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I have been doing a series of articles about line art. In my first article, I spoke about how to use the graphics editing software to convert a photo into line art. The second article gave you a list of programs and techinques that would save you literally hundreds of dollars in licensing fees while simultaneously giving you the power of professional graphics programs. Now, I would like to show you step by step how I used the GIMP to create a line art drawing of my grandparents.

First, as I took the portrait and scanned it, creating a digited version. To do this, I selected TWAIN from the GIMP menu (File…Acquire).

After the picture was scanned, I used Vidar Madsen’s method described in the GIMPy high pass filter sketch effect tutorial. Vidar shows you how to use the gaussian blur filter, merge opacity, desaturate the colors, then clean up the lines using desaturation. The results were ok, but nothing to write home about. I found a Photoshop plugin called Cleanup which might have made it more useable; however, I could not get it to work with the GIMP.

Next, decided to start from scratch and try to render the line art by hand by “tracing” it from the photo. Melissa Clifton wrote an excellent tutorial about this technique on her website. I created a blank layer (Layer…Duplicate Layer), set the opacity at 50% (Dialogs…Layer…Opacity slider bar), and started drawing using mostly the pencil brush to draw the graphic. Once the drawing was done, I had a little fun and colored it in, making look as though it came from a graphic novel.

I wasn’t happy with the initial results because the details of the face were very unrefined. For example, in my initial drawing, Pa looked like he had alien eyes, and his mouth was all wrong. Granny’s eyes were roughly drawn as well. To fix it, I erase the insides of the faces and started over again. The second time, I experimented with different brushes. For example, I found the pressure brush with a medium or small splatter point worked best for the details. I also took my time. The first go around, I finished in a couple of nights, but when I started over again, I went took approximately a month just to redo the faces. It was worth the wait, though, as I am much more pleased with the results.

All in all, I would consider this a pleasant experience. When I was very little, I remember sitting on my grandparents’ laps, touching their faces and looking into their eyes. Nothing short of having them back could replace that memory, but this was the next best thing. Staring at the photograph, I was able to capture all of the lines of wisdom, all of the smiles, all of the worries, all of the love that gave charactor to two people who will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Now, go enjoy your family and make the world a better place by working on some photo family memories of your own.
Your Fellow “Creative Genius ” ,
Texaiano

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The One and Only, Real Deal

You will feel great this Christmas when that special someone, “the Apple of your Eye”, opens his new iPhone; however, the big payoff for you will come when he realizes that there isn’t another one like it in the entire world. How could it be, you ask? After all, Apple has sold hundreds of iPhones since they hit the market back in August. The reason it could be is because you took the time to customize the iPhone gift with your own photos, art work, music and recordings before you wrapped it as a present.

Customization - Peel the Apple

For years, people have known that they can customize the ring tones on their cell phones by downloading clips of their favorite music files, and that they could enjoy personal photo albums on their mp3 players. For longer than that, people have been modifying their computers with their own personalized themes, background images and icons, but did you know that with the iPhone, where the computer, mp3 player and cell phone converge, you can do all that and more? Of course you did. That’s why you’re giving an iPhone as a gift; but why not take it one step further? Pull out that screen shot of your Paris Hilton spoof from YouTube, or the snapshot your son in his Transformers Halloween costume and turn them into customized icons. Take that picture of man’s best friend and turn it into a customized wallpaper. Record your children laughing, or that one-liner from your ongoing inside joke, maybe even the first few bars of your wedding song and turn it into a customized ring tone. Since iPhone has a web browser, you could even bookmark your sweetheart’s favorite sites, like your MySpace and Facebook pages, so that he could stay in touch easier.

Go on then. Just do it already!

So, are you psyched? Are you ready to do this? It promises to be more fun than a competetive round of ‘Dance, Dance, Revolution.’ Ok then, get to it. Click on the “2″ below to continue to page 2.

Part 2

Photo Album, MP3 collection, and Firefox Bookmarks

The first thing you want to do is to perform a full backup of the default configuration. You will also want to know that doing some of these customizations will void the warranty and that you will be unable to get support from Apple. Having taken all that into consideration, and being ready to deal with the consequences, the next thing you will want to do is to start uploading your personal photo album, mp3 and video collection. Use the iTunes interface to organize the files before you sycnhronize them to your iPhone. (If you need some suggestions, check out my playlist on FineTune.com.)

Now is also a good time to start the Firefox web browser and create bookmarks for your sweetheart’s favorite sites. (A saavy giver might even consider dropping hints for Valentine’s day or her birthday by bookmarking the website for her favorite Amazon.com seller, restaurant and florist, just so that all of the bases are covered.) The iPhone User Guide describes how to do all this, including how to turn them into custom wall papers. Keep in mind that if you select a large image to use as wallpaper, or if your image is “busy”, it will clutter up your interface, so be sure to optimize the image by shrinking it down and removing noisy elements of the picture before you turn it into wallpaper.

A Word of Caution - One Bad Apple Spoils the Bunch

Up to now, everything has been fairly straightforward. This final step is where it gets tricky…the “unsupported” part. Don’t worry, though. Everything is well documented on the internet. Again, just a reminder…if you haven’t done the backup, be sure to do so now. Also, remember that proceeding past this point could void your warranty. Scared yet? No? Ok. Let’s do it. Click on the “3″ below to go the final page of the article.

Part 3 - Conclusion

Sweet Music

For this part of the customization, you need to get a recording that you want use as a ringtone. Over at Lifehacker.com, they describe how to create an mp3 ring tone from a recorded file. If you are recording something yourself, be sure to keep it short. Likewise, if you are using a mp3 of your favorite Celine Dion song that you downloaded from the iTunes store, be sure to trim it down to a few bars. Smaller, shorter files are better when it comes to making ring tones.

Getting to the Core

Next, you will need to head on over to modmyiphone.com to get instructions on how to unlock your phone. Once the phone is unlocked, follow modmyiphone.com’s instructions on how to create a custom ring tone and do other customizations.

Keep the Change - or - NOT

The last step is to prevent iTunes from deleting the customized ringtones when you sync it.

There you have it - a one of a kind, remember me forever, thinking of you, customized iPhone.

One last thing. Remember that backup you did before you started? If you want to revert back, a process called “virgin-izing” your iPhone, you can restore from that backup image, a process described in the iPhone User Guide, or follow the method described on iphonegoboom.com.

Now that you have a one of a kind iPhone to give to that special someone, wrap it up quickly and put it under the tree before you decide to keep it for yourself.

Merry Christmas from your
Fellow “Creative Genius ” ,
Texaiano

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The other day in church, the choir sang a version of one of our traditional hymns set to the music of Johann Pachabel’s “Cannon in D”. It was very beautiful and calming, and since I have been working a lot on FotoFamilyMemories.com late, it got me to thinking.

According to Wikipedia, a cannon is:

…a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration (e.g. quarter rest, one measure, etc.). The initial melody is called the leader, while the imitative melody is called the follower which is played in a different voice. The follower must be created from the leader by being either an exact replication of the rhythms and intervals of the leader, or a transformation of such…

So, in other words, a musical cannon is a melody that gets repeated over and over again with different instruments or in different styles. The chords are the same, but you never know how they will be dressed up next. Perhaps the most famous cannon is Johann (Paco) Pacabel’s “Canon in D major”, or as it is formally called “Canon and Gigue in D major for three Violins with Bass Accompaniment”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachelbel’s_Canon)

What struck me most about Pachabel’s “Cannon” was it’s versatility. I like that so many people are able to take his original cannon and express themselves by making it their own. I am not talking about people who go and record it in their style of music, adding a few bee-bops or drum rolls; rather, they are able to totally remake the song in their own style. I mean, Pachabel’s “Cannon” is played by classical orchestras in its original form, then played as a wedding march, a graduation commencement march, and a Christmas carol. Furthermore, it has been incorporated into modern Rock, Rap and R&B Ballads.
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Pachabel’s “Cannon”