Cool Pop Art Photo Effect – Photoshop Tutorial

People visualise Andy Warhol and Campbell’s Soup when they think Pop Art. This tutorial shows how to quickly create a subtle, stylised effect using some simple Photoshop filters and adjustment layer techniques.

Things to note:

The choice of photo is more about and expression, or style than the resolution or technical quality as you’ll potentially be zooming into an area and cropping.
There’s lots of different ways to strip the detail from photos in a cool way – half the filters in Photoshop can do that, so you can substitute the filters used here for many others.
Don’t be afraid to try different colours (in the filters), and merge multiple effects on different layers to create your own style.

If you’re looking for other techniques then check out my other tutorials.

Grinder Mincemaster T-Shirt through to a Competition Final!

Written by Matt Simner September 4, 2009 competition demo Redbubble shirt

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A big thanks to everyone who voted for my Grinder Mincemaster Music Machine (try saying that with a mouthful of popcorn) in the Redbubble Demo Music Machines challenge.

It’s reached the top 20 (out of almost 300 entries) to be considered by Demo stores in London. The top 5 chosen by Demo get their designs printed by and sold in their stores.

Congratulations to all the other people whose designs made it through, and my day just been well and truly made!

rain-bows make my hearts grow – T-Shirt by Amanda Cass

Written by Matt Simner September 2, 2009 amanda cass Redbubble shirt theartoflove

rain-bows make my hearts grow - Amanda Cass

This beautiful design by Amanda Cass shows that a great illustration works just fine on a tee.

There’s something very sweet, yet a little bit dark about this that I just love.

Shades of Tim Burton I think.

You’ll find this character quite familiar if you look at more of Amanda’s work on Redbubble.

There you’ll find not only more interesting t-shirt designs, ranging from Darth Vader to cats – but also some really fabulous digital art.

Our love is on a journey...

Rubber Stamped Text in Photoshop with Layer Masks : Tutorial

Written by Matt Simner August 25, 2009 grunge Photoshop stamp Tutorial youtube

There’s lots of ways to create most effects in Photoshop, and this particular subject is no exception. Here’s a little video tutorial using a few techniques to create rubber stamped text in Photoshop.

Other ways to achieve the ‘stamped’ look

Take the text and outline and add a ‘splatter’ filter
Take another image and apply threshold to it (to get some irregular black/white shapes), then paste into your layer mask. You need to find an image with the right kind of contrast for this to work well

Share any other methods in the comments…

The Fast Food Evolution – T-Shirt by Schytsoframe

Written by Matt Simner August 24, 2009 fast food Redbubble schytsoframe shirt

Fast Food Evolution by schytsoframe

Fancy a hamburger with the lot?

Well this design by schytsoframe might make you think twice. I’m guilty of the odd takeaway here and there, but here’s the unfortunate reality of what happens to too many people in the (developed) world these days who can’t say no to the temptation of high-fat fast food.

It’s true of course that there’s many social issues at play here too, so it’s not just about simple greed. As I’ve said before, one of the problems in hard economic times, is that it’s easier to eat cheap than it is to eat well.

You can even buy a litre of Coke cheaper than a litre of water these days!

Grinder Mincemaster Music Machine

Written by Matt Simner August 20, 2009 fender stratocaster mincer music Redbubble shirt vector

I like a challenge, and this challenge is all about music machines (as the excellent ‘synthetic rose‘). This is a pretty open brief of course and so here’s my interpretation.

It’s a mincer, a grinder, a fender, a mixer – well all sorts of things.

It ‘does’ go to 11 of course.

Synthetic Rose – T-Shirt by wtiller

Written by Matt Simner August 11, 2009 challenge music Redbubble shirt vector wtiller

Synthetic Rose by wtiller

I’m wasn’t quite sure what I like about this design when I first saw it.

I couldn’t work out what it was at first, but then realised it’s certainly ‘organic’ (geddit), and I love the style and colours.

It’s a music machine – for a challenge on Redbubble with the same name.

It’s a cool vector shirt, with some great detail and nice shapes.

It’ll get a vote from me.

Circuit – T-Shirt by Heavyhand

Written by Matt Simner August 10, 2009 heavyhand Redbubble vector

Circuit by Heavyhand

Sometimes things aren’t quite what they seem. This ‘circuit’ design by heavyhand appears to be something like the underside of a hard drive, or certainly something quite ‘electrical’.

Have a closer look and you’ll just see some nice shapes and colours put together really well.

Always nice to see a smiley face on a t-shirt too. What else can you find?

Get FREE Shipping on my T-shirts at Redbubble…

Written by Matt Simner August 7, 2009 bombadeo free shipping Redbubble shirt simner

Free shipping on all my shirts at Redbubble until Thursday 13th August!

Just quote the following voucher code at checkout to get your order shipped free…

`BOMBADFFW`

Oh – go on then – as you’ve read this far, you can use this for ANY product on Redbubble. Go on – you’ve got no excuse now…

Powerpig – Star Wars, Lego and cool shirts

Written by Matt Simner August 6, 2009 lego Parody powerpig Redbubble shirt starwars

I was blown away this morning when I was doing my normal look around at new T-shirts on Redbubble. Often if you find a cool design or image you look further and maybe like some more of what the artist has produced. In this case I don’t think there’s a single image in this portfolio I don’t love.

: It’s not my fault

Good morning sunshine

Showtime!

The mixture of Lego, miniatures, furry creatures, a love for Star Wars and creative design just slapped me in the face, so do yourself a favour and check out Powerpig’s work on Redbubble.

I bet you smile.

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