Pink Flowers 1.2

This was the first theme, and is my second favourite so far. I was going to keep this layout up for a lot longer, but soon made a new layout out of boredom. I didn’t want to lose this theme so I added a theme switcher, so visitors could choose which theme they used. This theme was titled simply “Pink Flowers” because the header image was pink with flowers.

Sparkle 1.0

This was my next layout, I originally wanted something blue, but changed it to teal at the las minute and loved it. It features sparkle brushes that I made, as well as the font “alot like love” that I made.

Kitty Frangipani 1.0

I made this simply because I was bored and wanted something different. It is a one column layout with the sidebar info at the footer. I liked this one a lot because it features my kitty Thomas, and my favourite flower the frangipani, as well as my favourite colours. But I soon became bored of it, and used the pink flowers one as my default theme.

Magenta and Green 1.2

This was another of my favourite themes, I wanted to revamp my site, and make it less cutesy and more sleek looking. I used a fluid width layout, so it would look perfect on all screen resolutions. I used a magenta gradient with a flashy web 2.0 button. It is the most simple looking theme, and probably most boring, but it is something I really liked. This is also the theme where I decided to get rid of the comment plugs and the theme switcher.

Tulips 1.3

This is my favourite theme. It is based on the previous theme “Magenta and Green” but with a vector I drew of Tulips. I chose tulips because they are my fiance’s favourite flowers. This theme was re-worked three times whilst up. This theme will probably stay up a long time. stayed up for almost 3 months. Eventually I got sick of the pink/red/blue/green colours so I went for something totally different.

Pretty Ladybug 1.0

I really like this theme, I was worried the whole set up (ie sidebar, content etc) would look plain and generic, so I tried to make it very original. I started this layout with the illustration of the lady bug on a leaf which I drew out of boredom. I then thought about turning it into a layout but was worried because I hate the colour red, and would never have thought of using it with green. But it is different and I like it so far. My favourite part is the footer and the navigation system.

This is a tutorial on how to “draw” a satin (material) surface, I dont know what you would want to use the satin drawing for, maybe for a header image or blend background, maybe for digital paintings that have satin clothes etc. Either way, this is something I do in Photoshop when I am bored.

First we start off with a blank document, which we fill in with black (or any darker colour). I like to start off with black, that way you can colourise it later on, because some colours (like red) as a starting base can get bad highlight colours that look wrong.

Now we use the dodge tool on a soft brush (size 100) set on shadow, and dodge spots into the black.

Next we change the dodgle tool to highlights and dodge the center of the white spots to make it appear whiter, the more white, the shinier the satin will be.

Now we get the smudge tool and set it at 80%. I use a big soft brush set at around 100. Smudge areas in an up and down motion, each smudge stroke is an individual smudge, not all a continous line, and not reaching the bottom of the page.

Don’t make all the strokes meet in the middle either, make it randomly spaced and wiggle the brush every now and then to create more shape.

Get the burn tool and burn the black/grey ares to a darker shade, so the highlights stand out more.

Now do the same with the dodge tool on the highlights to make them brighter. The brighter you go the shinier the satin appears

Now you can colorise the image (go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation and click on colourise) Change the colour to whatever you want.

Now you can leave it there and it’s finished, or you can add a pattern to it. Choose a pattern you like and make a new layer above the satin. Fill the pattern

Set the pattern layer to multiply. You can change the opacity of the pattern layer as you desire to make it blend in more.

You don’t have to use just patterns, you can use brushes, rainbow gradients, and more. Experiment with different size smudge tools, and see what you come up with.
Here is one I made, looking like water.

First draw the shape of half a wine glass in a light yellow and make the transparency about 20-30 depending what you like. Do a layer of red representing the wine in the glass.

Go to Effect>>3D>>Revolve and the folowing window will open. Do the settings like below.

After pressing OK, you will have a 3D wine glass. Add a shape of white and red gradient, to represent the light shine.

Set it to Screen with 75% transparency and you will have the following.

Now draw the shape of half a bottle. Make a layer to represent thelid, and another to represent the wine inside.

Go to Effect>>3D>>Revolve and the folowing window will open. Do the settings like below.

I end up with a fat wine bottle, I resize it to be thinner.

This is the size of the bottle I settle on.

I decided to move the light shine to the opposite of the glass to match the bottle.

Draw up a label for the wine. I use a light green rectangle, dark red text, and a red star shape.

Select the whole label and place it over the bottle.

Go to Object>>Envelope Distort>>Make with Warp

The warp options will show up. Make the settings like below.

Now resize the label to fit the bottle.

Set the label to Hard Light.

This is the final illustration.