Burton T-shirt

Ok, so a number of months ago I made a post about a t-shirt design for burton that I did. Well, I finally have an image of the printed t-shirt! Feel free to leave comments about the design and overall look of the t-shirt. More designs to come!

Photo retouching

Here are some pictures that I have been playing with. I took these while on vacation in Washington state. I have really gotten into making images look better and will be doing a short series on this the next little while.... This image was taken on the US side of the straight of Jaun De Fuca. The mountains in the distance are part of the Olympic mountain range.

Mural

Hey guys,
So blogspot finally decided to let me upload my image with the correct colors! Here is a mural that I am going to paint on my bedroom wall. Every wall has a lighter and a darker side to it. So what I am planning on doing is putting the more color intense side of this image towards the lighter side of the wall and the whiter bright area in the darker side of the wall to achieve a balanced look. I will take pictures as it progresses to keep you guys informed. This won't be a quick process however since I am currently in school. Thanks for looking! Let me know what you think!

I am still alive!

Well yes, I do realize that is has been an extended period of time since I have posted something on here. Here is the deal with the book cover. I was never able to get a stencil made for it because the text was too small. Never fear though! I am looking at different possibilities. As for now, I am trying out some new techniques and thought I would post one for you guys to see. I plan on doing more of this in the near future so I should be keeping up with my posts. Don't forget to comment and let me know what you guys think!

Good news bad news

Ok, so I have started on the assembling of the book cover I showed you guys in the last post. However, I have found that cutting the stencil is extremely difficult because of the size and different elements in the design. The only part remaining to do is to cut the stencil out and paint it. I hope to have this done very soon! Sorry to keep everyone waiting...

Book Cover

Hey guys,
I want both your opinions and your thoughts on this post... Below are two designs for the cover a of notebook. I am in the process of actually making this. The inside will be blank to either draw or take notes. Look at both designs. The only difference in the two is the one on the top the woman has nothing in her hands and the one on the bottom she has an object floating above her hands. Once the votes are in I will go ahead and finish making this project. The tan material is burlap and I plan on using a textured wallpaper for the red strip. Also, the final product will most likely have a different textured red strip and an elastic band added so the book can stay closed. I hope you like them!

Site Under Construction

Hello everyone!
As you can see the website is currently in a state of change. I am trying out a new look but I am running into a few problems here and there with the html code. Hopefully this will be finished soon but make sure that you check back in to see how the progress is going!

Image Manipulation

Here is an image that I made using some new brushes I got and a slight manipulation to the arms and head of person. I did a few layers of different kinds of blending to give a rich yet light yellow feel. The hardest part to this image was filling in the area where the neck was on the t-shirt. Let me know what you guys think!

Free Background

Hey guys,
Here is a free background for you if you would like it. The resolution is 1280 x 800. To download it simply click on the picture and once the image is loaded right-click the image and select "Save as...". I quickly made this using some of the brushes that were free from the link in the previous post. Hope you like it and let me know what you think!

Free Photoshop Brushes!

If any of you have done even a small amount of searching on the internet for photoshop brushes I am sure that you have come across something called "DevianArt". Well, the creator, Paul W. is now offering over one thousand free brushes. All he asks is that if you use them you give him credit for the brushes. Like most free things some are good some are bad but go ahead and check his site out here for this great opportunity!

Photo of the week!

Ok, I know that this is not on schedule but lately things have not been on schedule so here is my photo of the week! I shot this picture while on vacation in South Carolina. Let me know what your opinion is. I love the colors that are created by the sun setting! What really makes this picture though is the shallow water on the beach which adds color to the otherwise gray looking sand.

Burton T-Shirt

Here is a t-shirt design that I made for the snowboarding company Burton. This is not an official t-shirt so it cannot be printed but I did get permission from the company to use their logo prior to designing this. I am working on another design that I hope to have up shortly.

The Dividing Line

My sincerest apologies that I have not posted anything recently. I just finished my exams for the end of the semester and was preoccupied with that. However, here is a quick design that I came up with today. Relatively simplistic but kind of fun. Give me some feedback on what your opinions are!

Airplane Abstraction

This is a project for a class at school. We had to choose a theme and then get reference photos and abstract it. Most of the painting are pictures from the cockpit of airplanes. I looked at different color palettes from colourlovers and then played around with different values of the hues. I was actually quite pleased with the finished product. I have yet to recieve my grade on it. Let me know what you think!

Free Vector

Ok, so here is a vector that I made recently. Try clicking it then right clicking and selecting Save as... to save it to your computer. Open it in Illustrator to edit it. I will be trying to do more work with creating vector images and what not but we will just see where things go! Another good idea for this is to take it into photoshop and turn it into a brush. Enjoy!

T-shirt Idea

Ok, well I going to have a post about my first attempt at vector art, but I could not get the colors to display correctly on the web so instead I am uploading a design that I have started on for a t-shirt. I plan on cutting the print so that it can be used as a stencil and I plan on using spray paint to give the shirt a more authentic look. The design would go across the front of the t-shirt. I may end up changing the swashes so that is goes diagonally across the entire front side of the shirt. Also, the colors on this are not displaying correctly but it is relatively close. The text is orange, the background is black, and the swashes are a medium to medium dark blue. Give me some feedback on what you guys think.

Oops!

My sincerest apologies to everyone about not updating anything this past week. The school year is starting to wind down and with the busyness that it entails I have had a hard time doing much of anything. I also just finished reformating my computer's harddrive and forgot to save a few files so I am going to go hunting for some files and what not so please try to work with me and I will try to do my best update the blog this week! Best Regards!

Random Photo

In this photo, I composited two images together from the trip to Charleston I went on. This background image is an image of girls standing under an archway. I then placed a picture of a bench that had been scratched really badly on top of the first image and lowered the fill and opacity. I then added a filter that turned the darker shadows an orange color and finally added some text. The whole process from start to finish probably took me ten to fifteen minutes to do simply because I was playing with different filters and opacity levels on the images. I came up with the text by looking at the picture itself. I approached it as if the photo was old and the scratches and color were because of mishandling. Let me know what you guys think about this piece!

Photo of the week!

Ok, so as I promised here is the photo of the week. This picture was taken in Charleston, SC near Rainbow Row. I found this when I was walking around taking pictures of textures for future projects. It really intrigued me because of the narrowness of the alley as well as the wall with ivy crawling on it. The girls were some of my friends who were with me that day. I really like how the image has a lot of depth but the focus is very centralized and it encompasses everyone with an equal amount of attention.

Photo of the week!

Ok, so for all of you that were excited because of photo of the week I am announcing that I am actually postponing it till Sunday simply because I am going to Charleston today and anticipate being able to get some really neat shots. Well, that is all... Enjoy your day!

Sketches

Ok, so I thought that I would upload some sketches of projects that I am thinking about starting or that I have already started on. This is just to show you where I am heading in the near future and what you see will take place from these rough drawings to final product.

Blending Modes

Blending modes can be very useful when editing photos, creating collages, etc. Using a blending mode is not enough though, you need to make sure that you play with your fill and opacity levels as well. Duplicating layers and changing blending modes can give you some amazing results, just remember that the more layers you make the larger your file size becomes, so remember to flatten the image when you are done with the entire project to reduce the size of your file. Only flatten your image once you have made a duplicate of the image. Once an image is flattened and saved, you cannot go back to the different layers and make changes. Below is an image that I created using blending modes.


I composited the girls into this image like I showed you in the previous post. Once I had placed them where I wanted them and made sure their size was correct, I duplicated each of the girls and the first layer I used Overlay as the blending mode, taking the opacity and fill somewhere in the range of 45-60%. With the second layer I used Lighten for my blending mode. The "ghost" look I thought went well with the way the image disappears into the fog. The image I used for the background was a stock image I found on google.

Compositing Images

Ok, So I am going to be combining this tutorial with photo of the week. The tutorial is over putting two images together and making them look like they are supposed to be together. The image I took for this project is of three girls with a pretty boring, if not bad background.

This image was shot in a RAW format and so after making the necessary adjustments I opened the image. You can either set the color balance before or after selecting your object within the picture. I chose to do it after I had selected my object because I feel it is better to work with individual objects rather than a entire scene. This is merely personal preference and is up to you. Try and match the color to the same white balance and other necessary settings to the image you will be placing your selected objects into later.


The next step is to get your polygonal lasso tool (L) and trace the outline of one of the girls. Once the girl is selected, go to Select, then Refine Edge. Choose a black background to go around your picture while you are working with the tightness of your cropping around your selection. You may have to contract or expand you selection a bit before you add a bit of radius and feather, then click Ok. Select inverse, then press delete to get rid of everything else in the picture.


Your window should look like this. At this stage go to Filter>Sharpen and Add Noise. Try only about 2% or less.
Save your file and place it into the photo your are transferring your selections to. Free transform the image till the size is right and repeat steps 1-3 with the other objects you will be placing in the photo. Remember to hold the Shift key while you are doing this so that you don't stretch you object. Once your objects are in, you may want to add a drop shadow or create a new layer, choose the Brush tool and lower the opacity. I think for this I lowered it to 13% and brushed my shadows in. I also slightly desaturated the girls to make their colors a bit more consistent with the photo. Look for highlights in the image that "pop" too much and darken them a little. In this photo I darkened top of the steps slightly. Keep playing with the different layers and blending modes to create the desire effect. Below is the finished product.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask!

Something Clever

Ok, so if someone is going to get serious about doing graphic design and they want to start their own company they need to have a company name. Well, that was obvious, you might be thinking, but coming up with a company name and good logo that works for it are two very difficult tasks. I am currently working on a logo for a potential company called "Something Clever". Here are a few ideas that I had for the logo. Rather, it is all the same design just different color schemes. I have not settled on this as the final design nor am I saying that this design is complete, it is just an idea.


The last color scheme is too dark because the computer I was working on did not have the screen calibrated properly. I was trying to go for a dark green, just not that dark. I am trying a simplistic approach to this logo because oftentimes things can end up being over-designed and look bad even though certain elements were good. I may update with some new pictures of the logo process as it continues.

Photo of the week!

Ok, so usually photo of the week will be on Friday but since I just started this blog on Saturday I will post one. I took this picture at Jones Gap State Park with a Canon AE-1 while I was hiking. Film is a the disadvatage between the cost of film and deveolpment and speed but I think it showed itself still a great competitor in the photographic world. I really liked the way the rocks just layered on top of each other and how their shadows contrasted with the lighter areas in the photo. Also, the selective focus so that the trees aren't overly distracting is a key element. Let me know your opinions!

Grand Opening

Hey Everyone! I am starting this blog to give you guys a taste for asome of my work in the realm of graphic design. This blog will contain a number of different things. I will upload a photo of the week every other week, I will upload some of my artwork, I will upload a tutorial every week that I found useful and fun, and anything else having to do with the graphic design world. I may end up doing more but that is what I will be doing for now. Please leave comments on any of the photos or artwork that I upload and if you liked the tutorials you can drop a note there too. I like constructive criticism so please feel free to speak up! Also, if there is anything you think should be added to the site feel free to let me know. Well, I hope you all enjoy visiting this blog and that you stop in frequently