The Holidays

     Hey everyone, I am back! Alright, I wanted to mention the holidays and a few ways you can get excited for them. First off, many people feel that the holidays are not very important or special and should be barely acknowledged. Then, there are those people who love the holidays and look froward to them all through the year. Now out of those two people, which would you rather be? The excited one right?! But it is not always easy to become exited for things, I mean when you are little it is easy and it is wonderful. Excitement is what makes life worth living and as far as I am concerned, everyone need a little more excitement. So, here is how you can come across some excitement for the upcoming holidays.

     Last year I was not excited for Christmas till the day before, and that was absolutely no fun. So this year I have taken it upon myself to become excited. Here is what I have been doing:

     First since I love graphic design, (like most of you who are reading this) I use many electronic devices; my phone, computer, and Ipod. I figured since I look at them about everyday, I should make them festive. So I searched Deviant Art for the most perfect desktop wallpaper. I found a beautiful snowy golden one with little birds on it. Now every time I open my computer I am greeted by the snowy wonderland. I also have an Ipod Touch which I decorated with a Christmas tree lock screen and a green main background. I also spiced my Ipod up with seven Christmassy apps, three of which are advent calendars. So overall, my electronic devices are pretty festive. By looking at these images everyday, you gotta admit the excitement starts building up. An even better way for doing this by creating your own backgrounds.

     What next? Well after you get all of that beautiful graphic design love out on your electronics, it is time to steer back to the basics. When I say basics, I mean BASICS! I am talking paper snowflakes. Yes I know that paper snow flakes are something you make all through elementary school and once you get out, they feel like a little kids activity. But when it gets down to the look, they are very unique and cool looking. So here is what you do: You cut ten four by four inch white printer paper sheets. Then you fold the sheets to make a snowflake (if you are so old you forget how to do this, you can find directions on google).  It is difficult to cut the snowflakes since they are so small but once you do, they will be perfect. Now once you have ten little snowflakes, you tie a piece of white thread (each different size threads from 5 to 10 inches long) to each of them, then you tape each of them to the ceiling over the head of your bed. If you have time like I do, then you can make many more then ten and go all out with snowflakes all over your room. This way when you wake up you find yourself in the winter spirit. Plus the are very fun to look at. You can use different size snowflakes, but always keep them on white paper, if you do a lot of colors you start getting the springtime flower look.

     In variation to the last decorations, you can easily tape snowflakes up on your walls. This year I got two parakeets so the hanging thread snowflakes may be bad for the birds. I am putting snowflakes up on my walls for the sake of this. If you do put them on your walls, just put them on the top of your walls, If they are all over the place then you feel cluttered and do not get the great look you are going for. Of course as artists you are all welcome to change up this recipe to your own liking. Also, have fun with it, if you are sick of cutting out snowflakes than go do something else for a while and come back to it. The end result is worth it though.

     Next, think about holiday shopping! I know this is very scary to many of us who like to hide in the house while our family does all of the shopping. Many people I know, like to skip the shopping because it is overwhelming and unnecessary. But in truth, shopping is part of the holiday season. When you start thinking about what you are going to get people, you get excited to give things to them and to receive things yourself. Last year I waited till the last minute to go shopping and I felt no excitement or joy from it. Shopping was a hastle since I had no idea what to get people and frankly, I didn't care. But this year I started thinking about presents for my family a month in advance, yes this was extreme but I am so excited to get them these things! For me presents are a big part of the holidays but the best part is giving them to others. It is so wonderful to imagine their face when you give them a present. So start thinking about what you want to get people, even though it may sound early.

     My last tip for getting some holiday excitement is to decorate your house with the people you love. No, I do not mean decorate the outside of your house with cheap plastic candy canes, I mean decorate your living room with warm decorations you have gathered over the years. Since I celebrate Christmas, my family gets a Christmas Tree. My family has gathered about a hundred unique ornaments over  the years. Each ornament has a meaning and if it is one that we don't care for, we leave it off the tree. What I am trying to say  is that decorating a Christmas Tree is so exciting and beautiful. I love decorating with my family but over the past two years I have been left to do it by myself. Now this is no fun, the fun is to be with people you love and reminisce while adding each ornament. So have fun and set out some cookies, and decorate. People decorate for the reason of fun and celebration! Try it.

     So those are my tips, I hope they help you and I hope you become more excited for the holidays than you ever have before.

Let Them

Warning, The following post has next to nothing to do with graphic design. Abandon ship now, or read on.

Yep, as a warned you, this post is just about something I wanted to talk about that does not involve graphic design. So if you are not interested in graphics than this post may actually be interesting to you :P. Anyways, today I woke up to an old world full of little white snowflakes and drooping trees. My window is conveniently right in front of my bed so I could immediately see the outside universe, this meant that I could see the weather and realize that I had absolutely no intention of getting out of bed, crawling into the shower and getting ready for my day. But alas, five minutes after I awoke, the obnoxious screeching of my alarm clock threatened me to seriously get out of bed. So I did, I listened to the pressure my alarm clock was holding on me and I got up! I went to the shower, turned on the water and sat on the floor waiting for the water to warm up. Before I knew it, I was marching towards the car to go to school. My shoes were missing and I rudely accused my mother of throwing them somewhere. She calmly looked around and once I had given up and was ready to leave barefoot, she found them. I stuffed my feet in and drove away with my sister.

Whether it was the snow or my cozy bed or loosing my shoes, I had no right to get all snippy and start my day wrong. As soon as I realized this, a rainbow appeared in front of the car (nah just kidding), I actually felt terribly and figured today was just wasted day where I would just be upset. I knew tonight was going to be awful (because of "certain" things) and decided to not even try to make it better. Then I arrived at school, and had laughter crawling all over me. I felt unexpected joy and forgot my morning and tonight altogether. I saw then how one person can completely change your day, as long as you are willing. I was willing, I was so willing to let my day be overcome with joy. This day went well, and who would have thought it would. I certainly did not. My point here is, if someone wants to make your day better, let them, let them sweep you away with joy. You will be grateful in the end.

Here are November project ideas:

1. Create a vehicle that uses only parts from a different object.
      Example: A bike made from chair parts
2. Paint an image of a family pet dressed as something else.
      Example: Your parakeet dressed as an angel
3. In honor of winter, draw or manipulate snow into places where you usually would not see snow.
      Example: On a teddy bear in your bedroom
4. Make an eye manip and add aan element of winter into it.
      Example: A grey blue eye with frosty lashes and flecks of snow in it
5. Re-create something you have made in the past.
      Example: Drawing of an old face you drew

--------More coming soon---------

Ideas and Projects!

     Hey everyone! I know I have not been blogging over the past week, and I have generally moved away from the topic of Graphic Design. So I come to you today with a brand new page about ideas.

     Ideas are the key to a successful and meaningful image, whether they come from you or someone else. Often I find myself at a choice of making a picture or watching television. My choice is usually television because I have no ideas for graphic design. This is terrible because as a student I want to become better at Photoshop and without practicing, that won't happen. So I have created a brand new page for my blog with all sorts of ideas and projects. I hope you enjoy some of the ideas because they are very fun to think up. Check out the new page and I would love to hear feedback and see some of the images you have created from them.

Self Discipline and Success

     Is self discipline a direct link to being successful? I say yes it is, and since I am the author of this blog, I am giving my opinion on the idea. To classify someone as a successful person is to classify an animal as "happy." Success can be seen as, having a great job, having more than enough money, loving life, or having polite kids. There are more than enough ways to classify someone as successful. Because of this, it would be very difficult to directly place anyone into one category of success and that self direction would lead to some sort of it. Thankfully, with the wise brains of us humans, we can come up with opinions! Aah, yes, opinions are always a way to classify something that may not be completely correct. So why not believe the opinionated theory that self direction leads to success.

     Learning lessons at a young age is completely different than learning something at an older age, whether it be a few months older, or several years older. Once humans can comprehend what is wanted, they react to it, but before that certain age there is no guarantee that someone will understand what is desired. Anyways, what I am trying to say is that if someone has a low amount of self discipline, there is a chance that that persons control will change as they age. I for one, would not have known if doing something was absolutely terrible when I was four. Now that I understand more, I can retain myself from doing what I shouldn't. I do have a fair amount of self discipline and I plan to be successful in life, at least my idea of successful.

     The idea that self discipline is connected to success is completely understandable. The base of this theory, in my eyes is that if you have the self discipline to aim for success and wait for it, you will be successful.

     In terms of graphic design, self discipline is something you absolutely need. As a graphic designer, you have the ability to be flexible and work on your own time, when you want. If you are anything like me, you probably put off projects and get lazy toward the end of a project. The sad truth is that, the end of a painting or photo-manipulation is just as important as the beginning. If you let yourself slack off, than you better bite the bullet and get on top of your projects! Success is waiting at the end of self discipline, why would you ever want to hold back success?

Children are our Future

     Today I am talking about an incredible kid with an inspiring amount of knowledge. She is a teacher, writer, poet, and blogger. Yep, all of those things, and when I say writer, i mean serious writer, book writer. Her name is Adora Svitak and she stands for listening to the children of the world, and letting yourself believe in kids ideas and behavior. Adora gave a presentation at TED to an audience of brilliant people, she did this to get her strong ideas out into the world and have people re-think how they do or do not understand children. Adora is an inspiration to people like me and hopefully like you. Her speech certainly brought up some strong opinions and ideas in my eyes.

     As my opinion goes on how to listen to children and let them guide adults, I am all for it. I have always been short and have always known that I was treated with a little less respect from adults. For example, when going to a restaurant the waiter always brought my family to a table and gave my sister and parents normal menus while handing me a children's menu. Of course I hated this, it happened to me till I was fourteen! I wasn't even supposed to order of the children's menu. But the true reason it bothered me so much was that the waiter assumed that I was too young to order off of a normal menu. Adults have always seen me as a child who is too young to speak for herself. But the thing is, even if I look young, I have the right to be respected. For all I know, I am smarter than a few adults and just as well, I know lots of kids are smarter than me. The point is, if the human race really wants to move foreword, we better listen to those who will change the world.

     I was just thinking about the word "elder." Everyone thinks of an elder as someone who is older than you, someone who you look up to, and someone who makes the decisions. This meaning to the world elder is taught in roughly every children's movie and book. Even my favorite movies like "Happy Feet" describe elders as the ones who really matter and control the rest of us. The thing is, what happens when the elders die? what happens when adults posses such power that they make kids intimidated to look into their eyes? Actually, that already is going on. Public speaking is number one in people's fears, and for many kids, this is because they are worried that their"elders" will reject or laugh at what they say. In fact many times kids public speaking fears is useless due to the fact that what kids say probably will not make an impact. But what kids say is absolutely just as important as what adults say. When people say "respect your elders" the quick response should be, "respect your children."

     So next time a kid comes up to you, listen to what they say because I for one have become discouraged enough to not share my ideas or opinions aloud anymore because they are surely not going to make  a difference if no one listens. The kid beside you may have the most brilliant idea but to know their idea you have to take care and listen to them.

     If you are a kid, never ever let your age affect your amount of impact on the world.

Talkin about inspiration!

     Alrighty guys, I know it has been a day or two since I last posted and perhaps that is too long for you to hold interest in my blog. So, here I am, pulling you back into the world of graphic birdie. Today's post is all about inspiration for what you are working on in graphic design. My forms of inspiration are a bit different from looking at a photo or listing of ideas. Hopefully you enjoy my ways of becoming inspired to draw something!

First method of inspiration: Music
     Turn on the radio! make sure you do not listen to music you have heard over and over again. Listen to the new sounds and voices and meanings, imagine the instruments playing and what the singer or band looks like. Never look the song up on YouTube before you finish your painting, it may influence what you imagine. You are welcome to draw the people who you think are singing but I suggest you look into the deeper meaning of the song and draw that! Maybe you are making a background, with this method of inspiration, you can smoothly or sharply create a background just by closing your eyes and following the patterns in the music. So, get out your radio and start working! Who knows, you might just find a new favorite band.

Second method of inspiration: Smell
  Yep this one is a funny one, but it works for me. Alright, in this form of inspiration, take out a strong smelling food or light a candle or go outside right after it rains! Smells are often connected to memories, especially for me! So in this process you may remember something sweet, sad, funny, or beautiful, it may be the smell of your mothers old perfume or the smell of your old best friends house. It may remind you of a trip you took once or it could remind you of an old car. You never know what smells will bring up in your memory which makes this form of  inspiration so much fun. Once you find a smell/memory, draw it or photo manipulate it or collage it, Make sure not to make it perfect, use some abstraction, this will bring in the image of a foggy or forgotten memory. Not all people remember by smells and if you do not, form a fun and creative fake memory. This is meant to be fun so if it is not working to bring any ideas up for you, try something else. Never let a form of inspiration tire you out or bore you, that defeats the purpose.

Third and final method of inspiration: People
     People are incredible in how they all have their own agendas and goals. For this form of inspiration, go to a public area like a park bench. Or go ride a bus (safe bus of course). While you are in a public area, look at the people around you. Imagine what they are thinking, where they are going, why they are so calm or anxious. Create stories in your mind about thee people as a whole or individually, then go home and create a piece of art from your stories. Never take things literally with this form of inspiration, just let the basic ideas from people around you, come into your head and inspire you. Also, be polite of the people you see and never interrupt them or tell them your theories. Imagine yourself as a ghost, pretend no one can see you and you are just looking into the world from outside. Enjoy this form because you can get some pretty crazy ideas from it. Try different ages of people, maybe go to a school or a nursing home sometime.

I hope my unique forms of inspiration help you out a bit. You can't lose anything by trying them! Be safe though, never go somewhere dangerous or smell something hazardous. Have fun and feel free to share your art with me from these forms of inspiration!

 

Creativity

     Ken Robinson. What does that name mean to you? Yes, I know tat it probably doesn't mean anything to you yet but once you finish reading this post, you will certainly know that that name, means a lot. To start, Ken is a man that holds great wisdom in the subject of creativity. I know that creativity does not really sound like something you can learn about and know of, I figure you have never considered creativity as a subject to be taught. This is probably because creativity is taught in so many forms, but not in too many schools. This leads me directly into the topic of creativity in schools and what Ken thinks about it.

     I learned about Ken in a TED speech and since I already love TED and their magnificent talks, I was quickly fascinated with Ken. Ken's main goal from his speech was to educate his audience of the importance of creativity in schools. He discussed how so many schools are teaching students to the average textbook, and in theory everyone would end up in the exact same place having the exact same career. Who would want that? I certainly would miss the entertainment of acting, music, art and dance, honestly who wouldn't. Thankfully some student and some schools step out of the box. The box containing textbooks and calculators and tests. I am one of those students and I am part of one of those schools.

     In the last paragraph I ended with  "I am part of one of those schools." Originally I had written, (as most students would) "I belong to one of those schools." Then I realized how possessive that sounded. That single sentence made it sound like the school owned me and controlled me and decide what I would and should learn. That would be terrible if I actually felt that way. I unlike other students have the resources to jump up and take part in my school, I have the chance to express myself in unique ways like graphic design and drawing and even blogging! Yes, you might have forgotten that I actually am blogging in a blogging class right now. How incredible is that? I love it so much, I love that I can be who I am and consider the hundreds of careers that I could go into. Many people and perhaps even you, forget about creativity in other schools and forget that some schools may not even care about creativity and learning beyond the book. So here it is, here is a an eyeopener for you to speak out about creativity, share your opinion and teach the world to change our system, teach schools to get a little creativity and take a leap into the unknown. Let the people learn what they want to learn. Of course keep the basics of math and science, ect. in education but influence others to be different. No one wants to end up in the exact same position as someone else.

     Those of you who are reading this blog for the pure purpose of learning graphic design and enjoying graphic design, question yourself of where you learned graphic design and how you were inspired to care about it. I for sure did not learn graphic design in a school, I learned it on my own in my spare time. There are so many people who do not even know what applications like photoshop or gimp or paint is for, but if creative subjects like graphic design were taught in school, the world would be a lot more colorful.

Tango and Chance

     Hey everyone! I am here posting for yet another unrelated graphics topic. Although their usually is a way to tie thing into graphic design so maybe by the end of this post I will. Anyway, I would like to introduce you all to my two parakeets, Tango and Chance. I want to tell you about their ridiculous relationship and how much everyone should learn from a couple of birds.

     A brief history of my parakeets is; Tango was bought from a pet store about ten months ago. She was very happy in her new home with me although she was kind of feisty. It took me several months to tame her but soon I was able to have her sit on my finger. My two friends had baby parakeets last spring and asked me if I wanted one. Of course I just had to say yes to getting a partner for my Tango and they were irresistibly adorable. So I received a baby budgie who was named Chance. Chance is also a girl because I really can not have any baby birdies of my own. Anyway, Chance was hand raised and already tame when I got her. She was perfect and adorable and had little to no problem living with Tango.

     Of course the two birds lived and live in the same cage now but they kept to themselves. Oh I forgot to mention that my sister also got a baby parakeet too. But her parakeet lived in her room as my parakeets lived in mine. Well, Tango and Chance became closer an closer, they soon started grooming each other. I enjoyed seeing them happy and was excited to see if they could become any closer. They were both girls and normally only male and female birds bond. Soon I realized that yes, my parakeets could grow even fonder of each other. Before I knew it they were regurgitating food to each other. Yes it sounds disgusting but it is really cute. My friends feared that they were male and female but we all knew that they were both girls. Tango and Chance have now become inseparable, they even show jealousy when my sisters parakeet is  visiting. They show such emotion and love in each other that it just shows humans how animals possess feelings. Even if the animal is the size of your hand like my birds, they can still have so much love and emotion. 

     A step further into what I am saying is, give animals a chance. Even if they seem silly and just sit in a cage, try giving them a friend. Because without a friend we can never know if true feelings are showing through. I hope you take this into your own life and consider how much your friends affect you. Sometimes, just like my parakeets you get in fights. But if you're strong and care deeply for your friend, your love won't be swayed by a little tiff. Anyways, enjoy your friends and let your pets have friends too.  Care about everyone and everythings emotions.

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

     Ok, this is the third time I have re-written this post so, lets hope I feel it this time. This post is about Steve Jobs, the incredible man who founded Macintosh and Pixar.

     To me Steve Jobs was a man of great wisdom, he knew what to do and when to do it. Like all other human beings he made mistakes but somehow he managed to fix them or make them into something better than before. I admire this incredible man for his innovations in technology. As most of you know, I am a lover of computers and without my delightful Macintosh computer, I would not be into graphic design. My family has always used Apple computers and never once have we owned a Windows. This was and is because Mac is put together so well and is so safe. Only a man so creative and so innovative could create a device like this. The thing is, Steve jobs has created even more than great objects, he has created a world where students and adults can aspire to change the world in ways as big as Steve did. I want to create amazing technology like he has, I want to inspire students like he has, I want to change the world as much if not more than he has. So yes, Steve Jobs was amazing, is amazing. I hope he has inspired you as much as he has inspired me.

Package Designer?

     Lately I have been thinking a lot about what I will become when I launch out of school. There is also the enormous question (which I drag around everywhere) of what I will go to collage for. Well, I figure that since I love graphic design so much I can use that.
   
     For quite sometime I have wanted to become a package designer. I sure love cool packaging, and packaging is growing every day. It is not a job many people think of, It came to me when I was at the grocery store trying to find a good shampoo. I had no Idea which shampoo I wanted or how they are different. So I went with fun way of picking out a shampoo. I searched the isle for the most interesting, cool, unique and colorful bottle. And I found several! Then I narrowed my choices to which shampoo was best and not animal tested. After about twenty minutes my dad (who was shopping with me) came to me and said, "I didn't  know picking out a shampoo was so difficult." My response was simple, "Well dad I did have to search through about fifty bottles to find the one that I want to see every day in my shower." He laughed as expected. I then held up two bottles to him and asked, "Which one looks more interesting?" He pointed to one, and we headed to the checkout. So now when I wake up I can admire my bottle of shampoo. It is silly but I figure I must not be the only person who determines what they want by the packaging. So, why not be a package designer, It would be both fun, inventive, and it includes graphic design. My idea came out of no where, so when you are somewhere like the grocery store, think about what intrigues you. Their is no guarantee you will like this job till you get into collage but all ideas lead to the greatest idea of all.

   To show you just how fun package designing is, and would be, I will show you some of my favorite packaging. Maybe you have never noticed how cool things like packaging can be.

                                     

Tea Bags

Soy Milk

               

Dino Gum!

Sport Drink

A really beautiful bottle for Evian

A YKM shopping bag

Headphones

A sports shoebox

Happy Birthday To Me!

Hey everyone, I felt like bragging today because it is my birthday! Yep that's right, I had to tell somebody so why not tell the world! It isn't that big of a deal but this is a big birthday for me and I decided to announce it to my few followers. Nope, this has nothing to do with graphics, and this post is extremely un-detailed so I hope that is not a problem ha ha. Anyways, happy birthday me, I am pretty proud that I made it this far and that I am doing just fine.

Re-Discover the Joy of Learning

     Oh the joy of learning! For many graphic makers learning is enjoyed and loved and shared through art, but every so often we go through a moment of boredom and hopelessness. When this happens we must re-discover the joy of learning! This topic of re-discovering the joy of learning can relate to many things such as writing, reading, drawing, math and so much more. The topic of this blog is graphic design so, I will apply this concept to exactly that.

     Lets start with when your stuck in a rut, and by rut I mean, you are tired of learning graphic design and practicing it. Yep you're not alone, it happens to the best of us. I personally have taken months to get out of this rut, but that's ok since I eventually got out of it. Now I am up and running learning more about graphic design than ever! But what did I do to get out of this rut? How can I help you re discover the joy of learning? Aah so now your interested, I have you by the hand now and am pulling you into the fact that you can enjoy learning. In fact, I have you waiting for my next paragraph just to figure out the  keys! Well, as much as I would love to make learning so fantastic for you, my tips don't work for everyone, but they are certainly worth a try!

     Finally I will tell you my tips for re discovering the joy of learning graphic design.
-Step one, take a break! Constant learning can cause you to forget why you are learning about graphic design

-Step two, take out a blank canvas and work on any project your heart desires. Do not work on a previous project or an assignment. Let the ideas flow and try your best not to concentrate too much on what you are making. Enjoy your project and if you get bored of it quickly, let go and start a new one.

-Step three, get online and download free brushes and fonts! This step may sound skippable but resist the temptation and at least download a couple of brushes. Trust me, you'll get into it. Once you download a few brushes or a ton of brushes and a few fonts or a ton of fonts, load them into your program and play around with them. It is always fun to have new tools to play with, kind of like a kid getting a new toy. This step always gets me excited to start learning graphic design again.

-Step four, find some awesome tutorials online for a specific image or design! Then, try those tutorials or just become inspired by them. I will post a few great websites below for these types of tutorials.

-Step five, pick up one of your old projects and continue it with your new brushes, fonts, and techniques.

-Step six, open a tutorial on a website or look through a book of how to learn graphic design. Even a picture can help you learn stroke techniques for paintings, or blending tools for blending images. Get inspired by tumbling through images across the web.

-Lastly, evaluate whether or not you are enjoying learning graphic design. If you are not, and you have completed all of these steps, consider picking up a new hobby for a little while and maybe come back to graphic design later. Learning something without enjoying it is completely pointless.

     Alright, my little shpeal is almost over but hold on a little longer. I just want to tell you that loving learning is what keeps me alive and hopeful. Loving learning causes me to be so so proud of my artwork and skills. So keep enjoying what you are learning and if learning something is becoming boring, fix it right away before you fall deeper into your rut.

I recommend the following websites for steps three and four.
http://www.dafont.com/    - for some fantastic free fonts. (be sure to look if they are completely free or only free for personal use)

http://www.brusheezy.com/  -for a fantastic selection of free brushes for photoshop. If you use another program, check out deviant art and search for  "your program" brushes. Of course be sure to check if the artist says they are free or not.

http://www.photoshoplady.com/  -this is my favorite website for specific tutorials, it is photoshop specific but most of the tutorials con be modified for your program.

Now scurry off and re-discover the joy of learning

Shading Tutorials!

Ok, now after all these days you have been waiting, I am going to post some tutorials. These tutorials are for learning shading for digital painting. I have always struggled here and finally found some decent tutorials. They are mainly for photoshop but most, if not all f the tools used, are available in other programs. So enjoy, I hope they help you as much as the helped me.

http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm - This is a detailed description for everything shading, it is a great place to start but it is very extensive. Don't let this tutorial scare you.

http://www.cellesriaart.com/resources/basic-blending/ - This is an overview of blending techniques if you are struggling with how to blend your shading

http://www.melissaevans.com/tutorials/pencil-sketch-to-smooth-digital-shading - This is a tutorial on how to turn pencil sketches into digital paintings. I found this very unique and helpful if you are better at traditional drawing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxO8u-loAEc - This is a tutorial on how to shade a sphere

Soon I will have some tutorials on how to shade people because I find that very helpful.

i made these with some shading help. The orb is from the YouTube tutorial 

Latest and Greatest

Hey everyone surprise its me! Over the weekend I had a fantastic experience of learning how to shade people, It is only a brief start and with all the flaws, I am still proud. I have been trying to learn how to shade people for quite some time. Oh, keep in mind this image is not meant to look completely realistic. Enjoy
I will have several shading tutorials up in a moment

oh and the hair was just a last minute effort

I forgot eyebrows! that's what was missing. I will fix that.

A lot to live for

     Today in this little blog of mine, I am going to tell you about a man named Neil Pastricha. Well not really all of who he is but more, how my life and your lives relate to his story. As a start, Neil is a wise man who admires and points out the small yet beautiful things in life that make life fantastic! Oh did you forget how awesome life is? Well that's why Neil is here to save us all! Neil has a blog of his own where he discusses life and how great it is. Through his tough times he learned that having a good attitude is a 100% better way to go through life than to have a bad attitude.

     In a speech of Neils' he talks about how you only have a hundred years to live and you better make those years great. yep that's right, trigger the water works. Well maybe just for me. Over the past three years I have had hundreds of thoughts pass through my mind. For a while i was happy go lucky every single day. After that phase I became slightly depressed at how much of my life was being wasted. I went to a different school last year and this school caused me to feel upset and I just want to skip the next three or four years of my life. Life felt like it wasn't special and every day I hoped the week would go fast. It was a tough year personally too, so no, life did not go fast so I spent much time just waiting. Then I stopped myself, I jumped into the light and realized if I wanted to be happy and to love long days, then I would have to create a cause for me to be happy. This started with waking up and looking outside at the beautiful spring and having a smile every day, this later led to switching schools and I tell you, now I want to wake up every morning, I want to live my life! I hope you do too, I hope you find a reason to wake up happy in the morning or just make a forceful habit of it.

     Every so often I lose sight of why life is beautiful and I fall into a state of haplessness, sometimes I don't even realize it. So I go back to the things I love in life like graphic design, I make something new and realize that is what living is for. Living is for enjoyment and love and happiness. Whether your hobby be graphic design or horse riding, singing or dancing, painting or carving, let it grip your soul and guide you into a life full of beauty.  Look at the bright side and the the world will never dull.

Good luck, I hope this inspired you to love life more.

WIP- what!

Most people know what a WIP is but if you do not, then read on. If you do, than scurry off and make your own WIP.

Ok then, many people in the world of graphic design, use the term WIP. It took silly me about two years to figure out what a WIP is. It is great to know the term WIP because it is a fun acronym in the graphic design dictionary (that's a metaphorical dictionary of course). Ok, moving on, like I said above, a WIP is an acronym for Work In Progress. So, when you see something labeled WIP you can know that the piece of artwork is a work in progress.

I have a current WIP right now, next step for me is shading (it looks very un-professional right now). Here it is

Artistic Nouns

     Oh the art of grammar. Yep that's right, I am now considering grammar an art. Of course I am sure many of you consider writing and poetry an art but have you ever thought of grammar individually being an art. If you have, kudos to you. If you have not, then you are in the same boat as me. So, why is grammar an art you ask?

     Well today I am just going to talk about nouns and their artistic abilities. Nouns as you probably know, are  defined as a person, place, or thing. Simple right? Just kidding, there is so much more to nouns than that which meets the eye. Nouns also have this incredible ability to be complicated, I am talking plurals an possessives here. I never really understood what that meant, but now I do! You wonder why a noun has an apostrophe on it and why it changes position in different nouns. This is pure grammar art. It is tricky if you do not know how possessive and plural nouns work so try learning! Grammar is very important in graphic design if you are ever trying to describe your image, set up a website or sell your artwork. Correct grammar shows you care and are knowledgeable about what you are making or selling.

     So, here you go, here are are some fantastic websites for learning about nouns. It may take you a moment or two to understand (that's what happened with me) but once you do, trust me it will be helpful. Good luck

http://www.wisc-online.com/Objects/ViewObject.aspx?ID=wcn1601

http://www.wisc-online.com/Objects/ViewObject.aspx?ID=WCN6502

Inspirational Blogger

     Wow, I just watched an amazing and very unique speech! Your interested now right? Well, as I have become a recent blogger, the person who made blogging a worldwide sensation is very important to me. That person is named Mena Trott. She is very unique and different and outgoing from what I noticed in her speech and stage presence. Mena talked about what blogging is for and how it can express the thoughts of any person to an audience who is willing to listen. She talked about her friends who blogged and how it made them more open and connected. She also talked about the documentation of peoples lives and how others may look back on it some day and find loads of helpful information in discovering the past. Can you imagine if blogging was around 100 years ago, 200 years ago? I agree completely with all of her ideas on blogging and I send great thanks to her for what she has opened peoples eyes to.

     

     Not only do I appreceate Mena's gift to the world, I appreceate how she has inspired me as an individual. Yes it may sound rediculous for me to become inspired by a single speech of hers but it is not. I found such inspiration in her simple progress with blogging. Every day I think about my future and what I will do. I love graphic design and technologie and science and I have always worried about how I could keep those passions alive. I thought that I of course could not change the technological world but now I know that an idea as simple as blogging can make a difference. I want to make a difference, I am not shure how but I will.

     So keep your confidance  up my friends, and don't wory about the future like I have. Just wait for an inspiration experience to take your hand and run away with you.

Grammer in Everything

     Hello my dearest friends who happen to be watching this blog. I am here today to talk about grammer! Yes thats right, grammer. Grammer may seem to be irrelivant but in truth, grammer and sentance structure is very important in graphic design. You certainly want to have correct sentences if you are creating a website or designining a picture with text on it. Grammer is even important to keep you organized if you are doing html coding. Laslty, grammer is important in blogging although it may not be apparent to some bloggers.

     Sentance fragments ans run-ons are very annoying to read, don't you agree? So, if a blog has tons of incorrect grammer why would you want to read it. To be a blogger you have to know what you'r doing in terms of grammer, to keep your audience engaged. A choppy and fragmented blog is hard to flow with and think about. I certainly would want my readers to think about the blog rather than the sentance structure. So in conclusion of that brief paragraph, make shure your blog can be read fluently.

The question is, are you prepared for the terrifying but terrific world of grammer? Why not take these quizzes to find out?

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/fragments_quiz.htm

http://www.chompchomp.com/frag01/frag01.htm

     I just took them and did extreemly well for my standards. I got a 9/10 on the first quiz which was very difficult in comparison to the second one. The last question was a bit confusing due to the fact that several of the answers could potentially be correct. The second quiz is only on fragments, which made it very easy for me (plus it is kinda fun). I got a 20/20 on the second quiz but got bored quickly. If you are looking for harder more diverse test, deffinetly take the first one. 

     So remember, keep your blog or graphic or website, flowing and gramatically correct. 

Ideas?

Hey everyone! I haven't posted all weekend and thought today would be a great time to post. I don't have much to say about graphic design today because I have been relaxing/camping all weekend long. I would still like to post something relating to graphics so here it is!

I am looking for creative ideas and projects for me to draw or photmanipulate. Please feel free to give me ideas! In return I would love to send you the completed image. Thanks so much and I can't wait to hear your ideas!   -no guarantees that I will do your request.

Self Direction? Whats that

     Yep yep, I am here today to tell you all about my view on what self direction is and why it is oh so important! Self direction from my view is what keeps a person learning, improving, changing and overall living. Self direction is that powerful force inside or you that drives you toward the things you love. Though it may be hard to realize, you as a person can manipulate that self direction to what you want and what you need. For example, I need to work on spelling but with spellcheck at my fingertips I have the choice of weather or not to use it. There is a small chance I will improve my spelling if I just use spell check, but with my powerful self direction I can move my mouse away from the spellchack button and learn how to spell better. It is sometimes very difficult to trust yourself and make yourself do the right thing but by learning what self direction is, you can think about it and use it.

     Self direction is also a driving force that keeps you alive and moving forward. (Forward in life that is) So many people say that goals help you live but without self direction, there is no way to complete these goals. So, self direct yourself toward a brighter and more intelligent tommarow.

     On a slightly but not completely different note, self direction relates to blogging. Blogging is completely self directed, you as a writer have the choise of what to write, how much to write, and when to write. It's all yours with a few technological guidelines. I hope to work hard on my blog and put hard work into it, that is self direction.

Thought I would share a quick painting that i found while browsing through old files

Student Blogging

Hey everyone, on a different note from graphics, I am here today to discuss the powerfull art of blogging for students! I am a fellow student and a new blogger and would like to share my opinion of blogging in relation to this article; http://murcha.wordpress.com/2008/03/14/20-reasons-why-students-should-blog/.

     To start off, I completely agree with the article saying that blogging is a fantastic writing experience for students. Blogging is prep for the future! It is helpful in ways such as teaching students how to use technologie to communicate, read and write. Writing is different online because one, you use a keyboard. I much prefer a keyboard to paper because it is relaxing in a way, as well as it does not hurt your hands after a while. Another great thing about a keyboard is that you use both your hands to type, which keeps your brain engaged as well as helps with cordination. Another way writing is different online is because it has tools such as spell corrector which I do my best not to use, so I can practice. Spell corrector is a fantastic safety net though! Also writing and reading online gives you imediate access to translaters, dictionarys, web recources and many other fantastic tools.

     Back to the subject of why students should blog, blogging gives kids who are not very interested in writing, to experience a different way to write. I for one was never a big fan of writing but digital writing is a whole different wrold which I love! Blogging also lets students reach into the world wide web and introduce what they know and want to share, to the rest of the world. Writing and reading class work makes students feel very boxed in. With the world at your fingertips, why not share to most of it rather than a single class or school. Blogging makes kids feel more important this way, which I do believe they are!

     Blogging does have serious danger involved in the fact that kids could share to much information. This is easy to do when you are talking about your life on a blog. As a suggestion, I would start bloging with a topic other than yourself so students can learn the safe zones before talking about their personal life.

     So in conclusion, I really hope you as an adult or student, try out blogging. Don't let the idea of writing take you down when you have the opportunity to write in a new and exciting way. Blogging shares your ideas with the rest of the world, and the more ideas and oppinions in this world, the more everyone learns and grows with. I hope you try it some time as I am today and hopefully for a while!

Learning Pixel Art!

Hey everyone! another unique type of graphic design is called Pixel Art! Pixels as you probobly but may not know, are what digital images are made of (you can look up the actual defenition if you'r that interested. but anyway, Pixel art is a form of art that is created by placing individual pixels one by one. It is a very time consuming project but each peice is unique and usually very well done. Pixel art images are usually very small and used digitally on games, websites, ect.
here is an example of a pixel art piece:

 

This one is from  http://minidollz.ninique.net/

This one is by me




This one is also by me


Obviously I am no pro but people can be really great at this!
So, are you interested in Pixel art? Well here are some fantastic tutorials to get you started! They are in order for what you should learn first according to me. But feel free to use them in any order. I would also love to see what you made! These all work for most design programs with or with out a bit of tweaking.

http://www.wikihow.com/Become-a-Pixel-Artist
http://kitted.deviantart.com/art/Pixel-Shading-Tutorial-47269811
http://www.derekyu.com/?page_id=222
http://www.spriteland.com/tutorials/drawing-pixel-art-tutorial.htm

First Gimp Tutorials!

Yep thats right, here are some of the first Gimp tutorials for my blog! It was requested by a friend for me to post some great Gimp tutorials on how to make "signatures" siggys or signatures are small image collaborations with text representing a person or thing or company. They are often used on websites or forums. So here is a few tutorials on how to make pretty awesome signatures. These tutorials are for people who are allready pretty familiar with the basics of Gimp.


an awesome youtube video (one of my fave tutorials)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qweu4KxDNuQ&feature=player_embedded

here is a site with 100 fantastic links to amazing siggy tutorials.
http://webdesign14.com/100-cool-forum-signature-photoshop-tutorials/

I can post more later  but this will launch you

Beginning Photoshop

Hey Everyone! I heard via email that some people were interested in beginning Photoshop tutorials and where to start with that if you allready own Photoshop. Well, today I found a great tutorial for beginning and learning the tools of Photoshop.  So here it is:


http://mashable.com/2010/08/12/12-beginner-tutorials-for-getting-started-with-photoshop/

enjoy! and any sugestions on things you want to learn or see here are welcome!

A piece of my own artwork just to throw out an example of graphic design : )

For New Graphic Designers

This Blog really needs a jump start so I will start with the point of this blog! Right now I will be doing a different graphic design learning topic each month, most of the tutorials if not all of them, will be based off photoshop but If you want you can request a different type of program such as Gimp or Illustratior or other things like that. I have not picked the first topic yet but I will soon. For newcomers to graphics, read below to start. For older graphic designers, I will start posting tutorial links and other fun stuff asap!

- If you are brand new to graphic design and do not have a program to work off, I can get you started on where to go and how to learn. First, If you have a PC which many people do, you have this great free program called "Paint" which is a great place to start digital drawing. If you are more interested in web design and photo-mainpulation I strongly suggest a free downloadable program for both Mac and PC called Gimp. Gimp is basically a downgraded free version of Photoshop. Due to the fact that Photoshop is several hundreds of dollars, Gimp has several flaws and errors but is a fantastic way  to start graphic design. If you allready have a program like Photoshop than thats great and you can strt with it but if you do not have a program allready on your computer I HIGHLY suggest that you do not go out and buy one right away, Graphic design is certainly not for everyon but there is a chance it may be for you like it was for me. On a personal note, I started graphic design on Gimp and later bought Photoshop. If you plan to buy photoshop and are a student, make sure to ask for the student discount. Here are some helpfull Links for launching into the world of graphic design. I will also post the link to the GIMP download. (always make sure you are on an official website for downloads, if you download from a false website it may give yourr computer a virus.)

-Where to download Gimp for Mac or Windows
http://www.gimp.org/

- Downloading instructions to beginning project tutorials
http://www.vtc.com/products/GIMP-2.6-Tutorials.htm

-Gimp tutorials! provided by gimp, great place to start after instilation
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/

-Microsoft Paint (ms paint) the basics and where to start
http://www.lkwdpl.org/classes/MSPaint/paint.html

I hope that launches you off to the incredible world of Graphic Design!

New and Learning

Hey everyone who happens to read this blog! I am a student who is here to help you and myself learn more about Graphics and Graphic Design. How exciting is that! I am in a blogging class so that is another reason why I am creating this blog. I would love to share with the beautiful tutorials and learning techniques that I find across the internet or perhaps outside of the facinating electronical box(computer). To start off I will introduce you to some of my work which is just a start to the future. I would also love to hear any feedback that you have about my artwork or website. So, without further adue, here is my website! http://stewartart.weebly.com Enjoy browsing! Also if you have any suggestions for Graphic Design topics you would like me to help direct you with, please tell me! Iwould love to hear any comments or questions from visitors.