Top 5 Graphic Design Lessons from 2014

Happy New Year everyone! May 2015 be the year you take one more step towards achieving your dreams and create new art! Here is just a few lessons from this last year. Starting off with number five and counting down throughout January!

5.The Importance of Vectors (And Creative Cloud)

Vector images are where math and art collide. Rather than using individual pixels, vectors use mathematical formulas to calculate paths of various colors to create an image. The bonus to working with vector software to design is the ease of scaling an image. When an image is a raster image (pixel based image) it is difficult to enlarge the photo without stretching the pixels too much. Last fall, I purchased a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud and it was one of the best decisions I have made for designing. Illustrations made with vectors can be shrunk down as small as needed or scaled to massive sizes. The picture of the corgi shows that when scaled for detail, vector illustrations can preserve the details far better than an image made with pixels.

What are the main uses for a raster image then?

• Photos
• Larger images
• Photoshop

What are the main uses for vector images?

• Logos and other graphic design
• Scale-friendly images
• Illustrator

Over this past semester, I've worked with Adobe Illustrator (see my last blog post about one of my pieces here) and the versatility is amazing. Illustrator and Photoshop really work hand in hand when you want to incorporate raster images with vector elements. Although, Illustrator displays vectors, on the web vectors must be converted to raster format.

If you have any questions or want to share your vector art, just comment! Tune in next week to see what is next!

Image Sources:
http://www.psprint.com/resources/difference-between-raster-vector/

http://www.psprint.com/resources/wp-content/uploads/difference-between-raster-and-vector.jpg

Axonometric Black and White Study

Here's a "five dollar word" to impress your artsy friends: axonometric. Rather than fading into the distance to create an illusion of depth, axonometric shapes maintain steady proportions. Axonometric projection tends to be associated with "Birds-Eye View" perspective. As seen in the image, axonometric art does not retain a consistent focal point.

This piece was a product of my first graphic design course at UHD. This was created using only black objects on Adobe Illustrator. Since axonometric projection confuses the viewer's point of view, I also wanted to use the light to develop even more of an abstract picture.

Fan Art - The Scientist

Happy New Year! I hope everyone's winter break was pleasant. During the fall semester, trying to find time to create art was difficult with my hectic schedule. Although, over the holidays I've been working on a few different projects. Here is my latest piece, I just created today. 

The art is inspired by and created with lyrics from the Scientist's song, "Criminal". After watching a few of their videos on YouTube at 6 a.m., I decided to create the piece above. The heart was created from scratch but the wood texture was just a free stock photo, which I edited.

Hope you appreciate the song and the artwork! Be sure to check them out here on Youtube!

Photography Edit - Houston

Inspired by the Houston skyline, I present this image to the left!

I took this photo standing outside University of Houston Downtown on the third floor. After removing some color and tinting the image yellow, I removed the sky and replaced it with the perfect shade of yellow. Added some lovely text and some final touches and we're finished!

I'd love to travel some other cities and do this same project for their skylines. Dream big today, guys.

See you all again with some more art soon! As always, let me know what you want to see in future art pieces!

Fan Art - Blimey Cow

Calling all Blimey Cow Fans! Here is some fan art of Jordan for his new music video, "Separation is Natural". You should check out his new music video here! I really enjoyed listening to the new song because it was so relaxing and well written. After watching, I decided to make some fan art and this image was born!

Long story short, this started as a screen shot from his music video and ended up as this beautiful image. This was actually a really quick project, which surprised me. I guess when you feel inspired, you get things done! The look I was going for was a cutout vintage indie poster. The background began as a gradient from black to Jordan's shirt color. I added texture on top of the gradient to get the paper look and then layered in Jordan. After cleaning up the background from a screenshot of the music video, I was left with a rough cutout Jordan. A few lighting changes and cutout filters later, I got the Jordan you see in the image. For the words, I just selected Jordan and removed any letters on top of him. 

If you'd like to make your own fan art or cutout vintage indie image, I'd love to see it! If you're confused about any of the details, just see the individual images of the layers below. Of course, in the final image, they're faded and have different settings but it'll give you a good idea of where to start. 

Here are the individual pieces of the image: (minus some little details)

 

Series Cover - Promises - His Generation Youth Group

Hey everyone! I know it's been a while since I have shared much but I've been pretty busy lately. Hopefully, I will be able to post more soon. Here is a series cover for the His Generation Youth series, "Promises". We finished that a while back and I know it really encouraged me to really dive into the word of God and stand on a promise for my future.

In other news, my blog has reached over a 1000 views! I am super stoked about it. It's taken me a long time to get here but I can't wait to reach more people around the world. I really appreciate all my friends and family, who encourage me and continue to read my blog. The goal of my blog is to show you guys a little bit of behind the scenes of some of my projects. If it inspires you guys to create some of your own projects, I'd love to hear from you and see your work!

This series cover was used for Power Points mostly but it was also used on Facebook to advertise the series. The goal of the, "Promises" cover was to look like something a student might have created on their own notebook because students are our target audience. To create it, I started with a solid, bright green. Then, to get the paper look, I added two different layers and faded them slightly. I added one with black wrinkles and one with white to achieve a shadows look. I chose not to change the layer settings to overlay because it blended it too smooth. I wanted to see the wrinkles clearly.

Last, I added the series name and some promises on the side. There are actually a combinations of fonts. First, the solid block font for the word, "Promises" is called Post Office and I chose this font because it creates contrast between the green and gives the image almost a 3-D look. The promises in the bubbles have two fonts. The first font is the actual words and the font name is Sketch Block. The exclamation point is a different font, which is called Colleged. Sketch Block's exclamation points were too solid for my taste so I used a similar font, which actually sketchy.

Creating this image was quite easy and I hope some of my readers can recreate it in their own way for their own projects. This type of imagery is really fun to play with and create all kinds of posters and different projects. If this inspired you to create your own wrinkly poster or project, share it in the comments!

Inspirational Quote - Clockwork

Hey everyone! Here's a little something I did today after downloading some new patterns. I'm too tired to make a long post but here's a little steam punk poster I made today. Mostly, there are a ton of layers that are faded to create an intricate texture. Voltaire added at the end and voila.

First Free Desktop Background - Fist

What is a mix of photography, awesome editing, and procrastination? The free image in this this post! This week I was inspired by something I heard at a seminar to create this image. I believe it was my pastor who said, "Never quit on a bad day". To view the full size and download the background you can use this link. This is my first free desktop background to ever create and I want to share it with all my readers. It is 1200 x 1600 and will probably fit most screens. If you just play around with the settings, you should be able to get it centered just right.

It took me about 80 tries to get the right photo of my fist. Yes, that is my own hand, which made it quite difficult to take the picture. What is more, I used my right hand for the picture. After struggling to get my left hand to take the picture correctly, I recommend finding a hand model for anyone interested in doing their own photography with hands.

Pictured left is the base for the background. Editing the photo took quite a lot of trial and error. I used Photoshop for the majority of the editing and Picasa for the final touch ups. The background seen in the picture is my sister's black blanket, which meant that background inherently had wrinkles and a cloth texture. Using the magic wand in Photoshop, I removed the background completely and refilled it with black. Next, I added a new layer and filled it with red. On the same layer, I changed the layer setting to difference. Then, I added a paper texture to the image. Lastly, I fixed the lighting and added in some grungy effects. The font was an easy choice but getting the size right was tricky, due to the number of words on each line. Overall, I'd say the whole thing took maybe around three to four hours.

Hope you guys like the background! Share it with your friends!

P.S. - Just wanted to let you all know that my blog has been viewed on 3 of the 7 continents! Thank you all so much for taking time from your day to read my blog!

Photography - Rodeo Ferris Wheel

Howdy everyone!

Some dear friends of my family invited us to the Rodeo Carnival and Blake Shelton concert. I had a blast attending both. The friends, food, and fun created a day that I will never forget.

As always, one of my favorite carnival attractions is the Ferris Wheel. You can see to the left the picture I took from below the Ferris Wheel while in line. In the sky, you can see the sun just beginning to set, which created a bit of a lenseflare, which I enhanced while editing it. I also added a few clouds to the sky to give it a fuller feeling. To finish off the picture, I added two different filters. The first was an increase in saturation by applying a layer of blue above the photo, fading it to 5%, and changing the layer setting to saturation. Then, I added a layer of yellow, faded it to 20%, and changed the layer setting to darken. These two filters updated the colors and gave the photo a retro feeling.

Hopefully, I will post some pictures of Blake Shelton and other rodeo photos soon. His concert was amazing. The platform he was preforming on rotated to allow the whole stadium to see him. When the back of the state faced a certain side, it seemed almost see-through. However, when you could see Blake's front, the stage lit up with different LED backgrounds. The rodeo was amazing as well. The pledge of allegiance was sang beautifully and at the end a plethora of fireworks went off. During the pledge of allegiance, a woman rode a horse bare back with a huge American flag. The whole event was quite spectacular. I also witnessed bull riding, mutton busting, and other rodeo games for the first time.

Texas is most famous for the rodeo and history of agriculture and cattle. That night, I finally understood what all the hubbub is about. The rodeo is about spending time with people you love and get along with. It's about celebrating Texas traditions. People's hard work and talent are displayed at the rodeo, inspiring future generations to come. I enjoyed visiting the rodeo and I cannot wait for the opportunity to go again.

Literature from Plato - PowerPoint Backgrounds

Recently, I had to create a PowerPoint for my literature class. Our topic was literature from Plato. You can scroll down to the end of the post to see the backgrounds for the PowerPoints. These two images were composed of several different images edited to fit my purpose. Working with greens is always refreshing to me.

We had to analyze the Symposium by Plato. The Symposium is an interesting story. According to the story, Plato did not actually attend the party the story references. The story matches it's name's Greek meaning because it was a famous drinking party between distinguished Athenian men. The men decided in the Symposium, to give speeches praising Eros, love, instead of drinking more that night. Each character had their own pagan opinion on love. Overall, it is quite an interesting story and encourage mature readers to take a peak at it if they have not. 

In class, my professor contrasted their opinion's on Eros type of love to the more modern, "Ladder of Love".  He stated that the ladder begins with Eros, physical desire. Eros is the most shallow form of love because it is not based on anything but fleshly desire. Next is the love of friendship. Some might call this love the love of companionship as well. Less shallow than Eros because the two have begun to care for each other but it is not completely selfless. Family love is the next level in the love ladder. The love shared within a family is deeper than either Eros or the love of friendship. Blood is thicker than water, after all. The last love on the love ladder is Agape love. Of course, this is another Greek word and not a wrong use of the word agape. Naturally, God is completely unselfish. He gives everything to those he loves. Even to the point of giving His own/His Son's life for mankind. As we grow throughout our life, we work up the love ladder and strive to be more and more loving like God. 

Hearing so many different opinions on love was interesting. Each member of the class was able to give their input and share their opinions. Some people's views matched the Greek versions of love, others agreed with the Ladder of Love, and a few had different opinions. Each person was able to express their view on society's look on love as well, which was interesting because the consensus was that our society has become much like Athens. Overall, this was one of my favorite class sessions this semester.

And, yes, Platonic love was mentioned. Ironic. 

Free Phone Background - Doctor Who

Calling all Doctor Who fans! Here is a free phone background with a quote from one of my favorite T.V. shows. This particular quote is from an episode featuring the weeping angels. It is also one of my favorite quotes from Matt Smith's version of the Doctor.

Making this was challenging because of the margins. I wanted to have a door in the picture to connect to the quote. The fonts are several different sizes and the line spacing had to be set manually for it to be set how I desired. Usually, I stick to one font in my designs but this background features two.

The blues are actually TARDIS blues. I looked up Matt Smith's TARDIS to find the exact shades of blue. One of my favorite parts of this piece is the contrast between the blues and the bright white.

As for the texture behind the door, I used several brushes to get this look. I started with a solid navy. Next, I mixed lighter and darker smoke brushes in the background. To top it all off, I used a crumpled paper brush, which was slightly faded. The door itself, is just a gradient with two slightly different navies.

Do you have a favorite quote or episode from a T.V. show? Want it made into a background? Just let me know and I can make you a background! In the mean time, share this with your fellow Whovians!

Free Phone Background - France

Here is a new free phone background! Megan asked for it originally but I'd like to share it with everyone! Hope you like it!

Hopefully it will fit you guy's phone. I was trying to make a larger image and messed up the dimensions for an iPhone 4. You can stretch it out and it works fine though.

Really makes me want to go to Paris again. Going up the Eiffel Tower was an experience that I will never forget. When we were at the very top the tower was even swaying. If I ever get another chance to visit, I want to try going to the top of the Eiffel Tower and not be so scared. I absolutely wouldn't let go of the walls or railing.

Well, feel free to share it with your and comment with ideas for new backgrounds!

Free Phone Background - Love in the Air

Lately, I have been experimenting with creating clouds in Photoshop and here is the product! It is a vertical phone background and it will work for iPhones. Today, I am going to share how I made this background. Although I usually just post the backgrounds for everyone to share, today I feel like writing a more lengthy post.

To create the appropriate blue hue for the sky, I started with a light blue and a slightly darker blue. Not too different because the difference would have been obvious. The background is a gradient of the two different blues. I wanted it to be the same hue of a Texas sunny day.

For the clouds, while they appear white, they are actually a lighter version of the sky blue. It is close to white but not quite. All clouds are pretty unique so I tried to make each cloud as unique as I could. Except for the cloud hearts above the, "I"s in the words, "is" and, "air" because I wanted those to match.

Lastly, I added the words on top of the picture. This time, they started out white. To get the cloudy color on the words, I faded the words until they looked as desired. Placing the words was a bit more challenging because it was difficult to read the words when they were placed on top of the clouds. I also wanted to keep in mind the iPhone tool bar at the bottom of the screen. If placed too low, the words cannot be read. To finish the picture, I added my logo and faded it a bit to ensure it doesn't distract from the whole picture.

The inspiration from this picture actually comes from all the engagements, weddings, and babies that have been happening in the lives of my friends and family. (Well, no babies in my family... yet.) Seeing all my friends and family grow up, move out, and start families of their own has made me think that there must be something in the air.

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1 Corinthians 13:4-7 "4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."

Art and Resolutions for 2013

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone has had a wonderful break! I wanted to share with all of you just a few goals of mine for the New Year. If you'd like, you can share your New Year's Resolutions by commenting. 

Some of my goals for this year:

• Go at least a month without a soda. (1 day down and 30 more to go!)
• Do more art and graphic design and share it here!
• Keep my good grades up.
• Spend more time reading my Bible.

To close this blog post, here is a Bible verse to meditate on: Psalms 37:4 - "Delight yourself also in the LORD: and he shall give you the desires of your heart."

I just want to live, laugh, love, and learn more this year like the poster says. May you receive the desires of your heart in 2013! God bless all of you this year!

Words of Encouragement - Romans 5:8

Last post of the year! A poster for your encouragement! Romans 5:8 - "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners."

Just wanted to thank you all for reading my blog. You all are such a blessing. Just in the first year of my blog running, I have had over 300 views. What a blessing! 

Digital Art - Dandelion

Here is some digital art I did a while back. Took me quite a while to put it together. The most challenging aspect of this project would probably have been getting the textures to match. In the bottom right, you can see the text from my logo but the actual logo just stuck out too much. Sorry for not posting more in December! I have been taking a break from design but have lots of projects coming up!

Free Phone Background (Wide) - Elephants

Today, I had a request to make a phone background from a very special friend! She wanted an elephant phone background. Here it is! It is made for Android phones, which allow you to scroll through the backgrounds side to side. Usually, I make iPhone backgrounds because I know many of my friends have iPhones. I can make backgrounds for anyone who sends in a request so comment away with at least your phone type so I can make a version for your phone too!

The look I was originally going for was a bright and colorful background with multicolored elephants. They had colors splattered all their faces. But, then Victoria, my friend, tried out the background but I mixed up the dimensions! To fix this blunder, I mixed up the colors and the image to create a new look that would fit her phone. In the end, I like the collage look better than the other image. The logo even fit in perfectly! 

Like the photo? Share it with your friends!

Happy Thanksgiving - Celebrate with Pi

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I'm thankful for all of my friends and family, which includes my church family too! You guys are such a blessing to me. Love you all! The list of the people and things that I am thankful for would take up three whole blogs so I'll just say, you all are great and I don't know what I would do with out you guys.

To celebrate Thanksgiving, have some pi. Or to be specific, have one hundred digits of pie. (Note: some may be covered by an actual pie...)

 Pumpkin pie is my favorite pie on Thanksgiving but pecan pie is a close second. Of course, it is not like I would pass up too many types of pie either way. I'm not really picky.

Here is a verse to encourage you on Thanksgiving Day: Colossians 3:15 (NLT)
“And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.” 

Oh, and pies are not square.

Free Phone Background - "No Shave November"

Free iPhone background for all you guys out there in support of No-Shave November. Are any of you going to participate? Even if you don't, show your support by sporting this free phone background!

Free to use and share, as always, I appreciate you passing my blog link along to those you share it with.

Artistic Editing and NEW LOGO!

Two important features of this picture: editing that took me quite a long time and a NEW LOGO! After reading several design magazines and seeing the breath taking editing, I decided try my hand at artistic editing. I took a regular picture of a rose and turned it into something that I would be proud to hang on my wall as artwork. Believe it or not, the editing on the background took me longer than the rose itself. First, I recolored the background due to the fact that it was a much darker green than what I desired. Quite a few brush strokes and filters later, I had a finished background. The rose stumped me for quite sometime. I feared the rose would blend into the background too much. My goal was to have the background compliment the vibrant tones in the rose. The outline around the rose blended the whole picture together to complete the image.

As for the logo, I originally was going to go with something more round. However, I am pleased with the final product. I plan on editing the colors as needed for each picture. The original can be seen below in a grey version. I am really excited to finally have something to brand. You can be sure that you'll be seeing this little guy in the future.