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Photoshop Mastery, Celtic Knots, and Other Mysterious Digressions

Well, gang. Equally many of you lot know, I've been remiss on the site lately. Just but considering I'm fulfilling my contractual obligations. Including this, check it out: I figured out how to create a Celtic knot in Illustrator. If that sounds similar ho hum, big ole bargain—I politely beg to differ. The analogy below contains non just paths that flow in and out of each other—meaning that one path tin can be simultaneously in front and in back of another, which is fundamentally not even sorta something you tin do—but also paths that weave in and out of themselves. Themselves, I say! Which is non simply currently impossible, but theoretically improbable within the construct of a vector-driver calculator graphics application. And yet, it can happen—not in the future but correct-this-second-now—thanks to the near-limitless depths of Live Paint combined with the seemingly infinite obsession of yours truly. (Let me make it clear: These are iii shapes, filled with gradients, interacting with each other. And nothing—but much, much, much—more.)

A Celtic knot pattern in Adobe Illustrator CS5

My sidekick Colleen is the ane who put me up to this challenge, and so arraign her for my lack of posting as of late. (Ha! I love blaming stuff on Colleen!) Incidentally, this volition exist function of "Chapter 17, Live Paint" in my forthcoming Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Advanced video grade for lynda.com, which will exist available in November.

I'll come up back to that topic in a moment. In the meantime, the final leg of my video bible on Photoshop CS5, Photoshop CS5 1-on-One: Mastery, is live and ready for viewing on the lynda.com Online Training Library.

Michael Ninness (one of the best trainers on the planet, the one-time Pm of InDesign, and VP of Content at lynda.com), wrote upward this totally awesome description of the course:

Deke McClelland has finished the third installment of his series for lynda.com, Photoshop CS5 One-on-One Mastery. This latest release covers advanced tips and techniques. Deke has recorded over 6 (!) hours of Photoshop CS5 preparation in the by few months—we lovingly telephone call these courses Dekelopedias! For those of you who may have watched his previous series covering CS4 and CS3, be sure to cheque out his latest content. Deke went dorsum to the cartoon board and revamped this series from the basis upwardly with all new examples. And as with any course, the beauty of the Online Training Library is that you don't have to watch an entire course in a linear fashion. Don't let the 6 hours elapsing intimidate or overwhelm you—just skim thru the table of contents and watch only the movies that interest yous.

Damn that Michael is good! We're all so glad to have him back. Only yous could requite ii twinkies, so I'll become back on topic:

Here's an image from the Mastery course. (In case I haven't made information technology clear, this course will aid you lot master Photoshop. This woman with all her hair was not against this blue-sky-with-clouds background to begin with. She comes from the Fotolia image library. And I masked her. Merely equally you will to if y'all bring together up.)

Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Mastery

In other news, I and my team are then close to finishing up the book that will be Adobe Illustrator CS5, Ane-on-One, which goes to the printer on October 18. This book has been four years in the making (no kidding!), and it looks beautiful. I keep proverb I'll post an excerpt. And I will, as soon as I finish writing the damn book.

Oh, hey, I had an interesting meeting with some folks at Adobe last Wed. Man, they have some interesting stuff in store. (And I was the start person exterior Adobe to see it! Score!) It'due south still a couple of years out, and so don't freak. Only wow. Those boys and girls are amazing! The way I meet it is, just keep drinking that kool-assistance cuz them kids at the Wiz-Bang Factory accept lots more than coming. I wish I had some of that stuff now.

Back to the beginning of this post: about creating the interlocking path outlines and all. I and my boggling team are working hard on one) getting the contractual obligations off my plate and 2) getting some extremely sweet gratuitous content onto yours. Information technology'll be called Deke's Techniques. It'll be a weekly video blog. And it's non far away. The Celtic knot volition be function of it. But then much more. Recollect, I'1000 either dearth (like now) or feast (until you will beg me to stop). The latter is coming before this twelvemonth is out.

Brace yourselves.

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