CS5

Today finds me on the beautiful and unexpectedly sunny east coast of Ireland. More specifically, Northern Ireland. Today's agenda: leave Belfast (such a great city!), explore the Giant's Causeway, take in a dram or two at the Bushmills Distillery, and lay my head down in Derry. In other words, I'll already have a buzz going by the time many of you roll out of bed and read this.

Just as no turkey will be harmed in the execution of my vacation, none will be harmed in the viewing of my video. In fact, rather than masticating a turkey, you'll be making one, using nothing more than Photoshop and a primitive tracing of your own hand.

As if to confirm that point, here's the official description from lynda.com: Read more » 

This week's video is the first of a two-parter, the second of which, "Assembling a seamless Pattern Brush," is available exclusively to members of the lynda.com Online Training Library. I mention this because today's movie ends as a bit of a cliff hanger. that is to say, this free movie shows you how to create all the elements required to make a seamless pattern. But you might as well know up front: To understand how to turn those elements into an actual functioning Pattern Brush, you'll have to be a paying member of lynda.com.

Hey, even a kind and generous teacher like me has to turn the occasional buck. Here's the official description from lynda.com: Read more » 

If you live in The States, very likely the only thing on your mind today is the election. Apparently that holds true for me as well because I forgot to post today's Deke's Techniques last night. It's my own thing and I spaced it. Oh, that Obama! What kinds of crazy antics will he get us into next?

Anyway, here it is. And here's the official description from lynda.com: Read more » 

Hallo, it's Halloween.

Recently, I received a member request to create a video tutorial on how to recreate the popular meme, Slender Man. He's cool. He's spooky. He's creepy. Really fucking creepy. But Slender Man already has a meme. And Slender Man already has a head. I think we need a new meme: Slender Guy Without a Head. Slender Guy Without a Head in the Woods. Slender Guy Without a Head in the Spooky, Creepy, Misty Woods. Slender Guy Without a Head in the Wherever-It's-Creepy-for-a-Headless-Guy-to-Be, Possibly in the Mall.

For the sake of expediency, let's just call him Headless Slender Guy. Here's the official description by Colleen on behalf of lynda.com: Read more » 

A few years ago, I showed you how to scan real actual American money and open it in Photoshop. Unfortunately, that trick doesn't work these days, and I don't know of a trick that does. (Which sucks, because we the people own the copyright to our currency! And unless you have access to a stockpile of federally protected paper and ink, and you possess world-class separation skills, you aren't going to get anywhere scanning banknotes into Photoshop. Haven't Adobe's lawyers---and the feds that lobbied them---read something as basic as a Jack Reacher novel?) And so I thought, screw it. If you can't beat 'em, reinvent 'em.

Which is why I decided, this week, to show you how to draw your own money, one emblematic detail at a time. Here's the official description from lynda.com: Read more »