Hello fellow bubblers, I thought it might be useful if we tried to give you an insight into the ‘mind of RedBubble’ – every now and th…
Hello fellow bubblers, I thought it might be useful if we tried to give you an insight into the ‘mind of RedBubble’ – every now and then. To give you an understanding of what makes us tick. One of the key ideas underpinning RedBubble is that ‘everyone’s an artist’. Let me restate part of our very first journal post “People are inherently creative. Deep down, most of us love to come up with new ideas, express who we are, or take a different perspective on the world around us. This is particularly true of children. Remember chalk on the footpath, crayon on the walls, or a painting stuck proudly to the fridge with a magnet. Kids love stories, they love learning about new things, they ask obvious yet somehow overlooked questions. So why don’t many of us focus on our creative interests as adults? Is there something about the process of growing up that changes us, that convinces us to be serious and sensible? Do we lose the ability to be creative? Or does it just get buried amidst the responsibilities, worries and priorities of adult life? Look closer, though, and you’ll see sparks of creativity in adults everywhere. Since starting our RedBubble journey, we’ve been amazed at how many of our close friends have “confessed” to a secret creative hobby, a little spark of creativity that few else know about. Look at the statistics and the picture is clearer still. Over 2.5 million Australians regularly take part in some sort of creative or cultural activity. Almost 90% do this entirely for free, for the simple enjoyment of it. A fortunate few earn a living from it, but most keep their creative spark alive in their own time and without sharing it with the world. RedBubble was founded with a burning desire to improve this situation. And there are some major social and technological trends helping us out.“ We openly want to embrace a wide variety of material on RedBubble, from a wide variety of people – from professional artists to emerging artists to people just discovering their artistic side. We don’t want to place more limits or barriers in the way of people – life has enough barriers – so we’ve tried to keep RedBubble as open as possible. This is why we haven’t placed any upload limits on the site and why we don’t vet content before it’s published. We’ve recently received feedback from the community that such an open approach has meant people might be encouraged to post ‘anything’ to RedBubble. Our thinking is that RedBubble should be the place for your best work and over the next short while we’re looking to update the site to further encourage this behaviour. But we don’t want RedBubble to become an elite only site – we don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. - Peter
Following several knock backs and aborted attempts to gain access to Paul Vanzella I have finally…
Following several knock backs and aborted attempts to gain access to Paul Vanzella I have finally managed to jimmy the lock and enter the building that houses his workshop. It’s quite dirty to look at, yet remains aesthetically pleasing at the same time (much like a lot of his work). I have no doubt that I’m going in the right direction. There are bright flashes of light from the other end of this cavernous room, a cackling laughter can be heard along with a drone of generators / I’m entering the inner sanctum, the magic place that Paul (the Van Man) Vanzella creates his masterpieces. It’s hard to get into the corner, the bric a brack thickens as you get closer, then after squeezing between a digger and a airplane fuselage (that I’m sure I have seen before), I’m there! Blinking in the full glare of the spotlights lighting this whole area! / “WHO DARES DISTURB ME?” booms a voice from the shadows, I can just make out the outline of a figure in the lights. It looks like one of the aliens from Close encounters!!! Shock horror – Paul Vanzella is not human, hold on a moment, that’s hardly news is it, I mean we have all seen his work! / From behind me I hear movement, like the wind through silk curtains, suddenly I realise that I’m not here in the light on my own! Oh no the Van-man is in the middle of a shoot, that means if I turn round I’ll get an eyeful of Jo (No Clothes) O’Brien. / Trying to ‘nonchalantly’ turn around, I manage to avoid the expected whiplash and there in front of me stands No Clothes O’Brien ! In the nip , her birthday suit, wearing just a smile! Do I need to go on? / She looks less than happy at me being there! “how dare you” she squeeks, “we were just in the middle of recreating the Venus Di Milo! But we were going to call it the Jo Di Milo” ahh that explains the strange yellow sheen to Miss O’Brien’s skin, and here was me thinking it was jaundice. She makes no move to hide herself, instead she hisses, “best look elsewhere four eyes or I’ll turn those glasses your wearing into contact lenses!” she’s not joking there’s a real violence in her you can see it in her eyes and the scabs on her knuckles! / Turning back was where I got the whiplash “just do exactly as I say and nobody will get hurt” she whispered into my ear “isn’t that right Pauly?” she cackled. The lights dimmed and I could make the Van Man out a little clearer, he wasn’t an alien he was chained to the camera, in fact 5 camera’s hung round his neck making him visibly stoop, his ankles were chained together…a look of the defeated in his eyes he mouthed “Help Me…”. / So there we have it, Paul Vanzella is being held against his will and forced to take pictures of Jo ‘No Clothes’ O’Brien (his number one fan!), in her dastardly scheme to take over the bubble with the power and volume of her image. Oh the inhumanity of it! PLEASE NOTE THAT THE EPISODES FOLLOW ON FROM EACH OTHER IN A SOAP OPERA STYLE. WHILST EACH EPISODE SHOULD BE A STORY IN ITSELF IT IS HOPED THEY THREAD TOGETHER. THERE ARE MORE EPISODES TO READ, JUST CLICK HERE! SOAP BUBBLE please note that all comments are completely fictitious and intended to be humorous. The journal relates to my interpretation of the art and to stories that I make up about the artist as a bubble characters rather than focusing on the real people behind the art
Well after much agonising I have finally put together a calendar of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda shots I most like. Man it…
Well after much agonising I have finally put together a calendar of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda shots I most like. Man it’s been hard. But for what it’s worth here’s Melly’s choice picks. If anyone would like to purchase one for $30 you can bubblemail me. The $10 profit will go straight, smack into the hands of HEAL Africa. Hold on a minute 13 Melinda Kerr’s for JUST $30!!!! THAT’S DAYLIGHT ROBBERY!!!!!!!!! Seriously if you’re making a charity purchase this year consider HEAL Africa. These guys are awesome and they’re living at the coal face for us as much as anyone else :) / / / / / / / / / / / /
Congratulations to everyone who took part in the Challenge, all the work submitted was superb and picking the top 6 pieces of work was a …
Congratulations to everyone who took part in the Challenge, all the work submitted was superb and picking the top 6 pieces of work was a very tough job indeed. / / The winner of Challenge 1 – PASSION is / / Micmac / With Passion And Pain / / The runner up for this week is Juilee Pryor / / With Urban Landscape 2 Pparramatta RD Bus Stop / Once again, Well done everyone, who took part.
There are a few simple things you can do in redbubble to make your text more interesting. The text format you would like to use can …
There are a few simple things you can do in redbubble to make your text more interesting. The text format you would like to use can be accomplished with a few simple symbols placed in the correct location in your Profile, Journal entry, add photo description box etc. First to make your text bold Type a star * before and after the text you need to be made bold, without spaces. Star yourword star (no spaces) To make this text into a bullet point. like this Insert the hash # symbol and a space in front of your text. hash space yourword To make a bold bullet point insert a hash # space then a star your word then another star no spaces. This should be how it now looks hash space star yourword star To make a clickable link: Page Put your Clickable word between speech marks “like this” then add a colon Next navigate to the web page address which you would like the link to take your viewer to. Copy the address from the address bar of your browser and insert this after the colon remember that no spaces between the symbols and the words must be present or it will not work. (Note that your text can have spaces if you want it to) Speechmark yourword speechmark colon webaddress (no spaces) To make a bold clickable link when you have the code above working correctly insert a star * between the speech marks at the beginning and end of your clickable link. This is the code speechmark star yourword star speechmark colon webaddress (with no spaces) Finally to make this a bulleted address insert a hash and a space before this code. hash space speechmark star yourword star speechmark colon webaddress (with no spaces) If you would like to add more bullet points just cut and paste the code changing yourword and the address as required. hash space speechmark star another word star speechmark colon another webaddress (with no spaces) I hope this has made formatting text in your work a little easier and helps your profile and work stand out from the crowd. If you have any observations or questions feel free to leave a comment or bubblemail me. My profile shows examples of how thiis text should now look.
Well it’s my 1st b’day at the bubble and I would like to say thanks to everyone for buying, commenting and viewing my work. Never in m…
Well it’s my 1st b’day at the bubble and I would like to say thanks to everyone for buying, commenting and viewing my work. Never in my wildest dreams (and some of them are pretty wild) could I have imagined that I would get the exposure that I have here – 90,000 views – man, I’m blown away. Again thank you RB, Mr Vanzella, all the artists I’ve had the pleasure of working with here and all of those who have commented on and bought my work. Cheers Aaron
Ok, so I am designing something for a competition, so my overall image will not be about space, but there will be some space aspects with…
Ok, so I am designing something for a competition, so my overall image will not be about space, but there will be some space aspects within it. / / As I work through my image, I will be sharing some of the steps I use to create it. / / This step, is how to create a space galaxy in Photoshop without any photography. / / These tutorials will work as stand alones, but you are welcome if you wish to follow the whole series and create along side me. / / This was all done in Photoshop CS2, but as no specialist tools are used, most versions of Photoshop will suffice. / / Have fun – and here we go. / / 1. Open Photoshop and create a new black image 1400 wide x 1000 high / 2. Duplicate this layer [up the top, click on the word layer, then on duplicate, click ok on the box that appears] so that you have 2 identical layers in the layer palette [bottom right hand corner] Layers Palette / / / 3. On your keyboard, hold ctrl and press D once to set the foreground/background colours to Black and White / 4. Working on the top layer in the layer palette [make sure its highlighted, click on it if it isn’t] – click on the word filter [up the top], then on Pixelate, then on Pointilize – a window will appear. Set the cell size to 7 and click on OK to apply the filter. you now should have something similar to the image below / / Image after Pointilize filter has been applied / / / 5. Working on the same layer, select the eliptical marquee selection tool on the left hand toolbar. Set the Feather [up the top] to 40 pixels, and draw a selection like the one below by clicking and dragging the mouse on the image / / Eliptical marquee selection / / / / 6. Click the word Select [up the top], then click inverse – to inverse the selection, and press delete on the keyboard. This will remove all the dots and texture outside the eliptical selection. 7. Click on the word Image [up the top] then on adjustments, then on Levels – a box will appear. Change the settings to match that of the image below and click ok. / / / / 8. Click on the word Filter [up the top] and click on Distort, then on Twirl. Change the settings to that of the image below and click on OK. / / / / Your image should now look similar to the one below. / / / / 9. Now click on the word Edit [up the top] then click on Transform, then on Distort. This will place lines and points around your image. Drag the bottom right corner point upward and to the right until you get something similar to the image below. Once you are happy with it, hit enter on your keyboard to apply the effect. / / / / 10. Use the move tool over on the toolbar on the left to move this layer into the centre like shown below. / / / / As you will see, you now have your galaxy and all we need to do now, is add some life to it. / / 11. Change the foreground colour to a very light creamy yellow and click on the paintbrush tool in the toolbar over on the left. Set the brush size to about 250 with ZERO Hardness and the brush opacity [up the top] to about 75. Click the brush on the centre of the galaxy once. Now reduce the opacity to 25, click the mouse slightly to the left of your last click position, and then do the same to the right – this will give a disc shape light in the centre of the galaxy. / / 12. Now click on the Dodge tool over on the left toolbar, Set the brush size to 75, the Range to Highlights and the Exposure to 60. Now drag the mouse from the centre of the galaxy in outward spirals to create the galaxy trails. Finish off by adding a little dodge to the centre of the galaxy to brighten it right up. / / 13. You now have a fihished galaxy which you can rotate to suit. Once you have the position you want and are happy with all the brightness, contrast etc, to finish click on the word Layer [up the top] then on flatten image, and then save your file. / / It should look similar to this after you have rotated it etc. / / / / You can have a different colour galazy by changing the foreground and background colours at stage 3 of this tutorial, and can have different shapes by changing the amount of dodge and rotation at the end. / / The one below was created using light blue and purple instead of black and white at stage 3, and a lot of dodge applied at the end. / / Hope you enjoy, and I would love to hear how you get on. / / Jul
If you haven’t seen this video, it’s a pretty cool idea. Haven’t tried it yet, but I plan to make one. Tripod...
If you haven’t seen this video, it’s a pretty cool idea. Haven’t tried it yet, but I plan to make one. Tripod
It appeals to me to make a video of Red Bubble artworks into a video to go on You Tube and other video sites to try and promote our bubbl…
It appeals to me to make a video of Red Bubble artworks into a video to go on You Tube and other video sites to try and promote our bubbles. I’d like to include works of other Bubblers here on Red Bubble to the video as well. Everyone who contributes some work will have their name / user name / location shown with their work. The video will consist of our works with titles / credits, frame transitions and musical accompaniment. Depending on the response I could make more videos later. Initially let’s say the first 20 people to post a comment to this journal entry will have 3 pieces go in the video.Work goes in the video in order of comment in the cue. (my 3 pieces first since I’m making the vid, k?) No charge, no entry fee, no prizes, just permission to use your work in this manner and the hope of expanding our horizons. (..and a copy of the wmv file / for anyone who wants to pass it around) What do you say? Shall we give it a go?
Okay, so you’ve seen some amazing work online and wondered where the artist got all those astounding background effects or how they did t…
Okay, so you’ve seen some amazing work online and wondered where the artist got all those astounding background effects or how they did that cool layered effect. Well, as surprising as it may sound, some of those effects were done using a very common Photoshop preset: Brushes. You may be asking yourself, don’t I already have brushes installed with my Photoshop CS3 (or CS2) software? Well, yes, you do. But those are the basics. There are a ton of awesome people out there in internet land who are making additional brushes (and other plugins) for you to use with your software. These plugins are very easy to download and install. I will try to give you a short rundown of what to expect when installing these brushes. For more information as to how to use them or for more detailed installation information or installation for a MAC OS, please consult the very wonderful Photoshopsupport.com, a very neat index of everything Photoshop! (Please note: The following instructions are very, very simplistic because I wanted even the novice Photoshop user to be able to use these tools. I know there are a bunch of different ways to do these things (even some that are easier), but I wanted to put it in basic terms without all the fancy language and extra steps because I remember how it was when I first started teaching myself to use the Adobe programs. Plus, this is not intended to be a full fledged tutorial.) The first step is to download some really cool brushes from an online provider. Some brush sets you will have to pay for, others are free with some restrictions, and others are completely free. Make sure you read the website’s policy before you use them. You can view my Photoshop CS3 (and CS2) Brushes journal entry to visit the websites where I have downloaded most of my brushes from. Most of them have free areas or are completely free and all you have to do is link back to them. Once you have chosen the brush set to download, simply download it to your computer. Because the files are normally saved in a Zip file, I start off by downloading the file to my Desktop first and then moving them over after (this is to avoid confusion). However, if you feel comfortable unzipping them right into the proper file, then by all means go-ahead-with-your-bad-self! After you have downloaded the Zip file to your Desktop, you will need a program (such as WinRAR, which is what I use) to unzip the file. At this point, you may be asking where you unzip the file to? Well, inside the Zip file may be a read me (.txt) file and other junk (which may be of interest to you) and there should also be a brush (.abr) file, which is the one you want to unzip. You can unzip the brush file onto your Desktop and then move it over manually, or you can unzip it to the Photoshop directory itself. Regardless of which method yo use, your ultimate goal is to get that .abr brush file into a specific folder in your Photoshop program’s file. For brushes, the file you will want to place your .abr brush files into is the “Brush” file within the “Presets” file. So, how do you get there? Open your My Computer and find the drive which has the folder “Program FIles”. Now, open “Program Files” and then find the folder labeled “Adobe”. Next, open the “Adobe” folder and you will see ALL of the Adobe programs, which are installed on your system. Locate the “Adobe Photoshop CS3” (or CS2) folder and open it. Find the “Presets” folder and open it. Finally, you will see a folder called “Brushes”. Open it. You can now see ALL of the brushes that are installed to use with your Photoshop program. This “Brushes” folder is where you want to place all of your downloaded .abr brush files. So, the quick breakdown to find the “Brushes” folder is: Program Files >>> Adobe >>> Adobe Photoshop CS3 (or CS2) >>> Presets >>> Brushes Once you have unzipped the files or drag-and-dropped them into this file folder, you can close the folders. You will also need to re-start your Photoshop program in order for the brushes to be finalized and installed and ready for use (sometimes, you have to re-start your computer as well). After you have re-booted your software, open a blank file and click on the “Brush Tool” or simply press its keyboard shortcut ( B ) to activate it. Now, right click anywhere on the page and your brush palette should appear (this is where you control the brush size/hardness, etc.) and in the upper right hand corner you should see a little black triangle with a circle around it. Click on that little triangle/circle icon and…. whaaaaa-la! Your newly installed brushes are there just waiting for you to experiment with them! All you have to do is click on a preset and it will ask you if you would like to load those brushes. Click “Ok” and they will appear in your brush palette waiting to be used and abused! So, go have fun with your new brushes and get creative! The last step, of course, is to add your comments below! Add your brush tips (pun intended) below so that we can all learn from each other! Cheers!
I am not sure if someone else has already posted a tutorial on this, so I thought I would have a go at it. I read “this (How to add a Po…
I am not sure if someone else has already posted a tutorial on this, so I thought I would have a go at it. I read this very insightful tutorial by admin Xavier Shay about posting a Portfolio into an email signature. I was toying around with the code, and discovered how to place the code on your Red Bubble profile page. I have noticed that some people have already figured out how to do this, so there are some who probably already know about this. I, however, did not know this until I toyed around with it and, so, I am sure that there others out there who might find this of value. I would first recommend that you read Xavier’s post and the comments that follow, as they were a very big help in learning how to do this. (1) The first step is to use the image location link that was provided in the forum tutorial: http://redbubble.com/people/username/recipe:banner;back_color:ffffff;orientation:horizontal;limit:4/username_banner.jpg (2) Next, paste this image location link somewhere in your “About Me” section between exclamation points, like this: !place the image location link here! (3) Now, notice the bold areas of the above link. You must insert your Red Bubble username (not your real name) where it says username (there are two spots in the link where you have to do this). So, my link would like like this: http://redbubble.com/people/bchrisdesigns/recipe:banner;back_color:ffffff;limit:4_;orientation:_horizontal;/bchrsidesigns_banner.jpg Can you tell where I have replaced “username” with “bchrisdesigns”? (4) Finally, if you take note of the italicized text in the image location link directly above, you will notice that the values of “back_color”, “orientation”, and “limit” are all italicized. These values are yours to control and manipulate to get the proper look and feel that you would like on your page. back_color: is the image’s background color, which you can change to any color using the standard HTML Color Code. Note, that you do not need to use the # (pound sign) that normally precedes HTML Color Code (i.e. ”#ffffff”) – you just need the code (i.e. “fffffff”). #ffffff is the color code for “white”. limit: is the number of thumbnails that will be seen in your banner. I have experimented with this in my blog and have discovered that the most you can set it to is “6”. On your Red Bubble profile page, the most you can really set it to is “4” for horizontal images and “6” for vertical images orientation: is the way your portfolio will be seen. This can be changed to either “horizontal” (from side-to-side) or “vertical” (up and down). And, that is it. Once you have decided how you want your image to look, just save your profile and presto! You’ve got a nifty banner on your page. BUT… If you would like your banner to be click-able, you need to add a link code to it, such as: ”! image location here ! ( link description here )” : hyperlink here You can copy and paste this example into your “About Me” section and then fill in the blanks with your information (make sure you delete any and all spaces). In the above example, replace the underlined text as follows: image location here: replace this text with the finalized image location link that we worked on in steps 1-4 above. link description here: replace this text with a description of what you would like people to see when they hover over your banner. (Mine says “View My Red Bubble Gallery”.) hyperlink here: replace this text with the actual hyperlink that you would like your image to link to (i.e. a specific Red Bubble section or your profile page; you can also link to your blog/website/etc.). Once you replace the text as indicated, simply save your edited profile and check out your radical awesomeness! Here is an example of mine (with hyperlink): I hope this helps everyone! Cheers! P.S. I am adding this to all of my groups in the hopes that everyone can use this tool to display their beautiful works of art (from Atmospheric Optics to Zoophoria). Much love!
It was March 2005, somewhere near St Kilda....
It was March 2005, somewhere near St Kilda. I was sitting in a room, on a sofa propped on milk crates, staring at the ceiling. Around my neck was a Philadelphia collar and in my hand was a bottle of gin. The collar was the only sign that I had recently broken my C1, 2 & T1 the gin was to stop me thinking about it. I was staring at the ceiling because it was reasonably tricky to stare anywhere else. I sat quietly contemplating my future. Next to me was a chap called Christopher Lansell, Crispy to his comrades, whom I’d known about 8 minutes. He started talking about some things, wild, imaginative things, I started to reply, and back he came with more, this went on quite successfully for a while. One of these crazy things was an idea he’d been playing with to install a 1:1 billion scale model of the Solar System somewhere in Melbourne. It seemed quite a good idea to me. Almost without any warning at all it was 9am on December 10 of that year, my return ticket to the UK forgotten in the back of a drawer somewhere, and 6 months out of date, my neck visible to all who cared to glance. I’m crouched at the door to our St Kilda studio, attempting to drill a hole into Pluto, except this Pluto is only 2mm in diametre, which makes it very tricky. And in half an hour it’s meant to be on a plinth somewhere near Port Melbourne. / / / / Building the Sun Having drummed up some media interest through an interview on ABC radio and an article in The Age and spent a few months constructing the Sun and nine planets by hand we were actually within minutes of taking our disjointed conversation live. / / / / / Painting the Planets / Planet bases Pluto / Mars / Neptune / Saturn / Jupiter / Having finally secured Pluto to it’s stand, we threw all the models in the back of a trailer and hightailed it to the beach, as we roared along the approach to the marina there was a sudden, and slightly sickening crunch. Crispy braked, we looked at each other in silent fear, then out through the back window of the Toyota. Rolling down the road in the vague direction of Acland Street was a 1.39m golden ball of plywood and satin. Hmmm. We exited the car at speed and, to the amusement of the residents, sprinted off after the star. It was not entirely unscathed, but it was still presentable, and anyway, we were out of time. The weekend was long and disgustingly hot, but the model was a success, large numbers of families turned up on their bikes, with their children, The Age article folded in their pockets, planning to ride the full 6km route to Pluto. And being mid summer the beach and passing traffic was plentiful. Seeing kids stand under the 1.28cm hand painted sphere that was Earth (I even managed to dust the Himalayas with some snow) and point out Australia before running 150m to the Sun and smacking it with their ice cream stained hands was quite rewarding. / Earth, a man with a beard & the Moon, which is as far as Man has ever actually travelled, allegedly. (But not the man with the beard, he may have been no further than Geelong, I don’t know) Mars / The Sun / / / By Sunday night we were knackered but content. Then things started getting interesting. Tony Wheeler, co-founder of Lonely Planet rang us up, said he’d heard about the project but had been out of the country and wondered if he could come and see the models, we, unsurprisingly said yes. Then the council rang us up and said they’d had a lot of calls from the general public asking when they were going to do the project again. They said they hadn’t done it in the first place. It was about this point that words like ‘permanent’ began to appear in conversations. We found a sculptor, Cameron Robbins, an eccentric and extremely talented man based in Collingwood, and commenced talks with the council. It was estimated at costing around $70,000, and so the tedious process of money raising became the focus, Tony pledged a large sum of his personal finances, as did some universities. Things looked good. Then the university pulled out, and we experienced our first wedge of bureaucratic council red tape. Things look bad. And that high and low was a microcosm of how it progressed for the next two years. With a hefty focus on the ‘This is just never going to happen’ line of thought. But now, three years and six months after a conversation on a sofa in St Kilda, there are some people down at the foreshore tidying up the metre high bluestone plinths the planets rest on, and no doubt someone polishing the 360kg of bronze that makes up the Sun, in preparation for the opening on September 21. And I’m going to miss it, because I’m in London, so if you have nothing better to do please pop down to the reserve north of the Marina at 4.45, take some photos, get yourself an epic sense of how fragile and unique Earth really is and give Crispy some support for the endless phone calls and meetings and rolls and rolls of tape he’s deftly sliced through. Pouring the bronze Planets / Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus cooling off / Half of the Sun / All of the Sun / Polishing the Sun / The sculptor Cameron Robbins next to polished Sun / Saturn / Venus, Mars, Earth, Mercury & Pluto (yeah it’s not a planet anymore, but it was then) / Pouring concrete base for the Sun / Diamond saw cutting bluestone plinths for the planets / Plinths being lifted into place / / The Sun being moved into place / / / / Model Location / And if you ever see anyone chasing an enormous shining sphere down a road, go and give them a hand.
I met Glen Smith while visiting the Melbourne Festival of The Photocopier...
I met Glen Smith while visiting the Melbourne Festival of The Photocopier last year. It was to be a very beneficial meet up for me because I got to meet and then associate with one of the artistic gems of Red Bubble. Glen is an artists foremost as well as being a High School teacher and Administrator for the Arts in Geelong (Victoria’s Second largest city.) Glen with his partner in crime David Dellafiora (also a teacher who specialises in Mail and correspondence art) are responsible for exciting art concepts, productions and exhibitions that are innovative as they are unique. / One the things Glen and I have done since forming our friendship is too exchange art. I give Glen any old shit that I can compile together and Glen every 2 months or so sends me his ‘zine . / / Yon can always tell when Glen sends something. It doesn’t have a name as such as each booklet comes with its own distinctive title. The booklets consist of a compilation of Glen’s Tee Shirt ( and other) art during the period previous to it’s publication a lot of it posted on Red Bubble, there are also new works not seen on the web site and sometimes a better description of what the art is about. There have been seven issues so far and though the quality was high to begin with each issue has increased in quality and design with the last two even coming with colour features. / / I will often also get a free gift which is usually a NoFrills Art button or sticker that never get seen on Red Bubble and I treasure these little pieces of ephemera , because they are really what NoFrills Art is all about. Giving and teaching. / Glen has not got a subscription network happening yet but I think if enough interest is shown he may be forced too. You can currently buy NoFrills Art Publications from the Sticky Bookshop in Melbourne or contact Glenn via Red Bubble.
It’s been stated many times by the founders of Redbubble that they seek to democratize art by allowing everyone to have a gallery of thei…
It’s been stated many times by the founders of Redbubble that they seek to democratize art by allowing everyone to have a gallery of their work on display for public view, with the ability for it to be purchased in various high quality media. An ongoing debate has been occurring since the nascent days of the site regarding quality, and the large amount of uploads that are perceived as lacking in artistic merit. I used to be concerned about this, but have slowly let go of the idea that this is a site that is about ‘meritorious’ art (despite the flourishing debates), and more to do with the idea of participatory community focused around creative activity. I’d like to address the idea of ‘online community’ and it’s contradictions in a future essay, but for now will acknowledge that this community is the ‘front end’ sustained by the ‘back end’ business of print-on-demand. Not an uncommon contemporary business model; one that links the participatory capabilities of ‘Web 2.0’ with a physical business. I’m not implying that there is a cynicism in doing this however, its just one manifestation of the positive (if problematic) use of capital in the social sphere. One idea that has occurred to me lately, and one that is only too evident as Redbubble grows and evolves, is the great irony of the democratization of art: that universal freedom of expression is important to increase the chances of great art occurring, but it also allows the unskilled, the inarticulate and the unimaginative free reign to express themselves. To some, creative expression is merely the documentation of their surroundings, to others it is as much as possible a subjective interpretation using whatever objective means they have mastered. To put it bluntly, democratization leads at one and the same time to greatness and mediocrity, and the thing that defines greatness is it’s rarity among mediocrity, forcing us to think harder about the nature of art itself. / / I don’t for one moment support the idea of an artistic elite, this is impossible to define, but more the idea that mediocrity is the sea on which greatness floats, and maybe we have to begrudgingly accept that cultural evolution involves a certain volume of mediocrity.
Concept: An Eye For a Picture: For me my photography is based on the four x I’s = / Idea > / Image > / Inspiration > / Impact / ...
Concept: An Eye For a Picture: For me my photography is based on the four x I’s = / Idea > / Image > / Inspiration > / Impact The idea is concerned with originality and uniqueness, a unique angle on an event, scene or subject. Take the everyday common scene or subject on, but study it and ask yourself, what have I added or contributed to this capture. Don’t be content with mere content, you progress from being the photographer or taker, to becoming the photographic artist or maker; for the image to cease being seen as a picture, but instead recognised as a craft ~ the photographer’s craft. The image is a two dimensional concept. In reality it is reflection. A volatile image is one that exists only for a short period of time, as for example a reflection of an object by a mirror. You don’t take anything, all you acquire is a reflection, this is image making. The concept of photography or image making for me is an art, an art that is to do with expression. Expressing what we feel about what we have seen and we do so through the medium of photography. For me this all begins with seeing, or as the great Irish writer James Joyce put it ~ a simple beholding of the object. Secondly the concept should be sure and contain substance, be structured, and make a statement. Too often there is no concerted effort within the concept, and little for the viewer to grasp. As a recorder and further more as a reporter we have to convincing. This brings us to inspiration or in or other words motivation, a stimulus, a performance. The legendary American photographer Alfred Stieglitz was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an acceptable art form alongside painting and sculpture. In 1902 he organized an invitation-only group, which he dubbed the Photo-Secession, to force the art world to recognize photography “as a distinctive medium of individual expression”. To me this is what photography is about; it raises it above the recording dimension, and the reporting dimension into a recognizing dimension, and then later into a reading dimension. Ansel Adams once said; “Photographs should not only be looked at, they should be looked into”. The recognition is therefore two-fold as it is first the photographer in recognizing what they see before them; but is also and equally about the piece of work being recognized and read (interpreted) by the viewer. This is a meeting, a meeting of minds, a collision an impact. If your images do not create an impact, do not enforce feedback, they are as Ansel Adams has put it fuzzy. The aesthetic experience is a simple beholding of the object ~ James Joyce “I know some photographs that are extraordinary in their power and conviction, but it is difficult in photography to overcome the superficial power or subject; the concept and statement must be quite convincing in themselves to win over a dramatic and compelling subject situation.”Ansel Adams “There is nothing worse than a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept” Ansel Adams New Light Through New Windows /
Making clocks using your own artwork is great fun, I’ve been doing it for years. I’ll show you how to make a clock out of foam board (foa…
Making clocks using your own artwork is great fun, I’ve been doing it for years. I’ll show you how to make a clock out of foam board (foam core) and a clock motor. / You’ll need to decide on the size of your clock and the thickness of the material first, so you can choose the length of the motor stem, and the length of the clock hands (free when you buy a motor). This is the motor I usually use. (http://www.klockit.com/products/dept-157__sku-FFFFV.html) This clock is 7” diameter, can be larger. / You’ll need to add the clock numbers or symbols to your artwork; you can do this freehand, or use the illustration as a guide to make a template, as a temporary layer to your art, position your numbers, then delete the template. Don’t forget to include a 5/16 inch center circle on your art so you can cut out the hole for the clock stem. / / / Once you’ve glued your print to foam core and cut it out, you need to make the hole for the clock stem. IMPORTANT TIP: put your work on a cutting surface, hold your xacto knife straight up and push the tip straight down into the edge of the small center circle, repeat making a dotted line of down-cuts around the edge. Turn your work over, and you should see the circle where the tip came through, repeat the straight down cuts again around the circle until you can pop out the center with the back end of your knife. / Attach motor and hanger using the diagram. You may need small pliers to tighten the clock stem nut, but gently. Make sure the hands are pointing straight up when attaching them, use the minute hand to line up that shaft before carefully pressing on the hour hand, attach minute hand with it’s tiny nut, gently. If you bought a second hand, carefully press it onto the smallest center shaft. Add the AA battery, set the time, and hang it up! / / / CONTINUED IN LET’S MAKE A CLOCK – PART 2
For the last couple of months I’ve been focused on a project very close to my heart. Can you guess? Yes, yes, it was publishing my first …
For the last couple of months I’ve been focused on a project very close to my heart. Can you guess? Yes, yes, it was publishing my first book, Haunting Emma. Sunday 29 March was the day for me to officially release my story to the world and I chose to do this at the local Blacksmith Forge Book Barn (a bookshop seemed to be a logical place). / / At first I thought I wouldn’t be able to share this special event with many bubblers because coincidentally I had chosen the same weekend as the Melbourne Writers Retreat. So imagine my surprise if you will when they decided to move from east to west and hold their retreat in Bacchus Marsh! / / Invitations were also mailed out to friends, family and local people I have come to know quite well. And an article in the local paper in the lead up also pimped the event, plus some strategic facebooking (well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it). / / The weekend came at me like Monty Python’s Sir Lancelot – it seemed like such a long way away for ages, then in a flash it was here slashing and cutting! At about 11am on Saturday morning I got a phone call from Bellmusker, asking if it was walking distance from the station to the Bacchus Hill Winery where we’d arranged to meet and have lunch. (Only if you’d packed a lunch and camping provisions, I thought) and promptly ran out to the crud mobile, removed a couple of bags of debris, crumbs and the booster seat, so I could give them a lift. There, I caught up with my friends Bell and LisaG, met Holly and James for the first time, and a hey do ho to Lucky Vege, Michael, and Jo O’B. Two car loads then headed off to the winery, where, awaiting us were Adgray (my house guest for the weekend), Amanda Witt, the enigmatic Fleece, and PJ Ryan. / At lunch, awaiting our yummy woodfire pizzas etc are (CAPTION: START WITH JO and working counter clockwise …) Jo O’Brien and James, looking down towards Adgray, then up to Holly, Lucky and Michael, PJ pointing to that facial feature which she says remains fingerless, then below PJ again deep in conversation with LisaG, back up to LisaG again, over to Bell and David Wenha… no no no, Fleece, then down to Amanda who was with me on the “what tha” scale … and I’m the one whose Eye View you are borrowing. Oh yeah, and that’s the delectable Autumn pizza I stole from Jo and James. Sorry about that guys. The afternoon was warm with gentle breezes, the view nice, the wine flowed, and the company convivial. I left early to rescue my mum from babysitting my daughter and vowed to catch up again at dinner. In the meantime, Addy dropped Amanda off at her motel, then zipped around to settle at lodgings in the half-star motel at Darley (i.e. my place). Dinner was at the Royal (well, it’s not called that any more but I’m a local and can’t remember the name they replaced the 100 year old title with). Bernadette joined us for dinner; a lovely lady! Rather nice meal, and I’m still awaiting Michael’s (or was it James’) photos of the interesting light fittings. After dinner, reconvening at the bubblers’ B&B we settled for a few interesting rounds of a ‘word game’ then a rather violent game of pictionary. A relatively early night was called on account of the late night some had on Friday!!!!! :o) SUNDAY / It really is never too far away! / It was a diasporic Sunday morning by most accounts. Then we all met at 70 Stamford Hill, on the veranda, for some workshoppish writing games. Next thing I know it’s 3.45 and I’m supposed to be blowing up balloons and organising babysitters. I have to say that once the fugue well and truly hit me, everyone rallied to get everything done. It was quite weird and surreal and wonderful. At the appointed hour (or half hour) the Forge Bookshop filled with people. There were about 50 in all and at this point I wondered if perhaps I should have written a speech. Then I thought, I wonder if I should have asked someone to MC. Then I thought, I wonder if anyone will notice me sneaking off out the back door. However, my friend Marjorie Goodchild (a goodhearted person with an apt name), stood to the fore and introduced me to the crowd. As much as I tried, my lips were numb and it was difficult to project my voice, however some (I’ve heard) use this as a tactic to make people listen and even down the back they heard every third word, so that was good. I know I forgot thank yous!!! I know this and if you feel I should have thanked you, I am truly sorry. While the words may not have been said, they are in my heart. I explained to the crowd that this really is a life-long dream for me; seeing my name on the spine of a book is one of the three great things I have aspired to in my life and there it was … such a strange feeling to reach that summit. I also told everyone, as much for the benefit of locals as it was for bubblers, that it was all made possible because of Redbubble on a number of levels; for helping me to get back in touch with the thing I MUST do, write fiction! Without writing fiction, I feel rather like a shadow. Without my fiction being read, the real me shimmers for awhile and is in danger of reverting to that shadow. On another level, I was in the right place at the right time when Redbubble said they want to test fiction books as a product!!!! This, to me, was like winning Tattslotto. For me to be in the right place at the right time was like watching those six little balls come out baring my numbers!!!!! And so I gave RB and Peter Styles my heartfelt thanks for helping my dream become this reality. While the launch itself was a huge highlight in my life, I have to say an enormous part of the success of the afternoon must go to Soxy Fleming. Sox came up for the launch and performed excerpts from Chapter 2. Sox, everyone loved your performance. At best I had hoped that someone would do a reading for me. And your delivery was way up and beyond my expectations. There is something so strange about hearing someone do this with your own work; it seems to help you distance yourself from it and hear it for the very first time. Thank you Soxy and Fleur for sharing my day in such a valued way. Okay, the question on everybody’s lips. How many books have I sold so far. Well, at the launch, 30 were duly purchased and signed by the author and since then, a further 10. It’s not a huge number (hey, it’s not Harry Potter, but perhaps … no, well … you just never know). I’m am really happy with that number since Emma has only been available for a few days. Already I have received lovely messages from people saying they could not put it down (music to my ears) and asking when the next one will be coming out (oh boyo … better get cracking, only done three chapters so far). Again everyone, thank you for your huge support. To everyone who commented on Emma during her formative serialisation on Redbubble in 2007, thank you. To everyone who has hassled, nagged and berated me when the pace fell off … thank you. And to those of you who showed great belief in both me and in my story telling, pushing me to show a little courage and to take this step, THANK YOU. Now, about the sequel, well …. sorry, no photos of the actual launch as I was otherwise engaged. I’m hoping some may emerge at some stage
First, from me . . . Some de-mystification: / .. / There are three basic physical controls on a camera, digital or otherwise: / 1.) Focu…
First, from me . . . Some de-mystification: / .. / There are three basic physical controls on a camera, digital or otherwise: / 1.) Focus / 2.) Aperture / 3.) Shutter speed. / .. / Of the three, Aperture and Shutter speed control exposure. Aperture also controls how deep the area is that will be in focus (depth of field) and Shutter Speed also controls how motion of the subject (and camera) is recorded. All the modes on a camera, Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual, Auto, etc. are just different ways of controlling Aperture and Shutter Speed. There are different modes for controlling focus too. / .. / Definitions: (from Camerapedia ) / 1.) Focus: to focus means to adjust a lens or its optical elements for achieving a sharp image of subjects in a certain distance from the camera / 2.) Aperture: An opening in a lens that controls the amount of light passing through it. (added by me – the aperture is variable in size and also controls depth of field / 3.) Shutter speed: The amount of time the shutter remains open. (from me: it controls not only exposure, but how motion is captured, i.e. blurred or frozen) / 4.) Depth of Field: The range of distances (from near to far) within which a scene will be considered to be “in focus” (several factors influence/control depth of field: aperture size, distance from subject, point of focus, focal length of lens) .. / Now, there are other aspects such as how sharp or how big an image can be made with a camera, or how much light is needed to make an image, or how colour will be represented. In film cameras we determine these with film format (such as 35mm, 6×6cm, 6×7cm, etc.), film type, colour balance, & speed (iso), colour temperature of the light source, and filter choices. In digital, colour temperature of the light source, white balance, sensitivity (iso), sensor size (you chose one when you bought your camera), color space, RAW vs. .jpeg, vs, .TIFF, etc. and other factors make these determinations. I’m trying to keep this brief, and I know it’s over-simplified. So, now some reading . . . / .. / I haven’t reviewed these word for word. They look good. / .. / How to use basic camera controls / Cambridge in Color’s Tutorials / Geoff Lawrence’s Free Photography Tutorials / Digital Photography School / Photoflex Lighting School (more of an advanced tutorial, and it’s aimed at selling their products, but I like it because it’s good!) / Tutorial9 (don’t know about this one, it looks interesting) / Short Courses – Using Your Camera (looks pretty basic) / About Com – Photography Basics (always a lot of info at about.com on just ‘about’ anything / Beginning Digital Photography (about SLR’s but applicable beyond that / Mark Raymond Mason’s Tutorials .. / Some other sites where you can post your work for review: / .. / Photo.net / Photocritiq / UseFilm / Betterphoto (now a paid site,but a first class one) / .. / Blogger (make your own photoblog, go solo, or allow co-authors to post with you) / .. / Some online photo-magazines I like: / .. / Shutterbug / Megapixel (English and French) / DPreview (included real-life photo samples from various cameras, many nice shots of London) / Steves Digicams / .. / Also see Sharon Mau’s Journal for a bunch more great links. (See comments below.) / .. / Learn why the smallest aperture doesn’t necessarily produce the sharpest image, here ’s true! Basic science! / ..
/ There are a lot of…
/ There are a lot of things regarding this image that remain as a complete mystery to me up to this day. / First weird thing was the choice of the main figure. All of sudden one day I decided to create a 3D rendered image by recreating Mata Hari, the Dutch-Frisian exotic dancer and courtesan who was executed by firing squad for espionage during World War I. Why I choose Mata Hari? Mmmm…Heaven knows! / And this was the image of her that I intented to recreate. / So I opened my cinema 4D software, imported Victoria 4 (the basic female Poser figure) into it by using the InterPoser plugin; then I positioned her in a similar pose to that of Mata Hari, and from that point on I started the hard task to create/build rest of elements such as cloths, hairdo and accessories. Considering that I just wanted to recreate the original image, and not to make an exact copy of it, I decided to take some liberties regarding most of these elements. / This was the first result. The original idea was that of obtaining an alpha image so that it´d be relatively easy to create a convenient background for it. / I exported it into Photoshop and started experimenting with several background options, mainly outdoors photographs from old buildings. Then I realized that there was a problem with the camera angle; none of the available background options matched with the original camera angle; so, to make things short, have to say that none of them finally worked out . / So I had to went back to cinema 4D in order to create a background for the main image. I tried with different options with no acceptable results till I recall I had this portentous Temple Of Megaera, a DAZ 3D product I had bought some time ago. This time I made a full render _ main figure plus the Temple_ avoiding hard shadows. I still don´t know why I took this decision; cause I use to work with well defined shadows, mostly the hard ones. / Then, I went back to Photoshop again. I resized the canvas in order to concentrate the view on the main character. I knew I had to give up the idea of using a full color image and that it´d be necessary to desaturate it in order to give it a vintage look; but how? / Well, those were the days when I first met Redbubble, and I was deeply impressed by artists such as Martin Muir and Headcrime, also WanderingSoulArt _ navybrat came later to me, or it was viceversa?_ just to mention a few of those ones who can achieve highly impressive artistic results by texturing and blending layers, that´s to say, the compositing techniques. So I ask myself: why not trying to do something similar with this image? / So I search the web for some free textures. I found very interesting sites, image*after, for instance, which is a large online free photo collection. I downloaded one of their free texture images _ sorry, don´t remember which one_ and blended it with the original render by using the overlay mode. ( I had previously desaturated the original image). / And this was the resulting image. / / Have to confess that I never thought of having these results. All I wanted was to create an image with a vintage feel. It was more of “let´s see what I can do with this”, just a simple try, I mean. / Now, one of the main mysteries for me resides on the wide acceptance that this image has had among viewers: 67 comments, 51 favoritings and 2380 views. / But what impresses me the most are comments such as “…it reminds me of an old horror ghost film”, “a little scary”, “haunting”, “very eerie and mysterious”, “the creepy subject, textures and fantastic background…”. / Needless to say I´m more than honoured by these and other comments viewers have made for this image. But now you can see that I was miles away from trying to create a haunting, or creepy, or even a ghostly looking of it. Honest. / I´m very proud of VIntage Study No. 1 and it´s been my pleasure to share this image, as well as the process of creating it with all of you. Thanks a lot for your kind support. / .
The journey that I have taken on the bubble has been one of illumination, inspiration, and empowerment. I have traveled inside the minds …
The journey that I have taken on the bubble has been one of illumination, inspiration, and empowerment. I have traveled inside the minds of others, zoomed in on otherwise unnoticeable things in ways that make them spectacular, seen places in this world I have never been to, and even trekked to other galaxies. Every time I visit I am taken to other-worlds that wrap themselves around my heart. Since I am in a nostalgic mood, I thought I would begin this walk down the rainbow-hued paths of the Bubble by remembering some of the first art and artists that I came across. You may have seen some or all of them yourself, but they are all magnificent works in their own right, and deserve to be revisited from time to time. So please, relax, and put on your best walking shoes. The very first piece of work I ever marked as a favorite is by a wonderfully talented artist Al Neaimi . His whole portfolio blew my mind; it is full of complex designs, patterns, and textures, coupled with a depth of understanding on humanity. The first piece that I favorited is still my favorite of his works. The piece, along with his writing about the image, stirred so many emotions inside of me – this is my favorite part of his message: “Throughout your WONDERFUL Journey of ENLIGHTENMENT remember to pause and refresh, and look around: you will be Splendidly impressed with what you see.” . Another one of my first favorite images quickly led to one of my favorite painters. Her work is so lifelike I keep waiting to see their breath. Many of you may recognize her by her signature butterflies she beautifully implants on each picture. Alice McMahon White and this is the image I was enamored with. This painting portrays Marilyn in such a beautiful way, she looks so woman and raw, like we are seeing her as she wakes up from a wonderful dream rather than the pinup version she pretended to be. “Land of the Elves” is a fitting title for a look into a world frosted over with perfect white-blue snow straight from heaven. / MarianaEwa took the photograph many wait a lifetime to take. . “Amongst the Fog” is an image that reminded me of the beauty in imperfection. It is a stunning photograph of some lone red flowers, somewhat imperfect, yet beautiful in their own right. The artist, Julie Thomas, has a great portfolio. . F. Magdalene Austin is another magnificent painter on the Bubble. My favorite work of hers, and let me say it is SO hard to narrow it down, is called “Eyes Like a River”. This image of a woman’s tears speaks volumes to my soul. It made me feel like she was crying for all of sisterhood. While she is soaking in sadness, I somehow feel uplifted when I see her face. . Another instant favorite for me was by digital artist Dylan Murphy. His specialty is self-portraits and each piece is evocative and thought-provoking. I could stare at each one for silent eternities. The first one I came across, however, is “Let it Out”. Funny how we tend to come across things as we need them. When I found this piece it was at a time when I had been suppressing and bottling up a lifetime of emotions – it was the perfect antidote for me. In fact, I never told Dylan, but it inspired one of the first poems I had written in years, called Fear of Expression. ntherapy took me to a place of nostalgia and dreams with “my mothers house”. This is a perfect example of how a photograph of something so normal, so simple, can bring a rush of feeling from the tips of our toes, up our spinal cord, and into our minds where it will reside for an eternity. Just one glance at this photo and I feel a light Ozark breeze and smell my mothers homemade pecan pie, coffee brewing, and hear the songs she used to sing when I was a child – the same ones she sings to my own children now. . Paris is a city after many artists heart. I have been lucky enough to see this magnificent city, but no stay is ever long enough. Leia managed to conjure up some magical orange pixie dust and transform the usual Eiffel Tower photo into something from another planet. This is my all-time favorite photo of this awe-inspiring landmark. Susan Duffey has a wonderful bubble page full of paintings of trees and flowers and nature. I really love her work. One of my favorite pieces of hers is from a series on trees of the seasons. “Winter Trees” is both icey and inviting at the same time. The hues of blue that she used, the shapes of the trees, and the ‘ice’ affects she used are superb. It makes me reach for a cup of hot cocoa every time. Here is the very first piece of writing that I put on my favorites list. It’s by a beautifully talented writer Rebekah Anderson and it’s called I Breathe. Again, so appropriate for the kind of message that I needed to hear at the time I read it. It’s a beautiful reminder to appreciate life – every breath we take is significant. Please click the link and read this profound piece of work. You’ll be glad you did, as was I. The other piece of writing I wish to share is from the most talented and RedBubble staple PJ Ryan. It’s called Spider Legs and so captivated me I read it over and over again. Here is a tidbit: You have crawled inside of me at night through the doorway of dreams and you hang around for longer than you know you should and we kiss and talk and roll around in yesterdays and tomorrows. Hint – you’ll wish for a toothpick afterwards. That’s it for now fellow dreamers. I’d love to hear your feedback on whether you think this bit was worth the read. Please be patient with me as I get through some of the older works before I start sharing new material and new artists. I really want to give credit to those that have affected me through this voyage my soul has taken. Much thanks and love, / Patty Jo
Welcome to my insane attempt at an Art Tutori…
Welcome to my insane attempt at an Art Tutorial, (cos I was nagged to do one – god knows why). / / OK I’m going to sketch a face, I’ll be scanning every little stage of progression right up to the finished result, try and follow the same steps as I do. Try not to go to far ahead otherwise you’ll be giving yourselves arm aches from rubbing out! / / Materials: / One piece of A4 Zerox paper or / Photo Quality Inkjet paper / (or if you really rich and recently been paid an A4 piece of cartridge paper!) / A ruler (no not HRH Queen Elizabeth II) / Lead Pencils B, 2B, 4B, 5B, 9B, 5H, 10H, F / Eraser (better still a kneadable putty rubber if you can get your hands on one) / Cup of tea (Earl Grey, white with one sugar – make sure it stands for two minutes in the teapot first) / / BASIC OUTLINE GRID / I always start off with a Basic Outline Grid; reason being is that it keeps me consistent (plus it great for plotting the head onto the paper). First off using the 5B, I draw a vertical centre line down the entire length with the ruler (just hard enough so you can see it (you’ll be rubbing it out later). Now about 2” from the top draw a horizontal line, 3.5” from that draw a second horizontal line and 3.5” down from that draw a third horizontal line. These three horizontals will define the top of the skull, eye line and jaw line. Then I draw two wee circles 5/16” width (or No.9 on an old green plastic Linex circle template – I kept from my schooldays). These two circles are approximately 3’4” from the centre line (that’s from each edge of the circle to the centre line. Then add a couple of horizontal lines for the nose and mouth, don’t worry about accuracy at this stage, simple lines will suffice. Now if you’ve followed me you should have a weird looking thing like this OK? / / BASIC OUTLINE (Skull top) / I now divide the widths of the eyes with slight marks, I use Plato’s golden rule (width of head is five eyes widths). I then draw two vertical lines to gauge the width of my head (not too long only a couple of inches). Now I need to define the top of the skull, starting from the top left left (as I’m right handed – reverse to top right if your left handed) I draw a rough quarter circle from the centre vertical to the second horizontal (notice that the quarter circle intersects the width of head line coming in slightly. Repeat for the other side and you should have drawn this: / / BASIC OUTLINE (Jaw line) / I now need to add the jaw line. This is dead easy, just pick up either of the vertical width of head lines and draw a longer sweeping arc to the base horizontal line and repeat for the other side. Try not to make your jaw line too pointed or too flat (we can alter this later when doing portraits, member stick to simple (bit like me really). OK you still keeping up with me? / / / / BASIC OUTLINE (Eyes, nose and mouth) / Now I need to define the Eyes, nose and mouth a little. First I start with the eyes, I draw two arcs just below the tops of the eyes and thru each eye and then beyond the centre horizontal (this is where lots of folks lose the eye shape so be careful – TRY NOT TO DRAW EGYPTIAN EYES). Now I draw a very simple (there’s that word again) nose nothing exciting, I’m still plotting it all out OK) For the mouth I use three lines, top of the lip (the fulcrum?) I draw a bird in flight (remember when you did that at school, easiest way to draw birds!). The middle of the lips is an inverted bowl or cup line and finished with a squiggle for the width of the bottom lip. Then mark the width of the mouth on the with two marks approximately in line with the centre of the eyes. I’ve seen people spend eons trying to draw the lips trying to get them accurate, don’t bother, at this stage keep it simple (there’s that “S” word again). Finally I define the height of the ears with two small horizontals. Tops of ears just above the eyes (some would say in line with brows, that’s fine except I don’t draw the brows yet), the base of the ears approximately in line with the base nose line. Wow it’s starting to look like something better than a rag doll now, yippee! / / BASIC OUTLINE (Ears) / This is what stumps loads of folks, they either cover them up or try and show as little as possible. Ears are wonderful, why without ears we couldn’t wear glasses or fancy hats!. I’m going to show you how to draw generic ears (generic means simple – they aren’t perfect but they look OK). First off I draw two small mountains (Alps, Andes whatever – just don’t draw those flat top pillars what you see in the wild west), one bigger than the other (biggest is the top of ear, smaller is the first fold ring of your ear). At the base ear horizontal mark, I draw a ladle or cup shape and join this ladle/cup shape to the big mountain (bet you never thought you’d be going hiking this early in the day, did you!). Now from the smaller mountains draw a squiggly path coming down from near the top (squiggly the inner edge of the path whilst leaving the outer edge relative curved. / / This is looking so good now; you deserve a pat on the back if you’ve reached this stage. Now sit back and have a sip of your tea and admire your fine handiwork. Do not tamper with it; FRED put that pencil down NOW! Do not rub out either, cos I want to see your efforts OK. One last thing I do not allow smudging OK, in my class we cross hatch and shade only. BASIC OUTLINE (Tidy up) / As you can see I have erased the construction grid (no longer needed) and have strengthened the general outline, including defining the eyes, upper lids, brows (still rough), nose left as is and tidied up the mouth, I also redrew the right ear as I felt it was thinner than the left one. This is still a very simple face; it has no sexuality yet (WILLIAM stop sniggering or you’ll be asked to leave the classroom!). At this stage any changes are easily made, any adjustments are quickly redrawn without upsetting the sketch to much, in reality we haven’t started any in-depth shading, only drafting up the outline. / / / / BASIC OUTLINE (Adding Hair) / Hair is always the last feature I tend to draft out, as you can get trapped in getting the hair done first, and then finding it is either too long or too short for the face, this way you can easily judge the thickness of the hair as the top of the head is still visible, and it is so much easier to decide where the hairline rests on the forehead. Today, I’ve decided to stay with a short slightly wavy style (we’ll attempt more styles as you progress I promise). / / BASIC OUTLINE (Tidy up hair) / Once your hair is happily seated were you want it, only then do I remove the top of head line, as it is now surplus to requirements. This small step really does make the difference between a good proportionate hair style and those hairstyles you sometimes sketch which are physically impossible, i.e., the top of the hair is below the top head line, (I can only recall one instance where this is permissible, it was in the film Hannibal starring Anthony Hopkins where he cut off the top of the victims head and made him eat his own brains, so you see, not too nice). / / BASIC OUTLINE (Alternative Hair) / Here are a few examples of alternative hairstyles on this same simple face. As you can see it really is easy to sketch whatever hairstyle you wish upon this generic face. / / / / BASIC OUTLINE (Alternative face shapes) / Here are a few examples of alternative face shapes, again using the same generic face we have drawn, only in these instances we have either re-drawn beyond the generic shape to produce a fatter face or drawn within the generic shape to create a thinner older face (not too much, remember there is a skull inside that face – you cannot easily cut into that!) / The beauty of this technique, which I used on a daily basis, is that it really does help me achieve consistency in my drawing skills, even when I’m in a hurry, trying to meet deadlines or even when I’m not really in the mood to sketch! Another reason I developed this technique was that it assists in me in quickly drafting out whatever face I wish to draw, with the minimum of effort. I really do find that if you need to draw faces in the full front pose, this is the only tried and tested technique I’ve come up with, well anyway it works for me. Next lesson we will begin in earnest on forming up and shading the features, so thanks for coming in today and remember after each class I expect you all to keep up with me through you home study assignments before turning up for the next lesson. Those students who wish and are able may email their home study assignments direct to me via my email address at szymczuk@btinternet.com but please ensure that your files is NO LARGER than 100KB please. Class dismissed. QUIET PLEASE-EE as you leave, try not to disturb Mr Tompkins and his Druid Poetry reading class next door thank you! Drawing a face Tutorial – Part 2 / Drawing a face Tutorial – Part 3 / Drawing a face Tutorial – Part 4 / Drawing a face Tutorial – 5
Due to C.I.A. agents dropping a satellite on my shed I can now bring you Pen Tool [p] and Fignütts Tutorials 1 and 2 !! Click on Pic t…
Due to C.I.A. agents dropping a satellite on my shed I can now bring you Pen Tool [p] and Fignütts Tutorials 1 and 2 !! Click on Pic to be going there! (with your mouse pointer even!)
Many thanks to the anonymous buyers of 3xMatted Print of “Sailors Warning -Sydney – Moods Of A City – The HDR Experience...
Many thanks to the anonymous buyers of 3xMatted Print of “Sailors Warning -Sydney – Moods Of A City – The HDR Experience: 2x Mounted Print of Secret Beach – Moods Of A City – The HDR Experience: —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-— / 1x Calendar of NORTH OF THE BRIDGE – PHILIP JOHNSON HDR PHOTOGRAPHY 2010: 1x Calendar of ICON-PHILIP JOHNSON HDR PHOTOGRAPHY 2010: 1x Calendar of REFLECTIONS OF DAY FINE ART CALENDAR 2010 – PHILIP JOHNSON PHOTOGRAPHY: 1x Calendar of HILL END CALENDAR 2010-PHILIP JOHNSON PHOTOGRAPHY: 1x Matted Print of Right Place RightTime: 1x Laminated Print of Hello Breakfast ! – National Zoo Canberra , Australia:
RedBubble is a great place to find art, design, photos and writing from over 80,000 talented people.
On stunning greeting cards, awesome t-shirts or beautiful prints to hang on your walls.
It’s really simple. If you’re not happy with your purchase for any reason, we’ll fix it.
Since February 2007 we’ve shipped over 333,600 items to more than 70 countries around the world.
Sign up for your free account, upload your work, join some groups and share your creative genius with the world.