John's Art & Design blog

In this blog post I am going to research and develop my ideas for my dream workspace. I wrote before that I have an interest in natural materials such as wood and stone. I would like to explore this further by looking at how other interior designers have used these kinds of materials in their designs. I hope this will give me ideas and inspiration for my own design development. "In an age when progress doesn’t always equal well-being, we are all taking efforts to do what we can for our health. Our efforts are mostly focused on diet and exercise. However, the materials we surround ourselves with can also have a huge impact on our health. Not so long ago, home building used to involve some pretty harmful practices, like using asbestos or lead. Those days are behind us now, but a lot of artificial materials are still potentially dangerous for our health. Natural materials are the best and safest option in this regard. And we’re not just talking about the lack of carcinogens eithe...

For my interior design project I will be creating my dream home studio workspace for creative design. I have chosen this idea because as an Art and Design professional, I need to have a good space at home to work from.  My initial ideas are that the space should be calm, comfortable, inspiring. It should also be functional - for example, there is various equipment that will need to be  included in the space . This will impact the design of the space in a big way, therefore I will list the equipment and features that I want to include in my home studio: iMac Pro computer Graphics tablet Scanner Light box / drawing board Paper - A4 and A3 Pens, pencils, brushes Paints, inks, Home printing press Large cork board for planning and organisation Comfortable desk chair Small sofa for tea-breaks, thinking and client meetings Coffee table - as above Bookshelf for inspiration and reference Lamp - for drawing Large windows to give lots of light Plants - because it is...

In the class today I showed you a few Photoshop techniques. Here is a reminder of the techniques, in case you want to research further. I used a "Clipping Mask" to cut out the beans texture using another layer. I used "Layer Effects - Stroke" to add a border around my text layer - there are many effects to explore. I used "Layer Blending - Multiply" to make the two colours of the coffee mug interact where they overlap. I drew the coffee mug with the "Pen Tool". You can find out more about these tools by searching online, or ask me! John