You Suck at Photoshop

Ok, no I'm not actually saying you, nor am I trying to be mean.  That's the name of a set of tutorials I found on YouTube today.  Dark, dry comedy might not be everyone's cup of tea but it certainly spices up what might otherwise be just another video tutorial.  I couldn't quit laughing when I was watching these.

Photoshop project #1

Seems like everyday my kids turn in an assignment I find some little surprise that just thrills me.  I know I'm bragging but I can't help it, I'm really proud of them.

Ok, so they started Photoshop on Monday.  I covered the selection tools, the transform tools and couple others.  I wasn't expecting much from them for this one, just some cleanly cut pieces of the files I gave them to work with.

I told them to clip pieces from this file:

And stick them on this background:

Pretty much anyone with much experience would see this as a fairly routine project and it is geared towards those that haven't worked with Photoshop before.  I wasn't expecting much.

But looking through the students files, one jumped straight off the screen at me.  You can tell he's one of the ones that already knows more about Photoshop than I'm going to be able to teach him in class, but it's still a delight to come across something like this when you're expecting so much less:

My hat is off to his creativity.  It's always so cool to find them doing this sort of work.

Think he might be a bit of a Bioshock fan?

Cordarounds

Ever wonder why you can only find corduroy pants with vertical lines? Well that's the question that powered the dreams of two guys from California who created Cordarounds. There dream became a reality and they now run a successful, not to mention fun, alternative clothing site.  The stuff you find here is nothing if not unique and so cool!

They are a great couple of guys and I guarantee laughs if you sign up for their mailing list.

While you're at their site make sure to check out the discorounds and Mary-go-rounds and you'll have a smile on your face.

Your Brains

Thought this was appropriate for the season.  Happy Halloween to all and I hope your weekend is full of ghosts and goblins!

Final Illustrator projects

For the most part I'm very proud of how my students did on their final Illustrator projects.  There are some with a lot of potential in both classes.  Below are some samples of the student projects, I just wish I could present them to you full-sized.  The small format really doesn't do any of them justice.

Please keep in mind that these are in most cases students that didn't know a thing about Illustrator at the beginning of September.  Their assignment was to draw over a photo using the pen tool in Illustrator.  It might not seem like a big deal to those of you who have been using Illustrator for years, but for students that are fresh to the software, I think it's pretty impressive.

and believe it or not, this last one is not a photo.

Converse

I feel like waxing nostalgic a bit today. When I was a kid, all those eons ago, I loved my Chuck Taylors. I had like 6 or 7 pair in various colors, all hi-tops. 20 years and a matched set of bad knees later and my chucks are sadly a thing of the past.

I was busy doing nothing at work today, wandering through various websites, when i decided to look up my old friend Converse. What I found made certain that in the near future my knees are only going to get worse. I never knew this but you can customize your own right from the factory! I'm sure just about anyone who reads this would say "Um, yeah bud, everyone knows you can do that." Well I didn't know this so I'm spreading it around, bare with me.

Granted, they are 50 bucks more than they were when I was a kid but what do you expect? I'm older and can afford to rock a custom pair now I think. So soon, you'll be seeing a pair of these wonderful shoes on my feet again. Just gotta love 'em!

TheFunTheory.com

I came across this site called The Fun Theory when I was flipping through tv spots at adforum.  It is driven by the theory that we can change peoples' behavior by making mundane activities, such as picking up trash or climbing stairs, fun and entertaining.  In my mind this looks like an incredibly interesting idea.  Check out the site and see what you think.

YAY PHOTOSHOP!!!

Time to get rollin with Photoshop.  Had a crazy weekend trying to get everything prepared for it and I'm anxiously awaiting my student evaluations.

I've switched out some of the Photoshop section so I feel I'm finally mixing things up the way I want them.  It's gonna be a lot of fun!

Once I get them graded, I'll post a few of my students' final Illustrator projects.

The Test

I think pretty much everyone has had test anxiety at one time or another. You walk into class and that cold, clammy dread slips over you. Your stomach churns and your hands shake. The test is placed before you and everything at first looks like it's written in some ancient unspoken language, then with a sigh you dive in...

Well that's how I felt before grading this first test.

I was probably more nervous about grading than they were taking it because I knew this would be the REAL test of what they knew. All of the assignments they had up until this point were a piece of cake. Not too complicated and they had plenty of time, but this was different.

The first section was what I thought to be a fairly simple fill-in-the-blank and multiple choice, two page test. The timed test was next and I gave them what I felt was much more than an adequate amount of time. It was simple in it's construction, but maybe deceptively simple.

What were the results? Well, not to be intentionally anticlimactic, but I don't want to voice them here, just in case any of them stumble upon my tiny blog. I will say that the test is much more telling than all their previous assignments.

Well, it's back to the drawing board, or Illustrator window, as the case may be. Wish me luck!

Social Awareness through Play

I met with Dr. Francisco Ortega on Friday, he's an assistant professor at Tech, and one of the topics we discussed was a project he did for his thesis. He created a set of games, two of which are downloadable at his site ludoztli.com and deal with relations between Mexico and the U.S. I found it very interesting that his approach to bring about social awareness takes a route through one of those scarcely visited social situations that many of us remember from our childhood, playing boardgames.

If you have the chance, please check out his site. It might, at very least, open an eye to the immigration issue.