Drawing is always a bit of an inconvenience to me and let's face it, gaining the same results like one of your friends' or family member's artistic talent works is pretty much impossible, they just have the knack for it. But I have to think of it in a different way when I started this blog. If designing the page personally and drawing an image is a way to get visitors to come in, then it's always a skill to learn. By the way, the image above? It's not me who drew it. Sorry. Hit the jump for some image production tips.
So, you have decided to learn your artistic sense. Don't worry, it's not hard at all. My first time in
image production is the header of my blog above. It's not ugly, and it's definitely not pretty either. But I tried my best, and I'm sure there will be some improvements in the future. There is much to draw when you are making a blog or a website. Pictures can help to separate between sub-headings or a whole block of text. Your logo for facebook, google+ and twitter page is as important as your blog itself since it is the only way for outsiders to know that it is your account.
Moving on, if you are learning this to make blog posts look more pretty then try to draw something according to your topic. For example, I drew the image of my first gadget saturday post about portable chargers . Sure it's neither professional looking nor fantastic, but I think it does the job of showing what the post is all about, which is about a portable charger. I don't mind having my drawings taken though, if you provide some backlinks to show that it is mine.
Down below are freewares I use to generate images for this blog and no, I don't use Photoshop. Too expensive for my college wallet.
Programs To Designing Your Next Big Project
About Inkscape
Ah, Inkscape, probably the best image production tool I can have right now. Though its interface is confusing for me at first, I think I'm starting to understand most of its features, certainly enough to make a post about it.
You can download inkscape for free by clicking Download Inkscape or by clicking the big beautiful mountain logo besides this.
What Inkscape Can Do
Inkscape allow its user to make any kind of drawing with its myriad of tools. There is a drawing tool for any kind of shapes so try them out! Up till now, I can't find anything that is impossible to do in Inkscape. Vectors? Check. Circles? Check. Your face? Check. (if you're skilled enough)
- Rectangle Shape Tool
- 3D Shape Tool (I will skip this one since I have never used it before)
- Circle/Ellipse Shape Tool
- Pentagon or Star Shape Tool
- Spiral Tool
- Freehand drawing Tool
- Bezier Line Tool
- Calligraphic Stroke Tool
- Text Tool
Well, I was going to explain them to you one by one, but what good will it do? I think the fastest way to learn them is by trying it yourself. That's the way I learned anyways. Tips for inkscape will be posted everytime I come up with one!
To see what you can (and will!) do in inkscape check them out at Inkscape's Tutorial Page. Need a video guide? There are a lot of those over at YouTube.
Screenshot Utility Tool
I usually use MWSnap3 for capturing any screenshots. You NEED to make screenshots for yourself since they are definitely harder to search for. Many of the pictures in this blog are produced directly from my computer and then cropped down to size.
Basically, you start the program, minimize it and press Ctrl+ Shift+ W key whenever you want to take a screenshot.
So, this concludes today's post. This is my second how-to and I hope it can be useful to you guys.
If you are interested in more how-tos please follow from the buttons in the top right corner of the page.
So, this concludes today's post. This is my second how-to and I hope it can be useful to you guys.
If you are interested in more how-tos please follow from the buttons in the top right corner of the page.
