Domestic Geek

Some days when I'm cruising on stock sites like iStockPhoto.com and the like, I see images and illustrations that caught my eye from the many publications we print. I've decided to get off my duff and learn to illustrate people so that I can get my work onto iStockPhoto and one day come across my work in one of our client's magazines. A weird goal? Maybe. I still think it would be cool, though. Damn, why is illustrating people's faces so freaking difficult?

I was bored at work yesterday, so I was checking out some of the new features in Illustrator CS3. I'm not entirely thrilled with these new "panels" that are docked on the side, but that may be just getting used to them. I can change them to a more palette type of interface that I'm used to if I just can't make nice with them. There are some cool things that have been added that will really be helpful when I illustrate. For instance, when you hover your mouse over a path's endpoint, a large box appears to make it easier to click on just the right point. That was always the biggest pain with earlier versions. There are some cool color features that I can wait to experiment more with. There's some sort of color scheme thing that I haven't quite figured out, but it looks intriguing. It generates related color swatches based on a color you pick. Very helpful when trying to find complimentary colors for a design. Anyway, if I can sneak in some more time tomorrow, I'll see what else is in there.

One of the things I really missed while being underemployed was getting Photoshop User and Layers magazines. At $10 a pop, those were one of the first things I cut from my budget. Well, Friday I splurged and got an issue of Layers. I'm hoping in the next month I can get my subscription going again. Anyway, there was an ad in there for a magazine I would love to get: Adobe® Illustrator® Techniques. Unfortunately, a yearly subscription to that publication is $80/yr. Out of my budget right now unless I can find it monthly at the newsstand. I love working in Illustrator and really miss learning new techniques. One of my goals is to become Adobe Illustrator certified.