Maggie

I never thought of that @welshblue. I've just been seeing brick walls...sometimes the obvious solution can't bee seen for being right in front of you. 🤔

I'm really enjoying all of the graffiti entries...I've tried a few times, but it's currently not in my wheelhouse. Maybe it's because, having grown up in a big city, I saw too much of it to want to make more than a half-hearted attempt at it. But everyone else is doing a great job!

Love the reflection of the grapes in the apple, so well done. I can only aspire...

Congrats, Guys! I really wish I would've known Woodsy; he sounds like he was a really great person.

They look fine to me @welshblue, but then I'm breaking in new glasses as well. I find your notepad almost photographic, really great work. @Pixey thanks for pointing me to the tutorial and the little extra tidbits. I'm always ready to pick up new techniques.

This guide makes me feel better about myself, because I have been taking copious notes since beginning to learn this program-both on paper and in a Wordpad document that I keep updating. When I look at some of my early 'tips' that I put into this document I laugh, but it really does help me to remember how to do something. I could add: Don't be afraid to experiment. That's what the Undo button is for.

*pokes head out* @Pixey I liked your entry very much-the spirals are a nice touch; how did you achieve them?

Hi @Seerose! Thank you for the welcome! I'm very flattered that you would think so😌, but actually I'm not an expert or advanced, I'm a beginner. I 'drew' the notebook using the straight and curved line tool, used flood fill to add colors, and then added the shadows and highlights using TR's Dodge and Burn plugin and @BoltBait's Shadow plugin. Not advanced techniques at all-very easy to do. Anything that looks expert probably has to do with the fact that I'm a trained artist/illustrator...I just think of something I want to draw and it comes out of my head into my hand, even digital things 🤔. I have such a notebook as I drew on my desk here, and I just looked at it for reference.

You are quite right, @xod...I'll do what @Pixey suggested and play around with the image. If I want to learn, I have to practice, right? @docnich, that's very nice of you-I like it very much. And @Ego Eram Reputo, I thought I had all of the useful plugins-but this one is new; thank you for pointing me to it. EDIT: I did what @Pixey suggested, messed around a bit with the result, and this is what I came up with: I had to shrink it really small to fit the little frame, but the results were good. Thanks everyone who replied in this thread. ☺️

Thanks for responding, @xod and @Pixey! Xod, yes, that's what I'm looking for exactly! How did you do it? Would you mind if I saved your photo? And Pixey, thank you for pointing me to that site, that will make future projects much easier!

I have here a photo of my late grandparents: What I need is to have my grandfather closer to my grandmother, because the project I'm working on need for their heads to be almost touching. What steps do you guys suggest I take to get the effect I'm looking for? I need to fit them together in quite a small space (for a Christmas ornament circular cutout about an inch in diameter.)

Thanks for your help @HyReZ. It's all much clearer to me now.

No, it is a transparent image, sorry-I chose it from my graphics stash for illustration purposes, since it had a lot of fiddly curves. As @toe_head2001 pointed out, I *would* use the Magic Wand too to select this image for a project. As of this time, Lasso is the prime source of my PDN frustration. @HyReZ, the video (thanks for pointing me to it, is that Dutch?) seems to show the Lasso Tool selecting multiple areas, which then blend together. Does this mean that you can have multiple selections going at one time with Lasso using CTRL and connect them into one cohesive image? And if you mess up and go out of the lines, holding down ALT and selecting with the tool cleans it up? I'll try this with a non-transparent image and see how it goes. Sorry for all these questions. I'm *really* eager to learn.

I am trying mightily to "lasso" the Lasso Tool and add it to my store of PDN knowledge. Here is my problem. Things with straight lines, no worries...but when I try using the tool on a more complicated shape, say one with curves, I get something like this: As you can see, I can't get the line to be precise, and when I accidentally take my finger of the left clicker, argh! The lines connect and I have to start over. I'm so used to my old graphics program (RIP), where you could start-click at any stopping point-start again-and double click when finished. I don't see a way to do this in PDN. Is there and I've just missed it? Is there a better way to use this tool than what I'm doing, or is there any advice you can give to this Newbie?

Hahaha-I wish! 👵 Thanks

Thanks, @welshblue and @lynxster4! I will do so immediately. I must say, I don't miss my poor old PhotoSuite program-there's so much more you can do with PDN. Limitless possibilities.

Well, here goes nothing, my first sig made entirely in PDN. It's very simple, even though it took me ages to get it right because I'm such a PDN Newbie. Please tell me what you think, if it's fine the way it is or what I could do to improve it-or what I should have done in the first place. 🤔 I look forward to hearing what you have to say!