One of the most popular posts of 2008 on this blog was 40 Photoshop Tutorials for Lighting and Abstract Effects. Since it has been close to a year since that collection was put together, a number of excellent tutorials for working with lighting effects have been published. With this post I’d like to present the second edition of tutorials.

There is no longer need of talking about what twitter is and what it does in today web. Twitter icons are almost on every website or blog and you can hardly find a blog without a small blue (in most cases) bird that says, “please follow me”. But how do you convert your visitors to followers? The most used way that can be implemented on a website/blog theme is to use an attractive icon and ask your visitors to click on to follow you.

Photoshop gives designers the ability to create some amazing effects that can accomplish just about anything you can image. Fortunately, there are plenty of Photoshop experts who are willing to write detailed tutorials to show off the potential. Here is a look at some of the best tutorials for using various lighting and abstract effects.

Following one’s Twitter tweets are as good as subscribing to the RSS feeds. Not only it feeds you the latest updates, it’s also a perfect medium for communication and networking. Realizing how Twitter can potentially help to increase readerships, more and more bloggers/webmasters are massively promoting their Twitter account through blogs and websites. If you love a particular blog you’ve stumble upon, chances are you will want to follow their Twitter too. But let’s not make this too difficult for users to find where that Twitter link is. Catchy graphics are always better than plain text and they are easier to spot. If you are keen to increase Twitter followers, here’s a compilation of 100+ Remarkably Beautiful Twitter Icons And Buttons you can apply on your site.

Pete Harrison is a very successful designer that has mastered the art of photo-manipulation. As a freelance designer Pete works for many different companies doing commissioned work, he explains to us what a designer needs to do to find clients, as well as his inspiration for his work. Pete is also currently working with a clothing line, so be sure to check it all out.

Parker Gibson is an upcoming artist trying to make on the big world of digital art and design, he talks about his work, the struggles of being a digital artist, and he also gives us all access to his new projects and future plans, check it out!My name is Parker Gibson, I'm 23 years old and I currently reside in Edwardsville, IL USA. I started doing digital work in the fall of 2007, and am currently in school transferring for my BA in fine arts.

Luis Miguel Torres is a designer with a unique style and a set of strong beliefs about his place in the design world. Luis’s style can vary from photo manipulation to an intense collage of numerous different stocks that are blended to complete harmony. Whatever style Luis uses in his art, you can bet it will always come out pleasant to the eyes. So lets get into another great interview with another talented artist.

Disney's version of the tale is absolutely obsolete as I can see... people don't believe it as the cute story of a girl lost in a different land, but they do believe that Wonderland is one hell of a wicked place to be lost at. Poor Alice has lost her way... and thank God for illustrations like these to show us this dark side of the story... but still, there are some cute images in here, just to remember the good old days.

I do not know if you have noticed it yet, but lately a lot of web design blogs(like Webby freebies) have appeared with quite big graphics in their backgrounds. If you can do such a background in a professional way, it can look very nice actually. Therefore, I have now done this Article with 158+ extremely fresh coffee stains brushes for you to easily make your own background with the same nice look.

Photo manipulation is fun to do where artists are able to display their creativity in the way they want it to be. The main focus for this post is portraiture. Here we can see how each artist created their works using all sorts of graphical elements to beautify a simple portrait.