From the category archives:

Artist’s Life

New Year’s Resolutions for a Creative Mom

Thumbnail image for New Year’s Resolutions for a Creative Mom Artist's Life 01.03.2010

I like to think of New Year’s Resolutions as more like a plan than a list of solid goals.  The goal is, as always, to be the best mom, wife and artist I can be.  I figure if i get around to most of these, I’ll be okay this year. TEN:  Quality reading for you [...]

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Quick and Easy Scrapbook Page in Photoshop: Beach Afternoon

Thumbnail image for Quick and Easy Scrapbook Page in Photoshop: Beach Afternoon Artist's Life 04.24.2009

Alright everyone, are you ready for a quick and easy Photoshop project?  We are going to make a scrapbook page for the cost of a single sheet of photo paper.  You don’t need mad Photoshop skills or all afternoon, all you need are three photos.   This is a barebones example of a super easy, [...]

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An Hour in the Life of a Work at Home Mom

Thumbnail image for An Hour in the Life of a Work at Home Mom Artist's Life 03.29.2009

Disclaimer: If frantic phone calls, poopy diapers, pineapples or nursing bras upset you in anyway, you don’t want to read this article.  We, the work at home moms, are a misunderstood bunch. No one can really identify with your day to day balancing act except for another gal juggling the same combo of kids, clients, [...]

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How to Create Chrome Letters in Adobe Illustrator

Thumbnail image for How to Create Chrome Letters in Adobe Illustrator Artist's Life 01.30.2009

This quick tutorial will show you the steps required to make simple beveled chrome letters.  You will need a basic knowledge of illustrator, but you certainly don’t need to be a pro.   I am using Adobe Illustrator CS3 on a Mac, but older versions and PCs should work the same way.  Here we go! [...]

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Writing a Better Goodnight Moon

Thumbnail image for Writing a Better Goodnight Moon Artist's Life 01.08.2009

Ah, bedtime. It’s dark outside.  Everyone is fed and clean and (hopefully) winding down at the end of the day.  Our little one is snuggled up in her bed ready for her story.  Its almost time for Mommy to have a little time for herself.  If only I didn’t have to read an odd little [...]

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Fun With Photoshop – How To Ink and Color a Pencil Drawing in Adobe Photoshop

Thumbnail image for Fun With Photoshop – How To Ink and Color a Pencil Drawing in Adobe Photoshop Artist's Life 09.05.2008

Everyone dig out that little pencil sketch you’ve got stuck in a drawer or on a bulletin board.  You know the one, the one you want to add some color to, but you don’t want to mess it up.  Let’s digitize your artwork.  It’s easy!  I’m using Photoshop CS3, but this tutorial will work with [...]

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Learning to Paint Novels

Thumbnail image for Learning to Paint Novels Artist's Life 08.04.2008

Before I sat down to write this article I looked up “writing for artists” on Amazon.  My search came back with dozens of books on basic grammar, technical writing and sentence structure for us language impaired visual artists.  This was disappointing.  I wanted to find references on learning styles and creativity that focused on cross [...]

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Making the Switch: PC to Mac

Thumbnail image for Making the Switch: PC to Mac Artist's Life 07.18.2008

My first computer was an Apple 2C.  My dad bought me a “drawing” program that let you color pictures like a digital coloring book.  It was crude, awkward, had only eight colors and was utterly magical.  My current computer is a brand new iMac, complete with Adobe Creative Suite 3, which allows you to color [...]

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Image Resolution vs. Image Size

Artist's Life 07.04.2008

How do I make my digital photos smaller?  How do I make them bigger? These are two of the most common questions I get asked.  Usually I walk them through the process using whatever image editing software they have (See the instructions for reducing image size in Adobe Photoshop below.) And then I usually have [...]

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The Glories of CS3

Thumbnail image for The Glories of CS3 Artist's Life 06.07.2008

When I was in graduate school I purchased my first round of pixel pushing software. I had everything a modern freelance artist needed, including Adobe Photoshop 7, Adobe Illustrator 9, Macromedia DreamWeaver and Macromedia Flash. I had dreams of entering the professional artist world and creating fabulous pieces of hip, relevant, educational and enlightening artwork. [...]

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