AI Generated Artwork

I've been experimenting with Nightcafe, a website that lets you put in a bunch of word prompts and the AI will create a piece of art for you! It's really fascinating.

 

https://creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/g7LXi9qQAFwrFnSGECal

 

 https://creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/VjNb5moDUbpkEmmKwHRm

 

Can't find Face Masks in stock? Make your own!

With the current pandemic state of corona virus, it's time for everyone to start getting used to wearing masks when you will be out in large crowded areas. While a mask is not 100% protection, it will still offer some prevention in addition to good hygiene practices.

Disposable masks are hard to get right now and creating litter is not good for our environment in the long run. So lets get creative and make masks fun and fashionable!

If you are handy with a sewing machine these will be an easy project for you. If you are a beginner, these are a great thing to practice with as they are small and don't use up too much fabric if things don't work out!

https://buttoncounter.com/2018/01/14/facemask-a-picture-tutorial/
Make a cloth re-usable version of the expandable masks. Wash and wear again!

https://www.craftpassion.com/face-mask-sewing-pattern/
Kids, Teens and Adult sized fitted masks are available in this tutorial.

Stay safe everyone!

Design Resources and Inspiration

Free Fonts

https://www.fontfabric.com/

Free Icons / Symbols / Emoticons

http://endlessicons.com/

Stock Photography

https://unsplash.com/

Layouts and Mockups

https://freedesignresources.net/

Layouts and Mockups

https://graphicburger.com/

Design Trends for 2019

2019 is here! Let's explore the design trends and their techniques to use in our own creative projects.

Colours

1. Living Coral

First up, let's look at colours. Pantone has picked Living Coral, an orangey-pink as their flagship for the year. Which is still very reminiscent of the Millennial Pink trend of recent years. It's a safe bet that Living Coral will pair nicely with Millennial Pink in the fashion world. Living Coral is probably going to harmonize with all that mermaid merchandise that's so popular right now too.

Pantone Colour of the Year : Living Coral

RGB:255 111 97

HEX/HTML: FF6F61

Palettes to use with Living Coral

Design Element Trends

1. Asymmetry

Asymmetry brings in so many possibilities for your designs. You can section out your layouts with block of color, large images and patterns. Balance is still important but remember do away with floating your content in one seamless sea of colour. If you are using large photographic images, converting them to black and white will prevent them from overpowering your information but still providing an interesting background.

2. Lineless & finelined illustrations

It's time to master the shapes and colours in your illustrations and keep the line work to a minimum - heavy clean lines are not the rage this year. Either use no key lines at all or use fine feathery details that have a hand drawn quality.

3. Isometric Drawings

This style of drawing gives me nostalgia for 90's games like Landstalker and Diablo. It's a great way to give your illustrations some depth without needing overly detailed 3D rendered pictures. Use limited colour palettes that harmonize with the rest of your design and don't forget a little bit of gradient for depth.

4. Gradients & Duotones

Gradients and Duotones are still hot.

5. Metallics & Sparkles

Get out that shimmer and shine. Glitter is back! Fashion, cosmetics and everyday items are getting a touch of magical shine. Gold leafing and foiling for your art projects and print design is a definite yes. That sparkly lipstick and face glitter you've been hiding for 15 years? Bring it out! I would like to personally thank the current unicorn trend for making this stuff cool again.

https://zevendesign.com/graphic-designers-guide-foil/

6. Short Animations

To be honest, it's been a while since I did any animation for a website as it started to become tacky and annoying beyond simple button rollovers. Now that flash is dead, what does everyone use to animate?

7. Chromatic Aberrations 

Chromatic aberration is usually something you want to avoid in photography however this technique has been gaining popularity in illustration and animation. I've noticed quite a lot of anime use this effect to create visual interest in their linework. Instead of the lineart being all color, it is being multi-colored to imitate chromatic aberrations from lower quality photos.

References

https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/graphic-design-trends-2019/

https://99designs.com.au/blog/trends/graphic-design-trends-2019/

https://graphicmama.com/blog/graphic-design-trends-2019/

https://www.behance.net/gallery/71481981/2019-Design-Trends-Guide

https://www.creativebloq.com/features/graphic-design-trends-for-2019

https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/escher-x-nendo-between-two-worlds/

https://www.acmi.net.au/events/skate-video-production-masterclass-chris-middlebrook/#top

https://www.pokemon.co.jp/ex/shirts/

Design Trends for 2018 - Tutorials, Tips & Examples

2018 is looking to be a very pretty year for colour! Pantone has declared Ultra Violet as their colour of the year. General trends seem to be leaning towards pastels & neons with a bit of 80's nostalgia. Graphic Design, Media & Fashion are using these colours as well as some really great layout techniques to create some beautiful artwork.

2018 Trends!
+ Tutorials & Tips on how to create them for Graphic & Web Design

Colour - Ultra Violet | Pantone Tools for Designers
Colour - Pastels | Pastel Schemes for 2018
Colour - Neons & Brights | London Fashion Week Spring 2018 Palettes

Colour Channels | Photoshop

Typography - Letter Portrait | Photoshop

Illustrated Typography | Make your own fonts with Fontself 

Cropped Typography | Cutting Shapes in Illustrator

Liquid / Melted Typography

Dada Cutouts | Dada Documentary

Iconography

Letters as Images

Double Exposure | Photoshop

Double Light

Drop Shadows | HTML/CSS

Gradients | Flat 2.0 Designs  Flat vs. Depth

Duotones | Photoshop
Glitching | Photoshop - 5 different style Glitches

This list is a work in progress!

Examples

Here's some examples of these trends in contemporary media and fashion.

Colour Channels

The colour channels effect involves using multiple images (split into a CMYK or RGB colour). The images are either the same or similar.

Dreams - Silence (Music Video, 2018)

Colour - Ultra Violet

When I read about Ultra Violet being the choice for 2018 my mind went back to the hologram imagery from the film Blade Runner 2049.

Blade Runner 2049 (Film, 2017)

Double Light

Double light involves using two lightsources of different coloured lights. The most popular use of this at the moment is blue and pink neon.

Photo by Jodie Becker - unikorn.smugmug.com

Glitching

Glitching involves screen tearing, chromatic abberations, pixelation, scanlines, ISO noise and other effects you would usually see on photo/video media with a damaged signal or poor settings.

Gotta Glitch Hail Mary - livingdead.com.au

Moon Glitch Hail Mary - livingdead.com.au

Cropped Typography

Cropped typography creates a relation with images by cutting away parts to make it merge more organically.

Flourish - Poster by 83oranges

References
https://graphicmama.com/blog/graphic-design-trends-2018/
https://www.brontobytes.com/blog/100-best-free-fonts-for-2018/

Inktober 2017 drawings

I was trying to do Inktober last year but didn't quite make it to the finish line. However it was a good challenge to get drawing more regularly. I didn't really do ink drawings as they were all digital (Wacom tablet / Krita), but whatever close enough - art is what you want it to be. Although I would like to try traditional ink this year.

Todoroki Shouto from My Hero Academia

Merman Makoto from Free! Eternal Summer

D.va from Overwatch

Munechika from Touken Ranbu

Deku from My Hero Academia

Kaworu from Evangelion

Shinji from Evangelion

Sailor Moon from Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon

Alphinaud from Final Fantasy 14

Alisaie from Final Fantasy 14

Brera from Macross Frontier

Rei from Free! Eternal Summer

Lucio from Overwatch

Inkling Boy from Splatoon

Link from Legend of Zelda

Tetra from Zelda Wind Waker

Felix from Re:Zero

Zero from Code Geass

Ranma from Ranma 1/2

Sucy from Little Witch Academia

Mikumo from Macross Delta

Taako from The Adventure Zone

Nanachi from Made In Abyss

Kerochan - acrylic painting

I've been a bit distracted from making any art the last few months so it felt good to get out some paint!

Acrylic paint is harder to work with than the digital art I'm used to but it certainly is enjoyable. I wanted to go with something fairly simple and I've been watching Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc, so I chose Kerochan as the subject.

Portfolio - Teddy & the Melbourne Welsh Male Choir posters & fliers

Some work I did last year to promote Teddy Tahu Rhodes concert.

Email attachment

A3 Poster

DL Flier - back

DL Flier - front

Google Fonts - a great resource for free font faces

https://www.google.com/fonts

I admit, I love fonts. I have a few favourites that I often go back to when designing for clients but I always love to find new and interesting fonts, that are a little more wild, for my own personal projects.

Google Fonts has lots of filters so you can search for the type you are looking for with ease. This is going to be a great resource for me and hopefully for you too!

While on the subject, an old favourite font site is http://www.fontalicious.com/

But nowadays they no longer have free downloads and you have to pay for the fonts. It has many unique and funky fonts, so if you are after something special, they are great.

The Fine Art of Masturbating

One tumblr user has set out to append a Hitachi Magic Wand vibrator to some classical art. I'm not sure if the user is doing it to celebrate female masturbation or just make something hilarious. But both reasons work for me.

http://magicwandarthistory.tumblr.com/

Now we know why the Mona Lisa is giving that wry smile!