Yeah. I thought so.  New(ish) site Photoshop Disasters is outting painfully obvious examples of photoshopped photos and graphic design goofs.

I really, really feel for whatever designers were responsible for the various pieces that wind up on here. But it’s like a train wreck that just keeps comin’… and you can’t stop lookin’. This is my new favorite site to keep an eye on.

For me to really use it, a sketchbook has to be the right size, the right paper weight and texture, not smudge my pencil lines when I close the cover and stand up to some kind of reasonable amount of abuse.

I’m glad I’m not the only one.

Positive Space Blog did an excellent write up on a bunch of the more trendy options out there for sketchbooks.  I just wish there were some larger size options covered.

Imagine being these guys, the sheer number of straight quotes floating around in the world would surely drive someone insane if they zeroed in on them all.

Suffice it to say, I sometimes have a tough time coming up with ideas for new illustrations if I’m not doing something specific for a client. There are a lot of times when I just start at a blank sheet of paper hoping that I’ll get a bolt of inspiration. Unfortunately, that rarely happens, so over the years I’ve come up with some methods to help me get in the groove.

If you’re like me, hopefully some of the ideas and exercises below will help jump start your creative process!

1. Create art from an ink blob.
   Take the Rorschach test one step further. Get an old toothbrush and dunk it in india ink then use to splatter a sheet of paper. Create illustrations around the entire splatter, or use shapes created by parts of it to inspire you. This guy is already doing it - each day he turns a blob of ink into a new monster.
2. Build a collection of words you can use to jump start your imagination.
   Illustration Friday has a new word each week that participants illustrate. The results are sometimes literal, but often times they run off in unexpected directions. Those types of sites are great to participate in, but if you want more than just one a week, you need to build your own personal repository. For some reason, it works better if you aren’t the one coming up with the words, so have your friends (or if you have a blog, your readers) contribute. Write each word on a sheet of paper and stuff them in a box, or put them all in a text file for the next time you need an idea.
3. Take a line from a song and illustrate it. Be literal in your illustration, or not.
   Lots of times when we listen to music, it’s really passive. You hear the melody and maybe catch some of the chorus, but it is easy to gloss over the rest. When you start really, actively listening, you find that lyrics can have some really powerful, sometimes unusual, imagery that’s perfect to try and visualize.
4. Take spam email subject lines into art.
   Kipling West takes the subject lines from spam emails that wind up in her inbox and turns them into charming, often hilarious illustrations. Try it out with some of your spam!
5. Juxtapose everyday objects into a totally unnatural places.
   Draw your laptop in the middle of desert, your pet fish in a forest, or a plant taking root in a sneaker. Throw together the craziest combos for some surreal results.
6. Design a card for Birthdays, Christmas, Easter, or just to say thank you.
   Pick a holiday and come up with an illustration for it. Try different styles. Who knows, you may come up with something you love. Get it printed up at moo.com or zazzle.com for the next time you need to send a card!
7. Design a promotional poster for your favorite band.
   Have you seen how cool band posters can be? Use the band’s aesthetic and brand to inspire your work. After you’re done, take the band name out of the piece and swap in a word that sums up your creation. Chance are you’ll have something outstanding.
8. Create a piece of art starting with type only.
   Typography is a huge part of design, but it’s easily overlooked. Take a funny phrase you overheard today, or a short quote and do something creative with how it’s written. Add in graphic elements after you’ve done the text to create a finished piece.

To help you on your path of getting more inspired everyday, I’ve created a handy illustrated version of the tips above. Download, print and post someplace you’ll always see when you start getting stuck!

Click HERE to download as PDF, or HERE to download as a reeeeally big gif.

Love the lush phone-candy from the illustrators over at Poolga. I only wish they had at least some of them large enough to be desktop wallpapers too.

In the spirit of seeing just how bad some of my bio clips have been, I’ve dug a few out of the archives:

“Liz Fulghum currently lives in Annapolis, MD where she works as a web designer for a custom shirt retailer. Liz was convinced to try PHP as an alternative to Perl; she has been a fan ever since and frequently works as a freelance developer.”

“Liz Fulghum is a freelance designer/programmer living in Maryland, between of the shores of the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic. Her specialty is in identity design, websites and collateral for small businesses and organizations.”

“Elizabeth is a Web designer for a custom shirt retailer, and authors a column on PHP. Contact her at [insert old email address here]”

“Liz Fulghum is a multi-disciplinary creative professional living and working in southern Tennessee. She is currently working as the lead designer at a screen printing company. In her spare time, she often does freelance design/development, illustrates, and writes for various publications. She is also working to finish her time-machine which will give her more time to keep up with her personal projects including www.eastbywest.com.”

I’m cringing just seeing them again. Idea for a new service: a Biography writing service exclusively for writers. We give you some general facts, details and funny bits, you put them together into something that reflects how truly witty, talented and humble we are.

I’ll be your first customer.

A few days ago I received an early copy in the mail. It was a lushly photographed and filled with thoughtful articles and interviews from some of the premier members of the creative blogging community. It also featured a lot folks I had never heard of before, but were thrilled to discover.

If you happen to pick up a copy, I’m on page 28. (The photo credits a few pages later erroneously reports me as being “Liz Fulgham”, instead of “Fulghum” but I’m willing to overlook that because I can’t spell either.)

The idea is that the base colors provide kind of a neutral background and the pop colors draw the user’s eye to important areas/information in the overall design. Kind of like putting a bright red santa hat in a the middle of a snowy field.

It’s actually a really subtle way of controlling the user. And very effective.

Applying the same concept to artwork can yield some pretty interesting results. In some ways everything becomes easier, the question of “what colors do I use?” is already answered for you. And using a limited color palette can easily and powerfully define a mood.

If you’re going to go for a limited color piece, one of the best places to start is on one of the many color scheme sites for web designers. I use ColorSchemer.com, where I can easily waste a good hour or so getting inspired just by the different combinations.

For Buffalo Plains, I specifically wanted to give the piece a dry, windblown, bleached-out feeling. I found the following scheme that just felt spot on:

Turns out I only used about 3 colors from this palette (dark brown, mid-tone green, and the wheat) and threw in a bright blue as my pop color. In the process, I found myself using the colors in unexpected ways to create shadows and highlights. Adding the final textures to the piece added more depth and tones.

Though the concept doesn’t work for everything, it can be an interesting way to jump-start a new piece of art.