Life

I took a few months off from blogging to handle things in my life. I have been making sure to make time for drawing, painting and graphic design. I feel much more balanced now. That is so important. Day-to-day issues prevent us from doing the projects that make us feel happy, balanced and whole. Make sure to make time for that. It is well worth it!

My latest freebie find... this one is for all walks of life! "List of Free Online Commercial Art and Design Courses and Learning Materials"

Keep creating!

Jannina

Combo Maker - Free and Fun!

Okay. I will not lie to you. These past few months have been some of my best and at the same time, some of my worst. I have had so much to deal with, that I barely had time for painting and designing. I felt like a limb had been sawed off. There is still a lot to work through, but little by little, I am getting back into my element. As life as been so stressful, I decided to look for a program that was just plain fun! You can find it here: Combo Maker

I think there are many palette generators out there. All are valuable. What makes Combo Maker stand out from the crowd is the fact that you can take your palette and show it off in the way that would most help your site, blog, etc. Here are some examples on the different options that you have:

As you can tell, I changed the background colour of the first image (the balloons). That is another option available to you. Sometimes you need a very simple, clean presentation such as squares or circles. Other times, you need to invoke a sense of fun! With this palette generator, you have options. Its web-based, so no stress on your hard drive. I have not had any issues or trouble loading it up when I need it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! :)

Keep Creating,

Jannina

Fun Photo Touch-Up Program!

I hope everyone had a happy holiday season! Thanks to my friend Ed, I have a new and fun toy to play with: Perfect365 by ArcSoft .

As with most programs, there is a free version and an upgraded ($29.95 USD) version. This program comes in a Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad version. You take a photo of a person and can easily manipulate their make-up. You can also use it to remove blemishes. It was meant to enhance natural looks, but there are a decent amount of colours to create fun, "high-fashion" looks. It comes with one-click presets, but there are more online that you can download. I decided to have fun with some pictures I had of myself. Take a look!

Here is an image I had:

Now here it is with a little "enhancement":

The next two are one-click presets that are part of the program. Supposedly, every Friday they will have new one to download. The first one is "breeze" and the second one is "glow."

Finally, I have three pictures that I did manually. The first one is me with my brown eyes, in the second one I have dark grey eyes and in the third one I have light grey eyes. Ever wondered what coloured contacts would look like on you? Here's your chance to find out.

So, that is it for Perfect365. It is a fun way to do a make-over. Have fun with it and keep creating!

Jannina

Fonts!

Happy Holidays, everyone! I found two interesting sites. The first one provides 100% free for commercial use fonts:

Font Squirrel

The second one provides 10,000 fonts that are allowed for commercial use. You have to pay $19.99 for the download. It's a pretty inexpensive option if you are just starting out and do not want to have to go through hundreds of fonts to find the commercial use ones. The licensing is for one work station. If you want to use the fonts on multiple computers, you have to purchase another license per station. Here's the link:

Ultimate Font Download

I hope your Thanksgiving was fun. Have a great holiday season!

Jannina

New Photo-Editing Program on the Web!

I know, I know. I'm sorry. Life has been so busy lately. Between school, work, friends and family, I'm barely getting any sleep. This is just a quick note to let you know of a program that I found.

Splashup

It has a Photoshop/Gimp feel to it. You don't have to download it; you can use it on the web. Although I do miss the luxury of having my brushes on there, it is a really cool program. Especially if you are on the go and need to do a quick rendering for a job or to better explain what you mean in regards to design and colours.

Keep creating!

Jannina

Can people with colour blindness enjoy the designs we create?

The answer is yes! Colour blindness is actually a misnomer. Colour vision deficiency is the correct term. If you have colour blindness, you are still able to see hues. It gets more complicated when you try to differentiate tones and shades. So why did I not use the correct term in the title? Most people would not search for colour vision deficiency. There is a blog called colbindor.com that speaks to people with colour vision deficiency. If you go to this page, you can view the FAQ that the author has regarding it. This was definitely an eye opener for me. I had never thought about how this affected others.

The author has a tool that helps anyone with colour vision deficiency keep colors straight. It breaks down the colour by hue.

Color Name & Hue

Using the simulator (found here: Coblis Colour Blindness Simulator) I will show you the images that simulate each type of color vision deficiency.

Here is an example of a design I created (normal color vision):

Red-Blind/Protanopia:

Green-Blind/Deuteranopia:

Blue-blind/Tritanopia:

Red-weak/Protanomaly:

Green-weak/Deuteranomaly:

Blue-weak/Tritanomaly:

Monochromacy/Achromatopsia:

Blue Cone Monochromacy:

This is a close simulation, but of course, it all depends on the severity of the condition. As you can see, each deficiency causes the design to change. However, the essence of the design remains the same throughout. Even in the case of Achromatopsia, the design is still intricate and contrasting enough that a person with color vision deficiency would be able to comment about, appreciate and enjoy it.

I don’t know if many designers even consider colour blindness when designing, but I found it fascinating. I hope you enjoyed learning about this misunderstood and often overlooked condition.

Keep creating!


Jannina

More colour palette generators!

I guess I’m on a colour palette kick. I just keep finding more and more generators. The good thing about it is that you can find the one that suits you best. Enjoy playing with all of them!

Worqx.com Colour Palette Generator
This one has a set number of colours to choose from, but I really enjoy how it splits them up into blocks. It helps view the relationship of each colour to the next. Although this is not my favourite colour palette generator, the site itself has a plethora of information relating to colour. I definitely advise going here if you want to learn more about colour theory.

Interactive Colour Wheel
This one has a colour wheel that you can click on. It also shows a list of colours that are already named. It might help with naming your palette or design. The feature that I love the most is that when you select a colour, it gives you the code for the complement of that colour. In this example, Turkish Rose has the complimentary colour of Acapulco (a teal colour). You can list the colours alphabetically, hue, hex, luma, luminance, average, h:rgb, h:lab, h:hsb. It has a colour list that lists them by Name that colour, Resene 2010, W3c and Crayola crayons. What fun!

The final one I wanted to go over was Color Blender. This is a great tool if you want to depict a gradient-type look in a design.

Hope you have fun - Keep creating!

Jannina