collection of thoughts

you guys, it is raining sideways outside right now. like pouring buckets, howling wind, the whole nine yards. and it's one of the things i like about living on a tropical island.

*****

i've been working on my graphic design classes and just finished a class on design & composition. i took quick a few art classes in college, and most of them seemed to expect that i possess an innate ability to know what a good composition is without anyone ever telling me. this particular class was SO helpful - very straight forward and clearly stated explanations. here's a couple of projects i turned in:

the first two are addressing different kinds of negative space, using the theme "ode to bicycles"

the second image is a poster for a "mostly mozart" concert. i used images on flickr, found under the creative commons license.

what do you think?

*****

last night, during another bout of insomnia, i was perusing some websites and guess what? i found a doula on island who teaches a natural birth class!! just in time too...my due date is coming up quickly. i am so excited to start the class and relieved to have found another way to approach childbirth, rather than the negative stories that i addressed here.

indesign logo

my most recent class is focused on indesign - a program i've never used before. i'm getting the hang of it, slowly. my last assignment was to create a logo for myself or my business. i gave it a try, but i tell you what, creating your own logo is so much harder (for me) than making one for someone else. here's my latest attempt:

what do you think? kinda fun, no? i, of course, incorporated shades of blue into it and tried to make something fun that would look good printed by letterpress.

illustrator cd covers

i've moved on to my next class & this one is on adobe illustrator basics. so far, it's pretty difficult. but i'm learning quite a bit and am having fun trying out new things.

i thought i'd share my last assignment with you. i made two cd covers that are part of a series. so here's what i did:

cover 1:

cover 2:

i used my wacom tablet a ton for this project. my eye/hand coordination is improving (slightly). what do you think?

photoshop filters!

since i've been spending lots of time in photoshop, i thought i would share some of my assignments with you. this last assignment involved creating a visitors guide cover for my hometown. i created one for alaska, since most of my pictures weren't specific to anchorage.

after choosing a number of photos, i had to edit them - adjust brightness, sharpen certain areas, smooth other areas, etc - then apply appropriate artistic filters that would showcase the images without going over the top.

bear pic - i wanted it to have a painting type look to it, but still keeping the detail.

bear combo

rooster pic - i accentuated the edges and made the colors a tad more vibrant, in addition to removing the little signs.

rooster combo

trout pic - i used the cutout filter - which i really love - but toned it down to still show off the color & spots on the trout.

trout combo

click on the link below the picture (or open in a new tab), then click to zoom in to see a larger version - i couldn't get blogger to upload a larger pic.

what do you think?

photoshop practice

i've been working a lot on my photoshop and decided that i needed to start practicing with some of my photos. ideally, i would like to post them once a week or so, but we'll see.

the image quality of this picture was poor to begin with, since it came from my phone. but i figured i'd give it a go anyway.

here's the original:

and here's the photoshopped version:

mia is pretty grainy and i'm not thrilled about that, but at least now you can see her face. keep in mind i only just got through my 3rd photoshop lesson. what i learned from this attempted edit: good picture quality is a must! and editing an all black dog is hard.

i'm guessing you'll be seeing a lot of photos of the dogs being adjusted in photoshop since i have about a million pictures of them :)

online classes

my online courses started officially on december 1st and i'm so excited about them! the first few days are an orientation period focused on how to upload assignments & use the whole system. one of the things i had to do was create a student profile to explain what my learning goals are for the program & some other little tidbits of information. i also had to list a quotation...and since i don't have a ton of quippy remarks just laying around, i did some searching and found this:

source

so true, chuck, sooo true.

i'm planning to stop by some shops downtown for the first friday art walk & see if i can talk hubby into going to a movie (i want to see black swan). what are you up to? have a great weekend!

its official..

i will be starting classes in DECEMBER!!!

honestly, i'm a little scared & excited all at the same time. this program is a pretty big commitment for the next couple of years. sending in the first payment actually had my heart rate speed up...

but these classes are a step in the right direction, a start to having a solid foundation in the digital world. i'm looking forward to some new tools (hardware & software), trying something new, and taking some classes (which i haven't done in 6 years).

i'm excited at the prospects & opportunities this will bring me down the road. now i just have to stay focused on the tasks at hand...the upcoming art shows!

classes

for quite some time (years actually), i've been looking into taking some online graphic design courses. i've dabbled with photoshop & illustrator over the years and realized that i needed a foundation with these programs (plus others) in the world of digital art.

my college training was focused on traditional methods of work (meaning no computers allowed) and the head of the art department at the time did not embrace the idea of learning digital methods of creating art. this left me with a pretty big handicap when it came to working & manipulating my images on my (old) laptop...

letterpress printing has gone from traditional hand set lead type to photopolymer plates...and, with that, the possibilites for letterpress printing have expanded to a whole new exciting level! and because photopolymer plates are the direction i want to go with my printing...i've decided to do something about it and take some classes.

i won't plan to start until december, but i'm getting signed up pretty soon. with this new adventure, i'll also be purchasing a macbook pro (YES!!!) and adobe software (YEA for student discounts!!) i'm just waiting on some answers to a few last minute questions before i sign up...wish me luck :)

the artistic stylings of me

i was reading some archived entries at The Fierce Beagle and learned that the author, Erin, has some mad skills at drawing. see proof here. sweet giraffe, right?

that got me thinking about things i used to doodle in high school notebooks, margins of paper, binder covers, etc. and the only consistent thing i remember doodling was this (forgive the cell phone picture):


apparently, a smiley face and hearts with my current crush's initials just didn't cut it. after years in college taking horribly difficult drawing classes, i'm sure i could probably come up with something more realistic. but i like to kick it old school.

blast from the past

so the other day, i was at the pharmacy (due to an obnoxious, nagging cough that hasn't completely disappeared yet) and the pharmacist was a girl i went to high school with! that got me thinking about how quickly 10 years have passed. i wonder what other people are up to. i know i've changed a lot since then. maybe our reunion will be like the movie grosse point blank, excluding the guy trying to kill john cusack.

i finished gluing book covers last night and have some binding to do tonight, then packaging and packaging and....packaging. sweet. i wonder how many things puppy will try to eat tonight.