my initials are BA. stands for badass

blog

Saturday

So I worked on some photoshop, but i cant show it since its for a client.

also watched a video on photoshop and learned something.

take 10 minutes to learn something new each day. Everyone has 10 minutes which is better than everyone has 30 minutes. 10 minutes can turn into more time. I worked from 6:45 til 9:30 so almost 3 hours. I’m pretty happy about that.


10 tricks to photoshop

  1. Always use a background

Make the background more dramatic

background change can give you an extra edge

Clouds for example

  1. Use texture

Adds character and edge

it can bring anything to a piece of art. Not to make it flat

  1. Dodge and Burn

For photoshop and lightroom

You need to standout. Your art needs to stand out

  1. Photo Filters

This is helpful for compositions

adjustment layers> Photo Filters

gives composite a unity

  1. Adobe Camera Raw

Power of lightroom inside of photoshop

lower highlights, up shadows, clarity, add a little bit of split toning

highlights to be given this color

and my shadows to be given this color

eye is always attracted to lightest part

Realize your vision in minutes

It shouldn’t take you so long

creating your art quickly keeps your inspiration high

  1. Photoshop and Lightroom presets

Load a photo and a bunch of adjustments will be done

brush presets too

  1. Color profiles

Transform color of your work

  1. photoshop brushes (need to learn about)

Practice dramatizing a photo

  1. blending mode

soft and hard light (same thing)

1st is screen

try to light something on (use screen mode)

multiply for shadows

multiply for dark colors

screen for light (great for t shirts)

Overlay mode

anything around 50% gray area

Time = Creativity

if it takes too long and is too arduous, you have to drop it

art that you are working on that isn’t finished

if you have tools that will help you get tehere

10 Keep up with photoshop

Spend 10 minutes a day to learn something

Bradley Afroilan
Friday
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3 good things

  1. I took like 3 naps

  2. I drank a lot of water and massaged my back with a theracane. My back isn’t as tight because drinking water helps flush out the toxins/lactic acid. It’s wild how as an athlete in high school, college, and even now, I didn’t know how beneficial water is.

  3. Followed up on a design as seen above. Just realizing i forgot to color in the wheels, but oh well.

I woke up today again feeling a little sick. However, it’s because I biked to the beach, ran a little bit, tried to surf, and biked back. Also, I keep forgetting to go under the covers while the fan runs at night so that there is some circulation in the room. I took 3 naps today even though I went to sleep at like 10 last night in order to see if it would help me sleep more sound. However, I woke up at 1am, 3am, and then 5. Went back to sleep, woke up around 9/10, took my dog out, and then I think I went back to sleep? I know I went to sleep again after getting my groceries delivered at 12. I’m reflecting how my body feels with just running 1-2 miles a day, not biking as much, and trying to skate as much as I can. My body feels a lot more beat up since I’m jumping and falling again. Around this time last year, all I was doing was running, biking, and skating a little bit. I was also terrified of falling so much that I was thinking of enrolling in a parkour class or a martial arts class. A year later, I’m out here falling almost everyday and jumping off shit like I’m 14. I’m thinking about writing a medium article about how pandemic has allowed me to make the child inside me happy again. Or something of the sort.

I reached out to a woman that I went on a date with like a week and a half ago. She left me on read/delivered, but I frankly don’t have shame in regards to just reaching out again and seeing what happens. If it wasn’t meant to be, it wasn’t meant to be. Simultaneously, people come for a reason, a season, a lifetime and I’ve been saying this for the last 4 years. She inspired me to start trying again and here I am trying again to learn something new or produce something new.

I heard from my boss yesterday that we’ll be staying on the 4 day schedule for Q4 which is so wonderful to hear. That means my fridays are free and I get to do whatever I want on that day. However, now that Quarantine is something that is of the norm, it’s time to start preparing. Luck is when preparation and opportunity meet. I need to get lucky soon by preparing.

I keep saying I want to be a creative director for Nike Sb or Adidas. There is no one path or right way to get there. But I really need to ask myself like I have in the past, what is it that I want to do this year that is burning inside me.

I’ve seen it before where I committed myself for a year to get into berkeley, to write my thesis, to getting a job at revlon. But I’m not sure what to do now. Security is so nice. I keep thinking, comfort is mediocrity and mediocrity is the death of success. This is what I said in my interview.

I think motion design would be a good place to move towards. Or just kinetic typography. I still like shooting photos a lot tho, but I haven’t shot photos lately. I think it’s also because the developer that I go to isn’t that great anymore. It always comes out super red which I don’t like.

I keep looking at things that I want to buy. I’m looking at shoes, looking at clothes, looking at cameras, so many things. I start thinking in my head, I can buy it if I can buy it twice. I look at Jordans and I’m like, I could buy it twice, but would it put me back in any way?

I feel like I’m also forcing myself to want to know what I need to do to get better or position myself better. I’m looking at my work online and I’m like, dam, this stuff is really amateur. However, I’m glad that I have a collection of work to look back on.

I think there’s a lot of unnecessary stress that I put myself under for no reason. Recently, I did just say being a skateboarder right now is just a good thing for me to do. I think with what I wrote, I’ll leave it at that. I just want to be a skateboarder right now. I’ll keep making something everyday if I can and if I can, I’ll try to make it hyperfocused on getting where I want to go.

Bradley Afroilan
Thursday
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Kind of felt like drawing a tree skateboarding. Maybe I’ll actually fix it and make a proper vector. Or maybe not.

3 good things

  1. Went surfing today. Kneeboarded two waves

  2. Saw my friend Hiro. Got my grillz

  3. Drew a little bit today

My body keeps saying to slow down, but i want to take advantage of the rest of this warm summer. The cold is creeping in quick which means I don’t have that much time to get better at skating or skate the way that I want to. It’s harder to skate in the cold.

Bradley Afroilan
Wednesday

I don’t really feel like making anything today. I didn’t really do much at work today. I designed 1 thing and for the rest of the day just chilled. Kind of nice that this week was super chill. I don’t have work tomorrow so I’m heading to the Rockaways to surf. My friend told me to get a foam board for these waves to have the most fun so I’m going to listen to the Hawaiian Native haha.

3 good things

  1. Didn’t work too much

  2. Ordered stickers

  3. Ordered a new go pro (actually ordered a bunch of stuff like new shoes and a hoodie)

I feel like I’m buying so many things, but the things is, I’m very secure with everything. I want to buy more stocks, but I don’t think it’s the right time right now so I’m going to keep just buying the same amount each week on my auto-investment.

Bradley Afroilan