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» Interview with Lisa Sage

This is a new series featuring a couple of interviews with some really cool artists to get to know the person behind and perhaps pick up a few tips and tricks. First out in the series is the very very talented digital painter, Lisa Sage. She does some of the most beautiful drawing work I’ve ever seen and I’m proud to have her here with the interview.

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

Well, I grew up in Ohio. In a very industrial, blue collar area on the East side of Cleveland. I think that’s why I so completely love color!! I’ve had more than enough dingy, grit.

Do you have any formal training/what’s your background in art?

I pretty lucky in that respect. With all the industry in our town we had a very well funded school system. The art department was no exception.

What equipment do you use?

I have a 2.5 GHz Dual core power pc G5 with 6 GB of RAM, an Apple 30" cinema display, a Wacom Graphire and a Logitech NuLOOQ to make up for chintzing out on the Wacom:) I didn’t know if I’d like the tablet so I bought the older model at a super good price. Not the smartest decision in the long run though.

Who is your biggest influence? Why?

I’ve always been a huge Escher fan but artistically I think the bucolic feel of Currier and Ives’ probably had more of an impact.

Do you have any advice to aspiring artists?

Spend more time really looking at the world around you. Pay close attention to light, reflections and shadows.

• Visit Sage Family Studios

» Lightroom 1.4.1 and Camera Raw 4.4.1

Adobe has just released the updates to both Lightroom 1.4.1 and Camera Raw 4.4.1 fixing the problems that arised in 1.4 and 4.4 respectively. It’s the same new features as preivously with added camera support but without the bugs. Download links are available below for both Lightroom and Camera Raw for Mac and Windows.

 

Lightroom 1.4.1: Macintosh | Windows
Camera Raw 4.4.1: Macintosh | Windows

» Laughing Evening

 I just got this link from my buddy Christophe from Uncyclopedia about "Adobe Potatochop" you really must take a read and I promise you that you’ll have wasted some good time on a good laugh so don’t miss it out!

I know it is a quickie blog post for today but still not feeling 100% alright and have had little time today.

• Adobe Potatochop

» Wednesday Goodies

 

I’m proud to announce that I’ll be rolling our a couple of interviews soon with some amazing artists in various medias who I really think you’ll all like. I’m just waiting for the interviews to be completed before I get them out, so expect it in a couple of days!

• Photomatix Pro 3 has just been released and is available as a free upgrade to current 2.x license holders, if you don’t have a license, they are available for $99. Updates in version three includes a much better interface and a lot of cool new features!
   
• Adobe has released their new version 1.0 of the Adobe Meda Player now featuring a lot of cool free content among others, from Lynda, Total Training, Kelby Training and more. What’s also cool is they have a new channel called Adobe TV as well!
   
• I was looking in my Feedburner statistics for this site’s feed and my podcast feed and I was stunned to see the podcast has over 700 subscribers! Thanks to everyone who has subscribed (although I doubt you are reading this since this site only has 12 subscribers :D) in just two weeks!
   
• I just finished writing a massive tutorial (over 14,000 characters) on how to create a simple website with only code which will be expanded on in future tutorials. I just posted it up for all NAPP members on the NAPP Member Forums to see what kind of reactions it gets and if it is all good, I’ll get it up here as well!

» Tuesday Things

I know this is a very late post and I’m sorry for the lack of one yesterday. I’m in bed, at home having a cold which I’m really not wanting at all and need to get rid of by Friday and I was feeling such a headache yesterday that I couldn’t bring myself to any posting. However here are some Tuesday things!

Shoot better eBay product shots: a guide

The people over at Photojojo have a very good guide for all of you guys who are active over at eBay, Etsy or similar and who regularily takes product shots and sell things off them. The guide is basically helping you to improve your product shots to make them look much more professional and classy.

Artist Tip: James Quantz Jr.

If you haven’t already, you really should be checking out the works of James Quantz Jr. which are incredible photography/photomanipulations that are just plain awesome!

Adobe Middle East Design Conference

In the coming days Adobe is hosting the Middle East Design Conference over in Dubai with some of the world leading instructors such as Scott Kelby and Joe McNally as well as many more! Definately worth checking out if you are near in that area!

» Friday App Tip: BannerZest Pro

 

 I came across a cool Mac application the other day from a french company called Aquafadas that basically lets you create flash galleries, slideshows and banners on the fly! The application is called BannerZest Pro and is available for $49 for a standard version and $129 for the pro version from today and on! I have a review up of the program right here so check it all out!

» Lightroom 2.0 Beta Released!

Adobe has today released Lightroom 2.0 Beta, which contains a lot of new features that are all user-requested. The beta version is available from the Adobe Labs from today and on and it is downloadable on a 30-day trial if you don’t have a 1.x license, if you do just enter it and your copy is good through Aug. 31. Also note that it is indeed a beta version and shouldn’t be used in production environments.