Learning some new skills

Posted by indomitablehef | Filed under Tools

I’ve never been good at drawing, painting, or anything of the sort. While not “color-blind”, I am nearly completely “color-incompetent.” Even so, I’m learning to be a better graphic artist these days. I bought the Adobe Web Bundle last year, with the intention of starting a web cartoon with my good friend, Dan (who performed the indomitableWedding). We haven’t gotten around to that yet, but I’ve been playing the graphic designer at work and on my own little side projects.

I’ve found several good resources along the way, as I struggle painstakingly though creating simple icons and backgrounds that a real graphic artist could probably do in minutes. Some of these are:

The Empire Dezign Photoshop Tutorials - fairly easy to follow, step by step tutorials on how to achieve various effects in Photoshop.

The Web 2.0 Design Kit from Photoshop Lab - how to use Photoshop to create those Web 2.0 design elements

How Web 2.0 Logos are drawn - includes a downloadable style palette for Photoshop

That, and a lot of trial and error. As you may have noticed, some of what’s been driving me to learn Photoshop has been been desire to create sexy-looking Web 2.0 designs for the web apps and blog I work on, both at home and at work. These design resources are more about Web 2.0, as a style unto itself:

The Current Style in Web Design - summing up the state of the art

The Logos and Fonts of Web 2.0

The Visual Design of Web 2.0

Shaving, as it should be

Posted by indomitablehef | Filed under Personal

During my recent lapse in posting, sleepingKelly has finally prevailed upon me to post more personal things on this blog. I don’t intend to stop doing the kinds of things I’ve been posting so far, but I’ve agreed that it might be nice to have a little less structure. After all, I can only give out so much advice before I begin to gag on my own hypocrisy.

Anyway, I recently celebrated my 32nd birthday in grand style. My lovely wife threw me a kick-ass party, baked a kick-ass cake, and bought me the best (kick-ass) birthday gift I’ve gotten in a long time: A traditional shaving kit - brush, razor, and soap.

She knew I wanted one, because I’d been talking about it and doing iWindow shopping for awhile now. I first got interested in the idea after reading this article. It turns out the way to get the best shave is the old-fashioned way, with an old-fashioned safety razor that takes double-edged blades. Believe me, I will never willingly buy another Mach3, Turbo4 or any other multi-bladed razor again.

The set that sleepingKelly bought me is this one:

If you shave, do yourself a favor. Throw away your old razors, and get one of these. You will not regret it. While you’re at it, get yourself some of this for afterwards. A little expensive, but it lasts a long time, and it’s worth it. Not convinced? Go back and read the article. He does a great job of explaining all the details. And it’s all true. Trust me.