Using My Head...er

Before I chose a new header for the page, I started thinking about the name of the blog itself.  I wanted a name that represented the theme of the site, but was also clear and not too complicated.  Something that would convey the goal of combining artistic graffiti and tattoos.  I finally settled on the name "Inked Street."  For the header, I felt that making it look as if it were a street sign would be a cool way to represent the name of the page.

First, I got a blank green background and added a white border to it.  Next, I downloaded a font from the internet and typed out "Inked St" in white.  After putting the text over the background, I added a sort of shadow effect I found to the edges of the image and enhanced the saturation.
I'm pretty happy with the new header, but changing/altering it in the future is always a possiblity...


Here are a few of my favorite websites with headers I think are really interesting:

UDown- This is the website to my favorite clothing brand based in Kailua, Hawaii.
http://udown.com/

Bailey Hunter Robinson- A really skilled tattoo artist with a quality site.

http://copperbeehive.wordpress.com/

Thomas hooper- Another great tattoo artist.
http://meditationsinatrament.com/

50mm LA- Displays a great image of the city of Los Angeles.
http://www.50mmlosangeles.com/

Pitch Black tattoo artists- A great example of a basic style of header that works really well with the page.
http://pitch-black1891.blogspot.com/

A few of the favorite Banksy Pieces

Hands down, Banksy is my favorite graffiti artist.

                                                                       

He is based in England and has a lot of pieces located there.

He also paints,...

...is a political activist,...

...and directs films as well.

He uses mostly stencil graffiti for his pieces, typically either showing humor, a political message, or just something out of the ordinary.

 Hope you like Banksy's work.  He's a pretty talented artist.

-Nick

Websites with Photos

Here's an image in JPG of a tattoo showing Johnny Depp in the movie "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" in JPG format.  Definitely one of my favorite movies of all time.

http://www.tattoodesign.com/tattoo_pictures_gallery/view_tattoo_image/0/8678/portrait/celebrity_moviestar 

This is a pretty image I liked in PNG format. It's a piece of graffiti showing a spray can of black paint.

 http://s304.photobucket.com/albums/nn193/gabo95/?action=view&current=graffiti.png&sort=ascending

This image in GIF format shows a nice Asian style tattoo of a dragon weaving in and out of clouds.  
http://tattooscollection.com/tag/quality-artwork/ 
 

Cropping Images

I have been using Photoshop for about 3 years now, but never used Adobe Fireworks, so it has been pretty interesting learning all the different techniques.   For my image, I used a few basic cropping techniques.  First, I cropped the part of the image from the background to eliminate the unnecessary parts of the picture.  After that, I added a border to the cropped picture.

2nd Time Around

After adjusting the template and looking at examples online, I found one that I was happy with.  I didn't want to do anything over the top or something that was too basic, so I'm happy with the balance of art and text.

Before I edited the template, my layout had the two-column look with the posts to the left and the narrower column on the right.  Now, the blog has 3 columns total: a small column on the right, the posts in a wide column in the middle, and a narrow column on the right of it.  I like this layout better than the two-column becuase it spreads out the page more and gives it more of a relaxed feel instead of scrunching things together.  I changed the text color to white with the dark background so that it would be legible, and I also liked the way it contrasted with the background image. 
Overall, I like the new look of the blog.  I feel like it kept the sleek look to it while also portraying the artwork involved with it. 

First Template Design

I checked out all of the different templates available, and after adding my own image for the background, I found a template that worked.  I didn't even know there were that many options available for the background, images, colors, and all the other features available for editing.
I love having a lot of options to be creative.

I added an image for the top of the page by the title, and I like the way it works with the background image as well.  I chose to have the blog with the posts to the left in a wider column than the second column that is narrower on the left.  I wanted to make sure that people would be able to see the image, but not be too distracted from the context of each post. 

"The" Website

What's up againnn.
For this post, I wanted to talk about my favorite website to visit, www.DeadFix.com.
On Dead Fix, there are posts everyday showing pictures, videos, clip art, and other things showing artwork in the form of tattoos, music, graffiti, sculpture, and many other forms of design.

I love browsing photos of images that make your jaw drop and amaze you with the depth they have.  Design is such an open-ended style of art, and seeing the different ways artists express themselves is amazing to me. 

I hope you all check it out and see for yourselves.  If you love art and want to be amazed at some very interesting pieces of art, you should definitely visit the site.

You Heard It Here 1st

What's up everybody,
My name's Nick Mingione and I'm 20 years old.  After attending the University of Oregon last year, I transferred to Foothill to complete my G.E. while also playing football. My goal is to be a Graphic Design major and attend CSU Cal Poly San Luis Obispo next year.

I was born in San Jose, CA and have lived there all my life.  I have played baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, football, and I am a die hard Lakers, 49ers, Sharks, Giants, and Oregon Ducks fan.  I have loved drawing and artwork all my life, and I recently have been designing graphics and tattoos.  I have 4 tattoos and would like to get more in the future, so I love checking out new and different tattoos with great detailed artwork.

I am looking forward to learning more about website design in order to create my own website in the near future.  In my blog, I plan on showing a variety of tattoo designs and finished pieces while giving my opinion on the artwork and design.  Finding creative pieces of graffiti is also a passion of mine, so I will be sharing pictures of that as well.  I also plan on sharing my own artwork with the goal of being able to learn a few things about art from the different professional pieces that I will post.
Hope this floats your boat :-P

-Nick M.