Images for my websites

On mornings when I don’t have to head away to a meeting or class, I work for at least an hour on one of my writing projects. Today it was a post for my science writers’ blog.

When I’m writing for a website, often I want to add an image. Usually pictures help to convey a theme, or photos give information that would take hundreds of words to explain, and drawings can be really cool. This can be a problem when there isn’t an image already available, either because I have no budget to acquire copyright images, or I left my digital camera at home, or because my drawing ability hasn’t progressed much beyond crayoning in kindergarten.cleanjay

So I’ve made some images that I can use on simple websites, or as placeholders for where I’ll put a more appropriate image. I used a program called Paint first, and later tried using Photoshop. It’s easier than I thought to take a photograph with strong contrast and do some changes to make an image rather like a black-and-white drawing. Other people I know use photos of their pets as placeholders, but I prefer the images I’ve made from photos my friends took of birds or me in a kayak. Working with Paint is so different from writing or coding that it is as refreshing for my mind as playing a game or checking my e-mail inbox.