I just had to share with you some of the amazing work that I’ve encountered in the online design community. This collection of photo manipulations are some of the most creative and inspired works I’ve seen. If you enjoy them please be sure to share this collection and comment and let the artist know their work is appreciated!

1. Ice Queen

Ice Queen

2. Incendium

Incendium

3. Genisis

Genisis

4. Something Wicked

Something Wicked

5. Dracula’s Bride Modern Edition

Dracula's Bride Modern Edition

6. Madre de Muertos BW

Madre de Muertos BW

7. Atrum Regina

Atrum Regina

8. Guest

Guest

9. Belphoebe

Belphoebe

10.  El castigo

El castigo

11. Sweet Sin

Sweet Sin

12. Chasm

Chasm

13. Silent

Silenced

14. Red Hot

Red Hot

15. Visions of You

Visions of You

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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Roberto Blake Herald of Creation

Herald of Creation, was inspired by somethings I’ve seen around the web lately, I go the idea to work with this stock from Rob Shields. He did a piece that I found really interesting and inspiring. I actually feel I may do a series of “Heralds”, I’ve always liked the concept because I’m a fan of the Silver Surfer and Galactus comics that Marvel puts out and draw some inspiration from that. This image got some great feed back on both the Advanced Photoshop and Photoshop Creative website, as well as Deviant Art. My ideas for additional Heralds are:

Herald of Destruction
Herald of Emotion
Herald of Change

Model stock: http://dyingbeautystock.deviantart.com/

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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Roberto Blake Photo Manipulation Raven Dawn II

Raven Dawn II is a follow up to my original Raven Dawn image using what I’ve learned since that time. For this image I took a simple and clean stylish approach.

I posted this image a while back both on my Deviantart.com account and on my homepage, but I wanted to actually talk about the image itself a bit as it is also one of my most popular images online. Having seen this stock photo be used countless times I want to do something interesting and unique with it myself. At the same time I wanted to do something clean and stylish while at the same time with dark undercurrents. I wanted this image to scream subtlety, utilize eye direction, good usage of space, texture and wanted it to evoke emotion and stimulate, and I fee that in its simplicity that it accomplishes all those things very well.

Time: 7 Hours
Tools: Photoshop, Wacom Intuos 3 4×6

Model: http://katanaz-stock.deviantart.com/

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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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.

Roberto Blake Photo Manipulation Look At Me

The model stock from this came from: http://nikxstock.deviantart.com/ and the bubble brushes which I modified came from: http://brusheezy.com

This image all together took about 20 Hours or so in Photoshop using my Wacom tablet. This image actually is pretty popular in my gallery and was featured twice on deviant art. I’m considering making this available as part of a series of iPhone Wallpapers I want to release later this month.

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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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.

Staying Employed.

The easiest way to not be hurt by the current job crisis is to hold on to your current job as long as possible. The conditions may not be great, and you may be under a great deal of stress. However the stress of not being able to find a job and support yourself and your family will be considerably worse.

If you want to remain employed try changing your work and performance habits. Meet deadlines and turn in work early as much as humanly possible.

Come into work a few minutes early to get ahead on your work, and even stay an extra fifteen minutes to a half hour.

Yes, we all complain about wanting to come in and leave on time if you’re not getting overtime, but giving up a half hour to forty five minutes everyday could be make all the difference when your employers are trying to decide who gets to keep their job.

Try demonstrating your value and loyalty be volunteering to help others whenever possible, cheer up your department one morning by springing for donuts or coffee. Doing your part to boost the morale of your co-workers is part of what it means to be a team player.

Don’t be afraid to suggest new clients to your employer or tell them about any possible business leads, costing cutting measures, or free services your company can take advantage of. Showing you have the company’s interest and success in your thoughts, will keep you in your employers good graces.

Don’t Be Overly Secure

Things happen. Sometimes they have nothing to do with what we deserve, or even what we’ve done. Despite your own hard work, its possible your department or even the entire company is not working up to its full potential. As a result you may find yourself unemployed through no fault of your own.

Stay sharp and always be aware of potential and available jobs in your work field every single month. Keep an eye out for any freelance work you may be able to handle. Invest in any new equipment you’ve been putting off buying, that way if things get tight down the road you can still work to the best of your ability.

Padding that Resume.

Even if you are still employed, you should be looking for ways to pad your resume in the event that you lose your job (for one reason or another). Look for opportunities to volunteer, and work with charities. These things will help you make your resume diverse and impressive. It will also give you opportunities to meet new contacts that will help you down the road, give you more references, testimonials, recognition and possible employment down the road.

Other ways you can pad your resume is by competing in design competitions (and hopefully winning). You should also be submitting you work for publication. Also don’t be afraid to take internships, paid or not these will be valuable experiences and give you people who can vouch for you work, your work ethic, and personality.

Turn Your Hobby Into A Side Job

If you have an interest in photography, and you have a Digital SLR like a Nikon, Cannon, or Olympus, then you should see if you can turn your hobby into cash. Offer to take wedding or reception photos for friends or family as long as they pay you something reasonable. Offer to take some cheap or even free portfolio shots of someone you know who wants to break into modeling or acting.

Offer to take shots of models for free as long as you can use them as stock photography and sell them online through sites like istockphoto.com

If you’re an illustrator, ask your friends and family or even random strangers if they’d be interested in commissioning you to do a piece of artwork for you. Also look around a local businesses that feature artwork in their building, like dentist offices, or doctors offices, see if they would be interested in having some custom artwork commissioned.

Create and Sell Your Own Products Online.

While you’re searching for that next job, or if you’re currently unemployed, don’t use the fact you don’t have a job as an excuse to stop working! Keeping pounding away at Photoshop and your other programs and develop some products you can sell for extra money online. Whether its designing Graphic Tees and selling them on a site like Zazzle.com or selling design products like website templates, flash animation, layouts, or banners, through sites like Graphic River or Theme Forest.

Build Your Reputation With A Blog

I am personally of the opinion that everyone has a unique skill, ability, or area of expertise to offer, and to that end I suggest that EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE A BLOG!

Having a blog allows you to not only demonstrate your abilities, but your knowledge and how current you are in your profession and industry and that you take it seriously. More importantly if you are in the design or advertising industry or web design, how popular you manage to make your blog is the best way to show your value.

If you people can find you are articles you’ve written, and your accomplishments on the first page of Google, that goes a long way to establishing your creditability and legitimacy. This can show value in terms of your ability to use social media marketing, search engine optimization, your abilities is in copy writing, your understanding of user experience and interaction, or even your web and graphic design skills.

If you’re blog is particularly successful it can also become a form of passive income through various advertising programs and affiliate marketing. Again I must also stress the fact, that a blog/website will allow you to be seen, and more importantly FOUND. Future employers will be able get a real feel for your personality as well as your work through your blog, and will also see how well received you are by others.

Freelancing

If you’re going to freelance make sure you’ve done all your prep work. Get all the legal documents you need for contracts. Make sure you’ve gotten your business cards, flyers, resume and portfolio in order, as well as a basic web site. Sign up for sites like FreelanceSwitch.com to find freelance job opportunities.

Continue To Develop Work For Your Portfolio

I can’t stress this enough. You should always be developing your portfolio and resume whether you are employed or not, simply because you never know what circumstances will come your way. I recommend updating both ever quarter (every three months).

If you are a graphic designer you should do some of your own creative work, but you should also be filling your portfolio with Spec Ads, using recognized products and brands, particularly if you want to work for an Ad Agency. As a web designer you should design custom word press themes, “fan sites”, and you should also make sure demonstrate your ability to create mobile websites. Illustrators should demonstrate a range of styles and the ability to work in both digital and traditional media. If you’re a photographer demonstrating versatility, flawless execution and range of subjects and experience is going to be key.

Try submitting your portfolio to various Art Directors, Publishers, and other professionals requesting a review. You could anything from valuable advice to a job offer as a result.

Develop New Skills

There are a number of new skills that are highly sought after in today’s marketplace. More and more the need for custom designs for content management systems and template engines is increasing. As is need the for Mobile App Developers, Actionscript Programers, Flash Animators, 3D Designers, and Motion Graphic Designers.

The more you expand your skill set and number of applications you’re comfortable with, the more opportunities you will have, and the more you will be worth.

If you are more comfortable with code, try expanding your visual design skills, if you are more of designer, try picking up the basics of web design. There are plenty of websites and books to help you with both.

Education

Don’t underestimate or overestimate the value of your education. This may seem like a confusing message but it is the truth. There is in this particular field a mixed view. You have some companies and employers that will be sticklers and will dismiss you out of hand if you don’t have a degree or at least one from a reputable school. On the other hand, many recent graduates are finding that employers have shifted their view to valuing direct experience over education.

Its a very hard call to make as to whether 4 years of schooling and theoretical experience and formal training can compete with 4 years of experience, client references and testimonials even at a low tier. This call is tough both for the potential employee as well as the employer.

My suggestion is that if you’re currently in design school, start a blog, start building yourself as a brand and take on freelance and charity projects as much as possible. This will give you an advantage as you will have your degree as well as a wealth of commercial experience and clients, and a portfolio that is primarily commercial work rather than student work. This will set you apart in an interview.

If you are currently not in school and cannot either afford it, or afford to make the time, then at least take some courses part time to demonstrate that you have some formal education, and attempt to take as many certifications as possible. If at all possible train to take the Adobe Certification program for any Adobe product in which you think you have mastery. Take it until you pass it, and you will be in a rare an elite percentage of individuals in your field.

Nobody in our industry disputes the value or the difficulty involved in achieving Adobe Certfied status. Also make sure that most of the work in your portfolio is either client work or work that has been published, in addition make sure you only include your strongest pieces.

Conclusions

Focus constantly on increasing your value and demonstrating it.Be visible wherever and whenever possible. Put yourself out there!
Accumulate as many references, contacts, supporters as possible.
Be aware of industry trends and standards and stay current.
Don’t become comfortable always have the ability, and confidence to get a new job.
Always look for ways to supplement your income.Always look for ways to improve your resume.
Improve your chances by seeking higher education and certifications.

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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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!

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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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 actually hope to be able to interview him in the near future. Zach’s work is just amazing and he is diverse in his abilities, showcasing talent in photo manipulation, digital painting, and typography. His level of ability is certainly something to aspire to.

Skin Deep by Zach Bush

Skin Deep was featured on the cover of Advanced Photoshop 67, the issue in which I am featured in the readers gallery. Zach also demonstrates a tutorial that allows you to recreate this cover.

The Second Coming by Zach Bush

The Second Coming, was a piece Zach did for a deviantart contest sponsored by the game Darksiders, called “End of Days”. The general idea is to create an image depicting some aspect of the Apocalypse. I really like the direction Zach took as it was dramatically different from the other entries which mostly featured the four horsemen.

The Mad Hatter by Zach Bush

I honestly would love to see a movie or read an Alice in Wonderland story featuring this version of the Mad Hatter. Zach took this already piece of dark fiction to another level with his work. I believe this was featured on DEPTHCORE.

A Soul's Silhouette by Zach Bush

This was a creative piece of photo manipulation where Zach demonstrates his ability to effectively combine several techniques and distinct elements. This is probably my favorite piece from him.

The Return by Zach Bush

Eden by Zach Bush

Morning Mist by Zach Bush

Show your support by posting this article wherever you can, tweeting it and of course commenting!

You can view more of the work of Zach Bush at:
http://zachbush.com
http://zbush.deviantart.com/
http://www.behance.net/zbush

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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I had meant to post this sooner, but as some of you may already know I ad the pleasure of having some of my work featured in Photoshop Creative Magazine Issue 54 as part of a spread encouraging creatives to post their work to the Photoshop Creative Gallery. I’ve been an avid reader of Photoshop Creative for quite sometime so it was a real treat and honor to be featured in their magazine. Interestingly on the page next to the one I was featured on Alena Lazareva who I had the pleasure of interviewing a few months early was also featured!

photoshop-creative-feature-issue54

Aside from the sense of pride and accomplishment in seeing my work printed in one of my favorite publications it also made me take myself a lot more seriously. As creatives we all try to keep in mind that others are viewing our work, our development and our growth, but once your work reaches a such a broad audience it really bring this home for you.

I received a lot of positive response from this and some new interest from this feature, and it has definitely been encouraging. I would say to any other digital artist reading this to always keep striving to achieve goals and produce the best work that you can, and submit to as many venues as possible, you never know how these things will turn out or where they will lead.

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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Binary Angel is one of my newest photo-manipulations, though it differs from most in the fact that I decided to combine a large number of  vector graphics in this piece. The vector wings were from Go Arsenal Media, a great resources for brushes vector graphics and templates at a reasonable price. The model is from istockphoto and the remaining elements are custom.

Inspiration

Ultimately I came up with this while trying to decide on what to do about creating my custom 404 page (still a work in progress).  I wanted something unique and different that also still demonstrated graphic design. This approach was heavily influenced by the fact I was watching the last few episodes of an Anime called “Outlaw Star” in which the characters entered the “Digital Plane” and were interacting with a “Machine Diety”. The idea of angelic presence administrating over cyberspace intrigued me and prompted me to create this image.

The Design Process

The choices in the elements and colors was fairly simple after I picked the stock image. I knew that I wanted her to be an angel and I wanted to create an interesting but “uncluttered” cyberspace environment for her. I had already had the wings for quite sometime, and incorporated them first to set the tone of the image and figure out the spacing.

After that I had to decide on the illuminated screens. At first I had thought to use website screen shots (most likely from my own site) but I decided against that as I wasn’t sure how well it was coming across, so I decided to use blank screens with lighting effects. One of the hardest things was planning the angles for this and creating just the right perspective. Next I created a custom pixel brush by defining a square as a brush and adjusting the custom brush settings for it.

When I created the light spirals around her lower body I had another chance to look at the image and remember that she was an angel and it occurred to me…”When is the last time I saw an angel with a halo?” So I decided to add one in a light blue, in a shade very close to the one I used for the screens earlier.

I have to say that I’m very happy with the way this image came out and that I think it will be one of the stronger pieces in my portfolio.

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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Keeping the Faith is one of my newer photo manipulation projects and a chance to show off some refinement to my techniques. In some ways its is similar to my much earlier work “Cloud Chaser”.

Inspiration- Keeping the Faith was inspired in combination by both my own work Cloud Chaser, and just the amazing series of work that I’ve seen and showcased in the online community. Seeing all that amazing work drove me to want to create something more, something visually stunning, as a result Ive been creating more work and trying to take my art to a higher level. I would encourage other artist to gather inspiration from the work of people they admire since its something that has been working very well for me.

The actual choice in model was fairly easy since she had a similar pose to the model I used in Cloud Chaser. I also really liked the coloring of her outfit and the way those colors played off each other, I tried to emulate that in the effects that I used in the image since they blended very well together. As to the title of this image I’m trying to reattach myself to the belief that the impossible can be achieved by sheer will.

Effects- I used a combination of effects many of you have  probably seen me resort to before, although more effectively this time. I used dynamic lighting, disintegration, and smoke effects in this image. I also wanted to use high contrast colors to really make the image pop.

In this image I used streaks of light, light particles and energy spheres to create a surreal, fun and expressive image. As for the disintegration effect, I wanted to make the model a part of the ether in a visually interesting way.

Typography- For the typography in this piece I used a font called “MOD”. I decided to make the font transparent using the multiply blend mode. I felt the type and the color streak helped visually balance the image and the white space in it.

Retouching- The retouch work on this image was very involved and I actually used several techniques from Rob Shields, to make the give the model more depth and a sharp detailed look. I believe it worked out very well. I believe that this is an image that will set the tone for the level of work I’ll be putting out going into the year 2010.

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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Energetic was a photo manipulation inspired by the song “Energetic” by BOA. It is a high impact club song with a great beat and energy to it and was able to inspired some of my best work. This image has also become one of my most popular photo manipulations on DeviantArt.

Roberto Blake- Photo Manipulation Energetic

Inspiration- As you know the title and inspiration for this photo manipulation was the song “Energetic” by BOA and international pop artist. Her music is newer here in the states but those of you familiar with JPop probably have heard her before.
This photo manipulation was a chance to do some more work with lighting effects. I particularly like working with lighting effects because they are able to convey high energy, motion,  and magic, and sometimes all at once.

In this image I tried to create the effect of the female model almost giving off a nuclear or atomic effect, and a level of energy that almost can’t be contained. I chose the colors based mostly on the model’s outfit but also because they would stand out against the light background well.

Effects- The lighting effects were done utilizing the pen tool in combination with the direct selection tool. By slightly adjusting the path made by the pen tool before creating a new stroke, I was able to make streaks of light with various brush widths at similar or intersecting angles.

I also put the strokes on different layers using different outer glow colors and settings. I made a custom particle brush for this, which I used on the different lighting effect layers. I purposely set them up to look like atomic particles.

Retouching- The retouch work was actually kind of extensive. In addition to the regular airbrush work I’ve been doing some new techniques I picked up from a Rob Shields tutorial to do better sharpening, adjusting levels, curves and other things to give the image a much crisper feel and more depth. The extraction of the model was done using the pen tool in combination with masking, which in most cases it the way I prefer to extract the models.

Print- I actually plan of featuring this image in my self published book coming out first quarter of next year, “ARTFUL MANIPULATIONS“, which will showcase the best digital artwork I’ve done over the past year. I most definitely believe that this is one of the best pieces I’ve done yet, and the response to this image in the online community has been great. If you can actually view a full size version of  Energetic on Deviantart and favorite it!

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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In honor of twitter #MusicMonday I decided to not only to a Music Monday graphic, but I decided to do a round up of music inspiration for you guys! I’ve included some Music Inspired Digital Art, Music Stock Photos/Resources, and even Music to Inspire Creativity! Enjoy Music Monday Everyone!

Roberto Blake Music Monday 1

Music Inspired Digital Art

Music Sould by Memo Ries

The Swan Song by Desideriasp

Rackajam by TamasGRaspar

Music by ZELenoglazka

Music Distructed by YegwaEgnis14

Music Stock Photos/Resources

Music To Inspire Creativity

http://www.playlist.com/playlist/18243086859

And please don’t forget to comment, tweet, digg, and bookmark please! Also remember tomorrow is #typographytuseday, please remember to post and tweet typography articles and designs!

Roberto Blake

Roberto Blake is a Professional Graphics Designer and Photographer, living in Fayetteville NC, has work been working with Photoshop® for over 8 years now, and Flash® for the past 5 years.

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