My Favorite Color is... CHROME!

Ok. So I'm been meaning to scream this to the world for sometime (as if the whole world even reads this blog, lol) But I love Google. Best free email, best search engine, best image search, 2nd best blog (I know I use blogger, but that's only because I'm still in transition, I prefer wordpress) they have the best map/directions, and gosh... so much more. But I am constantly amazed by their new web browser, Google Chrome. 

They have very detailed documentation for people who are interested in how innovative Google Chrome is. Each tab is a separate process, so just becuase one crashes, the others aren't forced to die. They have an "incognito" browser which is great if you don't want your personal information shared with the world. Chrome learrns from your use of the browser and will put your most used pages on the opening page/tab and will remember any URL you type in the address bar. But... unlike other browsers, you don't have to worry about it jumping to "wwww.goolge.com" because once, forever ago, your fingers didn't work and you accidentally typed the wrong address (leaving it forever tatooed into the memory of your inferior browser. lol) It also doesn't just give it as a drop down menu (as in Firefox) where you have to arrow down or mouse click the option. It is honestly amazing. I am spoiled now. I find myself typeing "hot" into other browsers because I'm use to google jumping to hotmail when I hit enter. Let me tell you now... you dont' want to look up "hot" or "hot.com" lol. Trust me. 

Today I was even further impressed when I was exploring CSS designs online and right clicked as I would normall do to view the source of the page and clicked "Inspect Element" It was like stumbling open a room full of iPods or realizing you have been given free Starbucks for the rest of your life. You can actually look at the code, element by element, show only the code you're interested in, pick it apart. This is great for me because I learn the most by seeing something I like and learning how someone else made it work. I suggest just trying this sometime, espeically if you are into web design or coding. 

Other amazing Google things...

I also stumbled upon a few other awesome free google stuffs... 

Google Sites: Free, create multiple sites, customize it, link it to your domain name. I haven't fully expolored the possibilities here, but I'm sure they are pretty much endless and I intend on digging in deaper sometime in the future.

Picasa: It hasn't taken off like Flickr has, but it's great for storing photos, sharing them with other, and creating public galleries of your favorite pix to share with the world.

GoogleDocs: You can not only upload, store, and share documents online for instant access and sharing, but you can actually CREATE documents online as well. Word-type documents, presentations, spreadsheets... pretty expansive and entirely free. This is very quick and convenient for students, businesses and more. Example: Have each of your pricelists saved in Google Docs, share it instantly with a potential customer. It's incredible.  

So Now you know my latest love story. Go share it with the world, use it, explore, LEARN!!! Don't just stick with what you know simply because it's what you know. Think about all the amazing progress throughout history. Not made by doing what you always do, but breaking out from the norm, opening your mind and exploring new possiblities. 

The End. 

Google's Awesome

Brittany out.... 

SO.... I need a macro lens

Featured Artist

Hello everybody! I just felt like sharing one of my favorite photogrpahers on DeviantART. So creative and some of the most beautiful manipulation of light I've ever seen. I hope you are inspired and enjoy! Please click on the icon or link below to go to onixa's DeviantART gallery. Thanks!

*onixa on DeviantART

Diptychs - No, not chocolate covered blood-sucking parasites

A diptych (pronounced "dip-tick" IPA: [ dip'tik] (or US: [ 'dɪp.tɪk ]) from the Greek δίπτυχο [ ði'pti.xo ] di- "two" + ptychē "fold") is any object with two flat plates attached at a hinge.

In the photography world I learned that a Diptych can be created by displaying two photos displayed right next to each othere. So basically I see these things on DeviantART all the time and love them. I immediately found them fascinating, because the 2nd image really drives the mood of the artwork home. There is also a triptych (3 images, obviously :D)

I was stragely happy to learn the name of these things, as I am seeing them more and more often. It is my newest obsession in photography and very interesting to see how people use this technique.

LINKS ABOUT DIPTYCHS

Big Group on Flickr - Two is better than one

The Dipthyc Effect 

Here are some examples I found on DeviantART.

More Glowing Yummi-ness

Of my recent attempts at this style, this is by far my favorite of them all. I love the photo I started with and the lighting was already perfect, plus, music/guitar photos are awesome and lend so much to the mood. So here you go.... 

EDIT:

Decided to add this one, too, since I just love this look and I'm super excited... :D

All rights to photos belong to Gary Palmer, Captured Images. I didn't take them :) 

My Favorite Action - As of Today...

So I decided I wanted to share my favorite action these days. It's by Night-Fate on DeviantART. Some great actions there and so many to download and try for free, but this if my favorite for now b/c of the way the blues look (and the colors are all bright) . . . Anyway. Just try it! :) 

Actionset 59 (Action #3 is the one)

Sample image is of beautiful Autumn Kahler and was taken by Gary Palmer, Captured Images, Inc. 

Gordon McBryde

Please click the title above to visit one of the most creative photographers I have ever found. He just finished this new website and I'm so impressed by the photos, the simple layout is great for showcasing his incredible work. 

Gordon's DeviantART Site

The Website

More Exploding Colors

If you've been following the trend of my inspiration these days you'll remember that I was easily caught by the awesomeness of this style as inspired by wirestyle on DeviantART . So I have been reading some tutorials and trying a few new things. It still isn't to the level I want to be, but it's better than some of my recent attempts, so I decided to share it. :)

Here are before and after shots for you. If you have questions about what I did differently from my other tries you've seen just write me a comment or send me a message.

Some Fun and Useful Stuff

Ok, so I was looking around for some inspiration and help because I just HATE doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and, well, you get the idea. So I came across an author with a lot of great help... Click the title of this post to go to a great article on Design tips and scroll to the bottom for the previous 4 tips.

Through this reading I found this website, which has all sorts of color themes for designs, so I suggest taking a look for your viewing pleasure. :)

Enjoy!

My Newest Illustrative Challenge

I don't usually like to post twice in one day because it seems to sort of "knock" the other post down a bunch. But I wanted to share my newest challenge. I like to challenge myself. 

I have a habit of not finishing what I start and this sometime takes the form of the less obvious "I like to shortcut when I could do much better" problem. Which sort of happened with this one. I had grand hopes for it and could have done MUCH better getting this to really work right and be really in your face amazing. But instead I had work to do and the time it would have taken would have sucked away from time I needed to do my other things. So until I can sit down and work on this technique for a more significant amount of time, here is my latest attempt. :)

PS - I know the drop shadows on the splashes make them look flat, but I didn't have the time to work them up right. I'm sure I could have done more with the background and some more media, like vectors and swirls, but ... ok. I'm just going to shut up and post it :) lol

My Very First HTML Experience

So... many people ask me where I first learned graphic design or how to make websites, etc.. I tell them that I learned straight HTML before anything else and to this day I think it gave me a foundation for web that is impossible without studying code. 

 I always distinctly remember the feeling I had the first time I wrote out HTML code, opened the page and found a whole website had been created with only a few tags. I am always looking for a good website tutorial, but it seems everyone immediately thinks of Dreamweaver (or FrontPage, etc...) and once you get into software there are so many techniques and different "rules." With HTML, everyone uses the same language, it progresses and changes at times, but it's pretty much universal.

Today I stumbled across the same tutorial I used 6 years ago to make my first web page from straight HTML only. I loved it. I look at javascript and other codes and want to bang a hammer to my head there is just so much to force into my brain, but I love it. I love learning and HTML was one of my favorite challenges that first year of Graphic Design class.  So I'm sharing it with my readers :) 

Here is a link (You can also click the title of this blog)

http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tut/index.html

New inspirations...

Ok. So I've been going CRAZY over this style of digital art that I really want to master. Here is a link to the artist that like the most using this style so far: Pete Harrison
There are other styles similar that inspire me, so here is one in particular: JaxeNL

So I decided this will take a lot of work to perfect my style of these types of style, but here is my first work. Often I don't like to show my first work, b/c I know I'll get better. So this is by far NOT my best work, but I'm sharing it b/c I'm so excited to finally have made it (sort of) work after hours of tutorial perusing. I know the hair could use with some blending and be cut out better, but I wasn't as concerned with that as the technique. So here is a before and after shot of the effect. Made for a senior session at Captured Images, Inc.

Recent Illustrative Work

Here is some stuff I've been doing at work.

Some urban illustrative stuff:

Jacob Urban by ~silverdoves on deviantART

Some Pinup Stuff:

Website Tutorial

I have created a tutorial for creating a website using Photoshop for graphics, and Dreamweaver for HTML and simple CSS. Feel free to learn and enjoy! Use the link above (the title of this post) or this button .

Brittany

Presenting: Contact Lenses

Okay. I know I don't update this as much as some might like (I am one of the some) but I have a post today! Yay!

I made a breakthrough. A little background from a blabberer (me):
I have come up with some methods throughout the last few years for enhances eyes on portraits. My favorites still live on today, some have developed. I was looking at a brochure for colored contacts the other day. They also sell contacts that "enhance your natural eye color." This got me to thinking. Instead of repeating my process on portrait eyes all the time, why not create "contacts" that I could drop on and be done? While the creative juices were flowing they began to flow pretty flooding-ly. I decided that I could use designs to drop some cool textures on eyes. I knew I needed them to be to circular and symmetrical. So I found fractals. I won't keep going on and on, but basically I'm so excited about this new idea. Here is a photo I did the super retouching to, added the new eye effect and such and am now sharing here. Gary Palmer took the photo, © goes to him, k? And yeah, she's pretty much goreous to begin with...