All that's missing is the rabbit

About my second project, was this magic hat.  I’m really struggling trying to figure out the pen tool, but practice makes perfect!  I’m really grateful for this cool tutorial that introduced me to gradients.

I won a contest on my friend Ruth’s personal blog.  She was giving away some free business cards!  I was excited to participate in her first contest so I entered.  And then I won!  Woot.  She had given us some interesting ideas to used the cards for alternative things (since most of us readers have no reason to need business cards, you know students, moms etc.) but with my new excitement for graphic design and my own cool email, I decided to make a simple card to hand out my email on.

Simplified Glassware

I had a lot of fun making some simple glassware a while ago.

Jacob really liked them and had the brilliant idea to make letters out of them.  So I made my initials in glassware.  That way I can hand it out to people in academia (and laugh because I’m a chemist) or to potential graphics contacts and it will be appropriate both ways.    Here is a sneak peak:

My Business Card Design

I’m still struggling to learn how to use the pen tool but one day I hope we will be close buddies.  Until then, I will continue to awkwardly ask it to play with me sometimes.

I found an interesting tutorial about making and envelope. It was a bit advanced for me, as I have no idea what gradients are or how to customize them at all. The tutorial describes a lot of the steps very clearly, some even with screen shots but gradient knowledge is assumed, hopefully I can gather some soon. But considering all that, I’d say it came out pretty well.  And it was fun personalizing it a bit.

PSD Tute: Envelope

Jacob suggested a great website to get me back in photoshop action, PSDTut.  I scrolled through and my first creations were following some of the interesting (yet beginner level) tutorials at their site.

It had a nice tutorial on drawing an anime character.  I think it was more for people with tablets but I don’t mind, and my drawing, although very rough (as is the coloring), is quite a miracle.  So instead of hiding my first (and  somewhat embarassing) creation I am going to boldly begin my blog by posting it.

PSD Tute: Cartoon Guy

I do think I will stick to the simple clip art and web design than going for humanoid figures again any time soon.  But I look forward to sharing more of my creations!