With valentine day 2012 coming up, the 10step team has came up with a set of heart icon that you can used anywhere. Interestingly, after some research, we found that most people want heart icon for facebook, tumblr, twitter and other social networks.

When we designed these hear icons, we thought they will be used in valentine’s day ecards. I guess we are really behind the times on how icons are being used these days : ).

Anyway, here is the free heart icon that you can used. If you like these designs, do help us to spread it around.

Download the full size image by clicking here

Hope you have a great valentine day 2012. If you happen to use any for these heart icon for facebook or other social networks, do drop us a note to know our work is being used : ).

I like to take this chance to thank all the participants for this contest. After filtering away all the repeated entries, I had generated 1 lucky number at Random.Org and here is the result!

So the winner is: 8 –Kevin Boudreault

Congratulations to Kevin! I shall contact you through email in a short while. Hope everyone has enjoyed the game. There are a few more contests coming up. So stay tuned with us!

By the way, I with busy with a big project this month so I am looking for anyone who wants to contribute photoshop tutorial articles to 10 steps. Just email me through the contact form and let me know.

Cheers

In this digital painting tutorial for beginners, I am going to show you the process which I use to design a character called Isamella – The Gothic Dark Princess. If you are interested in how to digitally design and paint a character, this tutorial will be for you.

Step 1: This is the rough sketch which I have done in my sketch book. I will picture it in my mind first and then sketch it out. This is only to give myself a rough idea of what it is going to be.

Step 2:  I took a photo of the sketch with my iphone and transferred it into phot0shop. And on a new layer, I start to layout the basic tonal values of the digital  painting. As it is going to be a black and white one, so it will be relatively easy to control the values.

Step 3: As I am working on the digital character, I will have new ideas of how to improve the painting. Notice how I have changed the posture and added the skull that Isamella is carrying on her right hand. This is how digital character design tend to evolve.

Step 4: I have also removed the craw on the right side and lowered the axe, because I think it is a bit too distracting. I have toned down the pile of skulls as well, so that the focus is shifted more on Isamella.

Step 5: Adding in the logo using photoshop to see if it fits into the whole picture. And added a bit of the glow on Isamella’s eyes. If you want to have a digital painting tutorial for eyes only, do let me know in the comments.

Step 6: At this stage, I started adding in the details of the character’s body and the background. Notice the rough texture on the background and the hair like texture on Isamella’s hair.  These are done using photoshop textures. I have also refined the shapes of the pile of skull to make it look more like skulls.

Step 7: To make the painting more dramatic, I added some zombies on both sides. They are also posed to point to the centre of interest of the painting.

Step 8: Adding in more details and textures to the skulls and Isamella. Instead of only skulls, I have also added in some ribs to make it not so monotonous. It is very important because the details you add in at this stage is something that keep the viewer looking at your drawing for a long time. The amount of details to add will have to depend on the sequence of importance within the painting. For example Isamella is the main subject of this digital painting so I am adding a lot of details on her body and face. The amount of details will slowly decrease towards the borders of the painting.

Step 9: Finally, I bring the logo back in and added some texture filter to give it an old film look. There are still quite a lot of stuff that can be improved at this stage and I can just go on and on with it. But it’s good enough now and I will consider it as finished piece and moving on to other digital paintings using photoshop.

I hope you enjoy this photoshop digital painting tutorial. Hope to hear your coments. If you are Chinese, have a great Chinese New Year 2012!

Since coming upon cool business card designs in the previous post, I have been intrigued by how they are designed and have been actively looking at more designs. Instead of keeping them for myself, I though I would share it here in case you are also interested in looking at more awesome business cards designs for 2012.

Really cool business card designs

This set of business cards uses 3D to convey a really cool design to their clients. I think their aim is more to leave an impression rather than to function as a practical business card. If you are thinking of getting one of these designs, you probably need to think about the kind of business card holders that they will need : )

www.gavinmartin.co.uk/

http://www.berrycreative.org/

http://cardobserver.com/gallery/tam-cargo-design

Sleek business card designs

I like this set of designs for their sleekness. Everything about these cards, from the visual design to the colors and fonts convey a feeling of sleekness.

http://ksnagra.com/

http://www.pinkograf.com/en/products.html

Creative business card designs

I like these creative business card designs for thinking outside the box. They are not 3D but the way the cards are designed show a lot of creativity and ideas. Definitely something worth taking a look. It is worth noting that most of these creative business card designs are for graphic designers.

http://cardobserver.com/gallery/activa-media

http://jbgouraud.deviantart.com/

http://cardobserver.com/gallery/activa-media

http://francoislaplante.com/

http://www.behance.net/LumirKajnar

Retro business card designs

If you like retro or vintage business card designs, the following might trickle your fancy. I am a big fan of them but I know they have their supporters.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PRINTandGRAIN?ref=si_shop

http://www.smokeproofpress.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigodeideias/

Cute business card designs

Some business card designs are just plain cute. Typically, these designs will use a mixture of cute characters and a rich mix of colors to bring out the cuteness factors of the card designs.

http://www.silkyszeto.com/

Hope you like these cool business card designs for 2012!