Deborah Woehr

I was browsing through the NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) tutorials this morning and came across a tutorial for Smart Gradients. By the way, you’ll find tons of great tutorials in this members-only website. Anyway, this tutorial involved creating smart objects, and then creating wavy gradients with the freeform warp tool. The first image is the result of my initial test.

After I save my first image, I decided to experiment with the freeform warp tool to see just how far I could push it.

Gradient 1

I liked the color combination and the somewhat 3D look of this design.

Gradient 2

This took me all of two seconds to create, once I set up the color scheme.

Gradient 3

This design was created by distorting the radial blur.

I’ve had this sitting on my server since Sunday, but have been too busy with writing projects to post about it. The uploading process went smoothly, once I realized that I needed to create a directory first. It’s a very simple one-page setup, which I created almost exclusively in Photoshop and imported into Freeway. Prospective readers can either download the free ebook for Prosperity or buy the paperback on Amazon.

To see it in action, click on the picture.

On Monday, I received a nice surprise when I found an email from Freeway’s technical support, which addressed the comments that I had written in this weekend’s post about my results with the software. With their permission, I am posting the solutions they gave me for the problems I faced.

We were alerted to your blog post by Google Alerts, so we wanted to discuss some of your comments.

It’s not directly possible to wrap text around curved graphics, however it is possible to wrap around the graphic item. You can do this by drawing an HTML item and entering the text you wish to use.

With this HTML item filled, place the text insertion cursor where you wish the graphic to be placed and use Insert>Graphic Item. Import the image file that you wish to use and with the Inspector palette, set Align to Left or Right.

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For your uploaded site, Freeway uses relative paths to all the resources, so if you have a Site Folder set that contains no other files, you should be able to simply upload the entire contents of the Site Folder and all will display correctly.

If you created from the Blank template or another template, you should have a folder called Site Folder alongside your Freeway file. If you created from custom, you will have been asked to specify one when publishing.

If you selected the same folder your Freeway file is in, I recommend creating a new folder and changing the Site Folder setting so that only Freeway will write your site files into this folder.

If you are using another FTP program such as Cyberduck or Fetch, you will be able to upload the entire contents of the Site Folder as mentioned. Otherwise you can use Freeway’s own built in FTP software to upload to your server, available from the File menu.

I bought Freeway Pro 4 in February and have been experimenting with it to create a website with moderate success. The first design limitation I experienced was the inability to make the text wrap around graphic elements. Then, I read their manual and learned that you can’t wrap html text around graphic items. You have to input your text as a graphical item, which (according to the tutorial I watched) isn’t readable by the search engine spiders. I began to wonder if I should have saved up for Dreamweaver, despite the steep learning curve.

When Freeway 5.0 launched last week, I hoped to find an improvement with the above scenario. The same rule still applies. I’ve yet to explore every feature (see link below) in the latest version, but I’m just as happy with the new interface as I was with the old one. You can design a custom website within the Freeway program, just by using the built-in tools. Even better, you can import files from Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand, Fireworks, and other programs into your design.

I was able to create a single-page website in less than an hour, which I uploaded to my server. The results were crappy, however. Freeway automatically makes folders for your images and CSS files, but the images failed to display. Plus I saw some HTML text that shouldn’t have been there. The developers haven’t created a user manual for Freeway 5.0 yet, so I read through the manual for the earlier version. Their instructions sound so simple, but I’m wondering if I have to modify an html file in order to get them to display properly. Once I iron out this problem, I’ll post a snapshot of my results.

Overall, I like using Freeway. It has come a long way since version 3.0, which wasn’t user friendly at all. Looking at their Gallery, I’ve seen quite a few impressive sites.

Freeway Pro 5.0 Feature List

The goal for this assignment was to create a business card that complimented the website, while making its own bold statement. My husband had made the original on a white background in Word and printed it on inkjet business card paper. The result wasn’t bad, but I felt that a black background and some Photoshop enhancements would make the card stand out better. I also felt that using VistaPrint would give us better quality paper.

My husband smiled when he held one of the cards in his hand two weeks later. He liked the design. But there was one mistake that neither one of us caught before I placed the order. I’ll let you guess what it is.

As Homer Simpson says, “Doh!”

I’ve started a collection of tutorials for Photoshop late last year so I can learn how to do everything from creating snazzy web buttons to illustrations. This morning, I found a neat collection from Smashing Magazine that covers a wide gamut of subjects and techniques. They’ve also included a list of resources at the end.

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials - Best Of

I haven’t had much time to practice digital painting as much as I would have liked to because I’ve been preparing for my first virtual book tour, which is scheduled for February. Here is a list of my scheduled stops.

Feb. 1 - Rose Marie Wolf’s Blog www.rosemariewolf.blogspot.com (guest post)
Feb. 2 - Paranormal Stories www.paranormalstories.blogspot.com (guest post)
Feb. 4 - M.E. Ellis’ Nutters Gang www.meellis.blogspot.com (guest post)
Feb. 5 - Storycrafters www.storycrafters.blogspot.com (guest post)
Feb. 6 - Blogcritics www.blogcritics.org (interview)
Feb. 7 - Beyond the Books www.beyondthebooks.wordpress.com (interview)
Feb. 8 - Fiction Scribe www.fictionscribe.com (interview)
Feb. 10 - Dark Phantom Review www.thedarkphantom.wordpress.com (book spotlight)
Feb. 11 - The Story Behind the Book www.thestorybehindthebook.wordpress.com (guest post)
Feb. 12 - Buzz the Book www.buzzthebook.blogspot.com (book spotlight)
Feb. 13 - The Book Stacks www.thebookstacks.com (guest post)
Feb. 14 - Henri the Ghost www.henritheghost.blogspot.com (interview)
Feb. 15 - Night Owl Romance www.nightowlromance.com (you’ll actually have another url that will take you right to your interview) (interview)
Feb. 18 - Paperback Writer www.rebecca2007.wordpress.com (interview)
Feb. 20 - The Book Connection www.thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com (guest post)
Feb. 25 - The Plot www.theplotline.wordpress.com (book spotlight)
Feb. 26 - The Plot www.theplotline.wordpress.com (character interview)
Feb. 29 - Announcement of free book giveaway

Dorothy Thompson of Pump Up Your Book Promotion has done a fabulous job of helping me promote Prosperity. Next month, I’ll be posting the details of each stop at my writing blog. Hope to see you there!

I received my first graphics tablet in the late 90s as a birthday gift. There were no definitive instructions on how to use the thing, other than how to install it. Around that time, I was playing around with the demo version of Corel Painter 8. The mouse didn’t cut it, so I thought a graphics tablet would be the answer. After several days of frustration, I disconnected the thing from my computer, stored it out of sight, and deleted the Painter demo from my hard drive. Then I returned to my novel-in-progress.

Fast forward ten years later.

I’m surfing the Internet for a decent stock photograph to use in a book cover. Most of the photos I found didn’t measure up to the concept I wanted to create. Then I found a digital drawing that fit to a tee. The only problem was that it cost over $300 to buy. I wasn’t about to shell out that kind of money for a free ebook.

I had seen the advertisements for Corel Painter X and decided to check it out. I downloaded the comp version of the image I liked. Then I downloaded the Painter demo and started playing around with it. I liked the program, but my mouse wasn’t doing the job I wanted it to. So, I scrapped the project altogether and put Painter and a Wacom Graphics Tablet on my Amazon wishlist, thinking that no one was going to buy me such an expensive gift.

My husband surprised me at Christmas with the software, which came with Jeremy Sutton’s tutorial DVD. I installed it, started playing around with the brushes, and shook my head. The mouse was not designed for painting. I had very little control over the strokes I made.

At this point, I began researching the different graphics tablets and found this great article Before You Buy a Graphics Tablet at About.com. I was glad that I read this article because I was thinking of buying a 9×12, since I’ve always enjoyed painting on large canvases. Sutton also recommended that size on his video. Both the article and the reviews helped me make the decision to buy the tablet I needed.

Should you buy a graphics tablet?

It depends on what you plan on using it for. If you mainly use Photoshop for image manipulation, then no. A mouse is more than suitable. For illustrators, it’s a must. The pen is a big improvement over the mouse because it’s pressure sensitive. This means you can control the thicknesses and angles of the strokes and/or lines you create.

If this is your first tablet, know that there is a learning curve. You’ll have to learn how to hold and position the pen so it will draw exactly where you want it to draw on the screen. Other than that, I find that it’s pretty straight-forward.

If you haven’t bought a tablet yet but are seriously considering getting one, I recommend that you read the About.com article first. It’s very educational in that it brings up potential issues that I hadn’t thought about, such as ergonomics as well as the pros and cons of the top models.

I found this video on Corel Painter Resource blog and thought I would pass it along. This reminds me of the times I would go to tourist spots and see artists sitting along the sidewalk or off the beaten path, whipping up a scenery painting within minutes. I admire anyone who can draw a face from scratch, because faces have always been tough for me. I’m not sure how long it took this artist to draw the likeness of Lost’s John Locke, but this five-minute video speeds up the process with some impressive results.

When I originally started this blog in 2005, I had a firm goal in mind: to promote my books and discuss writing. Since then, I’ve moved my original blog to DeborahWoehr.com/blog/, where I not only discuss these things but more. This area of my site has served as a landing page for the better part of a year until I started delving into designing book covers (see sidebar).

Last week, I moved my landing page up to the navigation bar under the “Hire Me!” link. Then I began debating about whether I wanted to use deborahwoehr.com as a blog or as a bulletin board to announce the publication of my future books. The idea sounded a bit redundant, so I gave it some more thought, finally making a decision when I wrote Goals for 2008.

I have several interests, but my first and second loves are art and writing. I earned my degree in Computer Graphics in 1993, only to find out that I was pregnant two weeks after I received my diploma. My life changed direction, and I became a stay-at-home mom for the next nine years, as well as a writer. This took me on another path, when I decided to self-publish my books on Lulu.com. I didn’t like the stock covers they offered, so I designed my own and fell in love with digital design.

You can do so much more with digital design than you can with traditional media. I might pick up my paint brush again someday, but I’m not promising anything. The computer has become my canvas, to express myself verbally and visually. This blog will chronicle my progress as I update my skills. I’ll also be trolling the blogosphere and the web to see what other digital artists are doing and to find the latest tips, tricks, and tools.

Stay tuned.