NateCreates.com

The Scenario: You’re working in Adobe Photoshop with the brush tool and suddenly the brush tip indicator changes to a cross-hair. And you don’t know why because you’ve long-ago memorized all the various possible keystrokes and you no longer look at the keyboard for shortcuts. So now you’re stuck there with a cross-hair and your trying to paint out an area.

What do you do? I sometimes would go as far as restart my computer to get my brush tip back. This was after searching through all the preferences, on-line help, etc. Last night I discovered the simple shortcut for getting back the brush tip. It’s the CAPS LOCK key. Duh! Either I’m the last person on the planet to learn this, or no one else has this problem.

Are there shortcuts you’ve learned by accident that for some reason no one else every bothered to share with you, and they don’t seem to be in the book? Feel free to share, and link to your own happy accident tip.

Image Source: © Photographer:Bellemedia | Agency: Dreamstime.com

It’s been 30 days now since I first started a daily political cartoon blog at PixelMarx.com where I draw and post and new cartoon every day, under the name, Irishspacemonk.

And today I’m taking a break and celebrating that milestone.

The idea for celebrating a Blog Milestone came from David Airey. Check out his blog if you’re just getting started. His site has lots of great content.

I thought I’d share a few things I’ve learned in doing this little project called, PixelMarx.
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I’ve been taking a Graphic Novel course this summer, and while I’ve strugged to remain motivated, a recent assignment unleashed a new interest for me - political cartooning.

If your interested in checking out my new blog, PixelMarx.com, I will be posting a new political cartoon each day. These cartoons are drawn entirely in Photoshop so I’m able to create quickly on the fly, they relate to current political events, and are free to use, so long as they are not resold, or used to make derivative works. Blah. Blah. Blah.

If you’re intrested in the assignment I recently completed (drawing another student’s short graphic novel) you can read the Orange Peel Dreams [PDF version].. (The story is by Devon Delaney, with artwork by Nate.

Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions or ideas that might make a great political cartoon.

In reviewing the top keywords that were bringing visitors to my site, I noticed something that seemed odd. After my name, one of the top keyword combinations bringing visitors to my site was, “freelance portfolio”. My first response “wow!”, was quickly followed by “how?”. Looking closer I noticed a misspelling. Instead of “portfolio” I had ” portoflio”. (I quickly fixed the misspelling.)

This does bring up the question though, is it ever worth placing carefully hidden common typos in your page for Google to index? In fact, is it worth running spell check at all? (Ok - if you read this in the first 15 minutes you’d know the answer - always run spell check.) I realize from a professional standpoint, text littered with misspellings is bad, however a few key typos here and there might actually help. You wouldn’t be the only one misspelling those words, right?

In the case of “freelance portoflio”, I rank 5 out of 33,000 results. For the correct spelling, “freelance portfolio” with 2,560,00 results, I gave up after realizing I wasn’t in the top 150.

Blogcatalog has let me down.

My little network of friends and neighborhoods disappeared.

My avatar evaporated (ok that’s probably not a bad thing - especially since I’m not really smiling right now).

Information that I’d spent the last week building, adding to and watching grow - just swept away.

Ok, if you’re a Blogcatalog user you’re probably experiencing the exact same let down. If you’re not a Blogcatalog user, you still likely use Gmail, Google Apps, MySpace, Linkedin, or one of the many other virtual apps for working, connecting and socializing.

So this event made me think - how do I backup my information that’s hosted on these free spaces. What happens when your entire network disappears. (For some, this is a significant chunk of their life). Thank-goodness for the real word because you could find yourself literally friendless in seconds on the web.

It seems there should be a way to backup your data on these sites, some XML file that gives you a bit of insurance that you’re not going to be going back to the same sites and authors you happened across before and thinking…haven’t we met before??

P.S. I guess one positive - it gives you an opportunity to reinvent yourself.

A list, in no particular order. If I had to give up their use, I’d probably give up design…ok, maybe a little dramatic, but fun to say either way.

1. SNAGIT! - Screen Capture Software | $38.95

Snagit screen capture software is superior to anything on your Windows OS, your Mac OS, or any OS for that matter. It’s like having a digital camera in the virtual world. Don’t worry about processing. Just click, click, click.

Snagit Screen Capture Software

2. Adobe Creative Suite 3 Premium Design Edition | Upgrade $599 | Full Pkg $1,799

Don’t try to design without Adobe. It’s like trying to sing without a voice. And now that Adobe bought Macromedia, I actually saved money when I upgraded. There’s no software out there for designers that works as well as the tools in this package. (By the way, I’m including prices because it helps illustrate to potential clients the cost of getting setup to do serious design work…not to mention the years necessary to build up a good intuition.)

Adobe CS3 Design Premium

3. Moleskine Pocket Sketchbooks | $9.95

A designer should never be caught pulling anything else out of their pocket to jot down an idea. It just doesn’t look good.

moleskines.com

4. Nikon D70 (D80) SLR Camera | Pkg $1299 | Body Only $999

I realize this camera is ancient by today’s standards, however I’ve never, in the time I’ve used it, ever felt like, Gee, I which it would do that. I’m sure the D80 only better.

Nikon USA

5. Old Fashion Lightbox | $170

Ok, I’ve designed for years without one. Just purchased the Porta-Trac 18×24 last week. I knew that once I had one…well that’s why it’s on this list.

6. Powell’s Books | $$ Varies

Or any great bookstore (although I’m not sure one exists better than Powell’s). If you’re a Portland native, you know. If you’re not, and you ever visit, definitely visit Powell’s Books.

Powells Books

7. Diet Coke | $0.60 x many

After Starbucks in the A.M, a steady stream of dangerous chemicals are needed to reach full creative potential - namely more caffeine.

8. Electric Eraser + Electric Pencil Sharpener | Approx $50

The one needs the other in the quest for efficiency.

9. A Book/Copy Stand | $20

After years of peering over flat books while trying to learn how to do this or that thing, my neck is now in much better condition, thanks to this cheap little desktop assistant.

10. Gigads of RAM | $100 +

More, more, more. I need more.

The idea for this post was inspired by El Decor Magazine. Each issue they feature some famous designer I’ve never heard of and their 10 things they couldn’t live without. I’m not famous, so I had to post on my own blog, but if anyone would like to link to their own “10 Tools ______ Couldn’t Design Without”, please feel free to share.

Wow!

I just spent the last three hours searching for the Windows Holy Grail - how to quickly create a new folder with a keyboard shortcut. I understand Mac users have never had this issue. They’ve been given Shift-Command-N (or Command-N). For Windows users the best solution I could find was the suggestion to memorize Alt, F, Enter, Enter. As anyone who makes their livelihood behind an LCD panel knows, keyboard shortcuts are the key to efficiency and memorizing long keyboard combinations to navigate menus is not a shortcut.

So after searching long and hard, I decided to test something. I tried Adobe CS3 Bridge as my default file manager.

Guess what. In Bridge, it’s as simple as Control-Shift-N. Voila, I have a new folder. I name it. I move on.

I hope by sharing this tip other designers out there using PCs (I know we’re a small crowd), I save you 3 hours of your time.

P.S. This post is the sort of post I’d like to run on my new blog, MonkeyintheMachine.com. While the blog is in it’s infancy, I am open to guest writers if your submission pertains to the topic of how to survive as a cog. Excuse the lack of design so far. I’ll be working on something good this summer.