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Articles for the ‘Art’ Category

If your funny t shirts are turning out funny-looking, the problem may be your text. No matter how awesome your cool tshirt designs are when you imagine them, if your text is poorly designed, your shirts will always look unprofessional. But don’t fear! With these 5 tricks of professional graphic designers, you can quickly turn those amateur custom tshirts into perfect and polished works of tshirt art.

TShirt Design Secret #1: Choosing the Right Font
When choosing a font for your t shirt sayings, make sure to pick one that supports your message. For example, if you’re designing a funny t shirt, choose a font that has a funny feel to it. If you’re designing a sexy t shirt, choose a font that has a sexy feel to it. And if you’re designing a t shirt for a serious, professional law firm, you probably don’t want to use that font with letters shaped like kittens.

While this may sound like common sense, many new t shirt designers and would-be t shirt entrepreneurs skip this step and just pick any standard font they might have lying around. Unfortunately, it’s obvious in their results; what could have been a fun tshirt design ends up being boring and amateur-looking. If you’re careful to choose a font that represents the content of your words, however, you can avoid this fate and your shirts will always be one step ahead of your competition.

TShirt Design Secret #2: Tracking and Kerning
Most of the time, when font text is typed into a computer program, the spaces between the letters and words are a little uneven, and often a little too wide. This extra and uneven space not only makes your t shirt sayings look a bit awkward and unprofessional, it also makes them slightly more difficult to read because the words don’t visually hold together as units. Even if the viewer doesn’t notice it, the eye and the brain have to work a bit harder and that extra bit of difficulty gives the viewer a subconscious feeling of unease.

Fortunately for novice t shirt designers, this problem can be addressed by a combination of tracking and kerning, which are simply two methods of adjusting the spacing between letters.

Tracking has to do with adjusting the average spacing of letters across entire words, sentences, or selected ranges of letters. By adjusting the tracking, the t shirt artist can either decrease the average spacing between all the letters in the selected range (making the spacing “tighter”), or else increase the average spacing (”opening up” the text), depending on what’s needed. Since the raw, unadjusted spacing varies from font to font, you’ll have to decide which one is needed for your particular tshirt design. But a good trick used by professional t shirt designers is to start out by tightening the font too much (so the letters are too close together) and then slowly increasing the tracking until the words look right.

Kerning is very similar to tracking, but with one important difference: instead of adjusting the average spacing across an entire range of letters, kerning only adjusts the spacing between two letters at a time. This allows a greater degree of control than tracking, and allows a t shirt artist to fine tune the spacing between single letter pairs that still don’t look quite right, even after the text has been tracked.

In general, the best practice is to use tracking to get the entire range of letters in a t shirt slogan to look pretty good, and then use kerning to fine tune the spacing between letter pairs until your t shirt saying looks perfect.

TShirt Design Secret #3: Word Spacing
Once the letters of a t shirt slogan have been properly tracked and kerned, the next important step is to adjust the spacing between the words. Adjusting word spacing is very similar to tracking and kerning — in fact, it’s done exactly the same way as kerning and is really just kerning the spaces between words rather than letters — but the rule of thumb for proper spacing between words is a little different, and so word spacing is a whole step unto itself.

In general, the best practice when adjusting spacing between words is to visualize the width of a lowercase “L” in the font that’s being used, and then make the space between each word that wide. This means that the width of the spaces between words will be different from font to font (because the size of the lowercase “L” is different from font to font), but it also means that the spacing will be custom designed for the font in question. Creating the proper amount of space between words will support the effects of your tracking and kerning, thus helping your words to hold together better as separate visual units and improving readability.

TShirt Design Secret #4: Leading, aka “Line Spacing”
Another place that new t shirt designers often go wrong is in the leading, or “spacing between lines of text.” Leading — which is pronounced like the metal “lead” rather than like a “leader” taking people somewhere — goes back to the days of the printing press, when a person would actually use small, thin pieces of lead to create vertical space between the lines of type. These days, of course, computers handle the leading for us. Unfortunately, when it comes to t shirt text, they often handle it poorly.

When a t shirt slogan is typed into a computer program, it often starts out with a little too much space between the lines. This helps make the text look very “fonty” rather than natural, as well as making the tshirt design (and the designer) seem very amateur. With just a small change to the leading, however, that same t shirt saying can be made to look very tight and professional.

With leading, the goal is to create enough space between the lines of text so they fit nicely together and don’t interfere with one another, without creating so much space that they look artificial or become difficult to read. The eye should be able to easily jump visually from one line to the next without losing its place, and without any effort at all. While there is no real rule of thumb for the proper amount of space between lines, t shirt designers who begin adjusting the leading will quickly learn to “feel” when it’s right. In general, the best way to start is to decrease the amount of leading — tightening the space between the lines — and then keep tweaking it up or down until it feels visually balanced. When it looks natural and reads smoothly, your t shirt slogan is one step closer to the big time.

TShirt Design Secret #5: Phrasing, aka “Line Breaking”
Phrasing has to do with where t shirt designers choose to break the lines of text, and is yet another aspect of good tshirt design that’s often overlooked. Many new designers will just type in their text at the size they want, and pay no attention to which words the lines end on, and how those line breaks affect the t shirt’s readability. More often than not, this results in a t shirt that reads terribly and feels amateurish.

For example, a poorly line-broken t shirt slogan might look something like this:

I’m not a
doctor but I play
one in real
life

As you can see, it’s a little difficult to read this slogan because the semi-random breaking of logical phrases and groups of ideas causes both the eye and the brain to work harder to make sense of it all, and the result is the t shirt slogan ends up feeling choppy. With a little more thought and effort put into breaking the lines at natural points in the text, however, we end up with this:

I’m not a doctor
but I play one
in real life

Suddenly, the t shirt slogan flows naturally and is much easier to read. By keeping the logical phrases visually together, you can create a much more natural visual rhythm to your t shirt saying, and the reader is easily able to process the t shirt’s message without having to fight against poor phrasing to understand it.

TShirt Design Secret #6: A Bonus Tip (Because I Like You)
Once you’ve applied these 5 secrets of the tshirt design professionals, you’ll find that your t shirt text already looks much better and more professional than it did when you started. Unfortunately, you’ll probably also find that you’ve been staring at your text for so long, it’s become difficult to really properly judge its improvement. Such is the life of a t shirt artist!  But don’t panic!  The professional graphic designers have a couple more tricks up their sleeves that’ll help you overcome this professional hazard.

To check the spacing of your t shirt text and make sure that it’s truly perfect, you can:

-  Look at your design upside down. If you see any spaces that look uneven or inconsistent, fix them.
-  Look at your design reflected in a mirror. If you see any spaces that look uneven or inconsistent, fix them.
-  Print out your design on a piece of paper, hold it up to a light source, and look at your text from the back of the page. If you see any spaces that look uneven or inconsistent — you guessed it — fix them.

By doing any or all of these three strange things, you force your eyes and your brain to pay attention to the empty spaces between the letters rather than trying to read the words themselves. The words become abstract shapes to your brain, and you, the t shirt artist, are free to properly judge the empty spaces between the words.

So, Now What? 
As you can see, professional t shirt text design is really just a matter of creating text that not only supports your message, but also presents it in a way that is visually balanced and nicely spaced. By properly applying these tshirt design tips, your t shirt sayings will be much nicer to look at, easier to read, and miles ahead of all those amateur tshirt designs hitting the market. And, most importantly, your funny t shirt designs will finally be funny in a good way.

Now, if you’re ready to start taking your tshirt design skills to the next level — or you just need a more visual illustration of the stuff we’ve been talking about — you can find a free, simple, easy-to-follow video tutorial on tracking and kerning at Channel Shirt’s tshirt design blog.  Did I mention it’s free? Check it out!

About the Author: Much to his parents’ continuing surprise, “Hollywood” John Harris has been a professional artist, designer, and freelance writer for 20 years. He is also co-founder of Channel Shirt, where he not only freely gives away all the secrets of tshirt design that “they” don’t want you to know, he shows those secrets in action on tons of his own funny t shirts, as well as on all the best shirts from around the web.

Although oil painting has been around for a very long time, even dating back to the 1400’s; it’s still relatively new compared to other forms of art. However, before oil painting came to be, paint was mixed with plaster that was found in frescoes or eggs in tempera paints. It was not until Jan Van Eyck came along, that oil painting rose to fame, as he attempted to have more realism in art.

In the early fifteenth century, Europe had the desire for a more realistic appearance in artwork. This was because before that, art was basically decorative and mythological in aspects; however, at the start of the Renaissance, artists began to realize concepts and guidelines behind ideals of color, as well as perspective. They wanted to create images and objects that were more realistic to the world around them, so as a result, artist started to paint more realistically.  
 
Jan Van Eyck wanted to mimic in his paintings what nature really is and in order to do this, he made sure to paint every detail that he could of whatever object he focused on. His attention to detail made his paintings livelier; however, methods of painting and materials could not truly bring his work to full potential. Therefore, Van Eyck developed oil paintings, which changed the entire concept of painting known to artists. Before Van Eyck and others like him, painters in the Renaissance period did not have the luxury of being able to purchase colors that were already made. They had to make paints themselves, which were made from ground- up pigments contained in plants and minerals to attain shades from the entire color wheel. These were used to form a paste called tempera paint. The issue with this type of paint was that it dried quickly and made it almost impossible to have smooth transitions; hence, Van Eyck made the decision to use oil instead, which would allow him to work at a slower pace. With oil painting, accurate paintings came about.

To further create detailed images in his paintings, he also used a tiny pointed brush and many people, as well as other artists, became impressed with his work. They too began to use oil paints and due to this, oil paintings became a very popular form of art. Although today oil colors have evolved, its principals and color theory guidelines are still the same.  If you learn about this method and use oil paints correctly, you too can create wonderfully vivid and detailed paintings as Van Eyck and others of his time did. When you choose the medium of oil painting, you’ll be able to create paintings that are more detailed in settings, through the uses of shading and in addition, create portraits that are more lifelike. With time and effort, you will be able to mimic the greats of the Renaissance era.

Learn how to create beautiful oil paintings yourself by enrolling in an oil painting workshop with artist Caroline Jasper. Caroline’s workshops include both oil painting instruction and color instruction.

While we may occasionally choose a work of art with a different theme, when we’re looking for a way to brighten a wall or create a focal point, we often look to art that depicts a scene from nature.

If that nature is mountains, valleys, trees, rivers and forests, then we’ve chosen a landscape. When the work depicts the ocean, it is a seascape.

In either type of art, the main subject is a wide view of the terrain with the parts arranged in a logical, cohesive manner. Whether the scene is real or imaginary is unimportant to its definition.

Sky is almost always included in the view and weather may also be an element of the composition. Storms and snow are frequently used to add a different aspect to the works and some artists specialize in scenes created with these weather additions.

Landscapes and seascapes can also form an important part of other types of paintings, where the central subject may be something else entirely, or they can be the focus of a work that includes manmade structures, such as farmhouses or ships.
 
Landscape art goes back over 1000 years, although the word landscape, which comes from the Dutch, did not enter the English vocabulary until the start of the 17th century. Landscape photography has held an important role in the art world since the 19th century. Seascape photography developed later as photographic techniques improved to the point that wave motion could be captured.

There are different traditions of landscape art in the east and west. In early works of the Roman and Chinese traditions, there were typically panoramas of imaginary landscapes with ranges of spectacular mountains. In China, the works frequently included waterfalls, while in Rome there were seas, lakes or rivers. Often the Roman style included a near figure and a transition to the panorama, while Chinese works were generally only the distant view.

A bigger difference in the two art forms was their value in their cultures. Until the 19th century, landscape painting was not a popular art form in the West, where the focus was on religious or historical scenes or portraits. In East Asia the Chinese watercolor of mountains and waterfalls was the most prestigious form of painting. As ocean travel grew, the need to create seascapes as part of paintings grew as well.

During the Impressionistic period the fascination that drew artists to explore changing light drew them to water, where light was ever changing and reflected from the water.  Monet is perhaps the best known of the Impressionist artists to explore seascapes and sea scenes during that period, creating works that are enduring and fascinating for more than the fact they were created by one of the masters of the period.

Artist Caroline Japser creates modern impressionist seascapes in her unique colorful style.

In recent years, one of the most popular trends among women has been the growth in lower back tattoos. This describes the practice of having a design tattooed on the center lower region of the back just above or below the waist line.

The popularity of this tattoo placement has been fuelled by the current fashion for low cut jeans and short tops, which provide the perfect setting to display these designs.

So if you’re thinking about getting a lower back tattoo, here are some of the main advantages and disadvantages to bear in mind.

The Advantages Of Lower Back Tattoos

In general, the placement of most tattoos means that they’re either permanently on show or hidden by clothing. But due to modern clothing trends including low cut jeans and crop tops, the lower back is the perfect place for a tattoo if you want to achieve a “now you see it, now you don’t” effect. This subtle approach to tattoo placement is similar to the growing trend among men for tattoos on the underside of the forearm. Unlike a front forearm tattoo which is highly visible, an inside design will be hidden for much of the time. But once you’ve seen the design, it will be more visible.

Another reason for the popularity of lower back tattoos is the sensuality of the placement. Some people find the “should I have seen that” glimpse of an exposed lower back tattoo extremely alluring. This is a major advantage if you want to project a sexy, adventurous image.

Placing a tattoo on your lower back also means that you won’t be able to see it under normal conditions. In fact, you’ll only see it if you’re extremely flexible or when you catch a glimpse of it in a mirror. So if you want a tattoo, but don’t want to see it all the time, a lower back placement might be the answer.

The Disadvantages Of Lower Back Tattoos

Lower back tattoos carry one major disadvantage – they’re extremely unoriginal. The trend has lasted for so long that millions of women all over the world have tattoos placed on their lower back. In fact, it has become almost impossible to find a new way to place a tattoo design on your lower back.

But beyond that, certain unflattering slang terms have developed to describe lower back tattoos and the women who have them, including “tramp stamp”, and “gramp stamp”, which refers to the idea that in 40 to 50 years, the world will be full of elderly women with lower back tattoos.

So if you’re looking for something a bit more original, it’s best to avoid lower back tattoos.

Another major disadvantage of tattoos placed on the lower back is the fact that you won’t be able to see your tattoo unless you look in a mirror. This may be an advantage if you want a tattoo but don’t want to look at it all the time. But if you want to see your new design on a regular basis, avoid getting a tattoo anywhere in your back.

An Original Alternative To Consider

If you like the idea of a lower back tattoo, but want to retain an element of originality, try placing your tattoo design further round your torso, so that it sits on the sound of the body above one or both of your hips. At present, tattoos placed in this location are relatively rare, so if you’re looking for something original, it might be worth considering.

In future years this could become a popular new trend, who knows. But for now, it’s ripe for early trendsetters to exploit.

Although oil painting is a “fine art”, there are many people who find it intimidating and this is understandable since there are lots of things which you have to know, such as color mixing. You can learn how to paint with oils if you have the knowledge regarding the few basics and this will make it easier for you to overcome your doubts of painting with oils.  

The first key point that you have to keep in mind is that the process of painting with oils is completed by layers. The first layer that is painted should be basic and each one should gradually build-up with detail. With that said, there are three areas in general, where you can begin to learn about oil painting. The number one thing that you should concern yourself with is the colors which you will end up using and the second is how to mix the basic shades to create secondary colors. Lastly, you have to be familiar with using linseed oil and turpentine.

What Colors To Buy?

There are eleven colors that you should include when starting out in oil painting. The colors to purchase are cadmium- red, light- yellow, cerulean- blue, cobalt -blue, burnt- umber, alizarin crimson, titanium- white, black, yellow- ochre, burnt- sienna and viridian- green.

The Basic Of Mixing Colors

Before you can begin painting, the basics of color mixing should be familiarized, for you to accurately obtain the colors that you want.

Yellow and Red = Orange
Red and Green = Brown
Red and Blue = Purple
Yellow and Green = Blue
Yellow and Blue = Green

Use Of Linseed And Turpentine

Remember that by squeezing paint out onto the pallet directly, you are taking the risk of mishaps from happening and wasting it. If you do this, pure oil paint may take a long time to dry up and can get very messy. With the addition of linseed oil and turpentine, you are able to thin out the paint being used, thus having control over all the layers, etc. It’s important to remember that the more turpentine you use; the quicker the painting will dry. For this reason, the base layers should be applied with a mixture of three parts turpentine and one part linseed oil.  

For the second layer, go ahead and mix two parts turpentine and two parts linseed oil. Store it in a jar that’s labeled 2, so that you will know what you’re working on from time to time. For the third, you then use a mixture that’s one part turpentine and three parts linseed oil; place it in its own jar as well.

Along with these tips and knowing how to go through paint color mixing, you will know the essential methods of oil painting.

If you are a truck driver, commercial, or otherwise, then your truck is most likely your life, and this life is in danger whenever you’re in your truck, regardless if you are a careful operator or not. Truck accidents will happen, especially as you’re riding an 80,000 lb tractor-trailer. It’s also true that many of motorists don’t wield esteem for truckers on the road, most don’t realize how difficult it is to actually drive one! Trucks aren’t to be taken lightly, they must be handled with respect, though even by doing so, things can still happen. Normal origins may be: DUI, fatigue, speeding, brake failure, or many other things. 

If a truck incident occurs, there is going to be major damage covering the road, other cars, and most especially to your truck. It’s not unheard of for semi-trucks to inflict multi-car pileups on large interstates, as well as personal injury, therefore exercise extreme care when operate such a behemoths, and when an accident does occur, contact a tractor trailer accident lawyer and adhere to these procedures: 

Don’t Panic 

Don’t flip out when you get into an accident, that is the worst thing you can do, and that is how others can become injured, even after the fact. 

Exchange Insurance Information 

Your semi, whether it is insured by you, or the corporation you work for, should have a good insurance card within the glove compartment, or inside your wallet. This can prove helpful for reporting the incident, as well as defusing any controversy which may occur. 

Wait for the Police 

In a large incident, the police will probably be summoned. Never just take off, wait for them to get there, and explain what transpired. If you were not at fault, you have nothing to be concerned with. If you did cause the accident, fleeing the scene would simply look bad on your part. 

Call a Lawyer 

There are truck accident lawyers that specialize in truck incidents, and now, that is exactly what you’d require. If you’re in a truck accident, there is a high possibility that individuals were badly injured, and whether you’re at fault or not, so the smartest thing you can do is get ahold of a lawyer, and pay for their services. A truck accident lawyer will work with your insurance provider, work things out, and work to ensure the right judgment is made, and the right individuals are compensated. You could find a lawyer from many different places, phone books, Internet, or even word of mouth. If you have been involved in a trucking accident that involved personal injury, wrongful death, or damage of any kind, call an attorney now, and start out on the road to peace of mind today.

Melissa Crawford, an Atlanta portrait artist, spends the majority of her artistic time painting commissioned portraits. Examples of her work along with procedures and fees can be seen on her website, www.MelissaCrawfordArt.com. Melissa strives to create portraits that go beyond a mere likeness. She wishes to create a beautiful work of art, admired for its beauty and merit, whether one knows the sitter or not. Melissa has developed quite a following, being commissioned by many local residents, along with clients outside of the area. She is a member of two national brokerage agencies, in which she is represented across the United States.

Melissa recently took part in a prestigious juried competition put on by the Portrait Society of Atlanta. It was open to artists across the country. Melissa won second place, finishing behind California artist, Tony Pro. The competition was judged by Raymond Kinstler, perhaps America’s most well known living portrait artist. Melissa won with her commissioned portrait of local girl, Julia, in Julia with Toy Horse. After the competition, Melissa was notified that she was awarded the Society’s Member of Merit Status.

Did Bram Stoker write his novel Dracula based on the infamous character Vlad the Impaler?

The following has been extracted from Literature Library Online in this context.

There are debates about whether or not Dracula was a fictional character resembling Vlad the Impaler aka Vlad Dracula. In reality, the Transylvanian background of Dracula makes him different from the Wallachian ruler Vlad. Dracula’s claim about his pride of ancestry: “We Szekelys have a right to be proud, for in our veins flows the blood of many brave races who fought as the lion fights…” – again here it might be noted that Vlad was not a Szekely. Hence the resemblance probably ends here. The only certainty is that Stoker had certainly come across the name Dracula, and borrowed it for his vampire because his source said that the name meant “devil.”

Nowadays Japanese is very hot and so are the little cats called maneki neko that you can see in every souvenir shop. They look very funny and are available in all forms and variations. They are also often used as a piggy bank where people save their money.

The maneki cat sculpture shows a cat with an upright claw and is used at the entrance of stores and restaurants. There is the believe that these sculptures made out of ceramic bring luck to its owner so more and more people jump in the trend all around the world.

The beckoning cat can also be found as air fresheners or keychains and even more creative variations are made every day. If you don’t have one of them you should have a look around at your local area or you could find some cheap ones right on the internet without a doubt.

The PX 90 workout is from Beach Body.  The instructor is Tony Horton.  He’s 40 years old, very ripped, and very funny.  Even in the first week of the program, you will move your body in more ways that you ever thought possible.  The PX 90 workout videos are intense but enjoyable.

The P90X Workout is a home fitness and nutrition system.  It took more than a year to develop by leading fitness experts in the field.  No angle was overlooked as the PX system combines exercise videos with a nutritional plan.  Fast food is out.  Eating right is in.

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<img src=”http://www.lduhtrp.net/image-3814727-10747040″ width=”728″ height=”90″ alt=”One on One with Tony Horton   ” border=”0″/></a>

The PX 90 videos are very long.  You may not be able to complete a whole workout the first few times if you are not already in good shape.

The Lean Phase workout, for instance, has three cardio routines, two strength workouts, and a yoga session.  You won’t just run or dance.  You’ll also incorporate techniques such as kickboxing and pylometrics.

The PX 90 workout plan is designed for both men and women.

The system is flexible.  It allows you to progress through the 90 Days at your own pace, but you should be prepared to work hard. There are 12 extreme, heavy-hitting, muscle-pumping, sweat-pounding workouts.  P90X is simply the most comprehensive home workout system available on the market today. From intense weight training and advanced Plyometrics to Core Synergistics and Extreme Yoga, you are sure to see results if you stick to the plan.

The PX 90 workout is so effective because it uses the training science of Muscle Confusion. As your body changes over the 90 day period, so do the workouts. new moves and routines are constantly introduced so every stage of P90X becomes as effective as the first.

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<img src=”http://www.ftjcfx.com/image-3814727-10721719″ width=”234″ height=”60″ alt=”Get Ripped in 90 Days” border=”0″/></a>

In addition to the exercise program, the PX 90 Workout has a Nutritional component.  The P90X Nutrition Guide was developed by nutritionist Carrie Wiatt. The eating plan compliments the exercise program. It takes guess work out of knowing what to eat and when.  You will also be eating very healthy.

If you are to sure what carbs or fats are good for you or what snacks, dairy products and even what condiments you should be eating it’s no problem. The Px90 Nutrition Guide gives you a list of recommended foods, and also outlines daily meals and recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. This is not a starvation diet either.

When you first start the program you may even have a hard time eating everything on your plate.  But the idea is that you want to have the energy (through food calories) to complete the intensive PX90 workout.

You need to be moderately fit to be able to benefit from this program.  If you are 250 pounds and haven’t exercised in 6 years, this is not the thing to jump right into.  You need to lose some weight and work up to a place where you can handle an intensive workout program.

However, if you are active and fit, but want to take your body to the next level, consider the PX 90 workout.