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Detroit & Boston, United States
Artist at heart, video editor by trade, photographer, aspiring documentary filmmaker, coffee slinger, cat herder, animal lover, US Air Force Iraq War Veteran, humanitarian and funny. A creative soul trying to find my place in this world.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Vector Illustrated Portrait: Natasha

I always have fun creating vector portraits of people I know. It makes it more challenging to get the 'likeness' and their personality to show through. This time, I chose to do a vector portrait of my cousin, Natasha. Now, there are oh so many ways and techniques to create vector portraits but this one is modeled off of another tutorial at PSDTuts+ . Many of the steps are taken from this tutorial and I have deleted or added information relevant to my piece.
Step 1 Before we start we need to find our inspiration. For this tutorial, I used a photograph of my cousin and opened it in Photoshop. Also, one big mistake that I accidentally overlooked, if you're making the vector portrait in Photoshop - set the resolution to 300 pixels. I left mine at 72 which means that I cannot enlarge it much without it looking pixelated. Alternatively, you could just create the vector portrait in Illustrator and avoid this mess altogether. Personally, I like making them in both. Photobucket Step 2 You will be using many layers to create this artwork, so try to keep everything organized. Create a new layer over the image and name it "Head." Then grab your Pen Tool (P), and make sure it is set to Paths. Photobucket Step 3 Hold Ctrl + Space to select your Zoom Tool. Then zoom into the face. Trace the outline of her face. Do the same thing and trace the outline of her face, body and t-shirt. Use the eyedropper tool to select a colors for each of these elements. Photobucket Also, be sure to create layers and groups to keep organized. Important: Make sure you are working on the corresponding paths and layers. If you are working on the Hair Layer - make sure the the Hair Path is selected, too. Photobucket Photobucket Step 4 Now a tricky part, the Eyes. Maybe you would like to create a Layer Set only for the eyes, since we are going to use many layers. Create a new layer called "Eye." Then Zoom in and draw the shape around both eyes. Then fill it with white. Create a new layer, and name it "Iris." Draw the path around the iris and fill it with black. Create a new layer, and name it "Eyeliner." Draw the path around her eyelash to contour the eyeball. Fill it with black. Use the Eraser Tool to erase all the white areas that surpass the Eyelash/Eyeliner area. You can make the eyeliner and the eyelashes together, but I chose to do them separately and made another layer and path for each of them. Create a new layer, and name it "Retina." Draw the path around the retina and fill it black. Create a new layer, and name it "Highlights." To give the eye a little more life, select the highlights on the iris and fill them with white. Note: The highlights are shown in the next screenshot after I added some shadow and highlights. It should start to look something like this now: Photobucket Step 5 Now we will give the eyes a little depth. Select the "Head" layer. Draw paths around the eyes. Right-click the path and choose Convert Path To Selection. Grab the Burn Tool (0) and set the Exposure to around 25%. Darken those areas trying to follow the picture’s intensity. Feel free to play around with the Dodge and Burn tool and their parameters such as "Shadows, Highlights and Midtones" from the drop down menu and also the opacity. Try different combinations and see which works well with your portrait. At this point, I have also added some outlines for the nose and smile lines and then used the dodge and burn tools to add some shadow and highlights to give the portrait some depth. Similar steps to creating depth and makeup for the eyes. Photobucket Step 6 Go back to the "Eye" Layer and create a layer called "Eyebrows" above it. Create a path around the eyebrows and fill it with a color picked with the eyedropper tool (I). Step 7 Create a new layer at the top and name it "Mouth." Then draw a path around her mouth and fill it with a color chosen by, YES, the eyedropper tool again (I). A very handy, time-saving tool. Draw the contour around the darker area in the middle of her mouth. Right-click to make it a selection, then open curves (Command + M) and darken it a little. To finish it use the Burn Tool to darken shadow areas around her mouth in both the "Head" and "Mouth" layers. I also used the "stroke" effect to create a lip liner. I just selected the same shade as lips and moved it on the color pallet a bit for a little contrast. Step 8 With the Burn Tool still selected, select the "Body" layer and darken the shadow areas in her neck. Just compare the shadows and highlights in the picture and add any finishing touches to your portrait. Once you get the effect for shadow and highlight, just knock the opacity down so you place the shadows and highlights in the correct places - then put it back up to 100% obviously. Step 9 Select the "Hair" layer. Use the shape line tool and add varying sizes of lines to the hair. These will be the highlights. After you have enough, use the smudge tool to simulate soft, wavy hair. Photobucket Step 10 Look over the portrait and ensure there is nothing you want to tinker with. The beauty of vector portraits is that they can be as detailed or simple as you want. This is somewhere in the middle. Here is my final vector illustrated portrait of Natasha. Photobucket Here is another vector illustrated portrait that I finished today. Photobucket

Thursday, December 22, 2011

MFA Grad School Apps Completed!

I've gone through lots of major life changes this past year. I moved from Australia after living there nearly four years back to my hometown in Michigan. I haven't lived here in thirteen years so it's been an adjustment but a pleasant one. So, some of these life changes was my decision to return to graduate school. I served in the USAF for four years largely due to their generous education benefits so I thought there was no better time for me than to return to school by next fall. I have been working on my applications the past few months. I was busy creating new art work, building my portfolio and rewriting my application essays - I've lost count how many drafts I have rewritten.

So, now they are all complete and turned in. It's one major stress out of my life and now I wait until the decisions are out in April. Wish me luck! :)

Holiday Gifts On The Cheap

Yes, it's been awhile since my last post again. Not writing regularly is a habit I'm desperately trying to break but it always seems there is something. Well, I have been busy with LOTS and LOTS of art things - I just have not kept the blog up to date.

If you have been affected by the economy like many of us then why not create some holidays gifts. In my opinion, I always prefer something from the heart. I've always loved Judaica, Jewish art and Islamic Art. A key characteristic of these art forms is the prohibition of the depiction of any human image. So, I decided to make some Chanukkah gifts this year for some friends.

I started by painting various watercolor washes.

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I then cut out some stencils from the watercolor washes and pasted them onto the background of another watercolor wash.

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Then I picked out a pretty frame. I picked up some great ones from Home Goods - they have great prices. Or, Michaels always has frames on sale and check online for additional coupons.

Here is one finished one. I have made many this holiday. So far, everyone has liked them.

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That's how you make a cheap holiday gift this year.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

If you need Tech Help - Search Forums

Anybody involved in the digital arts field be it photo, video, graphics and/or web is undoubtedly going to encounter technical problems. These could be very simple general problems or bugs that many others have figured out a work around or they could be specific to the user and their equipment and/or software.

My guests have left, the house is quiet so I thought it was a good day to update my demo reel. I wanted to digitize some projects I had on a mini DV tape and I already encountered my first technical problem on my computer. I won't bore you with the details, but if you are interested it involves a Sony HVR Z1 and Adobe Premiere Pro CS5. You can find my problem here.

The purpose of this post isn't to recruit the talents and man hours of some willing individual to solve my problem (although, that would be nice) but rather to remind you if you are having technical difficulties and are running out of hair to pull out then check out some of these helpful tech forums:

Adobe Forums

Avid Forums

Creative Cow

Final Cut Pro

They have saved my rear and many occasions and you can often (after usually many hours of sifting through the threads) work out your problem. If you can't, then create a new thread.

Remember, forums are your friends.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Editing Suite is Up and Running!!!

Finally finally finally!!! I picked up my PC editing suite yesterday. I ordered half of the components from Newegg and the other bits and pieces from Microcenter. Here are the specs in case you're interested:

+ i7 2600 K
+ GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3P
+ G-Skill Ripjaw Series 4 GB x 4
+ PNY NVIDIA Quadro 4000
+ SSD 120GB INTEL 320 Series
+ WD 2TB BLACK SATA 6.0 GBS x 2
+ CORSAIR H70 Liquid Cooling
+ Corsair 1000W Bronze Certified Power Supply
+ Windows 7 Home Premium
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Since I picked it up yesterday I have just been installing software. Adobe Production Suite CS5, Adobe Lightroom 2 and various Digital Juice products. B&H Photo Video has a 24 hour sale on Lightroom 3 - it's 50% off and on sale for $149.99 right now. If you don't already have it, I highly recommend this program. Especially when processing large amounts of images this will save you lots and lots of time compared to processing images in Photoshop (one at a time) or other RAW editing programs.

After all of the software is installed - I will be getting back into the swing of things and posting tutorials, tips, tricks and other bits and pieces. It's great to be back after nearly a one year hiatus.

Cheers

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Recent Work - Sketches and Watercolor

Hello -

I finally purchased all of my computer components and dropped them off for my system build. I'm hoping by early next week I'll have a new work station. I have been waiting, planning and saving for literally a year. In the meanwhile, I've gotten back into my fine arts. I'm applying for graduate school and I need to build my portfolio so here are some recent fine art pieces. I've signed up for a couple continuing education drawing classes at a local community college. Here are my recent pieces:

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...and my watercolor...

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The first three are just some sketches. I'm particularly fond of my watercolor. I have been working on it on and off for the past three weeks. How do you know when you're work is done? For me, I just know. You mull it over a bit and when you haven't touched your brush or pencil to the paper - it's finished.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Funds Received

Well, I finally got my tax return and as soon as I finish shopping for parts at www.newegg.com I'm hopefully going to have my editing suite back! Gosh, I have been waiting so long for this it's beyond ridiculous. Thanks for your patience, I know I've nearly run out.
Another big change I failed to mention - I've relocated from Melbourne, Australia to Detroit, MI. It's good to be back in the D.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Service Interruption

Hello All -

If anyone is following this blog - I just wanted to let you know that due to personal home circumstances that it will be some time before I'm able to post anything new. I no longer have an editing/graphics computer and haven't had one since November, so until I purchase a new system I'm afraid this blog will be very sleepy. I look forward to coming back online with new tutorials.

Thanks,
NK