pixelmator MAC based graphic design project

Today I wanted to put together a new image for my facebook default photo.

Here it is:

Next I will show how I did it.
I used a MAC only design program called Pixelmator. It is not an online photo editor or graphic design program- I cover those in another post. This one is for Mac's only. Pixelmator is similar to photoshop and very powerful, and has some unique features. First it 'runs' off of the graphics card, so it does not use up a lot of processing power and resources. This makes it a fast program great for multitasking. It can do most of what Photoshop does, but not everything. It is lacking "page comps" and groups.

However if you are looking for a powerful and affordable photo manipulation and graphic design program for your Mac- I would definitely recommend it.

Images used:

Ok. So I took an image of a jungle scene, a statue head, and a girl blowing a bubble.

First I started with the statue head. I downloaded the file and then right click opened it in Pixelmator. Using the erase tool, I erased all the white background leaving only the statue head. 

Next I opened the bubble blowing photo, and using the lasso tool, I traced the bubble section of the image, and then copied it and pasted it onto the statue head file.

I then opened the image file of the jungle, and placed it as the bottom layer of the statue head and bubble file. I sized the jungle image to match the statue head, so it would make a nice native backdrop.

Finally I adjusted the bubble layer by making it a little bigger, and moving it into place.

To finish the image I made a layer copy of the statue head, and added one of the many default effects available from Pixelmator, to style it a bit. I adjusted the layer positioning and opacity level of these files, until it looked how I like. Pixelmator has lot's of effects to experiment with. I recommend you make a copy of a layer and then experiment until you find a style you like.

See the Pixelmator site for more information, and great tutorials.

dragon

sculpy madness

u wanna piece of me?

creative design: sculpture.

The bad bunny! Anyways, I hope everyone enjoys these cool hand made models. It's a fun project with your kids, but does take patience and practice. I recommend using aluminum as filler as you can't make them to thick with super sculpey. Be prepared to sand them, and paint them in layers to get them just right.

For design inspiration I suggest these links:

The Sculpey website.

The Mojizu website.

and Chuck Ferrell's Youtube page is good, as well as having lot's of variety of suggested video viewing for those just starting, all the way up to expert level sculptors.

All in all, working with this stuff is fun, and took me back to my old hippy days of hemp necklace bead making. 

Have fun everyone!

creative design: sculpture.

This is another more advanced model. This one is also inspired by a vinyl toy maker. I started with an aluminum foil shape, and added the sculpy to it. 

Do a google search for: super sculpey, and you will see tons of inspiring models and ideas. Super sculpey comes in a nude or pink/ flesh tone. This model was baked, sanded, primed and painted. The cigarette in his mouth, was a little piece of paper clip inserted into a sculpy tube, and baked. I then glued it in, after were both painted.

This one is called bad bunny and was the one everyone seemed to like the best.

creative design: sculpture.

This is a pair of photos from a cool looking futuristic dog. This one is inspiration from Mojizu, the "contemporary character design community". The cube dog looks to have been done as a drawing or sketch, or directly in Illustrator. The artists name is Tituz. 

Anyways, I really like his art, and it inspired me to replicate it as best as I could in a new medium. I used plain super sculpy wrapped around a small aluminum foil ball. After he was "baked" and cured, I sanded him, and painted him. I then used a paint maker to add some shading effects to the bone, and his one eye.

creative design: sculpture.

Here was another colored sculpy based design. The inspiration from this one, also came from my daughters, coloring book projects. Simple and cute. Ava put on the black spots on this one as well. If you look close you will see a smiley face on the creatures belly!