I've been having a lot of fun playing with vectors lately. Below is one that I did tonight (or, based on the time now, I guess last night. Wow, I need to get to bed).
P.S. Notice some style differences in the site? I've tried to keep the same basic look and colors, while making the site look a little more modern and stylish. I hope everyone likes it!
Over the last 2-3 weeks, I've done a few things. The first that you may have noticed is the addition of "Buzz It," and "Share It" buttons for Buzz and Facebook at the bottom of each of the more recent blog posts. I've had Twitter "Retweet" buttons for a while, but figured it was time to branch out.
I've also created two new buttons, one for each Facebook and Google Buzz for my side menu and retired the original Facebook button that once existed there. These newer buttons are styled like square button pins, just as my Twitter button is a styled after a circular button pin (I collect pins, so I couldn't help following this theme).
Besides this, I have also pulled the cats out of my Self Portrait (which, if you notice, is now visible in my blog header) and completed them. As they were part of the previous drawing, I had only drawn and colored the half of each cat visible in the image (I'm lazy like that). Now, each of my kitties has their own full drawing that they don't have to share with anyone else.
I'm rather proud that you can see how innocent Andy is and how evil Shadow is in the images. LOL.
In an effort to help demonstrate how to use the Pen Tool in Adobe Photoshop, and particularly how to use this tool to select images, I have written a (so far) 3 page comprehensive guide and made my second ever YouTube video!
In celebration of Valentines Day, DeviantArt (my favorite forum for arts and crafts) is hosting a contest!
In a blown up 11px by 11px box, draw yourself. They've created the tool and minimal skill is required. Just create a rendition of yourself in these huge pixels (example to the right) and submit to enter. You can enter as many times as you'd like and 100 winners will be selected to recieve DeviantArt specific emoticon stress balls.
As you can see, due to the nature of their contest much drawing skill is not required, so I hope everyone enters! Good luck! Oh, and if you enter, feel free to link to the drawing in our comments so we can all take a look!
Thursday, you saw the linework for a drawing I was working on. Below is the finished version.
Extra thanks to Sayjinlink for his help! He even took a copy of the almost-finished version and circled any area that needed work and added notes on how to improve it! He is my critique hero!
P.S. In case you are interested, this drawing is based off the following two reference images (plus, my cats!)
The woman is me, the drawing is Kirt of X-Men Evolution (what I happened to be watching during the many hours while drawing and shading this). Kirt was in the basic pose that I wanted, so I used this as a reference that I feminized and detailed to create the look that I wanted.
The last week or so has been a little chaotic. Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to spend much time drawing (so please forgive the lack of pretties found here)....Fortunately, I have been spending my time elsewhere in the site.
Adobe CS4 - an offshoot of Adobe Photoshop Versions, discussing Photoshop CS4
Adobe CS3 - you guessed it; another offshoot, this time discussing Photoshop CS3
Pyrography Tools - an extension to the pyrography (woodburning) section of this site. This page discusses the various tools of the trade and their differences
The next few weeks are going to be spent mostly expanding on these two areas of the site, but I'll try and make sure to include some new graphics as well. ^.^
As always, let me know if you have any comments on these pages or if you'd like to see something specific!
I was working on a photo manipulation tonight that I hoped would be the base for my next Photoshop Tutorial for this site. I wanted to create something that looked like a Japanese Water Color. As you can see, it didn't quite turn out well.
I am going to have another attempt another night. I love the images that I am working with, I just need to find the right combination of steps to create the atmosphere that I want. This one just doesn't quite do it (though it looks alright small; it's the larger version that is awful).
This blog entry is going to be something a little different than I have previously featured here. Over the holiday weekend I received an email politely recommending a new website for artists and photographers. In the email, I was asked for a review and offered, in return, special treats for you (lovely little readers that you are).
The website is called Rollip and is an online resource for adding filters to your images. Now, I know, Photoshop does the same thing. That was my initial thought when I saw this website too. Then I got to thinking: Not everyone has Photoshop. Even those that do have, don’t necessarily have access to it from anywhere. And, let’s face it, sometimes Photoshop can be overkill for the small amount of editing that an amateur artist or photographer wants…and since Photoshop runs for a couple hundred dollars, it doesn’t always seem worth it.
(P.S. As a complete lover and loyal user of Photoshop, that hurt my soul a bit to write, but that doesn’t make it any less true.)
Rollip offers 40 filters that can be applied to any image that you upload. The images are not resized and you retain full ownership of the image. Rollip is completely free of charge for smaller images, though high-quality processing requires a membership.
Now, about that special treat that I mentioned. Thanks to a lovely correspondence with someone named Maurice (who either works for or owns this site, not real sure on the details), I’m able to give away 15 pro accounts at Rollip with 30 credits each (30 credit accounts are worth $5.98 per account as credits are purchasable in 15 credit packages of $2.99 each). I’m lazy, so I’m making offering these accounts on a first come first serve basis: the first 15 people who click the link and sign up, get the accounts. Yay.
Personally, outside of the free credits being offered, I think I’d stick with the free image adjustments. If you are applying filters to that many high-resolution images, it may be time to invest in Photoshop. Rollip is cheaper in the short term, but Photoshop offers more. Of course, as a Photoshop addict, you may or may not want to take me at my word.
I think Rollip is a great site for amateurs or for anyone looking to apply a quick filter for an image (maybe great for personal images before putting them up on Facebook or what have you). Not sure that I could see the benefit at a professional level, but it’s worth taking a look at. Who knows, maybe you can find more uses for it than myself.
Let me know if you do, I’m curious how different people will use the site. I’d love to see any photos that were created with Rollip’s filters, too, so if you use it and want to share, post a comment and let me know where I can see the pic!
Just to show off the site: Here’s an image of a random kitten (top, left is the original stock photo) that I applied a few different filters to. Only took a couple of minutes, and it shows the different effect the filters can apply to a single image.
Buzz it!
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The website is called Rollip and is an online resource for adding filters to your images. Now, I know, Photoshop does the same thing. That was my initial thought when I saw this website too. Then I got to thinking: Not everyone has Photoshop. Even those that do have, don’t necessarily have access to it from anywhere. And, let’s face it, sometimes Photoshop can be overkill for the small amount of editing that an amateur artist or photographer wants…and since Photoshop runs for a couple hundred dollars, it doesn’t always seem worth it.
