Ralf is an advanced practitioner of Illustration. He has mastered Photo, Nature and Traditional Illustrations to compile an amazing online portfolio.

Born and raised in Nuremburg, Germany, he broke out into the freelance world in’91, to pursue the design dream. He is now a member of the Association of Art in Erlangen and a member of the German Designers Alliance.

For most of his years as a freelancer, Ralf has managed to specialise in certain areas with his work. This includes airbrushing mix-techniques, photorealism and painting fine colour shades.

Ralf still believes this is an ongoing process that should be learnt more than once as people tend to forget that the design world is ever growing and someone, somewhere always develops a new way of designing.

In 2003, Ralf had a change of direction using Abstract art, as he was working solely with a putty knife. This is considered to be highly popular area and understood well by art lovers.

He has now formed a new way of designing, a technique which uses painting and photographs in one design. These techniques and skills must be developed side by side so they fit well with each other. It will be easy to identify when something is not right, when it’s taking the photorealism out of the design.

Ralf enjoys spending as much time as possible at his computer developing these techniques and skills even further. But he does not think he will be able to design and illustrate from pencil to paper as he decided to go digital from’98. This has helped him master all the talent he possesses to date.

Sony Pictures, Daewoo Deutschland, Siemens, Campina, Wirtschaftswoche, Erdinger, Ytong and many, many more have used his services. If you require any more information about Ralf Kunstmann, his work, his techniques or general information, visit the website, where his online portfolio can be viewed to find out more.

See Ralf’s work along with other strong great Illustrators and see our home page for new information on Illustration.

Perhaps the best way to announce the birth of your precious addition to your family is through photo birth announcements. The first step in getting your birth announcement started is to take the perfect picture. Save time and money by taking the picture yourself instead of taking your newborn to a professional. Make sure your camera is set to the highest resolution, so your picture will be clear and focused, which will let you show off your little one.

When taking the picture for photo birth announcements, lighting is very important. Be sure to either use flash or set up the lighting in the room just right. With the proper lighting, you can make your baby?s eyes sparkle, which adds the perfect touch to any announcement. After you have taken the picture, use free software from online to edit it.

With this free software, look at how you want to crop your picture. Many birth photos actually look better when they are close ups on the face, or taken from the chest up, instead of full body shots. This is because close ups capture more of the uniqueness and individuality of your baby, which is the whole point of photo birth announcements.

Cropping your photo is the next step. Typically photos work better for photo birth announcements when they are close ups or from the chest up, rather than full body shots. These close ups capture the details that make your baby unique, which set your announcement apart.

If you choose a colored photo that is very vivid, then you may want to choose photo birth announcements that have a sort of muted background, which will help make your picture pop. This is also true in the opposite case, as a black and white photo works well with a colored background.

Rather than black and white photos, or colored photos, if you choose a sepia toned picture of your baby, you might want to avoid a brown background. Contrary to what it may seem, this is hard to match browns between printing and the picture.

Overall, you want to avoid matching too much with only one color. This matching will create a monochromatic color scheme, which will wash out your photo. A good idea is to choose an accent color from the photo, and use that in the actual photo birth announcement. These accents tie the whole look together, and deliver the professional feel you are looking for. Just keep in mind that you do not want to choose the dominant color for photo birth announcements for the background.

If you are using a black and white photo, typically blue photo birth announcements work better than some of the warmer colors, like yellow. These cooler colors keep your photo birth announcements from looking dingy, which is something you will want to avoid. When you choose a winning combination, you can make sure that your photo birth announcements are so adorable, that no one will ever want to take them down off the fridge.