Everyone has to start somewhere, so in this particular post I’m going to focus on a relatively straight forward exercise within Photoshop. This will involve lopping off the head of one person from a specific scanned image and then moving it over to another and plonking it down on someone I’ll pluck at random. Yes you too will have the power of a God! I’m sure you’ll already have seen what I’m talking about courtesy of badly Photoshopped film posters, or humorous composites that help pad out newspaper websites. This could prove useful if you want to create a collage effect out of several scanned images.

Let’s assume it’s your Dad’s birthday in a few days time, but you’ve browsed the shelves of several different card shops without any appealing to you. So you’ve decided you can do much better by yourself. In one hand you’ve got an embarrassing photo of Dad, and in the other a still image from a western. Your aim, as mentioned earlier, is to decapitate your Dad (perhaps some issue will be resolved by doing so), and place it on top of a cowboy’s head. First of all you need to open Photoshop and activate the scanning software link within it. You should have a range of options to choose from such as picture resolution, file format, colour type, etc. After you have made your decisions and scanned and saved the two images you’re going to use the main business can start.

There are different ways you can isolate a person’s head, such as using the magic wand tool to pick out and delete certain colour tones. My preferred method is by using the eraser tool, with a hard round 19 pixel head, to isolate the face through drawing a white circle around it so as to create a clear color contrast. To help speed up the erasing process it’s best to select the rectangular marquee tool to cut white angular chunks out of the background. By the end, except for the face, there should only be white. After that task has been completed you can click on the zoom tool to get in as close as possible to the edges of the face and hair, and erase with greater precision. Next you select the magnetic lasso tool, which resembles an upturned clothes hanger and will enable you to lay down points along the edges of the head. Click once to create a starting point and move your mouse arrow around the head plotting the points, before returning once again to the beginning to lay down the end point. After this is done a lined border will appear around your Dad’s head and you can then decide whether to copy or cut it.

The first stage will have now been completed and you can move onto the second part. Depending on your mood at the time, or your general outlook on life, you might want to just paste your Dad’s head straight into the other image and use the move tool to place it onto the cowboy’s neck, in the hope that it fits. If you’re more of a perfectionist you might want to make more alterations to the head and the background you’re dropping it into, so that their merging isn’t jarring. To subtly erase parts of the cowboy’s face that your Dad’s head will be imposed on, I’d suggest clicking on the clone stamp tool. This tool will allow you to copy a particular part of the background image, maybe next to the cowboy’s face, and place it on top of say the his ears. Unlike using the eraser tool it won’t leave white marks. For other alterations I would advise you to move your mouse arrow towards the menu bar. To add a shadow click on Layer > Layer Style. If you want to skew, rotate or flip the head then go to Edit > Transform. To turn the head black and white you could opt for Image > Adjustments > Desaturation. There’s a multitude of choices open to you, but the responses to the final image will be somewhat more limited. The card’s recipient will either love or hate it. Good luck!

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If you are a short film maker in London, and are doing research for ideas for your next short, it is necessary that you consider the important things such as tools, lighting, site, scene, sound, and theme. You should also, give some serious thought to timing. It may be easy for a lot of people to get it right, yet there are quite a good number of people who seems to give no consideration to the actual length of their ’short’.

On the other hand, there are those who will find themselves so hung up on the mindset that they have “Got to keep it short!”. All of this can more than likely be very damaging.

When thinking about a short film and what it must do, in the same way you would when buying office furniture London, it must grab your attention, get you thinking, and irk your emotions.

The emotions felt can often be varied should it be wished by the director, or it can be done through some planning to lull you into feeling a very particular emotion. Usually most will choose to have the director decide on the emotions he is going for since it bring about the level of satisfaction in the short.

The thing is that sitting through a two and a hour ’blockbuster' doesn’t really matter if you are focusing on is whether your right butt-cheek is going to come back from its numbness. Now consider if you can creating a five minute work of art that will get people thinking long after its done.

So the question becomes, how long should your short be? It is not very simple to come up with an answer. Whether it is 30 seconds or 4 minutes it does not really matter as long as you have content that is thought provoking, engaging, and good.

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This tutorial is meant primarily for artists that are working in a non digital medium. The first step is understanding that you will take a image created either using paint on canvas or film, and transfer it to a digital medium. This will entail either taking a photograph of an artwork or scanning the artwork into a computer. One of the most important concepts to consider when creating images for digital printing is image resolution. This is measured in dpi or dots per inch. A small image that is print ready is usually at a resolution of 360 dpi, a finished banner because it is so large, will be at a resolution of 100 dpi.

At this point you may consider running away screaming, but instead you could consider the tools and skills that are necessary to be able to complete a job like this:

• learn to use photoshop, illustrator, quark, or freehand
• have a decent desktop computer that can handle large files
• own a decent digital camera
• understand how to take good quality images of your artwork
• understand the easy way to do it

You could create a simple banner like the one above using only photoshop and a photograph that you took. If you shoot using film, you can get picture put directly onto a disk, and your job wouldn’t be that difficult at all.

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Creative expression is essential to a person’s well-being. Sketching is one form of creative expression that can be done inexpensively, without special equipment or training. A pencil and paper, and you’re ready to sketch. Here are some tips for beginners.

Be sure to draw in a well-lighted place. Sunlight is ideal, but artificial light is fine as long as you can see clearly. Position yourself so that your sketching hand is not blocking the light on your paper; you want to be able to see what you are drawing in full light, not the shadow from your hand.

Draw in simple lines and shapes. Break down your subject into basic geometrical shapes, like squares, triangles, and circles. A human body, for example, can be broken down into an oval for the head, a rectangle or triangle for the torso, and long thin rectangles for arms and legs. You can smooth out lines and curves later, but your essential foundation figure is there.

Drawing outlines can help you get used to the shapes of objects, so focus on outlines before adding shading and other details. Draw from an actual object or subject, since you will be able to draw what you see.

Always keep in mind that sketching is not a complicated process, like doing something like DNA Testing, it is simple but requires commitment.

Don’t get frustrated if your sketch doesn’t look exactly like what you are drawing – practice makes perfect. Keep doing it and sooner rather than later you will be good at it.

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How do you know which is the right college for you? Have you ever considered a small private liberal arts school? When you have chosen a particular field to go into, then you must also to decide on the type of school you want to attend. Whether you want to be a lawyer, doctor, or want to work for London Plumbers you can choose a Liberal arts college. There are both advantages and disadvantages about these schools.

Here are some advantages:

· The student is the main focus of a Liberal arts school. In state run colleges and universities the faculty spends most of the time on graduate students and research however at a liberal arts school they spend more time on undergraduate students.

· The class size in a liberal arts school will be very much smaller.

· In a larger school the students may have more trouble getting the classes they desire or need in order to graduate.

· Liberal arts colleges tend to be more competitive and have students that value their education in a high degree.

Here are the disadvantages:

· The cost of going to a Liberal arts school can be expensive. A state university in the US may cost around $14,000 but private schools can cost well over $30,000.

· Students attending liberal arts schools will often take on thousands of dollars in students loans. This is quite a load to carry when you first get out of school

· There is a sense of community that you share with the whole campus. This can lead to drama and lots of gossip whereas state universities tend to be large and most students don’t know each other.

· There can be a lack of diversity in Liberal arts colleges because the minorities are unable to attend these types of schools in large numbers.

Whatever type of college or university you choose, always try to verify the advantages and disadvantages of choosing a particular school.

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There are many theories about creativity, many think that it can be learned, others think that it is something born in us that is progressively killed by an educational establishment that strives for conformity and obedience. Part of being a great artist is being disobedient and idiosyncratic. Two good examples at either side of the spectrum are Caroline Shotton and Damien Hirst. Vincent Van Moo by Shotton uses a similar set of creative skills to Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living which is his famous shark in formaldehyde. Both of these works meld the artist’s unfettered imagination with their physical ability to create either a two dimensional or three dimensional work.The question for this art college is how to nurture this creative quality in the student. The first step is to learn to stop censoring your impulses. Ideas flit through the human brain in milliseconds. You need to learn to generate and harness these ideas. This is commonly referred to as either brain storming or day dreaming. If you watched the last episode of the apprentice, you would have seen some great examples, both positive and negative. The contestants made lists of ideas as they popped into their heads, the rules of course, is that there is no such thing as a bad idea. To practice this type of imaginative play, it is a good idea to do free writing, painting, or drawing everyday. This is a timed activity in which the only rule is that you keep your hands moving. It is the best way to get started nurturing your creative impulses.

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More important than legal paternity testing for the working artist is having a home that speaks to the quality of your creativity and your ’eye’. This can be particularly difficult when you are both poor and a live or conceptual artist. If you are not classically trained, interior design can be a total nightmare, yet people will judge the quality of your work, if your home is not cool enough. So here is the tip of the day: make your own furniture. Making shelves and tables out of recycled materials is ecological, affordable and incredibly cool. All you need to get started is some old cardboard boxes, newspaper, and wheat paste. If you have some wire and masking tape it would be helpful, but not at all necessary. You can find a basic wheat paste recipe anywhere on the internet, or you can buy pva, or wood glue if you want to use it at key point for extra strength. Start by building a basic bookshelf by wiring two boxes one of top of the other. If you want to be all professional about paper maiche what you want to do is lay down one sheet of newspaper, cover it with wheat paste, put another layer of newspaper on top, cover with paste, then a third layer. Rip this sandwich into strips an apply to the wired together boxes with a bit of additional paste. You can build up sculptural elements using wadded up newspaper taped on and then covered with the wet newspaper. Be sure to let it dry thoroughly before painting.

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OK, working in advertising probably wasn’t what you had in mind when you first though of becoming an artist. No doubt you had dreams of openings in fancy galleries, while the rich and beautiful sipped champagne and praised your genius. You probably had your first exhibition at Tate Modern all planned out – and had already mentally spent the hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, of pounds that your work would command at auction. Not that it’s about the money, obviously…
Unfortunately, that’s only the reality for a very small number of those who dream of becoming an artist; same as only a few writers can win the Booker or a few actors pick up that golden statue. If you want to make money from being an artist, then you have to be a bit more practical. And working in advertising is one way to be artistically creative, while still picking up a pay cheque at the end of the week. Who cares if you have to come up with a billboard advertising cars for sale in Lebanon or feminine hygiene products? Everyone has to start somewhere, and graphic design is as good a place as any.
Besides, the right ad campaign might bring you that fame and fortune. Think of some of the most iconic images of the last 100 years. Are they in art galleries or are they on the shelves of supermarkets? We can have the discussion about whether the answer to that question signifies the cultural death of the UK; for now focus on the positives. What if could be you who creates that next world-famous, memorable brand or image?

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One of the most important things for any emerging or mid career artist is to be as self sufficient as possible. If you are reading this before going to art college, it means that you need to learn about marketing, promotion, desk top publishing, graphic design, lighting, building, and carpentry.
As a working artist you could be doing anything from producing your own exhibitions to designing DVD packaging and you need to be prepared. One of the most important things you can do is become adept at the major desktop publishing and photo editing programs. Designing postcards, flyers, and posters is a lot different than any type of fine art that you may be doing. You need to be proficient at all aspects of computer aided design, and you need to think more about how your audience is going to read and interpret your message.
Two of the best resources to get started with are gimp and scribus. These two programs are freeware that is available to run on ubuntu, a linux based operating system. The cold hard truth is that once you are out of school, your access to free computers and software can be drastically reduced. Setting up a linux operating system on your computer is the only practical solution. Once you have done this you will have access to innumerable free high quality programs that will solve every problem that you can imagine.
Everything that you are able to do for yourself is one less thing that you are going to have to pay for and this can make the difference between a sustainable art career and a job at Tesco.

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I am not sure of the reason why, but it is a common human trait to want to collect. Some people go overboard and might be defined as hoarders, but for the majority, collecting one or two different types of items is just a lot of fun. Others that might be called serious collectors, collect to satisfy some sort of inner need. How else can you explain a grown man with a million baseball cards?

One of the things that people collect is limited edition sculptures. With this hobby or fascination, there are endless areas to specialize in. Some collect Hummel Figurines which can be worth thousands of dollars. Others are in to pewter or bronze sculptures. They may collect a specific theme or they may be more general.

The limited edition label indicates that only a certain amount of a particular sculpture was made and that no more of the same kind will ever be made. If you are lucky enough to have a very rare piece that was made by a well known artist, your limited edition sculpture can actually be a good investment.

If you are willing to hold on to your collection, over the years, certain limited edition statues can appreciate nicely. Some may say they are not in it for money, bu because they love what they are collecting. That may be true, but eventually, most of those precious, limited edition sculptures are either sold or put up for auction on Ebay.

When you buy a limited edition sculpture, don’t buy it as an investment. Buy it because you like it. Limited edition sculptures can add to the decor of any room in the house.

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