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    New Post

    Oakleaf hydrangea painting in progress

    Painting in the Shade

    Last summer, my friend, Dari, invited me to paint in her garden, which is full of attractive flowers and plants. How wonderful it is to have friends like her! On hot, sunny days, I … [Read More...] about Painting in the Shade

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    Web Design

    TFord MultiDevice Website Mockup

    Learning Opportunities in Web Redesign

    In this web redesign project, the client requested that I update their site with a fresh, new look and a parallax scroll effect on the home page. Parallax creates a 3D viewer experience. The use of movement gives the illusion of depth and space. As this would be my first parallax design, I relished the opportunity to learn more about … [Read More...] about Learning Opportunities in Web Redesign

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    Graphic Design

    AI-links-panel-1140

    Packaging Illustrator Files

    Adobe introduced the package feature for Illustrator with CS6. Prior to this welcomed update, we had to manually duplicate our Illustrator files and collect all of the associated images and fonts into a folder. Talk about opportunities for error! Unless you were extra careful, it was inevitable that a font or image (or two) would be missing from … [Read More...] about Packaging Illustrator Files

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    Art

    Anne touching up the background on her transformer box

    Transforming Belmont: Art on the Corner

    Thanks to a generous grant from the Belmont Cultural Council, I was 1 of 5 artists awarded … [Read More...] about Transforming Belmont: Art on the Corner

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    Revisiting a Painting

    September 5, 2022 by ProfK 3 Comments

    Revisiting a painting: hidden azaleas finished

    I usually know if a painting is finished. Something in my gut tells me there's nothing more to do and we've reached completion. If I'm unclear, I ask myself this question: "Am I futzing or finessing?" The answer will lead me to my next step. Futzing equals done! Finessing means I have to make a few tweaks. I can see some thing(s) that just doesn't look right. Yet, I might not know how to "fix" it. What tweaks should I make? That's when I put it away and revisit the painting at a later … [Read more...] about Revisiting a Painting

    Filed Under: Art Tagged With: Auburn Lake, en plein air, painting azaleas, pastel painting, Spectacle Pond

    Cropping Thumbnails in WordPress

    August 5, 2022 by ProfK Leave a Comment

    Edit Image

    WordPress Image Defaults When you upload an image to WordPress, it goes into your Media Library. Then, WordPress generates 3 copies of it at default sizes: thumbnail (150x150 pixels square), medium (300x300 pixels maximum), and large (1024x1024 pixels maximum). Your theme settings may vary or include other sizes in addition to these defaults. The thumbnails, used in in the blog archive list and image galleries (among other things), automatically cut off parts of the original image. Sometimes … [Read more...] about Cropping Thumbnails in WordPress

    Filed Under: WordPress Tagged With: cropping thumbnails, media library, thumbnails, WordPress

    Beginner’s Guide to Gutenberg Blocks

    July 5, 2022 by ProfK 2 Comments

    Add block list cropped

    WordPress replaced the classic editor a few years ago with the Gutenberg block editor. I encourage you to start using it! The original classic editor behaved similarly to a word-processing program: the words and images got placed inside one, long, continuous edit field. With Gutenberg, each type of content has its own block: heads, paragraphs, images, quotes, lists, etc. It's a more modular system, very flexible and easy to style. In this tutorial, I'll introduce you to the basic Gutenberg … [Read more...] about Beginner’s Guide to Gutenberg Blocks

    Filed Under: WordPress Tagged With: block editor, Gutenberg, Gutenberg blocks

    Painting Azaleas at Auburn Lake

    June 5, 2022 by ProfK 2 Comments

    portil2104 - Azaleas on Blue

    I've always admired a pair of azalea bushes at Mount Auburn Cemetery's Auburn Lake. Their remarkable magenta and rose colors astound me. A Dawn Redwood tree provides a sheltering border. I love to paint in this quiet, magical area, especially in springtime. It's a very relaxing spot, very meditative. The only sounds I hear are birds singing. In fact, catbirds often watch me, probably because they build their nests there. Be sure to watch the video I made, posted at the end of this … [Read more...] about Painting Azaleas at Auburn Lake

    Filed Under: Art, Inspiration Tagged With: Auburn Lake, Dawn Redwood, Mt. Auburn Cemetery, painting azaleas, Spectacle Pond

    InDesign: Single Pages vs. Facing Pages

    May 5, 2022 by ProfK Leave a Comment

    Accordion fold

    When you create a New Document in InDesign, one of the most important choices you'll make is whether or not you want Facing Pages. The option is in the Preset Details, where Facing Pages is turned on by default for Print documents. But, if you want a Single Page layout, you can turn that off by deselecting it. In this tutorial, I'll explain the two scenarios and provide examples for each layout. Single Pages If the pages will be seen one at a time, then you use the Single Page … [Read more...] about InDesign: Single Pages vs. Facing Pages

    Filed Under: Graphic Design Tagged With: accordion fold, Adobe InDesign, barrell fold, document setup, facing pages, french fold, gatefold, half fold, pages panel, preset details, single pages, spreads, trifold, z-fold

    Favorite Books of 2021

    April 5, 2022 by ProfK 11 Comments

    I've loved books my whole life. When I was growing up, my mother took us to the library each week during the summer. As an adult, a lot of my reads for many years were books related to design, art and teaching. Once in a while, I go on a mystery binge. Fiction, non-fiction, historical novels, I love them all. Recently, when COVID-19 entered our lives, I started reading even more. Travel was restricted, but books allowed me to go to other places and brought other worlds into my own. My reading … [Read more...] about Favorite Books of 2021

    Filed Under: Inspiration Tagged With: American Dirt, Americanah, BookList, Pachinko, The Kitchen House, The Leavers, The Light of Days, The Nightingale, The Secret Life of Bees

    Text Gradients in Adobe Illustrator

    March 5, 2022 by ProfK Leave a Comment

    AI appearance panel: fill options

    Three methods In this tutorial, I'll show you three ways to create text gradients in Adobe Illustrator. We use the same word for each method so you can easily compare the results. Gradients are a nice way to enhance the typography and add visual interest. 1. Text Gradients Using the Appearance Panel The first method was shared by a student in my Digital Design Essentials class. For this, he gets a big shoutout: Thanks Bryant! I thought Bryant's technique was very cool and wanted to … [Read more...] about Text Gradients in Adobe Illustrator

    Filed Under: Graphic Design Tagged With: Adobe Illustrator, clipping mask, Compound Path, text gradients, Type Outlines

    Can I Display Videos in WordPress?

    February 5, 2022 by ProfK Leave a Comment

    wp-embedvideo-wraptext

    You can display videos and images in WordPress, and there are many good reasons to do so. First of all, they make your website more interesting and engaging. They also enhance SEO by attracting and retaining visitors. In this post, I share my recommended methods for displaying videos in WordPress. Self-Hosted Videos Self-hosted videos are those that you upload to your site. By default, WordPress allows many video formats to be uploaded to the media library. This approach is not always … [Read more...] about Can I Display Videos in WordPress?

    Filed Under: WordPress Tagged With: Custom HTML block, embed videos, hosted videos, iFrame, media library, self-hosted videos, url links, video block, videos, Vimeo, Wistia, YouTube

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    New Book Published!

    Kornegger book: Inside the Rainbow

    Art and design for book cover and interior

    Inside the Rainbow: Soul Connection in Nature, by Peggy Kornegger

    BUY THE BOOK!

    Peggy and I have completed our 3rd book together! This one is about soul connection in nature. Peggy is the writer, I'm the designer and artist. I think it's pretty darn special and hope you agree 🙂. Printed book and eBook are both available on Amazon.

     
    kornegger loseyourmind front cover
    Several of my paintings are in this book (including the cover)
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