Deke’s Techniques

Your weekly quick-fix of Deke, with ideas you may inspire or inform your own projects.

Clearing the Photoshop Home Screen

Deke shares some tips and tricks for showing and hiding the documents your Photoshop Home screen is showing and hiding, or not!

Turning Your Cat’s Eye Into a Dragon’s Eye (Changing Colors in Illustrator)

Deke finally finishes his cat eye project in Adobe Illustrator, only to find out, through the help of Global Swatches, it was a dragon all along!

Shading Your Cat’s Eye with a Gradient in Adobe Illustrator

Deke adds depth and detail to his cat eye project, using gradients and drop shadows in Adobe Illustrator.

Blending Reptile-Like Scales in Illustrator (revisited, now that most of the votes are counted)

Let's revisit this thing I couldn't face earlier this week: Deke creates the scales of our (fictional) reptile overlords in Adobe Illustrator

Blending Reptile-Like Scales in Illustrator (Election Day Edition)

Deke blends the scales on what once a simple deranged robot cat and now may or may not be the pawn of our lizard overlords.

Halftone Pattern and Zig Zag in Adobe Illustrator

Deke finishes his Halloween cat eye project with some substantial help from Adobe Illustrator's dynamic effects and Appearance panel.

Creating a Halloween Cat’s Eye in Adobe Illustrator

Deke actually digs this year's Halloween project out of an old creaky hard drive, resulting in a cool vector based cat's eye in Adobe Illustrator.

Using the Dynamic Free Distort Filter in Adobe Illustrator

Deke finishes up his triangle-based city-stalking creature with some help from an old filter in Adobe Illustrator and some dynamic effects.

Painting with Gradients and Translucency in Adobe Illustrator

Deke colors his face made of triangles with custom gradients and varying opacity.

Creating Real Artwork with Basic Shapes in Adobe Illustrator

Deke takes one simple equilateral triangle and turns it into something resembling a face in Adobe Illustrator.

Precisely Sizing Stars in Adobe Illustrator

Deke uses his knowledge of geometry and guides to create a precisely sized and aligned star in Adobe Illustrator.

Creating a Beveled, Equilateral Triange

Deke uses his newfound understanding of how Illustrator interprets the radius of a polygon to make an equilateral triangle and an homage to the Mercedes logo.