Thursday, October 18, 2012

quick note

there has been a recent tragedy in my life that keeps me from writing this blog. i'm not sure what i am going to do with it right now. hope to find new reasons to write in an inspired way in the future... thank you so much.

Monday, June 4, 2012

discrepancy

lately there has been quite a lot of discrepancy between who i am right now and who i want to become. that is why i felt out of blog entries to post. i hope you are not too pissed off. but it was necessary for me to figure this out. was i forever going to float in the air, not knowing what to do? maybe you think: what the? wasn't it already obvious what you want; which is to become a good designer? yeah, but sometimes you look around and realize: well, you simply are not there!

as i was talking to a dear friend several weeks ago, i realized: you can be anything you want, anything; if you put your mind to something and give yourself, say, 5 years. in five years' time from now you can become your dream. yep. even if you start from the point of absolute zero. it is not a matter of 'too late' and 'oh i can't do it anymore'. it is really imporant to set your goals straight, though. otherwise...

hey, is this a pep talk? a pep blog? hmmm. too serious stuff... but tell me, were there times in your life when you felt that discrepancy? any problems with regard to your dreams? am i the only one?

and somebody please do something about this blog design!!! aggg! 

more stuff and odd tutorials will be coming soon. here, bit of a teaser:


Friday, April 13, 2012

i'm all ears

just how cute are these guys! well, this gal and this guy maybe? i know this is not the best photo, but i like the fact that mommy goat provides a slightly darker background for the cleaner, lighter little goat. and my, look at the expression on their faces! priceless. plus i have always been a big fan of olive trees. their misty greyish green texture is really a feast to the eyes. i think they deserve their own entry. if only i had a better camera and better photography skills. (note to self: join a photography group).

this picture was taken in the wonderful kaz daglari (goose mountains would be a rough translation -but what good would that do?). kaz daglari might as well be a gift of nature. soo many surprises along the way! i would like to go there specifically just to sketch everything. and we didn't even go into the national park. it's a huge place.

now you know what i have been doing instead of blogging. have you ever been to kaz daglari?  what are your impressions?

Friday, March 16, 2012

does this blog make me look old?

i'm not sure i am crazy about the new blogger interface. the 'in your face' attitude with the pageview counts etc. is kind of driving me nuts. and why can't i see the blog itself in a separate window? grrr.

buuut i hope you will like my new blog interface! yep, finalmente! i have already set up an under construction page at www.merictaylan.com. i simply wasn't ready to do these changes all this time. but you know what? i think i'll never be ready. there will always be 'other' stuff to take care of. so this will be quite a real-time blog and website makeover combo for me :) hehe. i think i could even turn this into kind of a game. some things won't work for a while, my portfolio will be lacking a lot of stuff. awkward buttons will pop up and disappear.

i hope you will not get frustrated with the constant format changes in the process. i have a private test blog to test the new design, but i think i will put it up before it is finished. raw. crude. squeaky.

as always, any feedback is good feedback for me, so please do comment :)


Saturday, February 25, 2012

odd tutorial #1: how to make your images a bit more dramatic

yes, here it goes: my first ever odd tutorial... maybe not too odd for most of you but hey, there will always be newbies who could find this interesting. i hope :)

you could give a rather dull image a much more dramatic and sharper look with a couple of really simple tricks in photoshop. these tricks have saved my life in many occasions where i had to work with crappy, out of focus raw photos.

applying 'sharpen' with 'brightness/contrast' to such a photo-which seems to be the obvious solution that comes to mind-, does not do the trick with most of the raw images. you might end up losing too much image data on the way, and still get a 'blah' result.

i have to assume that you have at least a little photoshop experience.

yup, here is our starting image:

ok, let's begin. just start by downloading the first picture above.

once dowloaded, open the .jpeg file in photoshop (any version will do).

from the 'layers' tab in the right-hand side menu, duplicate the 'background' layer. change the blending mode from the default 'normal' to 'overlay'. the resulting image should look like this:

pretty decent looking, high-contrast and all. but i'm still skeptical about the sharpness of the image.

now we will add another layer that will sharpen the image, but it will yield a much more advanced result than the 'sharpen' filter. we will use 'high pass'.

duplicate the 'background copy' layer one more time. again, change the blending of the layer to 'overlay'. don't worry, the super-contrasted look will soon go away. choose 'high pass' from filters. that's right, with the uppermost layer chosen, go to 'filters/other/highpass'. tweak the value until you are happy with the sharpness of your image. notice that 'high pass' also adds some detail back to the image.


enjoy!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

first tutorial ready...

yup, the first ever odd tutorial will be up in couple of days. i wonder what you'll think about it. let's see, i could improve myself with the reactions i get from you. or maybe not.

in the meanwhile, you could check out felt-tip kittens :D

Friday, February 17, 2012

life on crutches

as if i haven't been absent enough from blogosphere, i have broken my foot as well. 'fifth metatarsal' in case you would like to learn a little anatomy trivia :) when will my design inspiration come back? hopefully soon. i'm still working, but life gets me exhausted quite easily. sitting on my behind has never felt so bad, and the world outside is such a dream land for me right now. enjoy the outside while you can!

oh-and one more thing- apparently now i'm 'following' myself. any idea how to cancel that?

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

pixels:)

Sunday, January 22, 2012

sketchy reality

i can't believe how fashionable it is to design without drawing anything these days. i have seen it in various parts of the world and have been mildly shocked. i have seen people finishing complete design projects without drawing a single line on paper, and i mean they don't use tablets to sketch digitally either. people don't sketch. of course, everyone has their own method but come on! don't you need to visualize your ideas even a little bit beforehand? how do they evolve into that 'mature' state if you don't let them? yeah, i know, the deadlines are tight, but how can you afford the costs resulting from an ill-designed and rushed project? sketching saves you a lot of time, headaches, resentment, fights and bitten nails. i don't know, maybe i am old fashioned.

do you skip sketching when you design something or do you see it as vital? what methods do you prefer if you do sketch? and what does a crab have to do with all this?

Monday, January 16, 2012

attention please: odd tutorials take over the web!!

in the coming weeks, i will be starting a new type of section. or a new type of entry. arrg, whatever! all for you design folks! it is called 'the odd tutorials'. this has been a project that i have been thinking about for a long time. the tutorials won't be super long or super detailed, and they sure won't be solving typical/basic problems-hence the name :)

over the years, there have been some odd problems i needed to solve while using programs or doing things, most for which i couldn't find any sufficient tutorial on the internet or nobody i asked could answer my questions. so i needed to come up with my very own ways. i will be talking about those ways for the tiny teeny little questions that nag you when you are trying to sleep in your bed...

well, of course every problem gives birth to its own weird solution, and not all of my solutions will make sense to all of you, but still... i hope you can make use of them and i hope you enjoy :) i'll try to be as simple as possible. oh, and even if they inspire you a little bit, that will make me happy as well! feedback will always be more than welcome... let it all begin!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

i'm not dead (yet)

happy new year to you all! i wish you a year full of beauty and inspiration!

hehe if there are any readers left, that is... i feel guilty, like i have abandoned my child or something. but every day is a fresh start, no? the good thing is, i have accumulated some stuff i would like to post. the bad thing is, you may find them totally irrelevant :) ahh, focus, focus!