Mixer Brush, Not Only for Painting Effects

Over here is a link to a tutorial featuring the mixer brush. However, this explores more options than just
the overall painting look you can achieve with it. This video goes into the possibilities of adding movement, and blurring out your mistakes in the fewest amount of brush strokes. In the earliest parts of the video, Mr. Pete Collins even mentions how he can get his own "distracting" face out of the reflection in the car.

"Broken" Mask Tool Assignment?

The above is an assignment in which we were to use the mask tool in photoshop. The goal result of this assignment was to choose a word. You guessed it, any arbitrary word off of the top of your head, and then use the mask tool in order to get creative. The first thing that came to mind was anything cracked, or broken. So glass works too. Next, I took it upon myself to find an appropriate stock image to portray just that. I was most comfortable fitting the text in the bottom of the screen, and decided to roll with it. Slap a dar background on top, and erase the "broken" filling, and you've got yourself a simple, easy to make, logo or whatever.

Personally, I enjoyed the outcome of this logo because it's simple, but to the point. At a glance, you can easily tell what the image is implying, and how it's implying it. Not much I would change, with the choice. I'm content.

Pixel Art Self Portrait

The above is a self portrait done in the style of "pixel art" or, one could call it, an 8-bit game. My process is as follows.

First, we were to pick a photo of ourselves, and crop it down to about 100 by 100 dimensions. Next, I selected the dropper tool to select the colours from the image, and put them to the side on a separate layer. This gave me easy access to them throughout the process.

Next, I personally, I found it simpler to lower the opacity of the original photo, and then use my tablet to fill in the sections of similar colours with the pen tool. This gave the cover image the "pixel" or, "blocky" texture. And then, voila! After some time and quick editing around the edges here and there, you have a completed pixel portrait.