January Monthly Members Art has been updated...I have 1 thru 29 in BnW loaded as well as a few in color adding more tonight...
Not a Monthly or yearly member, Click the image below to go to my store and order today...
My Art. and um... Stuff...
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Work In Progress Wednesday...
This was going to be a "What's on my work desk Wednesday" but after looking at my desk and it's current state, I decided against it...No really...
Instead I present "Work in Progress Wednesday"...Here are samples of monthly members stuff catching up, a new set of art coming and pretty much everything else I have been doing for the past week...
I have a pic almost ready for the Hogle Zoo that I need to turn in this weekend for their World of the Wild art show...
16 by 20 all hand colored....I should buy stock in Prismacolor pencils...
Also have two children's books that I am illustrating but I can't show them yet...
Met with a friend and I will be designing more sets of geocaching tags...
Instead I present "Work in Progress Wednesday"...Here are samples of monthly members stuff catching up, a new set of art coming and pretty much everything else I have been doing for the past week...
16 by 20 all hand colored....I should buy stock in Prismacolor pencils...
Met with a friend and I will be designing more sets of geocaching tags...
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Tutorial Tuesday at Pike's Academy
This is Doodle Crew member "V" -
Today I'm going to give you a drive by introduction to my favorite graphics program, CorelDRAW Suite. A good 95% or more of the printing, editing and enhancing the graphics I use before I print and color is done in CorelDraw. I have used this program through 12 software updates. Even in computer terms, that's a long time. I first found CorelDraw in version 3 around 1995. I think I got the disk in a CD-ROM multimedia kit. For those of you who remember the early days of CDs, yeah, I'm that sort of old. I am 100% self taught with this program, so what I'm going to show you may not necessary be the easiest way to do things, but it's my way. I think if you'll give the program and its many functions a try, you might find you like it.
In this tutorial, the first of two, we are going to cover converting your .jpg image to a .png type image with a transparent background. This is going to let us tuck the text or even another image behind the image, giving it depth. In the second tutorial, I'll cover using CorelDraw to create a vector image, a swirl to add with text to give the impression that our fine Dudley is an Olympic calibre skater and did some fancy footwork to skate a greeting. I'm using the new SkateDragonB image from Dustin's new release.
Because I have a CorelDraw Suite, it's a package of programs including a program comparable to Adobe Photoshop Elements. Corel's version is called Corel Photo-Paint. In general, the programs are pretty much the same. The tool we'll be using is the magic wand, which functions the same in both programs. I have opened the image in Corel Photo-Paint.
Click on the magic wand tool (small circle) and set the Tolerance at the top to around 5. Don't see the magicwand on your tool bar, the W key on the keyboard turns it on. Type and see! I have four here and that worked really well. Make sure Anti-Alias is turned off. It's the circle with the red line through it next to the tolerance setting (larger oval). This is what it looks like when it's turned on.
On the opposite side of the Photo-Paint window, you have the Objects bar.
You can see our image listed with the name "background". Hover over this and you'll get a little popup that says "background active, opacity 100%", which is Corel's way of telling us what we already knew.
You can't see through this image. To turn opacity off, simply click on the layered boxes to the side of the "Background" title on the layer. Its things like this that make Corel stand out for me. Doing the same thing in Photoshop Elements takes a couple of steps. I prefer the click and go method.
We are now ready to do away with the white background. Using the magic wand, click on the white background area of the Dudley image. You will see what is commonly refered to the "marching ants" appear around the white area.
Press the DELETE key and the white drops away to be replaced with a white and grey checkerboard pattern. Where ever you see this checkerboard image, that portion of the image is now transparent.
Scroll around the image and look for areas that are not connected to the main background image, but are areas where you want the image to be transparent, like between the blade areas on the skate and that spot under Dudley's arm, just above his tail, or even the loop in the skated scroll.
When you have all the little fiddly areas cleared of white background, it's time to save the image. If you do a straight save and keep the image as a .jpg, the original format you snagged from the Doodle Dragon Studios site, you have just taken all your efforts and chunked them out the window. The .jpg format does not allow for transparent images, so we'll need to convert this image to a format that does allow for them. In this case, .PNG is the way to go.
Under File, choose the option for Save As.
The save as box has a drop down list of all the available image formats you can use. Select PNG - Portable Network Graphics and click Save.
You may see a prompt that Objects will be merged with the background. That's fine. click OK.
The Export to PNG window will come up next. For the most part, the default settings are what you want. The main thing to look for here is the "Transparency" checkbox under Settings on the right. Make sure there is a check in the box. Click Okay and you have a transparent image ready for layering!
Next up, we'll talk about the CorelDraw program in the suite and create a simple vector graphic to combine with our now transparent Dudley.
Think you may want to give Corel a try? Corel offers a free trial on their site and you can get the Home and Student version of the software can be picked up on Amazon for under $60.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, I will be working on a second one for you.
Today I'm going to give you a drive by introduction to my favorite graphics program, CorelDRAW Suite. A good 95% or more of the printing, editing and enhancing the graphics I use before I print and color is done in CorelDraw. I have used this program through 12 software updates. Even in computer terms, that's a long time. I first found CorelDraw in version 3 around 1995. I think I got the disk in a CD-ROM multimedia kit. For those of you who remember the early days of CDs, yeah, I'm that sort of old. I am 100% self taught with this program, so what I'm going to show you may not necessary be the easiest way to do things, but it's my way. I think if you'll give the program and its many functions a try, you might find you like it.
In this tutorial, the first of two, we are going to cover converting your .jpg image to a .png type image with a transparent background. This is going to let us tuck the text or even another image behind the image, giving it depth. In the second tutorial, I'll cover using CorelDraw to create a vector image, a swirl to add with text to give the impression that our fine Dudley is an Olympic calibre skater and did some fancy footwork to skate a greeting. I'm using the new SkateDragonB image from Dustin's new release.
Because I have a CorelDraw Suite, it's a package of programs including a program comparable to Adobe Photoshop Elements. Corel's version is called Corel Photo-Paint. In general, the programs are pretty much the same. The tool we'll be using is the magic wand, which functions the same in both programs. I have opened the image in Corel Photo-Paint.
Click on the magic wand tool (small circle) and set the Tolerance at the top to around 5. Don't see the magicwand on your tool bar, the W key on the keyboard turns it on. Type and see! I have four here and that worked really well. Make sure Anti-Alias is turned off. It's the circle with the red line through it next to the tolerance setting (larger oval). This is what it looks like when it's turned on.
We are now ready to do away with the white background. Using the magic wand, click on the white background area of the Dudley image. You will see what is commonly refered to the "marching ants" appear around the white area.
Scroll around the image and look for areas that are not connected to the main background image, but are areas where you want the image to be transparent, like between the blade areas on the skate and that spot under Dudley's arm, just above his tail, or even the loop in the skated scroll.
When you have all the little fiddly areas cleared of white background, it's time to save the image. If you do a straight save and keep the image as a .jpg, the original format you snagged from the Doodle Dragon Studios site, you have just taken all your efforts and chunked them out the window. The .jpg format does not allow for transparent images, so we'll need to convert this image to a format that does allow for them. In this case, .PNG is the way to go.
Under File, choose the option for Save As.
The save as box has a drop down list of all the available image formats you can use. Select PNG - Portable Network Graphics and click Save.
The Export to PNG window will come up next. For the most part, the default settings are what you want. The main thing to look for here is the "Transparency" checkbox under Settings on the right. Make sure there is a check in the box. Click Okay and you have a transparent image ready for layering!
Next up, we'll talk about the CorelDraw program in the suite and create a simple vector graphic to combine with our now transparent Dudley.
Think you may want to give Corel a try? Corel offers a free trial on their site and you can get the Home and Student version of the software can be picked up on Amazon for under $60.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, I will be working on a second one for you.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
New Release - Winter Dragons
With all the snow we have received here in Utah in the past 2 days, Dudley decided to stay out all day playing and now he has found himself so cold he's turned blue...Winter Dragons releases today:
What would a new release be without some awesome inspiring samples from my Design Team:
Lelia - Wintery Dragons
Winterydragon release
Gramma -Dudley on Sled
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Sunday, January 06, 2013
Pikes Playground - Challenge Time
Whew...did we all survive the holidays? I know things were hectic around here. Family, food and friends frenzy!
We have a new challenge for you as well as some catching up on past winners for challenges. This next challenge will help you with all your holiday thank you cards. Yes, that is the theme "Wintery Thank You" card. Just use a doodle dragon image and you could be a winner of a image of your choice.
Before you look at the amazing talents of the Doodle Crew lets announce some winners.
Color Challenge - red and green winner chosen by random is.......
DEE, with her santa card
Tinsel in a Tangle - Christmas card winner chosen by random is......
TIGGERCHEN, with her Santa Sleigh
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We have a new challenge for you as well as some catching up on past winners for challenges. This next challenge will help you with all your holiday thank you cards. Yes, that is the theme "Wintery Thank You" card. Just use a doodle dragon image and you could be a winner of a image of your choice.
Before you look at the amazing talents of the Doodle Crew lets announce some winners.
Color Challenge - red and green winner chosen by random is.......
DEE, with her santa card
Tinsel in a Tangle - Christmas card winner chosen by random is......
TIGGERCHEN, with her Santa Sleigh
Please contact me to choose your chosen image, and thank you all for playing along. Now for the next challenge.
Wintery Thank You
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