TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.  Autumn Harvest Stationery
2.  A Himalayan Lion Cut
3.  The Famous Artists' Cats Series
4.  Unique Ways to Represent a Cat Using a Computer--Mosaic Art
(This is sooo cool)
5.  Now Available--New Original Cat Art
6.  New Section Called "Cat Picture Gallery"
7.  New Free Challenging Online Cat Art Jigsaw Puzzle

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1.  Autumn Harvest Stationery (free)

This lovely stationery was created by Barb from one of my watercolors, called Autumn Harvest, for me to use as the background for this newsletter.  If you'd like to see the variety of beautiful stationery she has created, based on original works of art by many artists, hop on over to her site HERE.  You can download the ones you'd like to use yourself for free.  While you're there, also look for the amazing stationery she has made with my cat art.

If you would like a copy of this Outlook Express Autumn Harvest stationery to put on your own computer to use yourself, just go to Barb's website (see above) and look under 'Eve Riser-Roberts' and download it from there.

2.  A Himalayan Lion Cut

The long-awaited photos of our Himalayan cat, Boo Boo, with this unique cut are now on the site!  See them HERE.  Now this is a cat that runs away everytime it sees the camera come out, so it's been difficult to catch him off guard to get some good shots.  For those of you who have been excitedly anticipating this event, this will be your first view of this cat's lion cut.  Sometimes the cut comes out more lion-like than others.  But I will keep the camera handy after each new visit to the groomers, and successful photos will be posted as they are captured.

3.  The Famous Artists' Cats Series

Just a reminder that these unique fine art prints of how the world's great artists might have painted their own cats would make great gifts for the coming holidays.  To refresh your memory of the images available, tap HERE.  And don't forget they only look expensive.  They just cost $15-20 and are also available for reasonable prices as canvas impressions.  So, if you need a beautiful, unusual, affordable gift quickly, you found it!

4.  Unique Ways to Represent a Cat Using a Computer--Mosaic Art

The Cat's Meow is going to treat you to a new series.  In each issue, a different technique will be presented on how to represent a cat using a computer.  These are clever techniques, some of which you will have fun seeing, and some you may like to follow up on yourself.  I've discovered sites using these methods while surfing, and the site owners have gratiously agreed to allow me to use their images, and in many cases, created something special for this publication.

The first technique we're going to illustrate is that of turning a picture of a cat into a mosaic. 

When you look at a mosaic from a distance, you see one big image, but as you zoom in, it becomes clear that it's not just a single, large picture but rather a collection of small, separate images.  Click on the one below to see what I mean.

Mazaika is a nifty software program that creates such mosaics.  It's a photomosaic tool that creates pictures made of other pictures.  Based on the distribution of colors and shades throughout an image (a photograph, for instance), it reconstructs the image by automatically substituting separate small pictures that have similar color values for each area of the original picture.  These tiny substitute images can be complete pictures themselves, but with a color and overall tonal value that corresponds to that of the area of the original being replaced.  Naturally, the larger the collection of reference images, the greater the probability of finding a reference picture that's very similar in value, producing a better final result.

You probably have collections of digital photos on your computer yourself that would serve as reference material.  Such as pictures of relatives, children, colleagues, pets, trips, holidays, digital family albums, etc.  Mosaics developed from such bits of memoirs can make a very personal creation.  These would make an ideal gift for a family celebration. But an interesting mosaic can also be made from completely abstract figures, like windows icons or the frames of a favourite film.  Anything goes, and the bigger the database, the better.  Using Mazaika, you can make professional looking mosaic pictures from almost any kind and type of image files. You can use even simple icon files (size 32x32) to create very impressive mosaic pictures. If you have a digital camera, you can use your own pictures as tiles.  If you don't have enough image files - you could download some of his image collections.  You can even manually change every single tile in the finished mosaic, if you don't like it and substitute another.

The program was created by Boris A. Glazer from Ekaterinburg in Russia.  His main business is databases, and his hobby is graphics design. Mazaika is shareware and combines the graphics databases and a program of image recognition. The alpha version of the program was written in 1999 and continues to be developed.  A free 30-day trial version can be downloaded from his website, BG_ASCII and Mazaika.  Also on his site, you'll find a variety of tile collections and a large gallery of ready-made mosaics.  Would you believe his tile collections include:  beer bottle labels; a video cassette cover collection; landscapes; a Santa made of Christmas postcards; old soviet Christmas, New Years, and Santa postcards; and Christmas greeting cards (you could make your own Christmas card this year this way)?  He also has a collection of 3000+ amateur cat photos (every pic is 48x48 pix or 170x170px) to use with Mazaika, as he has done to create a cats wallpaper.

Now you can turn your cat photo into an artistic bunch of little squares, each with its own image within it.

Boris has generated the cat mosaics here for you to see.  Click on the thumbnails to be taken to a close-up version, where you can more easily see the individual components.  Thanks Boris.

5.  Now Available--New Original Cat Art

A new, small acrylic painting of a mischievous cat attacking a vase of flowers is now available for sale on the site.  You may see it by tapping HERE.  More original cat pieces may also appear during the pre-Christmas season.  Keep your eyes open for them.

6.  New Section Called "Cat Picture Gallery"

In addition to the Funny Cat Pictures, where visitors can send in funny photos of their cats, there is now a section for my guests to show off their cats in other ways.  There are several headings at the moment waiting for your photos.  Check them out HERE and see if you might have anything appropriate for them, or maybe you can suggest other headings I haven't thought of yet.  Let's see how creative you and your cats can be. 

7.  New Free Challenging Online Cat Art Jigsaw Puzzle

So you think you're good at jigsaw puzzles, eh?  Well, here's one that will slow you down.  Click on the link below...hehe.

http://www.jigzone.com/ms/z.php?ui=161103i579148&z=108_piece_swirls

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Hope you enjoyed this issue.  Have a pleasant Thanksgiving.

Eve Riser-Roberts
The Cat Gallery

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