The double heart is mine. The font is Action Man, which isn’t mine.
Another good variation would be to use the word “forever”, with the “o” being the double heart.
Old Mill at Lake Olathe
A drawing of the old stone building (mill?) out at Lake Olathe south of Dennis where Cedar Creek flows under the bridge into the lake. This is to fill an art challenge for the Olathe Visual Artists Association (OVA).
I originally tried to do this as a full-color digital painting, but working on it just felt like pulling teeth. When I started over and decided to try with thin brown lines instead, something just seemed to click. I’m not sure if it’s that good, but it satisfied me so much more than a painterly, colored piece would have.
Rock Wall in Fish Creek, WI
A rock wall near the lake shore in Fish Creek, WI from my summer vacation. Just got around to drawing it.
Kiss Me I’m Irish – Version 2
I wasn’t entirely happy with the last one. I like this one better. It’s meant to be the cover on a greeting card. Next up: The interior spread! 🙂
I certainly hope the CS6 version of Illustrator is much better with fonts than the old version I got a hold of. As it is, I’m using Photoshop CS5 for the text, and Illustrator CS2 for the vector graphics. It IS better with vectors than the quasi-vector tool (paths) that Photoshop has, though. So, that’s something. I’m also learning how best to use each for different parts of the image. I may break down and buy the new version of Illustrator, but only if I start doing enough vector work for it to be worthwhile. In the meantime, I’m just using it as a learning experience.
Kiss Me, I’m Irish!
So, I’m trying to learn Illustrator. Here’s today’s results. The fonts are Chaz, Ache-Condensed, and Brandywine-Extended. I didn’t make the fonts, but all the rest is mine.
I’m not really that happy with Illustrator. It’s supposed to be the thing to use for vector graphics and text, but I’m only liking the vector tools. The text tools aren’t really working well for me. I ended up saving the image to a PDF and opening it up in Photoshop to do the text. Now, the disappointing text tool performance might just be because it’s an old version of Illustrator. Or it might be because I’m still learning my way around. *shrug* Oh well, it’s good for me to learn it, anyway. 🙂
Begging Irish Setter
I just downloaded Adobe Illustrator
and this is the first thing I did with it.
Happy Irish Setter
Free Adobe Software… Sort of…
Not my image.
Okay, this is interesting. Adobe is making some of its OLD Creative Suite software available for download with the activation code. Although they say they’re not actually offering it for free, they sound like they’re operating on the honor system. They want to stop having to maintain a registration server for these programs or something, so they just put them up and tell you that you should only download them if you already own a copy. But they’re not checking. Anyone CAN download them for free.
Now, these are NOT the latest versions. They’re seven years old. But if you DON’T already have Photoshop, Illustrator, or one of the other programs on here, then old is better than no program at all. If you’ve never used any version of Photoshop at all and you have been wanting to try it except that the cost is prohibitive, this would be a way to try it without the limits of that pesky one-month trial period. Then, when the limitations of the 7-year-old software irritate you sufficiently, you can purchase the current version. Or, how many people do you know still limping along on Photoshop 6? CS2 is better than that, at least. I’m looking right at you Ms. Zoch. 
So, I am not saying you SHOULD download this free software, because, of course, it’s wrong. But… If you want to… Here are the links:
An explanation of what’s going on: http://nofilmschool.com/2013/01/adobe-releases-creative-suite-online-completely-free/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nofilmschool+%28NoFilmSchool%29
And the actual Adobe download page, with activation codes: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/index.html
I will leave the rest up to you and your conscience. 
Illustration Friday: Edge
Perspective on something geometric, like a building, is much easier to do than perspective on something organic, like people. So, this was a challenge. I’m not 100% happy with it, but I’m sharing anyway. Enjoy.
I don’t know why, but I’m really proud of that contrail. That came out well, I think.
Mouse with Flower
Karen B. Jones - Illustrator 