hectic in slow motion

The road was a sea of red, gridlock of buses and cars. Even bikers were desperate to find a gap. Tube lines were dead yet the city appeared more lively. Citizens rushed around smiling to the effects of adrenaline, an annoying sight to the passengers in still traffic. Joggers jogged further distance than usual to work, the half awake living dead autopilot among the sea of crowd, Tour de France in London sponsored by Barclays. Men in pubs after work, drowning their sorrow to the thought of their long distance family. Man asleep in the park next to a memorial, rather be dead than getting up to go home. London insider guide, a day out in London during tube strike, an unforgetable experience that one must spend extra hours in. If it's inevitable to walk, take the scenic route.

New kind of black magic, now available in your local market

As titled.

Inception (after watching) *spoiler, kind of

After watching inception...











...I turned two alarms off after losing track of which level of kick I got to and woke up after a decade in sleep time. Next time I'll do the music trick to tell me it's time to get back to the reality.

Multiple personality disorder

Goldfish tattoo

I think it really fits the wrist, get some movement.

Reformed Teletubbyland

The teletubbyland they built where formerly hosted the notorious bunch now has trees not grown from the soil but installed, so that they stood tall and strong from day one like christmas trees from B&Q. Single benches that prevent sleepover, toliets for underground activities and a fountain that sprays water in your face from four feet away in the morning. When the embedded on the ground fountain is off, there's the tension of it suddenly turned on if you walk over it and some kids would come out from nowhere saying 'You've been punked.' Sometimes people would chirp to greet you, sometimes nice, sometimes not, sometimes meaningless. Here you can meet some of the most enthusiastic street preachers, one stood in the middle of the road announcing that he has been shot before but thank god was saved, seemingly challenging God for another round. Before you realise, spirituality will enter your mind threading through the smell of incense, until you woke from your trance by someone walking into you like Richard Ashcroft's special move.

Scottish beef

Sorry to the vegetarians or vegans. Today we'll talk about beef, or may I say good quality scottish beef. I hope that you have seen this billboard in the underground, otherwise let me illustrate: On your left hand side is a rather handsome (or supposed to be) man in his mid 30s, with the highland as backdrop. Forgot whether he's wearing a kilt. Underneath it said 'Good quality of life' (so may be it's so good quality that he's actually in his mid 40s or even 50s but still appears youthful after drinking bottles of highland spring everyday. Not really. Next to him, taken the other half of the billboard space was slices of medium-rare beef. Hum...beef.

Put the two together, for some reason seems like the meat comes from him. You know, like selling free range eggs, you wouldn't put an elegant lady next to it and says 'Good quality of life'.

back on track later

Haven't been writing much lately as was busy turning into a zombie with work but somewhat liking it. Think I'm getting more and more like that daydreaming guy in Scrub and imagining stupid things in my head. Like that poster in the London underground, with all the miniature-like figures cleaning the train window, doing all the maintenance that results in the closing of a special selection of tube stations all the time in the name of improvement and safety. What they 'don't know' is the stress that it has cost people with all the trouble and money paying for what they not get, that in the name of health. Then I drifted away and wondered how if they all just having tea party underground, dancing to caveman music. Now you see it, no you don't.

Panorama part 2

Jumped out of the train and was greeted by such a pretty scene, here's another round of stitching photos in the middle of the night. I give you Tour de Medway.
'Five pound a picture!'

Walked into a mime

What I saw yesterday: Now visualise a man filled with joy walking his dog but couldn't quite handle it...





It's like watching Charlie Chaplin MWHAHAHA (don't worry, the bus driver opened the door). That dude looked so dumb/adorable.

Gross

Got this a while ago cause the cover looks so amazing(ly gross), even without a record player, will be nice to frame it. Lovely, wish I could draw stuff like that.



As for the second picture of similar color scheme, it's not some minimal ambient album with songs that go on forever with merely audible noise. It's the sky the other day, apparently it's the dust and pollution scattered the red light (courtesy of wiki). Isn't it something shit that creates something rather decent?

Barbara Kruger, 80s feminism and type

Tomorrow will be the last day of Barbara Kruger's Paste Up exhibition at Sprüth Magers. The exhibition was small as mentioned in the article , much smaller than the one at South London Gallery in 2001 which I was so glad that a friend invited me along, as I didn't know her work before. Since then she's one of my favourite artists. The black and white blown-up 50s images, red and white slogans that often shout irony in your face are not only good to look at but almost soothing in a sad but true way.

It's good to be reminded how one can play with the contrast of font sizes to shout or whisper, while the consistency of using Futura Bold Italic in most of her works has become her trademark. Remember the window displays at Selfridges years ago? I only knew today that was actually her work and not some advertising agency using her style!

What's better than combining two artists you like in different areas? Perfect indeed. (image extract from 'Thinking of You')

Thrown in some more irony and typography. Top two: I Walked With A Zombie by Chic Pix, bottom: Woman's World by Graham Rawle.

photo stitching

I think photo stitching has stayed at the back of my mind after seeing a 180 degree view of a room a friend took with his mobile. So that's what I did when I saw the frozen pond in the snow, creating that panorama (not to confuse with paranormal) view. I'm pretty proud of the result (flash player 9 or above required). So now I'm pretty addicted to the whole idea about the difference in time and in between reality and fantasy.

Another thing great about this is like where the hell were you standing or one friend said how did you hold the camera so still? If you search for photo stitching, there's quite a few software that let you do that. Or some cameras or mobiles come with a panorama mode that let you take several photos and stitch into one as well as those panoramic cameras.

Here's another one that I stitched together. Everyone else can be moving while one person's still, it's kind of fun.

Snow day

I think this is the most blog about thing these days, everyone putting up photos of anything snow related: the monstrous snowman they built, icing on vehicles, trees, trees and more trees, kids on makeshift sledge and all those fake cakes on their garden tables. So just one more person wouldn't make much difference :D It was fun in the park!

Best scene I've seen recently was a week or so ago when I ran past and saw the pond was frozen, all these ducks just stood there waiting...

These crows posed like some aging rock stars making a comeback

branding: favicon

Have to say I'm a bit late to this. It only dawn on me today that it will be cool if my site have one of those little icons on the browser tabs. So after a little search, I've found this article on how to create Favicon by Christopher Heng. Then using IcoFX to make my own following the tutorials. Only done window version so far, though both file extension is .ico. Will need to investigate further on this...

Here's the before and after:

Signs

I've been watching out for signs and logos for a while and here are four very lively ones found in Hong Kong.

Here's some interpretation with the text taken away from the signs:

blue sign: In case of landslide, run away from the dinosaur eggs or run for the cliff
greenish-yellow sign: Ladies, Gents, Disabled, ...?...
black sign: 'It's more fun with your back down the water slide, wheeeeeeeeeeeee'
yellow sign: 'pk' quite literally

Quick invitation card in photoshop

Many photographers use fisheye lens, which often add humor to a portrait. In this lesson we will use it for type to make our message jump out a bit more. On top of that, we will also look at the use of the magnificent clipping mask!

1. To get the ideal effect, I looked for a font that is heavy and round and found this rainy day font by pizzadude at dafont.

2. Type your message, keep the font size smaller than what you intended, it will grow later.


3. Select the Rectangular marquee tool and draw a box with your message right in the middle.

4. Filter > Distort > Spherize, say yes to rasterize the layer. With the preview box ticked and zoom out if needed to see the whole text in action within the small display box. Pick Normal under Mode, adjust the % whatever you see fits. 100% I picked.


5. Now the text gets a bit blurry, Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen, keep Basic selected I use amount 80%, radius 2px and remove gaussian blur, click OK (filter > sharpen or sharpen edges overdo it sometimes)


6. I'm gonna use this lovely flowers photo. Copy and paste it on top of the text in the invition card file. Ctrl+Alt+G (Win) or Command+Option+G (Mac) to make a clipping mask.


7. I quite like the look of the above like it's illuminated. But if you want more image shows through. Paint bucket or use a brush to fill the hollow bit of this font. Add a little ribbon underneath. Done!


Note* the same effect can be done in illustrator, Effect > Warp > Fisheye. Which I find to obtain the effect I want I need to draw an empty (no fill, no stroke) square around the object. Have fun!

Replace Color in photoshop

Pilot A: Hey what are we doing here? I don't like yellow color.
Pilot B: Ok don’t worry, I’ll tell you what to do so I can finish my burger. Follow my instructions:

1. Right click on the background layer and pick duplicate layer OR drag the background layer onto the ‘create a new layer icon’ at the bottom

2. Now with the background copy selected, Image > Adjustments > Replace Color

3. Use the Eyedropper Tool, click on the main shade of color that you want to change (which is the brightest chunk of yellow here). The selection you’ve picked will be represented by the white color


4. Next, select the Add to Sample tool and click on all different shades of yellow including the shadow bits

5. Once it’s all done, under ‘Replacement’ section, double click on the Result color box and select the color you want to change to.


Pilot B: Feel better now?


Back after the mission:
Pilot A: Hey captain, the trick you taught me the other day about replace color. I tried that on my daughter’s photo and it turned her into a smurf.
Pilot B: Oh, it might be because her skin color is similar to that color you want to replace. Make sure the original image is layered below. Add layer mask on the replace color layer and mask the overdone bits with a black paintbrush!
Pilot A: Ahhhhhhhhh...

Photoshop Illustrator pattern making lesson

Skill level: easy (you only need to be quite good at using pen tool)
Note: This is written with PC. If you are using Mac, Ctrl key = Cmd key and Alt = Opt.

1. Pick a picture. In this example I will use this red snapper picture that almost look like a pattern in its own right.


2. Open the image in Photoshop. Then either a)increase the contrast or b)adjust the level to make the outlines more prominent for tracing.


3. Save it as a jpg and open it in Illustrator for tracing so it will be scalable without losing resolution.

4. Choose a stroke color that is of contrast to your image and pick 'none' for fill for the moment. Select the pen tool and outline the fish.


5. Next, add a bit more details within the fish outline, whatever takes your fancy. (You can even fill the fish a solid color and use it to mask an image, but we won't go into that this time)
I would like to keep the drawing subtle thus joining bits of details with one line. Fill the fish body with white, so it won't see through when overlapping.


6. Now you can change the stroke color if you want and put the fish on the plate for presentation. Hide the fish photo. Select the whole fish, then go to Object > Group or Ctrl+G

7. With the Selection Tool(V) and fish selected, hold down Alt and drag to duplicate. Draw some guides for the copies to line up nicely. There're some spaces inbetween, so I've added some ginger as garnish.


8. Now refer back to the photo, I will sample some fish scale. The circled part looks good, draw it with the Polygon Tool, then add some lines and dots. Extend the top and bottom lines so to fill a squarish/rectangular shape.


9. Select the four fish with ginger (from step 7), Copy/Ctrl+C and paste/Ctrl+V as a smart object into a new photoshop file with transparent background.

10. Edit > Define Pattern (give the pattern a name eg. snapper)

11. Back to illustrator, copy the fish scale shape into photoshop, a new transparent background file. Use the Marquee Tool, select along the blue guidelines (see below) and crop.


12. Edit > Define Pattern (give it a name eg. scale)

13. File>New/Ctrl+N, width and height best to be at least two times of the snapper pattern we have defined in step 9.

14. Paint Bucket Tool (G), select 'Pattern' instead of foreground at the top options bar. Select the snapper pattern from the next box on the right. Now mouse click on the new file.


15. Almost there! Now add a new layer below this and Paint Bucket Tool (G), with 'pattern' selected, pick the scale pattern and click on the new layer.
*Note: Advantage of keeping the background transparent with line art is that you can change the color anytime via blending options in photoshop (right click on the layer > blending options)

16. Pour a background color on a new layer set at the bottom, do some gradient. Done!
(seperating the snapper and scale pattern is because having them two together don't line up. if you've created something that will line up then you can just define it as one pattern)