future of network management

I finished a new illustration for the Performance Edge Journal issue 2. The article is about the future of network management and the difficulties ahead if proactive approaches are not taken.

the stroke face

Maybe I am not at that MTV age anymore, not hip, nor in the know about all things cool and awesome, but what the hell is going on with the stroke face expression? I see it in everyone’s (girl’s) photos, mostly on myspace (my only passage to the hip world). Now I don’t want to make fun of specific people, or post their photos here without their permission, but I was lucky enough, a few months ago, to have Rosie Sullivan depict this phenomenon on a painting of me.

I had started noticing this last winter and freaked out about it then, but after a while I wrote it off as a passing fad. Then, today, browsing through a friend of a friend’s myspace photos I came upon it again! Why?! Why do they take pictures of themselves making pouty faces and pursing their lips to the side as if one side of their face has gone limp from a stoke? Oh, poor stroke faced girls. It’s an epidemic.

Has anyone else seen this ridiculousness?

image displacement mask

Place images or text on clothing or skin without the mess of screen printing or the pain of permanent tattoos. I gave this girl’s pretty dress extra awesomeness by placing one of my illustrations on it by using a displacement mask in Photoshop. This process contours one image to the surface of another, making the depth (lights and darks) of the background image control the distortion of the placed image.

Tools:
• Photoshop CS or higher
• A high resolution photo with some skin or clothing
• An image or text to place

Open your high res. photo in Photoshop. Select All and Copy, then create a new document and Paste.

photo editing in photoshop

Editing photos is one of my favorite things to do. Photo manipulation can, if done well, correct a myriad of sins that you could not control during the photo shoot. My tool of choice is Photoshop, upgraded to the latest release, but previous versions (too be safe, I’ll say 7.0 and up) will work as well.

As an example I will use an unedited photograph of myself.

Not a horrendous photo, but my face has very unflattering shadows in this light among other things. Our main to do list: remove all blemishes and unsightly lines, lighten the under eye shadows, enlarge the eyes a little because mine were a bit squinty, brighten teeth, add rosy skin tones, and nudge the nose to have more symmetry. All this can be done fairly easily, using only a few layers, and only a handful of tools.

I have labeled them in order of most often used, and simplest to hardest.

The healing brush (number 1) is the most amazing (and easiest) tool for cleaning up skin, minor blemishes, and slight lines. Select this tool, in the brush properties I suggest going with 50% hardness or experimenting. Setting the hardness too low will create an unnaturally smooth look if overused.

On that note, do not go overboard with any of these tools and methods. Keep it natural, do not lose the original texture of the skin, and remember that less is more.

Okay, back to the healing brush. ALT+Click on a clear area of skin that is a similar color and tone to the area you want to clean up. Patiently brush away one blemish at a time, don’t be afraid to undo and redo until you have it perfect.

The healing brush has some limitations, it does not work well when you are trying to clear up an area that is butted up right next to a very dark or very light area. For this kind of problem you will use the clone stamp (number 2) in conjunction with the healing brush. Select the clone stamp, set the hardness to about 50% and set the opacity to around 50% as well. Feel free to zoom in if you need to. ALT+Click on a clean area very close to the problem area and gently brush over the problem area. Go back to the healing brush and blend in what the clone stamp left behind.

The smudge tool (number 3) is a very powerful tool that can be very hard to control. I suggest you practice with this tool often before getting too frustrated and expecting it to work for you right away. I use the smudge tool to move muscles and to reshape whole areas. Use this sparingly because it will destroy all natural underlying textures. Use it for small areas only. Select the tool, with 30% hardness, and 75% strength. Resize the brush to fit over the area you need to move or reshape, softly nudge the area to the shape you desire. Usually many CTRL+Zs are necessary.

Number 4 on our tool bar is the Burn tool which can also be switched over to the Dodge tool. Another very strong tool that you must use very lightly. The burn tool darkens and the dodge tool lightens. To use either of them, set the hardness to 50% and the exposure to 5%. Brush in areas you need to darken or lighten but do not linger too long as it gets darker or lighter the longer you hold the brush down. This tool also messes with the underlying colors in your shadows or highlights. So you usually have to go back and add adjustment layers with masks to correct them. If you are only going to use two adjustment layers I suggest you use Levels and Hue/Saturation. Adjustment layers are very easy to use, and so useful and necessary.

Removing blemishes in Photoshop

And the final transformation:

cat suit

kitty crazy brain activity

rejection

The fourth and last book of the series The Immortals by Tamora Pierce is called Emperor Mage. This is an unpublished cover for this book. I created covers for this entire series, and the cover of the first book, Wild Magic, can be seen here.

recently, i feel more adult

drool canon rebel xti

My weekend was wonderful and family-filled, I bought the Canon Digital SLR Rebel XTi and played photographer. I also bought my first lotto ticket and lost.

Happy Father’s day, Dad.

David’s mom, Peggy.

David’s cousin-in-law, AJ.

Handsome David.

Devil David.

A boy and his ice cream.

approval from the wise

camouflage

the blogs of david

Everyone in the “Poziri” household was excited this passed weekend about the rehaul of David’s blog. We moved him to Wordpress and he is enjoying all the control he has over every detail of the project. There is a sexy new flash ad on David’s blog that you’ll have to go see.

Mojito felt the energy and was extra sweet to me yesterday, and even came to lay in my lap WHICH HE NEVER DOES! I was speechless even though it only lasted 37 seconds. We even celebrated with Mr. Bee by having three spoonfuls of honey, each.

twist