I always love finding blogs of my favorite artists sharing their creative process. Whether it’s on Flickr or on a Forum. It’s just nice t…
I always love finding blogs of my favorite artists sharing their creative process. Whether it’s on Flickr or on a Forum. It’s just nice to know they’re not so full of themselves that they are willing to give us the inside story of how they do their work. Unfortunately I can’t share the images of my work in this post but I will do my best to tell the story of how I create my work. 1. Begin with the ending in mind. / First, I get the idea. It’s usually spurred on by a photo or maybe an artist. Even subject matter. I read something the other day from another artist, he said: “Always have an idea, a story that you want to capture before you put pencil to paper.” This is what I try to do. The sketches that end up being full finished pieces are usually the ones with an idea or story behind them, no matter how small. / So that’s exactly what I do. Visualize what I want to see in my end product. Close my eyes and think and focus on the intension of the piece. Sometimes this takes some research for reference to find out what something looks like exactly. But if you’re doing something that you know there is no reference for it, just let your mind go with the flow. 2. Thumbnails: 90% Planning 10% Execution. / I almost always do thumbnails. 9 out of 10 times I do this. Especially with an idea that is complex and will be time consuming. I will do maybe 2 or 3 thumbnails of an idea. Usually to plan out composition. I try to apply the “Golden Ratio” where ever I can. With all my stuff there is usually a character or characters featured in the artwork. So I plan out where I want them. Review it over a few days. Then decide whether it’s worth completing. If I’ve done the process correctly up to this point then I go to step 3. My tip for composition: Learn the Golden Ratio and know what colors work together. Symmetry is overrated. 3. Scanning and Correcting. / I scan in my thumbnail which is usually about a greeting card size. Blow it up in photoshop to print it out at A3 size. If there is anything that I want changed that will help me when drawing the finished version, I will change it in the drawing with my Wacom Tablet. I can also quickly check if the colors I had in mind work or not. Contrast is very important when considering the how effective your Composition will end up being. The image at A3 gets printed out as two A4’s. I stick them together and get out my custom light table to sketch out the proportions on a clean piece of A3 paper. Tip: Remove what is not necessary. A great Zen practice. 4. Detail and Drawing. / This is definitely one of the fun parts of creating my artwork. Sometimes I add more objects or take away objects. I pretty much fill in all the detail I want to be featured in the final piece that will be colored up in Photoshop. I use a 0.5 Tech Pencil for everything I pencil. My tip for penciling: Make every line count, put intension behind every single line 5. Inking. / This is time consuming, but again very fun. I sometimes don’t use any ink, like in my “Fairytale Christmas” piece. But I decide at this point whether the line work needs ink or not. If the pencil lines are not good enough then I will ink. I use fibre tip ink markers of various sizes. But I generally try to keep all my line widths/weights the same. This is part of how I see anime drawn, so this is what I emulate. It’s appealing and neat to my eyes. My best tip for inking would be: Don’t press down hard. Glide. 6. Scanning Again. / Yes. Again scanning. I have to scan in two parts as I have an A4 scanner. This is tricky to keep each side of the page inline with eachother. Once in photoshop I try my best to line up the two parts of the page and finally I’m left with an A3 image. I lift up the levels of the image to darken the inked lines and to lower the grey scale. I’m then left with cleaning up an ink smudges or finger prints that might have not been rubbed out when I finished inking. My tip for scanning big pages on an A4 scanner: Use masking tape. 7. The Coloring In. / I love coloring. I use a A5 Wacom Tablet to color my linework in photoshop. / I set my brush to a solid line with pressure sensitivity on. So my lines go from thick to thin depending on how hard I press down. Not much to say here, except that I try to keep things simple. I use two tone coloring first and if I really feel like doing more I’ll add a third tone. Thats on the shadowing side. I then concentrate on any back light or highlighting tones, if needed. It usually helps depending on the scene. Again my coloring style emulates anime coloring. What I do sometimes is if theres a character I want to stand out more than others is to use gradients over various areas. It’s subtle but effective and not overwelming. In “Spirits & Demons” I went with a simple color tone bing pink of all colors. I’ve never done an Illustration that used a lot of pink. The reason I did this was to create a feeling of emptiness, slow motion down. It was an image with lots of things going on so I wanted to contrast that with simple use of color by making the image predominantly pink tones. The image also has a white background which is ultimate contrast. Again if I added a background of lets say, Clouds. It would just make the image far too busy. But if I made those clouds lower in coloration than the subject matter that would probably been okay. My tip for coloring: Choose your colors carefully. I do one more thing in all my images. Once everything is flattened into one Layer. I saturate the colors. Then I use Color Balance to add more Red or Blue to the image. It gives it a more unified tone. It’s all about tones. Hope you enjoyed this and that it helps you in some way.
Good morning to all beautiful bubblers!! / Yesterday I had an interesting Bubblemail from one of our bubble favorites Danny...
Good morning to all beautiful bubblers!! / Yesterday I had an interesting Bubblemail from one of our bubble favorites Danny / who kindly made me aware of an issue perhaps best described by the term popularity. / Now before you go thinking the worst, the mail was very jovial and replied to in kind but it sparked a little thought process which is always a good thing!! / So, I would like to give back a little to the Red Bubble community by adding a link to a different member on each of my works. / Please see the picture below to see what this will look like. / Now, if you have any objections to this or don’t like the image I’ve put your link on please do not hesitate to mail me and let me know. / ...and please do not be disheartened if your link is not on an image, I’ll get around to it eventually. I’m only guessing but it appears that there is over 10,000 members here at Red Bubble so I’ve only got to upload 9,700 more works to fit you all in!! LOL! / Peace, happiness and love to all! /
Somone asked how i make the vids, i explained it to them and they said i should tell everyone. OK the process is thus; you get your…
Somone asked how i make the vids, i explained it to them and they said i should tell everyone. OK the process is thus; you get your photos approved by me. / I go to your photos webpage and take a screenshot. / i paste it and crop it in paintshop. / i then save the name as your title and name. (eel by muscularteeth for example) / i then get into my video editing software and locate the file / i add that file to the video stream, and then edit the picture- to move, or have the tv effect, or invert it or whatever… / i also select where the picture will be; centered, to the left etc… when you see the film jig around really fast, thats me going down to each milisecond and moving the picture to a differnt spot on the screen. / then i add a title with your name and the title of the photo. / then i go back to the redbubble site, grab another photo. / and the process continues. oh the music is mine too but i wont go into how i make that – thats an entirely different process.
Hi Bubblers, / Thanks to all the people that have taken the time to view and comment on my work to date not to mention the kind BubbleMail…
Hi Bubblers, / Thanks to all the people that have taken the time to view and comment on my work to date not to mention the kind BubbleMails I get from a few of you, it’s really appreciated. / I thought I might submit a short tutorial or guide or whatever you want to call it regarding my last few uploads in the RB galleries, in particular a few of my last ones as I’ve been getting a lot of feedback requesting or asking for tips. First of all, my basic tools consist of PSCS3 (as of last week), Lightroom, CaptureOne and Photomatix. / For that edgey look, I mostly use Lightroom, but since CS3 came along I’ve been able to produce it via Camera Raw. / The settings for Lightroom are as follows. / 1. In the develop Module I make a virtual copy first and work on that instead of the orig. / 2. This next bit always starts off looking ugly so just hang in there with me. / Drag the following sliders to 100% / Recovery, Fill Light, Contrast, Clarity and Vibrance. / 3. Drag Blacks to somewhere between 20 and 40 for now. / 4. Turn down the Saturation, it’s probably screeming like hell about now. / 5. Set Luminance and Colour to the max. / Thats the basis for a lot of the treatments with variations and adjustments made to suit each image as required, they are never all the same but at least this is a starting point, I’ve made this into a Lightroom Preset so I have it when I want it, then tweek each picture from there on. That was for a Jpeg or RAW in Lightroom, for PSCS3 it’s virtually exactly the same if your using a RAW file, the controls are nearly identical except if your starting from a Jpeg, then it gets more time consuming, time isn’t something I have a lot of lately so I tend to go for the “under 30 minute” proceedures, I’m 50 next year and don’t want to spend all my time in front of the computer….......that time is reserved for getting out and about with my camera and trying to make a quid here and there. I digress, / Photomatix, my favorite piece of software to date bar none. Quite aversatile bit of gear in my book. I like to use it when converting single RAW files from LDR to HDR, then opening them up in PS to finish off. Another bit of kit I like to use is LucisArt, it makes very edgey pictures in a snap also. I have the PS plugin version, not the pro one, it’s like 600 bucks….ouch! All this pulling and pushing of colours, lights and shadows can and likely will cause a heck of amount of noise in your finished work, so thats where a good noise filter comes in, one that has some bells and whistles for adjustment…......none of that ‘one size fits all’ canned crap. I want control baby, all the way. Most are really good these days though and can be purchased for under 100 bucks. So there you go, I hope I answered some questions some of you might of had. / Happy New Year Pete
/ / / image title – the inner sanctum Manic Reflections . . . One day i awakened to a simply sweet, “I heart you!” message on my bathroom mirror. Days later, a bi-polar/manic/sleep-deprived version of me impulsively grabbed my camera, tripod, trusty remote and started striking poses in my mirror. Wishing to immortalize the i heart you message, in some way, before zapping it with Mr. Windex! So . . . i crouched up on my counter, gradually getting closer and closer to the mirror. It was wonderfully strange, surreal and comical – as i carefully attempted to seat myself in the bathroom sink . . . while the rest of me perched perilously on the bathroom counter. Purging my manic energy, creatively, provided me with a sense of relief and surrender. After this series was photographed, i went on to photograph two more, in my studio. It was after the photographing of the three, separate series – that i was finally able to slip toward slumber. So what follows are manic reflections . . . partake and enjoy :) / image title – another version of me / image title – the sensual realm / image title – the chameleon / image title – the mirror speaks / image title – fragile / image title – the confrontation / image title – inward bound Bi-polarities . . . Around 18 it started to sink in that something not-quite-right was going on in my frantic mind. As I was always struggling to pay attention in school . . . i also became aware that i would get these incredible highs, feeling euphoric, invincible, on top of the world – no matter what my actual reality was . . . everything was grandiose! These manic episodes usually lasted about 2 weeks, followed by the worst lows which often lasted months. In a depressive state everything was life and death, everyday problems became overwhelming, i just wanted to crawl into a quiet, dark corner and simply cease to exist. Then there were those inbetween states where i guess i would be what was considered “normal” though to me these inbetween states felt like emotional flat-lining, i felt kind of numb – being so used to the extreme emotions i felt most of the time. When i was younger, my manic episodes were amazing, accompanied by feelings of invincibility, euphoria and pseudo-bliss. I would feel on top of the world! Now, these manic episodes are more dark and frenetic in nature. And i find myself craving the sleep these manic episodes deprive me of. It’s hard to stay on schedule/task when i go day, after day – without sleep. I don’t have more energy when i am manic, i am just more hyper and restless, unable to slow down – which creates the illusion of high energy . . . inside my body and mind are crying out for sleep. It would take another 12 years before i learned how to manage these intense moodswings, learned to go with the flow and how to keep my head above water – no matter what my mood. There were years of self-destructive coping methods and soul numbing medications. Eventually i decided to approach my bi-polarity from a spiritual/holistic perspective. I decided to go vegan and stopped consuming foods loaded with additives/preservatives. I learned about behavioral management, structure, meditation/yoga, prayer, daily spiritual renewal and daily exercise. Putting all of these things into practice, over time . . . allowed me to utilize my moods creatively AND constructively. beingnormalisoverrated JAEDA! / /
After shooting in a very poorly lit location last Sunday, I need to do a little clean up of most of the photos I took. I’ve been looki…
After shooting in a very poorly lit location last Sunday, I need to do a little clean up of most of the photos I took. I’ve been looking at purchasing some noise reduction software. So far I’ve narrowed it down to either Noise Ninja or Neat Image . Currently I’m leaning towards Neat Image, as it is giving me results closest to what I want. But its hard to know what is possible after you get to know the software a little better. To be clear, I don’t want to completely remove all the noise, I just want to clean up ISO 800 – 1600 shots. They tend to look unnatural with out some grain / noise in the shot. So all of you out there in the Bubble, any recommendations?
I had the honor of doing a collaboration with Jo O’Brien / Please also check out her portf…
I had the honor of doing a collaboration with Jo O’Brien / Please also check out her portfolio it is amazing!! / I have also had lots of questions how I do this. / She had an image that we worked on together and I did some post processing using selective coloring. Its a technique that I would suggest everyone try or learn. Go Here / if you have not yet seen it. There are several ways to achieve this. / I use photoshop elements and find it the easiest to use for doing this. / - Trace the images that I want to leave color using the lasso tool (Can take a long / time but its worth it) / - After you have traced everything you want to leave color goto select and click inverse. / - By clicking inverse you are now on the outside of the images that you traced. / - Click on enhance and adjust color then adjust hue/saturation. / - Turn the saturation all the way off to achieve the black and white. / - Then you can go to enhance and click on adjust lighting then goto shadows and / highlights to adjust your black and with levels. / - Click on select then click deselect and you image should be finished. From there you can go in and play with the saturations to bring out more color or whatever you want to do. Its a technique that you would be surprised can save any image you take if you are creative. So if you like go check out the Image and leave a comment of what you think. / I am here if anyone has any questions I would be happy to help anyone out if I can.
I’ve had several comments from people lately asking me how I have been processing some of my newest photos…. and since my ‘reply’ butto…
I’ve had several comments from people lately asking me how I have been processing some of my newest photos…. and since my ‘reply’ button is still broken I thought I would just put it all down in a journal….so here it is. I mainly use Adobe Lightroom to process all of my work and then I tidy stuff up in Photoshop Elements 4.0 You can download a 30 day free trial of “The Lightroom” if you follow the above link – definately worth checking out if you haven’t already. It will process both RAW and JPEG files. Last week I found out that there were presets available to download so I thought I’d give them ago. There are 3 main sites I have found which are really good. / They are: INSIDE LIGHTROOM Heather Green Photography (she lists lots of links) and Pro Photography Show who also list lots of great links. Of course you still need to play with the images even after applying a preset…but that’s where the fun begins. The presets I have used the most are: 2. Vintage I COL Dragon1 COL Hamburg’s Funky Twist Dream Matt’s Lomo Effect EFF XProcess Dragon They all came from those 3 websites listed above. Hope this has been helpful. Cheers to you all / Naomi. BTW…I’ve just passed 50000 views…WooHoo…now if only I could sell something…
Fascinated by spiders, ‘Long Legs’ Luke underwent an extremely dangerous procedure to change his appearance. Now, unable to fit in to the norm – he is forced to live amongst the creatures that inspired his transformation. (Scroll down to see the process) Here is the basic process I went through to get this image – it may help some of you! PROCESS / This Shirt took many hours to complete and it started with a simple sketch - Then, once scanned into the computer, I changed the colour to a light blue and ‘traced’ over it using the Pen Tool in Photoshop. I had an effect on each layer to show only pink outlines. Then, Once it was all traced, it was time for colouring, adding and modifying any awkward areas. The shirt he is wearing is Flaming Zebra White So there you have it! It’s not a detailed process, but it may give you a basic idea of how I set up my designs. Now go check out the shirt! :) Close up
_*Aloha, mahalo nui loa to the Hosts for including and featuring this in many groups, and to all the members who have added this to your …
_Aloha, mahalo nui loa to the Hosts for including and featuring this in many groups, and to all the members who have added this to your favourites. If you favourite this, it would be so kind of you to leave me a note and let me know you are here. Today (24 August 2009) my journal has 1871 views. Today 28 September 2009 my journal has 2063 views. Check back often for additions and updates. Mahalo, thank you so much!_ Sharon Mau RedBubble Homepage Blogspot RedBubble Newsletters Chilling Effects Clearinghouse story on Derivative Works Tips for creating a Triptych in Lightroom Sell your images at Veer Marketplace ~ Stock Images Create an eye catching montage Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips Time and Date World Clock Photographers’ Voices Heard at Congressional Briefing on Copyright 10 ways to take stunning portraits Certified Professional Photographer Ashley Riddell ~ ranash1995 Excellent Photoshop Tutorials Metallic BW portrait toning Lipo’s Photo Effect Tips – Portrait Photography Retouch Digital Makeup by Christian Reppen Ship Speedpaint Waterfall Speedpaint Basic Retouch and Makeup Glamour Glow Skin Retouch Facial scrub for even, glowing skin Body Reshaping with Liquify Applying Texture Without Looking Like a Douche IceflowStudios Awesome Eyes Photoshop Tutorial “Excellent Photoshop Tutorials” was accepted into the How To RedBubble group Google AdWords Keyword Tool Google Search Based Keyword Tool# Google Search Based Keyword Tool Help – How It Works
Planting a Midnight Garden A film showing the process of painting the Midnight Garden cyc…
Planting a Midnight Garden A film showing the process of painting the Midnight Garden cycle6 series / / Planting a Midnight Garden / . / . / . / . / View Midnight Garden paintings currently on redbubble / . / . / . / . / . / also: / 2009 Midnight Garden Calendar /
I have winning socks, I also have managed to get about half of my film developed, the rest will hopefully follow this week, otherwise it’...
I have winning socks, I also have managed to get about half of my film developed, the rest will hopefully follow this week, otherwise it’s too late because I will be back in the too-expensive-to-get-anything-developed world of London. I probably won’t scan any of it for ages. So here’s a big picture of everything just because I am quite excited. To interest those that care and to scare ‘Danny The Great Photographer’s Nemesis’ into avoiding his activity monitor for a while. They vaguely record slightly blurry moments in Norway, Germany, Ireland, Egypt, England, Jordan, Australia, Hong Kong, Poland, America, Holland and Belgium.
Teach me about art … A journal challenge by Natalie Tyler...
Teach me about art … A journal challenge by Natalie Tyler / ……………………………………………………………………………….. Such a controversial line. Everyone is an artist. Some would say that this isn’t true. How can everyone be an artist? Surely what some people create isn’t art ? There was a guy on ebay painting monetary numbers on canvases. The first canvas he crudely painted a dollar sign and the number one. Then he sold it for a dollar. The next canvas he painted $2 and sold it for $2. And so on. He called his works collector items and the last I heard he was trying to buy back his first painting of $1 for over a thousand dollars. As an early numerical work, it was now apparently worth more :-) Another lady dipped her breasts in paint and smeared them on the canvas. Her grey abstract works reminded me of a muddy paint palette. You know that grey dirty colour that you get when you accidentally mix all the colours together. Yet her breast works seemed to be quite popular and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was the art or the process that was so inspirational. Is he an artist? Is she an artist? / Both made a living from art. By accident I ended up teaching art to adults with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. And this my dear reader is where the real lesson begins … There was a job going and someone said I should apply. That I’d be perfect ! / So I applied out of curiosity and a wild belief that when a door opens you should at least take a moment to look inside. So I went for a look. Never expecting to actually get the position. Me .. I was no different to numbers man or breast lady. I had no business teaching art. But there I was. Teaching art to those that some said could not be taught. I was immediately thrown into the deep end. So of course my first lesson was totally disastrous. While one student systematically tossed all of the art materials from the table and laughed at the sound of each item hitting the floor, another banged hysterically on the glass door, screaming because he wanted to get out. My heart was beating so loudly that it almost drowned out the noise in the room and I had to fight the urge to beat everyone else out the door. I thought I had made a huge mistake. These people could not be taught. These people could not be artists. Hell, I wasn’t even a real artist! How wrong I was. During my time there, the one banging on the glass had work hung and sold at exhibition. The one dropping the art materials on the floor taught me to think outside the box and inspired a serious of projects based around painting without brushes. This opened up a world of possibilities for artist with limited fine motor skills and non verbal communication. The art program grew over the next 18 months as many more came through the door. Each with their own lesson to teach me about art and the importance of the creative process. While some needed a little scaffolding to create their beautiful works, others preferred to work alone. One gentle man who would politely nod and shake my hand at the beginning and end of each session taught me about art as a tool for communication. His work, to the careless eye was nothing more than random squiggles with a brush. Often his carer, eager to get the lesson over with would grasp his hand holding the brush and dip it into the paint and slap it on to the page. Every time a carer did that, the light went out of his eyes and the joy went out of his work. This work was important to him. Those wild scribbles meant something to him. This was HIS art and he was communicating. Nobody had the right to silence his voice. Nobody had the right to hold his hand if he didn’t want them to. In my studio, regardless of abilities, we were all artists and there was tremendous pride in that. Together we held multiple successful exhibitions. One artist even held a solo exhibition of works on paper with live music and nibbles. As no one had been to an important solo exhibition before, no one knew how to behave so at first everyone just sat quietly around the edge of the room. Then I got up to dance. Someone joined me and then another and soon the whole room was dancing to different rhythms but a shared belonging.. That day I learnt that Art is alive. Art is contagious. Art is inclusive. We visited important galleries and pointed out familiar images in the works. We went on excursions to explore the joys of plein air painting. We painted with balloons instead of brushes and created self portraits from melted chocolate and easter eggs. On those days I had to take photos quickly because edible art didn’t last long. Then when the lessons ended and it was time for me to go, I realised that I had learnt far more from the lessons than I could ever have hoped to teach anyone about art. To call someone an artist is a sign of respect. To understand that everyone is an artist and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect is the greatest lesson of all. (c) Sooz 2009 Respect for privacy prevents me from mentioning artist names or providing pictures. However I can give you this glimpse into my world. This is me framing some of the works for exhibition. The large sunset canvas was painted without brushes using over 400 fingers and thumbs. The trees were blown inks and the work included both disabled and non disabled artists working together.
I understand what cross-processing is in film, but wondering if there are specific photoshop actions people use to get the effect with di…
I understand what cross-processing is in film, but wondering if there are specific photoshop actions people use to get the effect with digital images (without downloading someone else’s packaged actions)? Is there more to it than adjusting the colors curves to what suits your eye? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks!
You’ve seen them… / They’re the ones sitting there in the corner on their own, at the pub, and the cafe’, at your regular haunt. Almos…
You’ve seen them… / They’re the ones sitting there in the corner on their own, at the pub, and the cafe’, at your regular haunt. Almost always alone…thinking, watching (but not too obviously). If you sit close enough you can almost hear the cogs turning in their heads. Silent observers. They might be a writer, perhaps an artist, possibly someone who seeks out the experience without participating in one. They are the Loiterers, an unassuming yet often misunderstood breed of creatives, who can easily spend countless hours in these places. Occasionally they’ll find themselves so engrossed in a scenario that they’ll laugh out loud, but rarely would they accept an offer to join you. The Loiterers are immersing themselves in reality, not participating in it. Then, they pack up their notepads and memories, and go back to their world, perhaps to include their observations in their art, perhaps to ponder, and possibly to dream. You don’t really know the Cloisterers. / They usually only spend fleeting moments in public. Their world lies in their own sacred space, carefully crafted out of ordered chaos, or fanatical displays. Though they love to be invited, they’ll rarely play, but if you’re lucky enough to be a part of a small list of trusted people, you will have a friend for life. Shutting out the world means there is plenty of room for a new one to emerge. / A world full of complexity and creative reasoning. The Cloisterer lives in the world they have created for themselves, one that is safe enough for ideas to evolve and delicate works to be created. Their world is one full of dreams and aspirations, where the demons of the creative minds can be kept in check, and where the ebb and flow of the emotional tides can freely be navigated without justification or excuse. *Both the Cloisterer and the Loiterer dwell within each creative mind, sometimes simultaneously. * / They may at times be hidden by a layer of bravado or an extroverted or friendly personality, but they are there, underneath the surface. And sometimes a creative mind needs to sink into their shadow and explore them, though melancholic in their appearance. The Cloisterer and the Loiterer are here to stay…
UPDATE I will continue to add new tutorial links to THIS, one journal. *As I add photoshop tutorials, they will go here. That way yo…
UPDATE I will continue to add new tutorial links to THIS, one journal. As I add photoshop tutorials, they will go here. That way you can just favorite this one journal. From now on, new journals will simply let you know that this one has been updated with a new tutorial. Although, I am categorizing the series as a “how to”; it is based on a new artwork, the direction of which I have no idea what it will be. So it’s also a live journal of my process in creating THIS particular digital artwork. Many Digital Artists on Red Bubble need no guidance whatsoever. You know who you are. ;) This series does not assume anyone’s knowledge or skill level with tools of the trade. If you have just about any version of Photoshop Elements or Photoshop or even Gimp, you should be able to just get started working on an image. Tutorials run from 4-5 minutes, maximum. How to erase and blend objects. For Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or similar photo editing programs. Erasing is the most basic, and possibly the most critical skill of digital artists working with photo-manipulation. Photoshop Digital Art – How to Erase and Blend Objects Sometimes, using low resolution stock or image files for objects in large artworks is unavoidable. Here’s how to fix the ugly pixelation that would otherwise be noticeable in digital art at full size. Photoshop Digital Art – Dipixelating Low Resolution Objects How to add and blend Cat Hair without special brushes. For Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, or similar photo editing programs that include a smudge tool. Photoshop Digital Art – Add and Blend Cat Hair Help prospective buyers visualize your art in their home or office building by showing it in a virtual setting. This tutorial shows how to use licensed stock photos of interiors, and place your framed art on the wall! Novice level tutorial for Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, GIMP, or similar image editing program. Photoshop Digital Art – Showcase Your Art in a Virtual Room You will note how I have a BUNCH of objects laying around, seemingly willy nilly, on this rather large psd canvas (9000×6000 pixels). It’s untitled, and I only vaguely know where it’s going, at the moment, even three (3) tutorials into the series, so far. / Some facts: about 15 or so objects are laying around on the canvas I started out with 17, that are shown in the video. The image below is after more erasing was done and 2 objects were nixed. Guess which ones. objects are sized to approximately what they might eventually be I may or may not use any or all of these objects I will erase carefully around each, regardless if they will be used; unless I determine that I don’t like them. Once any object is perfectly cleared of its background, it will go into an “objects.psd” file; so I can use it in some other image, any time. Objects are generally placed close to where I think they may end up. I have already placed the background I have already done some work on the main figure and her mirror. The window has already been transformed (perspective) and placed about where I want it. Importantly, I have just received, before uploading this tutorial, permission that I needed from one stock provider who doesn’t allow use of her stock off of DA or in commercial-type works, without express permission. That allows me freedom to continue this series, as intended and upload to YouTube. Stock permission is critical to my work. If you watch the tutorial, you’ll note the rolling credits at the end. This tutorial focuses only on the candelabra and shows it at 200% scale the entire tutorial. There may be easier ways to do this. But I don’t take “easy” when precision is required. Plus PSE does not have all the tools of PS. ;) I’m working in Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 for the Mac (currently the latest for the Mac.) It is different from 1.0, which I worked in for over a decade, as I discovered just a week or so ago; in that it imports abr (Adobe brush files), has a photo bin/viewer at its base, and does NOT have the fabulous Airbrush eraser from version 1. Otherwise, the differences are almost purely user interface. This note is added to satsify the curious. :) Bmail me or ask questions here, if you like. You can rate, comment, and subscribe to my channel (“francorpier”) at YouTube. Thanks. ;) Frannie
Please see the following main journal, where I’ve added a link to the tutorial on *Photoshop/Elements Tutorial Series – Add, Blend Cat Ha…
Please see the following main journal, where I’ve added a link to the tutorial on Photoshop/Elements Tutorial Series – Add, Blend Cat Hair. One Journal, All Tutorial Links Any new journal will simply let you know the main one has been updated. If you would like to favorite and comment, please do so at the linked journal. Thank you!
/ 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. / .
A lovely shot by Judi Taylor of a honeybee accompanied by a…
A lovely shot by Judi Taylor of a honeybee accompanied by an article on the decline of the bee population in this world prompted me to write the words below. I hope & pray all take note of the way energy functions in this world and how important the human population are to such movements of the controlling energies that create this world to be as it becomes, abundant or lacking, the decision really is after all up to all people not just a chosen few who deem themselves the rulers of this world or the chosen ones. Everyone is a chosen one or you wouldn’t be in this world. THE PROCESS OF LIFE’S ENERGY I truly believe that most of the problems of this world have a lot to do with the attitudes & emotions of the human factor of nature, the people. When people are stressed out their vibrations emit stress into the ether which small creatures, such as bees, pick up on and are then also affected by stress. Everything is from within to without, including how the world develops, or deteriorates, by the movement of energy emitted from within to without by the governing population of nature, in this instance, the human population … who are under considerable stress in this world at present … too many stressing about poverty, which brings on more poverty, stressing about wars, which brings on more wars, stressing about lack of, which brings on more lacking … the emotions of the thoughts of such ways are just begetting more of those ways through stressful worry. When will the scientists in this world realize that ALL moves in this world as one … so when one element suffers, all suffer, eventually. If people don’t want the illusion of this world to come to an end then they need to bring their emotions under control and that can only be done individually with one’s own self-control, no one else can control another’s emotions. When a person gets upset over something it is them that have allowed themselves to get upset … no one else … even if someone has given you a dreadfully difficult time … it is still an individual reaction whether you choose to react in an equally bad way, or choose to use your self-control to have dominance over your emotions. As all energy works in conjunction with each other in this world it is vital that people learn to control themselves first and foremost before they attempt to dominate another which only stirs the air-waves, so to say, and creates animosity which is then vibrated via emotions into the ether and therefore affects the world’s function of creation. In short, the human population of this world creates this world as it becomes – good or bad – via their thoughts, emotions and attitudes which all result in emitted energy into the ether which moves Mother Nature to repay back in kind. As you give, you receive. CJ /
I thought I’d give a bit of an account of the process in illustrating my latest piece, done for the Happy challenge – Seven....
I thought I’d give a bit of an account of the process in illustrating my latest piece, done for the Happy challenge – Seven To begin with, I took a couple of photos with the webcam. The lighting was terrible, this was just to give me a base to do the initial outlines.. I couldn’t use them for colour or lighting reference unfortunately. Using my wacom tablet and Adobe Flash, I drew in the black lines. I really like the inky feel that the paintbrush tool gives you Then I exported a transparent png and opened it in Corel Painter. The other work was done in layers underneath for the most part. Next up I started laying in really broad, basic colours. In the best of all possible worlds I would have coloured the entire image like this to get a feel of how it would all work, but I was keen to play with skin tones so I left the clothes and background until the end. Once I had the basic tones, I wanted to see how it would look with a touch of blue and green. I really enjoyed this – just laying down colours, blending them and generally experimenting However once I was done I could see that it was all too pale. The black lines stood out way too much because the skin was so light. I got a solid dark brown and coloured where I thought the shadows would fall. Then I changed the layer to “Hard Light” and pulled back the opacity to where I thought it looked best I was pretty happy with how that looked so I cleaned it up a bit and introduced some more darker greens and blues to tie the sides together somewhat. And of course because I was still playing with the colours :) Then I coloured my clothes, and also brought some brown back into my hair and eyebrows so they weren’t so dominant Finally I added the background. Even here I experimented a bit with some wallpaper type options, but in the end decided that the flat green with a tonal difference on each side had the most impact. The green linked the background colours into the face, but also was dark enough to allow the face to stand out much more. And that’s about it. I hope you found that interesting or informative, or else you’ve seen through my technique and realise it’s all about playing around ;)
final piece Damien posted a journal...
final piece Damien posted a journal detailing the process for his entry into the happy challenge. So, being the bandwagon type – I thought I’d do what he did. I realised I’ve still got all my working files – I can actually go back and piece them together into a little animation. So here it is. / (It might take a moment to load, as it is about 2mb – but unless you’re on some 14.4k modem, you should be fine.) Obviously I didn’t save it every five seconds, so this will only have major iterations. This was done fairly straight forward. I always tend to work on sections when I’m painting (getting the detail for one area before moving on to the next) but I normally work in layers and go back and forth between them. With this one, I pretty much painted on a single layer (with a few exceptions – mostly being hair). It was basically a matter of getting the shape down, then refining the details… and repeating. When I’m painting, I use the colour picker frequently. So I’ve mapped it to my wacom. This allows me to pick up the colour from the canvas quickly and push it around, and then switch to another colour (again, taking it directly from the canvas) and go back and forth and blend colours efficiently. If you were to watch me do this, you might even miss that I’m doing it at all. At first I started off using a digital oil bush, but found that it wasn’t fast enough and I decided to stick with the airbrush tool (modified a little to suit my purposes) It’s basically flat colour that is applied at about 25% transparency with a low flow rate. When I’m working between light colours and dark colours, with the colour picker and airbrush tool, I can create gradients without ever having to stop and think about how I’m going to do it. I just put down the two extremes and gradually blend them together. I use a large brush to create the basic shape, and as I refine the details I’ll gradually shrink the brush and zoom in closer until I’m working at up to 400%. Shadows and highlights are pretty important. Shadows will create depth and highlights will bring the image forward (or something along those lines). All I know is after you add shadows and highlights, your previous version will look flat and boring in comparison. Another thing I focused on, that I think helps a lot, is texture. I spent some time detailing inconsistencies in the skin, adding red spots (pores and/or freckles) and some sickly yellow in parts. I’m discovering that our skin is a whole myriad of colours at times… so simple pink flesh won’t do. There are greens, browns, reds and yellows in there. Even after hours of pushing colours around, I decided I wasn’t happy with the overall tone so I took the whole thing into photoshop to tweak the it by pushing the vibrancy and desaturating it and upping the contrast until I was happy. Also, I added a noise layer to further enhance the tone. Hair is simple and quick to do. But surprisingly hard to perfect. You might notice the beard is pretty much finished within the first couple of frames here. It took maybe two or three minutes to get that almost complete. Although, as always, I came back later and spent a while adding stray hairs all over the place. So there. I can’t think of anything else to add just now. Perhaps I will write more if I think of something. Let me know if this has been illuminating, or just boring. Any questions?
35/50cm / paper, colour pencils, pen / !http://a…
35/50cm / paper, colour pencils, pen / / / / /
It has been a while I wanted to find how to make my cards fit perfectly, so the trimming done when printed wouldn’t affect the compositio…
It has been a while I wanted to find how to make my cards fit perfectly, so the trimming done when printed wouldn’t affect the composition at all. / I know we could avoid adding elements too close from the edges, but when it comes to traditional art, I want my paper to be filled to the edges. And I’m sure I am not the only one having older works from any art media that are full frame/page, and not wanting to lose any details in them either. After a few trials and errors, I have finally found a way that works ! / Now, I am able to adjust those works and it only takes a few seconds to make them appropriate for RB print process =) / I thought some might find this useful as well, so here is how I do it (see how to below) and let’s start with a preview for you to see how it works fine. This is how it looks like in our portfolio (preview below). I know it is scary to see those borders! and I know many groups don’t allow borders to works submitted. But keep in mind that they only show up in the portfolio. / When you click the preview to see the card, no borders appear. You see it just as it will look like after RB trimmed the borders in the printing process. I hope hosts will consider it as ‘no border’ works, as it is what it will be when buyers receive their card. I would recommend to always make a preview of the card in your description, so everybody (buyers, hosts, etc) see the neat final product ! Now, click the preview image to see the card version, if you didn’t yet =) how to for a standard minimum resolution card 1320×920 pixels here’s what to do: / add 24 pixels to both sides (1320+48) total width should now be 1368 / add 24 pixels to the bottom (920+24) total height should now be 944 / For this horizontal view, the top of the card will not be trimmed (nothing to add) when doubling the size of the card (2640×1840px); / double the number of pixels on those 3 sides (same ratio), / so you get 48px to both sides (+96px total for width) and 48 to the bottom / Your card will now be 2736×1888 pixels, and ready to be printed ;-) / . / So this is it ! as simple as this. / I hope this will benefit to a lot of RBubblers =) Cheers / Aimelle~
A friend of mine in Canada sent me this video to watch today, he knows I’m completely ADHD when it comes to sitting through videos and th…
A friend of mine in Canada sent me this video to watch today, he knows I’m completely ADHD when it comes to sitting through videos and that I have the attention span of a fruitfly, which is why he emphasised in his email that it’s only 1 minute and 44 seconds long! hahaha / / He said: / / A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite.. This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video and it is brilliant. Make sure you read as well as listen…forward and backward. / / A truly inspiring way to kick off the New Year I think! / / Hey, I’m by no means delusional or believe that Life may not throw some shit and curve balls at us throughout the year… THAT in itself, we have no control over, but just how much we let it effect us or stop us moving on, IS controllable. / / I’ve been through some harsh shit in my life as many of you already know, and I let it all engulf me and suck me into a vortex of misery… Misery also became my Muse… / / I remained a victim of my own misery… After a while, the plunge into deep depression and a suicidal, psychotic breakdown were beyond my control… But this happened over a period of Time, there WERE ways of Thinking I could have adopted in the earlier stages, when I was still rational, which could have prevented the fall. / / Mental illness is a bit like Cancer… It never really goes away, it sits in remission waiting for a trigger to set it off again. / / I NEVER in my Life believed that I, a professional Teacher, who was so organised, goal oriented and supposedly in control of my Life, could EVER lose touch with reality and take complete leave of my senses. / / When the madness took over, it was swift and sudden… / / But my mind and body had given me plenty of warning signs along the way to try to help me pull back and heal… I just chose to blindly ignore them. / / So yep… I DO kind of have a fear of falling into the abyss again, now that I know that it’s possible, only I’m more aware of the signs and signals in order to prevent it. / / When I was at my lowest… Like a junky I gravitated towards other people who were depressed, abusive, in despair of life and had given up hope… We became friends in Arms… But were really our own worst enemies, like parasites we shared our miseries and sucked the life force out of each other. / / I have nothing against these people who were friends, in fact I treasure and care for everyone I’ve ever known, but the ecosystem we fostered was dark and unhealthy. / / The only advice I can give someone from my experience with insanity and severe depression, is to take note of the warning signs your body and mind are giving you EARLY… / / Don’t be ashamed of reaching out for professional help, and if the help you get sucks and the so-called professional is useless, keep seeking and find another, until you find someone who knows what the fuck they’re talking about. / / Avoid being attracted and drawn to other depressed people and depressing situations… Try to surround yourself with lots of positivity and strong-minded, positive people, these people will listen to your problems and offer you advice, WITHOUT draining the life force out of you, people who, even if you don’t want to listen to them, will show you through their actions that there is still hope and that it’s possible to Live and progress rather than simply survive and exist. / / Then I guess there’s a whole lot more shit I need to learn and may never know… / / All I know is that I NEVER want to return to that dark place again that I found myself in back in late 2008/early 2009. / / So I’ll do my damndest to kick insanity’s ass if I ever feel it creeping up on me. / / Anyway, here’s the Video my friend sent me that I was telling you about… / / He’s definitely an intelligent and inspiring person to know, as are all of my friends here @ redbubble! :-)) / / Oh and finally, make sure you watch the Vid ALL the way to the end… / Or its intention will be lost and you’re likely to put a bullet through your head! haha / / Off to walk the dog… Catch up with Ya’ll later. / / Ciao 4 Now / Jennifer B / xox /
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