That’s why I put together post like, Use YouTube To Learn Gimp and Don’t Use Gimp Without ‘em. I feel like these video deliver the message so much more clearly than you could ever get from reading dry boring manual copy. The next level in that progression of thought is to use professional training videos. Why not? You don’t have to sift through bad YouTube video searching for someone that speaks clearly. Doesn’t it drive you crazy when you find the video you need and when you go to play it there’s music blasting and you have to read subtitles that are flashing across the screen at a speed reader pace? Thank God for the Pause button.

Invest a little money in some training videos. I just got through watching one of the Learn Gimp Fast tutorial videos and I must say it looks like a pretty good tutorial series. There are over 30 videos in all and they touch on most of the main features and functions in the Gimp tool box. I would call this a good middle of the road tutorial set for $30. Some of the videos are very short and to the point but that could be a good thing depending on how you look at it. For the beginner, it gives you just enough to get your feet wet with the program so you can start to use it with some level of confidence. It also touches on more advanced features like Script Fu, which lets you automate curtain task within Gimp making your workflow a whole lot smoother. If you are a experienced designer like me who cut your teeth on Photoshop, some of the tutorials may be a bit redundant where as others can serve to help orient you to some of the subtle differences between Photoshop and Gimp. The instructor’s voice is not overly annoying and he sounds like he knows what he’s talking about.

Bottom line, if I had to rate this tutorial set with beginners in mind, I’d give it a 7 out of 10, which is not bad. I’d say at the vary least you should check out the free demo for yourself.

But no matter what you do take advantage of Gimp. It’s free!

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I wrote these instructions because I was looking for a easy way to put together a website. I’m comfortable with using Wordress as a blog and I like how streamlined and well it works with search engines. So I thought it would be cool to build a website with Wordpress. Some may ask, why not just use Dreamweaver or one of those easy drag and drop site buildingservices? Well for one, I didn’t have the time to learn Dreamweaver and for two, you can really get pigeonholed with those site building services when you want to expand later. I also read where people were using Wordpress in many different ways including as a static website. I thought it would be easy enough to find a guide that would walk me through the process, however many of you know when it comes to finding exactly what you’re looking for on the internet it’s not always as straight forward as typing the key words into Google and hitting the Search button? I ended up finding bits and pieces of information here and there and after some blood, sweat, and tears I had a functional site I was happy with. It took a little longer that I planned and most of the time went into research, trouble shooting, and work arounds. Grant it, that’s all a part of building a website, but this project could have been done in a third of the time if I had a step by step guild to follow.

So I decided to write one myself.

Here’s were I’ll put my little disclaimer. I’m no expert webmaster. I’m just a average guy with enough technical skill to run a blog. I do have a couple sites and I’m sure they could stand some improvements. That being said I have learned a few things through trial and error over the years and I want to help you save valuable time so you’re not spinning your wheels like I was. My process may not be technically correct but it worked for me. If you know a better way to execute any of these steps please share them so I can update these instructions for the next person that comes along.

I wrote this guide for those who have at least a basic understanding of Wordpress. If you’ve built a static website or ran a Wordpress blog before you should have no problem with these instruction. However, I didn’t want to leave the beginners out, so there will be links to pertinent information as we go through the steps. Just click the links provided when you come to a section you don’t understand. With that said let’s get started.

Step 1: Get a Web Hosting service

The very first step in building a Wordpress website is choosing reliable web hosting to house your site. Actually, registering your domain name would be the first step but I’m assuming you already have that part done. If not check out this link. You may already have a Web Host too, but for those who don’t or if you’re not real sure what a Web Hosting service is, check out this link. I recommend Bluehost because it’s the host I use and it utilizes Fantastico which turns installing Wordpress into a one click process. It’s a beautiful thing.

Step 2: Installing Wordpress

As mentioned above, if you’re using Bluehost or any host that takes advantage of the Fantastico App, installing Wordpress is a breeze. It’s so easy I’m not even going to bother mentioning the manual way. I must say it is good to know how to install Wordpess manually because you never know when you might find yourself alone in a dark ally wishing you knew how to do the install yourself. Follow this link to learn the manual installation method.

To get started the automatic way, login to your Bluehost or respective web host’s account and go to the cPanel and find the section titled Software and Services.

The Fantastico logo is circled in red. Click on it and look for Wordpress among the list of blog packages. Start a New Installation and follow the on screen instructions.

Once you’ve installed Wordpress and set up your Wordpress account, you should have a site that looks something like the one below. Now login with your username and password and you’ll be taken to the dashboard were the real work begins.

Step 3: Add plugins

Up to this point everything has been pretty much straight forward. Hopefully it wasn’t too boring. You’ll have to stay awake from here on out because this is where we stray away from the typical blog setup path.

Now is the time to add the plugins you’ll need for your sites functionality. Everyone has there favorite plugins, but choose wisely because many plugins are blog specific, and because we’re building a static site they won’t be of much use. For instance, I like the Yet Another Related Posts Plugin, but since this site won’t have posts, that plugin won’t be necessary. You do of course have the option to use the site as both a website and a blog. But for the purposes of these instructions we will focus on creating a static website. To keep things simple, below I have provided a list of plugins I’m currently using in one of my sites;

Google XML Sitemaps

StatPress Reloaded

WordPress Database Backup

and because I have a lead generator on my site I also use;

Contact Form 7

Really Simple CAPTCHA

I’m sure there are other plugins I could be using, but these are the ones I currently have working for me. If you can think of some plugins I should be using, by all means do share.

In Wordpress 2.8.6 you can get your plugins from within the Dashboard which it very cool.

Just click Plugins, then Install Plugins and you’ll be taken to a onboard plugins directory page where you can search by entering the name of the plugin, choose by category, or select from the normal list.

Once you find what you want click Install on the far right and you’re done.

Step 4: Themes

Choosing a theme can be both the most exciting and frustrating part of creating your site. There are so many free themes to choose from, yet some how none of them will have the exact look and feel you’re going for. And if you do happen to find the perfect theme it’s inevitable that there will be something about it that makes it less than perfect upon closer examination.

In the mist of your theme quest keep in mind, we are creating a simple static site and for the purposes of this exercise I won’t bother with a complex, bells and whistles, multi-column theme. Truth be told, you can take any theme and with a little creativity and a graphic editor like Gimp, turn it into something completely unique. The most important features to look for in a theme are; valid code, seo optimization, and browser and search engine compatibility. For now we’ll just stick with Kubrick.

Note, for these instructions you really need a theme with the navigation bar built into the header, not along a side column as this area of the site will be eliminated. I’m using Kubrick only because it’s the default theme and everyone has access to it.

Step 5: Static Page Templates

At this point you have your web host, installed Wordpress, and selected the plugins and a theme. Now it’s time to get down and dirty and turn your blog into a static website.

To customize the site you will need to work with the Custom Page Templates in your active theme’s directory. Go to your host cPanel and navigate to the Wordpress directory which should be in a section titled something like File Management.

You well need to access your theme directory which is located in the WP-Content subdirectory. Depending on your setup the route to your theme directory may look like this:

Public_html—>WP-Content—>Themes—>Default which is Kubrick (or whatever the name of the theme you are using).

Open your favorite text editor and create a new file called “home_page.php” with the following php code.

<?php
/*
Template Name: home page
*/
?>

<?php define(”EG_BODY_CLASS”, “no-sidebar”); get_header(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

In fact just copy and paste what I have here. Please note that the file/template name is included in the code on the third line. This portion of code helps Wordpress identify the new template and must correspond with each new file. Save this file with the .php extension and place it in your active theme’s directory like so.

Now go back to your Wordpress dashboard. Create a new Page and give it the title Home.

On the Attributes sidebar, click the Template dropdown menu and select the new home_page template you just created. At this point you’ll want to deselect Allow Comments and Ping at the bottom of the Page Editor screen and publish it.

Go back to the Wordpress dashboard and go to your Settings and click “Reading”.

Now change the Front Page Displays setting from “Your latest posts” to “A static page”. Just below the Static Page radio button use the dropdown menu and change the front page to your new home page and click Save Changes to capture these settings.

Now visit your site. What you should see is just the header and footer of your theme with nothing in the middle. This is the first of your custom pages and will serve as your Home page and the foundation for your entire site.

Step 6: Add html to pages

I know you’re thinking, what do I do with a header/footer page? Look at it as a blank canvas awaiting your masterpiece. You’ll need to add html code directly into the php template to add your content between the header and footer. This is where things could get a little complex, especially if you’re a novice at coding like I am. So in this section I’ll only be showing you some basic codes to add for a very simple Wordpress website, but of course you can go as far as your coding skills and imagination will take you. I’ll show you the code I used and you can adapt it to your site. Admittedly, my code is not the cleanest and a bit outdated. I’d much rather make use of css but to be honest I don’t have a handle on adapting cascading style sheets to this modification.

From the dashboard screen, under Appearances click on “Editor”. This is where you can edit those php files without having to leave Wordpress. On the right-hand side of the Editor screen, select the “home page” php file.

Html code will go into the red area indicated below.

Below is the code for a simple four column home page. Copy and paste this code into the Editor in-between the last two lines as shown above. Note, you may need to make room for the code.

<table border=”0″ align=”center” cellpadding=”1″ cellspacing=”17″ width=”185″>

<tr valign=”top”>
<td>
<p style=”font-size:small;”>
<b>Eam luptatum</b><br></br>Lorem ipsum ea aeque omnium interpretaris cum, eu eos blandit delicata. In legimus habemus adolescens cum, natum aliquip maluisset ad per. Eruditi luptatum recusabo quo id, an accusam quaestio sensibus duo. In harum aliquid oporteat sit, dicam diceret repudiare ad sed. Meis doctus perpetua sea et, solet platonem torquatos usu at.</p>
</td>
<td bgcolor=”#d3d3d3″>
</td>
<td>
<p style=”font-size:small;”>
<b>Eruditi luptatum recusabo</b><br></br>Pro patrioque gubergren cotidieque no, sea sint ponderum perfecto cu, laudem tempor interpretaris an vim. Est in illud tempor appellantur, pro feugiat vulputate inciderint ut. Cum puto homero ex, decore luptatum concludaturque ei eam, sea no recusabo laboramus delicatissimi. Eam luptatum euripidis ad, duo ea vocibus fastidii reprehendunt, mel delenit electram explicari ne. Modus alienum eam et, eu vis oportere corrumpit.</p>
</td>
<td bgcolor=”#d3d3d3″>
</td>
<td>
<p style=”font-size:small;”>
<b>Probo aliquam</b><br></br>Utroque convenire est ea, cum harum discere incorrupte et. Ex possim dolorum interpretaris sit, sit eu augue euismod habemus. Ad eripuit eruditi intellegat per, ius amet eruditi delectus at. Id sea integre aliquam lobortis, congue nostro legendos duo ut, ea nam esse forensibus contentiones. Quis interesset quaerendum an sed, audire imperdiet mea ei.<p/>
</td>
<td bgcolor=”#d3d3d3″>
</td>
<td>
<p style=”font-size:small;”>
<b>Ad eripuit eruditi</b><br></br>Eu vix dicit doctus nostrud. Tantas aliquam antiopam ius te, no pro inani consul reprehendunt. Probo aliquam fabellas quo ad. Eripuit perpetua percipitur ad cum, elit torquatos ut mel. Ex eos exerci mandamus.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

I know it looks like a lot but don’t let this freak you out. You will need to replace the filler copy (gibberish) with your own content.

Now click Update file and visit your site to take a look at what you’ve done. Cool huh!?

If you want only 3 columns you can delete the portion above indicated in red.

Now of course you can get much more elaborate and change the width of the columns, add color, graphics, etc, but I’ll leave that for you to explore on your own.

Now that your home page is done, all that’s left is to duplicate the same steps above for your supporting pages.

Create a new .php file with the same code used in step 5, give it the appropriate name you’d want for the next page of your website. Insert  the html code at the same point as you did for the home page. Then create a new page within Wordpress with the name you gave the .php file, select the appropriate template file and publish it. Click this link for plenty of html page templates that you can adapt to your Worpress website build.

That my friends is it. You should now have a basic static website with a home page and several supporting pages. As mentioned above, selecting a theme with a navigation bar in the header will be best suited for this exercise. For each new page you add the title link will show up in order across the top of your header.

I hope this information was as useful for you as it would have been for me when I was struggling to create a simple Wordpress website. One of the best things about using Wordpress like this is you can add a blog section with little effort and have the best of both worlds.

Again, if you have any suggestions, questions, or just want to let me know if this was helpful or not, please drop a comment.

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You don’t have to have lived long before you start to learn some of life’s lessons on what not to do. The same goes for being a graphic artist. I remember my first screw up as a production artist at my first real gig. I was asked to cut and paste some high resolution proofs for presentation to the company’s executive board. I cut right up to the keyline boarders of the image instead of leaving some distinguishing white space. It wasn’t a disastrous mistake, and the Board probably never even noticed our quick fix. But needless to say, I was horrified. Not only did I learn to double check my instructions, but I learned how to correct mistakes like that in the future. Here are some Don’ts that can save you some stress and head aches along your graphic art journey. Keep in mind this post is for those who may have never had to design anything before but find themselves wearing the graphic artist hat. Some of you old salts may already be hip to these points.

When working on a brochure or logo, you may start with an idea sparked by a cool image of something you saw.

Even though you have an idea in mind, don’t let that restrict you from the freedoms of experimentation. Always try to improve your original concepts. You may find something better. Stay loose, and as much as the circumstances allow, have fun and let your imagination run wild.

Don’t get stuck on what someone else is doing.

It’s good to look at the work of others for inspiration, but when is enough enough? There are tons of portfolios online aside from the works posted on Deviantart, Facebook, and Myspace. If you look at too much of the work of others you may subconsciously try to emulate their style and frustrate yourself in the process.

Don’t spend all your time in front of the computer.

Believe it or not, computers have been known to hinder creativity. Think about it. A computer is a tool which processes ones and zeros. It’s very left-brain oriented. If you’re stuck in a 5 by 5 cubicle, armed only with your computer and maybe a radio (if you’re so fortunate), this my be fine for number crunching but it’s not the ideal environment for creativity. Grab a notepad and pencil, get some fresh air and get inspired. For more on this subject read this post.

Now this one may be a matter of personal opinion. Don’t get in the habit of using an old file as the foundation for it’s replacement, or for other future projects.

I worked for a manufacturing company that produced a catalog each year, and we usually started the new years file by reworking a copy of the previous year’s file. If there were any problems with that file, we automatically inherited it for the new project. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with using templates and having my specs predefined when starting a new project, like say a CD package. But for some projects it’s good to start from scratch. It can keep your workflow from getting too mechanical and mundane. And who knows, you may find an easier way of doing something or catch a minor or major flaw in your pre-production process.

Don’t be afraid to ask for and seek out help.

All you need is an internet connection and the world is at your finger tips. There are loads of resources out there. You can use LinkedIn to get advice from a professional, watch tutorials on YouTube, and read blogs like this one. You can come off looking like a Pro around the office and no one has to know the truth. Take advantage of all the resources you have available to you. Just think, polling a thousand designers on whether they prefer Quark Express or InDesign at a moments notice was not possible 20 years ago.

Hope this was helpful and that it causes you to seek out more information so your comfort level with graphic art will grow.

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ENOUGH SAID.

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Back In The Day

My first Mac was a Power Mac 7100AV. At the time, the 7100 was a high end machine with more than enough power to run Photoshop, Quark Express, and Illustrator as long as my files weren’t too big. Honestly it was quite a bit more than I could afford but I felt I needed it to do serious design work. Back then I bought into the belief that many graphic artists shared, that being that you had to have the biggest and best Macs on the market if you were serious about your craft. That may have been true back during the Power Mac years but times and technologies have changed. If you’ve got the money and refuse to compromise on anything less than the best that’s fine. As for the rest of us who are on various budget restrictions, I’m here to share my shopping experiences in hopes that it will help you with your next purchase. I’ve come to realize that a lot of the time we develop a false idea of what we need based on desire rather than necessity. I came to this conclusion accidentally during the purchase of a hard drive. I placed an order for a external hard drive to extend the life of my 7100 and my supplier couldn’t fill it, nor could he find a decent alternative. So in a effort to keep from giving me a refund (which he would have with no problems), he asked if I’d be interested in anything else. I meditated on it for a bit and thought, for a few dollars more I can get one of those new  iMacs. I reasoned that it would be like getting the external hard drive I needed with a mac wrapped around it. I really wasn’t looking to get much use out of the iMac other than maybe using it for book keeping, and you could play DVDs on it which was cool. I needed a new computer but I figured I’d need more power and expandability than this little “Toy Mac” had to offer. I had never really looked at the specs on it other than to see that it did have a nice 13GB hard drive. I was presently surprised when I started playing with my new iMac Graphite DV. Long story short, that little computer totally replaced my 7100. People where shocked when they learned that I was putting out the kind of work I was from the computer that looked like a glorified hairdryer. Needless to say, that was a while back and I’ve since had to make some modifications and upgrades so it would run OS X and stay productive. But it still runs and has a few good years left in it.

My Latest Purchase

As I was shopping for my third Macintosh I knew I wanted something portable because both my clients and my son keep me on the go. I didn’t however want the 17″ Macbook PRO because of the heft of the machine. Plus, I questioned if I could justify spending $2,400 (as of this writing) on a laptop. So I quickly focused my attentions on the 15″ MBP. Some question if a 15″ monitor is adequate for serious Photoshop work. The quick and easy answer is, no it’s not. No laptop display is. But ask yourself how accurate your image quality needs to be for a basic quick and dirty flyer or multimedia presentation? If your audience are designers and photographers there may be cause for concern. But the general public is not going to know whether you’re working on a 22″ or 13″ monitor as long as you take the necessary precautions and view your finished work from different monitors and or proofs. As I said before, I worked on my iMac for years with no problems I could blame on the size or quality of the 15″ display.
Back to the hunt. I did my homework and found that any computer running a Intel Core 2 Duo processor could handle my workload, which consists mainly of print design work with some web mixed in. I first thought about what I did on a daily basis, and what I wanted to do from time to time but couldn’t because of the limitations of my present systems.
So the 15″ MBP had everything I needed and some things I wanted, but the price tag was more than I wanted to spend. They average around $1700 (as of this writing) depending on where you’re looking. OK so what were my options? I could get a student friend to buy it for me. I could get a pre-owned mac from the Online Apple Store. I could buy a used one off Craig’s List. Or I could look at the 13″ Macbooks. After considering each option carefully I decided to go pre-owned from the Apple store. The machines are double and triple checked by Apple which means if Murphy’s law does decide to hit you, that buggy unit with your name on it will have already been purchased by someone else, returned and fixed before you get it. You also get the same warranties and guaranties as a person buying new but at a discounted price. There is one little problem I should mention, Apple refurbished, pre-owned Macs aren’t that easy to come by. It’s not like they have a factory where they’re cranking those bad boys out. You have to wait for the person who bought the one with the configuration you want, to return theirs. When I checked the Apple store’s refurbished section they didn’t have that great of a selection to choose from. So with the other options being too risky for one reason or another I decided to look at the 13″ Macbooks. Was this going to be enough computer for me? It has the same Intel Core 2 Duo processor, all be it at 2GHz instead of 2.6GHz. The hard drive was 160GB as opposed to the MBP’s 250GB hard drive not to mention half the ram. My 4 year old PC has a 160GB hard drive that I’ve only just recently put a dent in. And that’s mostly from graphics intensive gaming. Even though pride told me I needed a MBP, as I compared the specs, the Macbook looked like it would work. If it wasn’t for that little 13″ LCD. Then it hit me, I could buy a new MB and a nice 22″ LCD for around the same price of a refurbished 15″ MBP!

Surprising Revelation

So of course then I had to research LCDs and learned far more than most people need to know about monitors. But in the process of doing my research I came across a crucial bit of information. What I found out confirmed my decision to go small with the 13″ Macbook. I’m sure that you are itching to know what I found during my monitor research. I want to share what I’ve learned with you so you can make a informed decision about your next Macintosh purchase, but because of the subject’s complexity and because I simply don’t know all the facts, I’d rather not spread the wrong information or post a link to something negative here within a article that’s kind of off topic. I’d rather you go and check out the source and come to your own conclusions the way I did. That being said, if you’d like for me to send you a email with the link to this Information, just click here and shoot me a email and I’ll get it to you. If you own a Mac or are thinking of buying one you’ll want to study this info for yourself.

Final Results

So I settled on the Dell 2209WA 22″ e-ips LCD monitor for $266 direct from Dell, and the 13″ Macbook for $1259 from a store on the east coast to avoid the sales tax. For $1525 I have a Mac I can run around the house or around town with. And a monitor I can hook it or my PC up to when I need to do some down and dirty gaming, I mean design work.
Wouldn’t you know that just a few days later they came out with the new 13” Macbook PROs. Yes it would have been nice to have one of those but I’ll do just fine without it. Now if you’re a gadget addict and have to have the latest and greatest, then nothing I’ve written is going to change your mind. But then again, with the economy being what it is, those who “just had to have it”, have probably got some sense beat into them by now. In some cases less is actually more.

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I kind of thought this fruit bat looked like the Gimp character. What do you think? Photo taken by Jodi_B of Deviantart.

Gimp is a great program. I challenge anyone to name a better free image editor. That being said, it does lack the instructional support, a well established package like Photoshop possesses. There are instructional videos, classes, books and magazines dedicated to Adobe’s application. This is something a free open source program simply can not compete with. So it’s up to people like you and me, to help bridge the gap between the gimp manual and some of the awe inspiring creations being produced with this free image editor.
In this post I attempt to do my part by giving you my picks for the 5 most useful gimp tutorials. What do I consider usefulness? I look for videos that address the topics that you’d need to know to get the full benefit out of Gimp. These are videos that had me wishing I’d seen them before I tackled certain projects. And most importantly these videos are explained in plain English. I try to stay sensitive to the fact that not everyone has a design background. I’m always on the look out for things that will help noobies. I like videos where people are actually talking and I don’t have to read my way through the tutorial steps. Hello, that’s what books are for!
So without further delay here are my 5 picks. If you don’t like them or have some better ones make use of that comment box below.

Getting to know the interface

The basics

Working with text

How to load brushes

How to create popart

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If you’d like to see a drawing tutorial on something specific let me know by clicking the link here

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This leads me to the question, are these videos truly tutorials? Many of them are usually set at high speeds, to accommodate time limits. And the only audio is music playing. You can’t really follow the techniques and the artist never says anything.

Photo by Maylar of Deviantart

Now many of these videos are cool for what they are, (not tutorial) so don’t get upset if I’m talking about you or one of your favorite artists.
Rather than complain about it, I chose to create my own drawing series. My tutorials will start off with the very basic principles of drawing and build from there. I wanted this to be something a left brained person could pick up and feel comfortable with. Now I’m not a formal instructor as such, but I can teach you a few things if you are open minded. I’m always open to learning something new, so please share your insight with me. The most important thing is that we have fun as we take this art journey together.

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If you’re uninspired and want to stay that way, don’t read this post.

I did this post and video to share one of the ways I stay inspired. I recently came across a article, written my Darren Rowse of Problogger.com, that talked about getting away from your computer and going to the mall. It shared how we need to observe our target readers so we can communicate to them in more meaningful ways. I won’t go into too much detail about Darren’s post. Just check it out here.
As a Artist, to keep fresh ideas coming, I too must push away from my computer or drawing table and change my surroundings. And so should you.

Click here to view embedded videos of graphic design tutorials and more.
If you find that you must design or create something even thou you don’t consider yourself the creative type, here’s a tip for you; find a way to step outside yourself. Look at it this way, you’re being forced to do something outside your character right? Why not look outside your usual routine to find the inspiration to complete your task? Go to the beach, go to a bookstore, or to the park like I do. But for heaven’s sake, get out of that stuffy cubicle, and way from the ringing phones and constant emails.  As my family grows, I can’t just walk out anytime I want, but when the opportunities arise I will steal away for a moment and clear my head. Once you turn off the noise, you’ll start to see things you didn’t notice before. And it’s in these moments that we are closest to our creative nature. Have you ever heard the saying, “If you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Simply put, you have to do something different, if you want something different.
So if you have writer’s block, artist’s block, or feel overwhelmed by a project that’s outside of your skill set, stop what you’re doing and step away for a time. Go read the funny papers or have lunch at a restaurant you’ve never been to.
Got it?…Good! Now get away from this computer you geek!

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