Create Color Palettes in PS CS5

Here is a video that I posted to YouTube last year but never included on my blog. Keeping in the theme of "Color", I demonstrate how to create and edit color palettes from an image automatically and manually in Photoshop CS5.  The manual method is also compatible with GIMP and CS6.

-Steve

LINK: https://youtu.be/0LMsDNM0MoM

Adding Custom Brushs to Photoshop

This is an easy and fast way to add brushes to Photoshop without having to restart Photoshop.  For years I have navigated my way through layers of folders to add or delete brush sets in Photoshop, then restart it so the new brushes were available.  But by chance I stumbled on to a very simple way to accomplish it. Weather we are doing work on our laptops, desktops or  other computers, It is very helpful to keeping various installations of Photoshop the same.

-Steve

LINK: https://youtu.be/YejwZrsuIsU

Digital Painting Programs ...which is the best?

The question of what application is best for digital painting comes up over and over again.  The fact is that there is no so called "best".  Which application you use is based on a variety of things. such as affordability, platform (which OS), capabilities, hardware and personal preference.  Here is the run down on the ones I would suggest.

Spring Colors

    

Every spring I am amazed at the colors.  Part of it is how gray winter can be and the contrast that spring brings with it.  But I can't get over how brilliant and bright the colors are.  They seem faked.  If I were to see these same values in a photo or in a painting I would find it hard to believe. 

GIMP 2.7.5 Official and 2.7.6 Unofficial Release

I have been using an "Unofficial" release of GIMP 2.7.5 from Partha.com (which is now hosting the Unofficial 2.7.6 version) but earlier this month the "Official" version was released. It is still in development but there have been a lot of great changes. The change log can be found HERE and the Official release can be found HERE. My Personal preference is to the Partha builds.  They seem to be tweeked in a way that suits me.  Both versions can be installed at the same time, so experimenting between the two is easy. Give it a try and let me know what you like or dislike and remember to report any issues. Steve

GIMP vs Photoshop

GIMP vs Photoshop? 

There are many reasons to use GIMP even if when we have Photoshop.  Both Photoshop and GIMP are great tools, though GIMP maybe an alternative to Photoshop. it is not an equivalent.

The Gamut Mask Tool Overview

This is a free online tool for creating Gamut Masks which aids in refining a color palette. This tool was created by Richard Robinson and is hosted on his site Live Painting Lessons.com HERE. The Gamut Mask can be either printed or taking a screen shot with another free tool Greenshot and saved as a PNG (PNGs have more detail than JPEGs). From there you can easily create a color palette in Photoshop or GIMP (not shown here.)

Digital Painting instead of Traditional Painting?

Why Digital Painting instead of Traditional Painting? I get asked this question a lot.  Of course neither is better than the other but for me there were many advantages starting with digital painting.

Bumble Bee

 

This is part of an earlier painting entitled "Black Eye Susans".  I had so much fun creating the bee in flight that I wanted to create a higher resolution painting of the bee.  Here I depict the bee in flight about to land on the flower.

GIMP 2.7.4 Wacom Support

GIMP 2.7.4 now has Wacom Support.  I have been working towards replacing Photoshop so I can run Linux full time.  But Photoshop is not easily replaced, but the the newest version of GIMP, which is 2.7.4 is getting better everyday and now the issue with no Wacom or tablet support has been fixed.

Quick Tip: MyPaint and GIMP Template

I have been working with GIMP a lot lately and also playing with MyPaint. I have seen some very good paintings done with MyPaint and I love the feel of the brushes. But I have always been able to control my canvas size and resolution. But MyPaint doesn't allow you to set either from scratch. This is one method that gets around those issues.

GIMP: How To Add Themes UPDATED

This is an update to the original tutorial on theme. In this tutorial I show how to download, adjust the themes and install them in either version 2.6.11 or 2.7.3.  In the end I preview the new themes and show how to set it as your default so it loads automatically.   The custom themes can be downloaded from GNOME.

Update: Installing GIMP 2.7.3 in Windows

UPDATE-: I add this update to an earlier post on "How To Install GIMP 2.7.3 in Ubuntu and Windows.
I had issues with saving to the OpenRaster extension (.ora) and had to go back and forth between 2.7.3 and 2.6.11 (stable version).  I went and backed up my .gimp 2.7.3 folder and uninstalled Gimp 2.7.3 with RevoUninstaller.  Then I reinstalled it with the version I downloaded from Gimpusers.com HERE.  I verified that it worked by exporting as an .ora file.  Then I copied my themes and brushes into the new folder.  Not sure what happened, but it is an experimental version.

Hope this helps,

-Steve

GIMP: How To Add Themes

Adding Themes to GIMP (2.7 +2.6) is rather simple once one knows how. This tutorial covers the steps and allows one to change the working environment of GIMP quickly. All that is needed is the new version of GIMP 2.7.3 and custom themes downloaded from GNOME. 

With custom themes you can go from the default the to a custom theme.

GIMP: How to Create Perspective Grids with the Path Tool

 

This tutorial shows how to use the Path Tool in GIMP to create perspective grids. I did an earlier version showing the workflow done in Photoshop and was asked how to do it in GIMP. The tool is the same but the methods differs from application to application.