This should surely distract me from the snow that is falling outside my window.  For now anyway. 

I wish I knew the location of this image - I found it while Stumbling and there is no information for it.  If anyone knows, please let me know so I can credit the location/photographer.

Enjoy!

(Resolution: 1680 x 1050)

I came across a really cool use of Wordpress today at the web site for Firefly Multimedia - one of the better uses of WP as a CMS, with some really great Flash elements also.  I always like to acknowledge great sites that impress me, so great job Firefly!

Check it out…

I’ve finally tried to bite the bullet and teach myself Adobe Illustrator. I’ve been using Photoshop for 6-7+ years and I’ve known for most of that time that I need to learn a vector program as well. But everytime I opened Illustrator and messed around I just got frustrated because I didn’t know what I was doing. And the same tools and commands in P-shop do totally different things in Illustrator. It usually ended with me shutting the program down and cursing at it.

Since I’ve gone back to school - and it’s going great - I somewhat have a clearer path to what I want to do.  And I’m seeing the resources and skills that I need to aquire layed out in front of me.  So instead of wasting more time (I’m not getting any younger right??) I sucked it up and picked up a book on Illustrator. I’m over 1/2 way though it and starting to feel more comfortable with the program. Seeing all the options it has and it’s abilities, I’m only upset that I didn’t learn this sooner. It’s such an essential tool for digital media.

If anyone knows any good Illustrator resources, I’d be happy to check them out. After I finish the book, I’m going to go through whatever tutorials and tips online that I can find. I want to master this program and finally create the images that are in my head. (Scary, huh?)

All compressed of course. Original size on all is approx. 2016px x 1512px. They’re damn big. haha..