guest's blog

Stunning Aerial Photography

guest — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:30:43 +0000

Photography is great and amazing in and of itself, but aerial photography takes it to another level of beauty by capturing these incredible shots only few people are able see without these photos. I hope you all enjoy and get inspired from this!

Hello everyone! I'm Mackenzie, a graphic designer out of Colorado. In addition to being a designer, I run Artists Inspire Artists - an inspiration blog. I hope you've enjoyed this post. For more, follow me on Facebook & Twitter.

Most Adorable Cute Animal Photos

guest — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:16:39 +0000

Apart from human begins, animals are also a favorite subject of photos because most of them look adorable, and we all love to capture their cute and funny movement. Cuteness is usually characterized by some combination of infant-like physical traits, especially small body size with a disproportionately large head, large eyes, and round and softer body features.

We have collected the following 30 Most Adorable Cute Animal Photos. All of these cute animals are captured by talented photographers around the world. These amazing photos can give you a smile and possibly melt your heart.

Worship

Puppy

Im A Puff!

Little Porker

Four Brothers

Rabbit

Puppy Sailor

Nap Time

Prayer

Strawberry Shortcake

Sleeping Squirrel

We are Dead

Pleeeeza!!

My Adorable Puppiess

Rpy Pig in Boots

Gray

Oh Noes

Hipster Puppies

The Very Dangerous Cat Bear

HELP!

Winnie

A Cats Life

All Smiles

Accompany Sleep

Awwww

Seemly

Swim

Baby Squirrel Yawns Are Contagious

Driving to Puppy Park

Kitty Coat

You can check out more cute animal pictures on Cutest Paw. Get ready for Cuteness Overload!

Cool Flying Eye Illustration in Illustrator CS5

guest — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 02:00:32 +0000

It's been quite some time since the last we have posted a full Adobe Illustrator tutorial, we most of the times Photoshop and Illustrator, so in this tutorial Marcos Torres will show us how to create a really cool Flying Eye illustration using basic shapes using only Illustrator. The whole process is very straightforward with a nice outcome.

Step 1

First of all, open Illustrator and create a new document. This new document should have 29,7 x 21 cm. Now, using the Ellipse Tool ( L ) create a perfect circle ( you can hold shift + alt while using the tool, this makes easier to make a perfect circle). Than add some light gradient and use 5 pt. Oval brush to make it look more cool.

Step 2

Again, using the Ellipse Tool ( L ) create this pink circle and move in to the border of the white circle. Use the Gradient Tool ( G ) and add a light pink gradient in it, also add a 2 pt stroke in it.

Now, create a black circle with a grey stroke using the Ellipse Tool ( L ). Than, using the Pen Tool ( P ) you should do a shadow on the black circle with the same color of it’s stroke.

Use again the Pen Tool ( P ) to in order to create this shape, choose a white fill and change the opacity to 10%. It should look like this:

Finally, create these two little circles with the Ellipse Tool ( L ) and place them like this.

Step 3

Using the Line Segment Tool ( \ ) create these lines with 1 pt of stroke in pink color. This might take some time till you make all of them around the black circle.

Now with the Pen Tool ( P ) draw a shape for shadow with a pink fill, then choose the blending mode called Multiply.

Using the Pencil Tool ( N ) draw a shape with a pink fill, then select Filters > Gaussian Blur and use a 7 px blur. Change the opacity of the shape to 60 % to get more light and transparent, it should look like this.

Finally, let’s make the Iris reflections, choose the Pen Tool ( P ) and make the shapes. After, change it opacity to 70 %. The iris is done, let’s skip to the sclera.

Step 4

Using the Brush Tool ( B ) choose a 0,25 pt brush to make these veins, now this is cool trick: choose all veins and go to Object > Expand Appearance to turn the strokes into shapes. In order to make it looks more realistic, make a gradient fill in all these veins, like the example below:

Using the Pen Tool ( P ) and make the grey shapes around the sclera, then choose the blending mode called Multiply. The eyeball is complete, let’s proceed to the wings.

Step 5

Make a new layer, then using the Pen Tool ( P ) draw the basic shape of a wing. Using the Gradient tool ( G ) make a gold gradient on the wing. Again, use the Pen Tool ( P ) and draw a second line of curvy shapes on the wing, like this.

Now we have to make the reflections and shadows, this will take sometime, since you will need to do one shape at the time. Using the Pen Tool ( B ) create white shapes close to the borders like the example below:

Now let’s make the shadows, use again the Pen Tool ( P ) but this time make sure to make the grey shapes next to the strokes of the wings. After that, choose the blending mode called Multiply, it should look like this:

To make the other wing, duplicate first wing layer using the Selection Tool ( V ) + alt.Then reflect the wing, resize it and position it like the picture below.

Step 6

Now let’s give a sense of movement to it, create a new layer and use the Brush Tool ( B ) and make some black lines with a 0,75 stroke. This will give a movement impression to the image.

Now let’s skip to the halo, using the Ellipse Tool ( L ) make two circles like a ellipse, then go to the pathfinder panel and use the Minus Front shape mode, this will make the shape of the center subtract the other shape. Using the Gradient Tool ( G ) create a gold gradient with 0,75 pt yellow stroke.

Now, duplicate this elliptical shape using the Selection Tool ( V ) + alt, and put it above like the example below, you might have to change the direction of the gradient to look better.

Finally, let’s create its shadow, use the Pen Tool again to draw a black shape next to the opposite border of the glow, then change it opacity to 10 %.

To finalize, let’s make the shadow and the glow on the halo. Using the Pen Tool ( P ) , make this shape close to the corner of the halo, than change it’s opacity to 75 %.

Step 7

This is the trickiest part of the tutorial: making the blood. First of all, create a new layer and then using the Pen Tool ( P ) or the Pencil Tool ( N ), make the shapes that resemble drops on the eye. Using the gradient tool, make a red gradient like this.

Now duplicate this shape using the Selection Tool ( V ) + alt, then delete it’s fill and put a 2 pt of a red stroke on it.

Making the shadow is obviously the trickiest part, there’s not a shortcut here: using the Pen Tool ( P ) you will have to make the shapes with red gradients and the Multiply blending mode, this will take a while. Don’t forget to make all of these shapes below the drops stroke layer, so you won’t have to bother if they are sizing perfectly.

Make a group with all the shadows and hide this layer. Now we are going to make the glows, this may take you a long time, since it’s just about using the Pen Tool ( P ) to make the light pink shapes close to the borders.

Finally, you can add some details like the gradients in order to look more glossy.

Step 8

Final step, we are going to draw the drops of the blood, using the Ellipse Tool ( L ) make a circle and add the same gradient and stroke of the blood, you can copy it by using the Eyedropper Tool ( I ).

Using the Pen Tool ( P ), draw the shape on the border of the circle and use a red gradient, then choose the Multiply blending mode.

Finally, you can draw the white shapes with the Pen Tool ( P ) and the Ellipse Tool ( L ), then change their opacity to 75 %. Duplicate the layer of the drop as you want using the Selection Tool ( V ) + alt.

The Final Result

Well, I might say this tutorial is all about knowing how to use simple shapes to create something cool, you can add wherever background you want to this image, a pretty blue sky seems to be a good choice. Hope you like the tutorial guys, see you next time.

Download the Illustrator File

Click here to download the Illustrator file used for this tutorial.

About the Author

Hey buddies! I'm Marcos Torres, a 20 years old art director/freelancer from Brazil, I'm here to bring some new interesting stuff to you. You can see my portfolio at http://flickr.com/marcostorres. Any request or jobs opportunities send to marcostorres90@gmail.com, also follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/marcos333 to get in touch with cool design news.