I really enjoyed working on this particular image. Look at me was a chance to try out some new techniques. I did extensive retouch work to this image including, completely recreating the eyes and lips, whitening the teeth, and smoothing the skin.

I used different adjustment layers to really get the image to pop. The butterfly wings I did myself using a reference. The model in this image was great and had very unique and expressive features that allowed this image to work the way I imagined it.

This is a short and sweet deal today. In the process of trying to help some fix their Godaddy site, I determined that it doesn’t handle PHP includes in the way that I’m used to (as with most coders) I have been fighting with it for a few days and going to Google for solutions that never seem to work. Finally I broke down and called customer support who insisted I had coded it wrong, when I had tested this repeatedly in XAMPP, Dreamweaver and my own browser and I KNEW the files were being referenced correctly.

Roberto Blake Interviewed by GraphicEssence.com “I’m actually really happy this interview came up and GE had some really interesting questions for me!

The recession is still a probably for many, not just in the United States but abroad as well. The economy has hurt people from many different fields, and the Graphic and Web Design fields are no exception. The job crisis is very scary, but embracing fear isn’t the answer, finding solutions is, and as a Graphic Designer living in the recension I have some interesting advice that will help you through it.

This past week has been interesting, and in many ways a real treat for me. I was independently contracted by an old employer to teach 14 adult [military] students an Advanced Level Photoshop CS4 course. Not only was it an opportunity to impart my knowledge on to a group of people and share my unique perspective and skills with them, but I learned things from them both as artist and as human beings throughout our time together as well.

Digital Illustration color work of my character Sidney from my online comic Project Rave.

You heard right! We finally get our new toy in May of 2010! Apple Insider recently reported that Adobe will be unveiled on April 12th, with shipping expected to start a month later. This is very exciting news for the design industry, as Adobe CS5 will actually have been worth the wait.

With the release of the new God of War 3 video game I couldn’t help but notice a great deal of artwork in the online community that relates to the game. Much of it is quite amazing!

It’s been a while since I had a featured artist on the blog but I’m really excited about this one. Zach Bush is one of my favorite digital artist on deviantart and his work happened to be featured on the cover of the same issue of Advanced Photoshop Magazine that I happened to appear in this month.

I woke up this Monday to find an email in my inbox telling me “you have won”. Now immediately I was set to delete this thinking it was spam until I realized that it had come from ILoveDesign.com needless to say that I was pleasantly surprised!

I can’t tell you how happy I am to announce that I have been featured in Advanced Photoshop Magazine issue 67 (page 12) in their Reader’s Gallery. This has been a goal I have been working toward for over a year, and it’s amazing to see it come to pass.

Celestial Being was one of my personal favorite images, it was featured in Advanced Photoshop Magazine issue 67.

Touched is one my favorite new pieces that will be featured in my upcoming book, this image was also featured in Advanced Photoshop Magazine issue 67 (march/april 2010).

I wanted to create something using this stock for quite a while. From the moment I saw it I knew that I wanted to try to make this concept work. Part of the image of course alludes to Pinnochio, but I also wanted to add a metaphysical aspect to it.

Today’s video is about the importance of typography in the graphic design industry. Typography is something that many designers take for granted preferring to focus on the more glamorous aspects of design. However typography is something that will be immediately noticed and valued in your portfolio when applying for jobs in the field, especially in the advertising industry.

As some of you know Google is finally has created a social media Frankinstien in the form of Google Buzz.