Mr. Puddle Opens A Store

It’s been awhile since I worked on a new header, but I had occasion to design one recently.

I joined Fine Art America last year. It’s one of many sites where an artist can sell prints and greeting cards online.

For a $25 annual fee, you get your own store— basically a site which you can personalize, including the header.

Here’s what the default header looked like:

Pretty simple, pretty boring, a typical default.

Also: extremely narrow. Its dimensions are 970 pixels by 100 pixels. (My blog header, by contrast, is 920 pixels by 180 pixels.)

Not much room to work, but I decided to give it a shot. I wanted to add a bit of humor, and the blog’s URL. Here’s the result:

Here are two larger detail images. That’s a little caricature of me as a puddle. Yes, I’m a man who knows how to relax.

I drew the graphic elements at approximately double-size. I was pretty sure I’d have to make adjustments when I pasted them into the allotted space, so I didn’t worry too much about trying to get the sizes and perspective exactly right. Here’s the finish.

I included some extra jokes: a little umbrella and a straw. I thought I’d have room for them. I was wrong. 

Adding a black border shows how very narrow the allotted space is. I had to delete the umbrella and straw, and you can see that my head is now longer and flatter.

How do you squash a head and keep things proportionate? In Photoshop, it’s the easiest thing in the world: you select it, then apply Transform>Distort. I clicked on the upper center handle, then pulled down and to the right. You can always Undo and try again until you like the result.

After positioning the elements, I added some flat color, using a darker brown to suggest a table surface.

I used three separate text layers for maximum control, and a layer mask to eliminate the hard edges between the two colors.

To finish up: a bit of grainy texture, some shading, and a few ink blots.

Here’s the finished header again, in context. If you’re an art lover, I invite you to drop by the store!  : )

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Do you pay much attention to headers? Ever tried to design one yourself?

Is it dignified for an artist to portray himself as a puddle? Does it suggest he likes to lay down on the job??

Hope you’ll leave a comment.

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