I recently bottled my first mead (or honey-wine for the uninformed)…

the Recipe

• clover honey
• orange
• whole clove
• ground cinnamon
• ground ginger
• raisins

For all you homebrewers out there, I have also posted a more detailed description of the recipe and process.

I also thought it would be a neat thing to come up with a cool label design for the bottles, most of which are the swing-top variety. The packaging design features a honey bee outline (it’s mead, remember?) and some honey comb and textural backgrounds.

By the way, if you are a friend of mine in the Jupiter, West Palm, or Palm Beach Gardens area, please let me know if you come across any of these swing-top bottles; I really love using them for all my homebrews.

Also, let me know what you think of my label design!

This photoshop tutorial demonstrates a quick and easy way to make a subject pop out of an otherwise boring photograph. It is roughly based on the look of a Lensbaby camera attachment, which is essentially a second lens on an adjustable accordian type housing. This produces an effect of one small, focused ovoid section surrounded by heavy lens distortion and aberration.

The first step is choosing the right photo. This method works well on product photographs, portraits, and some landscapes. Choose an image which has one main element to which you would like to add some drama.

Always begin any image editing with Layer>Duplicate Layer so you can start over if you choose.

Step 1. With the duplicate layer selected, press “q” to enter the Quick Mask mode. You will not notice any changes yet, but that is ok. Now press “g” to select the Gradient Tool, and make sure to choose the Radial gradient setting.

Step 2. Decide which area you want to define as the subject, click and drag from the center of this object and outward in any direction. It may take a few undos to get it exactly how you want, but the space covered roughly by the red gradient circle will be the area in focus on your final image.

Step 3. Press “q” to exit Quick Mask mode. There should be a selection circle around the subject of the photo. This is the part of the image that will remain in focus.

Step 4. Choose Filter>Blur>Lens Blur. Adjust the Radius slider until the area outside the focal point is slightly blurred. Use restraint, you don’t want to over do it.

Now your image has the look of a photo taken with a low aperture setting. The next few steps will add a simulated lens distortion look.

Step 5. Choose Filter>Blur>Radial blur. Adjust the Amount slider to somewhere in the range of 7 to 11, and select Zoom for the blur method. Do not click OK yet. Adjust the blur center grid so that the smallest central intersection dot is roughly in the same area of the panel as the focal point of your image. Now click OK.

Step 6. Select the entire image pressing ctrl-A.

Step 7. Add Filter>Distort>Lens correction. Pull the Chromatic Aberration sliders to the left. Play around with them until you find a look you like, just keep the sliders left of center.

Bingo there you have it. A Lensbaby look on a digital image.
From here you may want to Sharpen or maybe Add Noise to make it look more film authentic.

For more examples of Lensbaby photography, visit this Flickr group.
Thank you. Please leave comments/critiques.

Free Photoshop Brush: Ninja Wars!

An ancient discipline followed by the most skilled assassins the world has ever known. THE NINJA! With bo staff, sai, katana.. they are experts in the art of death. Now you can harness their power with the new misselhornMedia photoshop brush: NINJA WARS! Click the scroll to download the brush, but beware: their poison works quickly.

the following is a behind-the-scenes brainstorming session with a renowned ninja consultant during the pre-production of Ninja Wars:

cwylie0:
what would you say is a decent number of ninjas to have in your crew?

ninja consultant:
just in general?

cwylie0:
yeah.. like you are in a bad part of town and you are getting a group together.. how many ninjas do you recruit?

ninja consultant:
9

cwylie0:
nice, thank you.

ninja consultant:
happy to help.
and maybe 2 big thug type guys..
like uhmm.. bebop and rocksteady.

cwylie0:
well, the ninjas are going to have a full arsenal of weapons at their disposal.

ninja consultant:
right, but still…
there is always a huge fucker that can tear people apart with their bare hands
or so says all the movies.

cwylie0:
like a sumo type guy who never has dialog or one of those ex-commandos with bad teeth who wears a chain-link wife beater?

ninja consultant:
right, usually russian.
the guy you can kick in the balls and all it does is piss him off more.

cwylie0:
ok.. do i have permission to use this info publicly and cite you as a ninja consultant?

ninja consultant:
finally..
yes.

cwylie0:
ok great, thank you.

ninja consultant:
you are welcome.

the brush was created in adobe illustrator using some of the techniques found here.

Follow me on TWITTER for more free design resources.

below is a sample featuring the images from a free photoshop brush featuring robots and monsters. i created all the creatures from the tutorial below, and then saved them as a brush. please click the sample image to download it and use it how you see fit, but please send me a link to your creation. i’d love to see it.

these brushes were made from following tutorials:

* Monster Character Series
* Draw Robot Photoshop Tutorial
* Draw a Cool Cartoon Robot
* Eve Robot from Wall-E

Free Photoshop Brush: Robots & Monsters

follow me on TWITTER to get news about more free design resources.

This is a photoshop brush inspired by my hometown of Jupiter, FL. Please feel free to download it and use it in designs for logo, websites, web graphics, whatever. All I ask is that you give credit somehow; at least show me the final product, I will be excited to see!

Here is a quick example of what can be done with the brush pack (AND CLICK TO DOWNLOAD BRUSH):

follow me on TWITTER to get news about more free design resources.