Monroy

Greetings, fellow Deke-o-philes!

This issue of dekeSpeak comes from a cool place. As the thermometer dips and layered apparel becomes increasingly conspicuous, I'm enjoying the warm fuzzy feeling I get from sharing the treasure trove of insights available on deke.com. Deke hooked up with Bert Monroy, and got a close look at Bert's most recent masterwork. Read on to get a glimpse of it yourself. Our tip for this installment comes from Deke's Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Mastery course for lynda.com. And, I bring you good news: we've been able to extend the special (and very popular) Fotolia offer from the previous newsletter.

That's the news for now. As I'm sure you know, Deke sends all his virtual love.

Best regards, and I hope you're having a creative day,
Lou B, Speaker of the Deke, dekeOnline Read more » 

Today I was hanging out at the lynda.com studios (working on my Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Mastery course, if you must know). When I ran into that one artist who isn't afraid to make his own reality, even if it requires hand-drawing individual drops of bird poop and sacrificing three years of his life. By which I mean, Bert Monroy. Colleen was there, too---these days, she works for lynda.com. And, before anyone knew it, Bert was showing us the most recent version of his gigatron-by-teratron piece of bazillion-pixel imagery, "Times Square."

It's radically dazzling. Not to mention, huge. In a way that few things beyond a stretch-Ford F750 hauling 100+ freight cars might be deemed huge. (Seriously, it contains more pixels than there are galaxies in your head.) And it made me realize how very ashamed I am for not having shared the following info until now: By some random quirk of fate---perhaps because Bert is out of his mind!---this excellent man decided to include Colleen and I in his masterwork. Here's a miniature (not to mention, old) version of Bert's composition. With Colleen and I rendered in bright green. We're on the left. You can't miss us, because there's a giant Zapf Dingbats finger pointing in our direction.

I know many of you live in awe-and-wonder over the likes of Bert. (As well you should, I say.) Which is why I thought I'd post these charming sketches: Read more » 

Episode #141, "Smart Objects Are Pretty Smart," marks the third and final episode of Bert Monroy's Pixel Perfect in which I appear. (For now, anyway.) And this time, Bert lets me freeform. It's a little bit smart objects, a little Camera Raw, with some live type that inverts everything in back of it thrown in for good measure. Click the movie above to see what I mean. Read more » 

Oh, man, today is one of those days where I feel like my blog is going to eat me up and spit out the bones. Yesterday was Photoshop Top 40, tomorrow is Martini Hour, I have to finish up my biweekly newsletter. And then, just to make me whimper, the incomparable Bert Monroy invites me back to his weekly Revision3 podcast "Pixel Perfect." And when I say "whimper," I mean whimper with joy.

(Check out the podcast above. Note that it starts with an ad or two. Including one with a couple of dorks and a half-dressed lady, the last of whom never really makes sense in the context of the odd narrative. Oh well, gotta pay the rent. Be patient.) Read more » 

Photo-realist Bert Monroy is one of my closest friends in the industry. It isn't just that Bert is a regular, down-to-earth guy. Or that we've shared some great times in half a dozen different countries. But Bert was responsible for my entry into the Photoshop arena. Two decades ago--years before the two of us actually met--Bert unwittingly helped a 28-year-old me get my first copy of Photoshop. For free. What a guy!

(Check out the podcast above. Note that it starts with an ad or two. Be patient.) Read more »