Free Image of the Week

One Free Image. Tulips.

This week’s free image is nothing but blue sky. And tulips. Beautiful tulips. Our free photo gives you plenty of time to blend these flowers into any seasonal greeting you may have in mind. (Hint: Mother’s Day is right around the corner.) This week’s free image is the work of contributor Hapelena. Hapelena’s other amazing…

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Tutorials

5 Crucial Budgeting Tips for Every Freelancer

For new freelancers and veterans alike, juggling your income can be a challenge. While the benefits of working on your own are certainly appealing – flexibility, independence, and tax deductions, to name a few – managing your checkbook on an inconsistent income isn’t one of them. That’s not to say that it can’t be done. With a little foresight and some thoughtful budgeting, you can lead a steady, stable life on a freelance income.

These quick tips will help get you started:

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Galleries Fun Friday

The Memes of Spring

From Cristin Burton, Bigstock’s graphic design guru, who’s clearly had enough of winter: Here in New York City, the poopy winter is just winding down. Spring is finally here! I can hardly contain myself. I’ve already reorganized my closet, and my flowery dresses are at the ready. I also created some Spring Memes to celebrate. Hope you like them.

Now, if you’ll excuse me … The sun’s shining! It’s spring! I wanna go outside! AAAAAAAAAAH!

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Tutorials

An Intro to Working with Vectors

Vectors are images that are suitable for illustrations that contain precise measurements. A vector is different from a bitmap image (jpg) because its information is much simpler, and it is scalable to any size and can be edited freely. Vectors are not as useful for displaying photo-realistic images like photographs because those types of images generally do not contain well-defined shapes and curves. In this tutorial, you will learn how to work with a vector to make it easily editable for you. You will change the color of individual shapes, color many shapes together, and edit a path, which is what defines a shape in Illustrator.

Let’s use this vector from contributor Fixer00.

1. Find your vector image. To narrow your search down to vector images only, make sure the “Vectors” checkbox is clicked. Once you find your image, download it, making sure you click the “vector” option. You’ll then download an .eps file.

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