Adobe Illustrator Brush Test

Ever since I started using Adobe Illustrator, I haven't really tried to use the brush sets because I always think that they look very fake. However, recently, because I want to submit some illustrations to a stock illustration site, and they need vector illustrations more, so I tried to see if I can achieve that hand-drawn feeling with AI.

Here's my first quick experiment with the Artistic_ChalkCharcoalPencil Brushes. I like the look of the 'Pencil thick' brush:

Applied it to the Noel illustration I drew with the Pen tool (P). 

Filled the illustration with color like usual.

With color on the background:

It's fun to use, but I'm not very satisfied with the outcome. I'll try to see if I can make a custom brush that can achieve what I want :)

Church Website Go Live :D

After all these months, the church website has finally gone live!!! Yay!!! \ (>w<) /

http://mpcac.org/pc

As some information on the website needed to be confirmed before going live, the site just sat there and waited and waited, until last month, our pastor said, "let's not wait any longer and upload it" :p.

I changed the church title on the top left corner and took off the "30th Anniversary" banner, added a "Chinese version" tab, changed the slide for the theme of this year, and some corresponding changes back end. I think it looked better than before :) I still want to find a font with both upper and lower case that looks like the Bebas font though, because Bebas is in all caps and it's difficult for the audience to read content in all caps.

For the Chinese version, I looked into the language switcher function in Joomla, thinking it could help make the site bilingual a lot easier, but I really don't like the flags >><< they use to switch the language (the Traditional Chinese flag doesn't even show), and as I understand, there's no customization you can do for the graphics or location you can put. (With the help of extensions like United Language Switcher , I could put all the flags in one dropdown menu, but still, I don't like having flags there! Please let me know if there IS a way to use my own graphics with the language switcher!!! I'd love to give it a try!!)

Anyway, I resolved to just create another database, restored the backup of the original English site (I highly recommend Akeeba Backup!!!!), and changed the text inside into Chinese, which means there are actually TWO separate sites, instead of one (just like what we have right now). I think this way, not only can I skip creating all the menus and sub-menus again, it can also make the design and organization of content a lot more flexible, especially when the English ministry might have different content to use in the future, and the Chinese version might not necessarily need those content.

I guess the down side of this solution would be an almost duplicated site LOL, and I can't switch language on the same page. When people click the "Chinese version" tab, it will just open a new window of the Chinese website.

That's all for now :D When the Chinese version is finished, I'll post an update again! Thanks for stopping by!!

For a Facebook Page :)

I've been hoping to open a personal Facebook page for some time after reading the consulting post from A Girl Who Creates :) However, since the new addition to our family, I haven't been able to really be very productive...BUT, every now and then, when I'm not taking care of/playing with my little kitty Noel, I'd try to make tiny progress to the Facebook page, namely the FB page banner :)))

In my mind, I know I can just take any illustrations I drew before to make the banner and quickly start the FB page, but my stubborn perfectionist heart just wouldn't let me, as it doesn't match with the little girl picture :p (although it was drawn over two years ago :p but I still love it as I so want to do more freehand drawing after spending 8+ years using AI to draw all the time!) So, below are some of the experiments I've been working on :) It's so much fun to play with different color combinations and patterns! :D And the style is more geared to a hand-drawn feeling as I progress (newest design on top, click the image for details). I still haven't decided on which one to use yet, and I may still add in new designs before finalizing it :) Your comments are most certainly welcome!!

Some color combinations that I'm liking at this moment :p

These are some of the colors that popped up in my mind one night when I was about to sleep, and I quickly hopped off the bed and put them in my iPad (so please excuse my very ugly handwriting and graphics :p) The Christmas palette tells you it was something made back in December...:p

Although my progress is slow, I'll still try to make some baby steps on this journey to an illustration career :) Thanks for reading!!! :D

My Kitten Noel :D

I feel so guilty for not updating this blog for 2 months! Something special happened: we adopted a kitten (well, it's more like she adopted us :p)!!! We found a shivering, tiny little thing meowing and sitting in the corner of our patio on a rainy December afternoon. I actually heard the meowing all morning long but couldn't find her, and finally my hubby found her after he got home!!! :D Because we found her in December and it's close to Christmas, we named her "Noel". We both think she's a gift from God :D Then, we've been busy taking care of this little fur ball ever since :)))) (I wouldn't expect how much work it is to take care of a baby kitten!!!)

Here are some of the pictures of my dearest baby :D

Church Anniversary Book Finished!!! :D

Some layouts and art elements I made at the very beginning in the brainstorming stage (they look too dark for the occasion, or too bright for the elderly to read the text).

Some screenshots of the work-in-progress layouts. Peaceful, calm, feel like home, comfortable, simple, clean...these are the keywords I have in mind when I was designing the layout, so I used a neutral/muted palette:

And I accidentally noticed one extremely beautiful thing in InDesign...

...the missing font highlight color!!! The color look soooooo pretty and it was a love at first sight!! At first, I didn't know the highlighted part means the font is missing there, and I tried to use the eye-dropper to sample the color (silly me). Well, but it's really very pretty, so I tried to google what color that is but in vain (sigh). I then tried to match that color myself and used that in the book :p Apparently, it's hard to make that same color with CMYK :p

Final Book Cover:

A more lively cover with a wheat field, symbolizing hope and the plentiful harvest mentioned in the Bible. It also matches with the wheat field in the website :) I tried to keep the layout clean.

Due to privacy issues, I can't share more of the inside here, but I'm glad that, with God's grace, I was able to finally put them all together and finished the 52-page book in a week!

Random Stuff

:p Did some random fun stuff while designing the anniversary book:

3-in-1 God

30th Anniversary Book for Church

So I'm almost done with the website (that's actually last week's news :p)! After spending a lot of time fine tuning a lot of things on the layout that people might not even notice, I'm finally moving on to the 30th Anniversary Book for the church.

(A little more on the fine-tuning, I learned that there are actually a lot of Nivo Sliders out there, so I finally understand why the tech support of Unite Nivo Slider told me the one I have in the template is not their Nivo Slider...:p Also, I found that I can add shadow to objects in the CSS file!!! I didn't know that kind of thing even existed :D <--- such a newbie. The code of box shadow I used:

box-shadow: 0px 1px 5px 0px #4A4A4A;

Notice the tiny little shadow around the box:

I also found that I can load a module within an article! It's like a miracle to me! This link shows you exactly how to do that!)

Back to the topic :p Before working on anything, we had to figure out the size of the book and contact the printing company for a quote. Because we are not printing a large quantity, with a limited budget, it's a little difficult to achieve the outcome I have in mind. What I wanted to do is to have perfect binding for the books, with a landscape or square layout (though it's kind of a waste of paper :p...but it looks so much better...).

After negotiating with the size, binding and pricing for a whole week, we seem to not have reached any conclusion. HOWEVER, we need the book published on/before Nov 23! And I still haven't worked on the layout yet because of the size still not determined! :( I really think that I wasted a lot of time this week, in which the time could be used to work on something more productive, like working on my stock illustrations :( Sorry, Tim :(