coyleart

digital toolbox

It's nice to have a man around the house, particularly one who's handy - and lucky for me, Clayton is not only good with power tools, but he's a whiz at all things digital, including Photoshop. He often sends me tips he finds online to help me in my quest to learn that crazy program. Right now, I'm helping a friend with her new CD cover - I'll show you later - and we're doing a little beauty retouching to the photographs taken by Atlanta photographer Greg Ponder.

©Greg Ponder
The above photo is one of his, no retouching needed here, but it's just a sample of the beautiful work that will be showcased on this CD package. Clayton found some great resources for me on beauty retouching - I watched this tutorial over at Layers magazine and learned some great tips to add to my arsenal.

I was also exploring how to make halftone dot patterns from photographs that I could use for screen printing - and I learned some tricks I can re-purpose for my needs in this tutorial

Then Clayton sent me another interesting tidbit. According to CreativeTechs there's a new autotrace tool that even outdoes Adobe Illustrator's built-in Live Trace feature, and it's free! I haven't had the time to check it out for myself, and I've got Live Trace tweaked to my satisfaction, but I'll be interested to give this a whirl at some point.

And back to photography - somewhere out there on the horizon, I see a new lens in my future (for my Nikon D70). We've been debating it for awhile, but are decided on one thing, we want a 50mm. (still deciding on the 1.4 vs. the 1.8) Here's a persuasive article titled "Ditch That Zoom for a Classic 50mm" that got us started on the subject. I'm ready for a little bokeh in my life after looking at the Greg Ponder photo above.

digital graphics rolodex

I try to keep up - really! But oh my oh my there's so much to learn when you are an illustrator or designer or anybody using digital graphics technology. The training never ends. Right now, I'm working on my (formerly paltry) Photoshop skills over at Lynda.com. For 25$ a month, you can learn Photoshop, Illustrator and many other software programs at your own pace.

Here are some other links I'm adding to my digital graphics rolodex to help keep up with all the new advances. Adobe Illustrator CS3 has thrown a few new curves into the routine lately, but they are some pretty exciting changes. Creative Techs, a computer support firm out of Seattle has 3 pdf booklets on their site for free download that give an overview of "What's New" in CS3. Also, check out the quicktips section of their site or subscribe to their newsletter.

The new crop tool in Adobe Illustrator CS3 is something new I'm sure to get a lot of use out of. Check out this great video on Adobe's site by Illustrator guru Mordy Golding.

Last year I discovered Mordy Golding's blog when I encountered a bug in Illustrator CS2 and his work-around tip saved me a lot of crashes. For me, his Real World Illustrator blog will forever be THE place to visit for info on Adobe Illustrator. It's time to get the CS3 edition of his book too, Real World Illustrator.

But for FREE tips there are many more online videos to explore at the Adobe Design Center's video workshops page. Live Color is another exciting feature I can't wait to play with, take a look here.

Finally, I found another link that might be helpful to add to your digital graphics rolodex. This article by James Dempsey for MacWorld lists a bunch of links that can help you beef up your font collection. He offers a wide array of links to sites that offer free fonts and sites that sell commercial fonts. Roll on!

another new trick

I love this one! Here's a tutorial from Blurbomat on photoshoping your photos into ethereal goodness. (Icon is from my archive circa 2000.)

hey, watch this!

Jay Montgomery is a fellow Atlanta illustrator with amazing photoshop skills. He created this video of a work in progress and it's fascinating to see his illustration unfold from concept sketches to final art at high speed.

say hello to my little friend

Among the blogs I check in with daily, my favorites are the ones that showcase design by other artists and creative people. Along with the inspiration they offer a great work preventative and at times a much needed prod. Sometimes though, a little peek into someone else’s world just makes me feel crummy by comparison. It’s one thing to flip through a magazine with a beautiful layout of an Italian heiress redecorating her centuries-old Venetian villa. Ok, I’m no Medici. Or Martha, for that matter. But click from one place to another in the blogosphere and you find page upon page of photos of beautiful stuff by some highly productive creative souls who might be living down the street. yeesh.

I offer some un-airbrushed photos on the state of my work-at-home villa today. My studio is a mess, I’m eating a turkey sandwich at my desk, my ideas are lying in a pile somewhere in a folder that’s under a stack. Things here are basically, not pretty. This is a rut I have made many attempts to un-stick myself from.

Here’s where my little friend comes in.

He works on the basic principle of “I can do anything for 10 minutes.” When I must get something done, but the hamster wheel that is my brain won’t let me, I pick a few things and try just 10 minutes. When the bell rings I can move on to something else. But then again, I may find myself getting into the very thing I was dreading and I’m off and running. Or, I make a little progress on a lot of things. Surprising what you can do in a race against time for just 10 minutes. Now if I could just shave some minutes off my blog-reading habit.

Speaking of that, here’s someone who’s a lot of fun to read, my friend Michele, creator/former chef-owner of Atlanta restaurants The Supper Club and Billy Goat’s Cantina. She is currently on hiatus from the restaurant world and has stories to tell.