Tag Archives: photoclips

MonkeyHeader

Tripitaka has a quest for you!

When I set up this blog at the end of January, one of the objectives that I set myself was to make it into a library of clip art and photoclips to help up-and-coming artists. I made a few tutorials on producing photoclips using the free software GIMP, and hoped for a few contributions from readers. Unfortunately, this has not yet happened, so I have decided to start producing a few interesting images of my own in the hope that members might join me.

Monkey

A carved version of 70′s cult classic Monkey.

Last night I spent an hour or so extracting a wooden carving of one of my favourite TV characters ‘Monkey’ (seen above), who has now been submitted to our photoclip library for your use. If anyone would like to contribute to this gallery, just let me know and please remember that you will have to use a CC-BY-SA license on your work (or make it CC0 – Public Domain), so that it can legally be used as intended. If you are interested in CC licensing for your own work, I recommend that you click on the link at the bottom of this page and see how it can help you.

As we have now started making a weekly puzzle, I will take this opportunity to add another ‘poser’ to our members:-

What were the names of Monkey’s other two companions on his quest?

Once again, there are no prizes for this. I thought that it might be a bit of fun for some of you that grew up in the 1970′s and watched badly-dubbed Japanese TV programs!!

Please try and contribute to our galleries. Your work will be accepted regardless of quality (within reason).

Tutorial – Creating your own Photo Clip Art – Part 4 (Finishing off)

This article is part 4 in a tutorial. It is recommended that you read the first three parts first.

So far we have made a roughly cut-out version of our daffodil flower floating on a transparent background. If you zoom in to the edges of the petals, what I mean by rough-cut becomes all too apparent – this mosaic like effect, with occasional bits of background and a few bits of petal missing can now be ‘healed’ by working on the transparency mask that we set up in the last part of this tutorial. Continue reading

Tutorial – Creating your own Photo Clip Art – Part 3 (Using the Alpha Channel)

This article is part three in a tutorial. It is recommended that you read parts 1 & 2 first.

In part 2 of this tutorial, I explained how to use the scissors tool to produce a rough selection around the daffodil flower. This selection area is now going to be used to produce a mask that we add can add to the alpha channel of the image. By working on the mask, we can obtain a smooth transition from opaque (the flower) to transparent (the background), with no jagged edges. Continue reading

Tutorial – Creating your own Photo Clip Art – Part 2 (Starting out)

This article is part two in a tutorial. It is recommended that you read Part 1 first.

Selecting your Photograph

In order to produce a good quality piece of clip art, you must always start with a good photograph. The old adage about not being able to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear holds very true in all matters graphic. You would be amazed at the amount of customers that give me ‘Black cat in coal cellar’ and want me to turn it into something akin to a David Bailey original! This is not possible. Continue reading