This week's graphics challenge theme is Valentine's Day. It's that time of year when Cupid takes aim, so why not take a shot at this a Valentine's theme? With all the hearts, candy, and tutorials featured lately, you're sure to find something that suits your fancy. Create a scene, a greeting, whatever you like using this theme. Read more...

Valentine's Day is almost here! Grab some of these free graphics of hearts, candy, and flowers--or learn how to draw your own--and make something for your sweetheart this weekend.

Free Graphics:

• Painted Floral Graphics
• Flower Photos
• Valentine's Day Digital Scrapbooking Kit (PNG Graphics)
• Floral, Valentine's Day, and Heart stamps for Paint Shop Pro and Alien Skin Splat!
• Floral, Valentine's Day, and Heart objects for PhotoImpact.
• Floral, Valentine's Day, and Heart image lists for Corel Photo-Paint.
• Floral, Valentine's Day, Candy and Heart transparent PNGs for all software.
• Transparent Graphics from Barry's Place
• Colored hearts and conversation heart object sprays for CorelDRAW.
• Valentine's Day Collection Photoshop Presets - brushes, shapes, patterns, and styles.
• Free Heart Symbols for Adobe Illustrator
• More Free Graphics Goodies - borders, backgrounds, frames, patterns, and more

Tutorials:

• Drawing 4 Kinds of Hearts in CorelDRAW
• Interlocking Hearts in Illustrator
• Draw Candy Hearts in Paint Shop Pro
• Intertwined Lacy Hearts in Paint Shop Pro
• Hearts All A-Glitter - Animated Interlocking Hearts with Paint Shop Pro

When you finish your Valentine's Day crafts and projects, please take a screen shot or photo, and show them off in our Holiday Projects Gallery.

• Holiday Projects Gallery Submission Form

If you enjoyed the Fractals iPhone app I wrote about last month, you will want to check out Realtime Madelbrot, which is free for the weekend.

Realtime Mandelbrot only runs on the latest iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (3rd Generation) hardware, but it is much faster than the Fractals app (which is still free if you missed it before). However, it does not let you explore Julia Set fractals like the Fractals app does.

Be sure to pay attention to the short tutorial that appears the first time you run the program so you can learn how to navigate it. You can save the fractal images within the app, save to photos on your device, email the images, or share them with other users, and browse fractals shared by other users.

On the subject of fractals, has anyone read Altar of Eden, by James Rollins? Fractals were discussed a bit in the book, which I found interesting.

On this site:
• More About Fractals
• Graphics Apps for iPhone and iPod Touch

Is it worth getting a Pogo Stylus for drawing and painting on the iPhone or iPod touch? I posed this question on Twitter some time ago, and got no replies. So I decided to order one and find out for myself. Within just a few seconds of using it, I could tell it made a big difference in my painting accuracy. However, when you look at what it is in relation to what it costs, it's rather sad. Read more...