Art Software Resources - Paid and Free

Just a quick update since several people have asked for the list. Here are the art resources I use most for the majority of my work. Keep in mind, I use a Mac so with other platforms, your results might vary.

This is PhotoPea which does a great job, to a point. The larger the photo, the slower it gets.

Paid/Desktop Apps/Software - available for desktop and tablets:

Adobe Photoshop and Design, now available on subscription plans which is helpful if you're on a budget: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html I still use this for some of the short cuts I've developed, but more and more, I'm using Affinity Photo and Designer more.
Affinity Photo and Designer: I'm using Serif's Affinity products more lately as they offer the flexibility of GIMP and the robust offerings of Photoshop, for less money. A new product, Publisher, is available for pre-order and I'm getting curious about that one. https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/store/

Free Web-based Apps Online:

For generating pictures with quotes in various sizes QuotesCover.com: https://quotescover.com/
General Photo editing: Ribbet.com and PhotoPea.com
For filters and interesting art generation: LunaPic - https://www131.lunapic.com/editor/
Tag Clouds and Word Art: https://wordart.com/

Comments

Tim Ferriss and the Myth of Tango Mastery

Dear tanguero, I feel I should explain my reaction to your comments about Tim Ferriss. It touched a nerve and I didn't really explain my apparent hostility. It was certainly not meant for you. Several people have brought Tim Ferriss to my attention over this past year. I can usually make it a month before his name pops up again. For readers who are unfamiliar with him, he's the author of "The 4 Hour Work Week". He set a Guinness record for the most consecutive tango turns and has competed with his partner, Alicia Monti, at the Tango World Championship . As a social dancer the idea of a tango competition seems absurd. I don't think I will ever understand how something like tango could be judged - or why anyone would want it to be. But I digress. I think the most crucial detail of Ferriss's history, as I relate it to tango, is his winning Wired magazine's "Greatest Self-Promoter of All Time" . If there is any concept more out of synch with social ...

"Proper" Tango Shoes

Periodically someone, usually a man, will be bring up the topic of "proper tango shoes." If he's referring to the problem (and dangers) of trying to dance in flip-flops, or mules, or platform shoes etc., those are definitely valid, and very helpful points to be made. The likelihood of damaging your feet is very high without the proper support of high quality shoes. My problem comes with the idea that the *only* proper tango shoes have 4" stiletto heels on them and fetish-worthy embellishments. (Okay, I'm pretty keen on the embellishments myself.) "goofy ballroomy shoes are a turnoff... get rid of them..." - Alex Tango Fuego (granted this is from 2007), http://alextangofuego.blogspot.com/2007/10/to-dance-or-not-to-dancebrutally.html And, in the comments on a blog post, Anonymous said... " This is a controversial one. If a follower isn't wearing tango shoes then it's usually a good sign she's not particularly good." From Ms. Hedgeh...

Ganchos . . . again . . .

(Image courtesy of Emilie Boudet: http://www.emilieboudet.com) From the Facebook comments on my "Expressing the music or dancing for tables" post: "But adornments can become problematic when they interfere with something I'm trying to do. (I have enough trouble as it is). Some of these are basically harmless and don't really bother me that much. Like some ladies insist on doing a gancho whenever I lead them to step over my leg. I'm mostly amused by this. Some girls just like their ganchos and will seize any opportunity to do one." Predictably, I have several problems with the above behavior. First of all, they aren't "their ganchos" ! The gancho for the follower is led. It is my (nearly fanatical) opinion that it should never be an adornment or something the follower just decides to do on her own . As someone who is now attempting to learn to lead, the last thing I want to see, or heaven forbid feel, is a stiletto heel near my crotch ....

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