 |
| From Fuck Pencils! I Design with a Mouse! |
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Current Project... and some websites...
THIS! IS! THE! COOLEST! WEBSITE! EVER!!!!!!11!!
On a more serious note, I did run across this site this afternoon and thought I needed to share: http://dribbble.com
From their site:
But to keep with the theme of current projects, I'm posting one of my own:
This is my sister-in-law, whose picture was torn up but is now my hands and is slowly having work done to have it repaired. I have done some work to her left eye, which had the most damage, and the rest should start falling into line. It's a large file (1200 dpi) so it takes up a lot of resources on my computer. Doing the tool strokes fill up the buffer pretty quickly, so my undos are limited and I have to save often in case of crash. But when this is done I should be able to print in a high enough resolution to make the family happy.
On a more serious note, I did run across this site this afternoon and thought I needed to share: http://dribbble.com
From their site:
What is Dribbble?
Dribbble is show and tell for designers, developers and other creatives. Members share sneak peeks of their work as “shots” — small screenshots of the designs and applications they are working on. It’s also a place to talk design, give and receive feedback and iterate toward better work.
What are “shots”?
Shots on Dribbble are small screenshots (400×300 pixels max). A shot can be a fragment of a work in progress, or an idea to generate feedback, or an iteration on a previously uploaded concept.Whoa! Before you go rushing over there to sign up and join the bandwagon, they are strictly an "Invite Only" place (elistist bastards!!! Unless of course you were going to invite me to join, in which case I for one welcome our Dribbling overlords!), but it is an interesting place to see the process of people who are in the field. You may not be able to join up, but you can certainly follow many of the designers and designs. I'm always interested in watching how people develop their ideas and getting them to a final stage. I hate to admit it, but most of my projects never really finish, they just reach a point of abandonment usually brought on by a deadline.
But to keep with the theme of current projects, I'm posting one of my own:
This is my sister-in-law, whose picture was torn up but is now my hands and is slowly having work done to have it repaired. I have done some work to her left eye, which had the most damage, and the rest should start falling into line. It's a large file (1200 dpi) so it takes up a lot of resources on my computer. Doing the tool strokes fill up the buffer pretty quickly, so my undos are limited and I have to save often in case of crash. But when this is done I should be able to print in a high enough resolution to make the family happy.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Who, What, When, Where, Why, How?
This being my first post, I thought I would explain a little bit about the blog name, as well as the current work on the title graphic.
The past several years, I've been taking design classes at Houston Community College, in the Digital Communications department. Upon graduation, I began teaching those same graphic design classes. The one class I always would see students puzzle over was having to take a basic graphic design class, in which students use black and white construction paper, scissors, and glue, in an attempt to learn graphic design principles (i.e. symmetry, implied shapes, positive and negative space, etc.). As a textbook, I like to use "Graphic Design: The New Basics" by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips, and it uses many examples of designs strictly in a black and white format. The class itself is very much like an art class in that you don't really need hours of studying dates and names or giving out pop quizzes. The teacher gives a lecture on the design principle, discuss and questions, and the students proceed to create their art by cutting out shapes and gluing them in an attempt to create a piece that resembles what they learned in the lecture.
But there are always a handful of students who claim "I just thought this was a Photoshop class?" While it's true we teach pretty much the entire Adobe suite of programs, we still need to learn how to create an image with aesthetics in mind. Since most students go on into design careers, we also need to learn to create images and campaigns that work. Critiques follow and the students learn what to do for next time.
So I would then get the inevitable "I don't need design skills. I know everything there is to know about Photoshop." To which I would reply, "...And because you know how to hammer a nail into a 2x4, that qualifies you to single handedly build the International Space Station." The usual smart assed comments about floating drywall then proceed to come up. Having to explain that slapping a drop shadow on a chromed "Hilton Hotels" logo written in Times New Roman does not a logo make (well, it does.... just a terrible one!).
The point is Photoshop is just the tool. No different than a pencil, paper, pen and ink, paintbrush, watercolors, rulers, and erasers. It's absolutely worthless unless the person wielding the tool can use it competently.
So the idea of " Fuck Pencils! I Can Design with a Mouse!" came about. It's actually been floating around in my head for a while. I attempted to originally create this blog with Wordpress on my own webserver, but since I began running across many Blogger.com sites (my wife's included) this just seemed so much easier.
Now on to the graphic...
I had the idea of a cartoon mouse being caught in a trap, a cartoon mouse with a USB tail. The concept being that an analog device capturing the digital character is somehow ironic. This is also the first image where I did the original sketch in Photoshop. I'm used to whipping out my sketchpad or notebook and doodling furiously to get the look down. With this concept, I already had it in my head how I wanted it to look so I whipped out my Wacom and doodled furiously on the workspace. One layer to do the rought sketch, another layer to refine the edges a little more, and then dropped it into Illustrator to sharpen the lines even more. It's still a work in progress and I will be adding, editing, creating, and recreating it as this blog matures.
EDIT: I forgot the add the Sketch Block font in the title was courtesy of Lukas Bischoff at Artgill.
So what plans do I have for this blog? Mostly just rants, observations, and the occasional design piece I've created or ones I think are in need of critiques.
I look forward to your patronage.
 |
| From The DoLittle's Design Album |
The past several years, I've been taking design classes at Houston Community College, in the Digital Communications department. Upon graduation, I began teaching those same graphic design classes. The one class I always would see students puzzle over was having to take a basic graphic design class, in which students use black and white construction paper, scissors, and glue, in an attempt to learn graphic design principles (i.e. symmetry, implied shapes, positive and negative space, etc.). As a textbook, I like to use "Graphic Design: The New Basics" by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips, and it uses many examples of designs strictly in a black and white format. The class itself is very much like an art class in that you don't really need hours of studying dates and names or giving out pop quizzes. The teacher gives a lecture on the design principle, discuss and questions, and the students proceed to create their art by cutting out shapes and gluing them in an attempt to create a piece that resembles what they learned in the lecture.
But there are always a handful of students who claim "I just thought this was a Photoshop class?" While it's true we teach pretty much the entire Adobe suite of programs, we still need to learn how to create an image with aesthetics in mind. Since most students go on into design careers, we also need to learn to create images and campaigns that work. Critiques follow and the students learn what to do for next time.
So I would then get the inevitable "I don't need design skills. I know everything there is to know about Photoshop." To which I would reply, "...And because you know how to hammer a nail into a 2x4, that qualifies you to single handedly build the International Space Station." The usual smart assed comments about floating drywall then proceed to come up. Having to explain that slapping a drop shadow on a chromed "Hilton Hotels" logo written in Times New Roman does not a logo make (well, it does.... just a terrible one!).
So the idea of " Fuck Pencils! I Can Design with a Mouse!" came about. It's actually been floating around in my head for a while. I attempted to originally create this blog with Wordpress on my own webserver, but since I began running across many Blogger.com sites (my wife's included) this just seemed so much easier.
Now on to the graphic...
I had the idea of a cartoon mouse being caught in a trap, a cartoon mouse with a USB tail. The concept being that an analog device capturing the digital character is somehow ironic. This is also the first image where I did the original sketch in Photoshop. I'm used to whipping out my sketchpad or notebook and doodling furiously to get the look down. With this concept, I already had it in my head how I wanted it to look so I whipped out my Wacom and doodled furiously on the workspace. One layer to do the rought sketch, another layer to refine the edges a little more, and then dropped it into Illustrator to sharpen the lines even more. It's still a work in progress and I will be adding, editing, creating, and recreating it as this blog matures.
EDIT: I forgot the add the Sketch Block font in the title was courtesy of Lukas Bischoff at Artgill.
So what plans do I have for this blog? Mostly just rants, observations, and the occasional design piece I've created or ones I think are in need of critiques.
I look forward to your patronage.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Test Post
Just to check out the look and see if it works or not.
EDIT: Playing with editing a previously published post.
EDIT: Playing with editing a previously published post.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)