AtomicKnits

59. Take a self portrait every month for a year - February 2009

So, I'm totally in love with grungy photo effects.  I've found a ton of tutorials showing different techniques to get a dark, grity effect and I LOVE THEM.  I am somewhat happy with this self-portrait I did yesterday.  Honestly, I kind of forgot that I was supposed to do a self-portrait this month and ack! it's the end of February. I want to do more self portraits using effects like this.  I am happiest with the way my eyes look in this photo.  There are a lot of ways you can brighten up parts of your photo while leaving most of it dark to draw attention to a focal point.  Viva la grunge.

59. Take a self portrait every month for a year - Starting Over, January 2009

I started this goal back in May (yikes!) and it turned out to be a big fail, so I'm starting over.  This will be easier this time around, because I have also started a 365 Project on Flickr that I'm also pairing with my One Sentence Journal goal.  I'm hoping I will probably do more than one self portrait per month, and then I can pick the best one for this collection.  I am REALLY HAPPY with this one I did a couple of days ago.  It's been hard for me to remember that I really DO like to make creations in Photoshop when all I've been using the program for is work stuff.

59. Take a self portrait every month for a year - 1st Portrait - May 2008

"Don't you know,
'bout your finger tips away
Is a universe of atoms
That thinks you're real something
Don't you know,
Just a couple of lips away
Is an evolutionary Bean Feast
who's insides are jumping"

-XTC

Gillion a la Lichtenstein

FACT: Gypsy hair is hard to vector.  I think I did an ok job though!  I finished this illustration up today, and I'm REALLY proud of it.  It's my 5th attempt at line art EVER and only my 2nd attempt at coloring it in!  I used one of will's photos to do the line drawing, and then I used this tutorial to make it all Lichtenstein-ey.  I know it's not the best line/vector art I have ever seen, but I think my progress is on a good curve so far.  I really want to do more of these and see if I can get any better.  My favorite parts of this piece are the hair and the opacity and colors of the glass.  I need to get better doing the line art on the facial features and I could have probably put a little more detail on the hands too.  I am so excited to be getting into this!

If we could, I would just like to have a moment of silence for one of my oldest friends, who has always been there for me throughout the years: the polygonal lasso.  After seeing how superior the pen tool really is, I probably won't use you at all anymore.  It's been a long strange trip, my friend, but all journeys must have an ending.

ATTN FRIENDS: none of you are safe.

Illustrating Winston

Yesterday and today I found myself returning to practicing my illustrating.  I took a photo of one of Aunt Shelley's horses, Winston, and made a line drawing in Photoshop.  I colored it in with one of the standard watercolor brushes.  You can TOTALLY tell, but I wasn't trying that hard when I was painting him.  I really like the messy painting look, but next time maybe I'll use different kinds of brushes so the splotches aren't so uniform.  I really like how I did the lettering.  I found that neat Western stamp font from dafont.com, and I created a type mask with it and painted within the selection with the same colors I used for Winston's body.  I also LOVE LOVE LOVE how this looks like a CD cover.  After I cropped it, I thought to myself 'heh' and went back and made it the square it should be.  Winston's debut album.

Now, the computer I use to do these (*COUGHCOUGHCOUGHMYWORKCOMPUTERCOUGHCOUGH*) only has Photoshop 6, so that is what I am using.  I would love to try these out in Illustrator, so I could put them on threadless and hang out with Tim and Beth, but I will have to wait until I have time at home that I want to spend working on this stuff instead of knitting.  Photoshop 6 is teh suck, but it's way better than nothing.  It is registered to "Ben" who I guess used to use this computer before me years ago, so thank you "Ben." Your legacy lives on.