And the Emmy goes to...

Tatiana Maslany is the S***

After a long weekend of celebrating the birth of our country, I decided to celebrate the greatness that is the Canadian, Tatiana Maslany. She is currently the star of the BBC America show, Orphan Black. If you’ve never heard of Orphan Black, or haven’t sat down and watched the show yet, I highly recommend that you do. You will not regret it. Not only is the cast perfection, but also, the story keeps my mind engaged and my heart rooting for my favorite characters. Watch the trailer to see what I mean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do_BCA-vR9E

Orphan Black starts off as a simple premise. A girl witnesses the suicide of someone that looked exactly like her. However, this simple premise turns into a full blown sci-fi series of awesomeness. It turns out that both girls are clones, and they’re not alone. There are more of them. Bring in Tatiana Maslany. She has portrayed 9 different clones so far. That is just insane. Most actors only act as 1 person. Maslany regularly acts as 9 different people.

9 different personalities.

9 different accents.

9 different personal quirks.

And it’s believable, too. I get so engaged into the show and her acting, it never registers in my mind that she is the same actor.

So why am I going on about this chick you may ask?

Tatiana Maslany deserves an Emmy award. Period. Done.

Tomorrow nominees for the Emmy’s will be announced and I’m expecting Maslany to be nominated. While the other actresses will be nominated for their one role, Maslany will have the 9 roles to help her case. In the show, she’s played Sarah Manning, Elizabeth Childs, Alison Hendrix, Cosima Niehaus, Helena, Katja Obinger, Rachel Duncan, Jennifer Fitzsimmons, and Antoinette “Tony” Sawicki. One could argue that the girl deserves all the nominations in the category. (One could, yes, but let’s not get greedy now)

Proof? OK. The following is proof as to why she deserves all Emmy’s for the rest of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCMLQW-YaAc

And this video doesn’t even show all of the clones Maslany has portrayed. She is able to go from a con to a cop, from a geek to a freak, and from a girl to a guy. Yep, that’s right. A dude. I thought I had seen everything from Maslany, but then she blew my mind. In this past season, she portrayed a transgender clone. Although unsettling at first, her commitment to the character was undying and again proved how amazing her talent is.

And that talent is unending. She has perfectly captured different personalities and quirks with each clone. As Sarah, she pouts/grimaces. As Alison, her eyes get really big. As Cosima, she emits calm and peace. And as Helena, she portrays child-like (and at times, psychotic) eyes, as if just seeing the world. Every performance is perfect. I could go on and on about her acting.

But please, join me tomorrow in the hopes that she will finally get what she deserves.

Photoshop: Learning the Basics

Photoshop Tutorial

Learning the Basics

By Chelsea Stulen

So, you want to learn Photoshop?

Many people have come to me, claiming that they want to learn Photoshop. Some say that they just don’t know where to start, while others say it’s like a foreign language and are “afraid” of it.

I’ve been Adobe certified for several years, so I guess it would be appropriate for me to make some tutorials for you all.

Now, onto the learning!

If you want to learn Photoshop, I recommend first memorizing the tools:

Once you have this all down, it's smooth sailing. Essentially, learning all of the tools gives you the fundamentals to do the essential basics in Photoshop. Also, in order to get the drop down menu for other tools in the same category, you must hold click. Any icon that has a small black triangle in the corner means that there is a drop down menu available.

To use a specific tool, either click the tool you wish to use, or type the shortcut command for it on your keyboard.

I highly recommend memorizing the shortcuts for each tool. It is much faster to press a quick button instead of having to use the mouse and click the icon. I know this may sound strange, but some users tend to use drawing tablets while working in Photoshop. Even in Photoshop classes, it is common to have tool quizzes given by the teacher. It definitely expedites the process by using shortcuts. 

Also, whichever tool you used last in a specific category is what would appear when you use a shortcut. For example, despite the Gradient Tool being the default tool for its category, if you used the Paint Bucket Tool last and use the keyboard shortcut “G,” the Paint Bucket Tool is what would pop up. To use the next tool in the category, press Shift on your keyboard and then its given letter. Like for this previous example to use the Gradient Tool again, press Shift G.

The following is a list of shortcuts for the tools:

• ·      Move Tool: V
• ·      Rectangular Marquee Tool; Elliptical Marquee Tool: M
• ·      Lasso Tool; Polygonal Lasso Tool; Magnetic Lasso Tool: L
• ·      Magic Wand Tool; Quick Selection Tool: W
• ·      Crop Tool: C
• ·      Slice Tool; Slice Select Tool: K
• ·      Spot Healing Brush Tool; Healing Brush Tool; Patch Tool; Red Eye Tool: J
• ·      Brush Tool; Pencil Tool; Color Replacement Tool: B
• ·      Clone Stamp Tool; Pattern Stamp Tool: S
• ·      History Brush Tool; Art History Brush Tool: Y
• ·      Eraser Tool; Background Eraser Tool; Magic Eraser Tool: E
• ·      Gradient Tool; Paint Bucket Tool: G
• ·      Blur Tool; Sharpen Tool; Smudge Tool: R
• ·      Dodge Tool; Burn Tool; Sponge Tool: O
• ·      Pen Tool; Freeform Pen Tool: P
• ·      Horizontal Type Tool; Vertical Type Tool; Horizontal Type Mask Tool; Vertical Type Mask Tool: T
• ·      Path Selection Tool; Direct Selection Tool: A
• ·      Rectangle Tool; Rounded Rectangle Tool; Ellipse Tool; Polygon Tool; Line Tool; Custom Shape Tool: U
• ·      Notes Tool; Audio Annotation Tool: N
• ·      Eyedropper Tool; Color Sampler Tool; Measure Tool; Count Tool: I
• ·      Hand Tool: H; Spacebar
• ·      Zoom In: Control + (Macintosh OS: Command +)
• ·      Zoom Out: Control – (Macintosh OS: Command -)
• ·      Zoom Tool: Z
• ·      Switch Foreground and Background Colors: X
• ·      Edit in Quick Mask Mode: Q
• ·      Change Screen Mode: F
• ·      Select All: Control A (Macintosh OS: Command A)
• ·      Deselect: Control D (Macintosh OS: Command D)
• ·      Also use brackets to shrink or enlarge brush and eraser sizes [ ]
• ·      New Document: Control N (Macintosh OS: Command N)
• ·      Open Document: Control O (Macintosh OS: Command O)
• ·      Save: Control S (Macintosh OS: Command S)
• ·      Print: Control P (Macintosh OS: Command P)
• ·      Undo: Control Z (Macintosh OS: Command Z)

I will be posting more specifically delving into each of these tools. Each one can do a plethora of things, so it is deemed important for you to learn all of the elements (lol, get it? Photoshop Elements?). Once the tools are understood, you are then able to start learning the advanced elements within the program.

In the Beginning...

This is the Jabberwock Jackalope: A blog of nonsensical juxtapositions.

For out first blog post we just wanted to introduce ourselves and give you all a teeny window into our randomly crazy lives.

“Chelsea is pure awesomesauce. She is a hyperactive graphic art student who’s been married to her hubby for 3 years. In my free time I enjoy messing with Chelsea in her sleep. You see, she is a narcoleptic. I swear, people need to study this chick or something. Her sleeping is amazing.”

-Allison

“Allison is…[falls asleep instantly]…(mumbles) a coffee addict…and a book hoarder [continues talking in incoherent sentences and will not remember this tomorrow]”

-Chelsea

Throughout our posts we hope that we’ll be able to share little bits of our lives and maybe (hopefully!) teach you something along the way.