i missed it here...

hi, i am really hungry for writing here and posting stuff that i produced. hope to be able to do that soon. i cannot promise anything yet. my tone will probably be much different because i have changed a lot. i have a totally new set of existential questions nowadays. it is hard for me to look at my old stuff which seem to be from another life that has nothing to do with this one. let's see. need to do something about the blog format as well! see you soon.

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.

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:

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?

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 :)

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!

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

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?

pixels:)

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?

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!

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!

carnation

yes, yet another little pattern right here. how littler can it get? can you see anything? hehe. well, don't be afraid. i won't be turning this into the little flower blog. would you like me to change the color scheme to pink as well? i could have a light pink background, write in dark pink and have a pink header. yummy!

i must say i am missing finland these days. hmm. although i'm pretty sure these flowers would be frowned upon in the land of the midnight sun. finnish design loves simplicity!

hatai

continuing with the little patterns. this is another reinterpretation of another ottoman pattern. see how crappy i cropped the image? (hehe that kind of rhymes!) bad, bad, bad... this is again, a small part of the bigger project i mentioned before.

you see i like flowers pretty much! many other people must be liking them too, because i need to make use of flowers quite often in designs.

what do you think? are flowers gateways to 'kitsch'-bad and cheap taste? or do you find them visually useful?

çintemani

let's see some little patterns. i had a lot of fun doing these; despite the tight deadline, couple of months ago. ok, more than a couple i guess :D they are interpretations of traditional ottoman patterns and are part of a bigger project. i hope it is fun looking at the details!

ahh, so refreshing to be back!!

i hope this won't turn into the-blog-makeover-that-never-happened. 'a snake story', as we say it in turkish. it is said for things that never get done or completed. familiar, huh?

flabbergasted

uh, more updates please! when you don't talk about something, it is as if you haven't done it. now that i am not talking about what i have been doing (a lot!); new designs, new characters, new scenes... you might think that i am actually sitting in front of my computer doing nothing. ahhh, the work that strips you off of the tiniest bit of time you have!

missing it all

serious meeting with a teammate

remember the entry about working with a team? well, that is still going on, full speed. i feel kind of sorry to leave my blog alone in the middle of the internet, but i don't feel sorry for creating new things! it's a shame i still can't post them for quite a while. i hope they turn out nice :) i rarely have time to design some stuff of my own. hmm...

when i am working like crazy, i miss the most mundane things like watching tv, surfing the internet (definitely not for scientific reasons ;) or sitting on a couch staring at the walls. come on, i need to stare at the walls to collect myself! don't you think that is a necessity?

three's a party

the dynamism of working with a team of a lot of people has always fascinated me. it is like you could go on forever! well, at least for a while. hehe. knowing that somebody is taking care of a piece of the huge task leaves you confident that you can focus on your own piece. not to forget the hilarious dialogues you have along the way:) to the team players all around the world!

how do you like working, on your own or with a group?

new stuff is coming:)

every rose has its thorn

assos was, as usual, fantastic. the sea was, again, very cold. and wonderful. swimming there is such a blast! although i must sadly warn that we have seen the tiniest beginnings of sea pollution. a little bit of foamy discharge here, some unnatural and dirty-looking moss on the rocks there. hmm. what a surprise... i will truly be mourning if the assos sea dies just like many others.

but hey, just look at this girl courtesy of assos nature. isn't she inspiring? the golden color, those layers, that ordered randomness, that surface just right and effective for the dry and hot weather. one wants to biomimic :) is that even a verb?

are there instances when you just want to use nature's solutions?

viajamos

i honestly didn't have my share of sea this year, which is unfair for a swimming enthusiast. i just cannot say farewell to summer without enjoying the aegean. between going to finland (what did you do there, by the way?) and working my ass off, i just couldn't fit in the time to jump into the water. if it weren't for some surprise alterations in our schedule, we wouldn't be able to go now, either. (ok first you were talking as 'i', suddenly you changed to 'we'. who exactly are you and how many people?)

turquoise waters, wait for me! hihi. us. we. i.