High Strung Guitar

Just trying out using the puppet warp function in Adobe while putting together a logo for my guitar interest group. The string I created by multiplying hundreds of little oval shapes and merging them together while the rest of the textures were from photos I took around the house. The only piece that is not originally mine is the texture paper that I used to fake the label behind the strings. That was a photo I snagged from someone as an old paper texture that had a french title of a history book on it. Oh yeah, the pick is also a stock photo that I changed the color and texture of before using. 

Batch of Cookies

I wish I had learned about this three weeks ago before I went through and did all the photo cropping for the office photos. There were some aspects of that work that would not have been conducive to this but then again some aspects of that work that might have benefited. adding a border for example to a 450x150 pixel picture was not something I wanted to do for all those items. Next up learning to batch apply these actions in Photoshop.

How to Create Actions in Photoshop from Yanik Chauvin on Vimeo.

A Okay Logo Sticker - Distressed

This is a little logo sticker I made for myself using a mixture of skills including the initial idea which came from this blog. The items  I used to create this particular piece did not come from the linked tutorial but the idea for the icon did come from the blog. I like the metallic feel to this particular distressed sticker.  Let's call it my art logo sticker. I'll see if I remember to include it in future pieces I do. 

Be My Valentine?

Blessed Text Effect

New Text Effect

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, 

 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Blessed are those who mourn, 

 for they will be comforted. 

Blessed are the meek, 

 for they will inherit the earth. 

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, 

 for they will be filled. 

Blessed are the merciful, 

 for they will be shown mercy. 

Blessed are the pure in heart, 

 for they will see God. 

Blessed are the peacemakers, 

 for they will be called children of God. 

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, 

 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:3-12

Water Effect

Here are a couple of my latest projects. I've been enjoying learning new techniques for Photoshop and I've created a few new backgrounds. Enjoy!

Take the Big Splash!

Baptism by Fire

10 Years Ago Today

I was a student at a small liberal arts college studying theology. It had been a busy year, I had just moved to Texas from California and had just gotten used to my room and roommate and my classes when I showed up for class on September the 11th, 2001 and my political science professor, Mel Hailey, gave us the day off and told us instead of coming to class we should watch the news. So, I went to the student commons on campus and watched one of the TV's there while grabbing breakfast and listening to the buzz of the students: "Buildings are coming down." "Who's doing it?" " Was it on purpose or an accident?" We all sat glued to the screens around campus watching the news.
For those of us still in college it was not a clear message from a fanatic backing up years of negative propaganda against US foreign and national policy, it was simply a crazy act of hatred. I'm sure there were those who had been more cognizant of the global affairs than I was but even with a full grasp of the information there was not emotional empathy on the part of my generation, a generation that had, for the most part, been only still in diapers when Iran, Libya, Afghanistan and other such Middle East countries had come up on US radar as places of conflict.
We were kids coming of age at the end of the Cold War, unaware of the powder keg that had been lit years ago during the back and forth struggle for power around the boundaries of the dangerous USSR. It had never occurred to me that the homeless guys wheeling themselves through the Metro in Moscow legless, toothless and drunk to the gills were the result of battles fought in Afghanistan only a decade and a half earlier. Had the information been lavished on me, I might have had an opinion when the towers fell. I would have known why there was so much anger in the hearts of a nation of "tools."
There's nothing worse than being discarded as a tool after being used to do another nations dirty work. Now that I am nearing 30 and remembering that day when everything took a sharp left turn, when the fanaticism of one man brought a whole religion back onto our radar screens and our destination was locked into a spiral of conflict and empty resolution. We will continue to see the ripples of this event for a few more years and then another drastic event will shake us to the core and leave us recalling the date and time of it's transpiring. It will change our moods and possibly leave us traumatized ever marking our calendars and watching to see how long our memories hold to events that shape our decisions about things to come.
Until then watch the skies for falling buildings. My condolences to all who have lost never to regain.