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PostHeaderIcon Originality vs Influence


A professor once told me that before you begin painting, you must decide what type of painting you want to make as far as the style.. whether it be representational, abstract, realist, impressionist, minimalist and etc. I disagree. I told him that if you always decide on something predetermined, how can you discover new territory? Its important to start the journey sometimes not knowing exactly where you are going and to be open to experimentation. Of course it can be helpful if you are sure you know what you want to do and to strive towards it, but sometimes knowing exactly what you want can kill the spirit of discovery and the energy that shows its face because of that. Like life, every artist must find their own path and to think that there is only one correct way to do art is a limitation that goes against the creativity and freedom of expression that great art speaks for. Constant innovation and strange new ideas are what keeps art alive, breathing.

There are many lasting traditions in the art world like the look of a classic portrait or the balanced composition of a landscape but art is also an organic movement of ideas that hold a reflection of our culture and world events. Think about how you paint. Why do you paint that way? Its important to understand where your influences come from in order to thoughtfully interact with them, use them or to move beyond them. Arguably, it is almost impossible to block out all influence because we all have certain things in mind about what art is, what it is not, and how to go about creating it. It can be very difficult trying to separate past experience and preconceptions from your present expression. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Creativity vs Influence This makes for an interesting paradox when it comes to learning how to make art. It can be very helpful to learn traditional techniques in order to benefit from the knowledge that has already been discovered but it is also important not to become complacent that what has been is what should continue to be. At a certain point, in order to move beyond preconceptions, we have to let go of them or become trapped.

Many great artists spent a lot of time trying to make art like children, without thinking, in the realm that is fluid with expression without stubborn ideas and critical logic that can tear down that fluidity. Try it some time. Sit with your medium and just play with it, without thinking hard or judging it and see what happens. Even if the works themselves that arise from this state don't yield something that you feel is presentable, it is a great way to discover new ideas and expressions you may not have been aware you had inside you.
 

Last Updated (Saturday, 27 June 2009 21:49)

 

PostHeaderIcon How to design a Favicon

What's a Favicon?

"Favicon" is short for favorites icon. It is a 16x16 pixel image associated with a website or webpage. It shows up in most browsers next to the web address like this: :

 How to create a favicon

Browsers that support a tabbed document interface usually show a page's favicon next to the page's title on the tab. The Microsoft Windows Shell also uses favicons to represent "Internet shortcuts" to web pages on your computer..

 

How do I make one?

To create a favicon using Photoshop, first download the free plugin for Mac or Windows.

It can be a challenge to squeeze a compelling design into a 16x16 square.One way to begin is with a larger image, maybe the site's logo for example, and shrink it down. In Photoshop CS, click on Resample Image and choose "Bicubic Sharper" from the drop-down menu. This will make sure that the image doesn't blur as it's being resized. If it’s still not sharp enough, go back and oversharpen, oversaturate and/or heighten the contrast of the original image and then resize it again

 

Examples

Here are four favicons I made for different sites including this one. You are welcome to showcase your own favicon creations in digitalgoo's gallery and discuss icon design in the forum after a quick registration.

 custom favicons by Beth Woodson

    Examples of some famous favicons:

examples of famous favicons

 

Save As .ico

Once you've designed something you're happy with, Save As and make sure to name the file "favicon". You must also choose Windows Icon (ICO) format from the pulldown menu.This format will only be available in Photoshop after you download and install the plugin.

 

Ok, now where do I upload it?

Upload the favicon file to the root folder of your website and check your browser to see how it looks. If you can't see it, try clearing your browser's cache or re-saving the site as a favorite.

 

Animated Favicons?

It is also possible to create an animated .gif as a favicon but it will not display for all of your viewers. Animated favicons don't show up in most browsers but they will in Firefox. One way to get an animated favicon is to manually rename your favicon's extension from .gif to favicon.ico, but it will not appear for unsupporting browsers. The best way to display the animated version for some browsers and the static icon for others is to create a static icon named favicon.ico and an animated one named animated_favicon.gif and include the following code between your <HEADER> </HEADER> tags or in your header.php file.

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://yoursite.com/favicon.ico" />
<link rel="icon" href="http://www.yoursite.com/animated_favicon.gif" type="image/gif" / >

Last Updated (Thursday, 02 July 2009 03:40)

 

PostHeaderIcon .ico format Photoshop Plugin

Download an extension for Photoshop to read .ico files. ICO Format is used for desktop icons and favicons.You can customize your desktop folders and replace the defaults with your own images. Favicons are the tiny icons that appear right next to the web address in your browser.for some sites. The plugin allows you to open and save in this format, just drag and drop the plugin into your Photoshop plugins folder.

Last Updated (Sunday, 14 June 2009 16:45)

 

PostHeaderIcon User profiles, Forum and public Gallery published!

Interactive user profiles, the Forum and user Gallery are now up.

Register to create your profile and access interactive site features. Add your website, post your twitter username to allow the site to pull your latest tweets into your profile for other users to follow, send private messages to other members, discuss publicly in the forum and promote your exhibitions, upload your artwork in any medium to the appropriate category and comment on others' galleries.  

Last Updated (Saturday, 06 June 2009 07:10)

 

PostHeaderIcon Bethwoodson.com

Another sister site was launched, Bethwoodson.com. This is a portfolio site showcasing my work in several mediums. Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for custom work or resume.
 
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