Gangnam Style Speedpainting

Check out my new speed painting for Gangnam Style if you've got a few minutes to kill. I added a bit of animation at the end of the video to make it a bit more intriguing. Illustrating Psy and the elevator scene was very enjoyable, I had to pick this because it gave me a lot of freedom in terms of animation for the end of the video. A new video comes out the first of every month. Enjoy!

W3Schools, the best website for learning how to code

The title says it all.  While there are a plethora of information/guides for learning how to code HTML/CSS or any type of coding language to create a website, the website website is www.w3schools.com.  It's free, simple and has a LOT of content to learn about coding.

I'm not saying only stick to this, as Google and youtube tutorials are for me at least regular tools I use when I am learning about new programs or languages (coding wise).  Having spoken with several people that know more about web design/development along with professors that teach the class, they have universally stated that this website is the best for those looking for information.  My suggestion is never stick to only one source of information, but this is for me the best one.

a list of options to learn from

As you can see from the second picture above, there's plenty of content to look from.  Below at the end of this post, I will post another picture showing examples of work with code on one side and what it can achieve to the next side.  I am a visual person, so I understand things when I see them better which is why examples like this are useful.  You can also search for certain things on the website, which will take you to Google and you can select a bunch of options that can relink you to the w3schoools website.

example of coding and its result

Once again here's the link to the website here.

cghub, THE website for concept artist fans

For those interested in illustration or specifically concept artwork, my personal favorite website for me is cghub.com.  It's the cleanest website, where you can also find some of the best concept artists in the world in it.  Each has their own profile with information regarding work, website, who they did work for etc etc.  My favorite part of the website is that the first page has pieces of artwork that are some of the best/recent which filters out the rest of the work that isn't quite as good.  I like this because sometimes you don't want to see any work, just come in quick for 5-10 minutes and look at the best work if you haven't been on the website for a week or more.  It's convenient, and it works well in my opinion.

Obviously you can see early released work of everyone in the website in the specific section and even I myself cannot possibly compare myself to these greats yet (which is why I no longer put some of my work until I get better here unlike deviantArt).  Not that I discourage anyone that visits the website to not put their work if it's not up to par with the best, I do this and my way sure as hell is not the best.  It's just something I chose to do until I get a bit better and also I have not jumped into the concept artist genre specifically.

The website also has the typical things you need in places such as this.  Challenges section where in the forums a challenge is to illustrate a certain object/monster/etc. and then whoever wishes creates it, then people vote for their favorites.  It's a great way for fellow artists to get better, improve themselves by these challanges.  I again, have not done this but I'm too busy nowadays unfortunately and have my own ideas that I have to flesh out first.  I would recommend others to do this if they don't have anything to do and want to test themselves.  The forums are well designed, clean and have a nice pop to it.

newest release section, 3D and 2D work next to each other

There are also lessons you can take from the website, obviously which you would have to pay.  You learn from some of the best out there if people are interested.  Another interesting side that they have is for those looking for jobs is that they have a solid amount of job postings out there for freelancers and potential full time work for those of you looking for it.

Just so if you are reading, you have a clear idea of what it looks like ^ and are too lazy to go to the website, I picked some images.  One thing that did surprise me was how massive the amount of 3D work is at the website.  There is plenty of 2D and 3D to go around for all that are interested.  Some artists seem to be quite capable at both genres (those talented bastards...).  Along with articles and blogs being added by artists, it has plenty of content, it's designed in an appealing way and overall works very well.  For me, it's the best or rather my favorite concept art website though there's a few good ones out there which I will get to later on.

Adidas, brand identity, and the mess inbetween

I'll start it off with the two things I love the most, design (or more specifically branding in this case) and fooball (or "soccer").  The team I support is Bayern, so it's obvious that I understand quite a bit about them and their history.  Just a few weeks ago, Bayern released their away shirts for the 12/13 season...

Hmmm... Let me start off by saying that Bayern have always been recognized by the color red.  They often have other shirt styles where the colors white, black and rarely at times gold.  However orange, is NOT one of them.  Orange would be a good indicator of the Netherlands national team.  This is why it shocks me that a designer would create something that while it may look good, the branding makes absolutely no sense.  What's more shocking is that Bayern accepted this design.  The shirt design itself looks good, not great or bad in my opinion, but good enough.  Had the orange marker-looking stripes been in red, I may have thought about buying it.

Now to non-Bayern football fans, this may look ok but certainly not to Bayern fans (I will generalize).  At the end you should be able to relate the shirts to the team and certainly not have the complete opposite effect.  This is why I think Adidas and the designer either forgot to do their homework, or may have not cared.  For this reason alone even though the shirt looks good, I won't be paying a cent and the only way I will have this shirt is if someone buys it as a gift for me.  It was a bit surprising to be fair, since Adidas the past few years have put out some truly outstanding shirts such as this classic look down above from two years ago (home shirt).

In case you need to have a better look, here is the official announcement in FCB's website: here

Looking for new fonts?

Just a quick update for designers out there that may be looking for new fonts, I personally use dafont.  There are a few other good ones out there, but this is my most used website for fonts.  There tends to be generally two sides to designers.  There are great designers that use 3-4 different fonts and are successful, and there's other designers who use so many different fonts and still are able to make it look consistent and with high quality.  If you are part of the latter, this website is worth taking a look.

There are many nice features from the picture as you can see.  If you have a specific title you want to check out, you can write it down on the bar highlighted and see what it looks like in many different types of font.  The website also shows you whether a font is free, personal use only or whether you must buy it.  There's no reason for confusion as you know what you can do with the font you're downloading.  Considering it has many options and a nice way of arranging those options so you can find what you need easier, I don't see why you wouldn't like it.

Link to website here

Le Welcoming Post

Hey everyone.  I will soon start posting everything regarding to design, illustration or web design.  And really that include anything regarding typography, actual design, and famous designers regarding design.. and illustration could really range from art, concept art or simply having a kick ass painting that I see online.  Web Design could be about good designed websites, or websites that can help fellow young designers etc.

So really anything in these different but similar genres.  So if you are bored.. and feel like reading something, check it out.