On my Bookshelf

I started a great book a week ago written by Dr. Nick Trout. It is called Tell Me Where it Hurts. Trout has a great sense of humor and a real sensitivity to his subject matter. I am only half way through and yet I highly recommend this book for any animal lover. He discusses the bond between humans and their animal companions with humor and compassion.

Hope your Sunday is long

LONG VOWELS
Originally uploaded by idahostudios

This fun image is a flickr find. We are planning to go to the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth today, stretch a few canvas prints tonight, and maybe watch a movie. Yep, we will try to make this a very long Sunday. Of course first the dogs get to go over to the lake for a quick walk.

Floating Trees

Vector illustration by LoneWolf

US: Yunique Solutions adds new PLM tools

source: just-style.com

"Yunique_Solutions Inc, the developer of product_lifecycle_management solutions for the fashion industry, has added new image management capabilities to its flagship PLMOn solution.

The tools include an advanced digital storyboard, image sharing, and Adobe integration, and are aimed at addressing the needs of fashion designers, merchandisers, and product developers.

The image cataloging tools enable users to place materials, trims, sketches, technical drawings and pictures into a digital storyboard for use in line planning, line selection, and visual collaboration with suppliers and customers.

Once design and merchandising concepts are added, the digital storyboard serves as a natural starting point for product developers to launch new raw materials and product/style development from this visual workspace.

The browser-based software is said to be fully compatible with both PC and Mac operating systems and allows users to work directly with popular design file formats, including industry-specific CAD systems.

Yunique has also developed Adobe Illustrator tool boxes that provide fashion-specific brushes, symbols and other design tools for PLMOn users.

Product information can be shared and modified by in-house teams, across the supply chain or with customers."

Skateboarding Shapes For Photoshp

Skateboarding custom (vector) shapes for Photoshop by lukeroberts To download, click here.

Birch Portrait in home

Birch's Da sent this on Friday. His portrait is larger than life! These colors seem to go well with both the living room and Barbara's clothing.

Other clients... please send us pics and we will post them on the blog!

Labrador retriever Art and Video

Over the years we have done probably a hundred Labs. This week Allison set us up with another YouTube video and this one is for Lab lovers. Don't worry there are not 100 slides, it is a very short little clip.

Vector National Flags Collection

In February I posted a detailed scalable political vector map with most countries, well today I found another large vector flag collection for Adobe Illustrator. The pack contains 274 national flags, all vector, THANKS to raknoob. The archive file is a self extraction application (.exe file) download it from here. I'm not sure that you can run an exe file on a macintosh, so for all mac users I made a zip archive available for download here. Enjoy !

Bruno

"Bruno"

Busy today printing & shipping. I hope to clear my plate a wee bit so I can work on a mosaic project this weekend.

iPod GEL progress bar Illustrator Tutorial

thanks to www.tutvid.com

Vector Camouflage Pattern

This is a pattern tutorial for Adobe Illustrator I came across this morning, browsing computerarts.co.uk

"Have you ever needed to create camouflage patterns in Illustrator, but not known the best way to go about it? Derek Lea demonstrates his own time-saving method" Full tutorial and files

Pathfinders and Shape Modes in Adobe Illustrator

Pathfinders and shape modes in Adobe Illustrator are an important feature. If once you start to feel comfortable with them you’ll find them pretty handy for drawing all kinds of complex objects. Before you start drawing the shape of your object you should first analyze it. Look for geometric shapes within the object’s shape. Which shapes can be used to create your final object? Look for pkaces where you can use the ellipse or the rectangle tool. Most pathfinders delete objects, so have in mind to make additional duplicates. I found a great link (click here) with video explanation of the different pathfinders.I'll post more stuff about pathfinders and shapes pretty soon.

Draw Freely : Inkscape New Release

24th March

The Inkscape community today is announcing the release of the newest version of its open source vector graphics editor. Inkscape 0.46 is a major update that introduces native PDF support. The implementation of PDF support in Inkscape provides an easy, open source solution to editing PDF documents.

Tons of new features and performance improvements are included in this release. Dialogs now have the ability to be docked to the editing window. Gradients can be edited completely on-canvas. The new Paint Bucket Tool fills bounded areas with color. A new 3D Box tool helps create perspective-correct drawings. A new Tweak tool provides an intuitive method for editing paths and painting objects. The new Live Path Effects feature can create "brushes" and various organic effects on paths. Improvements to color management include support for color spaces other than sRGB. Most SVG filters are now implemented, and a new powerful UI is provided for editing filter stacks. Check it out www.inkscape.org

Digital Artists I Admire

Here is a very brief list of a few digital artists that I have been watching for some time. I have only listed one dog artist because I really wanted to share a variety of subject matter and styles. Enjoy!

Ray Caesar: This guy is my all time favorite web-find. Dark and wonderful. Non animal related although he has done a very odd and wicked Poodle.

Tim Biskup: Just stunning design and an unlimited imagination at work here.

Andrea Innocent: Innocentgirl says “Let’s be making Happy Pictures!”

Jill Beninato: Dog artist with a great sense of color

Solitaire Miles: Dreamy stuff. Human subject matter. She was a flickr find.

Adobe Illustrator Keyboard Shortcuts That Will Help You Improve Your Pen Tool Skills pt.1

I decided to post a brief keyboard shortcut list for Adobe Illustrator for more efficient work with the pen tool.

MAC OS / Windows

Command / Ctrl = will temporary allow you to access the last selection tool you've used

Command+Space / Ctrl+Space = again a temporary access to the zoom in tool.

Option+Command+Space / Alt+Ctrl+Space = zoom out tool.

Shift / Shift = A really helpful shortcut - constrains proportions, angles, movement. It works for almost all actions in Illustrator

Spacebar = Gives you temporary access to the hand tool.

Note: The benefit of using these keyboard shortcuts is that you don't need to always activate and deactivate your line (path) for similar manipulations.

Why Digital Art Is Cool

Last week I discovered a terrific post on the blog "The Art Of Being An Artist" about digital art. The artist listed what she loved about digital art and it made me stop and think. I do love digital art and yet too often I find myself complaining about people that seem to think digital art is easy, fast, or somehow "magic". I am also often perplexed by some "old school" artists that do not yet have their mind around the new medium and often they tend to lump all digital art into one big bag, as though it is all the same. Tomorrow I will post a few links to some really diverse and talented digital artists.
With all that said, I really do adore digital art. Here is my brief list of what is cool about digital art:
#1 No drying time! Unlike oils I do not have to wait a week to ship while canvas dries.
#2 Unlimited exploration. There is always something new to learn in Photoshop. No matter how good I get at my digital craft or how much I know, there will always be more to learn.
#3 Layers, layers layers. I love working in layers in Photoshop and having the ability to turn layers on and off to see different color options. Just reducing a layer's opacity will make all the difference sometimes.
#4 I can do it anywhere. All I need to travel with is my laptop and my small wacom tablet. I can have an entire art studio in my laptop bag.
#5 Excuse to buy more technology. We purchase a new Mac about every 2 years. If this was not my full-time job I would probably still be getting by on my old G-3 from 1999.
#6 Digital is clean. As much as we strive to create a loose and messy painterly look on our artwork, we never get paint on our clothes or have to clean up dirty brushes.

Loosydings Expert Shape Typeface

Here is an usable free shape true type face by protofonts. If you use this typeface in Illustrator and outline the characters, you may come across many interesting symbols. Download

Photo Tracing in Adobe Illustrator

Check this detailed tutorial on how to draw and trace people from a photo. Learn how to create realistic illustration with just simple gradient fill found in www.ndesign-studio.com

Blood Cells Brush for Adobe Photoshop

This set contains 25 different blood cell shapes by ardcor. As you can see in the preview below, the quality of the brushes is high and you can get a pretty realistic effect without a lot of effort. Download

Bunny Art For Easter

"Morgan"

Ok so how many of you guys are going to hide easter eggs for your dogs tomorrow? I think we will try to get out and take at least one of the pups on a picnic at the lake. With 3 dogs we often find it easier to go on some outings with just one pup. Of course every Sunday morning they all 3 get to walk at the lake for 45 minutes. They are spoiled.

How 2 Design an event logo ?

Events need branding as much as anything else. Derek Lea reveals the creative process and technical considerations involved in designing an appropriate and versatile event logo.Effective logo design requires careful consideration of a variety of things. The creative process must include considered technical execution, as well as focus on creating a stunning, effective, and simple visual metaphor. Generally, the process begins with a brief from your client. Even the most basic brief must communicate the core, intrinsic values of the brand. It is with these values in mind that you can begin the process of designing an appropriate visual metaphor. Read full tutorial and download files.

computerarts.co.uk

45 Degrees Stripe Patterns for Adobe Illustrator

A free pack of 28 vector pattern swatches for Adobe Illustrator Nagash.

• Stripes in 7 different sizes, rotated left and right
• Straight line and faux-pixelated line
• Black-transparent, and black-red variations

Illustrator comes with both vertical and horizontal line patterns, but not diagonal lines. it's hard to get them correctly tiled, but I got it tight - when you resize it, sometimes you get messy corners, but there's nothing one can do about it...


Use the black-transparent versions to get a single color stripe, and the black-red if you need two colors. To change the stripe color, simply drag the pattern to your canvas, paint it, and then drag to the swatches pallete again.

To use, load the PDF file in Adobe Illustrator and open the swatches palette (Window>Swatches). Download

Where did you get those ears?

Where did you get those ears?
Originally uploaded by artpaw

Easter is around the corner. This is a shot from last Easter of Pixel sniffing at Ajax's bunny ears. Have a great weekend everyone.

25 Grunge Swatches for Adobe Illustrator

A collection of 25 grunge swatches for Adobe Illustrator from createsk8.com. They are all in different colors, you could use them as textures or for designing a grungy background element...

To use the resource first, you need to expand the .zip file, load the AI file with Adobe Illustrator, open the swatches pane (Window>Swatches) and apply them to your fill color. Download

Maggie's Pet Portrait

This sweet little girl is Maggie, she is one of a few pet portraits that are shipping today. Allison got this project started for me earlier this week. I added in a bit of messy line work and finalized her with a set of 6 proofs.

Birch The Wire Hair Fox Terrier

A few proofs of Birch. Some day I really want to have a Wire hair fox terrier. They are just so cute.

Big City

Another vector style proposal for you desktop from sourcake. Click on image for full size preview.

Speakers Vector Set

This vector pack could probably be in use for those who are working on a night club or some kind of a music event flyer or poster. The file is compatable with Adobe Illustrator CS3 Download Author's profile

Rainy Days

Boston Terrier Pups

Boston Pups
Originally uploaded by LR Monkeytoes/ Lisa

With all of the Boston Terrier artwork we have done this month I thought it would be fun to post this cool vintage find from Flickr.

Emma & Hinkley

Emma the Boston Terrier and Hinkley the Bulldog were proofed on Monday. We will still be proofing by e-mail this week until we get caught up on orders. If you are waiting on a proof please hang tight for a few more days.

More New Pet Portraits

"Toby"

"Oliver"

"Bentley"

It is feeling a little like Christmas today instead of St. Patricks day. We have a little over 2 dozen pet portrait projects on the board for the remainder of the month. I am posting 3 that we proofed today by e-mail. I am going to try very hard to get 2 more clients proofed by the end of the day.

Vectoria

Amazingly cool concept by dfever (made in fireworks pro)that I just saw in deviantart. Balanced copmostition, great use of type and lines as a design elements on a 45 degrees scale.

Tips for smooth and controlled paths in Illustrator

Here is a short list of tips for drawing smooth and controlled lines with the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator.

- Drag your handles around one third of the length of the curved line.
- Drag handles while you're creating the first anchor point for a curved line. Drag away from from the previous line and towards the direction you want to the cirve to be directed.
- Use as few anchor points as possible.
- Position anchor points where lines change their direction.

Hed Kandi wallpaper #2

Here is another great wallpaper based on Jason Brooks Hed Kandi style of illustration done in Adobe Illustrator by Ianwoollam Click on image for full size (1920×1200 pixels)

Vintage Dog illustration

I went searching Flickr for vintage dog illustrations and found so much great stuff. It was hard to narrow down this post. You can click through images to dig deeper into the photo streams of these Flickr members.

Keyword "Vintage Dog"

Vintage Postcard ~ Poodle Dog
Originally uploaded by chicks57

Wow, I took the entire day off and now my brain is still on a mini-vacation ... I guess it is called a "weekend". Playing around over at Flickr I searched "vintage dog" and found a large assortment of good stuff. Maybe Sunday I will do one of those long image hot-linking posts ... beats the heck out of writing, and I am determined to post every day this month. Click this image to find more cool vintage images from this terrific Flickr member.

Corona Wings Vectoral Shape for Photoshop

Free vector shapes for Adobe Photoshop from d2m. Ideal for logo design.To use them, load the csh file in Photoshop, you'll find the different variations of the shape under custom shapes. Download

Illustration Conference ICON 5 NYC 08

ICON5 will be held in New York City at the historic Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan. This year's theme, The Big Picture, is more than a slogan, it is the perspective through which we see our future – a future of limitless possibilities for illustrators as thinkers, story tellers and providers of creative content. The conference promises to examine and discuss the current creative and economic forces that our industry faces today.

Registration for ICON5 is now open.
The conference will be held July 2-5, 2008 in New York City at the Roosevelt Hotel. Conference registration can be done online, by fax, or via mail. Special pricing shown below is for online registration only. More

Friday At Last

Wow ... Friday and we have a huge day ahead of us. We have a few rush projects going out today and several more to get started. At least I have a full staff this afternoon.

Not much to talk about this morning so I will post a fun cat cartoon found on You Tube below.

DFX/DWG plug-in for Adobe Illustrator CS3

This updated plug-in creates layers in Illustrator CS3 that correspond to the layers in the DFX or DWG file and imports the objects in the corresponding layer. However, because of differences in the way layers are treated in Illustrator and AutoCAD, object stacking order may change after importing a DFX or DWG file with this plug-in. More

Naked Boston Terrier

Cute Emma in the frog pose is our next Boston Terrier to work on later next week. Her human asked us to take off her sports jersey for her portrait. So of course we just hit the "naked-dog button" on our special keyboard and shazaam, in 2 minutes flat she was bare. Ok, not really, I am being silly. In reality Dianne worked on this pup for around an hour to fill in the missing details once her jersey was erased. She did a great job, and enjoyed the challenge.

Hey, stroll over to the blog "Dog Art Today" and post a comment to win a contest. Miss Moira is celebrating her blog's b-day and giving away a free t-shirt. Maybe if you win you could take a pic of your dog in the T-shirt then e-mail it to us and we can remove it ... ok I am just being goofy today. I guess I am just feeling feisty because it is almost FRIDAY, and I am taking the entire weekend off. Happy B-day to Dog Art Today!

Butterfly Brush

A vector floral butterfly brush set for Adobe Illustrator from coolwing. Download from here. Note: For mac / apple users you need to have StuffIt or other compression software to open the rar archive. You can download stuffit from www.stuffit.com

Boston Terrier Pet Portraits

"Tinker Bella"

We have created many Boston Terrier Portraits over the years. This week we have around 3 in-house to work on. In this post I show Tinker Bella and Zero.

About the artwork: As you can see from the proof directly above and below we get a lot of mileage out of our background textures. By selecting and changing certain colors in the ground you can create dynamically different looks.

"Zero"