About Graphics

So you've seen the graphics and you want to know a little more about what programme I use etc etc? Well you have come to the right place. =)

The Beginning

I started making graphics in September 2005. I'll admit, the motive was envy. If you have ever seen the graphics found on the Arwen Undomiel forum, you'll know why I was envious. Surrounded by beautiful banners and avatars everyday, and not being able to make anything myself, was pretty frustrating. I knew I would never be able to making anything as everyone was using Photoshop, which I didn't have. Then someone mentioned Paint Shop Pro could also be used for making graphics, and in my little brain something clicked, and I found on the computer Paint Shop Pro 7.

Using the basic banners tutorials on Arwen Undomiel I made some banners with the basic idea that a picture + text = banner. I made quite a few of these banners to begin with, and looking back at them, they aren't that bad..considering. Oh, you want to see a few of them? Don't laugh. Told you they were simple. At this time, I didn't really use any tutorials or effects, it all looked too complicated to me, but I did start using brushes (mainly LOTR) which I was quite excited about..made even more so by the fact I actually figured out how to download them. Go me! I actually think the banners I made with the brushes are the worst I have ever made, because I used far too many of them and made them stand out. Look and see for yourself. Bad huh?

Another great graphics leap for me, was being able to animate things, put banners together etc. Not only did I not have to pester people to make things for me anymore, I no longer had to ask other people to animate things for me. Yay-ness!

Here & Now

Since January 2006 I have been progressing and getting better (I think anyway) and I am always trying different techniques. Some of my graphics may look a little similar but some methods work better than others so if I find something I like, I tend to use it more. I do think I'm inconsistent though, one day I can make something really good, that I'm very pleased with, the next it's..meh. Which is really annoying, as everyone else makes beautiful things all the time. *sigh* Every couple of months I look around for different brushes etc and I can spend hours trying things out. It’s time consuming but necessary. Since summer 2006 I have been very pleased with some of the pieces I have made. Since discovering the joy of textures, I feel they have really added to my banners etc. I have also been trying to make more blends (which I find very hard) and just generally being more adventurous in what I make.. only sometimes. I'm not as adventurous as I would like to be, a fact I keep reminding myself. Since late summer 2007, I discovered another way of getting unusual colouring without having to use textures. Plug-ins for PSP are something I use now all the time, to add neat little effects to my work.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the time it takes me to make things. I am very fussy and critical, so I can easily take an hour deciding where to put text or how to arrange something. An avatar can take me anything from half an hour, to two hours. Some banners I can make within an hour whereas some may take me a weekend. Colourizations are time consuming and difficult to do, so they can take anything up to a week. Add Effects can take a long time, as there is so much you can do with them you’re not sure what you should do! Strangely enough, wallpapers and blends I can make quite quickly (even though I find them hard to do). But in short I am SLOW!

99.9% percent of my graphics such as add effects, avatars, banners, blends, colourizations and wallpapers are made because they were requested from me or were entered into contests. I very rarely make any of the above graphics because I feel like it. Although from March 2007, as I had been re-watching some of my favourite films, I was getting very inspired, so I am hoping that every time I watch a film, I can make something from it. I enjoy entering contests as the subject matter is probably something I wouldn't have thought of myself and I also enjoy the challenge. I also like fulfilling requests but I am always more critical of what I make if they are for other people. It takes me much too long to get them all done though, so it will be a while before I can take requests again.

PSP7

And now a little bit about my programme. I regard it as a very temperamental old lady (called Martha by the way). This is because sometimes it works perfectly and other days it will shut down on me without warning and I lose all my unsaved work. But I am wise to this now, and save my work a lot. About once every six weeks it will not allow me to type text and will close as soon as I click on the “text” button. This is really annoying, as it knows when I have lots of things I need to make for contests and the problem can last for a week or more, leaving me with a backlog of text-less work. It also seems to have this fear of new fonts. New fonts will just not work in PSP. But I have finally discovered how to work around this. I type whatever text I want in Animation Shop and I copy and paste it onto my graphic in PSP. It works wonderfully. I never use the text button in PSP anymore. It's not ideal, but Martha doesn't have to worry about new fonts and I can use text without her shutting down on me. Even with its problems I don't think I would ever swap from PSP to Photoshop or even for a higher PSP version. I'm too used to it now. And we started out making graphics together so that's how it's going to stay. *huggles PSP*

Questions?

If you have any queries regarding my graphics, or if you need any help then please feel free to contact me.