Stocktaking pause

The term one step forward and two steps back seems current and its good to know that it will only be a passing phase. A few health concerns and family issues are certainly easier to come to terms with as you start to get past them, but I don't think a blog is the place to discuss anyway.

Had intended to start a Business course this very week but a slow build up of Hypertension has meant a postponement of activity. As a consequence, it has opened up more options, as I discovered at Newcastle City library just yesterday.

For comic affect, my dad used to say "as one door shuts another one clashes"  but on this occasion a mixture of Newcastle Enterprise culture and just being in the building meant I picked up on some new websites when really I thought I was there for a mentoring update.

"Are you over 50 and looking to start your own business", said the wall mounted A4 sheet. Well I'm sure that if I trawled the web I would find lots more local other brands that were available but this just felt like right place, right time.

Everybody needs a starting point and its easy to get dragged off in different directions with a lot of well intentioned information that tends to confuse the issue and put the cart before the horse.

Basically, to avoid Hypertension, among other practical solutions, I need a structured Business course, reasonably local and with a proven record of successful applicants that went on to challenge the world and Alan Sugar. (Good luck with that then!)

Confidence keeps cropping up as a key element in the process. As daunting a challenge as Business and Self Employment may be, unless you have faith in your skill sets you may well be barking up the wrong tree. Test the water with introductory courses to see if it's for you. If confidence is an issue, you are not alone in thinking this way.

Septober Song.....

Its October and its now officially autumn with a blanket of leaves already forming in my garden.

Back inside, things have been warming up nicely in the Self Employment stakes, informed sources are helping me with some Photo Restoration markets (can't say too much "loose lips, sink ships etc") my website is making progress and three agencies are helping me move forward with promotional details and the like.

A local institution by the name of Newcastle Enterprise Club have been extremely helpful, first of all by approving of my work and by putting me in contact with another agency, PNE to shoot me off in another direction. No, no, I'm not complaining you understand, but I must keep my feet on the ground & occassionally take a couple of aspirins for what is going on around me.

My Photosmith Creative page on Facebook is getting more images donated to its various albums and I now have a 2yr lease on a domain site and a Business card that even I'm impressed with

Its definately a bit premature on the basis of the website being 'work in progress' but I hope it's the start of better things. Onward & upward.

Since I was last with you, I've had to endure job searches in uncomfortable surroundings and had a major domestic crisis to deal with. Seem to have come through with the odd plaster but no lasting scars. Phew!

Back on the Self Employment trial & Route 66 it ain't. Supplement your present position with some oddjob/handyman type work I'm told...Mmmm. No personal transport and my DIY skills are pretty basic, which I suppose is the reason why I'm not wanting to promote myself this way in the future. Means to an end? will just have to take varied advice and see where it gets me.

More fortuitous news means I can look forward to the creation of a personal website in the not too distant. Had no fun with un user friendly sites to create my own. As my sainted mother says "each to his own" so the professionals have been drafted in and very pleased I am too. Can't thank him enough for what it could potentially mean to me, you know who you are. Cheers mate!

Facebook has allowed me to branch out a little on my way to a website and I've been doing my best to unearth a lot of old project work and create stuff that will help to form a website Gallery eventually.

Just dabbled with a few business card ideas for a mate, will await some feedback & hope I can add to the old portfolio.

In the meantime watch this space and we'll catch you all after the Scots have their say next week!

Well here we are, a new version of my blog to incorporate new skills on my journey through marrying Photoshop and Graphic Design skills.

Why do it in the first place? Well professional advice has directed me towards 'upskilling' adding new arts & design software to expand my horizons and offer more in the market place.
The vector based images of Adobe Illustrator are immensely scaleable without loss of quality or definition.

So having signed up to a six week introduction course at a local college I found myself at my starting point. Surely now I could benefit from the ability to transfer the pixelated image of Photoshop to the mathematical based vector system operated in Adobe Illustrator?


Not quite that simple as it transpires, a good quality pixelated Photoshop image contains subtleties of shade & tone that are lost in the block colour that is the Illustrator image. Photographs can be transferred to the artboards of Illustrator via the Image Trace menu, using the Hi Fidelity Photo utility in the drop down menu. It's true to say that faces can become slightly less discernable but is an acceptable loss in my limited experience.

Adobe Photoshop is a great design tool but generally reliant on source material available from an amalgum of sources (Camera files, internet sites etc). Illustrator tends to deal in creation from scratch, shape and form, text & colour and how all these things can be manipulated.

 










 Note the above images indicate gradual change of shape and form, colour & tone.