Day 5?

Damn, I slacked off for a few days. I'll try harder in the future. So I found tutorials on deviantART and I gave this icon tutorial a try. It opened up a whole new set of tools that I wasn't really aware of in photoshop, primarily the vector tools. I followed the tutorial step by step and came up with:


Pretty cool, huh? So one of these days I'll go ahead and make an icon set for windows or something. Maybe I'll get that warm, fuzzy I-made-it-myself feeling :)

Day 4

Just playing with live trace today. I put up a few images in the right column. I like the look of a 2 color trace. It makes me think of concert posters and tshirts for some reason. The best thing about 2 colors is that you could easily turn it into a tshirt. sweet.

Day 3

I experimented some more with the gradient mesh tool. That thing is really cool. I would love to be able to use it effectively so I will practice using it whenever possible. I ran into problems working with shapes though. I wanted to try shading a human figure so I grabbed this reference sketch from deviantART and attempted to live trace it. Once I got it traced, I was able to add a mesh to the head but not to the body. I think the fact that the body is tracing as multiple separate lines is preventing me from using is as a shape for a mesh. I will have to take a step back and look up some tracing tutorials tomorrow...

Day 2

Learned:

The Orton Effect - A cool little effect using Photoshop. I tried this out on some random stock photos from deviantART and I got some pretty cool results. I am trying to get an image host working so give me a day or two and I'll put up a couple samples.

Gradient Mesh Tool - In Illustrator. This sounded interesting so I did a little research and... WOW. This is a powerful tool that produces some amazing results when used properly. The link above has a great tutorial that demonstrates the basics of the tool. I will post my final product from the tutorial when I have time to finish it! This gradient mesh stuff takes quite a while.

Want To Learn:

Blur Transition Effect - Flash. This little effect uses action script to focus a blurred image when the mouse rolls over it. It looks really cool but is a bit beyond me at this point. Action script is new territory, it's going on my todo list.

The Journey Begins

I have decided to embark upon an epic journey of self-discovery and knowledge. This is the beginning of my Art Odyssey.

My Goal:
To obtain the skills and vision necessary to become a graphic artist. Preferably, a graphic artist who can create interactive web content using flash.

My Promise:
I will spend at least 2 hours every day following tutorials and practicing the techniques I learn to better my abilities. I will keep a journal of my progress here.

My Tools:
Adobe Creative Suite 2 and Flash 8

Day 1:

Will begin tomorrow, I'm exhausted...