is included in the pack.

Download: deviantArt

Exclusive Stock Pack - Monster Amoung Us

This is all of the exclusive stock for Monsters Among Us

The wall photo was taken at the Ford-Green Cemetery in Mineola, TX. The burial mound, rock marker & double tombstone were taken at New Hope Cemetery, also in Mineola, TX. The wall has been left as is, and is 11733x7833 300 DPI. The other three have been cut out and are all PNGs @ 300 DPI. Some of the grass has been left around them to help with blending them into photomanipulations. Also, the names have been removed from the double tombstone out of respect for any living relatives.


This pack is available for use both non-commercial & commercial use for $50. You can pay with either points (dA) or by PayPal (contact me for info).

Exclusive Stock Pack - The Poker Pack

This exclusive stock pack was created for the Dead Man Hand cover.


These images are 300dpi PNGs.

This pack is available for use both non-commercial & commercial use for $50. You can pay with either points (dA) or by PayPal (contact me for info).

Exclusive Stock Pack - Cemetary Pack 1

This stock is available for purchase and can be used commercial or non-commercial. You can pay with points( dA) or with PayPal (contact me directly)

This stock was created exclusively for the 'Ghost Hunting Diary Volume IV' (by T.M. Simmons) book cover. Photos were taken at Dry Creek Cemetery in Poetry, TX.

Ghost Hunting Diary Volume 5 Cover -- Full

My first full sized cover.  T.M. is putting Volume 5 up on CreateSpace, so I upgraded her ebook cover to full.  I used all the same stock from the original ebook to created the back cover, aside from the addition of the wood pile.  I tried to line up everything as close as possible, but I think it's still a little off.  I didn't have a lot of time to get it perfect since she needed it same day.  Printed copies of the book will be available for sale at the Bechkam Hotel in Mineola, TX once it opens.


Amazon

T.M. Simmons: Website & Facebook



Stock Used:

House - fairiegoodmother.deviantart.co…

Sky - purplestripedbrain.deviantart.…

Grass - fairiegoodmother.deviantart.co…

Lightning - ObsidianDawn.com (bought commercial license)

Treeline (in background) - dierat.deviantart.com/art/Foli… & coffinkittie.deviantart.com/ar…

Additional scrub around the house - derangedhyena.deviantart.com/a…

Wood pile - perisheddoll.deviantart.com/ar…

Fence post - frostbo.deviantart.com/art/Fen…

Barbwire - frostbo.deviantart.com/art/Bar…

'No Trespassing' sign - showna-stock.deviantart.com/ar…

Mist - spiritsighs-stock.deviantart.c…

Shadow person

Font - OptimusPrincepsSemiBold (front & spine) & Veranda (back)

Monsters Among Us Cover

The finished cover for T.M.'s newest book. A lot of work went into this one, mostly looking for a model. Thankfully, Michaela gave up permission to use one of her wonderful stock images. The wall is from the Ford-Green Cemetery in Mineola, TX, & the burial mound and other two tombstones are from New Hope Cemetery in Mineola. There are a lot of mounds out there. It's really neat.  Also, T.M. recently got a post print of this framed and hung it up in her dining room.  It looks awesome.


Kindle

T.M. Simmons: Website & Facebook


Stock Used:

Woman w/ cat - mihaela-vstock.deviantart.com/… (Used with permission)

Rock Mound, Wall, Double Tombstone & Rock Marker - policegirl01.deviantart.com/ar… Exclusive Stock Pack

Book, Candles & Pentagram - www.dreamstime.com/royalty-fre… (Provided by T. M. Simmons)

Flames - redheadstock.deviantart.com/ar…

Fur (for cat) - knathies-stock.deviantart.com/a…

Grass - smokeylittleclover.deviantart.…

Stars - kuschelirmel-stock.deviantart.…

Moon - shutter-shooter.deviantart.com…

Trees - derangedhyena.deviantart.com/a…

Angel - hauntingvisionsstock.deviantar…

Energy Beam - photoncubetutorials.blogspot.c… (tutorial) & freshemedia.deviantart.com/art…

Font - Black Chancery

The Last 40 Days Cover

The Last 40 Days is about a man who travels back in time & ends up witnessing the Crucifixion. I initially did a bit of research to find out what the landscape looked like back then, and found that it was a lot different that it is today. Technically there should be an abundance of trees, shrubs & plants in the background but I was limited on what stock to use & C L really wanted sand dunes. He really likes the way it come out, so I'm glad. The whole time I was working on this, all I could think about was Life of Brian. I even played 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' for some inspiration.

The hardest past was deciding on using either a physical time machine or or use a portal. C L wanted the Stargate...which, as you can guess, isn't going to happen. It would have looked really cool, but I have no desire to see the inside of a jail cell. I looked around for weeks trying to find something use use as a base but came up empty handed. So, I started looking for portals. Typing in 'portal' in dA gave me a wide range of results, from Portal game/logo pics to several misplaced photos of penises (don't ask). Eventually, I stumbled across the one I used. I added in the lines to give it a little more action & depth.


Update 1 - C L decided he wanted the dash out of MP1. I also added in a shadow for the man, which I realized I had forgotten.


Kindle Link: Coming Soon

C L Smothers Site



Stock Used:

Background - greenleaf-stock.deviantart.com… & shiama-stock.deviantart.com/ar…

Sunset - mgb-stock.deviantart.com/art/S…

Man - mindsqueezedesign.deviantart.c…

Crosses - hand drawn by me

Scrub Grass - wolverine041269.deviantart.com…

Time Portal - stock7000.deviantart.com/art/T… & freshemedia.deviantart.com/art…

Font - Cimbrian & Roman S

Living with Dead Folks Vol. 1 Cover

This was a fun cover to do since I finally got to put Trana on the cover of one of her books. This book is basically all of her blog post for last year, and she will do a new one each year will all the collected posts. The general theme for the covers will be candid shots of her doing stuff around the house while the ghosts do whatever in the background.

For this one, we used her office. After taking the screen off & opening the window directly behind her desk, I stood up on a step-stool and took pictures of her looking from side to side. I would have liked to shoot a bit higher but couldn't due to the window. Plus, a few of the pictures came out a little blurred. I still have trouble putting a lot of weight on my knee from time to time, and I was extra nervous standing up on something (last think I need is to fall and mess my knee up again). The overall image ended up being a merge of three, and I had to draw in part of the wall, ceiling, computer monitor & door.


Kindle

T.M. Simmons:  Website & Facebook

 
Stock Used

Background, Foreground & Trana - Photographs taken by me

Ghost

Font - OptimusPrincepsSemiBold

Ghost Hunting Diary Volume V Cover

This one took me a few tries to get it going. Originally, I was going to use a photo of the actual house talked about in the 'Hell House' chapter. The photo was taken years before digital cameras came out and got really messed up every time I tried to adjust the brightness. So after some searching, I found a house that looked very similar and when from there. The shadow person is the same that is used for the team logo, but just in white. I used a few layers of fog brushes for the mist set at 40% to 50% opacity, then erased them down from that at about 42% opacity. That way it lost most of the detail to look like a very light mist. I also painted in the treeline in the background.


Kindle
T.M. Simmons: Website [link] & Facebook [link]



Stock Used

House - [link]

Sky - [link]

Grass - [link]

Lightning - ObsidianDawn.com [link] (bought commercial license)

Treeline (in background) - [link] & [link]

Additional scrub around the house - [link]

Fence post - [link]

Barbwire - [link]

'No Trespassing' sign - [link]

Mist - [link]

Shadow person - [link]

Font - OptimusPrincepsSemiBold