Revive and restore

Yesterday I was determined to create something in Photoshop. I fired up the PC, had the latest PSC forum challenge theme: "Restore", and did some keyword searches for stock images. I was ready!

Four hours later, I'd uploaded some pics to Flickr, done the washing up, resorted my files on the computer, toyed with buying a 42" LCD TV in the sales (still tempted... but don't need a new telly so pointless spending the money even if it could help boost the UK economy), watched a movie, prepared turkey leftovers and looked after a sick kitty. Back to Photoshop for me...

A few more hours later, and the image was complete. As usual, it's not what I expected when I started, but I'm more than pleased with the results:

Time out

Well there's been a rather large break in this blog, and indeed with creativity as a whole. Been a strange couple of months, filled with many issues ranging from death, death, death, redundancy (not mine, I hasten to add) and quite a lot of resulting activity in the day job. What little remaining free time existed has been filled with some strange moments of socialising, including film premiers with a King, dressing as a zombie santa at a cult Christmas party, seeing a Bad Manners gig, being an evil giraffe and a fair bit of feeling utterly and completely overwhelmed with existance and quite frankly needing a bit of a kip.

Phew.

I've not forgotten this place though, the blog needs posts and will continue. And the website which was so promising several months ago will be focused on once again soon.

In the meantime, here's a simple edited photo ( crop and zoom blur using Serif PhotoPlus X2) of Buster Bloodvessel:

One small step for me, one giant leap for the future

At long last! The website is coming underway nicely. A hiccup in the CSS coding has finally been fixed thanks to help from a CSS-whiz friend. Overall it seems to be doing what I want now, and so I just need to adjust a couple of colours to make them easier to read and then it's down to the nitty gritty of actually putting proper content up.

As it stands, I'm going to put a bit of everything up, as I'd like to see what it looks like "full", but once it's all there and working I'll edit it down to the pieces I'm happiest with and prune out some of the less inspired moments of genius.

Now I'm at this stage, I'll hopefully get myself back into a bit of actual Photoshopping too. Finished off some ticket designs for a Motocross presentation dinner, so am in need of a new project to tackle.

Warm fuzzy feeling

Not much acitivity recently, I'm still working on my website and putting new CSS into practice in that special way where nothing visibly changes but all the source code is different.

I wanted to post something positive from the Mini Space contest mentioned a while ago. I think it's fair to say I've got absolutely no chance of getting anywhere with the competition itself, I didn't really expect to so this isn't a "toys out of the pram" blog with added tears, but I really appreciate the few votes I've had amongst the thousands of entries. PLUS - and this is the bit where I get all warm and fuzzy inside - a couple of people have been kind enough to send me comments saying they like my work. Nothing amazing, but that people who have an interest in Graphic Design more closely linked to a current career (I'm guessing from their profiles) would take the time to say they liked my work is a nice little boost in a world that is otherwise so very competitive.

Must get back on track with it all soon!

Abracadabra.... Zoomify!

Progress update: The site now has content!

One picture, the self portrait, has been added with the aid of the "Zoomifier", which is a handy little export function in Photoshop that allows you to zoom in to picture on the site. This was mainly a test of what on earth it actually did, but it seems like a pretty cool little gizmo and for some pictures could be a quirky asset. I'll have to see how it looks once I get some other things up there, see if it looks cluttered or not. Time will tell...

A cold week followed by Bacon

This week, I have mostly been suffering from a cold.   It's been exhausting, I've wanted to play on Photoshop as the next issue of PSC came in, plus I'd realised Freewebs were being idiots so needed to switch web hosts which meant I wanted to sit on the computer trying to iron out more things on the site.  None  of this happened, as by the time I got home I pretty much flopped into the couch with a blanket to rest.

Yesterday was a little different, and involved a trip to the Tate Britain with friends to see the Francis Bacon exhibition.  This did the job and inspired me to get myself in gear, and so lots of money was spent on a Bacon book and another Design book to pour over. 

Been spending the morning uploading photos, so no progress on PS or the web site yet, but I did manage to make a very messy mess with oil pastels on canvas, resulting in a self portrait that isn't really anything like me, but I like it anyway.

One step closer to mastering CSS

Well I read the chapters, made notes from the book.. but never actually put it into the current site. UNTIL NOW! I worked out how to detach my CSS stuff and make it just attach to the pages instead of being within it, and then cleaned it all up by renaming the default style settings to things which made sense to me and updating links.

After a couple of hours of scratching my head, huffing and tapping away at the keyboard, I've managed to complete that stage of the project and the resulting webpage looks absolutely no different to before.  This is annoying.  I did add a link to this blog, but it hardly sums up the amount of effort I put into it - hey ho.

Next I need to work out the layout and make it more visually appealling. Oh, and add content. That'd be nice too.

Life 1, Photoshop 0

Bah. I've not had the chance to really get down to some PS for a few days now.  Destractions have included creative endevours of a regular type (pen and paper... the shock!) as well as a large dose of life getting in the way, but it's not been forgotten.

The artwork 'offline' counts, I think.  I'm trying to do a taster diploma course in Graphic Design to get a feel for the whole thing, see if I'm comfortable following it further in life or if PS should remain as more of an enjoyable hobby.  I'm hoping the former, but we'll see. Long way to go yet.  My first "homework" is to practise quick drawing by making sketches from a TV programme.... at least 5-8 in an episode.  Am therefore trying to find something that lasts longer than 30mins and doesn't always show people on screen... my most awkward of sketching moments!  I've so far got it to about 3, I get distracted by the show and the realisation that my sketch looks absolutely awful and requires a heck of a lot of cross hatching to cover up the imperfections.  Still, I'm going to try and keep it all whether it's good or bad so hopefully I'll see progress soon.

Be free, my Minis...

I turned the logo into birdies.

Not bad...

Today didn't go as planned

I had high hopes. An entire Sunday, with no plans. After yesterday being quite a successful PS day I thought today that would continue.

FAIL!

I watched a lot of bad TV, and in my defense I did install some new brushes and plugins onto both laptop and computer, but no actual creating has been done. Which is why I've sat down at 9:00pm in the hope of one glimmer of inspiration... and so far all I have is this:



I call it "The Monotony of the Everyday" in honour of today. I think the lightbulb fits quite nicely....

Fat Cats

Nearly forgot, I did have some more positive Photoshopping today - following on from a past PSC forum contest entry I did, where I edited a pic of my kitty Joey looking a bit "plump" (top) I gave it a go on another pic of a podgy puddy-tat. Results in the bottom pic.

One day, I'll look back on all this and laugh...

That's the hope anyway.  Some point in the future I want to be something.  Something better than what there is now... and to do that, I'm entering as many competitions and practising as much as I possibly can!

It's still not anywhere near as much as I want to, but as long as I get a few hours a week and create a couple of designs then I'm happy.

Recently having acquired some new plug-ins for Photoshop, it's a struggle creating anything when the mystery of new buttons and filters must be explored.  Not to mention brushes... I'm not sure I'll ever get my head round it all.

To start off, my current Photoshop projects are as follows:

• Design tickets for Motocross Presentation Dinner
  
• Enter MiniSpace competition
  
• Set up portfolio website (also learn CSS... ah..)
  
• Enter the September PSC forum challenge (theme: Movies)
  

Motocross tickets is going quite well, leaving it to my usual last minute before needing a first draft I put together 7 designs with slightly different elements, all based around the clipart I'd been given.  Colours and tweaks will be done when I get more back from Penny and the motocross organisers.

MiniSpace... now this is where things are looking up.  Having spotted a design competition on this as an advert on Facebook a while ago I spent a long while kicking myself when I remembered to go back to look, and found I'd missed the deadline by one day. ONE day! ARGHH!!!  Then weeks later I saw the advert again, and this time there was a new competion - design a background wallpaper for their website.  It's a nice site, looks like it will continue competitions for designers.  You can preview entries and if you're registered, vote for them.   The top 3 win prizes.  I very much doubt I'll even get in the top 100 - but that's why I need lots of practise like this.  My profile is here.  I've started trying to get ideas but it's going to be a long process...