Day: January 13, 2016

Typing Improvement

Lynn

Another thing I’ve challenged myself to this year is to improve the accuracy of my typing. I’m a touch typist, something I learned in high school, and I can type about 60 words a minute. My accuracy is terrible and I expend a lot of effort backspacing and correcting errors. I can’t go on if I know an error is there. So the first thing I need to improve about my typing is my accuracy.

I did a few typing tests and some exercises. My speed is just over 60 wpm (not slower unless I’m trying to type numbers and special symbols), and a bit closer to 70 wpm if I’m typing plain text.

I think I’ll do some self-study on this for a while instead of using online tools and practice stroking the keys I’m most likely to confuse or miss until I can hit them every time without thinking about it.

 

100 Design Tutorials Challenge: Soft Light Photo Effects

Lynn

I decided not to do a cover design challenge just yet. I definitely feel like I need to learn more before I start pushing myself in that direction. Instead, I came up with something I think is more in line with what I need right now: I’m going to watch or read 100 design tutorials that will help me understand more about design, what I can do, and how to do it. I’ll also practice what I learn, but that’s not something I’m going to make part of this challenge.

Today I watched this tutorial.

https://youtu.be/6vVKC7yweFo

My plan is to keep up a log here of the tutorials I’ve watched or read as an easy way to keep track of my progress with the challenge.

This particular tutorial taught me that it’s a fairly straightforward and simple process to swap out similar backgrounds in a photo. Also, playing with color and light can make a huge difference in how warm a photo looks. Adding shadows gives depth. The final image shown here would make a really nice cover for a romantic YA story, whereas the original seems much too harsh for a successful cover.

I’m definitely going to practice some of the stuff I saw in this video.