Attracting the clients/life you want

valeria-spring-mentorship-photo-by-michelle-p-via-besotted

The post title may seem a bit ambitious, but we always like to share what we have learned, especially since we seem to learn everything the hard way. We take the long road, no stops or short cuts and sometimes the reality of how we could have done things strikes many moons down the road. We will offer the abbreviated version so you can bypass all the detritus and actually have success a heck of a lot sooner (things we wished others would have shared with us!)Read More

One click watercolor effect in Photoshop (a preview!)

foto-rx-one-click-watercolor-class-previewWhen it gets quiet in these parts you know that Michelle and I have been up to something, usually something big and usually something good!  We wanted to share a peek into our new Skillshare class!  We won’t be launching it until November but we are super excited to let you know when the time comes the new (and HUGE) lettering resource we have teamed up with to do a giveaway of the class with.

This is actually going to be a first in a series of classes we have dubbed ‘Hidden Photoshop’, we have found some buried Photoshop treasures that allow you to do things like this super amazing one click watercolor effect! There are many little gems in Photoshop that most people aren’t aware of and we can’t wait to share them with you. We love demystifying PS, because it really isn’t as daunting as it seems and armed with a little knowledge you can create a whole myriad of wonderful things! The class will come with the exact palette and effect shown above for you to to download (free) and play with when you take the class. We have been experimenting with this technique for months now and are thrilled to finally be able to get the class + tools  to you soon!

foto-rx-watercolor-effect-eyelashes

Is this crazy fun or what?  These eyelashes were drawn with a pen and the watercolor effect was added, in my humble opinion I think it looks pretty darn realistic! For those that may be shouting at the screen to just pick up a watercolor brush, yes, you can (and we hope you do at some point in your life, because it’s a ton of fun) but this is just a fun technique and skill to add to your design arsenal–it’s quick, it’s non-destructive and there’s no clean-up! We have played with this on fonts, lettering, logo mock-ups, backgrounds, you name it all to great results. We will send out a note when the class is available, along with a discount for new sign-ups to Skillshare (at the time of this writing it’s .99 for 3 months and you cancel before the 3 months is up if you so choose), that would give you plenty of time to take all of our classes and then some!  I am sure we will be back this week with some other random goodie for you!

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Skillshare

Photoshop

Foto Rx Watercolor effect class and tools (coming soon!)

Foto Rx mailing list (we have been known to send lots of free downloads…)

 

Free Photography Workshops!

photo-by-brooke-shaden

Just thought we would pop in really quick to let you know of an amazing (AND FREE!) opportunity to watch some great photographer’s teach their workshops LIVE today through this weekend.  We have mentioned Yan Palmer before and I am SO excited to watch her workshop (hope they stream it), ordinarily you would pay thousand’s of dollars to attend one and even to attend the conference she’s featured in (Click Away was in that range as well), so FREE sounds a whole lot easier on the wallet. I have been part of the Clickin’ Mom’s forum since it started, long before I was a mother, (I would cringe at the name but they have finally renamed their umbrella company Click & Co, which is easier to share with you;). You don’t need to be part of the forum to watch the streaming!

If you don’t have time to watch everything they are offering a pre-buy to get a video of the conference at a discounted price is available.  I am going to try to catch the live workshops in between toddler wrangling.  I am super excited to learn some new things from some photographer’s I admire (especially the film ones, because I SO want to get better at it!).

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Free LIVE Streaming workshops (starts today at 9am Pacific)

Join an AWESOME community of photographers

P.S. The photo above is by a wonderfully creative photographer and teacher-Brooke Shaden (she’ll have the free live workshop this weekend!). Brooke has some great courses if you miss the Click Away one, her style of teaching is very easy to comprehend, here are some of her classes: Transforming a Photoshoot for $10 or lessFine Art Portraits | Fine Art Photography

Quality art supplies make all the difference

Quality art supplies make all the difference!

Many years ago I had art school interns, one of them whom suggested that I’d probably love watercolor, because it was a forgiving medium. So one day I decided I would try it, I was at the drugstore and bought one of those multi-pans of watercolor that came with a brush and pulled out some copy paper from my printer. Do I need to even mention how my results were far from any expectation I had? Probably not, it was a disaster, a waste of time and money. Nowadays we have access to so many more resources on line but I thought I would do a quickie review of some supplies that might make your foray into trying a new art medium/skill a little more successful for the first time. It’s really not quantity, but quality and luckily quality art supplies are available in a range of affordable prices so you can try something new out without a huge investment.

Drawing/sketching

This is the most basic of mediums, all you really need is some pencils, paper and an eraser. The problem lies in a lot of people trying to sketch and draw with their trusty No. 02 pencil, using the eraser on the end of it and whatever paper is available.  This seems to be no problem for someone that already has some aptitude for drawing but for the newbie it could be both the beginning and end to a successful drawing career. I would suggest buying an inexpensive pack of pencils with different lead hardness. An eraser that won’t tear your paper or leave behind a residue or dye (like the pink eraser does) and a good sketching pad. These simple tools are a meager investment and can make a world of difference! If you follow any good drawing how-to book (here’s a fave) it should go over shading, having a soft pencil at your disposable makes it effortless to do so.

Modern Calligraphy

I can’t even tell you how many bad supplies and wrong nib types for what I wanted to accomplish. When I started exploring no one was sharing their supplies. It makes such a world of difference results wise and may even be the difference between quitting and pursuing further (we hope always that you do the latter).

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Drawing pencils

Drawing pencil set in case

Erasers

Metal pencil sharpener

Sketch pad

Travel sketch notebook

Modern Calligraphy Supplies

Modern Calligraphy Set (beginner)

Modern Calligraphy Set (intermediate)

Watercolor set with brush

Watercolor set in pans

Watercolor tube set (great gift set!)

Watercolor postcards (such small real estate, you can have so much fun tackling such a small project!)

kit shown Belle Calligraphy Kit

Author / Miss Tristan B

Miss Tristan B. is the co-creator of the world’s best + easiest product photography editing tool-Foto Rx | Shopkeeper’s Helper and one of the writer’s of this delightful blog. Her lofty goal here is to make this a creative resource repository and to inspire you to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with your life.

25 Amazing Resources to becoming a better artist

25+ Amazing Resources to learn to draw! You can do it, we believe in you!

I was very touched by all your answers for the skill question giveaway. So many of these skills are most definitely achievable in this lifetime, I do hope you explore some of these resources.  I have mentioned some of these resources in previous posts, but I figure if you decided you wanted to get started (it seems time is definitely a factor stopping a lot of us), then I should make it as easy as possible so you can just dive into learning your new skills. Maybe I shouldn’t have titled this ‘becoming a better artist’, because art is subjective, someone might think you are incredible right now, but I do understand that what most of you want to do is better develop your skills and I can say from experience that drawing emphatically is not a skill that you have to be born with to become great at (I’m not great by any stretch of the imagination but I  improved dramatically from stick figures to realistic animals in about 6 months time). You will need to devote some time, practice my friends seems to be the ‘secret’ to skill building. Below are some great resources for you to get started. I can’t wait to see what you all can accomplish!Read More