Many of you will remember getting your class student sheets from the belly of my favorite thumb drive… THE PANDA… of “Respect the Panda”, and “Where is the Panda Butt?” fame.  He is cool, but I may have to upgrade…  Because other than anything APPLE or BERNINA, I love, love, love PANTONE.  Check out their Back-to-School drive!

PANTONE is all thumbs

You can pick your fave color as well as your desired plumpness and the prices are not out of line either.  Click here to get all the goods.  http://www.pantone.com/pages/flashdrives/product.aspx.

They really should pay me… or at least send me a free pink one, eh?

Enjoy these warm and muggy days, later, LI

Caseys ABC

Casey Klhan (see below for his link) did this great card in our Photoshop4Artists Workshop ABC class on Dollstreet!? He had many striking paintings to choose from and this was a perfect choice for the design he created.? I love the texture and rich color, and the composition works well with the box of copy on the right.? So how did he do that?? Very simple in Photoshop!

First, open your file in Photoshop.

Next, create a new layer and with your Marque tool (Dancing Ants Tool) create a square and fill it with 50% grey

Now change the Layers Filter from Normal to Screen and play with the fill slider.? Wow, cool, eh?? You can also do this on the layer that your art lives on, but this allows you to play around indefinately without the fear of ruining your original layer.

You use any shape to make your lighter area, for instance, below I have created a layer with a 50% grey brush stroke.

This is what it looks like without the blue layer turned on and this is what it looks like with the layer showing (on!)

You could put some notes about the color blue in that space, or your grocery list – you can also fool around with the grey layer, maybe give it some soft edges by feathering, use a cool brush and distress it, add curlie-q’s, you get the idea.

Enjoy your day and Play, Play, Play!

Go see Casey’s wonderful work, click HERE

The Magic of the Square Bracket

You have to fall in love with your keyboard sometime, so let this be the day!? To the right of the letter P are the Bracket Keys, they are called the Square Bracket and the Curly Bracket.? You can re-size your brushes in both Photoshop and Elements by using these handy keys.? The [ bracket will make your brush get smaller and the ] will make it larger.? This is perfect for selecting and drawing.

To try it:? Open a Photo, choose a brush, fill it with a color by clicking on your color box and choosing a good contrasting color, Draw, Stop, Press on the Bracket Keys, draw again, Voila!

Bracket Trivia from Wikipedia

Square Brackets [? ]

• Square brackets are mainly used to enclose explanatory or missing material usually added by someone other than the original author, especially in quoted text.[3] Examples include: ?I appreciate it [the honor], but I must refuse?, and ?the future of psionics [see definition] is in doubt?.
• The bracketed expression [sic] is used to indicate errors that are ?thus in the original?; a bracketed ellipsis [...] is often used to indicate deleted material; bracketed comments indicate when original text has been modified for clarity: ?I?d like to thank [several unimportant people] and my parentals [sic] for their love, tolerance [?] and assistance [emphasis added]?.
• Square brackets are used in mathematics in a variety of notations, including standard notations for intervals, commutators, the Lie bracket, and the Iverson bracket.
• Square brackets can also be used in chemistry to represent the concentration of a chemical substance or to denote a complex ion.
• Square brackets (called move-left symbols or move right symbols) are added to the sides of text in proofreading to indicate changes in indentation:

Curly brackets or braces { }

• Curly brackets (also called braces, or “squiggly brackets”) are sometimes used in prose to indicate a series of equal choices: ?Select your animal {goat, sheep, cow, horse} and follow me?.
• They are used in specialized ways in poetry and music (to mark repeats or joined lines). The musical terms for this mark joining staves are accolade and ?brace?, and connect two or more lines of music that are played simultaneously.[8] In mathematics they delimit sets. In many programming languages, they enclose groups of statements. Such languages are therefore called curly bracket languages.

• Indian programmers often use the name ?flower bracket?.

This is the Photoshop tip for Wednesday the 1 of July.

The first Real Life Class starts on July 11th, 2009 and on line JUNE 29th 2009!

Creating Your Art Business Card (ABC) in Photoshop
Ever reach into your bag to get a pen, and paper to write your number and email address as a potential client waits impatiently?  Time to create a unique business/calling card!  In this class you will get exact directions to design, ?perfect? and print a business card that promotes your art professionally.   We guarantee NO computer gobbledygook, just simple art talk…

Two 2-hour hands-on workshop at our studio in North Canton. Ohio.

First Session:
The Big Ten (Li?s questions to ask yourself before creating a great design.)
Sketching out your card
Setting up a template
Importing artwork/sizing etc
Basic selection skills
Basic color correction
Layering

Handout explaining the process so you can do it again (and again and again) and our ?Design Idea? sheet.  You will also recieve a disk full of graphic goodies to enhance your Photoshoping Play!

Second Session:
Working with type
Preparing your card to send to the printer for a trouble free production
Review and Question/Answer
Prepress Checklist and How-to handout

Cards will be sent to the printer and you can pick them up the week after the class.
*You must have a laptop with Photoshop or Elements loaded for this class.  We do not supply computers or programs but will be happy to advise you on getting both!

$40.00 per session
Plus Cost of Printing Cards
250 Full Color Cards, Glossy UV Coating        $35.00
500 Full Color Cards, Glossy UV Coating        $45.00

Other Photoshop4Artsits Workshops
Creating a Printed Postcard or Greeting Card
Photoshop Image Basics ? getting the most out of your files WPA! (WebPrintArt!)
Drawing and Painting in Photoshop
Mixed-Media Digital Collage
Drafting Craft Patterns In Adobe Illustrator

To sign-up for the online class go here: CLICK HERE!

To sign up for the real life class and get more info, email Li at

Please have a look at our Private Lessons page if you need help with Photoshop or Elements.