LVS Online Classes
LVS Online ~ Where Learning is Fun!

Web Typography Online Class

August 26th, 2010 lvs

Typography is the practice of arranging type within a design. When you design a page for print, you control the size of the paper and the placement of the elements. On the web the size, resolution, fonts, and even the layout of your page can vary with the browser and the system used to view your site.

Web Typography is going through considerable changes. New techniques along with new web browser capabilities are giving Web Typography new life. This Web Typography online class will take a fresh look at Web Typography and explore all the new possibilities that are available. Some things we will discuss include:

• Web safe fonts and downloadable fonts
• New web font services
• Using emphasis, contrast, and scale
• Practical methods for achieving quality typography with current technologies
• Best practices for creating appealing designs using typographic style principals developed specifically for the Web
• Future of web typography

When you finish this Web Typography online course you will be able to use Web Typography to transform your website into a work of art.

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Web Accessibility Online Class

August 24th, 2010 lvs

The Web is an increasingly important resource. It is essential that the Web be accessible to everyone. The Web must be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities. The Web offers the possibility of greater access to information and interaction with others for many people with disabilities. Currently most web sites have accessibility barriers that make it difficult or impossible for many people with disabilities to use the Web. Web accessibility is about making websites accessible so that people with disabilities can navigate and interact with others on the Web. Websites should be designed so that people are not excluded from accessing the content and services provided on the Web.

A key principle of Web Accessibility is constructing web sites that are flexible and can meet different user needs, preferences, and situations. Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities. Web accessibility also benefits people without disabilities in certain situations, such as people using a slow Internet connection, people with temporary disabilities such as a broken arm, and people with changing abilities due to aging. Millions of people have disabilities that affect their use of the Web.

Before anyone can make their web site accessible, they must understand accessibility, learn how to implement accessibility, be committed to ensuring accessibility, and understand their legal obligations. The Web Accessibility online class is meant to be an introduction to Web Accessibility including:

• An overview of accessibility laws and guidelines
• An overview of different browsing technologies
• How to code accessible websites
• How to test your sites for accessibility

How can you make your web site more accessible? This isn’t difficult to accomplish and doesn’t require anything more than your normal tools: XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, Flash, or whatever else that you normally use. All you need to do is, use these tools in the right way, and remember the guidelines that exist to help you keep your websites accessible and the laws that enforce web accessibility around the world. Yes, there are Accessibility laws, and companies have gotten sued for not having an accessible web site. Accessibility is a legal concern that must be considered at all stages of web development.

Who is this class for? This Web Accessibility online course is for anyone that has a web site, designs web sites, or is responsible for the web sites of others. You will learn design principles that you can immediately apply to your web site to make it more accessible.

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Photoshop 3D Level 2 Online Class

August 23rd, 2010 lvs

In the introductory class, we started exploring the 3D world from within Photoshop. A little at a time you were introduced into this wonderful arena using the Photoshop interface and all its wonderful tool. Only so much could be accomplished in that 5 week class.

This Photoshop 3D Level 2 online class is a follow-on class to Photoshop 3D Introduction class. It continues where the first class left off as we continue to explore all the wonderful features Photoshop has brought to the world of 3D.

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Photoshop CS5 Special FX: Tips, Tricks, and Pizazz!

August 22nd, 2010 lvs

Join Sara Froehlich for tricks and special effects using Adobe Photoshop CS 5! In this online class, will talk about layer styles and how to create and save your own styles, and adding Actions to automate the program, as well as how to create your own actions, save them and share them with others. We’ll also learn about the new features in CS5: Puppet Warp, Content Aware Fill, and all about the new brush engine with Mixer Brushes and new bristle tips! This intermediate class is for Photoshop CS 5 only, and many exercises, tips, and tricks will not work with earlier versions of Photoshop or any version of Photoshop Elements.

The Photoshop CS5 Special FX: Tips, Tricks, and Pizazz! is an intermediate class is for both Mac and Windows users. You must have Photoshop CS 5 installed on your Mac or PC, and you must have a good working knowledge of Photoshop and how to use layers and text.

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Corel Painter: PhotoPainting & Portraiture III Online Class

August 21st, 2010 lvs

PhotoPainting & Portraiture III is the final of this three-part course. This class introduces human photo painting. You learn fascinating Pop Art, painting children, composite images and a beautiful bridal portrait. Lastly, embellishing a painting can be both challenging and rewarding to see a flat painted print come to life when texture is applied.

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Corel Painter: Explorations: Adventures in Scrap-collage

August 19th, 2010 lvs

This online class is all about creativity, and fun! It consists of five lessons in which you will learn to incorporate a combination of collage, montage, and digital scrap techniques to assemble five different images. Each lesson will have a separate theme, and the instructor will show you how to create some beautiful backgrounds, and various collage/scrapbook elements from scratch as well as how to “glue” various components together to produce the finished image. In the process, the instructor hopes to teach you a few new tricks about using Painter. Your completed projects will be suitable for printing, either to hang on your walls or to use for greeting cards (the instructor’s favorite use of computer graphics).

A collage may include newspaper clippings, ribbons, bits of colored or hand-made papers, portions of other artwork, photographs and other found objects, glued to a piece of paper or canvas. It may be either a flat image or a three-dimensional image.

A Montage, or Photomontage, is a composite image made from various photographs.

An assemblage is basically the same as a collage, except that an assemblage is always a three-dimensional piece of art.

A scrapbook is usually a collection of photographs and mementos pasted into a book for the purpose of preserving family history and/or memories of various occasions and highlights.

What all of these things have in common is the idea of collecting and assembling images from various items.

Join us in the Corel Painter: Explorations: Adventures in Scrap-collage online class at LVS Online Classes.

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Blogging Studio Online Class

August 17th, 2010 lvs

First, this isn’t a traditional online course. It is a blogging studio where we gather together to learn and support each other in creating interesting, entertaining and/or effective blogs. One of the students explained the Blogging Studio online class as…

"Bring your blog(s), a sack lunch and refillable coffee mug and a list of questions and/or issues you want cussed and discussed until solved, and settle in for five weeks of work. It is helping and learning from each other as well as from our instructor Bean and her sidekick, Anita."

You can bring your blogging questions but how do you ask questions about blogging topics that you don’t about yet? Each session we will start off with at least one tradition lesson, where Bean will provide instruction and exercises related to a relevant blogging topic that may be new to you. The rest of the session will be driven by student questions. Participation and practice will be the focus of this class. Part of the student’s learning process will include assisting other students via feedback and interaction. The instructor and assistant will provide instruction and assistance via:

• the class message board
• reading list
• sharing of resources
• short exercises
• interaction on student blog
• participation in relevant social networks

Blogging questions are limited only by your imagination, here are some possibilities:

Learn more about blogging and see what past students are doing at the Blogging Class Blog

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Photoshop Elements 8 Beyond the Basics: High Seas

April 24th, 2010 lvs

We have Set Sail, we’ve had Clear Sailing, and now I will take you on the High Seas in this third online class of the series of courses specifically for Photoshop Elements 8 software.! This class will cover more advanced features of Photoshop Elements 8, such as installing and using layer styles, actions, and third party plug-ins. We will learn to replace a bad sky with a good one, work with patterns, and cover some more advanced photo correction techniques, such as using Camera Raw. We will learn to make a studio portrait from a snapshot, do a bit of digital alchemy and turn silver into gold, and much more!

This online course is not linear like the basics classes. It takes you above and beyond so you can use Elements to its potential. You will draw on skills learned in the basics classes to go further and become more creative than before. You will expand your knowledge of Elements with layer styles, actions, and plugins, and real layer masks! You will also learn to use camera raw to edit photos – even jpgs!

Sara Froehlich is the instructor of the Photoshop Elements classes. Sara is the co-author of Microsoft Expression Design Step by Step. She started in computers in the mid-80’s but she didn’t start teaching until 2001 when she discovered that was what she really loved to do: write and teach! Things have come a long way since then, and her abilities have grown along with the computers and programs she uses. She has probably tried almost every graphics program out there and have written classes for most of them. Since 2001 she has written over 40 courses for Photoshop Elements, Photoshop, Illustrator, Xara, Corel Photo Paint, Dreamweaver, Expression, Acrobat, Freehand, and Fireworks.

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Corel Painter: PhotoPainting & Portraiture II Online Class

April 21st, 2010 lvs

Further enhance your PhotoPainting & Portraiture skills by learning how to paint beautiful skies and embellish your painting with textures; pastels, snow scene paintings and animal portraiture ; paint hair, fur and feathers – paint your own favorite pet. All this from photographs!

The PhotoPainting & Portraiture II online class covers more landscape painting but introduces painting of animals and birds. You will have the opportunity of painting your very own favorite pooch or kitty, or other favorite animal.

Each week you are given an image as you did in PhotoPainting & Portraiture I and step by step instruction is given on how to transform a photograph into a lovely painterly image. You are then requested to paint your own.

Create your own hairy brush; learn what brushes are great for feather painting and make a nice brush for snow, although I have provided brushes for this. In the PhotoPainting & Portraiture II online course there are some video demonstrations, so look out for that information in the lesson.

Maureen Eves-Lavis is the instructor of the PhotoPainting & Portraiture II Online Class. Maureen has always been interested in art and drawing, arts and crafts such as dressmaking from her early school days through to attending Art College. Dabbling in real media art, particularly in sketching and drawing, then oils and acrylics … then…. her interest turned to graphic arts software. In the 1990s she obtained a copy of PhotoImpact, which she played around with for a while. It wasn’t until 2004 when she became more serious in arts and graphics, but more in Digital Art. In 2005 Maureen attended Digital Art Classes that opened a whole new and exciting world to her.

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Would You Like To Learn…

April 20th, 2010 lvs

Would you like to learn about Painter’s Brushes?
Would you like to learn Digital Collage in Painter?
Would you like to learn how to paint – even though you may think you can’t?

Painting with Corel Painter

These three questions are directed to you, for you to give some thought to what ‘YOU CAN DO’! I say this in a positive sense because I know you can. How? By learning the techniques using Corel Painter’s fabulous software. Open your eyes to a wonderful world of creativity. Believe me, once you have mastered Painter you will be well on your way to painting your own creative art.

Painter’s brushes are not just a tools to pick a color and paint across the canvas. No, by adjusting, applying and making use of Painter’s Brush Creator or Brush Controls you can make just about any brush display great paint strokes with many variations. You not only learn about Painter’s brushes but all aspects of Painter surrounding the brushes and tools, the palettes, layers and much, much more. There is step by step instruction with numerous graphical examples. Once you learn Painter’s brushes you are well on your way to advance your knowledge in Painter, like taking the following classes.

What about Collage, do you know what Collage is? Well, to me it has a similarity to scrapbooking; something I learned many years ago. You may or may not like scrapbooking, but Collage in Painter is a whole new concept. Digital Collaging is a very interesting and a rewarding experience. Create beautiful art pieces from a variety of images and apply Painter’s many avenues of blending these images together with embellishments, textures and paint to form a Collage. Digital Collage is only limited by your imagination!

Photo Painting…… wow, this is fabulous to learn with Painter. Painter has all the tools for you to create great paintings. Turn a simple photograph into a beautiful work of art, worthy of display on your wall. Start at the beginning with simple cloning and advancing to painting and changing photographs. Portraits of your children, grandchildren and pets. Learn how to paint realistic eyes, lips, hair and the softness of a child’s skin, amazing faces of the aged and how the Old Masters painted. Embellishing your images ‘from before to after print’ giving them a sense of depth and reality, just like an original oil painting. I will be delighted to teach you all aspects of Corel Painter in my classes.

If you would like to view previous Students’ work, click on the link below. Believe me, you will be very pleasantly surprised at the high standard of their artwork. Painter Artz Blog

So, what are you waiting for? Come and sign up for a class to learn more about the lessons provided and registration plus costs for each class. The fees for LVS Online classes are extremely affordable to all.

I hope to see you there. Where? in my classes of course! Corel Painter Art Classes – Brushes, Collage and PhotoPainting & Portraiture

Maureen Eves-Lavis
Corel Painter Instructor at LVS Online Classes

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