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• Weird Creatures and Photoshop Transform Tools
  by Julie Langford

  Ok, so here is how I used the Edit transform tools in Photoshop to create / / Wiseman / !http://images-2.redbubble.com/img/art/cropped/...

  Ok, so here is how I used the Edit transform tools in Photoshop to create / / Wiseman / and Fish Monster / / / Have loads of fun and be creative – things just appear right before your eyes using this method. / / 1. Open Photoshop and create a new transparent document 3200 high by 2400 wide [you can post a Tshirt with these dimensions as well as an art piece]. / / 2. Create a new layer and fill the bottom layer with solid black [you will need this dark background to see what you are doing later]. / / / / 3. Working on the top, tranparent layer – draw a random shape using the pen tool [create smooth curves by clicking and dragging, until you get back to your first point to close the path]. / / / / 4. Down on the bottom right click on the Paths tab on the layers palette. At the bottom of the palette, click on the convert to selection icon [shown in red below] – this will convert your path to a selection. / / / / 5. Fill this selection with a multicoloured gradient [or two colours of your choice]. / / / / 6. Click on Edit [up the top], then on Free Transform. This puts a border around your selection so that you can resize it. hit enter when you are happy with the resize to apply it. Then use the move tool in the toolbar on the left to move it to the centre of your canvas. / / / / 7. Back in the bottom right Layers palette, click back onto the layer tab. Duplicate the top layer [right click it and click duplicate]. / / 8. Working on the top layer again, click Edit, Transform, rotate. This puts a border around your image and allows you to drag the corners to rotaate the layer. Rotate it enough so that it moves slightly away from the layer beneath [see below]. Hit enter to apply the rotation. / / / / 9. Repeat the layer duplication and rotate until you have about 6 layers – keep the rotation reasonably uniform. / / / / 10. In the layers palette, click the top layer, hold ctrl on the keyboard and click all the other layers – except the bottom, black layer. This will highlight [select] them all. Once selected, righ click them, and click on merge layers. You will now have two layers in the layers palette again. A black layer [at the bottom], and a new layer with your rotation work above it. / / 11. Working on the top layer, click on Edit, transform and warp. this puts a grid over the image, which you can drag in multiple places and directions to completely change the appearance of your image. Work with this until you have a long warped shape like below. hit enter to aply the warp efect. / / / / 12. Repeat the whole process again, duplicating and rotating the layers until you have something like the image below. / / / / 13. Select all the layers except the black layer again and merge them. [youre now back to two layers again]. / / 14. Duplicate the top layer again, move it away from the other layer on your canvas. Warp it so that it is longer and thinner than the original layer that you duplicated [see below] / / / / 15. Click Edit, Free Transform to resize it. / / / / 16, Rotate it and place it over the other layer on your canvas. In the layer palette, drag the long thin layer to underneath the other layer, so that it appears underneath it in the platte [and on your canvas]. / / / / 17. Select both layers [but not the black layer] and merge them. / / 18. Click on image [up the top], and then on rotate canvas, then on 90 degrees CW. Duplicate the top layer, then click on Edit, Transform, then flip horozontally. Now move this new layer over until it lies side by side to the other layer. Select both layers [but not the black layer], and merge them. / / 19. Working on the top layer, click layer up the top, and then New, and then Layer. Draw an oval selection using the circular marquee tool in the eye area, and fill it with white. / / / / 20. Duplicate this layer and drag it over using the move tool to cover the other eye with a white oval. / / 21. Create another new layer, and use the paintbrush and black, and click once on each eye white to create pupils. Ctrl click all the eye layers in the layer pallette and merge them. / / 22. Working on this eye layer, click the word Layer [up the top], then Layer style, then Inner shadow. Apply the settings below to give your eyes life. / / / / 23. Click on the black layer in the layer palette, then click on Layer, new layer up the top to create a new layer above the black layer. / / 24. Use the Polygonal Lasso tool and draw a shape within your image for a beak [see below]. / / / / 25. Fill this selection shape with a dark grey to yellow gradient [top to bottom]. / / 26. Still working on this beak layer, click on Layer [up the top], layer style, Inner Shadow, and use similar settings to when you did the eyes to give depth the the beak. / / 27. Crtl click all the layers except the black layer and merge layers. You are now back to two layers – one black, and one with your image above it. It will look something like the image below. / / / / To save your image to post as art on a black background, go to file, save as, and save as a jpeg. This will merge and flatten the work. / / To save your work to post as a Tshirt, first, click the eye icon next to the black layer in the layer palette to make it disappear – your black background will become invisible. Now go to file, save as, and save as a png file. / / Voila – you have created a critter using transform tools in Photoshop. / / You can also use this method with parts of photographs, like I did with Fish monster. Try all sorts of things to get neat effects – a spoon, as nail, a scewdriver even. / / Most importantly, transform, transform, duplicate and transform some more – the more you use, the better your results will be. / / Have fun! /

• HOW I WORK MY IMAGES?
  by SylviaHardy

  It all depends on the photograph that I am taking as to how I will work it to a finish. This may sound a bit long-winded, but to really …

  It all depends on the photograph that I am taking as to how I will work it to a finish. This may sound a bit long-winded, but to really understand how my photograph is being worked, it all comes together in a picture that you see in my portfolio on Redbubble! Most of my photographs have been taken in RAW, with my digital camera, Canon EOS 350D and EOS 20D. Not that this should make any difference to the image. Sometimes I will create an image with Sophia’s camera which is a compact zoom 8. Megapix. “Trapped in the light” was taken with that camera and was taken in JPG for ease of use. As for “Searching for Spring” , this image was HDR processed. To do this I have taken three images of the same, making sure that the camera is solid on a tripod, to avoid moving it from position. I then take three exposures of the same image. / 1 photograph is taken two stop over exposed, 1 photograph is taken two stops under exposed and the other 1 is correctly exposed. The subject, in Sophia’s case had to remain absolutely still down to her eyes, which is hard for a five year old to do! But she was a very good girl and it has taken her all the concentration to do it, and it is that what has given her this serious look bless her. I had no intention to portray her as an evil child, so that is something to watch out for when using HDR on youngsters! I always prefer to use natural surroundings and available light from that surrounding. I don’t like using flash, because I feel it can destroy the mood that natural light can create for me. For instance, the HDR method that I have used on Sophia in the mentioned image, the sun is behind her. To use flash would have completely changed the feel and the mood of the photography. Try this for yourself and look at the difference in your pictures and see what I mean? The type of light you use determines the mood that you want to create! This is true for any kind of photography. To create HDR images, I have downloaded Photomatix basic from Google search, and this is FREE! Any one who is interested in HDR? There is a group in RB that may be very useful and helpful to learn. Enhance Photo > Photo Fix / After I’ve HDR’d “Searching for Spring” in Photomatix basic, I opened this picture in Corel paintshop pro XI. In this software, I have “Enhance Photo” and open to “Smart Photo Fix”. This tool has several applications to darken or lighten the shadow area without affecting the over all photograph. The Overall slider affects the whole of the image by darkening or lighting it. A little bit like fill in light. The Highlight slider only affects the highlights of your picture. Then there is the Saturation slider and Focus slider, when you’ve finished, you click OK! I use this on most of my photographs to improve the overall appearance. Selection tool/Lasso tool / Now, I want to isolate and section areas that I feel needs working on without affecting the rest of my photograph! To do this I love the lasso tool or the selection tool that looks like a lasso. I zoom right into the picture for maximum control but leave enough room so that I can still recognise the edges that I need to go around with my selection tool. To select the horizon or the sky, I try to avoid the trees and bushes if I can, for they can get to dark or even black and will ruin the picture. Feather / Before I lasso, I decide what effect I want with the Feather tool from the select tool. This will determine if the edges are going to be smooth and straight, which would be 0! Or if I want a layering or vignette effect around the subject? This would be from 1 – 200! I suggest you should experiment to get to know how the feather effect looks on your work. This is all down to personal preferences. It is a bit like, how much salt do you like on your food? Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Curves / Once the portion has been selected and I have lassoed around the sky, I will go into Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Curves, select curves! A box comes up and you see your selected part of the image in a window. This is the part that is going to be worked on. In my case, I want to darken the sky and bring out the drama of the clouds. In the box there is a diagonal line. Grab the middle of the line and move it about. You will see how the selected part is changing in contrast. I drag the middle of the line slightly down until I am happy with the result, and then click ok! Get familiar with the different tools and experiment with them! This is what I do and am still learning. I build up my experience through experimenting. The result is seen in my portfolio in Redbubble for all to see! Invert selection / If I want to save time and work on the foreground of the picture, while the sky is still selected. I go into Selection and click on Invert. Or you tap on “Alt + Shift + I” to invert my selection. Now my foreground is selected and the sky deselected. Experiment / In the case of “Searching for Spring” I only selected Sophia by lassoing all around her and the Feather on 0. I needed to bring out detail that would otherwise be lost. / I have tried several applications, like Levels, Curves and even Histogram Adjustment. / These can all be found in, Adjust > Brightness and Contrast. Trying very hard to keep her in harmony with her surrounding. The same was also done with the table that Sophia stood on. Finally to the black and white effect! Adjust > Color > Channel Mixer / This method applies to most of my black and white images, whether they are a straight shot or have been enhanced first. I go into Adjust > Color > Channel Mixer, tick the Monochrome box. Red will default to 100, while green and blue to 0. This usually turns the blue sky very dark, and the skin or anything that has red in it very pale to white. A good guidance that I have learned from someone was, to make sure that, which ever way you choose to move the slider to maintain a total of 100%. As an example only; / Red% -40, Green% 28, Blue% 112, and it adds up 100%! Play about with that to get a feel for how this makes your black and white photograph look. / If the red lightens red, the green slider should lighten anything green and the blue, blue! / Use your judgement and then click ok. But make sure you don’t burn out any highlights in your photograph. This can look ugly if it is overdone. Once I am satisfied, I click ok and move on to the next treatment. Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Histogram Adjustment. / To finish of my picture I will go into Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Histogram Adjustment. There is a slider on the side that will affect the contrast of the image. Slide it down, the contrast increases. Slide it up and it will decrease. I like to increase the contrast, trying not to burn out highlights in Sophia’s face. On the bottom of the box of the histogram there are little triangles, / Low Gamma High / Move the middle triangle Gamma towards the high, and will bring out details in the shadow area. While moving towards the Low, it will bring out details in the highlights. / That is where the selection tool will also be useful if you don’t want to affect the rest of the picture but only one aspect. Click ok and I am almost done! Final finishing touches! Learning centre > Home > Effects > film and filter / Corel Paintshop XI have this extra facility that I love t use for effects. It has a learning centre > home > effects > film and filter. I love the Glamour and Warming, which I have been using with “Trapped in the light”. And finally save the finished work which you get to see on Redbubble if I am happy with it! Thank you all who have shown so much interest in my work and wanted to know about how I did them? I hope it makes sense and is easy enough to follow? My best regards Sylvia!

• The Patch Tool, a major time saver.
  by Deri Dority

  The patch tool is often a very underutilized tool in Photoshop. Hidden under the Spot healing brush and 2 other tools, the Patch tool i…

  The patch tool is often a very underutilized tool in Photoshop. Hidden under the Spot healing brush and 2 other tools, the Patch tool is similar to a combination of the lasso tool and the healing tool. You select an area, click the appropriate button (source or destination- mine is usually on source) and then drag the selection to another area that has characteristics that fit your needs. For example, in one of my photos, “Fall in the Hills”, the photo was dotted with houses and roads that didn’t add to the composition. I simply drew around the houses and roads with the patch tool and drug them into an area with trees. The result is no more houses/roads, that simple. The patch tool is often superior and easier to use than the clone tool, especially for large areas, achieving better results. Another example, if someone has black rings under the eyes, you trace around the area that needs work on, select “source” in the Tools Option Bar right above the Tools Palette), and drag it to an another area of skin that has a more likely color. Make sure that the area you are dragging to is blemish free, as you will pick up any blemishes that are in the destination area. The best way to see how this tool works is to practice with it. Easy to use, you can cut your work time way down by using this over the clone tool. I rarely use the spot healing tools any more as well, finding this faster and easier. For most general use, it is easy to use. It takes a little more practice to use when there are lines in the area that needs to be fixed. You must drag it to a destination that has the lines at the exact same angle. / The patch tool goes all the way back to Photoshop 7, and has been improved on in the newer versions of Photoshop.

• PhotoShop: Less is More
  by Paul Hamilton

  Photoshop: Less Is More When I bought PhotoShop for the first time some years ago I was blown away by its power and potential. I’d he…

  Photoshop: Less Is More When I bought PhotoShop for the first time some years ago I was blown away by its power and potential. I’d heard about this magic software but didn’t realise that with such power comes much responsibility. The first images I used with PhotoShop looked terrible. Clumsy lighting effects splashed with a pinch or wind effect. / As I experimented with the software I realised that to enhance my macro shots I needed a greater knowledge of Photoshop and some simple techniques that would allow my images to shine not become mutilated. These are some simple tools I have found extremely effective. / 1. Use Curves to illuminate your image without putting that haze over the image. Originally I played around with the lighting tool but found the Curves tool so much more effective. You can find Curves but going to IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>CURVES / 2. Make subtle changes to the colour of your image using the colour balance tool. Experiment with the Shadows, Midtones and Highlight. Be careful not to go to extremes. Over colouring can make the water red in a beach landscape shot. You can find the colour balance tool by going to IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>COLOUR BALANCE / 3. Experiment with the Crop tool. Look to erase meaningless space and colour that takes away from the focus of the photograph. Once again don’t go overboard. Some space around the main focal point of the photo will frame it beautifully. The Crop tool is found on the tool bar. / With these 3 tools do everything in moderation. These 3 tools work best with a great photo to start with. Whatever you’ve heard Photoshop will not create a great photo all by itself but can be used to great effect to make a good photo a great one. Kind Regards Paul

• The Smudge Tool
  by Alison Johnston

  The smudge tool doesn’t sound like a terribly exciting tool, something that you could have some fun with – but it can be and we’re going …

  The smudge tool doesn’t sound like a terribly exciting tool, something that you could have some fun with – but it can be and we’re going to look at one way in this tutorial. This tutorial is going to involve the use of the pen tool, but it will be painless :-) The first thing that you will need to do is create a new document, I have used 800×600 with a black background. Next you will need to create a new layer above the background layer by clicking on the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette and then select your elliptical marquee tool and draw out a small circle similar to the one below, holding down the alt + shift keys. Before deselecting the marching ants, go to the gradient tool and pick a gradient from the drop down menu, I’ve used the ‘copper’ gradient. Make sure you are using a linear gradient, and hold down your shift key while dragging from the top to the bottom of the circle – you can deselect the marching ants. You can go ahead and duplicate the small circle by selecting your move tool then holding down the Alt + Ctrl keys (this will copy and drop the copy onto a new layer), drag a little way then hold down your shift key as well and this will constrain the down movement. Next you’re going to grab the pen tool, and, starting from the centre of the top most circle, click a point then move across and click and drag another point. You will have to reduce the size of your image for this, but keep the canvas larger because you will have to click the final part of the path outside of the image. Go to your paths palette, which should be default with your layers and channels palette, if it isn’t go to Window>Paths – and at the bottom on that palette click on the ‘create new path’ icon. Go back to your tools palette and choose your pen tool again, click on the centre of the next circle and do something similar to the above, but change the direction a little. Repeat this for the other 2 remaining circles. The original path will be called ‘work path’ and then the rest will be called ‘1, 2, 3’ – you will need to line up the corresponding layer in the layers palette in one of the future steps, but first we have to go and choose a hard edge tip for the smudge tool. Click on the smudge tool and get a size similar to the one in the image below. I’ve made the circles and brush size bigger than I normally would for the sake of visibility. Depending on what you were going to do with this technique, all things can be changed. With the smudge tool selected, click on the first layer in the layers palette, then go to the paths palette and click on the ‘work path’ layer, then right click on this choose ‘stroke path’ from the fly out menu – a small dialogue will appear and ‘smudge’ should already be selected, but if it isn’t choose ‘smudge’ from the drop down menu. Click OK and you should have something similar to the next image. You can go to your paths palette now and drag the path you just stroked to the little bin icon at the bottom of the palette. Go to the next layer up the stack in your layers palette, make sure the smudge tool is still selected (it should be), go to your paths palette and click on the corresponding path in there, then at the bottom of the paths palette click on the small ‘stroke path with brush’ icon (second from the left) Continue to do this until the remaining paths are completed. Depending on the gradient you used and the size of the circles and brush size, your image might look something similar to the one below. Go ahead now and merge the 4 stroked layers in your layers palette to 1 layer. Next, press Ctrl + T on your keyboard to bring up the Transform tool, right click inside this and select ‘distort’. You can do something similar to the image below if you like, but I would suggest that you go to Layer>Matting>Defringe after you distort the selection – I used a 10 pixel radius on this particular image. From here you can go ahead and do a multitude of different things. Change the background and experiment with blend modes. Use the plastic wrap filter, or give the image a drop shadow then place the drop shadow on its own layer and blur it. You don’t even have to use 4 of these pipe effects. On the image below I changed the b/ground to blue with a radial gradient, and changed the blend mode to overlay. I then used the FX to give the pipes an outer glow by changing the glow colour to white, a blend mode of ‘Linear Dodge (Add) with an opacity of 50% Technique set to softer and a spread of 90%. Try out different things and see what you can come up with, but most of all – have fun!

• I recommend to you the RedBubble TOOLBAR!
  by Nuh Sarche

  I recommend to you (all the RedBubble addicted outside) this wonderful RedBubble TOOLBAR It is a wo…

  I recommend to you (all the RedBubble addicted outside) this wonderful RedBubble TOOLBAR It is a wonderful tool! Here you can read more in the journal of D R MOORE – the creator….. And THANK YOU D R MOORE for this!

• HOW TO EXTRACT ONE SUBJECT OUT OF AN IMAGE
  by SylviaHardy

  This is easy enough to do. But can be very time consuming to do it proper. It is also quite hard to have to think about how to explain th…

  This is easy enough to do. But can be very time consuming to do it proper. It is also quite hard to have to think about how to explain this in text, which is probably harder then actually extracting a subject from its back ground, lol! / This is for anyone who has Paintshop software and not Photoshop! Photoshop has an extract tool, which is actually a lot easier and faster as well as a cleaner background. / Because Paintshop is a lot more messy to do, I crop the image right down to the subject. Making sure I don’t crop anything away that you need in the subject. To do that, you select the crop tool. Most tools are on the left side vertical in your screen. / In Paintshop, you also have an eraser tool on the left side. If you go over the different symbols it should highlight what they are. You select the background eraser tool. I also found, that if I need to zoom in or out of the image, I need to select the hand tool on the left side for the zoom tool to appear on the horizontal line above your work on the monitor. Zoom in first as much as you need to. Making sure you can still recognize the definition lines and you don’t accidentally erase out parts of the subject. Make sure you save your work in png and not jpg and keep saving it, in case your software crashes and you haven’t lost all that hard work only to do it again. / Once you have removed all of the background, you should be left with something like a chess board, with your subject resting on it. This means that it has no background and if you see any spots, do your best to erase it, as this will show up on another photograph when you come to layer it! / Now you have cleaned it all up and have your subject. / Open the picture you want for the subject to go on. Making sure you can see both images together. Click once one the subject image to select it. This will then show up in the layer box, which is on the bottom right of your screen. / You should have a list of headings, such as; Materials, Mixer, History, Script output, Overview, and Layers! Click on the double box to maximise it if it doesn’t show up. / I am also very happy if anyone would like to add any additional information to this journal so that others may benefit from your own expertise! / If you have your layer box showing, your subject should be in the layer box. / Now go over with your mouse on the image in your layer box and then left click on that image, most important, holding your mouse down, you are holding the image with your mouse. Now drag it over to the background photograph, still holding the mouse down until the symbol on your arrow changes to a rectangle and then you can release the mouse. By doing that you have now placed the subject onto your new background. You can repeat this exercise as often as you wish. Have a go and see what I mean, for that is the only way to learn after all! / Now you have your subject onto its new background, you can close the picture of the subject that you have created having saved it in png first of course for future use if you require. / You probably need to change the size of the subject to make it look a part of its new background? To do this, you need the Pick tool! Which is a white arrow on the left side under the pan tool, the white hand. You have two tools in the box of the Pick tool, the other is a Move tool. Select the Pick tool, because, this will change the scale of your subject. Now you’ve selected that tool, you will notice a box around your subject. This box has little boxes on the corners and the centre of each line. Place your mouse over one of the corners of the box holding the left mouse button down, you can now drag it any direction you like. Making the subject smaller or even bigger depending on what you want? Once you are happy with that, you can place the subject in position, by moving the Pick tool in the middle of the box a sort of X or cross should appear. Hold the left side button of the mouse down and drag the subject to any position you would like in your picture. When you have finally finished. Go into Layer on top of your screen and click on it. Layer > Merge > Merge All (Flatten)! / Now save your new work in jpg, and that is it! / Additional information! / When you use tools. Above, you will find you have further controls to select how you want your tool to behave. Do you need a hard effect or a soft and subtle? This is true for the background eraser and other things. Look at them, experiment and see what it does? You soon learn to be in control of your tools that way.

• New Bubblesite!!!
  by Carrie Glenn

  Check out my new *BubbleSite...

  Check out my new BubbleSite thanks to the amazingly progressive staff and support here at RedBubble, their new Bubblesite was not only easy to create but looks fresh, clean and professional. It’s definitely an excellent tool for all of us and I will be directing my customers to this new gallery. I recommend everyone check it out and build their own!!! ;D Thanks RedBubble!!!!!! / / xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

• She's (ITs) ARRiVED!!!!
  by webgrrl

  the Wacom Tablet has arrived.. / the instruction sittin right in front of me…. / and it says i gotta shut down everythin before installin…

  the Wacom Tablet has arrived.. / the instruction sittin right in front of me…. / and it says i gotta shut down everythin before installing.. and im just SO excited. / I think im more excited now then before i was goin overseas last year! / WOOooooOOOooOOOoTT!!! and again WOOooooOOOooOOOoTT!!! ok.. me gonna go and install it and all that….. / Back soonish.. EeeeK! gRiNzGiGGLeS WOOooooOOOooOOOoTT!!! UPDATE! / here my first piece /

• Cool Effect with the Shape Tool
  by Alison Johnston

  Here’s a cool effect that you may want to try out at sometime. Create a new file 500px X 600 px with a transparent b/ground @ 72 dpi…

  Here’s a cool effect that you may want to try out at sometime. Create a new file 500px X 600 px with a transparent b/ground @ 72 dpi and then duplicate the layer. This is just a file to practise on :-) Grab your Shape Tool and choose Custom, then go to the top toolbar and pick the black triangle shape. Working from the centre of the image, draw the shape upwards past the top of the file edge (see image below), you might want to bring up the transform tool by using Ctrl + T on the keyboard to get the shape how you want it, then duplicate the shape layer. Once you have duplicated the shape layer, go to the history palette and take a snapshot of the work so far. If your history palette isn’t visible go to Window>History and click on History. To take the snapshot use the middle icon (it looks like a camera). With the duplicate layer active, bring up the Transform Tool by clicking Ctrl + T on the keyboard. In the centre of the box that appears for the transform tool you will see a small circle with four small arms sticking out (this is the rotation axis for the transform) you will need to drag that down to the centre of the bottom line. With your cursor outside of the transform bounding box, rotate the shape to the right or left – whatever takes your fancy. Then you can hit the enter button to accept it. You’re probably wondering why I told you to take a snapshot when you had duplicated the shape layer – it was because the next part of this doesn’t always turn out correctly spaced and you will have to go back to the snapshot to start again :) Taking the snapshot after you duplicated the shape layer, means that you can bring up the transform tool again and try a different rotation – more or less, depending on how it turned out the first time. You should still be working on the shape copy layer, now, hold down the Ctrl + Shift + Alt keys and then press the T key repeatedly until you have as many of the shapes in place as you want. You should end up with something similar to the first image – although yours may be properly centered :) When you click onto the previous shape layer or b/ground layer, the bounding boxes will go away. You can see that mine didn’t quite end up centered and that I would need to paint in the small area top right that didn’t quite fill. You could merge the 2 shape layers at this point and lock the transparency to fill the shapes with a gradient or different colour. You could also clip an image with the shapes, you could also fill the b/ground with a colour or image – play around with it a little bit and see what you can come up with. On the first image I filled the b/ground layer with black, merged the 2 shape layers, locked the transparency of the layer and then filled with a circular gradient. On the 2nd image I simply used a 3 pixel black centered stroke on the shapes after I had filled it with the gradient.

• Calling all my Artistic & photographic Friends!!!!!
  by adgray

  Recently I was honoured with being invited into the Friends of Red Bubble group – a group set up for advocating direct feed back to redbu…

  Recently I was honoured with being invited into the Friends of Red Bubble group – a group set up for advocating direct feed back to redbubble and I gather explanations from RB [I could be wrong on that though lol] Anyway Jo Brien has asked us to ask you lot this question – so they can get as much feedback to use for updating the site as best they can so care to drop a line here re answer so Jo can peruse it in the next 12 hours ok? FANKOOOO!! :O) Jo O’Brien wrote :- / “I’m trying to find out within the next 12 hours “What Adobe tools are Red Bubble users utilizing?” and in particular usage of Adobe’s Creative Suite’s products.” You may see this around a bit as there are a group of us doing the seeking bit / [ IT phone trees! lol ] but I guess the more the merrier !! :O) Thanks for your input :O) ~ [ NB notice I was good and not one grumble about me being a writer helping out the visuals yet again without any advantage to me! <) Wasn’t I good? :O)]

• Custom Shape Tool Part 2
  by Alison Johnston

  Okay, so as I mentioned before I have the attention span of a gnat and this is how this little tutorial came about. Whilst trying out th…

  Okay, so as I mentioned before I have the attention span of a gnat and this is how this little tutorial came about. Whilst trying out the custom shape tool in helping with the rule of thirds, I began to see something else that I could use it for. The image I’ve used to show this, has had no adjustments to it and I had no intention of posting it, but I think you will agree that the image itself probably isn’t the correct one to use in this case. I see a more distance scene or street scene giving the impression of being inside, behind bars, looking out. You could also use a wood effect with this, I chose to attempt to make it look like rusty bars. Or view the larger image HERE So basically do exactly the same as the first tutorial but don’t crop. Also, make sure that your foreground colour is set to something that you want to use. I chose a burgundy type colour, but black would have worked well in this case. When you have the shape over your image, press the enter key. I went to the filter menu and used the ‘craquelure’ filter. Went to the filter menu again and used the Chalk and Charcoal stetch filter. Then I went to the Layer menu and used the Layer Styles – Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow and Bevel & Emboss – in that order. You could also try a pattern overlay if you wanted a wood type effect, lots of things to try out with this one. Place your new ‘window’ on to a b/ground with bricks for example. hope you enjoyed this. Custom Sahpe Tool Part 1

• Man with a Large Tool.
  by Cathie Tranent

  For those of my friends who know what I’m talking about ….. and to my new friends who may not, you can find him here...

  For those of my friends who know what I’m talking about ….. and to my new friends who may not, you can find him here

• Polygonal Lasso Tool Question...
  by allisonberryart

  Hi everyone, / I have been attempting unsuccessfully to learn how to use the polygonal lasso tool. Every time I get half way around a shap…

  Hi everyone, / I have been attempting unsuccessfully to learn how to use the polygonal lasso tool. Every time I get half way around a shape I somehow click twice and the lasso connects before I finish the edge. My question is this: is there any way to undo the lasso short of deselecting and starting over again. I am getting rather frustrated over the whole thing – it makes me not want to use this particular tool… / Allison :-)

• Is this an iron I see before me??
  by Cathie Tranent

  Alright!! For all us tshirt people who looked at Pax and went “Hey ….. but…..” here it is!! The Warm Iron Mosaic...

  Alright!! For all us tshirt people who looked at Pax and went “Hey ….. but…..” here it is!! The Warm Iron Mosaic Squillions and squillions of really cool RB Tees!! Kudos to Xavier!!

• From Good to Great (hopefully) using Photoshop CS2 Basics
  by Nikki Trexel

  By Nikki Trexel I was in North Carolina’s Outer Banks for ten days, a summer paradise …

  By Nikki Trexel I was in North Carolina’s Outer Banks for ten days, a summer paradise for one Midwestern girl who’s never been to the ocean. Many photos were captured, such as A Sandy Stairway to Heaven, and the ocean was lapping at our ankles and The Shadows Ascend. But this, one of the first taken at the beach, immediately stuck out to me as having potential: And so you can compare them side by side, here’s the final product. / / The first thing I did when I opened the photo was crop a little extra space off the bottom and left-hand side. This gives the photo a more balanced composition. The sand shouldn’t be the first thing the eye lands on. I also rotated it one or two degrees counter-clockwise to even out the horizon line (Image>Rotate Canvas>Arbitrary). These are very important steps and I recommend doing them first. (And if I hadn’t been trying to keep up polite conversation with the person showing me around, I might have even gotten it right when I took the photo.) Then I had a play in Curves (Ctrl+M or Image>Adjustments>Curves). This is a very powerful tool which, used appropriately and subtly, can create more “pop” and intensity in a bland photo. It can take a while to get the hang of, but for me, the best results are often obtained by creating two or three “pins” and dragging the line so it creates a kind of subtle S-curve like this: / / Here’s roughly how Curves works: the line represents darker tones towards the bottom and left, and lighter ones towards the top and right. So, for example, if you drag the top part of the line down, it’ll make the highlights darker; and if you drag it upwards, your bright spots will be ever brighter. Be very careful, though, not to blow out any highlights or over-darken the dark spaces. It’s easy to get carried away with the Curves tool and make your photo look pretty ridiculous. Next, I used the Replace Color tool (Image>Adjustments>Replace Color) to make my chairs a little brighter without oversaturating the blue sky. Here, you just use the dropper to select which color you’d like to alter, and make sure the “Fuzziness” slider on the Replace Color window is increased as much as possible without starting to apply to stuff you don’t want it to. Here it’s simple because there is only one pink and one green area in my photo. All I did was “grab” each color with the dropper, and slightly increase the saturation. (It might be a bug in my version of Photoshop, but you might have to close out the window, then open it again to start working on a new color.) Again, this is something you have to get the hang of, but after a while it becomes second nature. I also cloned out one or two swimmers in the distant water. Not much more than a dot or two of cloning was necessary – they were only large enough to be spots in my lovely blue water. The last, and most important thing, I did with this image was – I guess it’s pretty obvious – give it a nice sky. I kind of liked the simplicity of the plain blue sky in the original, but I wanted the image to be special. I was lucky enough to have a similar photo of the clouds, taken on the same beach but on another day. I chose it because the size, depth and lighting were mostly correct already. I had to slightly alter the color to make it match the “feel” of the original photo. Here is my new sky in its primitive form. My original sky is also a very simple one to replace. The only thing sticking into the sky area is my duo of beach chairs. (If it had been a more complicated horizon, I would have probably opted for a smooth blue sky.) My chosen method for this simple replacement was simply to Clone the new sky overtop of the other old one. (There are more complex and useful ways utilizing Layers but there is really no need for that now. Plus, I don’t know how to use those ways.) This method won’t work every time, so you’ll need to size up your options to see how you’re going to create your masterpiece. If the sky to be replaced is very simple, with not a lot of complications like trees or people or other things in front of it, then you are golden. Lastly, I did a little bit of final tweaking to the entire image to make everything feel right. That included a bit of dodging and burning in my clouds, a slight saturation increase overall, and a couple of tiny clone jobs to get rid of a few blades of grass apparently growing out of the ocean (courtesy of the foreground of my new sky). You’ll have to work with this on your own photo and see what looks best. Every photo is different, and every path from good to great is totally unique. Here is my final product again, which took me a little less than a half-hour from start to finish. / Rhapsody in Blue Thanks so much for reading!

• Removing Colour Casts With The Colour Sampler Tool
  by Alison Johnston

  Yet another under used tool in Photoshop, but extremely useful in removing colour casts from images. Eddie Tapp calls this the 90% metho…

  Yet another under used tool in Photoshop, but extremely useful in removing colour casts from images. Eddie Tapp calls this the 90% method, which works 100% of the time, on 90% of images. The first image below is a before and after shot, the original shot on the left, and the colour cast corrected on the right. I happen to know the colour of the top my daughter was wearing in this shot and that she doesn’t have a liver condition – well, not since the transplant …. LOL just kidding. It is also a horrible shot, with fringing going on, blown highlights etc., :-) The next image is the original start image. With the next image I used a levels adjustment layer, and in the dialogue box brought the sliders in to the majority of the information in each of the individuals channels. I think you will agree that it hasn’t removed the colour cast at all and has simply darkened the image. So how can we get the image to look like the one below, with the yellow colour cast removed. First of all open your image, or nick my original image HERE to have a practice on. You are going to have your info window open, which is located with the Histogram and Navigator window or you can just go to window>info and click on it and it will open. While we will be using a levels adjustment layer to edit this image, we will be using the numbers in the info window to make our adjustments, not the numbers in the layers palette. It sounds a little complicated at first, but once you’ve done this a couple of times you will wonder why you thought it was complicated. You are also going to need your Colour Sampler Tool which you can find in the same bundle as the eyedropper tool and you will need to go up to the top toolbar and set the Sample Size to 5×5 Average. So lets check what we have so far. We have an image open, we have the info window visible, we have the colour sampler tool and we have set the sample size to 5×5 average. We’re ready to start. Take a look at the image below to get an idea. The larger image that you may want to reference is HERE You can set up to 4 points with the Colour Sampler Tool, but we are only going to be using 2 in this demonstration. You might want to reference the larger image through the link above, hold down the shift key before you click the link and it will force it to open in a new window so that you don’t have to keep flitting backwards and forwards from RB to flickr. With that image open you should be able to see where I have set the first point, simply by clicking on the image. The first point is always in relation to the white point. You can see the figures that have come up from the point that I set in Bek’s hair, they are the first numbers - R – 214 / G – 208 / B – 184 Go ahead now and select the black point by clicking in one of the dark areas in the image. You can see that I have chosen the strap on the bag, and the numbers are - R – 36 / G – 42 / B – 41 Click on the adjustments layer icon in the bottom of the layers palette and choose levels, the dialogue box will now appear. We will be using the individual channels within the layers dialogue box to make the adjustments, so use the drop down menu to locate them. Because we are going to be adjusting the lights/whites we need to locate the lightest channels, in this case it is the red channel at 214, we do not need to adjust this channel but we do need to adjust the green and blue channels. From the drop down menu select the green channel and with the white slider bring it in until the reading in the info palette is 214. Do not read the numbers from the layers dialogue box, move the slider inwards until the number in the INFO window reads 214. Repeat this with the blue channel. If you can’t get it exactly to match try using your up and down arrow keys, if you still can’t get it, one higher or lower i.e. 213/215 is acceptable. Now look at the second point you made, this is the black point, we need to look at the lowest number here rather than the highest – 0 being black. So the lowest number we have is in the red channel at 36. We need to do a similar process to what we did above, only this time we will be bringing the black slider in until the green and blue channel are at 36. Once you have done this, simply click ok on the levels dialogue box. To remove the colour sampler points from the image – with the colour sampler tool selected look in the top menu bar and you will see a ‘clear’ button, just click on this.

• Addiction or Tool?
  by Patricia L. Ballard

  There has been a lot of dicussion in the forums and the blogs lately about the problems of online addiction and particularly Redbubble ad…

  There has been a lot of dicussion in the forums and the blogs lately about the problems of online addiction and particularly Redbubble adiction. While I agree that this can be a problem for all of the reasons given in the blogs about this topic, I’d like to tell my own particular story. After 55 years of a healthy life, 2 years ago I was felled by asthma and sinus problems. My husband’s job had changed and with it our health insurance. I no longer had access to low cost quality health care. This caused us to leave Santa Fe, New Mexico for Chapel Hill, North Carolina where my husband could get a job with guaranteed health insurance for both of us. He also located me a very fine Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist who addressed my allergies and did surgery on my sinuses. The year before the surgery and the move, I was bedridden most of the time. I was literally shut in my bedroom with a humidifier running. During that time, I decided that I would really learn digital imaging and how to use my fractal software. This was the best thing to come out of a really dark period in my life. If Redbubble had been up and running, I would have been on it constantly. The internet was my window to the world. It still is in many ways. We hear so much now about the problems with the internet. It can be invasive. Sometimes we are reduced to being mere bytes for advertising purposes. People do get addicted at times. It also has a very positive side for many of us who would have no other means of “getting out there.” I’m now back to living a normal life, but I’m glad that if I had to be ill that I had the curiosity to use the internet to relieve my boredom. It probably saved my sanity. Maybe each of us should evaluate from time to time how much of our life we’re devoting to our digital universe and ask ourselves if it’s interfering with our other life. All of the blogs on this on Redbubble has made me think about this issue and do a check on my lifestyle.

• Regrettably... Devil's Advocacy is an important tool for subjectivity
  by kathleen

  (Disclaimer: these ideas are not necessarily reflective of personal opinion) / I HAVE TO ADD THIS TO EVERY JOURNAL I POST FROM NOW ON, P…

  (Disclaimer: these ideas are not necessarily reflective of personal opinion) / I HAVE TO ADD THIS TO EVERY JOURNAL I POST FROM NOW ON, PLEASE NOTE IT. Sometimes I like to raise topics for discussion and elaboration, like radio talk-back! For some reason some people seem to think i am stating my own opinions (please read my wording more than once if you feel angry at me and before getting tense in your response… please, I am getting better too at developing this style here.) If you state your perspective from the most extreme angle it encourages further participation and thought because it invokes the more extreme emotional responses, just a bit on psyche… hee he It’s what all those right wing talk back hosts do (just some of them believe it as well… tch tch)... So please, try to separate the topics I raise from me… I feel that some people might like to bite, which is fine, but bite into the topic not my thigh… please… I am pretty thick skinned but I also believe that concerning topics should be open for discussion even if they leave a bad taste if your mouth… This little community is a society, how can we manage it so this can happen? Should I stop asking for opinion publicly about topics I am airing? Chances are I won’t, RedBubble needs independent media… But tell me your thoughts and opinions without making it personal please. YOU HAVE THE CHOICE OF NOT RESPONDING, YOU DON’T HAVE TO READ MY JOURNAL EITHER… BUT I AM GLAD THAT YOU DO AND I VALUE YOUR OPINION…

• I HEART RB'S CARDS!!!
  by webgrrl

  i GOT my cards that i ordered from RB on Monday!!! Wow didnt realise i ordered so many.. lots of mine..and 7 of diff peoples They are …

  i GOT my cards that i ordered from RB on Monday!!! Wow didnt realise i ordered so many.. lots of mine..and 7 of diff peoples They are wonderful, and at times i cant get over how thick they are. At first i thought there was two cards stuck together. Hehe, as u can see i havent been mingling with much Premium quality cards.. :P I bought lots of mine in different topics (skyscape, psytrance events, etc) so that i can create a display folder and show them around the local area, in hope they would be interest to stock/buy some.. So im looking for a suitable presentation folder thang.. binder (TBO mentions Officeworks got A5 folders thangs..) and also definitely need to buy a boxful of the clear celophane sleeves too so no fingerprints—any of the RB elves able to help? Maybe since u’all buy truckload of the stuff already – maybe you can sell em to us – they are tools for our marketing needs -) / But seriously – i need to get them asap.. and would prefer to get from RB if not.. will follow up link that i saw in one of Jo’s post on marketing..(which i think its a list of suppliers on yellowpages)

• Free Photoshop Basic Tutorial for the PEN TOOL!
  by DieselLaws

  I have had many people ask me how do I create my characters, and so I have decided to dedicate a few hours (ok, it was 5 in total) to c…

  I have had many people ask me how do I create my characters, and so I have decided to dedicate a few hours (ok, it was 5 in total) to create, edit and post up a Free Photoshop Basic Tutorial for the PEN TOOL! The tutorial is based around creating this character > If you would like to you can view it here, http://diesellaws.com/photoshop-beginners-tutorial-pen-tool-page-1/ Hope this helps anyone wanting to get started in creating Vector Artwork! Speak soon, Diesel Laws

• Custom Shape Tool Part 1
  by Alison Johnston

  I saw a nifty little trick by Scott Kelby and thought that it might be a useful addition to anyone’s tips and tricks bag. Because I have…

  I saw a nifty little trick by Scott Kelby and thought that it might be a useful addition to anyone’s tips and tricks bag. Because I have the attention span of a gnat, when I was about half way through writing this down, I saw another simple use for the shape tool as well. So, you’re gonna get 2 for the price of 1 ;-) The rule of thirds – yep, I’m saying the rule of thirds in the same sentence as the custom shape tool ….... am I crazy or what! It turns into quite a nifty tool for checking your image and saves getting out the rulers and grids … so lets start. Open your image>duplicate your image>close original. Do all of the work you would normally do in post production, except the cropping. Go to the Shape Tool and pick the Custom Shape Tool from the fly out menu. You’re going to need the info palette open at this stage, which is defaulted with the Histogram and Navigator windows. If it isn’t open go to window>Info and click on that to open your info palette. Look for the 3×3 grid in the shape tool which is located about the 5th row down in the default shapes. Check that you have the shape option highlighted, not the path from shape or fill shape option in the menu bar. In the Geometry options, make sure unconstrained in highlighted. Now you are going to be watching the W_H or width and Height on the right hand lower side of the info window. You will also need to find out what size your final image is going to be. If you’re working on a 300_200 dpi image great, if not you will probably need to adjust that prior to trying out this little trick. You will also need to check if you are going to be viewing the width and height in the info window in “in” or ‘cm’. Okay, now draw out over your image and watch the width and height in the info palette, once the figures you need are there stop drawing. Press enter on the keyboard go grab your move tool until you have your image aligning to a rule of thirds, or don’t enter and go grab your move tool until you have the grid positioned to give you a good rule of thirds. You can now grab your crop tool, place your crop around the grid lines of the custom shape tool and crop. You can then go ahead and delete the custom shape tool layer. I’ll post my next use for the custom shape tool in another entry, cos I’ve just had about several interruptions and I’m way behind :-) Custom Shape Tool Part 2

• Warp Tool
  by Alison Johnston

  This is just a fun tutorial and if you’ve used Photoshop for any length of time you’ll already know you can do this. It’s a bit like the…

  This is just a fun tutorial and if you’ve used Photoshop for any length of time you’ll already know you can do this. It’s a bit like the magnetic pen tool, you know it’s there but rarely use it. I’m going to show you how to do this with a custom shape, but you could make your own shape with the pen tool or one of the marquee tools. You could also use a clipping mask to clip an image inside of the shape. Just use your imagination. Create a new file 800×600 @72dpi and fill it with white. Click on the shape tool and choose custom shape or you can press U on the keyboard and if the custom shape doesn’t come up, hold down the shift key and press the U key until it does. I’ve chosen the Eighth Notes shape. Making sure the foreground colour isn’t white, draw out the shape making sure that shape layers is selected on the top toolbar. Make sure the shape Layer is selected by clicking on it and then press Ctrl + T on your keyboard and right click inside the transform area and choose warp from the fly out menu – or you can go to Edit>Transform>Warp. Reference the image below and look at the right hand side of the top toolbar, you will see a small icon and if you hover your cursor over it, it will read – Switch between free transform and warp – looking to the left hand side ot the toolbar, click the small icon until Custom is showing. Click through for the larger image. Click on the arrow next to Custom to open the drop down menu. This menu will look familiar to you from the Type Tool. Go ahead and choose one of the effects from the menu. I chose Fisheye in the example below. Notice the small square shape on the grid – if you click and drag this with the mouse it will change the effect without you having to type in the numbers in the top toolbar, although you can type the numbers in if you want. Use the Tick on the top toolbar (right hand side) to accept the transform, or press enter on the keyboard. I’ve used the elliptical marquee in the example below and chose Fish from the Custom Menu. I added a stroke to the shape then I’ve added some type and used Transform>Distort. I then added another shape and used Wave from the Custom menu. Have some fun with it – you can come up with some weird and whacky effects :-)

• Show me the color! (looking for someone to collaboratewith)
  by Paola Jofre

  I’ve been at this for weeks and have not been able to grasp it (please don’t laugh :) ). / I have several drawings that I want to place o…

  I’ve been at this for weeks and have not been able to grasp it (please don’t laugh :) ). / I have several drawings that I want to place on t-shirts,wall art or cards. I have been trying to figure out how to color in my drawings with a pen tool but no luck. I just can’t get it. If you are interested please drop me an email for details. / thanks :) Paola