Author Archives:
A New Chapter Begins
Excited to accept a position as Exhibit Designer at Brigham Young University, back home in Utah! This is a wonderful opportunity to focus on visual and graphic design skills in a venue other than architectural design, which I’m quite excited about. Solis Studio will still exist, and I will continue to do commissioned illustrations on [...]
It’s All in the Details
While I specialize in digital hybrid sketches, I also create high-end digital painting illustrations for architects, developers and real estate professionals. Click here to see the process I used to create the digital painting ‘Tillamook Vista’.
Free Photoshop Resources Online
This is a list I’ve compiled of some of the best free resources for Photoshop. I say free, because one of the best resources I’ve found is the NAPP site, referred to in another post. Photoshop.com – Create a personal gallery and library, find out about products, and view tips and tutorials. Planet Photoshop – [...]
Four Cool Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts
Thought I’d shared some cool shortcuts. If you’re like me, keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop not only are really cool and can possibly save time, they also bring much joy…I hope they do so for you. Much joy all around. Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E: makes flattened copy of selected multiple layers on top of those layers. Alt, click ‘n [...]
Better Simple Walk-through Alternatives?
I occasionally will create a walk-through animation of a project in Google SketchUp for a client, and I usually am excited to show her or him the finished product. But there’s one thing that I’m constantly embarrassed by when I click ‘play.’ The biggest complaint I have is not that the animation is not realistic. [...]
A Different Perspective
You get another angle on things when you see it from above…not seeing directly down as in the case of an illustrative plan, but rather an aerial or “bird’s eye” view. This creates an informative angle on your project, and can show as much or as little detail as you want to convey. It also [...]
Putting the Cart Before the Horse
For this project in Virginia, I worked ‘backwards’–creating an illustrative plan for a project that was already built.
Attention: Anyone Who Loves Digital Image Manipulation
For anyone who uses Photoshop for any purpose, be it professional or personal, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals is an indispensable resource.
I Can Picture It Now…
Architectural illustrations can very accurately capture the look, the feel of a place before it ever comes into existence. In this example, the marketplace was built up quickly in SketchUp using elevations from the architect. This way, multiple angles can be freely explored. The perfect vantage point was found, the image was printed and the [...]
Some Cool Free Textures and Backgrounds Online
I love finding stuff online to use in my Photoshop work…especially when it’s free, and better yet, free and COOL. I came across one site today that is a mother lode, called Lost and Taken. Check it out! This is a site “all about textures….glorious and wonderful textures. The blog focuses mainly on giving away [...]
