Umi's Homeroom

Welcome graphic artists to my homeroom. Here I will be specializing in a variety of topics, but focusing on Photo Manipulation and Digital Art, and turning an abstract idea of your mind’s creativity into a visual masterpiece.



First, I figure you should get to know me a bit before I teach you. I am a sixteen year old student from Maryland, and plan to do freelance graphic art as a hobby as well as make a bit of money with my skills. I have been using Photoshop 7.0 for about 3 years, and I am still learning new tricks to further advance my skills. I have sold my graphics before, but will warn you from experience, it is a competitive market. I will have you know that I am not the greatest artist who has set foot into the graphic world, and I believe that learning is the best part of making graphics. This is why I plan on not only teaching you, but critiquing your work, and learning from you. My critique may not be the nicest, but please know that I only plan on helping you realize your potential.



The focus of my assignments is to get you to learn to put your concepts on canvas, and mold them to be pleasing to the eye. Aside from Photo Manipulation and Digital Art, I will also teach a bit of signature making, and critique your works as well. I found signature making, however, to be a ‘training ground’ for bigger works. I have also decided to teach a bit of logo making, for it is a good way to make a bit of money as a freelancer. So to sum up exactly what I will teach:

Photo Manipulation
Digital Art
Signature Making
Logo Making

If I find something else I'm interested in, I will let you know.



Tip: My pieces mainly consist of stocks, gradient maps, shadowing and lighting techniques, occasional c4ds, and effects. (Unless they are logos, I make those from scratch)

Here is a typical process I use to create a piece. First, I search DeviantArt for stock. This passes the time you can use for brainstorming concepts, which I find to be the hardest part of creating a piece. Eventually, I find a stock or piece that inspires me. I then search for other stocks that match my concept. Remember to jot down the authors of these stocks, because you will have to credit them once your piece is complete. Looking for stock can be frustrating, because you may not find exactly what you envision. Many also use sxc, or stockxchng to find their stock. It seems to be a good site, but I find I don’t use it as much. Once you find your stock, it is on to the longest and most tedious step if it applies to your piece. This of course is rendering your stock, or ‘cutting it out’ from its background. I tend to stay away from the magic wand tool for this, because it causes choppy edges. I usually use the eraser tool. It takes awhile, but it’s all part of the process. I then proceed to positioning my stocks to where I see fit, and blending them. I’ll usually add some lighting and shadows by using a soft brush on soft light, but you can play around a bit. I then usually add some gradient maps (on soft light), playing around with them, as well as erasing some parts of them, to get my piece to flow together color wise. After this I add some effects, and finishing touches such as sharpening/blurring, and borders. Maybe some text also. That’s pretty much it, but this is only my process. If you get into a process of your own, please use it. In fact it is encouraged.

So I suppose you wish to see some of my work. I think it would be good for students to reflect on my works as they develop a style of their own. The best way to do this is to look through my deviantART (link in my sig) but I'll show you a few small examples here.













These are only signatures, however, so I suggest you check my DA if you want to see what I am mainly focusing on.

Finally, please, even if you are my student and want to give pointers to me, please to do. I’d love to hear them.



Assignment #1

Create a signature (Within the site’s size limits) Use anything you want. Do anything you want. Let me see your ability.


Assignment #2

Take one of the stocks listed below, and change something about it. Hair color, eye color, makeup, even the background. Anything, as long as it’s noticeable. The more you change the better.

Female Stock 80 by *Katanaz-Stock on deviantART
Female Stock 60 by *Katanaz-Stock on deviantART
Female Stock 73 by *Katanaz-Stock on deviantART
Female Stock 44 by *Katanaz-Stock on deviantART
Female Stock 36 by *Katanaz-Stock on deviantART

If you need help doing this, follow these tutorials :
http://www.zeldauniverse.net/forums/...o-editing.html

Asignment #3

This assignment will not be very fun, I assure you, but it is a critical skill when doing photomanipulation. Here it is:

Find a stock of a model on deviantART (Such as the ones I have posted) and render it. Cut it out from its picture, so that all you have left is the model with a white background. Then, post the original version, and then the one you rendered. I also advise you to pick a stock you can work with, because you will use it in your next assignment. No using premade renders, and no using stocks with premade blank backgrounds



+Students+

man_with_thooo
modestMaestro

None yet. PM me or post here.

Interesting! How do I apply to be your student?

I use GIMP just so you know.

I will add you to the list if you choose to be a student. And ok, I don't use GIMP, but hopefully you can adjust my teachings to your program. 'Cuz I have no idea how GIMP works XD

Just in case you already consider me as a student, which I hope you do, I've done Assignment#2 already! I did it before #1 'cause I wanted to try something new. I haven't really done anything like it before.



What I did basically is I changed it to night, recolored things, added some lighting, added some sparkles, blurred and sharpened some things.

Very nice for your first manipulation! The clothes were re-colored very well, as was the hair. The change of day to night was very clever and well-executed as well. The only flaw I can see is the darkness of the hands. They seem unrealistically dark compared to the rest of the body. Fortunately, there are 2 ways to fix this.

#1) You can lighten the hands and arms to match the skin tone.

#2) I believe you could darken up the lower half of the picture to match the hands (including darkening the dress and the flowers)

Other than this, I believe this was a great manipulation for your first. Keep up the good work, I'll post more asignments soon.

Hey there Umi, I just recently started playing around with photoshop, and I was wondering if I could be your student???
I already did both assignments
#1
#2

Very nice, Modest, very nice.

First off the signature. It's done very well for someone who has just started. I do emphasis very well. But there are a few flaws.

1) The first is easy to point out. There is no border. And no, I am not saying all signatures need a border, but most do. This gives your work a more 'professional' look. If you are unsure how to add a border, let me know. I'll see that you learn a couple of different borders that can be used.

2) The font. Now, as many know, I am not a text professional (That's Blue's job) This font however does not go with your background very well. Possibly making the drop shadow less opaque would help, but I suggest using a different font altogether.

3) I do not expect you to be at this level quite yet, but this sig needs depth. Sharpening, blurring, lighting, and shadows. I do see an attempt at lighting, but I believe that with all lighting, there must be shadows to balance it. I will teach you more of this further down the road.

I do want to point out, however, that your current signature set looks pretty good, assuming you made it yourself. It has some flaws, but I am definately impressed.

Now, on to your second assignment. First, the good things. I love what you did with the hair and make-up. The 'candy' look is very nice, and pretty unique to many that I have seen. These edits flow nicely, and seem pretty realistic.

There are a few things I would have done differently, however. I believe you could have done more with this concept that you used. Perhaps changing the green stripes on her sweatshirt to match the lipstick (making them more vibrant) or even making them a vibrant orange to match her hair. Overall, however, I think the concept was a great one. Nice work.

Originally Posted by Umi

Very nice, Modest, very nice.

First off the signature. It's done very well for someone who has just started. I do emphasis very well. But there are a few flaws.

1) The first is easy to point out. There is no border. And no, I am not saying all signatures need a border, but most do. This gives your work a more 'professional' look. If you are unsure how to add a border, let me know. I'll see that you learn a couple of different borders that can be used.

2) The font. Now, as many know, I am not a text professional (That's Blue's job) This font however does not go with your background very well. Possibly making the drop shadow less opaque would help, but I suggest using a different font altogether.

3) I do not expect you to be at this level quite yet, but this sig needs depth. Sharpening, blurring, lighting, and shadows. I do see an attempt at lighting, but I believe that with all lighting, there must be shadows to balance it. I will teach you more of this further down the road.

I do want to point out, however, that your current signature set looks pretty good, assuming you made it yourself. It has some flaws, but I am definately impressed.

Now, on to your second assignment. First, the good things. I love what you did with the hair and make-up. The 'candy' look is very nice, and pretty unique to many that I have seen. These edits flow nicely, and seem pretty realistic.

There are a few things I would have done differently, however. I believe you could have done more with this concept that you used. Perhaps changing the green stripes on her sweatshirt to match the lipstick (making them more vibrant) or even making them a vibrant orange to match her hair. Overall, however, I think the concept was a great one. Nice work.

Yes, my current set I made myself, But I just had my name changed to my real name, so I need to make a new set...

I was having some difficulty with that signature last night, I've made a lot of signatures via tutorials, and I thought I would try to gather everything I had learned so far and create my own signature by myself, I couldn't get the lighting done well, I felt like it was to bright. I tried to darken up some parts up a bit but didn't succeed. I did put in a border, it's just hard to see it with the white background when you click the link, its a 1px white border set to soft light. I got done all the way to the text, and it was nearly 10 in the morning without sleep, so rather than go and try to find a font to fit my sig, I was lazy and just used a windows font. I'm starting another project right now, I'll most likely be using it as my signature, so you will see it there I assume.

Originally Posted by Evan

Yes, my current set I made myself, But I just had my name changed to my real name, so I need to make a new set...

I was having some difficulty with that signature last night, I've made a lot of signatures via tutorials, and I thought I would try to gather everything I had learned so far and create my own signature by myself, I couldn't get the lighting done well, I felt like it was to bright. I tried to darken up some parts up a bit but didn't succeed. I did put in a border, it's just hard to see it with the white background when you click the link, its a 1px white border set to soft light. I got done all the way to the text, and it was nearly 10 in the morning without sleep, so rather than go and try to find a font to fit my sig, I was lazy and just used a windows font. I'm starting another project right now, I'll most likely be using it as my signature, so you will see it there I assume.

Well I'm not going to lie, it took me awhile to stray away from tutorials and make sigs totally on my own. In fact I still have trouble with it, so no worries ^_^

Ah, and on closer inspection, I can see the faint white border. Like you stated, it's easy to miss on the white background, so my apologies. And great. I look forward to seeing it.

Here's assignment#1!

((Hey, sorry for not replying yet. I've been really busy, band camp 8 hours a day. I promise I'll get to it tommorow.))

((Ok, sorry for the late response. Been extremely busy))

Pretty good sig, very nice effects. There are a few things I would've done differently however. First, the warm colors on Sonic's face and hand do not blend with the cool colored background much at all. Blend those colors a bit more. Possibly a gradient map or two? (Does GIMP have these? I wasn't sure). Also, I would have probably added a light source using a 200-300px soft brush. Possibly at the top in the middle would be the best location for one, but that's up to you. Lastly, I think this sig has a lot of depth potential. Possibly some sharpening and blurring would do it well.

Overall, I think this sig has a lot of potential. You chose a very nice background, and that render has always been one of my favorites. I would just tweak a few things to make it go from good to great.

Yup, GIMP's got gradient masks. Just to let you know I actually chose not to put those in 'cause I was afraid the sig might become all monotonous and stuff, but I guess that wasn't reallly such a good choice. Still, I'm glad I made an almost-but-not-quite great sig.

By the way Umi, I forgot to mention that your critique is REALLY, REALLY awesome. I would never have thought about how I clashed the warm and cool colors. It's really obvious that you look into every detail of a work and you know exactly how to correct the wrong.

Originally Posted by man_with_thooo

Yup, GIMP's got gradient masks. Just to let you know I actually chose not to put those in 'cause I was afraid the sig might become all monotonous and stuff, but I guess that wasn't reallly such a good choice. Still, I'm glad I made an almost-but-not-quite great sig.

By the way Umi, I forgot to mention that your critique is REALLY, REALLY awesome. I would never have thought about how I clashed the warm and cool colors. It's really obvious that you look into every detail of a work and you know exactly how to correct the wrong.

Thank you very much. It is nice to hear I'm doing my job well ^_^

I find good critique to be crucial to the teachings of this subject. This is a concept that I would like to see more of (*Glares at Showcase thread*)

Also, if you need any help with your next assignment, let me know. Rendering is a very long and frustrating process, yet one of the most important.