Book reviews

Digital Art Revolution
creating fine art with Photoshop by Scott Ligon

Most books I've read on Photoshop so far have been from the photographer's, retoucher or illustrator's perspective. This is the first one I've come across that was from the artist's viewpoint.

The book provided me with some much needed direction. He lays out some basic guidelines and then says one shouldn't limit themselves in any way with the 'new art'. He also...

I really have a hard time finding lipstick the right color. And have thrown away too much money on the wrong color.

So I thought - why doesn't someone make an application where you take a photo of yourself with a white piece of paper. Then your true lip color could be converted to HSL or LAB and matched against a database of lipstick colors and voila! The best...

I'm acting like a kid in a candy store - I don't really know where to start. I downloaded the full CS5 suite so I that I could take it out for a spin. Firing up InDesign was like a breath of fresh air. I used it umpteen years ago. It was like I've been holding my breath since using it last and finally exhaled. Now I can easily do all the text+image layout stuff that has been stymieing me in other programs.

So now do I study; 3D, animation, website layout?

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My first thought on handling the iPad was that Adrian Monk would have a devil of a time with all the fingerprints on the screen. SNL should do a skit where he keeps wiping his fingerprints off of the screen. (like I do)



My second thought was that this was an expat's dream...the NY Times on a Sunday morning

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Concept camera
As I try to teach myself how to use the SLR I keep finding myself thinking 'wouldn't it be nice' if-

• the viewfinder was on the bottom
• there was a tiny built-in tripod that folded out
• that there was a slider that chose a wheel for; ISO, aperture or shutterspeed
• there was a notch where I could stabilize the camera on the bridge of my nose

Then I wouldn't cover the LCD with nose grease, I wouldn't have to deal with pretentious inscrutable names for settings and maybe I...