Fin Andrey Gordeev on the web .

http://gordei.com/

...]]> Today we feature the absolutely amazing artworks of Andrey Gordeev from Khabarovsk, Russia. His unique and witty style caught my attention and I realised you the my readers would love to see this.

Fin Andrey Gordeev on the web .

http://gordei.com/

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...]]> Here is some inspiration for you – this time package design. Last time we did a series of package deigns and it was tremendously popular. This time we have rounded up some fresh package designs from around the interweb. Many thanks to the guys who designed these – feel free to right a comment if you see your work here.

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‘If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.’ John Cleese

With the economy the way it is its not surprising to be less than a Kubrick when it comes to being creative; add to that bad clients and running your own company and creativity can seem like a luxury.

What were the first things that got you excited about design? Remember a time when you couldn’t wait to strut your creative stuff in a flickr group? Or show your ...]]>

‘If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.’
John Cleese

With the economy the way it is its not surprising to be less than a Kubrick when it comes to being creative; add to that bad clients and running your own company and creativity can seem like a luxury.

What were the first things that got you excited about design? Remember a time when you couldn’t wait to strut your creative stuff in a flickr group? Or show your friends and family your latest digital creation. I certainly can and strive to keep the creative flare alight.

There is a difference between creativity and plain old work, creativity cannot easily be timed or managed. Picture a flood gate or damn, you can pace up and down it all day wondering what to do next, without any water moving, but only when the creative penny drops and you hit the lever will the flood gates open up. This often happens when we go and do something else or do nothing at all.

Why do we need to boost our creativity? Because design is what we fell in love with and we’ll be doing it even when CS20 comes out if we can.

Have you heard the story of Archimedes, one of the brightest mathematicians of antiquity? He was asked by his king to measure the amount of gold in his crown. Archimedes puzzled over this for a while with no answer. After climbing into a bath and displacing the water over the edge he discovered his answer. If the crown is pure gold it will displace the same bulk of water as any other weight of gold. If it isn’t pure it will displace more – he had discovered a way to measure density. As legend had it he ran into the street, naked shouting,’ Eureka’ – which means – I’ve found it.

Enough thermodynamics, the point of the story is when Archimedes relaxed, took a bath and stopped trying to think of a solution the answer was right in front of him.

“The mind needs exercise as much as the body does.”
John Morgan.

These 10 points are proven because they have worked with me.

1

Do Something Else

Simple, right? Yes, not only is doing something else great for taking your mind off a problem it allows your eyes a rest and uncrumples your back. Cut the grass, back up your designs, do something away from the desk. This will take your mind off the design problem often allowing the creative idea to emerge when you least expect it. I find exercise occupies my mind enough to let me think out an idea.

2

Take a Real Break

The whole world isn’t going to stop however much you think it is. If you find this hard, think of it as a way to actually boost your productivity, that way when you take a break you’ll still be working towards your goals. This is different from doing something else as it means no work type tasks, just doing very little.

3

Pinpoint the Core Theme

Focus on the main idea and do all the smaller steps later. As long as you know you can realistically get the project done with the skills and time you have. You should plough all your time into defining the idea ensuring it is creative and original enough. This will allow you more time to dedicate to the work. You don’t have to be Picasso to start with, sometimes just writing titles or even random words can really help.

4

Don’t define yourself

The best style is not to have a style as Bruce Lee said. Even if you have a style you have to evolve it or otherwise there’s no room for being creative. Be willing to try out new styles and ways of doing things

‘God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style; He just goes on trying other things.’
Pablo Picasso

5

Be Relaxed & Start Out On the Right Foot –

Or left foot, just make sure that you feel ready, enthusiastic and open minded. For some this might mean practicing relaxation techniques such as breathing, for others a film will get you in the right frame of mind. This is also part of allowing yourself enough time to properly prepare for the project and time to complete it.

6

Get the Ideas Out On Paper Before they Disappear

I often carry a notebook with me so I never miss an idea; they always come in handy as you never know when you’ll have your Eureka moment. Plus they often don’t come back or are very hard to remember so think of notes as Ctrl + S.

I find writing out all my ideas helps me – I then go through thinking about how each idea could be expanded and  then rinse and repeat.

7

Learn

Remember what really got you excited about design. Look up designers you follow and find out about there design process. Dig through old projects to see what you have done, that works for me. Focus on some new techniques technically and creatively.The fact is you never stop learning and are never really good enough , if you think youv’e reached your peak – think again because theres always someone way better than you. This may sound harsh however it is true.

I hope you find inspiration from this article and now know how to boost your creativity a little more.

Create a text reflection in photoshop using a displacement map.

Today I thought I would start the quick tip series for Photoshop. This series will be covering  how to do certain effects & smart ways to get more done in Photoshop . 

This is a thorough and flexible technique to add a reflection to text on water and in other settings. This technique is also nearly 100% non destructive which is what we should always aim for; the ...]]>

Create a text reflection in photoshop using a displacement map.

Quick Tip No. 1

Today I thought I would start the quick tip series for Photoshop. This series will be covering  how to do certain effects & smart ways to get more done in Photoshop . 

This is a thorough and flexible technique to add a reflection to text on water and in other settings. This technique is also nearly 100% non destructive which is what we should always aim for; the smart filter can be altered very easily as can the reflection – this all makes our design lives easier.

(thanks to Marcus Vegas for the sea image)

Step1

To start download this image of the sea and place it into Photoshop.

Save this as a photoshop psd file and name it ‘displacement map 1’ . Save it somewhere easy to find on your desktop.

Step 2

Add a curves adjustment layer with output at 31 and input at 179 .

Step 3

Ad an exposure adjustment layer with exposure set to – 0.10

Step 4

Type out ‘ Digital Art Empire’, or something else memorable that you like.  A sans serif bold font will work nicely.

Step 5

Add a gradient layer style with the stops in a similar place and colour to these. Black, then dark grey, then Black again .

Step 6

Copy this layer using ctrl + J .

Step 7

Press Ctrl + T to free transform and choose flip vertical , then holding shift drag the copy down so it’s a reflection.

Step 8

Ctrl + T again and drag the top of the copy reflection down a bit.

Step 9

Right click the copied text layer and rasterize type, then right click again and select convert to smart object . This way the filter we use , the displacement map, will be a smart filter and we can change it as we go.

Step 10

With the copied text layer selected go to filter , distort and displace. Choose 3 and 3 for the scales and leave the rest as defaults. Then choose the PSD file we saved earlier called  ‘displacement map 1′

Step 11

Add a layer mask to the copied text layer , choose a black to white linear gradient and drag so the reflection is faded

And that’s it – I hope you had fun and learnt something useful thanks for visiting Digital Art Empire.

Introduction:

To start off 2010 I wanted to create a slightly grungy, retro futuristic sci-fi poster. I basically wanted an image that could represent the feeling 2010 seems like the future to some of us. If you know what I mean, good, I’m sure this poster will be plenty of fun.

To create an image like this I like to look through some stock and brainstorm. A really excellent place to help with this is a site called Compfight. It’s ...]]>

Introduction:

To start off 2010 I wanted to create a slightly grungy, retro futuristic sci-fi poster. I basically wanted an image that could represent the feeling 2010 seems like the future to some of us. If you know what I mean, good, I’m sure this poster will be plenty of fun.

To create an image like this I like to look through some stock and brainstorm. A really excellent place to help with this is a site called Compfight. It’s a search engine for flickr photos that allows you to search for creative commons images.

Once I have a few images in Photoshop Ill come back to the project 2 or three times with new ideas and get them down. If I’m stuck for ideas looking through the art magazines and websites which usually gets the creative juices flowing again.

As usual the PSD file is available for download free at the end.

Time to complete 2 hrs .

Note:

Create the doc according to the dimensions of your screen if you want to use this as desktop wallpaper.

Resources used   :Sea by  visualpanic /Moon by luc.viatour/ Infinity font

Thank you to the artists who provided the materials ,please remember to follow these artists rules and credit them where appropriate.

Step 1

Create a document at 800 x 950 at 72 DPI Then bring in this image of the sea , press C do get the crop tool and select only the sea portion ignoring the people.

Step 2

Select the gradient tool, choose the radial gradient (second from the top) Draw a radial gradient using this red colour ff0000 halfway down the left hand side. Then change the blend mode to multiply and reduce the opacity to 79%.

Step 3

With the background setup we can bring in this image of the moon resize and position the moon like this image, and then reduce the layer’s opacity to 76%.

Step 4

Choose this purple colour 271642 for the foreground colour and black for the background colour. Then in a new layer go to filter render clouds. Drop the layers opacity to 73 %. Usually to create stars we can use the noise filter but this time well we’ll use a different technique. Create a new layer above the clouds and fill it with white, change its blend mode to dissolve and reduce its opacity to 1 to 2 %. Finally do a gaussian blur at around 0.7 and voila very quick stars.

Step 5

White rectangle: Now well create the white rectangle shapes that make up the background. Create a rectangle like in the following image and fill it with white, then reduce the opacity to 10 %.

Step 6

Now well add a layer mask by clicking the circle in a square at the bottom of the layers palette. With the gradient on linear and set to black to white click and drag a gradient. Make sure you are on the layer mask and hold shift to get a good fade.

Step 7

Now duplicate this layer with CTRL + J and rotate it with Ctrl + T to free transform. You should end up with something like this.

Step 8

Keep duplicating the layer and rotating it until you have this kind of effect.

Step 9

Your layers palette should look like this:

Step 10

Now using shift select all the rectangles in the layers palette and merge them Ctrl + E. (To work non – destructively you can duplicate the layers ). Then add a layer mask and using a black to white gradient on the layer mask fade the bottom part of the rectangles.

This is what you should end up with :

Step 11

Now find a quote you like or a group of words you think will work well in this graphic. Go to Wordle paste in your favourite quote and select go. This is a brilliant little website that puts the words you enter into a new layout font and colour. After hitting randomise play around with the font layout and colour. Once you are happy with the image if on windows: hold down Alt and then the print screen (Prt Sc) button, hit Ctrl + V to paste into Photoshop. On a Mac press command and shift then press 3 to capture to your desktop.

Step 12

Once the image you like is in Photoshop crop any extra bits away then resize and position the text like in the following image. I set the image to screen which gets rid of the dark area. Depending on the colour of your background and text you may need to choose overlay or multiply, just have a scroll through the blend modes until your happy.

Step 13

Download these brilliant cloud brushes .After loading them create a new layer then brush some clouds in like the following image.

Step 14

Duplicate the cloud layer add a colour overly layer style with colour set to 83b2e7. Then lower the opacity to 83%.

Step 15

Download the infinity font from here and once installed type out the words ‘TWENTY TEN’. Now position this at the top use the align buttons to get it in the middle.

Step 16

Rasterize the type and add a gradient overlay layer style, with default settings from black to white.

Step 17

Download these Kinetic brushes and brush with white behind the Twenty ten letters ( so in a layer below them ) . When done we’ll add a gradient overlay from7fe0f8 to cef8ff. Finally lower the opacity to 39 %.

Step 18

Finally create a layer below the cloud brushes and Wordle letters but above the white rectangle shapes. Then fill it with white and go to filter, render lighting effects and choose ‘RGB lights’, leave all the other settings as default. 

Then use a Gaussian blur at 31.7 image.

For the final steps change the blend mode to soft light and reduce the opacity to 60 %

Conclusion

That’s a wrap for now having gone through the tutorial you will now know how to use layer masks a neat little way of putting words together with different layouts and how to create a rounded retro futuristic poster . Hopefully you had fun and learnt something new.

Free PSD

The PSD file is available for download free from here.

Mediafire Download (6.49 mb Zip File)