Subscribe via Goodbye Loneliness: Free February 09 Wallpaper
Every month I give you a new Calendar Wallpaper. The idea behind the monthly calendar wallpaper series is that you don’t have to open a program to find out what day/date it is. Just look at your desktop et voila. Furthermore the wallpapers should inspire you. Looking at the same image over and over again is not very stimulating. Hence having a new wallpaper every month should get your creative juices flowing. February 09 Calendar Wallpaper is entitled “Goodbye Loneliness”.
As always a non-calendar version of the wallpaper is also included and the following resolutions are available:
1920×1200 (suitable for 1440×900)
1600×1200
1280×1024
320×479 (iPhone)
Previews:
Visual Guide to Layer Blending Modes in Photoshop
The most essential feature in Photoshop is the ability to work with layers. Mastering the blending modes is key for every designer/graphic artist. There are quite a few articles on the web explaining how the different blending modes work. That is all very nice and interesting, however they always only show one example. From experience I know that the blending modes depend very much on the images you use. Hence I decided to showcase the different blending modes in action using 3 different images as overlay. You’ll notice the differences.
Self-Blending:
The first series shows the effect of the blending modes when you use it on the same image as the background. All you have to do is duplicate the background layer and change the modes of the top layer image. Here’s the results. You can click on the images to view them in original size.
Tutorial: How to make retro/futuristic curves in 10 Steps
As promised when releasing the December 08 Calendar Wallpaper I’ve written a tutorial on how to make it. This is my first ever tutorial and I hope you’ll like it. If there’s anything which is not clear please ask. I’m here to help. In order to achieve the space like scenery with the glowing lines we will use Illustrator and Photoshop. You’ll learn how to add subtle effects using textures and different blending modes. So here we go.
Step 1: Draw Lines in Illustrator
We’re starting off in Illustrator to draw the lines. Create a new document with the dimensions 1920×1200. The other settings don’t really matter since the vectors will be imported into Photoshop anyway. Draw a nice smooth curve with a 4px black stroke. Draw another curve, this time with a 1px black stroke.
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Create a Realistic Outer Space Scene in Photoshop
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a realistic looking outer space image with your own home made galaxy. Without using any stock photos or any material at all besides Photoshopís filters, effects, and blending modes you will create a vibrant and lifelike creation you can use for numerous applications. Let’s begin! Read more
Mac Tip: Master the Screencap Function
Every once in a while you need the screen capture function, maybe it’s because you can’t download an image from flickr but still want it in your library or you need to record your workflow for a tutorial. Whatever the reason, Mac OSX offers two simple shortcuts to grab a screenshot. The first one makes a simple fullscreen shot. Just use the combination “apple+shift+3“. It should save it as png on your desktop. At least those were my default settings. It even makes a nice shutter sound.
The second shortcut is what makes it interesting. Clicking “apple+shift+4” gives you a little crosshair which lets you draw a rectangle of the screen portion you want grab. It works exactly like the Marquee tool in Photoshop. Once you’ve started your selection you can release the keys (not the mouse click) and
- hold ALT to draw from center
- hold SHIFT to constrain height or width (depending on your next mouse movement)
- hold SPACE to move the current selection
Once you’ve released the mouse you’ve got a perfectly cropped picture. This technique saved me already quite some time and we all know how precious time is in a designer’s life.
Tutorial: How to extract a colour scheme from a photograph
Today I picked up on a neat little trick on how to extract a colour palette from a photograph. Imagine you stumble upon a gorgeous photo (or piece of digital art) which has this special colour scheme. You could use the eyedropper tool to extract each colour individually but there’s a slicker way of doing it. This tutorial teaches you how to convert a photo into a fully functional colour swatch palette using photoshop and illustrator.
this is the photograph I got from flickr with nice warm colours which I want to use in a vector design. The first step is to open it in Photoshop. Read more
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