Project files, desktop

designs, stock art…

ISSUE 41
Using colour | Portrait painting | Type art explored | Digital illustration | Interview: Simon Plant

USING PAINT
SKILLS
COLOUR
Experts show how to manipulate colour
and textures to bring your designs to life
Add shadows and highlights to
create striking portrait paintings

59
HOW TO… A
BRURTIST
Create art with type S IC
Design a Victorian scene THEHES ON
Perfect colour calibration CD
Draw a comical illustration

£5.99
41

MASTER 771748 727009

ISSN 1748-7277

LIGHTING
ISSUE 41

How adjustment layers can create

different lighting effects in seconds
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk

GET ON OUR COVER pages of professional

Upload to our website for a tips & essential step-
41
UE

chance to see your image here! by-step tutorials

ISS

001_AVP41_Mess.indd 1 7/2/08 14:12:53

 Cover

Cover image Photographer:

EGORR
Couscous Kid is the work of Mathew Thomas, an (ISTOCKPHOTO.COM, NO: ‘2605208’)
illustrator and designer based in Bath, UK, offering
up a unique style of psychedelic photomanipulation. Imageer:
Recently, Mat has been developing his style of image MATHEW THOMAS
making by working with original sketches drawn by
his wife Debra, whom he lives with, together with
their two children. Thomas’s images find homes
embodying and embracing beauty, fashion, nature,
A UNIQUE STYLE
music and, above all, life.
/
OF PSYCHEDELIC
PHOTOMANIPULATION
www.couscouskid.co.uk

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 Keeping an eye on the latest trends in contemporary photography, art
and design, Insight sets out to snapshot innovation in the making
Go with the Flow
GridIron Software, a leading provider in
workflow and performance tools for creative
applications, plans the launch of one of its
most innovative products to date.
With an expected release date of this
summer, GridIron Flow provides the most
ardent and professional creatives with the ability
to maximise time and work efficiency throughout a
range of project types. It does so by automatically
cataloguing each individual design process, from idea to end
result, through its sophisticated tracking system, recording all
Import/Export, Save/Save As and Copy/Paste actions and more.
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010-012_AVP_41_News.indd 10
Gridiron utilises contemporary Real-Time
Asset Technology to automatically build
workflow maps so users are treated to
maximum recognition over all files. Steve
Forde, CEO of GridIron Software, endorsed
the product technology by saying: “Creative
professionals now have an easy way to
visualise their design process and share their
projects with a colleague, ship them to a client or archive
them for safe keeping.”
Jonathan Hick, art director and principle of Post Factory, says:
“Flow looks to be the answer we have all been waiting for.
Versioning and pipeline tracking is now accessible and easy to
understand. It’s a valuable tool for my studio”.
Essentially, Flow captures individual points in time,
snapshots all your option choices and applications, tracking
everything that went into its creation, including swatches,
plug-ins and font selection.
Workflow maps will display to users all related application
files, media assets and internal structures, such as comps and
layers. With this software you’ll be able to track down to the
finest detail, even when and how long during the past week,
month and year you have worked on a project.
For more info and to sign up for beta testing, visit the
website below.
www.gridironsoftware.com
STEP BACK: Other Flow features include Visual
Versions, which automatically track versions of a
media file, including thumbnails and metadata,
allowing users to revert to previous file versions
anywhere in their workflow
13/2/08 09:54:47
 Elements for Mac on pre-order
03.08
Following its successful sneak preview at the Macworld
Conference and Expo in January, the highly anticipated Adobe
HOT
or
Photoshop Elements 6 is ready to pre-order at an asking price
of £57.58/$113.54.
Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac is software that combines

NOT
power and simplicity, so consumers of all levels can
comfortably achieve outstanding results.
Version 6 has introduced some entertaining and practical
new functions to its array. A prime example is the recent

HOT
feature based on proprietary Photomerge technology. This
allows users to easily combine the best facial expressions and
body language from a series of shots into one perfect whole.
A new Guided Edit mode helps walk users through the
steps of improving a photo and all comes complete with a WORLD OF
new interface, providing uncluttered screens that draw focus WARCRAFT: THE ART
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many capabilities of the software.
OF THE TRADING
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One for the fan boys, this title is a real
coup for all lovers of World Of
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Warcraft and the fantasy genre.
people to organise and find photos quickly, unleashing powerful
editing tricks

REQUIRED: All applicants must
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CREATING CARTOON
CHARACTERS IN
Not to be missed MODO
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URBAN ILLUSTRATION
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huge portfolio of bespoke photography, graphics, colour
This publication features 250 glorious
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innovative street art from Berlin.

NOT
Due to his success in his related fields, he is aware of the
importance to nurture emerging talents and the next
generation of commercial photographers and so, marking
his own 50 years in photography, he has supported the
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FOOT MOUSE
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serious investment and a fantastic opportunity for those slipper_mouse
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You’ll get a few giggles for your ‘work
of art’ bubblegum dispenser, but it
looks a bit naff…
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 insight ILIFE STYLE:
Every MacBook Air
comes with iLife ’08,
the most significant
update ever to
Apple’s award-
winning suite of

DIARY
digital lifestyle
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DATES
BRITISH ANIMATION
AWARDS
13 March 2008 (biennial)
Shaw Theatre, London, England

GLASGOW ART FAIR

27-30 March 2008
George Square, Glasgow, Scotland
OPTRONICA FESTIVAL
March 2008 (annual)
www.optronica.org
BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX,
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MacBook Air
With the new year still in its infancy, Apple
has wasted little time in providing
consumers with some of its most stellar
products to date. That’s right, it has gone mad
and provided the market with two of the most
innovative pieces of hardware, to satisfy every
creative’s needs.
First, there is its larger-than-life latest addition to the
Mac Pro product line. This high-performance machine
sports no less than eight processor cores, making it
Intel Core 2 Duo processors, running at 1.6GHz or
1.8GHz, power this product. Not only this but also it
includes, as standard, 2GB of memory and an 80GB
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Every MacBook Air includes a micro-DVI port
connecting users to Apple’s gorgeous 20-inch or 23-
inch Cinema Displays, extending their desktop or

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of its predecessor. These sentiments are supported
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president of Worldwide Product Marketing, who states:
“With 3.2GHz eight-core Xeon processing, a 1,600MHz
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Also featured is an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics
card with 256MB of video memory as standard. It also
connecting to projectors and other displays via DVI,
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capacity of previous products. Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO,
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keyboard or a full-size 13-inch display.”
This vibrant 13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen
display is another key feature, along with its energy

ART OF THE 1960S supports the latest generation of graphics cards from
NVIDIA, such as the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT with
AND 70S FROM 512MB of video memory, or NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600
LACMA’S COLLECTION with 1.5GB of video memory. Supporting up to four
Until 30 March graphics cards, the new Mac Pro can easily drive up to
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Next up is the MacBook Air. Although minuscule in
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certainly nothing meagre about this product.
Regardless of its attractive streamline structure,
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efficiency. A spacious trackpad offers multi-touch
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Apple has really spoilt the consumer market with the
evolution of its latest hardware, and to discover more
insight into key product features, visit www.apple.com.
www.apple.com

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 insight
END OF
CIVILISATION:
“My interpretation
of the end of
human civilisation.
I found that the
Statue of Liberty
would serve as a
great symbol for
the image”

e
had an imag
ADAGIO: “I It was a girl
in my mind.
olin in an
playing the vi d in her
ith win
open field w d to find a
hair. I just ha e
el for it. In th
perfect mod
out to be a
end it turned w
but I liked ho
cello player,
it turned out”

Yaga Kielb e rep

merous editorial an
utation, fulfilling nu cumentary movies, Yaga Kielb is an
d online
With a he althy on lin arate do
featuring in two sep
commissions, even has
hitect father, Kielb
artist on the rise. thr ou gh ou t the family, having an arc books. I always had the
g ring
With artistry runnin . “I never liked colou t school my favourite
ned when creating “Throughou
always felt entertai f,” rev ea ls Kie lb. k traditional
thing by mysel school, where I too
flair to draw some d to the Un ited States for high ve red the amazing
mo ve t dis co
subject was art. I l art cla sse s. That was when I firs to ex pla in: “I
sev era l yet.” She goes on
photography and gra phy, but not digita t rig ht after that I found
nities of ph oto me ra. Alm os
opportu t digital ca ge.”
art after I got my firs you can see the effect of that marria
discovered digital se tw o an d now ou gh to wi tne ss her
d tho ky en
Photoshop. I marrie if you’ve been luc pes,
en by all accounts y haunting landsca
One made in heav . Pre sen tin g my sterious and vividl ora ry dis cip lin es.
ositions al and contemp
enchanting comp no uri shments of tradition malist and dark, enigmatic and
ref lec ts the
Kielb’s work plains it as: “Mini with suspension po
ints’.”
o her style, she ex
Offering insight int y/f air yta le ele me nts. I call it ‘images tical im ag es, gro unded
tas tas
mysterious with fan true source of inspiration for such fan ate d in my he ad ,” she
But where does the e to tra ve l to im aginary places cre run aw ay fro m
in possible realities,
stem? “I lik imagination and
im ag es allow s me to ‘unleash’ my stl y an d co mb ine them with
explains. “Building n photographs mo one piece of work takes
day life. I use my ow ing
prevalence of every d my drawings. Sometimes complet ng on lighting and
some stock images
an
s. I sp en d a lot of time worki
urs , so me tim es it’s we ek
tak e me the most time.”
me a few ho
ht co lou rs. Fin ish ing touches usually lb’ s cre ati ve process and sh
e
choosing the rig
op ha s be co me a major player in Kie t program I learned. First,
Obviously Photosh otoshop was the firs t stayed
luence enough: “Ph I guess it was love at first sight. I jus
can’t endorse its inf I wo rk in CS 3. o us e Illustrator
there was CS, then
CS2, now ity’ program. I als
it all the tim e. Le t’s say it is my ‘prior I do n’t us e 3D pro grams;
with it and used ng with CD layouts. let.”
ecially when deali th my Wacom tab
and InDesign, esp pa rts of my images by hand wi as readily as her ow
n
es I dra w so me es a bri gh t fut ure s
sometim on , Kie lb en vis ag ation for mu sician
for creati ll serve as an inspir
With such fervour y my im ag es wi is to wi n the
pe that one da biggest dream
compositions: “I ho create movies. My
co mp os e mu sic and for directors to
to
the best CD cover.”
Grammy award for
/ www.ya ga k.c om
vie Sleepy
s inspired by the mo
AN: “This piece wa ile, so I was very
BLACK COACHM of im ag e for a wh
make this kind ined it”
Hollow. I wanted to s exactly how I imag
ed it, because it wa
happy when I finish

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 03.08

RAIN SONG: “I found this stock

photograph of the model and I instantly THE YOUNGEST: “Around 16 photo
had an idea what to do with it” graphs and a bit of drawing
put together in Photoshop. A lot of hours
of work, filters, masks
and textures. A piece inspired by the
movie Children of Men”
CITY OF LOST CHILDREN:
“This one was very much LIT TLE WITCH’S
inspired by one of my HOUSE: “This one
created without an was
favourite movies City of Lost y particular idea. I
experimented a lot
Children, directed by Marc with many different
elements until I sta
Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. yed with the house
which originally wa ,
I wanted to create my own s a photograph of
bird feeder” a
vision of the city”

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 insight
BEDTIME STORIES: “This picture features
one of my own characters, my fictional
‘model’ called Madame La Kukuruku. I
played with the light a little here, so it
became a good exercise in digital colouring”
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018-019_AVP_41_Insight.indd 18
Michał Szyksznian
Michał Szyksznian is an artist at the dawn of his own creative career. He shares
his time between his dedications for the arts with studying philosophy. His
thoughtful nature is not lost on his attitudes towards his own artistic voice nor his
rationality for never participating in higher art education, after five years spent at
fine-art school.
Szyksznian explains: “If it comes to education, I hardly see myself studying any
kind of art. It’s because I have a feeling that art school can take all of your creative
energy. At the end you don’t feel desire to draw for your pleasure, because all you
do is for school. When your hobby becomes a duty, it starts to be tiring or even
boring.” He adds: “I think it’s also a matter of your personality. I’m self-taught and I’m
nervous every time I’m forced to listen to somebody’s advice. I have a need to
discover things by myself.”
This indulgence in self-expression certainly seeps through to Szyksznian’s rich
topics and sensational compositions. Manifesting popular culture icons with
academic realism, his work is self-described as ‘postmodern popculturism’: “It’s half-
classy and half-kitschy, half-realistic and half-cartoon. It comes from cartoons and
comic books, but it’s heading towards academic realism and vice versa. I don’t want
to become a realist painter, though. I see no purpose in realism because mankind
has already invented photography. I love contours and the texture of pencils –
mostly because it provides the unreal aura to my illustrations.”
But Szyksznian also warrants the virtues of digital application that have graced
modern illustrators. Having familiarised with Photoshop ten years back, he admits
his first attempts were crude: “As a young teenager I was in love with the new child
of Top Cow, Michael Turner’s Fathom, and I was trying to achieve similar effects on
my own. I did a sketch of Tomb Raider and scanned it and then I didn’t know what to
do. The effects were really poor.” But his response was perceptive: “I didn’t give up.
For me it was the beginning of a ‘trial and error’ period, which exists till this day.”
This diligence has certainly seen him become an accomplished digital creator. His
half-traditional and half-digital method transgresses boundaries, allowing viewers
to muse. He explains: “Photoshop is something that allows you to be more brave in
colouring. The Undo function is a gift from heaven. It’s something that leads the
process of creating to a different level. You’re not afraid of screwing things up,
because you can always undo your actions. The other thing that makes Photoshop
better than traditional painting is that you don’t have to wait until the paint is dry.
I’ve tried oil painting and can officially say that I hate oils.”
PLAGUE: “The theme of ‘black’ death is
/ www.bullsik.com
really haunting and inspiring. This
picture shows my vision of a ‘beak
doctor’ without his mask, surrounded by
this disturbing presence of death
ALL
: AGAINST
A R ILY N MANSON is to illustrate
M al s
ne of my go the Mechanical
GODS: “O ly
l of hi s to urs, especial e. All those
al on
d the latest e you to play
Animals an ag
ally encour
concerts re
with light an
d colour”
13/2/08 09:57:35
 03.08

EARTHLING: “I wanted to make a self-portrait for a long time.

Lately I’ve been listening to Jobriath a lot so I decided to picture EAT ME, DRIN
myself as him (from the cover of his self-titled 1973 album). I took K ME THE HE
“One of my ma ART CHILD:
some photos of myself laying on the ground naked and then started ny portraits of
December 2006 Marilyn Manson
was the day wh . 25
working with pencils, ink-pens and Photoshop” recent album wa en the idea for
s born. I wanted his
allegorically an to show this
d th
part of a Nativity e whole portrait looks like it’s
scene. The style
inspired by Alp is heavily
honse Mucha”

her
amazed by e as
was really is piec
BJORK: “I d I di d th
Poland an ere’s
concert in e festival. Th
uld after th
soon as I co hind her head, which e
be figur
a reacTable like a saint
look more
makes her ”
er
than a sing

I WANT TO BREAK FREE: “This video by Queen was

always one of my favourites. I did this illustration just
because I wanted to have something heart-warming
hanging on my walls. Once again the style is partly
inspired by Mucha”

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 insight “My personal favourite among the
GATE OF GODS (MYTH PEOPLE):
ed paint ings for Myth Peopl e. Coming up with some simple
Tibet-them
es and relyin g on rewor ked photo graphic textures helped
new brush
greatly with this one”

GRIDLOCK: “I ma KIMBERLEY: “This piece was inspired

de quite a few pen
sketches to find an cil by Hayao Miyazaki’s film Princess
interesting way to
portray this. I eventu Mononoke. The beauty of Miyazaki’s
ally came up with
endless cars free flyi art keeps inspiring me and I wanted to
ng in a line with the
gridlock as an expan paint a scene that is peaceful and
ding knot that
refuses to be solved harmonious and also slightly magical”
”

“Yet another
(MYTH PEOPLE):
JUNGLE TEMPLE Peo ple. He re I had to take a
My th
temple painting for a simple 3D
spective and I used
shortcut with the per polygonal structure. I just
the
model to help set up s”
without any 3D aid
couldn’t get it right

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 Jussi Lehtiniemi
out a little unsure of wh
at he wanted to focus upo
n in his
03.08
Jussi Lehtiniemi started me dia in his spa re tim e, studying
h traditional of a
artistic future, painting wit y in Finland and dreaming
University of Technolog
architecture at Tampere g dow n into cre atin g the
es industry, before settlin was doing graphic design
,
career in the film and gam over these two pages: “I
wo rks of art you see and dra win g –
impressive painting
ling, traditional and digital to do. I finally
website design, 3D model I cou ldn’t dec ide what I really wanted
Bas ical ly tion, so I
anything to get paid. ke a car eer in illu stra
lise d I had to foc us my efforts if I wanted to ma Lin col n in the UK ] to
rea sity of
tion course [at the Univer t art.” Lehtiniemi is
enrolled on a BA Illustra illustra tion and con cep
better in digital career –
concentrate on getting starting my professional
finishing my course and
now “looking forward to
start learning for real”.
hopefully in a studio – to : “I got my first real
led to his first commission
This new fou nd foc us also
ng mu ltip le stu dio s and publishers with my
by approachi ded a freelance artist to
illustration commission pan y tha t nee
ally, I found a com ting and I learned a lot
résumé and portfolio. Fin s inte res
ke bac kgr oun d art for its games. The project wa guy s again.
ma those
forward to working with , with some essential
from it, and I’m looking e tha t firs t com mis sion
g way sinc
Things have come a lon was featured in Exposé 5
by
“My painting Kimberley inted)
and influential exposure: Aw ard in the Por trait (Pa
it was awarded a Master
Ballistic Publishing and e 6/2007 of the Fantasy Art
rk was featured in the issu e
catego ry. Som e of my wo
art can also be spotted in the puzzle gam
moment my
magazine of China. At the .co m). ”
(www.mythpeople ilar for each piece: “Usual
ly I
Azkend by Myth People
Lehtiniemi’s artwork is sim a. Sometimes I work on a
The process for creating my ide
sketches to better grasp pty canvas in Photoshop
do quick thumbnails and , but more often I take an em
scanned ske tch in Pho tos hop
ture s and bru shs trokes. I really haven’t
s and piling up tex h I’ve worked on it. I
and start blocking colour gs, alth oug
nd one def init ive app roach to start my paintin t fee ling to the idea it
fou righ
thing for me is to find the
guess the most important g the wo rk in Pho tos hop is usually
that, finishin
hand, and once I’ve found full of joy.”
ly easy, very relaxed and ce for his
straightforward, relative em i’s nex t ma jor project is his final pie
Leh tini sky.net,
Looking to the future, Iron Sky (ww w.i ron
sity cou rse , as we ll as concept art for the film this tale nte d artist in
univer a lot from
it seems we’ll be hearing
Energia Productions), so
the future. is one of my very
/
ussi DOWNFALL: “The Flatiron building
www.lbi-digital.com/j it in a freezing
favourite buildings and I wanted to paint
ing is also an
nuclear winter environment. The paint
exercise in using perspective”

DEVILISHLY WARM: “A
university project. The brief
was to illustrate a Tabasco
advertisement with three
merry devils admiring a
bottle of Tabasco with the
bottle being the focal
point despite its relatively
small size and the tagline
being ‘Devilishly Warm’”

THE VERTICAL:
“I
made a quick sketch
in
Photoshop, putting
down values and
composition, and
blocked in a base for
colours. Taking the
painting to finish
during the following
day or two was a
cheerful process”

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 Letters
Mailbox
Do you have a question or opinion about the
magazine? Email your thoughts to
advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk
or visit www.advancedphotoshop/forum
MOSAICS: Photo mosaics are easily created using a
plug-in or standalone program dedicated to the job
SUBJECT: Collage effect
FROM: Chong Wong
I use a PC with Photoshop CS2. Could you
please kindly advise how to make a collage
effect to form a single image. Is that by script or
plug-in?
Editor replies: There are methods that you can
use within Photoshop to create this kind of
effect, called a photo mosaic or photo tapestry,
but it takes a long time and a lot of effort.
Therefore, we recommend using a dedicated
plug-in or standalone program to do the job in
seconds. There are loads of options, each offering
different functionality and prices, but most offer
a free trial so you can find the one that’s right for
you without shelling out. Some programs that
are worth a look are: Easy Mosaic (www.
ezmosaic.com), Imosaic (www.imosaic.net) and
PhotoMontage (www.arcsoft.com). You can find
a longer list of programs as well as other useful
links at http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/
photomosaics/Photo_Mosaic_Software_
Information.htm. We tried out MozoDojo
(available from http://ktd.club.fr/
programmation/mozodojo_en.php for Mac
only) to create the image seen here. This
particular software is only a small download, and
is incredibly simple to use. There aren’t many
parameters that you can adjust, but the results
are not bad for a quick result. You can always
import it into Photoshop for final tweaks.
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022-023_AVP_41_Letters.indd 22
SUBJECT: Where’s the winner?
FROM: Mrs K Barsby
My daughters and myself have been greatly
upset since September this year as we have not
yet seen the winning picture in a competition
that was submitted by Mr James Barsby. My
step-son submitted the following entry into the
competition, which we have been waiting with
extreme anticipation to see published. We are
baffled as to why it still hasn’t appeared as his
prize arrived very promptly. Would you please
clarify which issue we will find his picture in.
Editor replies: Back in issue 32 we ran a
competition to win a Wacom Intuos 3 A56
Wide tablet, where we challenged readers to
create an image based around the word ‘Pen’.
The winner was James Barsby, and we
apologise for not printing the winning image in
a subsequent issue. It is a great image, and
deserving of publication, so here it is (below) in
all its finery. Congratulations once again, James,
and hopefully you’re enjoying that tablet!
SUBJECT: iStock explained
FROM: Vince (on the forum)
I was creating the underwater scene from issue
38, but in step three I have got to download a
WACOM WINNER: The winning image for our Wacom
competition in issue 32
file from iStock. What is iStock and where can I
find it? I work with Windows; can I use it too?
Editor replies: There have already been some
replies to this thread on the forum but, for
clarification, iStock is an online image library
where you can purchase stock images to use in
your artwork. You can find the site at
www.istockphoto.com. Simply search for the
file number displayed in the step, in this case
‘000003698439’, and you can purchase the
image you need. iStock is known for being low
cost, but you could also find a similar image on
a free site such as www.sxc.hu and use that
instead. We do try and provide all images on the
CD, but occasionally we are unable to do so.
SUBJECT: Pastel painting
FROM: Sarah-Jane Barrett
First, I’d like to say how much I enjoy the
magazine. I have been getting Advanced
Photoshop for a little while now, and I often
follow the tutorials through whether I am
interested in the final image or not as it helps to
build up my skills. I am writing to you now to tell
you how much I enjoyed doing the pastel
painting tutorial in issue 39. It really applied to
my traditional art roots and I had a lot of fun
trying out the tutorial on a landscape image of
my own. I was wondering if you would be doing
more ‘recreating traditional art effects’ tutorials?
13/2/08 10:01:48
 “A PHOTO MOSAIC OR PHOTO
TAPESTRY TAKES A LONG
TIME AND A LOT OF EFFORT”
I’d like to see how to create realistic
watercolours, for example, or pencil sketches.
Editor replies: Hi Sarah, and thanks for your
letter. We are glad that you enjoyed this tutorial.
We try and mix up the techniques and styles of
tutorials from month to month, but we will
come back to traditional art techniques in
digital form in the future, so keep an eye out.
Your views have been taken on board, as are all
views submitted to us via the forum, email or
snail mail, so please keep them coming!
SUBJECT: Concept ideas
FROM: John Cornfield
I was drawn into buying Advanced Photoshop
38 thanks to the amazing cover image and the
promise of understanding how to create
concept art. The tutorial on this subject was
great and I learnt a lot, however, I was a little
disappointed that it wasn’t the same image as
on the cover. I would love to know how to come
up with a conceptual futuristic cityscape. Any
chance of a tutorial on this in the future?
Editor replies: Thanks for your letter John. It’s
not always possible to do a ‘create the cover
image’ tutorial, but we do try and explain some
of the techniques involved throughout the
magazine. We are planning on doing further
tutorials on concept designs in the future,
including vehicles and, as requested, a sci-fi-
style landscape. Keep your comments and
suggestions coming.
022-023_AVP_41_Letters.indd 23
CONCEPT DESIGNS: Our concept art tutorial has
been well received by many of you
PASTELS: Issue 39 featured a tutorial by Kirk Nelson
about emulating the effects of pastel painting
On the
forum
SUBJECT: Adobe online only?
FROM: ronmatt
Here’s what I heard about a year ago…
Due to the rampant piracy issue
Adobe was considering eventually
launching server-based programs. This
means that Adobe software would no
longer be available to install on any
computer. Use of the programs would be
via the internet and your subscription
status. We would pay a monthly or yearly
subscription fee for any one or all of
Adobe products and have unlimited use of
that software for the length of the
subscription. But we couldn’t have it on our
machines. Ergo, no pay, no play. Could it be
that Express is, indeed, the tip of the
proverbial iceberg?
FROM: Downie
That’ll get the keygen programmers
thinking. I just hope it’s not too pricey. I like
a one-off payment but what if my
subscription is running out, I’m working on
a project and I have no money to re-
subscribe? Also, I have the trouble that the
Mac in my office cannot be connected to
the internet due to the crap IT department
we have (“Erm, we don’t do Macs”) and all
of our work centres around Adobe
products. There should be a standalone
version surely.
FROM: Ars Morendi
If the server based ‘pay-to-play’ thing ends
up being true, I’ll just use the last version of
Photoshop and stop upgrading. I honestly
don’t do anything now in CS3 that I couldn’t
do in CS or 7. Most of the tricks they seem
to be adding in are gimicky crap. The only
reason I got CS3 was for the awesome
palette options and a few other things.
Probably the last version I’ll get for a while.
Join the debate at
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/forum
23
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/08 10:02:23
 Letters

On the web
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk
Our website and readers’ forum are perfect for
showing off Photoshop creations. We present
the best images on the site this month. Log on
and upload to get your images here next issue!
FOREST GUARDIAN
ARTIST: Mack Sztaba
EMAIL: mackart@rogers.com
WEB: www.mackart.ca Readers’ Challenge
“I began by experimenting in Photoshop with my Wacom
tablet. Once I was happy with the rough sketch I printed it THE RESULTS – NOVEMBER
and traced the image on to Bristol paper, then rendered it Due to popular demand, you can now take part in a monthly
with an HB lead in a mechanical pencil. Once I was
online readers’ challenge. Take a trip to our forum website at
happy with my rendering, I scanned the image in to
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/forum and scroll down to
Photoshop and played with the values using the Burn
and Dodge tools. I like the way things turn out when the Peer Pressure section. Keep an eye out for the most
there isn’t an exact plan in place.” recently announced challenge. Readers are welcome to post
one Photoshop creation up in response to the theme, and all
visitors are invited to cast their vote for the winning design in
our online poll. We’re pleased to announce the winners of our
BONSAI ‘Cyborg’ theme. This month the poll came out with two joint
ARTIST: Justin Van Genderen
EMAIL: justinvg@aol.com winners, so here are the images from Lajos Toth (aka Lajos)
WEB: www.flickr.com/photos/justinvg and Irvan Risnandar (aka ipank) – congratulations!
“This piece was inspired by a bonsai ARTIST: Irvan Risnandar
tree photo, taken by a friend of mine. EMAIL: rivacute@hotmail.com
The twists, curves and texture of the WEB: www.irvanrisnandar.com
tree made it a good form to intertwine
with a human arm.
After a combination of masking and
selecting the tree and model, I pieced them together and painted the background
using various cloud and smoke brushes. What I like most about Photoshop is that it
enables me to create realistic representations of the physically impossible. Lately
I’ve been interested in the combination of tree and human form. To see more of my
work you can check out my Flickr page at: www.flickr.com/photos/justinvg.”

SUMMONER
ARTIST: Tracye Shearin
EMAIL: tsheva@earthlink.net
STOCK: Stock by www.istockphoto.com and www.
dreamstime.com; Tattoo brush by http://
scully7941.deviantart.com; Moon brush by http://
poison-stock.deviantart.com.
“First I did a sloppy background extract on
the woman, twice. I then shaped the trees
into pyramids, added the wind in the grass,
then layered the textures. The bone out of
her back and the moon came last. I always
duplicate, flatten, make a new layer, then
desaturate, and either use the Multiply or ARTIST: Lajos Toth
Soft Light and add light sources if the image EMAIL: mrtlajos@hotmail.com
appears too dark.” WEB: http://lajos-toth.deviantart.com/

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024_AVP_41_WebShowcase.indd 24 13/2/08 10:03:04

 Inter
view
SIMON PLANT
Simon Plant is one of the UK’s
first photographers to use HDR
imaging techniques for ultra-
dynamic results in the
automotive industry, and is also
a successful landscape snapper

A
EIFFEL – LEAVES: Plant’s work AYGO-GORGE: This striking
s one of the first photographers to spans three key areas: CGI, Automotive automotive image was taken at
and Landscape, with impressive and Cheddar Gorge, making the most of the
shoot HDR imaging for automotive dynamic results branching over all of the stunning valleys and rockfaces that
CGI rendering in the UK, Simon diverse genres surround the region
Plant is nothing if not innovative. And that is
why the award-winning snapper (he has won
several Fuji Pro awards in his career) has an
internationally known client list and over two
decades of experience.
The 41-year-old Brit has been a photographer
since 1987 when, at the age of 19, he borrowed
his father’s camera and travelled around Greece.
The pursuit kickstarted a lifetime’s interest in
photography and later in post-production skills.
It was not long after this life-changing trip that
Plant picked up his first bout of freelance work.
This was for a magazine called Scootering,
something that worked alongside another of
Plant’s passions: “I used to customise scooters
and go to various shows and rallies.”
It was the inspiration of another photographer
that finally made Plant decide to dedicate his
career to photography: “It was around 1989 that I
came across the photographic work of John
Claridge. His work had a very big impact on
me and ultimately inspired me to make
photography my career.”
In terms of training, Plant’s progression hasn’t
been the most conventional: ”I have done things
a little backwards. I started a home study

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026-031_AVP_41_Interview.indd 26 13/2/08 10:04:44

 Simon Plant

land cruiser: Plant has been a

photographer and car enthusiast all his
life, so taking images like this for a living
is a dream come true

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026-031_AVP_41_Interview.indd 27 13/2/08 10:05:01

 Inter
view
course from the New York Institute of
Photography, which I never finished, and started
my own business with help from the Enterprise
Allowance and Prince’s Trust.” After this successful
start, Plant was lucky enough to get the
opportunity to work as a second assistant to the
established photographer Colin Peacock (www.
colinpeacockphotographer.co.uk) in Bristol. This
placement was to last for less than year, after
which Plant continued on his own.
He is positive about the way that he learned
his trade, saying that everyone follows a different
path to the top and that no route is the right
one: “There is no single best way to learn
photography. You can go to college or self teach,
as I mainly did. I think assisting several people
who you love the work of has got to be the best
way. Looking back this would have been good
for me, but it meant moving to London and this
was never an attraction.”
Automotive passion
Looking at the images over these pages, it is
obvious that Plant has a passion for automobiles,
as this is what makes up a lot of his portfolio of
work alongside lifestyle and location imagery.
This interest stems from his childhood and has
stayed with him ever since, thanks to being
28
Advanced Photoshop
026-031_AVP_41_Interview.indd 28
I COME FROM A FAMILY
OF CAR ENTHUSIASTS, SO I
HAVE ALWAYS BEEN
AROUND EXOTIC CARS
brought up among fellow car lovers: “I come
from a family of car enthusiasts, so I have always
been around exotic cars and had a love for them.”
However, it is not with cars that it all started
for Plant; in actual fact, his first proper
commission was for a shoe company: “I always
wanted to shoot cars, but got my big break in
photography shooting lifestyle images for Clarks
shoes… it was my big break.
“I decided to contact [Clarks] and took in my
book, which was full of location images and not
a shoe or model image to be seen, but they must
have seen something in me as I walked out with
a rather involved job to shoot. God knows I must
have had balls, as looking back I knew very little,
but I did it and I got lots more work from it! I
went on that path for many years. I did dabble in
some editorial car stuff years ago, but never really
pursued it fully.”
Shooting cars is actually a pretty recent
development for Plant: “It was two years ago that
I pitched and won a long-term contract to shoot
prestige and sports cars for a publishing
company and now I mainly specialise in this
area.” Despite this, though, you’re likely to have
come across his work in a number of different
areas. He says that he is particularly proud of a
National Geographic cover that he shot 18
months ago of the Colosseum in Rome. In terms
of car work, Plant says: “I shoot a lot of front cover
cars for Top Marques, but we are really pushing
the CGI car stuff at the moment.”
The CGI work is definitely something special.
The idea is that by combining location
photography with HDR imaging, it is possible to
place any type of vehicle in any environment. On
Plant’s website, you can see before and after
animations that show you how the images
13/2/08 10:05:32
 Simon Plant

Berlin CGI: Here you can bmw z4: It is hard to

see the work that goes into the
CGI projects. Location images
are HDR, then the vehicle is
placed using CGI rendering
techniques to create a
stunning image, often in
places a truck or car could
never get to
believe by looking at these
images, that Plant started
his commercial life working
for Clarks shoes, before
progressing into
automotive photography,
an example of which you
can see here

Ferrari-430: “It was two years ago that I pitched and won a long-
term contract to shoot prestige and sports cars for a publishing
company and now I mainly specialise in this area,” says Plant

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 Inter
view
WALKWAY: “I like to shoot on location and use the
environment as much as possible, but I have to be careful
my subject is not lost in it”
M5 RIVER: “Most of my favourite people are
photographers: John Claridge, Duncan Sim…”
30
Advanced Photoshop
026-031_AVP_41_Interview.indd 30
were put together, which is a real insight into this
complex procedure. Plant has worked with some
of the best CGI artists in collaborations, including
Andrew Jackson (www.j3d.co.uk).
Colour and vibrancy
Whether CGI, HDR or regular photography,
Plant’s images are full of colour and vibrancy that
makes the subjects stand off the page and catch
your attention. When we look to describe Plant’s
style, we think his statement on his website sums
it up quite well: “[He] produces scenes that
contain repose or vivacity. These moments are
created with a unique utilisation of colour, light
and rich tonal values, together with a personal
interaction with his subject.” Asked about his
own view on his unique style, Plant’s response is
much simpler: “I like to shoot on location and use
the environment as much as possible, but I have
to be careful my subject is not lost in it (ie, too
small in frame). I love colour and mood,
especially the sombre kind.”
Inspiration for his work comes from a wide
variety of areas, but he does have some
contemporaries that he cites as favourites: “Most
of my favourite people are photographers: John
CHAPEL CLIFF: The dynamic range across these
images is what makes Plant so popular as a
commercial photographer
COLOSSEUM DAWN: Plant is particularly proud
of this image, which was a cover for National
Geographic France
Claridge, Duncan Sim, Peter Lavery… but I do
like great retouching and Taylor James in London
produces some amazing stuff.”
You could say that “great retouching” is
something that Plant himself is known for. With
the CGI car work and the HDR imaging
techniques that he employs, Plant spends plenty
of time in the digital darkroom: “Photoshop has
enabled me to create the images I have always
wanted to produce. I spent many years in the
darkroom printing cibachromes and using masks
to help achieve this, but it’s so difficult.” He
continues to extol the virtues of the Adobe
application: “Photoshop has completed me as a
photographer. I know that sounds mushy, but it’s
the final bit of my creative jigsaw. Sometimes it’s
just to spot and clean and some small exposure/
colour adjustments, or it can be used when I
want to comp 12 images together to produce
something I have in my mind. With the CGI stuff I
can use its Merge to HDR function to produce
the 360-degree HDR panos I need.”
Being in charge of both the photography and
post production must be a challenge, we
suggest. “Well technology moves so fast it can be
hard to keep up,” Plant concedes. “I also think
13/2/08 10:07:59

some of the large jobs are more of a team effort.
You can have 20 odd people involved in large
shoots, including a digital assistant to take care
of the files and equipment. All this takes some of
the pressure off the photographer.”
Professional advice
After spending so much time in the business,
Plant has some great advice to offer to the next
generation of snappers: “I spent many, many
years (probably 15) struggling to make a regular
income from photography. I have worked for
some great clients and done some great jobs
along the way, but it was always hard to keep the
continuity. You can only continue like this if you
really have confidence in your work and a desire
to reach a level you feel you want and can work
at. Or you are just plain stupid and don’t know
when to quit!”
PHOTOSHOP HAS ENABLED ME TO CREATE
THE IMAGES I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO. IT HAS
COMPLETED ME AS A PHOTOGRAPHER
026-031_AVP_41_Interview.indd 31
Simon Plant
PATH AND STREAM: ”I’m currently
We feel that Plant is more the former type setting up a Fine Art section to my business
of photographer, constantly pursuing the next and working with several galleries to sell
level in his work, pushing the boundaries of my work”
what can be achieved.
Looking to the future, Plant has plenty lined
up to keep him busy and we’ll be seeing a lot
more from him: “My agent [Plant is represented
by Julian Cotton (www.juliancotton.co.uk)] and I
have quoted on some very large car projects in
the last month or so and we are waiting to see
what may transpire from these. I’m currently
setting up a Fine Art section to my business and
working with several galleries to sell my work.”
To find out more about Plant’s photographic
work and see some great before and after shots
of his car work, as well as the other types of
photography that he explores, go online to
either www.plantphoto.com or www.
simonplantgallery.com.
31
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13/2/08 10:08:27
 MASTERCLASS

Expert lighting
techniques Create a fantasy landscape and then
use adjustment layers to change the
lighting in seconds BY JOHN UIBEL

ON THE DISC
We have plenty of source files for you to
work with, as well as different variants of
the images, created with the simple use of
adjustment layers so you can see how easy
it is to transform the lighting in an image.
OUR EXPERT John Uibel
John is a concept designer and designs feature films, theme
parks and resorts, among other things. He currently works as a
creative director at Brigham Young University in Utah. Check
out his stunning portfolio at www.johnuibel.com.
W
ouldn’t it be terrific to be able to transform a photo or image from night to day, from winter to
summer, from Earth to Venus, or anything in between with the click of a button? This tutorial will
show you how easy it is to do just that.
Through the use of the powerful transformation capabilities of Photoshop’s layer adjustments (and with particular
attention paid to proper Levels adjustments during the building process), we‘ll draw upon much of the information
given about matte painting (Advanced Photoshop 28) and expand it to include options for lighting a single image
to display multiple moods, times of day and locales. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to trick your image.
In this tutorial we’ll turn a single image from an early morning glacial wasteland into a midday subtropical
paradise, a post-apocalyptic industrial smogscape, and even into a twilight xenoclimactic hotzone (whatever that
is!) So here we go…

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 1 Sketch it out
To begin our project, we should
start with a sketch to get direction for
mood or composition. Since none of
the sketch will appear in the final piece,
don’t worry too much about detail.
Here’s one we’ve done of an icy realm
at dusk, with the Northern Lights
glowing in the sky. At a point where we
think we’ve ‘got it’, we’re ready to begin
amassing source photographs as assets
and reference. Placing the sketch on
the Background layer and working at
300dpi RGB, we’re all set.
2 Sky gradient
First, let’s create a gradient of sky tones on the
Background layer. Keep the values fairly undramatic –
we’ll change all that later on.
“TURN AN
EARLY MORNING
GLACIAL
WASTELAND
INTO A MIDDAY
SUBTROPICAL
PARADISE”
3 Add some clouds
Bring up a picture of clouds (there are a number
of cloud images on the disc). Open the Channels palette
and examine each of the three channels, duplicating the
layer that has the most contrast between the cloud and
the surrounding sky. In this example, the Blue channel
already has lots of contrast. Select Ctrl+M to open the
Curves palette. Bring the curve together at the top and
bottom so that the cloud becomes black against a sky
of white (or the other way around depending on sky
conditions). Select OK. Make the cloud white by
selecting Select>Invert if necessary.

4 Paste the clouds in

Holding the Ctrl key, click on the layer thumbnail
in the Layers palette for the blue duplicated layer,
thereby selecting the white cloud shape. With the
marching ants surrounding the cloud, select the main
layer in the Channels palette labelled ‘RGB’. Return to the
Lighting Layers tab, activating the background cloud layer.

variants
Our tutorial comes with 14 specially designed
adjustment layers for you to experiment with
Copy and paste the cloud to its own layer. Drag the
cloud over to the main window containing our new
gradient blue background.

(‘FantasyTut_Final1.psd’ on the disc. See
‘variants table.tif’ for a guide to the effects
that you can create). Feel free to open the
adjustment (double-click the adjustment icon)
to see what settings achieved that particular
result. Go through each of them one by one to
see how each behaves, but be sure to check
them out in tandem, even three or four at a time
– sometimes some wild, unpredictable results
can happen, but there are also some great ‘gems’
hidden in there that will transform your image
into a completely different – and equally
dramatic – illustration.
5 6
More clouds
Continue adding clouds in this manner to build an
arctic sky. Experimenting with the various layer mode
settings is good, but be careful, as combining
adjustment layers can often bring unpredictable results.
Create the Northern Lights
Select one of your clouds by clicking on the cloud
layer’s thumbnail while holding the Ctrl key. Fill with a
light green. Select Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and extend
the blur. Reduce the opacity to 60%, duplicate the layer,
offset it slightly from the original layer and set both
layers to Screen. Make a Curves adjustment to the new
layer with a clipping mask, making adjustments to the
hue and saturation.

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 MASTERCLASS
7 Flour mountains
Whether you live by enormous glacial mountains
or not, you need to try this method for achieving great-
looking glaciers and cliffs. Go outside with about a kilo
of flour and start terraforming. Cut cliffs and slopes and
take several photos for reference. We have included all
our images from the flour photoshoot on the disc.
8 Select your flour
Now back inside the safety
of Photoshop, open a flour photo
and extract your new gluten
glacier from the Background layer.
Here we’re using CS3’s new Quick
Selection tool. Select the tool
from the toolbar (sharing space
there with the Magic Wand tool)
and drag it over the background.
As you drag, the selection will
grow as it learns what you’re after.
The Quick Selection tool does a
great job of ‘knowing what you
mean’ to select the entire
background. Go to Select>Invert
and then copy and paste the
glacier to its own layer.

9 Build up your mountains

Add your cliffs of flour, making adjustments to
colour and value as you build a convincing
background mountain range. Reshape the cliffs by
cutting out sections here and there. As objects recede
into the distance, they become lighter and bluer, often
taking on the hue of the surrounding sky. The
reflection of mountains is easy – just duplicate the
mountains, flip the image vertically and position
appropriately. Applying a Motion Blur (first vertically,
and then horizontally less so) with help it ‘read’ like still,
cold water.
10 Foreground rock
Begin working the same manner
with the foreground rock, resizing and adjusting the
colour/value as necessary. Ensure that the lighting
direction is consistent across the images. (Note: taking
pictures on an overcast day is often best – you’re not
limited by sun and shadows when compositing images
like this, plus you’ll be able to add your own sun and
shadow anyway.)

“TAKE PICTURES ON AN
OVERCAST DAY – YOU’RE NOT
LIMITED BY SUN AND SHADOWS
WHEN COMPOSITING IMAGES”
11 Burn in the shadows
Continue on until you
have a convincing landscape of
12 Water and rocks
Now we’ll begin work on the foreground
water and rocks. For the water’s edge in the photo, we
glacier and ice. We used the Burn tool used the same Curves method used for the clouds. The
to darken the bottom of the image that we used here is courtesy of www.
foreground rocks. Note how much greatsaltlakephotos.com, so look out for a similar
deeper the shadows are in the image to use. Select the foreground salt and copy it over
foreground and how much sharper to our main image, positioning it into the bottom right.
the detail is. Being consistent with
shadow depth and light direction is
key to making a believable landscape.

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 13 Wintry landscape
Overlay the ground photo element into the
composition, stretching and adjusting values and hues
so it ‘feels right’ in the wintry landscape. Flip horizontally
and shrink a copy of the same image to fit into the
background for the water between the foreground and
background cliffs. We experimented with various layer
adjustment settings (Screen, Overlay, Color Dodge, etc)
and various opacities to arrive at a combination that said
cold, frozen and wet.
15 Factory selection
Drag the selection shape over to the
factory image. Select the Background layer and
choose Copy and Paste to paste a duplicate
factory pipes layer. Drag this layer back into our
composition and place appropriately into position.
Using the silhouette of an object to create a clipping
mask is a great, easy way to add detail to areas where
you’d rather not spend the time to paint it all yourself!
Now we’ll go in and add more perspective-
appropriate detail and adjust values/hues to make it
more believable.
032-037_AVP_41_LightingMC.indd 35
14 Pipe dreams
At this stage we have a good, convincing
landscape of freezing water looking toward a barren
landscape of glacial cliffs and rock. But we need more…
Add some mystery and interest to the composition by
drawing an oil derrick, or a mooring post to the
foreground using a black brush at 100% opacity. Select
the silhouette by clicking the layer thumbnail while
holding the Ctrl key. Choose the Selection tool and
open the photo of factory pipes (‘dsc_4374.tif’).
16 Burn and dodge
Using Burn and Dodge tools, add further
detail. Lock the layer (click the small lock icon at the top
of the Layers palette) to ensure you stay within the lines
of the silhouette. Stroke in some colour using a soft
brush with various opacity/transparency settings.
Adjustment
layers
The reason the adjustment layer method works
so well for lighting ‘prototyping’ is that we built
the image purposefully rather muted from the
beginning – nothing too light or dark. Beginning
with an image that was too contrasty would
create dramatic, almost intolerable, results. To
create your own adjustment layer, click on the
small icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to
select an adjustment ‘type’. The Adjustment
Layer Options palette opens so you can make
your changes. Check the Preview box so your
changes are instantly reflected on your image.
17 Rocket science
With Photoshop’s powerful toolset at your
disposal, don’t feel limited by an insufficient photo
archive. To prove it, we’ll transform this boring exhaust
stack (‘dsc_4377.tif’ on the disc) into a cool, retro-style,
futuristic space rocket in no time.
18 Extraction methods
Using our proven extraction method, let’s pull
this smokestack off the background by first duplicating
the Blue channel in the Channels palette. Then, using
Curves, adjust the white and black points until we get a
clean separation of black smokestack against a pure
white sky and click OK. Use the Lasso tool to clean up
the stray black pixels in the sky and recreate the missing
black edge on the left (it’s just a straight shot down from
that black corner).
35
Advanced Photoshop
13/2/08 10:11:35
 MASTERCLASS
19 Invert the selection
Invert the selection
(Select>Invert), and hold the Ctrl
20 Transform the stack
Select the smokestack layer and click Ctrl+T
to bring up the transform handles. Right-click to bring
key while clicking the layer up the Transform palette and choose Warp. Move the
thumbnail. This will select the white corners of the warp matrix to compress the ends of the
smokestack silhouette. Activate the smokestack while dramatically extending the centre.
RGB channel, return to the Layers
palette and copy/paste the
smokestack to its own layer and
then delete the background (we
filled it with white to make the next
step easier to understand).

21 Spaceship designs
Move the corner
adjustment handles to finesse the
shape into a sleek spaceship. Feel free
to cut areas out of the resultant shape.
Again, the possibilities are endless
once you’ve mastered some fairly
basic Photoshop capabilities and use
them in advanced ways. Copy and
paste the ship onto our main
composition, making adjustment to
brightness and contrast to get it to ‘fit’
in the environment.
22 Adjust the ship
We added a layer adjustment called
‘Colour overlay’, reducing its opacity and colouring the
hue of the sky immediately surrounding the ship. We
added a faint hand-painted texture using a 40% Opacity
soft brush set to Overlay with Texture set at 20. The
glowing combustion drive on the underside of the ship
is made of two cleverly positioned shapes drawn with
the Pen tool, rasterised (right-click on the layer and
select Rasterise Shape) and bloomed with a
combination of a few soft-edged Overlay/Color Dodge
brushstrokes. Duplicate the ship and reposition in
various positions in the sky.

“MOVE THE CORNER HANDLES

TO FINESSE THE SHAPE INTO A
SLEEK SPACESHIP”
23 Crop circles
Let’s add some funky
rings – who knows what they are! –
by using the Pen tool to draw gentle,
sweeping arcs. Adjust the bezier
handles to fine-tune the arcs.
Completing the loop fills the arc with
the Foreground Color.
24 Fill the rings
Fill the rings with a transparent gradient of
sky colours, add inner and outer glows and some edge
detail. Reflections in the water are created by
duplicating the ring, inverting it vertically (right-click the
Free Transform bounding box, then select Flip Vertical).
Blur it (Filter>Gaussian Blur) and change the blending
more to Screen, reducing the Opacity to suit.

36
Advanced Photoshop

032-037_AVP_41_LightingMC.indd 36 13/2/08 10:11:55

 25 Steel surface
The only thing left is to “WE’LL USE AN
create some additional foreground
interest for our image. We want to UNUSUAL
expand our mechanical structure to
include other vertical and horizontal SOURCE TO
structures. In similar fashion, we paint
opaque black shapes in appropriate CREATE A STEEL
places on separate layers. Like the
flour/glacier and smokestack/ FINISH – THE
spaceship transformations, we’ll use
an unusual source to create a rather SURFACE OF A
believable hard steel finish – the
surface of a frozen lake. FROZEN LAKE”
26 Water into steel
Using the image of a frozen Lake Utah (‘dsc_
4383.tif’ on the disc), use the Clone Stamp tool to
27 Transform
the lake
Compress the image
replace the gravelly shore with more ice and water. With using the Free Transform
a Rectangular Selection tool, select the entire lake, handles into a narrow band
excluding the mountains and sky. Then, copy/paste the that will form the basis of
image into the main composition. our steel pipes. The
compression eliminates all
recognisability of the image
and begins to mimic the
reflective qualities of
polished steel pipe.

28 More pipes
Repeating this process creates the other
pipes. The Warp tool was used to create the bent pipe
on the right. Additional reflections were created by
brushing a light blue on the edges with a soft brush set
to Screen.
29 Final details
A very small brush is used
to create the detail surrounding the
main derrick, all of it just hand drawn.
A separate layer was created to receive
all of this custom paintwork, mainly to
blend the foreground rock base with
the frozen ground, allowing the ice
colour to creep up onto the rock,
which really helps ‘sell’ that they are in
fact connected.

30 Adjusting the colours

Think we’re finished? Not
so fast! With the clever use and
combination of adjustment layers, we
have virtually unlimited possibilities in
terms of lighting and colouration.
Adjustment layers provide exceptional
flexibility for exploring dramatic and
subtle changes to an image. Play
around with a few options for yourself,
or check out our Variants boxout to
see what we have done.

37
Advanced Photoshop

032-037_AVP_41_LightingMC.indd 37 13/2/08 10:12:21

 There’s an old and well-known proverb that states, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. The point served is certainly valid, considering the elements self-contained within a composition, providing large amounts of visual data that can be
absorbed promptly. But what if the picture itself is a word?
Consider these factors and it can be said that typography throws the proverbial ‘spanner in the works’ when concerned with this theory. Thus the word becomes the picture and again art serves to blur all boundaries. Make no mistake, typograph
has rapidly become as much an art form as an industrial skill and no more so than in recent decades. In a rapidly advancing digital age, what was once a distinctly specialist occupation has become instantly accessible and eagerly digested by creati

38
enthusiasts. This, of course, has led to assimilation by modern graphic designers, illustrators and designers. Now typography is embraced artistically as well as being recognised by the advertising and editorial sectors.
Generally known as ‘display typography’ within graphic design circles, it is becoming a potent and expressive element with much more concern for aesthetic approach. Unsurprisingly, much like illustration, graphic design is a process that
communicates visually. So again it is no surprise that the two methods have once again transgressed to create an exciting form of hybrid less exclusive than previously, a sublime visual communication of sorts. Font-astique... In recent times the
modern illustrator and designer has been contributing profoundly to this successful style and perhaps no more so than by addressing the apparent limitations of typography. Thus this newfound creative relationship between word and image has
been able to flourish both commercially and aesthetically. It would often be said that the majority of letter types have been in use for well over 150 years and therefore their use within composition had started to become distinctly conservative, wit

Advanced Photoshop
regards to the principles of shape and design naturally. However, a new generation of creators has begun to challenge this notion through their creative experiments.
Known simply as ‘font creators’, these designers have begun to consider the merits of font legibility, disregarding the stigmatism attached to the rules of readability and thus bridging the gap towards innovative aesthetics. A common

038 043_AVP_41_TypeFea ndd 38

misconception would be that the pair of disciplines is one and the same. Not so. Readability concerns itself with rules of sentencing, word length and frequency or regularity. Legibility concerns itself less with factors such as language and content
and more so with the aesthetic qualities of size and appearance.
Feature

© And ew Mo ev
These qualities are at times far more central to the concerns of the modern font creator. Todd Dever, director and creator of Cool Fonts offered his opinion, contributing much authority considering his 12 years as a font designer. He explains: “If y
are making a font that people are supposed to read, then there has to be a certain amount legibility. Many of my typefaces push design over legibility, but at the end of the day, you need to be able to interpret the message.”
His artistic approach is matched with traditional consideration and rightly so, as he continues: “Even the craziest designs lose their function as a typeface if they are not legible. It really takes a lot of testing to make sure you strike that balance
between design and function. I don’t mind challenging the viewer, but I don’t like to torture them… too much.” However, with this response, Dever hits upon a key issue regarding modern typography: function. Make no mistake the function of the
font is seemingly in a state of flux artistically.
There are those in the industry that are stretching the boundaries of even legibility, totally disregarding any notion of readability with intent. Kapitza, a contemporary design partnership since 2004 ran between sisters Petra and Nicole Kapitza,
have been notable contributors. “We specialise in picture fonts,” says Petra Kapitza. Their idea to do so grew organically from their involvement in the exhibition ‘Death is part of the process’ at Void Gallery in Derry, Ireland. “For the artwork titled
‘Cycle’, we created hundreds of people, animal and plant illustrations to create a contemporary ‘momento mori’ picture. We have been developing an extensive series of picture fonts that lie somewhere between type ornaments, an image library
resource and an art project.”
Legible doesn’t seem to feature in the Kapitza vocabulary, “As we are designing picture fonts we don’t have to be concerned about legibility,” explains Petra Kapitza. You may be forgiven for thinking that this is due to these picture fonts working
a logograph or hieroglyphic capacity, where imagery represents a word or a morpheme – a meaningful unit of language. However, the answer is perhaps far simpler than first imagined.
Petra Kapitza explains: “Picture fonts open up new possibilities in the design process by being able to edit the illustrations using the typesetting features of any software. This aspect is especially interesting when creating pattern fonts”. Thus it
becomes apparent that, more and more, the function of the font adheres to creative conditions, going some way to explaining this new found focus upon aesthetics, being less deterred with the traditional rules and rituals. Essentially, the nature of

© A ex T ochu
these fonts is 100 per cent creative in capacity, concerned more so with shapes that written message.

© Wacom
Again this factor contributes to turning the method of typography on its head and it seems that this is a style rapidly concerning itself more with evolution and adaptation than definition. However, one fundamental is consistent throughout and
again we must address the notion of aesthetics. Artists, tired with the stable typeface, have expressed their desire through utilising new samples, concerning design with originality and fusion. These are seemingly integral elements to the success
this contemporary typographic method. Founder of Thinkdust independent studio, artist Alex Haigh, is one contemporary designer who concurs. Which type?
Haigh, having worked with international clientele such as Nike, Playstation and Mars, reinforces this attitude by saying: “When thinking of a ‘design classic’, Helvetica is probably what the majority of designers think of first. However, with due
respect to the face, I’m quite bored of how it is constantly over used by a lot of designers. Only a small majority of very tight designers I have seen recently seem to challenge the face in order to create something new and fresh.” Haigh’s own
influences are purely contributed to shape and form: “You can easily get carried away for a few days distorting type and experimenting in order to create something unique. Most if my influence comes from constant experimentation.”
And so typeface has its own functionality and aesthetic means of translating verbal communication onto visually distinctive form. Tony Ariawan, creator of design studio Area105, explains: “Let’s take a look at methods such as graffiti or street ar
Almost every work produced on the wall is stylising font shape. They have existed and consistently appeared as standalone artworks. The main factor that makes these standalone is essentially the ability to deform font shape into a quite abstract
form.”
It has apparently become to tempting not to assimilate and alter the constructs of modern typeface. Perhaps this has in some part thanks to the creative emergence of digital software. All you’ll need to do is search through the type drop menu i
Photoshop to be presented with a plethora of fonts, each telling its own story. Ready made and easy to access by artists, in no short way due to the font designers, these can then again be transformed by many possible means. “Modern softwares a
really a great assistance in artwork exploration,” confirms Ariawan. “We can now do things that were impossible in the old days. From creating font, deform letter shape, up to spoiling fonts.”
Alex Trochut, successful freelance graphic designer and industry favourite who loves both type and illustration without preference, goes further in explaining this: “I think type is a very flexible substance to play around with. Its proportions are n
based
b ased in a thing from nature; there’s not a unique model to look at in reality, so its structure can be changed twisted into many ways, still being a typeface.” He adds: “This is something that allows a lot of freedom, I think. There’s room, of course, to
add illustration and art techniques to this field.”
However,
H owever, Trochut interestingly admits that he is an artist that feels modern software, for all its promise, falls short of traditional approach: “I think the work done in the 20th Century before the digital era, from calligraphy to Seventies and Eighti
ttype
ype was way better in terms of dynamic than the work we do today.” Trochut adds: “I think the computer is still a tool that needs more time to get the control that the masters had with ink and paper.”
© A ex Ha gh

Trochut
T rochut serves more ‘food for thought’ when concerning this style. For all the experimentation and expression present, it seems that numerous creatives feel there are still some regulations to adhere to after all, to truly define dependable
ttypography.
ypography.
y pography Perhaps the he instantly
ns an y ddigestible
ges b e d digital
g a proper
properties
propert es make for
or cava
cavalier
er approach aat times?
mes? It perhaps seems that
ha ar
artist
s may in
n fact
ac be aat odds w
with
h themselves
hemse ves as Ar
Ariawan
awan commen
comments: s “As a des
designer
gner it iss our respons
responsibility
b y to o make the
he ar
artwo
wo
has
h as he capab y o commun ca e and unders andab e or he v ewers bu as an ar s he ar work becomes a means o se sa s ac on and se express on and s no onger mpor an o be ng unders andab e or no ”
Once aga n h s s po n open o con ec ure when cons der ng Andrew Morev s commen s The bra nch d beh nd More V s on w h 11 years o ndus ry exper ence a rms “Typography works w h exac mean ng wh e rad ona mage may no
a Typography has a so unc ona and ra ona goa s Ar s mos y emo ona h ng h nk ha s a d s nc on ” Bu aga n be ng such a sub ec ve s y e perhaps h s op n on s once more sub ec o unc on Morev goes on o add “Des gn has a n
a m o de ver a cer a n message o he aud ence So on arranged w h ayou co our and mage he ps orm he mpac o he message ” Wha s n a name?
“Fon s a un que h ng has graph c na ure and a sense o mean ng comb ned n h s way he on s us ra on med a or words ” Ar awan adds “ s h gh y mpor an s nce ypography has s own un que charac er and ha va ue s one o he
e emen o es ab sh mood n des gn Le s us say or a ra her h gh sp r ed des gn as used or a campa gn s more ke y o use he r g d Sans Ser s y e eg Ar a b ack Verdana e c wh e or a warmer and so er heme used or perhaps a
res auran or ca é wou d be more appropr a e o use he e egan and So Ser ”
Bu or a he assump on ha he app ca ons o x he gh ascenders ead ng kern ng cadence ex ure pos ve and nega ve space ba ance e er spac ng a gnmen and many more be ng an exac sc ence seems ha n con emporary er
hey are more concerned w h apprec a on han d s nc comprehens on Ar awan exp a ns “A v sua e emen s such as wh e space mage ayou one ypography and co our are a corresponded o crea ng mood on des gn s k nd o hard o
exp a n bu we see our work he more we can ee he n erac on be ween hose e emen s ”
However ns nc ve or comprehens ve h s process may be or he ar s s emp oy ng hem he a ude owards unc on s ays paramoun seems ha or a s express ve aes he c appea when ry ng o ach eve a success u commerc a use a
crea ve mus be aware o he vo ces sounded ou by he ypography As Morev po n s ou a e emen s orm a message each one d s nc w h he produc represen s
G es Mac eay sen or des gner a LOGO Des gn & Marke ng apprec a es such ac ors W h near y a decade s wor h o exper ence a a company prov d ng corpora e den y so u ons or over 35 years Mac eay observes “A ogo needs o

13 2 08 10 13 17
commun ca e qu ck y s ke he assass n o ype has o mee he end user head on and se he r gh mood whe her s here o exc e com or or o er s ab y” n essence as a des gner he s concerned w h g v ng order o n orma on orm o
deas and express on o ob ec n h s case ype ace

TYPE
WHA
TY
YO
YOUR
WHA
 communicate quickly, it’s like the assassin of type, it has to meet the end user head on and set the right mood whether it’s there to excite, comfort or offer stability.” In essence, as a designer he is concerned with giving order to information, form to
ideas and expression to object, in this case typeface.
“It’s like telling a story, each piece of visual information should work together in cohesion, white space versus ink versus image. All the elements come together it’s like an eyeball etiquette. Make sure the choice of colour and composition reflect
the message, there should always be some sort of hierarchy, you don’t want the type and graphics fighting with each other on the page. When I place type on a page, I try to make it work alongside everything else that is going to appear with it.
Choice of font is as important as any graphic.”
But Macleay’s following comments assure that no matter what function the design serves or commercial demands made, there is always leverage for expression and aesthetic appeal: “Type and art have definitely moved closer together. It’s
communication through shape, form and colour with limitless methods of fabrication. I think type has always had a place in the art world, if you just look at things like the Gutenberg bible, Bauhaus school or the work of someone like Alan Kitching,
there are so many people producing type in so many different ways for more than just commercial graphics. Even the use of type on fashion products has increased beyond just branding.”
This adoption of attitude and new tolerance from commercial authorities has provided an almost symbiotic nature between artist and clientele, but most importantly a newfound freedom of approach granted to designer, which seems to have
been embraced. Never before have designers had the creative leverage to instigate revolution and clientele been so eager to endorse such practice. Take, for instance, the global corporation Wacom and its new brand identity, starting with the laun
of its Bamboo pen tablet range.

038-043_AVP_41_TypeFeat.indd 39
It’s apparent that its concerns were aesthetic, however maybe dealing in the industry of aesthetics itself had some baring, when it released these comments: “The Bamboo brand communication talks a lot less about the technologies being used
and concentrates on encouraging people to ‘make their mark’ both in terms of creating something visually distinctive and through the impression they make on the people around them.”
Whether function influencing aesthetics or vice versa typography is ultimately a fertile technique. From artists reforming the constructs of legibility to those augmenting past methods, one fact remains and this is that typography is and will
certainly continue to be a subjective style in a state of creative flux, consistently evolving and producing product that is truly telling and communicative.

T
Perhaps due in part to the breadth of typefaces and font design, maybe the difference in approach by artist or designer, possibly the anticipation of the commercial industry or the indigenous nature of the fonts form, it seems that this is a style
that will never fail to inspire and compose great artistic examples. One thing is for certain though and that is that typeface has become a prime means to exercise imagination, blurring the boundaries between typography and experimentation.

UR than in recent decades.

E? advertising and editorial sectors.

In recent times, the modern illustrator and designer has

been contributing profoundly to this successful style, and

relationship between word and image has been able to

flourish both commercially and aesthetically. It would often
embraced artistically as well as being recognised by the
as much an art form as an industrial skill, and no more so
the works’. Make no mistake, typography has rapidly become
Consider this and it can be said that

element with much more concern for aesthetic approach.

design circles, it is becoming a potent and expressive
words’. But what if the picture itself is a word?

limitations of typography. This newfound creative

Generally known as ‘display typography’ within graphic
designers, illustrators and designers. Now typography is

perhaps no more so than by addressing the apparent

This, of course, has led to assimilation by modern graphic
accessible and eagerly digested by creative enthusiasts.
distinctly specialist occupation has become instantly
In a rapidly advancing digital age, what was once a
typography throws the proverbial ‘spanner in
that states ‘A picture is worth a thousand
here’s an old and well-known proverb

the message.”
explores this growing trend…

and appearance.
AT’S
challenge this notion through their creative experiments.

and the same. Not so. Readability concerns itself with rules

but at the end of the day, you need to be able to interpret

much authority considering his 12 years as a font designer.
These qualities are at times far more central to the
and content, and more so with the aesthetic qualities of size
be said that the majority of letter types have been in use for

legibility. Many of my typefaces push design over legibility,

supposed to read, then there has to be a certain amount
Legibility concerns itself less with factors such as language
misconception would be that the pair of disciplines is one
bridging the gap towards innovative aesthetics. A common
the stigmatism attached to the rules of readability and
begun to consider the merits of font legibility, disregarding
However, a new generation of creators has begun to
composition had started to become distinctly conservative.
well over 150 years and therefore their use within

He explains: “If you are making a font that people are

and creator of Cool Fonts, offers his opinion, contributing
concerns of the modern font creator. Todd Dever, director
of sentencing, word length and frequency or regularity.
Known simply as ‘font creators’, these designers have
what’s your type?

Typography is becoming an art form of its own with

as a showcase of a digital artist’s skills. Adam Smith

being used editorially, commercially and personally
somesurprisinglyinnovativeresults.Now considered
‘display typography’ or ‘type art’, this new genre is

Advanced Photoshop
39

13/2/08 10:13:35
OUR
AT’S
YPE?

WHA
Feature
YOUR
© Alex Haigh
MINISTRY: “Negative space, form, colour, structure and layout are the
building blocks of a piece of work. By allowing these to all work with each
other you can really create something magic, says Alex Haigh”
“EVEN THE CRAZIEST DESIGNS LOSE THEIR FUNCTION
His artistic approach is matched with traditional
consideration: “Even the craziest designs lose their
function as a typeface if they are not legible. It really
takes a lot of testing to make sure you strike that
balance between design and function. I don’t mind
challenging the viewer, but I don’t like to torture
them… too much.” Dever hits upon a key issue
AS A TYPEFACE IF THEY ARE NOT LEGIBLE”
regarding modern typography: function.
There are those in the industry that are stretching
the boundaries of even legibility, totally disregarding
TYPE
any notion of readability with intent. Kapitza, a
contemporary design partnership since 2004, ran
between sisters Petra and Nicole Kapitza, has been a
notable contributor. “We specialise in picture fonts,”
says Petra Kapitza. Their idea to do so grew organically
from their involvement in the exhibition ‘Death is part
of the process’ at the Void Gallery in Derry, Ireland. “For
the artwork titled Cycle we created hundreds of
people, animal and plant illustrations to create a
contemporary ‘momento mori’ picture. We have been
developing an extensive series of picture fonts that lie
somewhere between type ornaments, an image
library resource and an art project.”
Legible doesn’t seem to feature in the Kapitza
vocabulary. “As we are designing picture fonts we
don’t have to be concerned about legibility,” explains
Petra Kapitza. You may be forgiven for thinking that
this is due to these picture fonts working in a
logograph or hieroglyphic capacity, where imagery
represents a word or a morpheme. However, the
answer is perhaps far simpler than first imagined.
Petra Kapitza explains: “Picture fonts open up new
possibilities in the design process by being able to edit
the illustrations using the typesetting features of any
software. This aspect is especially interesting when
creating pattern fonts”. Thus it becomes apparent that,
40
Advanced Photoshop
038-043_AVP_41_TypeFeat.indd 40
© Tony Ariawan
NEW AREA: “It’s crucial, a typography artwork must be
legible. When the letter composition becomes abstract
and illegible, it becomes an image,” suggests Tony Ariawan
more and more, the function of the font adheres to
creative conditions, going some way to explaining this
newfound focus upon aesthetics, being less deterred
by the traditional rules.
Again this factor contributes to turning the method
of typography on its head and it seems that this is a
style rapidly concerning itself more with evolution
and adaptation than definition. However, one
fundamental is consistent throughout, and again we
must address the notion of aesthetics. Artists, tired
with the stable typefaces, have expressed their desire
for change through utilising new samples, mixing
design with originality. These are seemingly integral
elements to the success of this contemporary
typographic method. Founder of independent studio
Thinkdust, artist Alex Haigh, is one contemporary
designer who concurs.
WHICH TYPE?
Haigh, having worked with international clientele
such as Nike, Playstation and Mars, reinforces this
attitude by saying: “When thinking of a ‘design classic’,
Helvetica is probably what the majority of designers
think of first. However, with due respect to the face, I’m
quite bored of how it is constantly over used by a lot of
designers. Only a small majority of very tight designers
I have seen recently seem to challenge the face in
order to create something new and fresh.” Haigh’s own
influences are purely contributed to shape and form:
“You can easily get carried away for a few days
distorting type and experimenting in order to create
something unique.”
And so typeface has its own functionality and
aesthetic means of translating verbal communication
into a visually distinctive form. Tony Ariawan, creator of
communicates visually. So again it is no surprise that the two methods have once again transgressed to create an exciting form of hybrid less exclusive than previously, a sublime visual communication of sorts. Font-astique... In recent times the
modern illustrator and designer has been contributing profoundly to this successful style and perhaps no more so than by addressing the apparent limitations of typography. Thus this newfound creative relationship between word and image
There’s an old and well-known proverb that states, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. The point served is certainly valid, considering the elements self-contained within a composition, providing large amounts of visual data that can be
typography has rapidly become as much an art form as an industrial skill and no more so than in recent decades. In a rapidly advancing digital age, what was once a distinctly specialist occupation has become instantly accessible and eagerly
Generally known as ‘display typography’ within graphic design circles, it is becoming a potent and expressive element with much more concern for aesthetic approach. Unsurprisingly, much like illustration, graphic design is a process that
digested by creative enthusiasts. This, of course, has led to assimilation by modern graphic designers, illustrators and designers. Now typography is embraced artistically as well as being recognised by the advertising and editorial sectors.
Consider these factors and it can be said that typography throws the proverbial ‘spanner in the works’ when concerned with this theory. Thus the word becomes the picture and again art serves to blur all boundaries. Make no mistake,
has been able to flourish both commercially and aesthetically. It would often be said that the majority of letter types have been in use for well over 150 years and therefore their use within composition had started to become distinctly
conservative, with regards to the principles of shape and design naturally. However, a new generation of creators has begun to challenge this notion through their creative experiments.
© Alex Haigh
PLASTIK: “There are the foundations that make type
what it is, and the most exciting aspect of this is that you
can destroy, play and reshape a typeface into something
completely new,” says Alex Haigh
design studio Area105, explains: “Let’s take a look at
methods such as graffiti or street art. Almost every
work produced on the wall is stylising font shape. They
have existed and consistently appeared as standalone
artworks. The main factor that makes these standalone
is essentially the ability to deform font shape into a
quite abstract form.”
It has apparently become to tempting not to
assimilate and alter the constructs of modern typeface.
Perhaps this has in some part thanks to the creative
emergence of digital software. All you’ll need to do is
search through the type drop menu in Photoshop to
absorbed promptly. But what if the picture itself is a word?
be presented with a plethora of fonts, each telling its
own story. Ready made and easy to access by artists, in
no short way due to the font designers, these can then
again be transformed by many possible means.
“Modern software is really a great assistance in artwork
exploration,” confirms Ariawan. “We can now do things
that were impossible in the old days. From creating
font, deforming letter shapes, up to spoiling fonts.”
Alex Trochut, successful freelance graphic designer
and industry favourite who loves both type and
illustration without preference, goes further in
explaining this: “I think type is a very flexible substance
There’s
13/2/08 10:14:06
 has been able to flourish both commercially and aesthetically. It would often be said that the majority of letter types have been in use for well over 150 years and therefore their use within composition had started to become distinctly
conservative, with regards to the principles of shape and design naturally. However, a new generation of creators has begun to challenge this notion through their creative experiments.
Known simply as ‘font creators’, these designers have begun to consider the merits of font legibility, disregarding the stigmatism attached to the rules of readability and thus bridging the gap towards innovative aesthetics. A common
Known
misconception would be that the pair of disciplines is one and the same. Not so. Readability concerns itself with rules of sentencing, word length and frequency or regularity. Legibility concerns itself less with factors such as language and
misconception
content and more so with the aesthetic qualities of size and appearance.
content
These qualities are at times far more central to the concerns of the modern font creator. Todd Dever, director and creator of Cool Fonts offered his opinion, contributing much authority considering his 12 years as a font designer. He explains:
These
“If you are making a font that people are supposed to read, then there has to be a certain amount legibility. Many of my typefaces push design over legibility, but at the end of the day, you need to be able to interpret the message.”
“If

to this field.”
His artistic approach is matched with traditional consideration and rightly so, as he continues: “Even the craziest designs lose their function as a typeface if they are not legible. It really takes a lot of testing to make sure you strike that balance
His
between design and function. I don’t mind challenging the viewer, but I don’t like to torture them… too much.” However, with this response, Dever hits upon a key issue regarding modern typography: function. Make no mistake the function of
between

© Tony Ariawan
the font is seemingly in a state of flux artistically.

038-043_AVP_41_TypeFeat.indd 41
had with ink and paper.”
There are those in the industry that are stretching the boundaries of even legibility, totally disregarding any notion of readability with intent. Kapitza, a contemporary design partnership since 2004 ran between sisters Petra and Nicole
Kapitza, have been notable contributors. “We specialise in picture fonts,” says Petra Kapitza. Their idea to do so grew organically from their involvement in the exhibition ‘Death is part of the process’ at Void Gallery in Derry, Ireland. “For the
artwork titled ‘Cycle’, we created hundreds of people, animal and plant illustrations to create a contemporary ‘momento mori’ picture. We have been developing an extensive series of picture fonts that lie somewhere between type ornaments,
an image library resource and an art project.”
Legible doesn’t seem to feature in the Kapitza vocabulary, “As we are designing picture fonts we don’t have to be concerned about legibility,” explains Petra Kapitza. You may be forgiven for thinking that this is due to these picture fonts
working in a logograph or hieroglyphic capacity, where imagery represents a word or a morpheme – a meaningful unit of language. However, the answer is perhaps far simpler than first imagined.
Petra Kapitza explains: “Picture fonts open up new possibilities in the design process by being able to edit the illustrations using the typesetting features of any software. This aspect is especially interesting when creating pattern fonts”. Thus

LIGHT: “It’s typography that differentiates graphic

communication onto visual form,” says Tony Ariawan

UR
it becomes apparent that, more and more, the function of the font adheres to creative conditions, going some way to explaining this new found focus upon aesthetics, being less deterred with the traditional rules and rituals. Essentially, the
nature of these fonts is 100 per cent creative in capacity, concerned more so with shapes that written message.

own functional and aesthetic means on translating verbal

design and other visual art (paintings). Typography has its

artists may in fact be at odds with themselves, as

needs more time to get the control that the masters
However, Trochut interestingly admits that he is an

cavalier approach at times? It perhaps seems that

the instantly digestible digital properties make for
calligraphy to Seventies and Eighties type was way
something that allows a lot of freedom, I think. There’s
at in reality, so its structure can be changed twisted

all, to truly define dependable typography. Perhaps

expression present, it seems that numerous creatives
concerning this style. For all the experimentation and
Trochut serves more ‘food for thought’ when
falls short of traditional approach: “I think the work

feel there are still some regulations to adhere to after

Trochut adds: “I think the computer is still a tool that
done in the 20th Century before the digital era, from
artist who feels modern software, for all its promise,
room, of course, to add illustration and art techniques
into many ways, still being a typeface.” He adds: “This is
thing from nature; there’s not a unique model to look
to play around with. Its proportions are not based in a

better in terms of dynamic than the work we do today.”

Again this factor contributes to turning the method of typography on its head and it seems that this is a style rapidly concerning itself more with evolution and adaptation than definition. However, one fundamental is consistent throughout

E?
and again we must address the notion of aesthetics. Artists, tired with the stable typeface, have expressed their desire through utilising new samples, concerning design with originality and fusion. These are seemingly integral elements to the
success of this contemporary typographic method. Founder of Thinkdust independent studio, artist Alex Haigh, is one contemporary designer who concurs. Which type?
Haigh, having worked with international clientele such as Nike, Playstation and Mars, reinforces this attitude by saying: “When thinking of a ‘design classic’, Helvetica is probably what the majority of designers think of first. However, with due
respect to the face, I’m quite bored of how it is constantly over used by a lot of designers. Only a small majority of very tight designers I have seen recently seem to challenge the face in order to create something new and fresh.” Haigh’s own
influences are purely contributed to shape and form: “You can easily get carried away for a few days distorting type and experimenting in order to create something unique. Most if my influence comes from constant experimentation.”
And so typeface has its own functionality and aesthetic means of translating verbal communication onto visually distinctive form. Tony Ariawan, creator of design studio Area105, explains: “Let’s take a look at methods such as graffiti or
street art. Almost every work produced on the wall is stylising font shape. They have existed and consistently appeared as standalone artworks. The main factor that makes these standalone is essentially the ability to deform font shape into a
quite abstract form.”
It has apparently become to tempting not to assimilate and alter the constructs of modern typeface. Perhaps this has in some part thanks to the creative emergence of digital software. All you’ll need to do is search through the type drop
menu in Photoshop to be presented with a plethora of fonts, each telling its own story. Ready made and easy to access by artists, in no short way due to the font designers, these can then again be transformed by many possible means. “Modern
softwares are really a great assistance in artwork exploration,” confirms Ariawan. “We can now do things that were impossible in the old days. From creating font, deform letter shape, up to spoiling fonts.”
Alex Trochut, successful freelance graphic designer and industry favourite who loves both type and illustration without preference, goes further in explaining this: “I think type is a very flexible substance to play around with. Its proportions
are not based in a thing from nature; there’s not a unique model to look at in reality, so its structure can be changed twisted into many ways, still being a typeface.” He adds: “This is something that allows a lot of freedom, I think. There’s room, of

www.thinkdust.com
course, to add illustration and art techniques to this field.”
However, Trochut interestingly admits that he is an artist that feels modern software, for all its promise, falls short of traditional approach: “I think the work done in the 20th Century before the digital era, from calligraphy to Seventies and

more of the studio’s output at

Eighties type was way better in terms of dynamic than the work we do today.” Trochut adds: “I think the computer is still a tool that needs more time to get the control that the masters had with ink and paper.”

studio created by Alex Haigh. See

Trochut serves more ‘food for thought’ when concerning this style. For all the experimentation and expression present, it seems that numerous creatives feel there are still some regulations to adhere to after all, to truly define dependable

Thinkdust is an independent design

THINKDUST SCREENSHOT:
typography. Perhaps the instantly digestible digital properties make for cavalier approach at times? It perhaps seems that artist may in fact be at odds with themselves as Ariawan comments: “As a designer it is our responsibility to make the
artwork has the capability to communicate and understandable for the viewers, but as an artist, the artwork becomes a means of self satisfaction and self expression and it is no longer important of being understandable or not.”
Once again this is point open to conjecture when considering Andrew Morev’s comments. The brainchild behind More Vision, with 11 years of industry experience, affirms: “Typography works with exact meaning, while traditional image may
not at all. Typography has also functional and rational goals. Art is mostly emotional thing. I think that is a distinction.” But again being such a subjective style, perhaps this opinion is once more subject to function. Morev goes on to add:
CASE STUDY
“Design has a final aim to deliver a certain message to the audience. So font, arranged with layout, colour and image, helps form the impact of the message.” What’s in a name?
“Font is a unique thing. It has graphic nature and a sense of meaning combined. In this way the font is illustration media for words,” Ariawan adds. “It is highly important, since typography has its own unique character, and that value is one of
AT’S the element to establish mood in design. Let’s just say for a rather high-spirited design as used for a campaign it is more likely to use the rigid Sans Serif style, eg Arial black, Verdana, etc, while for a warmer and softer theme, used for perhaps a
restaurant or café, it would be more appropriate to use the elegant and Soft Serif.”
But for all the assumption that the applications of x-height, ascenders, leading, kerning, cadence, texture, positive and negative space, balance, letter spacing, alignment and many more being an exact science, it seems that in contemporary
terms they are more concerned with appreciation than distinct comprehension. Ariawan explains: “All visual elements such as white space, image, layout, tone, typography and colour are all corresponded of creating mood on design, it’s kind of
hard to explain, but if we see our work the more we can feel the interaction between those elements.”
what’s your type?

However, instinctive or comprehensive this process may be for the artists employing them, the attitude towards function stays paramount. It seems that for all its expressive, aesthetic appeal, when trying to achieve a successful commercial
use a creative must be aware of the ‘voices’ sounded out by the typography. As Morev points out, all elements form a message, each one distinct with the product it represents.
Giles Macleay, senior designer at LOGO Design & Marketing, appreciates such factors. With nearly a decade’s worth of experience at a company providing corporate identity solutions for over 35 years, Macleay observes: “A logo needs to
possible on projects for clients.”
THINKDUST

communicate quickly, it’s like the assassin of type, it has to meet the end user head on and set the right mood whether it’s there to excite, comfort or offer stability.” In essence, as a designer he is concerned with giving order to information, form
Volkswagen, GSK and Powerade.

to ideas and expression to object, in this case typeface.

“It’s like telling a story, each piece of visual information should work together in cohesion, white space versus ink versus image. All the elements come together it’s like an eyeball etiquette. Make sure the choice of colour and composition
reflect the message, there should always be some sort of hierarchy, you don’t want the type and graphics fighting with each other on the page. When I place type on a page, I try to make it work alongside everything else that is going to appear
materials to design – I’m ready to explore.”
really old way of working. Chopping up
very heavy Photoshop work, Outer Glows
different pieces to build up a collective folio
works for the client, and trying to do this in a
Thinkdust has grown a style in itself. The style

challenge new ideas and visually output

typographic approach. “I want to really
Thinkdust has produced work for a rich list of

images, scanning them in, introducing real

2007 the zeitgeist of design seemed to be
Thinkdust,” he says. “I have noticed that in
for Thinkdust, embracing a reinvention of his
aesthetics of the work have come about
Thinkdust in recent times, as he adds his hot

the trend of vector. I’d like to get back to the

Haigh isn’t one to stand still, and has
purely by experimentation, love for colour
challenging and creative way. The overall
“It has been purely a case of creating what
clientele including Sony Playstation,

and 3D type, which seems to have taken over

of diverse work that will be recognisable to
addressed what he feels may be the next step
and a drive to really try and push as much as
of work is not done by intention,” he explains.
design. “I think over the last two years,
talent to the world of typography and logo
Haigh has seen a rise in the prominence of
design studio Thinkdust. Founded in 2005,
Alex Haigh is the creator of independent

with it. Choice of font is as important as any graphic.”

But Macleay’s following comments assure that no matter what function the design serves or commercial demands made, there is always leverage for expression and aesthetic appeal: “Type and art have definitely moved closer together. It’s

Advanced Photoshop
41
communication through shape, form and colour with limitless methods of fabrication. I think type has always had a place in the art world, if you just look at things like the Gutenberg bible, Bauhaus school or the work of someone like Alan
Kitching, there are so many people producing type in so many different ways for more than just commercial graphics. Even the use of type on fashion products has increased beyond just branding.”

13/2/08 10:14:25
This adoption of attitude and new tolerance from commercial authorities has provided an almost symbiotic nature between artist and clientele, but most importantly a newfound freedom of approach granted to designer, which seems to
have been embraced. Never before have designers had the creative leverage to instigate revolution and clientele been so eager to endorse such practice. Take, for instance, the global corporation Wacom and its new brand identity, starting with
 There’s an old and well-known proverb that states, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. The point served is certainly valid, considering the elements self-contained within a composition, providing large amounts of visual data that can be
absorbed promptly. But what if the picture itself is a word?
Consider these factors and it can be said that typography throws the proverbial ‘spanner in the works’ when concerned with this theory. Thus the word becomes the picture and again art serves to blur all boundaries. Make no mistake, typograph
has rapidly become as much an art form as an industrial skill and no more so than in recent decades. In a rapidly advancing digital age, what was once a distinctly specialist occupation has become instantly accessible and eagerly digested by creati

42
enthusiasts. This, of course, has led to assimilation by modern graphic designers, illustrators and designers. Now typography is embraced artistically as well as being recognised by the advertising and editorial sectors.
Generally known as ‘display typography’ within graphic design circles, it is becoming a potent and expressive element with much more concern for aesthetic approach. Unsurprisingly, much like illustration, graphic design is a process that
communicates visually. So again it is no surprise that the two methods have once again transgressed to create an exciting form of hybrid less exclusive than previously, a sublime visual communication of sorts. Font-astique... In recent times the
modern illustrator and designer has been contributing profoundly to this successful style and perhaps no more so than by addressing the apparent limitations of typography. Thus this newfound creative relationship between word and image has
been able to flourish both commercially and aesthetically. It would often be said that the majority of letter types have been in use for well over 150 years and therefore their use within composition had started to become distinctly conservative, wit

Advanced Photoshop
regards to the principles of shape and design naturally. However, a new generation of creators has begun to challenge this notion through their creative experiments.
Known simply as ‘font creators’, these designers have begun to consider the merits of font legibility, disregarding the stigmatism attached to the rules of readability and thus bridging the gap towards innovative aesthetics. A common

038-043_AVP_41_TypeFeat.indd 42
misconception would be that the pair of disciplines is one and the same. Not so. Readability concerns itself with rules of sentencing, word length and frequency or regularity. Legibility concerns itself less with factors such as language and content
and more so with the aesthetic qualities of size and appearance.
Feature

These qualities are at times far more central to the concerns of the modern font creator. Todd Dever, director and creator of Cool Fonts offered his opinion, contributing much authority considering his 12 years as a font designer. He explains: “If y
are making a font that people are supposed to read, then there has to be a certain amount legibility. Many of my typefaces push design over legibility, but at the end of the day, you need to be able to interpret the message.”
His artistic approach is matched with traditional consideration and rightly so, as he continues: “Even the craziest designs lose their function as a typeface if they are not legible. It really takes a lot of testing to make sure you strike that balance
between design and function. I don’t mind challenging the viewer, but I don’t like to torture them… too much.” However, with this response, Dever hits upon a key issue regarding modern typography: function. Make no mistake the function of the
font is seemingly in a state of flux artistically.

$40 and is available at www.allworth.com.

Subscription begins at £12.56/$25 a month.
There are those in the industry that are stretching the boundaries of even legibility, totally disregarding any notion of readability with intent. Kapitza, a contemporary design partnership since 2004 ran between sisters Petra and Nicole Kapitza,

information on how type is perceived by

years’ experience. The title offers an extensive

readers, typographic history, principles and

section on typography, with essential
balance, letter spacing, alignment, themes,
Training Library, you can find Don Barnett
your knowledge regarding the methods of
For those of you interested in expanding

White, specialist in typography with over 20

Advertising Design and Typography by Alex W
instructional movies that will help you
Library, CD- and DVD-based video training

practice. It’s a bargain at the price of £20.10/

concerning the subject. A good example is
There are also many specialist books
patterns, grids, tangents, and more.
positive and negative space, white space,
involving composition, cadence, texture,
design. Explore timeless design principles
understand the principles of typographic
and Lynda Weinman’s workshops containing
students and hobbyists. Here, at Online
and events for creative designers, instructors,
13 years and counting, this award-winning
typography, there are plenty of helpful

instructional books, the Online Training

presented creatives with Hands-On Training
provider of educational materials has
not visit www.lynda.com, for example? For
online and print resources to be had. Why
ONLINE HELP
have been notable contributors. “We specialise in picture fonts,” says Petra Kapitza. Their idea to do so grew organically from their involvement in the exhibition ‘Death is part of the process’ at Void Gallery in Derry, Ireland. “For the artwork titled
‘Cycle’, we created hundreds of people, animal and plant illustrations to create a contemporary ‘momento mori’ picture. We have been developing an extensive series of picture fonts that lie somewhere between type ornaments, an image library
resource and an art project.”
RESOURCES
Legible doesn’t seem to feature in the Kapitza vocabulary, “As we are designing picture fonts we don’t have to be concerned about legibility,” explains Petra Kapitza. You may be forgiven for thinking that this is due to these picture fonts working
a logograph or hieroglyphic capacity, where imagery represents a word or a morpheme – a meaningful unit of language. However, the answer is perhaps far simpler than first imagined.
Petra Kapitza explains: “Picture fonts open up new possibilities in the design process by being able to edit the illustrations using the typesetting features of any software. This aspect is especially interesting when creating pattern fonts”. Thus it
becomes apparent that, more and more, the function of the font adheres to creative conditions, going some way to explaining this new found focus upon aesthetics, being less deterred with the traditional rules and rituals. Essentially, the nature of
these fonts is 100 per cent creative in capacity, concerned more so with shapes that written message.
© Tony Ariawan

Again this factor contributes to turning the method of typography on its head and it seems that this is a style rapidly concerning itself more with evolution and adaptation than definition. However, one fundamental is consistent throughout and
again we must address the notion of aesthetics. Artists, tired with the stable typeface, have expressed their desire through utilising new samples, concerning design with originality and fusion. These are seemingly integral elements to the success

easy-to-follow workshops
this contemporary typographic method. Founder of Thinkdust independent studio, artist Alex Haigh, is one contemporary designer who concurs. Which type?

artwork has the capability to

communicate with the viewers”
Haigh, having worked with international clientele such as Nike, Playstation and Mars, reinforces this attitude by saying: “When thinking of a ‘design classic’, Helvetica is probably what the majority of designers think of first. However, with due

hands-on help on all typographic

LYNDA.COM (BELOW): Get

principals at www.lynda.com, with

is our responsibility to make sure the
respect to the face, I’m quite bored of how it is constantly over used by a lot of designers. Only a small majority of very tight designers I have seen recently seem to challenge the face in order to create something new and fresh.” Haigh’s own

TYPO (ABOVE): Ariawan says: “It

influences are purely contributed to shape and form: “You can easily get carried away for a few days distorting type and experimenting in order to create something unique. Most if my influence comes from constant experimentation.”
And so typeface has its own functionality and aesthetic means of translating verbal communication onto visually distinctive form. Tony Ariawan, creator of design studio Area105, explains: “Let’s take a look at methods such as graffiti or street ar
Almost every work produced on the wall is stylising font shape. They have existed and consistently appeared as standalone artworks. The main factor that makes these standalone is essentially the ability to deform font shape into a quite abstract
form.”
It has apparently become to tempting not to assimilate and alter the constructs of modern typeface. Perhaps this has in some part thanks to the creative emergence of digital software. All you’ll need to do is search through the type drop menu i
Photoshop to be presented with a plethora of fonts, each telling its own story. Ready made and easy to access by artists, in no short way due to the font designers, these can then again be transformed by many possible means. “Modern softwares a
“ALL THE ELEMENTS COME TOGETHER –
really a great assistance in artwork exploration,” confirms Ariawan. “We can now do things that were impossible in the old days. From creating font, deform letter shape, up to spoiling fonts.”
Alex Trochut, successful freelance graphic designer and industry favourite who loves both type and illustration without preference, goes further in explaining this: “I think type is a very flexible substance to play around with. Its proportions are n
IT’S LIKE AN EYEBALL ETIQUETTE”
based in a thing from nature; there’s not a unique model to look at in reality, so its structure can be changed twisted into many ways, still being a typeface.” He adds: “This is something that allows a lot of freedom, I think. There’s room, of course, to
add illustration and art techniques to this field.”
However, Trochut interestingly admits that he is an artist that feels modern software, for all its promise, falls short of traditional approach: “I think the work done in the 20th Century before the digital era, from calligraphy to Seventies and Eighti
ttype
ype was way better in terms of dynamic than the work we do today.” Trochut adds: “I think the computer is still a tool that needs more time to get the control that the masters had with ink and paper.”
Trochut serves more ‘food for thought’ when concerning this style. For all the experimentation and expression present, it seems that numerous creatives feel there are still some regulations to adhere to after all, to truly define dependable
Trochut
typography. Perhaps the instantly digestible digital properties make for cavalier approach at times? It perhaps seems that artist may in fact be at odds with themselves as Ariawan comments: “As a designer it is our responsibility to make the artwo
typography.
has the capability to communicate and understandable for the viewers, but as an artist, the artwork becomes a means of self satisfaction and self expression and it is no longer important of being understandable or not.”
has
Once again this is point open to conjecture when considering Andrew Morev’s comments. The brainchild behind More Vision, with 11 years of industry experience, affirms: “Typography works with exact meaning, while traditional image may not
Once
all. Typography has also functional and rational goals. Art is mostly emotional thing. I think that is a distinction.” But again being such a subjective style, perhaps this opinion is once more subject to function. Morev goes on to add: “Design has a fin
all.
aim
aim to deliver a certain message to the audience. So font, arranged with layout, colour and image, helps form the impact of the message.” What’s in a name?
“Font is a unique thing. It has graphic nature and a sense of meaning combined. In this way the font is illustration media for words,” Ariawan adds. “It is highly important, since typography has its own unique character, and that value is one of the
“Font

form the impact of the message.”

element to establish mood in design. Let’s just say for a rather high-spirited design as used for a campaign it is more likely to use the rigid Sans Serif style, eg Arial black, Verdana, etc, while for a warmer and softer theme, used for perhaps a
restaurant or café, it would be more appropriate to use the elegant and Soft Serif.”
But for all the assumption that the applications of x-height, ascenders, leading, kerning, cadence, texture, positive and negative space, balance, letter spacing, alignment and many more being an exact science, it seems that in contemporary ter
they are more concerned with appreciation than distinct comprehension. Ariawan explains: “All visual elements such as white space, image, layout, tone, typography and colour are all corresponded of creating mood on design, it’s kind of hard to

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

more appropriate to use the elegant and soft Serif.”

explain, but if we see our work the more we can feel the interaction between those elements.”
less important [whether it is] understandable or not.”

goals. Art is mostly an emotional thing. I think that is a

positive and negative space, balance, letter spacing,

But for all the assumption that the applications of
character, and that value is one of the elements to
“Font is a unique thing. It has graphic nature and a

important, since typography has its own unique

sense of meaning combined. In this way the font is
aim to deliver a certain message to the audience. So
may not at all. Typography has functional and rational
works with exact meaning, while traditional image
capability to communicate with and be
Ariawan comments: “As a designer, it is our
responsibility to make sure the artwork has the

x-height, ascenders, leading, kerning, cadence, texture,

while for a warmer and softer theme, it would be
likely to use the rigid Sans Serif style, eg Arial Black,
illustration media for words,” Ariawan adds. “It is highly
distinction.” Morev goes on to add: “Design has a final
brainchild behind More Vision affirms: “Typography
considering Andrew Morev’s comments. The

high-spirited design as used for a campaign, it is more

establish mood in design. Let’s just say, for a rather
font, arranged with layout, colour and image, helps
Once again this point is open to conjecture when
artwork becomes a means of self-satisfaction and it’s
understandable for the viewers, but as an artist, the

However, instinctive or comprehensive this process may be for the artists employing them, the attitude towards function stays paramount. It seems that for all its expressive, aesthetic appeal, when trying to achieve a successful commercial use a
creative must be aware of the ‘voices’ sounded out by the typography. As Morev points out, all elements form a message, each one distinct with the product it represents.
Giles Macleay, senior designer at LOGO Design & Marketing, appreciates such factors. With nearly a decade’s worth of experience at a company providing corporate identity solutions for over 35 years, Macleay observes: “A logo needs to

13/2/08 10:14:43
communicate quickly, it’s like the assassin of type, it has to meet the end user head on and set the right mood whether it’s there to excite, comfort or offer stability.” In essence, as a designer he is concerned with giving order to information, form to
ideas and expression to object, in this case typeface.

TYPE
WHA
YO
YOUR
WHA
 AT’S
communication through shape, form and colour with limitless methods of fabrication. I think type has always had a place in the art world, if you just look at things like the Gutenberg bible, Bauhaus school or the work of someone like Alan Kitching,

been embraced. Never before have designers had the creative leverage to instigate revolution and clientele been so eager to endorse such practice. Take, for instance, the global corporation Wacom and its new brand identity, starting with the laun
communicate quickly, it’s like the assassin of type, it has to meet the end user head on and set the right mood whether it’s there to excite, comfort or offer stability.” In essence, as a designer he is concerned with giving order to information, form to

“It’s like telling a story, each piece of visual information should work together in cohesion, white space versus ink versus image. All the elements come together it’s like an eyeball etiquette. Make sure the choice of colour and composition reflect

It’s apparent that its concerns were aesthetic, however maybe dealing in the industry of aesthetics itself had some baring, when it released these comments: “The Bamboo brand communication talks a lot less about the technologies being used

Perhaps due in part to the breadth of typefaces and font design, maybe the difference in approach by artist or designer, possibly the anticipation of the commercial industry or the indigenous nature of the fonts form, it seems that this is a style
This adoption of attitude and new tolerance from commercial authorities has provided an almost symbiotic nature between artist and clientele, but most importantly a newfound freedom of approach granted to designer, which seems to have

that will never fail to inspire and compose great artistic examples. One thing is for certain though and that is that typeface has become a prime means to exercise imagination, blurring the boundaries between typography and experimentation.
the message, there should always be some sort of hierarchy, you don’t want the type and graphics fighting with each other on the page. When I place type on a page, I try to make it work alongside everything else that is going to appear with it.

Whether function influencing aesthetics or vice versa typography is ultimately a fertile technique. From artists reforming the constructs of legibility to those augmenting past methods, one fact remains and this is that typography is and will
But Macleay’s following comments assure that no matter what function the design serves or commercial demands made, there is always leverage for expression and aesthetic appeal: “Type and art have definitely moved closer together. It’s

AT’S
what’s your type?

HEADLINE: “The eternal question about what’s

© Cool Fonts, Todd Dever art and what’s not. It doesn’t really matter to me,
evolution and adaptation to new situations goes
faster than definitions,” comments Alex Trochut

© Alex Trochut
there are so many people producing type in so many different ways for more than just commercial graphics. Even the use of type on fashion products has increased beyond just branding.”

and concentrates on encouraging people to ‘make their mark’ both in terms of creating something visually distinctive and through the impression they make on the people around them.”

“TYPOGRAPHY HAS FUNCTIONAL AND RATIONAL GOALS. ART IS MOSTLY AN

UR EMOTIONAL THING. I THINK THAT IS A DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE TWO”
certainly continue to be a subjective style in a state of creative flux, consistently evolving and producing product that is truly telling and communicative.

TRUNCHEON: “I find inspiration all over the place. Just

walking down the street you can see hand-lettered signs,
maybe a billboard that’s been torn away to reveal an
unusual mash-up of type. Of course, the web is a great
inspiration,” says Todd Dever

OUR
alignment and many more being an exact science, it there should always
seems that in contemporary terms they are more be some sort of
concerned with appreciation than distinct hierarchy, you don’t want
comprehension. Ariawan explains: “All visual elements the type and graphics fighting with
such as white space, image, layout, tone, typography each other on the page. When I place type
and colour are all corresponded in creating mood on on a page, I try to make it work alongside everything

E?
design. It’s kind of hard to explain, but if we see our else that is going to appear with it. Choice of font is as
work, the more we can feel the interaction between important as any graphic.”
those elements.” But Macleay’s following comments assure that no
However, instinctive or comprehensive this process matter what function the design serves or commercial
may be for the artists employing them, the attitude demands made, there is always leverage for expression It’s apparent that its concerns were aesthetic,
towards function stays paramount. It seems that for all and aesthetic appeal: “Type and art have definitely however maybe dealing in the industry of aesthetics
its expressive, aesthetic appeal, when trying to achieve moved closer together. It’s communication through itself had some bearing, when it released these
a successful commercial use a creative must be aware shape, form and colour with limitless methods of comments: “The Bamboo brand communication talks
of the ‘voices’ sounded out by the typography. As fabrication. I think type has always had a place in the a lot less about the technologies being used and
Morev points out, all elements form a message, each art world; if you just look at things like the Gutenberg concentrates on encouraging people to ‘make their
one distinct with the product it represents. bible, Bauhaus school or the work of someone like mark’ both in terms of creating something visually
Giles Macleay, senior designer at LOGO Design & Alan Kitching, there are so many people producing distinctive and through the impression they make on
Marketing, appreciates such factors. With nearly a type in so many different ways for more than just the people around them.”
decade’s worth of experience at a company providing commercial graphics. Even the use of type on fashion Typography is ultimately a fertile technique. From
corporate identity solutions for over 35 years, Macleay products has increased beyond just branding.” artists reforming the constructs of legibility to those
observes: “A logo needs to communicate quickly; it’s This adoption of attitude and new tolerance from augmenting past methods, one fact remains:
ideas and expression to object, in this case typeface.

like the assassin of type, it has to meet the end user commercial authorities has provided an almost typography is and will continue to be a subjective
head on and set the right mood.” In essence, as a symbiotic nature between artist and clientele, but style in a state of creative flux, consistently evolving.
Choice of font is as important as any graphic.”

designer he is concerned with giving order to most importantly a newfound freedom of approach Perhaps due in part to the breadth of typefaces
information, form to ideas and expression to object, in granted to designer, which seems to have been and font design, possibly the anticipation of the
this case typeface. embraced. Never before have designers had the commercial industry or the indigenous nature of the
“It’s like telling a story, each piece of visual creative leverage to instigate revolution, and clientele font’s form, it seems that this is a style that will never
of its Bamboo pen tablet range.

information should work together in cohesion, white been so eager to endorse such practice. Take, for fail to inspire and compose great artistic examples.
space versus ink versus image. All the elements come instance, the global corporation Wacom and its new Typeface has become a prime means to exercise
together – it’s like an eyeball etiquette. Make sure the brand identity, starting with the launch of its Bamboo imagination, blurring the boundaries between
choice of colour and composition reflect the message; pen tablet range. typography and experimentation.

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 MASTERCLASS

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 Become a Photoshop
heavyweight Wrestle the Pen, Marquee,
and Brush tools into
submission BY JEFF MIRACOLA

ON THE DISC
The CD contains some custom vector
graphics and textures used to create this
rose-scented illustration: ‘curl.eps’, ‘dots.
psd’, ‘floral_designs.psd’, ‘sandpaper.jpg’
and ‘starburst_longRays.eps’.
OUR EXPERT Jeff Miracola
Jeff has been illustrating since 1993 in the fantasy
gaming industry. His art can be seen in games, books, and
magazines, as well as an upcoming children’s book. Visit
www.jeffmiracola.com.
O
nly Photoshop combines the tools needed to create illustrations with impact. Its ease of use frees you to
be as creative as you’d like. So step into the ring, and let’s put the hurt on Photoshop’s arsenal of drawing tools.
Lucha Libre, or ‘free fighting’, has always been a fascination. The identity-hiding mask and dramatic persona
of the wrestler may be even more compelling than the athlete himself. The colours, drama, humour, rich history and code
of honour in Mexican wrestling are just some of the draws that led to this illustration.
In this tutorial, we’ll show you the right techniques for achieving eye-popping, body-slamming, pile-driving illustrations
that impress all your friends, family and wrestling buddies. Warning: using these techniques may cause you to move to
Mexico and take up wrestling large, hairy men in masks. Seriously, though, once you master the technique of using the
Pen, Marquee and Brush tools, the process becomes second nature. The rest is up to your creativity and ingenuity. So put
the smackdown on Photoshop and get creating.

1 Basic shapes
Create a layer folder named ‘Mexican wrestler’. All
work on the wrestler will reside in this folder. Now, begin
this illustration by using the Pen tool (P) and Ellipse tool
(U) to build and arrange basic shapes for the torso, head
and right arm. We have opted to work directly in
Photoshop rather than over a sketch.
“WORK DIRECTLY IN PHOTOSHOP
RATHER THAN OVER A SKETCH”
2 3
More basic shapes
Use the Pen tool (P) to draw out the other shapes
for the figure. Choose base colours for the figure and
clothing. Shift+Cmd/Ctrl-click every shape so you have a
selection of your entire figure. Save your selection
(Select>Save Selection). Name it ‘Full figure’. This will
come in handy later.
Shading the glove fingers
Cmd/Ctrl-click on the fingers shape layer to
select it, create a new layer (Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+N), then
use the Paint Bucket tool (G) to fill the selection with a
dark brown colour. Contract the selection by 5 pixels
(Select>Modify>Contract), feather by 5 pixels
(Select>Modify>Feather) and hit Delete. Shading the
edges of your form provides the illusion of mass.

Layer
organisation
We create dozens, sometimes hundreds, of
layers for each illustration. Properly labelling
and organising them is crucial to not getting lost
in the piece. Group layers by object to save
valuable time otherwise lost in recalling layers.

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 MASTERCLASS
4 Shading the glove forearm
Cmd/Ctrl-click on the forearm shape layer, create a
new layer (Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+N), switch to the Brush tool
(B), select a Soft Round brush and then shade inside the
selection using a dark brown colour. This is a secondary
way to shade and is most useful with less intricate forms.
“TURN FLAT SHAPES INTO A
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CHARACTER”
5 6
Create the highlight
Using the Pen tool (P), draw out a highlight
shape, Rasterise the layer, set Gaussian Blur (Filter>
Blur>Gaussian Blur) to your liking, then set the layer
blending mode to Overlay. Cmd/Ctrl-click the forearm
layer, inverse the selection (Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+I), and hit
Delete to remove the excess highlight shape outside
of the glove.
Create rim lighting on the glove
Create a new layer (Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+N) and Cmd/
Ctrl-click the fingers and forearm layers so that you have
a selection of the entire glove shape. Fill the selection
with a bright yellow colour, switch to the Marquee tool
(M), move the selection over about 5 pixels, hit Delete,
deselect the Marquee tool (Cmd/Ctrl+D) and apply
Gaussian Blur to soften the highlight.

7 Decorate the glove

Using the Pen tool, create two arching lines.
Import the curly line graphic (‘curl.eps’). Duplicate the
curl multiple times and arrange in various positions
along the arching lines to make the glove
ornamentation. Position the ornamentation over the
Who is that glove, Cmd/Ctrl-click the forearm shape layer, Inverse

masked man? the selection (Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+I) and delete the excess.

Position the ornamentation under the highlight layer.
Some Mexican wrestlers, or luchadores, will go

to great lengths to keep their true identities
secret. Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, also known as El
Santo, was rarely, if ever, seen without wearing
his famous silver mask. He was even buried
wearing it.
8 9
Inside the glove Shading the right arm
Create a new layer under the arm shape, switch to Cmd/Ctrl-click the arm layer to select it, create a
the Pen tool, select a slightly darker orange colour and new layer, switch to the Brush tool and shade inside the
draw out the shape that will serve as the inside of the selection using a Soft Round brush and a dark brown
glove. Cmd/Ctrl-click the layer to select it, create a new colour. This is where the illustration comes to life.
layer, switch to the Brush tool and shade inside the Turning flat shapes into a fleshy, three-dimensional
selection with a dark colour. character that you can almost smell is great fun.

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 10 Create the glove shadow
Use the Pen tool to draw “USE A BRUSH
out a dark brown shape, which will
become the glove’s shadow cast onto the TO SHADE THE
arm. Rasterise the layer, apply a Gaussian
Blur, set the layer blending mode to SELECTION TO
Multiply and lower the Opacity to your
liking. Cmd-click the arm layer, inverse CREATE
the selection and delete the excess
shadow shape. CREASES IN
THE CAPE”
11 Creases and wrinkles
Create a new layer over the arm layer and use
the Elliptical Marquee tool to drag out an elliptical
12 Continue
the technique
Use the same techniques
selection. Switch to the Brush tool and use a Soft Round from the previous steps to create
brush to shade inside the selection to create very subtle the chest, as well as to shade
creases or wrinkles. and add details to the left arm,
torso and lower body. Tip: you
could duplicate similar elements
such as the glove or boot, then
flip them horizontally and
position them.

13 Wrestler’s shadow on the cape

Use the Pen tool to draw out a dark brown
shape over the cape, but under the figure. Rasterise,
14 Creases in
the cape
Create a new layer and use the
apply a Gaussian Blur, Cmd/Ctrl-click the cape shape, Elliptical Marquee tool to drag
inverse the selection and delete the excess shadow out a large elliptical selection.
outside of the cape. Set the blending mode to Multiply Switch to the Brush tool and use
and lower the Opacity value to your liking. a Soft Round brush to shade
inside the selection to create
creases in the cape. Cmd/Ctrl-
click the main cape shape,
inverse the selection and delete
any excess shadowing outside
of the cape.

15 Yellow light
on cape
Add more interest to the
cape by throwing light on it.
Cmd/Ctrl-click the wrestler’s
shadow layer, create a new
layer, inverse the selection and
use a Soft Round brush with
yellow colour to brighten
outside the shadow.

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16 Add texture to the cape
Use Photoshop’s Spatter brushes or other
available brushes to add texture to the cape and make it
look dirty. Import the dots graphic (‘dots.psd’) to place
over the cape, set the layer to Multiply and lower the
Opacity. Cmd/Ctrl-click the main cape shape, inverse the
selection and delete excess dots outside of the cape.
17 Continue with dot pattern
Use the same dot pattern (‘dots.psd’ on
the cover disc) to add texture to the cape around the
wrestler’s neck, his mask and his underwear layer to give
it the same overall finish. Use the curl graphic (‘curl.eps’)
to add hair to the chest, stomach and armpit of the
wrestler’s figure.
18 Creating the mask
Use the Pen tool to draw out half of a design
on the mask. Rasterise the shape, duplicate the layer, flip
horizontally and merge the two layers. On a new layer,
use the Pen tool to draw a triangular nose hole. Cmd/
Ctrl-click the triangle to make a selection. Turn off the
triangle layer. Return to your mask layer and hit Delete.

19 Shading and
decorating the mask
Use the same techniques used
throughout this tutorial to shade the
edges of the mask design. Use the
curl graphic (‘curl.eps’) to add designs
Creating to the side of your mask. Then use the

texture Pen tool to add other designs, such as

the three teardrop shapes on the top
of our mask design.
We like our virtual canvas as gritty and spattered
as the wrestling ring canvas. Textures in
illustrations add variation and visual interest.
They can be created within Photoshop or
scanned from real-world objects, such as the

20
sandpaper used here.
Create eyes, mouth and nose
Following the same techniques and using
the Pen tool, Marquee tool and Brush tools, create,
shade and detail the eyes, nose and mouth. Tip: create
one eye, duplicate, then flip horizontally for the other
eye. Also, create the yellow rim highlight on the head as
you did in Step 6 with the glove.
21
The rose
By now, you should be a master at using
the Pen, Marquee and Brush tools to create the
shapes that you need in your illustration. Use those
techniques to create a rose like the one in this
screenshot below. Remember: red roses mean love,
yellow roses mean friendship.

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“REMEMBER, RED MEANS LOVE,
YELLOW MEANS FRIENDSHIP”
24 25
More dramatic lighting
Use the Brush tool set to a dark colour
to shade the edges of your illustration. Cmd/Ctrl-click
the wrestling ring platform and use the Brush tool, set to
a bright colour, to brighten inside your selection.
Continue using the Brush tool to darken the edges of
your background.
044-049_AVP_41_IllustrationMC.in49 49
22 Shadow of the head
and rose
Shift-Cmd/Ctrl-click the main head
shape and the main rose shape so
you have one selection of the head
and rose shapes. Create a new layer
under the head, but over the torso.
Fill with a dark brown colour, apply
Gaussian Blur, set the blending
mode to Multiply and lower the
Opacity to your liking.
Even more dramatic lighting
Use the Brush tool, again set to a bright
yellow or white, to brighten the centre of your
illustration piece. Experiment with additional patterning
and texturing along the edges with various brushes.
Also, wrestle with blending modes to achieve richer,
deeper colours.
23 Create the background
Turn off the wrestler’s layer folder. Create a
new layer folder named ‘Background’. Use the floral
shapes (‘floral_designs.psd’) and starburst (‘starburst_
longRays.eps’) to create a decorative design for the
background and platform of the wrestling ring.
Experiment with layer blending modes to achieve
various colour combinations and effects.
26 Camera flashes and ropes
Use the Ellipse tool (U) and the starburst
shape (‘starburst_longRays.eps’) to create a camera
flash. Duplicate the camera flash at various sizes and
opacities. Use the techniques learned throughout this
tutorial to create, shade and highlight one rope.
Duplicate and place to create the ringside barrier.
27 Wrestler’s shadow, roses
and texture
Turn on ‘Mexican wrestler’ layer folder. For his shadow,
load the ‘Full figure’ selection from Step 2 (Select>Load
Selection). Create a new layer. Fill the selection with a
dark colour, flip vertically, add a Gaussian Blur and
Distort. Duplicate the roses for the platform. Place
texture (‘sandpaper.jpg’) on very top layer; set blending
mode to Soft Light and Opacity to 45. Olé! You’re done.
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 MASTERCLASS

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 Create a spooky Jack-
the-Ripper street scene
ON THE DISC Take a photo of a street and transform it into the foggy
On this month’s CD you’ll find all the files
needed to follow along with this project:
haunt of London’s most notorious serial killer BY KIRK NELSON
‘Street.jpg’, ‘NiceHat.jpg’ and ‘LampPost.

psd’, as well as the layered final image so
you can see how it was all put together.
OUR EXPERT Kirk Nelson
Kirk is a graphics artist residing in Washington DC, USA. He is a
regular contributor to the pages of Advanced Photoshop and
he also writes for our sister magazine Photoshop Creative.
A
rt and the macabre have long been intertwined. Artists have always strived to elicit strong emotions from
their audience, and fear is one of the most powerful emotions we contain. But horror doesn’t always have to
be shocking images of explicit, bloody brutality. Sometimes the perceived threat of unknown dangers can be
even more terrifying. The recipe for such a scene is fairly simple: start with one part dark deserted street, add one part
creepy fog with vaguely threatening shapes and mix in a shadowy form of a mysterious and iconic serial killer. Follow
along as we cook up a deliciously spooky Jack-the-Ripper street scene.

1 What a nice street

Start by opening up the image ‘Street.jpg’ from
the CD. Let’s begin by removing the storefront and the
2 Pre-lighting
adjustment
Before we drastically change the
cars parked along the street. Photoshop’s Vanishing lighting, let’s deepen the colours
Point filter (Filter>Vanishing Point) provides an excellent and dull the midtones a bit. Add
method of cloning in perspective. Begin by drawing a a Curves adjustment layer
plane to match the perspective of the top portion of the (Layer>New Adjustment
building. Then use the Clone tool to paint a set of Layer>Curves). Use the
windows and a brick wall over the storefront. Paint eyedroppers to set your black
down to where the wall would meet the sidewalk. and white points. Now, on the
curve itself, slide the bottom left
point slightly to the right, then add a
point to the centre of the curve and
pull it down a bit.

3 The whole world’s going green

To create that eerie green tint, use a Hue/
Saturation adjustment layer
(Layer>New Adjustment
Layer>Hue/Saturation). Check
the Colorize box and pick out a
nice, deep green colour. We used
a Hue of 133, Saturation of 42
and bumped the Lightness
down to -38.

“SOMETIMES THE PERCEIVED

THREAT OF UNKNOWN DANGERS
CAN BE EVEN MORE TERRIFYING”
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 MASTERCLASS
“USE THE CLONE STAMP TOOL
TO REMOVE MODERN OBJECTS
FROM THE SCENE”
4 5
The fog rolls in
Create a new layer on the top of the stack and
name it ‘Fog’. Set your colour swatches to black and a
Push the fog around
We need the fog to have more depth and follow
the perspective of our street
medium green (we used ‘#068e06’). Create the base for scene. Use the Warp command
the fog by using the Cloud filters (Filter>Render>Clouds) (Edit>Transform>Warp) and
and set the blending mode to Screen to allow the pull the centre lines inwards
background to show through. and towards the right to follow
the street’s perspective. You
will probably have to pull on
the lines several times to shrink
the centre square quite a bit to
get the perspective to fit.

6 Dark and lonely

The atmosphere is starting to come together. Let’s
add some lighting effects to help it along. Create a new
layer called ‘Lighting’ and set the mode to Multiply.
Select the Gradient tool and set
it to Radial and your colours to
black and white. Have the
gradient start at the farthest
background point and end in
the foreground.

7 Lovely night for a stroll

Let’s add a bluish hue to the scene to help give a
moonlit effect. Duplicate the ‘Lighting’ layer and set the
8 Instant 19th Century
Now that we have the
lighting set, we can tell what
mode to Color Dodge. Now hit Cmd/Ctrl+U to adjust parts of the background need to
the hue/saturation of this new layer. Check the Colorize be cleaned up. Use the Clone
box and select a pale blue colour. We used a Hue of 205 Stamp tool to remove modern
and Saturation of 50. Finally drop the layer’s Opacity objects from the scene. By
down to around 34%. waiting on this step until we
have created our lighting it’s
easier to know which objects will
be hidden in shadow and don’t
need to be painted out.

9 Put a mask on the fog

Switch to the Channels palette and make a copy
of the Green channel by dragging the thumbnail down
to the New Channel icon. Now Cmd/Ctrl-click on this
copy to create a selection from it. Go back to the Layers
palette and use this selection as a mask on the fog layer
by pressing the Add Layer Mask icon at the foot of the
palette. Select a large, soft brush and paint directly on
the mask to increase contrast where needed. Use black
paint in the dark, shadowy areas and white paint in the
bright spots.

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 10 Soften the fog mask
Let’s enhance the mask even more with a
Gaussian Blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur); this will soften
any hard lines and give a more realistic fog effect. The
idea is for the hard, dark areas, like the tree on the right,
to have a slight inner glow. So adjust the blur as you see
fit – here we used a Radius of 7.3 pixels.
Rule of
thirds
By dividing your canvas into thirds vertically and
horizontally you create two sets of intersecting
lines. The intersection of these lines can be used
as guides for composing your designs to create
more energy and interest. In this project we
placed Jack along one of the vertical lines with
his feet near one intersection, the opposite
intersection finds the bright lamppost. To easily
place these guides in Photoshop go to
View>New Guide and enter 33% and then 66%
for both horizontal and vertical guides. Pressing
Cmd/Ctrl+’ toggles the guides on and off.
050-054_AVP_41_RipperMC.indd 53
11 Unfortunate chap. Nice hat though…
Open ‘NiceHat.jpg’ from our CD. Doesn’t look
like a notorious serial killer, does he? Use the selection
tool of your choice to create a selection. Paste Jack into
the street scene on a layer just over the background. Use
the transformation tools to flip, scale and position him
to fit into the scene. Hide the fog layer to make it easier.
13 “Hello, my name is Jack the Ripper”
We doubt Jack would wear a nametag, so
use a black brush to conceal it, his coat buttons and his
hand. Switch to the Smudge tool and turn up the edges
of the hat brim. While this is certainly more sinister than
the smiling waiter, Jack needs a few props. Use the Pen
tool to draw in a cape and a cane. Hide the Background
layer to stop you from getting lost in the shadows.
12 Black as night
Hit Cmd/Ctrl+L to bring up the Levels. We
need him as a dark silhouette, but still able to see some
highlight on his face and shirt. Pull the dark input slider
to the right until it lines up with the first peak of the
histogram (around 46) and move the middle slider to
about 0.57. On the Output sliders, pull the light to 82.
14 Add shadow and highlight
Add a ‘Darken’ layer with the blending mode
set to Multiply and a ‘Lighten’ layer set to Screen. Clip
both layers to the ‘Jack’ layer by holding down Alt/Opt
and clicking on the line between the layers. Use dark
paint on the ‘Darken’ layer to conceal Jack’s face and
shirt so it’s barely visible. Use light paint on the ‘Lighten’
layer to add a soft highlight to the cape shoulder.
15 Evil glowing eyes
Using the Pen tool
again, draw in some shapes for
Jack’s eyes. We want them to have
an ominous glow so use a light
colour, but reduce the Opacity to
around 25%. Add a subtle Outer
Glow layer style and adjust the
size, spread and range until the
effect is minimal.
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 MASTERCLASS
16 The lone shadow of a man
To help ground Jack into the scene he needs
a shadow. Select all the layers of the figure (‘Lighten’,
17 Radial Blur
Jack’s outline is too sharp and doesn’t match
with the rest of the scene. Create another combined
’Darken’, ‘Jack’, ‘Cape’ and ‘Cane’) and press Cmd/ layer just as you did for the
Ctrl+Alt/Opt+E to create a combined layer. Name this shadow and move it
new layer ‘Shadow’ and move it below the other layers between the shadow and
for the figure. Use the transformation tools to flip and figure layers. Run the Radial
skew the shadow into place. A slight Gaussian Blur to Blur filter (Filter>Blur>Radial
soften it (around 2.5 pixels) and a gradient layer mask to Blur) with the Method set to
fade the shadow as it gets further away from the figure. Zoom and the Amount
around 26. The effect we’re
looking for is to have the light
radiate out from behind Jack.

18 Hidden in the fog

Turn the ‘Fog’ layer back on
and see Jack disappear! We need to
adjust the fog mask to reveal him.
Cmd/Ctrl-click on the thumbnails for
‘Jack’, ‘Cape’, ‘Cane’ and ‘Blur’ to create a
selection in that shape. Then make sure
the ‘Fog’ mask is the active layer and fill
the selection with black (Edit>Fill). You
can fade the fill command by going to
Edit>Fade. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+D to deselect
and use your black and white brushes
for any touch ups needed on the mask.

19 Let there be light posts

To make the street look more like the late
1800s let’s add some ornate lampposts along the street.
You could draw your own or use the one we’ve
provided on the CD called ‘LampPost.psd’. Drag the
lantern into the street scene and position it on the
sidewalk. Be sure to place the lamppost layer on top of
the ‘Fog’ layer. Then, use the same process from the
previous steps (20-21) to create a shadow and blur for
the lamppost. Duplicate the lamppost and move the
second one down the street. Using the perspective of
the building, scale the lamppost down to make it fit. This
post will need to be a bit brighter because it’s deeper
into the fog, so go to Image>Adjustments>
Brightness/Contrast and pull the Brightness up to 25.
20 Add glowing lights
Add a ‘LampFogLight’ layer to the top of the
layer stack. Set your Foreground Color to a pale blue
(‘93c3cd’) and set the Gradient tool to Radial, foreground
to transparent and Opacity to 50%. Create the gradient
from the first lamp outwards. Duplicate the layer and
position the copy over the second lamp. Create a ‘Flare’
layer and fill it with 50% Grey (Edit>Fill). Change the
layer’s blending mode to Overlay. Create a lens flare
(Filter>Render>Lens Flare); we used a 105mm Prime
setting with Brightness at 82%. Move this into place,
duplicate the layer for the second lamp and bump the
Opacity down to 71%.

21 Final touch
For a final spooky
touch, add a ‘SkullShape’
layer at the top. Set the
blending mode to Linear
Burn and use a large, soft
brush with black paint to
rough in the shape of a skull
using the lamps as eyes and
the door and window
frames to imply the teeth.
This needs to be a subtle
detail that is almost
imperceptible, so lower the
Opacity to around 45%.

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 Step-by-step
Workshop

56
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056-060_AVP_41_PosterWS.indd 56 13/2/08 10:19:45

 HOLLYWOOD EFFECTS AT HOME
Create cinematography magic by mastering the contemporary skill of draganizing
M
aking a movie is a long and
demanding yet ultimately
rewarding project. However, its
success as a whole is measured only by the sum
of its parts and propaganda has a huge part to
play in a movie’s success, namely the acclaimed
movie poster.
Already an art form itself, certain movie
posters can surely be called upon as iconic and
like all other art forms follow certain trends in
style and method that appeal to the
appreciative masses.
In this issue’s tutorial, we’ll educate you in
one of Hollywood’s favourite creative
1 Lights, camera…
Open your model image (or download
the same one as us from iStock). Duplicate your
image and apply an Overlay blending mode to
the copy layer. Select Filter>Other>High Pass
and set your Radius to 3 pixels. Click OK and
merge the layers. Select the Rectangular
Marquee tool and Ctrl-click/right-click on your
image, selecting Color Range. Choose Shadows.
3 And paste
With your figure now isolated, Cmd/Ctrl-
click your Alpha Channel to automatically select,
hide your Alpha Channel and show all others
once more, then activate your original layer in
the Layers palette. Copy>Paste into a new layer,
naming this ‘Model isolated’. Hide your original
layer, then create a new white layer background.
056-060_AVP_41_PosterWS.indd 57
techniques, the draganizing effect, and also
how to evolve the results of this when coupled
with other awesome applications in
Photoshop. You’ll learn new layer processes
creating specific and unique exposure effects,
contemporary techniques such as painting
with light, the true effectiveness of the
blending mode when coupled with common
filter effects and the creative licence afforded
through applying textures.
Once all the effects are pieced together, you
may well find you’ve created your very own
piece of movie poster iconography. Roll
Photoshop in 3, 2, 1…
2 … action
Activate your Channels palette. From the
icons below select Save Selection as Channel.
Deactivate your original selection and hide all
channels except this newly created Alpha
Channel and the Red Channel. With your Alpha
Channel active, choose a hard-edged round
brush set to white and apply to your figure. Use
black to erase values you don’t want.
4 Create the right ambience
Duplicate this new layer and with your
‘Model isolated copy’ layer active select
Adjustments>Shadow/Highlight. Adjust the
amounts, creating a soft balance. If you are
utilising the same stock image as us, change
your Shadows Amount to 30%, Tonal Width to
40% and your Highlights Amount to 10%.
ON THE DISC
On the disc you will find ‘Gig toilet.
tif’, ‘IP_0029.tif’ and ‘PB260061.tif’.
We have also included a texture
from mayang.com called
‘saucepan fullsize.pl.jpeg’. For the
other images, visit www.
istockphotos.com (the model,
image no ‘000004215942’) and
www.morguefile.com (texture,
‘Frankybaby_P6101876’).
OUR EXPERT Adam Smith
Staff writer Adam is a keen moviegoer, enriched with much
frivolous trivia knowledge. He’s also a keen figurative artist,
working on several print and promotional projects, so this
tutorial really had it all when considering his creative needs
and compositional requirements.
Credit where it’s due
When applying your text to your movie poster composition,
there are some principles to abide for authentic results, for
instance the footer credits.
If you pay close attention, you’ll notice that the typeface
is distinctly tall and narrow. This is not an aesthetic choice,
but so directors, actors, producers and all involved have
equal representation on the poster. The height of the
credits must always be half the height of the main title.
However, width doesn’t seem to be a real issue.
5 Black and white
Select Image>Adjustments>Levels and
manipulate your values until you have created a
nice exposure. Again, if you are using the same
example, change your Shadows to 35, Midtones
to 1 and Highlights to 215. Once satisfied with
the effects, duplicate this layer again, choosing
Desaturate from the Adjustments menu.
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 Step-by-step
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6 Balance
Once more access the Levels options
and create a strong exposure. We’ve altered the
Shadows to 25 and Highlights to 225. Press
Cmd/Ctrl+I to inverse your image and then
select Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Adjust the
Radius setting to give you a nice undefined
image, around a value of 15 pixels if you’re
using the same image as us. Now apply an
Overlay blending mode.
7 Cross cutting
Drop your Opacity to around 50%. Cmd/
Ctrl-click your ‘Model isolated copy’ layer
thumbnail and press Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+I. With
the ‘Model isolated copy 2’ layer still active,
press Cmd/Ctrl+X to delete. Hide the template
and white background layers, then Shift+Opt/
Alt+Cmd/Ctrl-click the ‘Model isolated’ layer,
creating a new ‘Model merged’ layer. Select the
Burn tool, set to Midtones at 15% Exposure.
8 Burn treatment
With a soft-edged brush, apply to the
darker areas of your figure, creating areas of
dense shadow and extreme definition. Apply to
key areas such as dark hair, facial creases, muscle
creases and skin wrinkles, fabric areas and
whatever else takes your fancy. In turn select
your Dodge tool and set the Range to
Highlights, again with a 15% Exposure. Now hit
the highlighted areas in your model like before.

9 Colorization
Once more duplicate this layer, then
select Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation,
checking the Colorize option. This will apply a
wash colour. Set your Hue to 30 and Saturation
to 15. Once you’ve clicked OK,
set an Overlay blending mode
to this layer, Opacity at 40%.
Activate the layer beneath and
apply a -70 Saturation from
the Hue/Saturation options.

10 Yellow tint
Hide your ‘template’, ‘background’
and ‘Model isolated’ layers and Shift+Opt/
Alt+Cmd/Ctrl your two ‘Model merged’ layers,
labelling this ‘Model treated’. Duplicate this
layer and select Image>Adjustments>
Variations. Set to Midtones, apply a strong
yellow tone from the More Yellow thumbnail
and click the Darker thumbnail several times.
Apply a 40% Opacity, 40% Fill Hue blending
mode. Show all the layers once more.
11 More colorization
Duplicate this Hue layer once
again, changing the blending mode to
Overlay. Reset the Opacity for this level at
40%, Fill at 30%. Next activate the ‘Model
merged’ layer and apply a 60% Overlay
blending mode. Again merge these layers,
separate from the background and those
hidden. Next proceed to duplicate the ‘Model
treated’ layer and apply a 180 Hue from the
Hue/Saturation options.

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 12 Fade out
Apply a Soft Light blending mode,
then add a layer mask to this new layer.
Selecting a black tone soft-edged brush, with a
Master Diameter around 700px and Opacity set
to 30%, begin to brush away the left-hand side
and highlighted areas of your model. Utilise the
bracket keys to alter brush sizes and zoom
functions to refine application.
“BE METICULOUS IN YOUR APPLICATION, USING
TAB BUTTONS TO ALTER BRUSH SIZE”
056-060_AVP_41_PosterWS.indd 59
13 Begin compositing
Again, hiding the appropriate layers,
Shift+Alt/Opt+Cmd/Ctrl-click, creating a new
separate merged layer. Next File>Open a poster-
sized template and Copy>Paste this final model
layer into the document, using Edit>Transform
options to rescale appropriately. Next open ‘Gig
toilet.tif’ from the disc and rescale to fit. Select
Levels and apply Input settings of 26, 1.00, 190.
15 Lighting area
Apply a light blue-to-white gradient
to your original Background layer, using the
Gradient tool, then add a layer mask to your
background image layer called ‘Back drop 1’.
Select a soft-edged black-toned brush at 30%
Opacity and brush away edges of the hair and
where the highlights fall on your model, as well
as the right-hand top corner, revealing the
previous gradient.
16 Soften focus
Next duplicate your ‘Model’ layer and
with your original active apply a 2-pixel Radius
Gaussian Blur. This will soften sharp edges like
hair. Next apply a layer mask to both ‘Model’
layers and with 30% Opacity soft-edged brush,
brush away hair edges in highlighted regions
for integration. Next open, then Copy>Paste
the ‘IP_0029.tif’ file from the disc, rescaling at
the top of your composition. Apply a 70%
Opacity Linear Light blending mode.
14 Gradient treatment
Select the ‘Add layer style’ option from
the Layers palette and choose Gradient Overlay.
With a black-to-white foreground-to-
background gradient set, select a Linear Burn
Mode at 70%, 90-degree Angle. Select Gradient
Editor Options and set the Location of your
white value to 65%. Click OK and use the Dodge
and Burn tools as before to tweak exposure.
17
Photo filter
Next select the Hue/Saturation
options once more, applying a Hue value of 49
and clicking OK. Apply a layer mask to this layer
and blend out appropriately, integrating this
image section into the rest of the composition.
Next select the ‘Create new fill or adjustment
layer’ option from the foot of the Layers palette
and select Photo Filter, applying a Blue Filter at
71% Density.
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 Step-by-step
Workshop
18 Background
Open the ‘PB260061.tif’ from the disc,
copy and pasting it into your image and rescale
to create symmetry. Apply Levels to heighten
lighting if you wish, then use the Rectangle tool
to lay down the appropriate black background,
rasterizing. Apply a layer mask and again
integrate distinctive edges. Next copy and paste
the ‘saucepan fullsize.pl.jpeg’ texture from the
disc into your composition.
19 Textures and lighting
Apply a layer mask and as before
integrate the texture. Apply another Photo
Filter, this time Magenta with 70% Density. Use
the layer mask to erase areas that should be
unaffected by this filter. Duplicate your ‘Model
copy’ layer. Select the Hue/Saturation options
and apply -15 Hue, -25 Saturation values. Apply
a Hue blending mode to this new layer, set at
70% Opacity and then apply a layer mask,
rubbing away the left-hand side of your model.
20 Film grain
Create a new layer, placing it
at the top of your layer stack in the Layers
palette and name it ‘Clouds’. Next, set your
Foreground and Background Colors to white to
light blue, then select Filter>Render>Clouds.
Next select Filter>Noise>Add Noise and set
your Amount to 50%, Distribution to Gaussian
and activate Monochromatic. Click OK to this
application and apply an Overlay blending
mode at 40% Opacity.

21 Drawn out
Select your Pen tool, set to Shape
Layers, and draw out your lenses, grouping both
together. Next, choose the Color Picker and
select blue and pink tones from your
compositions set as Foreground/Background
Colors. Use the Magic Wand to select your
drawn lenses and apply gradient with the
Gradient tool, then apply a Color Dodge
blending mode.
22 Climax
Copy and paste in
‘frankybaby_P6101876.JPG’,
found at morguefile.com, and
position this in the top-right
corner of your composition.
Next apply an Overlay blending
mode and a Layer Mask, again
integrating with a 30% Opacity soft-edged
brush. Select Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color
and click OK, before selecting black from your
palette. Set your layer Opacity to 60% and
again apply a layer mask.

23 End scene
Paint out all highlighted areas,
leaving only shadow areas, before applying
an Overlay blending mode. This is known as
‘painting with light’. Now all that is left to do is
take a fine comb to your image, making sure
all elements are cohesive and you’re happy
with exposures and colour. Applying Curves
from the ‘Create new fill or adjustment layer’
options can create good effects. Finally, apply
your typography (see the ‘Credit where it’s
due’ boxout).

“USE BRACKET KEYS TO ALTER BRUSH SIZES

AND ZOOM FUNCTIONS TO REFINE APPLICATION”
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 Step-by-step
Workshop

062-066_AVP_41_PortraitWS.indd 62 13/2/08 10:21:26

 PAINTING PERFECT PORTRAITS
Digital portraits can take a great deal of skill. Our expert talks you through perfect painting skills
I
’ve been asked to write a tutorial
about how I work when I paint a
portrait. But since I don’t work the same
way twice, I thought this was going to be a
pretty tough one.
So I decided to work out some general things
that I do when I paint, worked them into a
painting and put together the tutorial.
Let me start by saying there is no ‘right way’
to do it. Everyone has their own style, their own
methods and own ideas. My tip to all is to read
1 In the beginning
Start with a white A4 document at
300/320dpi ready for some high-resolution
painting, keeping in mind that you might want
to print it someday. Plus you can see much
more details when you’re working without
having to look at a pixellated image.
4 Let there be light
Now we need to start adding some
highlights. Places to add highlights: tip of the
nose, nose bridge, cheekbones, chin, lips,
forehead (above the brow), upper eyelids,
lower eyelid above and in between the lashes,
knuckles, arms, collarbone and neck muscle.
062-066_AVP_41_PortraitWS.indd 63
as many tutorials as you want and take from
each what you can use and work out your own
personal way to do it.
This tutorial will teach you about portrait
painting and the use of colour layers and
blending modes to spice up your paintings
along the way. You can apply those to any
kind of painting to change the mood or
selective colours.
I’ll be working in Adobe Photoshop CS2 with
a Wacom tablet.”
2 Sketch the basics
Start by scribbling and sketching out
some of your ideas using a soft, round brush,
with Pen Pressure activated for both Opacity
and Flow if you’re using a tablet. Clean up the
sketch to what you see here — a clean and
clear lineout of the basic shapes.
5 How many fingers?
We need to work out all there is to her
pose. How are her fingers positioned? How do
the muscles look? Where are they bulging and
where are the bones? Colour out the lines until
it looks good. Also, add the white of her eye
and a bit of her eyeliner, her ear and the lips.
ON THE DISC
You’ll find a copy of the original sketch
on the disc for you to practise with,
but we recommend that you work
with your own image.
OUR EXPERT Suzanne van Pelt
Suzanne is currently working as a graphics and web
designer for a DTP agency, while painting in her free time.
She’s been painting digitally for about a year and a half,
but she’s been drawing and painting all her life. You can
find her at http://anathematixs.deviantart.com, or
www.seven-sinz.com.
3 Let’s keep it rough
Grab a big, soft, round brush and start
laying down the base colours using flesh tones
for the skin, a little more pink for the lips and
some red saturation for the shadows. Don’t
worry about staying inside the lines, we’ll fix that
up as we go along.
Portrait drawing
Not all of us are blessed with a natural drawing talent, but
it’s never too late to learn! Here are some sites to check out
for drawing tips and techniques:
http://drawsketch.about.com/od/drawingportraits/
Portrait_Drawing_Drawing_Faces.htm
http://drawsketch.about.com/b/2006/02/27/learn-how-
to-draw-portraits.htm
www.portrait-artist.org
www.woodenpalette.com
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 Step-by-step
Workshop
“BY NOW WE HAVE PAINTED ENOUGH TO TURN OFF
THE LINE-ART LAYER. THIS WAY YOU CAN REALLY
SEE WHAT YOU’VE DONE SO FAR”
6 Make me up
Add the base for the eyeliner, eyeshadow
(gold, bronze and a red/rust colour) and give
7 The lines are gone
By now we have painted enough to turn
off the line-art layer. This way you can really see
8 Colour layer fun
Now comes the big secret! Add one layer
filled with a purple/plum colour, set to 40%
the lips some more pink (fuchsia). This really what you’ve done so far. Before you do so, Opacity with the blending mode as Vivid Light,
gives you the things you’ll hold on to for the rest however, clean up the base colour layer by and another layer filled with a yellowish/beige
of the painting. We have now determined all the erasing the paint that went out of the lines. We colour, set to 34% Opacity and with the
bases for the face. can also lay down the base for the hair. blending mode as Color.

9 Send in the shadows

As we go on, we add some more
shadows to determine more details and
shapes. Now that the guidelines are missing,
these are what you need to add definition to
the model. Add shadows around the nose, on
and around the lips, on the neck and on the
fingers and arms.
10 Get a tan
Her skin is too matte at the
moment and lacks some colour, so take a
reddish brown and add some tan. Make her
fingers more pink, add some detail to her ear
with a dark red/brown and add some shadows
and highlights to her hair with red tones and
yellow/orange highlights.

Starter sketches
If sketching out your own portrait is too much of a
challenge for now, then why not get a sketch to practise
your painting skills on? iStockphoto.com has some nice
sketch options, though you do have to pay to download
them. However, costs are extremely low, and could save
you hours over doing the sketch yourself. Try searching for
‘pencil sketch portrait’ or ‘lineart portrait’. We particularly
like image numbers ‘727832’, ‘3400021’ and ‘4494635’ as
good base art.
Another option that is great for beginners is to find a
good photograph with a pose that you like from a stock
site of your own library. Import that into Photoshop, place
a new layer over the top and trace the main lines in the
image to get a starting sketch, then turn off the original
photographic layer.

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 11 Contrast and colour
With a dark blue layer set to Soft
Light on 100% Opacity, add some more contrast
and make her darker. She looked too soft and
matte before this stage, and this way the
colours also pop out more, giving the painting
more depth.
14 Add a background
By now we have the base of the
painting, and now we are going to make her a
showgirl (you can adapt this to suit your chosen
image, so have a think about what would work
best). Pick some colours out of the palette
currently on canvas and paint a really blurred
background to give a hint of the atmosphere,
but keep the overall focus on the foreground.
“PAINT A REALLY BLURRED BACKGROUND TO GIVE
A HINT OF THE ATMOSPHERE, BUT KEEP THE
OVERALL FOCUS ON THE FOREGROUND”
062-066_AVP_41_PortraitWS.indd 65
12 Adjusting the eye sores
We aren’t really happy with the right
side (left side to us) of her face. Add some more
light to it with a colour picked from the other
cheek and change the look of her chin with the
same colour. Add some more detail to her
hands and the chest beneath it.
15 More colour layers
Duplicate your previous colour
layers and put them on top of each other. Next,
paint the base for the accessories: a collar and
fishnet fingerless gloves for our showgirl
theme. Then, to give the idea of the dense
fishnet pattern, paint a crisscross pattern with a
smaller brush before painting the whole glove,
using a very low saturated brown/black colour.
13 Work on the hair
Start adding details to give the hair a more realistic look.
Using a small brush, paint the strands with a dark red/brown and the
highlight strands with a red/orange. Don’t forget about the light setting
you have given the painting. Darken the eyes a bit to make them blend
in more and add some more eye make-up. Put some dark eyeliner on
the lower eyelid and dark brown/red eyeshadow on the upper eyelid.
16 Skin details
After adding a few more highlights
on her hands, move on to the detailing. Pick the
base skin colour and set a layer to Multiply. Then
add some more shadows on her body and arms.
Pick a really small brush and add freckles to her
face and body. Alter the brush size to get a realistic
freckle pattern and select the Scatter option in the
Brush menu to add the very little ones.
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 Step-by-step
Workshop
17 Lit from behind
Since our girl is lit from behind, that
should be visible on her hair and body. With a
very light, cream colour, add some jumpy hairs
and a light reflection on her shoulders and arms.
Add some more yellow to her eye make-up. We
aren’t really happy with her right collarbone at
this stage, so smooth that out a little too.
20 Jaw-dropping colours
Flipping the canvas half way, we
noticed that her jaw looked a little funky, so
change it a little, broadening and lowering her
chin and jawline. Create additional colour layers
to add some more yellow: a grass green one on
Overlay set to 34% Opacity and a bright yellow
one set to Color Burn on 29% Opacity.
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062-066_AVP_41_PortraitWS.indd 66
18 Brighten those ponytails
Adjust the brightness and contrast a
little, making the painting a little brighter.
Something is missing around the neck area, so
give her a pair of ponytails and add some
feathers to add to the showgirl theme. The
feathers were painted by first drawing the base
line and then scribbling in the actual feathers.
21 Balance the greens and reds
Now add two adjustment
layers: one Hue/Saturation, slightly lowering
the saturation, and after that a Color Balance
one to add the greens. It is missing some reds,
so with a big, round brush, add some reds on
the cheeks, the lips, the hair, the background
and the body.
“YOU CAN DETAIL INTO
INFINITY, BUT IT DEPENDS ON
THE LOOK YOU’RE GOING FOR”
19 Nailing the details
Yet more detailing is needed to add
realism. Start to work on the hands a little more,
adding more highlights and giving her
fingernails some more details. Add some more
highlights to her face at the jawline, the eyelids
and her lips, using more yellow/gold on her
eyes and lips.
22 Finish up
Finish up by detailing everything,
adding more backlight to the feathers and hair,
detailing her hands, finishing up the ear and the
ponytails, playing around with the colours and
saturation a little more to get it looking just
right. You can detail into infinity, but it depends
on the look you’re going for.
13/2/08 10:22:26
 Order Now!
16 ISSUES OF ON ONE DISC
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now for o
nly
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071_AVP_40_eMagAd.indd 1 14/1/08 17:19:37

 Step-by-step
Workshop

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68
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068-071_AVP_41_ReaderWS.indd 68 13/2/08 10:23:02

 COMBINE SKETCHES
AND PHOTOGRAPHS
Transform a simple sketch into a Photoshop
masterpiece with this Reader’s Workshop
T
his tutorial will go to show you how
easy it can be using basic methods in
Photoshop to spice up your
illustrations and sketches.
The hardest part is tracing the sketch. For a
clean and crisp sketch, start with the traditional
tools: pen and paper. Once you’re done, scan it
in and open it in Adobe Illustrator. Open a new
layer and start tracing the sketch with the Pen
tool. Being skilful with the Pen tool can be very
rewarding although the learning process in the
beginning is often a slow one.
1 First things first
Open a blank file at a size best for you
that’s adaptable for your background image. We
chose A3 for printing purposes. Drag your
background image into the document. Open
the outline sketch from Illustrator in Photoshop,
or choose one of the sketches provided on the
CD. Drag it onto your background image and
move it into the desired position.
“TO BE ON THE SAFE SIDE,
OPEN A NEW LAYER FOR
EVERY COLOUR PATTERN”
068-071_AVP_41_ReaderWS.indd 69
Having completed that, select your newly
outlined image and save it as a PSD file, then
open it in Photoshop. You could work straight
in Photoshop if you prefer.
With the foundations done, it is now time
to give it some flare. We always come back to
do colouring, rendering, painting and final
touches in Photoshop due to the vast variety
of options available. Photoshop is like a
treasure chest with endless goodies inside
and anyone who wants to can open it. So, let’s
get started.
2 Basics
Name your layers so you know what is
what. Delete the blank, locked Background
layer since it is pretty much useless for our
purposes. The outlines on your sketch should
be strong in contrast to the white fill. If not,
then go to Image>Adjustments >Brightness/
Contrast and reduce the Brightness a bit. The
outlines should now be more visible.
ON THE DISC
There are five sketches on the CD,
which can be used to start your
project, courtesy of Sebastian. The
photographs used here are freely
available from www.sxc.hu/
profile/davidlat (image no:
‘805168’) and www.sxc.hu/profile/
CraigPJ (image no: ‘831609’).
OUR EXPERT Sebastian Daniel Grenz
Currently studying at the University College for the Creative
Arts, Epsom, UK, Sebastian is interested in character design,
conceptual art and illustration in the science fiction, horror
and fantasy art genres.
Planning advice
When beginning a piece, plan the construction ahead.
Simply brainstorming what mood, colour tones and style
can really help. It’s good to plan ahead, but there is only so
much you can plan for. Often the work you produce will take
you on a journey of its own. And sometimes you just cannot
come up with anything and hit a dead end. In that case,
browse through the photo stock exchange site www.sxc.hu
– you never know what you will see that might inspire you.
3 Shading
Open a new layer and name it
appropriately. Choose your sketch layer and
select the Magic Wand tool. By holding down
Shift and left-clicking on your mouse you can
select multiple areas. Start selecting various
parts so you can then shade them individually.
For shading, select a soft brush set to Darken
and reduce the Opacity to 1.
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 Step-by-step
Workshop
4 The little things
For the Skaterbot, we selected the deep
parts and gave them more depth with a darker
grey. Select a soft brush at 100 pixels since it is a
large image. Keep the Opacity low at 17% and
start from the sides inwards. For more detailed
parts, and to give edges to shapes, choose a
hard brush.
5 Circuitry
Now it gets interesting. To fill the dark part
of the robot’s stomach, we found a circuitry
image from sxc.hu (image no: ‘831609’). Bring
that into the composition. Duplicate the layer in
case you want to use it for something else as
well – you never know. Then, place the copy
over the desired part of the sketch.
6 Shaping
Set the blending mode of the image to
Overlay, enabling you to see the sketch image
as well. Now experiment a bit to see how it
might fit best by selecting Edit>
Transform>Rotate or Horizontal to flip it over
and warp to shape it the way you need it to be
to suit your design.

7 Cut and group

Cut out the shapes from the circuitry layer
needed to fill the dark empty parts. If you then
have more than one cutout layer, you can create
a new group folder and place them in there.
Click the folder and then the blending mode.
Browse through and see what works best. We
chose Hard Light.
8 More shading
We were not too happy
with the shading. It just didn’t
deliver the right impact. So
instead of using Brightness/
Contrast, a simple thing to do is to
just duplicate the shading layer. If
the shading is then too strong, just
lower the Opacity until you feel it’s
right. We went down to 49%.

9 The skateboard
Let’s move away from the
’bot and concentrate on the
board. Open a new layer and use
the Polygonal Lasso tool to select
the base of the board. Then the
choice is yours if you want to
paste an image on it or start from
scratch. We’re going for
camouflage style and filled the
base with a pastel pea green.

“PHOTOSHOP IS LIKE A TREASURE CHEST WITH

ENDLESS GOODIES INSIDE AND ANYONE WHO
WANTS TO CAN OPEN IT”
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 “WHEN BEGINNING A PIECE, PLAN
THE CONSTRUCTION AHEAD”
10 More patterns
We decided to use four different
colours to add on top of the base. To be on the
safe side, open a new layer for every colour
pattern. That way you can work on one pattern
without having to worry about the others.
For the colouring, we used a hard, round 32 -
pixel brush.

11 Polishing the wood

The title says everything. Finished

with the camouflage patterns, we open a new
layer and call it ‘board shade’. On this layer,
select the Polygonal Lasso tool again. Select an
area you want shiny on the board and begin to
paint with a white colour at 7% Opacity, with
the blending mode set to Lighten. Choose a
soft brush for open spaces and a hard one for
the edges.
12
Lens effect
Moving on to the cameras. Use the
circular-shaped Elliptical Marquee tool to make
a copy of the lens. Then go to Layer>Layer
Style>Inner Glow. Set the Opacity to 100% and
edit the gradient to black and white, then set
Choke to 100%, Size to 24% and Range to 84%.
Everything else stays on its default value.

13 Bevel and Emboss

Next on Layer Style
options, you should choose Bevel
and Emboss. Here is how it
should be set: Style = Pillow
Emboss; Technique = Smooth;
Depth = 72%; Size = 40px and
Soften = 13px. The angle
depends on where the light is
coming from in your image, so
play around with this value until
it looks right. For Highlight mode
set it to Screen and 100%
Opacity; for Shadow mode, set it
to Darken and 57% Opacity.

14 Lens shine
For the last time on
Layer Styles, go to Inner Glow and
set the Blend Mode to Exclusion,
the Opacity to 100% and the

gradient bar stays on black and
white. Under Elements, the
Technique is set to Softer, source is
on Edge. Set the Choke to 37%,
the Size to 51% and the Range
(under Quality) to 84%.
15
Turning ghost
So after you’ve done all the lenses
and are happy with the effect, we go on to our
final step and this might be the easiest. Select
the robot outline sketch layer or layers, go on
the layer blending modes and see which ones
work best. We chose Overlay to get the slightly
see-through effect.

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 Insider
Info
INSIDER
INFO
Adobe Help Viewer 1.1
Help is well and truly at hand when using Photoshop. Those of you in the possession
of version CS3 are treated to the new and improved Adobe Help Viewer 1.1

A
dobe has always facilitated the efficiency of its products through And here the real defining difference
demonstration and easy access to help. No other resource has been so lies: the clarity in which Help Viewer 1.1
prevalent and perennial at this than the built-in Adobe Help Center, catalogues and presents topics. Gone
accessed through the standard Options bar under Help. It comes as no surprise are the clustered lists of information, as
that this function, like any other in the CS3 range, has had a ‘facelift’. The evolution this improved option dedicates
of this command is first recognised by its title change to Adobe Help Viewer 1.1. individual page space to each and every
But how does this function differ from the previous examples? Simplicity and topic. All information can be assimilated
accessibility are paramount in demonstrating this. in a seemingly coherent fashion, more
so than previous examples.
OUR EXPERT Adam Smith Cosmetic Even the contents page has been
Advanced Photoshop staff writer Adam Smith is At first glance Adobe Help Viewer seems condensed specifically so learning can
forever looking to evolve his Photoshop skills and
education is the best way to do so. No other resource is
to be improved predominantly on an be classified more instantaneously.
so close at hand than Adobe Help Viewer 1.1 and he aesthetic level. With its new streamline Navigation is but a click away, as
knows how it can be an absolute lifesaver. presentation, it seems that topics are previously, with topics presented in the
even more easily accessible, if not very fashion of a Contents inventory or an
similar to those before. This is true on Alphabetised Index, now including a
Quotation marks both counts. However, like any updated
version, Adobe Help Viewer
Numerics section, demonstrating ways
in which to use and understand Bit
Perhaps not a new feature, yet an demonstrates all of the latest Photoshop conversion, for example. Grouped and
essential timesaver. Entering titles CS3 functions, applications and sub-grouped, these topics offer
into the Search option will provide command options along with those most coherent, easy-to-monitor and VIDEO REPLAY: Not only can you leave
users with corresponding examples, familiar in an easily defined fashion. understand tutelage. online comments about all topics, but varied help
however this is not always precise. pages come with direct links to online tutorials
Enclose search topics in quotation and videos
marks to specifically find topics
ALL INCLUSIVE: All users can benefit from Practical
Help Viewer 1.1, from tutelage for beginners to
including the phrase or word. evolution through professional suggestions at the This change in interface also provides through features such as standard
online Help Resource Center several new modes of indication and context menu commands, allowing
navigation. Help Viewer 1.1 adheres to users to change text sizes. Links are also
the multi-faceted users by labelling underlined for easy recognition. All
topics shared across separate platforms content supports high-contrast mode
by presenting a software icon. So if and Standard HTML tags define content
an Adobe Photoshop icon and Adobe structure for screen reading or text-to-
After Effects icon appear on the page speech tools.
it describes either functionality in But probably one of its most
the two products or describes cross- innovative functions is its ability to
product workflows. encourage progressive learning
Help Viewer 1.1 also takes into through active audiences. Each help
consideration alternative users, page facilitates links to online tutorials
producing accessibility for those users for discovering exact procedures and
with disabilities, such as individuals also direct links to on-line pages at the
with mobility impairment, visual Help Resource Center, all accessible
impairment and low vision. Help through the Related Information box.
Viewer 1.1 supports such accessibility The latter offers users to add their
own comments, taken into
Opinions valued consideration by the powers at Adobe,
thus ever evolving the practicality and
Without your feedback on the effectiveness of Adobe Help Viewer 1.1.
related topics within Adobe Help Users can ‘Take a Survey’
Viewer 1.1, it would fail to evolve (approximately 15 mins) to help Adobe
appropriately, nor be used to its full improve its service, allowing users to
potential. So go online and let it shape the future help they receive. All
know what you think about it. are seemingly small steps, certainly
taken in the right direction.

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 Helpdesk
We recap and resolve the most-asked Photoshop problems just for you. From
calibration to customisation, it’s all put to rest upon these pages BY ADAM SMITH
1 PRINT COLOUR ACCURACY
How do I resolve colour inaccuracies at the
printing stage of my design workflow for
perfect results every time?
Almost every time this problem will be due to
poor monitor colour correction. Calibration can be
achieved effortlessly by investing in easy-to-use
monitor colour correction tools such as Pantone
huey, which automatically adjusts the colour of your
monitor. All you have to do is follow a step-by-step
installation guide that works similarly for both Mac and
PC platforms. The huey measures the ambient light in
the room, once initiating the Room Light Monitoring
feature. You are also supplied with a choice of colour
presets, accessed from the Preferences dialog icon
that appears on your toolbar. Step-by-step guides on
internal management of calibration can be found at
www.computer-darkroom.com.
2 PHANTOM FILTERS
Is there any trick or function that allows you
to utilise filter effects in Photoshop when in
RGB mode?
We are aware that this can become a problem as
many of you have found, having to work in RGB only
for the colours to change on-screen due to CMYK
conversion. First, consider what output format your
work is being produced for. If it is an on-screen image,
CMYK conversion is already redundant so don’t do it.
DOWNSIZE: Using a quarter less memory, this process
serves as time efficient for those working on large size
print projects
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074-075_AVP_41_Helpdesk.indd 74
MAC SPECIFIC: Mac users can access a preference
panel after installation, allowing them to alter settings
for calibration
If your work is print-based, then there is an option to
resolve this issue. With your image still set to
RGB mode, select View>Proof Setup (Ctrl+Y) from
the main options bar above. By selecting Working
CMYK from the options you can access filter effects,
yet all colour application will be registered as CMYK
on-screen, so you can be assured of how it will look at
conversion. The option also decreases file size, using a
quarter less memory.
3 CUSTOMISING PHOTOSHOP
There are many shortcuts for many functions
in Photoshop. Which specifically apply to
filter effects?
A common misconception is that there is a shortcut
for everything in Photoshop, but unfortunately this
SAVE SOME TIME: By setting your own shortcuts, you’re
sure to improve the efficiency of your workflow
TOP
TEN
SPECIAL TREATMENT: The Fill Path command also
offers user options such as Feather and Blend Mode for
diverse effects
isn’t so. However, shortcuts can be assigned at any
time. Simply select Window>Workspace, accessing
the Keyboard Shortcuts and Menus options. Select
the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, top left, and you’ll have
access to all of Photoshop’s functions. You’ll be able to
easily apply a shortcut to any command, from filters
to viewing options. Just be aware that Photoshop
only has a certain amount of shortcuts to allocate and
you may replace others. Ctrl/Cmd+Alt/Opt+‘+’ should
give you a few, new options.
4 PEN TOOLS
After applying a Shape tool, is there any way
of changing this into a path selection and
vice versa?
Unfortunately, not to our knowledge. However, for
all intensive purposes it’s often best to simply have
set and utilise the Paths Pen tool, accessible from the
main toolbar. With this you can create active selection
that can be saved and then applied as a Stroke Path
to create line, or alternatively you can select the Fill
option from the same accessed drop menu. This acts
very much like the Layers Fill command and once
applied will create the desired solid shape just like the
Shapes Pen tool.
5 SCRIPTED
Is there a way of exporting multiple layers
individually from a single image other than
hiding all layers but one at a time and using
Save As to separate?
13/2/08 10:25:00

EFFICIENCY: Transferring
effects will save you so much
time when working with
heavily treated compositions
Saving multiple files separately is a job for Photoshop
Scripts. These are a set of varied options and functions
that all Photoshop users should really familiarise
with. But we’ll simply offer you the specific solution.
With your file open and all layers visible, proceed by
selecting File>Scripts>Export Layer to Files. Next,
simply browse for your required destination (probably
best to create specific folders first), pick a prefix name
and select what file format you require. Once you visit
this newly created folder you will find all your layers
saved separately and accordingly.
6 LAYER STYLES
When working on multiple layered images is
there any way of copying specific layer styles
from one layer to another, without having to
re-enter working values?
There are a few ways of doing this, which are quick to
utilise. Begin by applying your layer style, be it Gradient
Overlay, Overlay Color, etc, to the first layer. You’ll now
notice that an ‘f’ icon appears docked in your layer. To
replicate this Layer Style you can Ctrl-click the treated
layer, selecting Copy Layer Styles. Select the layer you
wish to transfer your style to, Ctrl-click and select Paste
Layer Style. Alternatively, you could always Alt-drag
your ‘f’ icon to the desired layer.
7 3D FONTS
Is there a simple way of creating 3D text
without the trials and tribulations of using the
Shape and Transform tools?
074-075_AVP_41_Helpdesk.indd 75
First of all, apply your text with the Text tool from the
main toolbar onto your canvas. Ctrl-click this text
layer and select Rasterize Type from the drop options.
Select Edit>Transform>Perspective and adjust
accordingly to fit the text into your design. Duplicate
this layer and drop it beneath the first before Ctrl-
clicking this copy layer’s thumbnail. This will create a
selection and then all you have to do is press Alt and
direction key to duplicate 1 pixel at a time until you
have produced a 3D font that looks like the image
in the top-right of this page. You can then add layer
styles to give it a more professional finish.
8 PREFERRED PREFERENCE
Is there a way of recording a concise logging
of tools and applications within your working
process without having to write them
down separately?
Simply resolve such a dilemma by selecting
your Preferences options. This is accessed by
selecting Edit>Preferences in Windows and
Photoshop>Preferences>General in Mac OS.
In the General Preferences click the History
Log box to activate the Save Log Items To advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk
options. You’ll be presented with Metadata,
Text File and Both. Essentially you’ll need
or post a message on our forum board at
to select Metadata, and change your Edit www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/forum.
Log Items to Detailed. This will embed all Remember to specify whether you’re using
the specific application info you need in a PC or Mac and the version number of
your file information, all you need to do to
access this information is select File>File
Info>History.
es
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ch
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BIT EXTRA: You can apply gradients and other layer styles
for good effects
9 PERFECT PIXELS
Is there an easy way to stop Photoshop
brushstrokes aliasing when trying to create
pixel art?
Although aliasing is there to help soften line
edges and blend brushstrokes, it is an issue easily
resolved for those of you that are keen pixel artists.
Proceed by selecting Edit>Preferences>General to
access the main dialog options and access the Image
Interpretation drop options. These should be set to
Bicubic by default. You need to set these options to
Nearest Neighbor, in turn stopping the blending of all
applied brushstrokes. Hence allowing artists to apply
sharp, resolved pixel strokes.
10 AUTOMATION
How can I scan and then quickly crop my
photography rather than individually having to
crop one at a time?
Scanning in multiple photos is the quickest way to
archive your collections and Photoshop provides
options that allow you to organise efficiently, using its
Crop and Straighten command. Lay out and scan your
preferred images. Next, select File>Automate>Crop
and Straighten Photos. Now Photoshop will analyse
your photograph set and individually crop and align
each image into separate documents. You can then
save these as needed.
HELPDESK
CALL FOR QUESTIONS
Want help with Photoshop?
Send your emails to us at:
your edition of Photoshop.
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 Our pick of the best reader submissions
sent to us this month

P
eer Pressure has once again been inundated with a volume of great
artworks. The chosen entries this month offer an array of insights into the
creative mind, sharing and revealing individual approaches and skills. We
always include your email and web address, so interested parties can get in touch.
All you have to do is send us high-quality TIFFs or JPEGs (RGB or CMYK) at 300dpi,
which can be printed at a minimum size of 15 x 15cm. Send us low-res versions to
advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk – we’ll get back to you for higher-
resolution work if needed. Alternatively, log on to our forum at www.
advancedphotoshop.co.uk/forum. We cannot provide individual image assessment.
Each issue we select one image to be ‘Best in Show’, and that lucky person will
win a fantastic prize, courtesy of The Illustration Source (www.illustration-source.
com), which is a great way to get your work seen. So, what are you waiting for?

Story time
NAME: Stefan Valent
EMAIL: stefanvalent@yahoo.com
WEB: www.stefanvalent.com
BLOG: www.stefanvalent.com/blog

Stefan Valent’s career as an

illustrator so far has spanned such
fields as editorial, educational,
fashion and advertising illustration.
Since he hasn’t done it yet, he now
would like to illustrate children’s
picture books. Originally from a
small mining village on the
northern tip of Canada, Valent
has migrated south to live among
the art directors. Valent likes to use
Photoshop to combine mediums in
ways that nature never intended.
To see more of Valent’s work, and
to keep up-to-date on his various
goings-on, visit his website,
listed above.

A BOY AND HIS DIDGE (LEFT): A GIRL AND HER TURTLE

“Once, before everything else, the
Creator noticed a newly fallen tree
trunk, now teaming with termites. He
held this trunk up to his lips and blew
the termites out, scattering them. These
became the stars in the sky. Noticing as
he did this, the deep, resonant sound
the trunk made, he continued blowing
his new instrument. With this first song,
he sounded the world and everything
beyond, The Dreaming, into existence.
To this day, everything still hums to that
original vibration”
(ABOVE): “Although it was
the scariest place she’d ever
seen, she knew that the only way
to rescue her parents was to race
through the burned down forest as
quickly as she could.
Thankfully, she had a fast ride.
These images were created using
Photoshop as a compositing tool
to combine painted wood, acrylics,
colouring pencils, charcoal,
photography, sculpture, ink and
digital elements”

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 es
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NOKIA ADVERT: “This is an advert
for my first AS level
graphics project, created with a total

Te
of 16 separate images
from the free stock site sxc.hu. This totall
ed up over 100
layers, and had to be saved in two separ
ate PSDs to stop
my (very old and slow) computer from
crashing!”

EVOKE APPLICATION PIECE (ABOVE): “This piece combines around 15-20

separate images, with at least five of these dedicated to the rocky EVK logo. It
was created for my application to the Evokeone art group”

POISE (BELOW): “Another Pen tool creation, this time making heavy use of
gradient fills and the Color Dodge blending mode. A photo reference was used
to keep the anatomy in check, and a few blurring effects were used in the
background”

BEST
IN SHOW

Bright young thing

NAME: Nick Taylor
EMAIL: nikktron@hotmail.com
WEB: aeoll.deviantart.com

Nick Taylor is 17 years old and currently studying Graphic Design to AS level
at a sixth form college in Norfolk. He has been using Photoshop for
approximately two years after discovering the application on an online forum,
where several people were displaying their digital artwork.
“I don’t think I have a set style at the moment – I’m always skipping between
genres and experimenting with different techniques,” says Taylor. “I’m a great
fan of the Pen tool, and I can often be found fiddling with a vector-style
illustration or T-shirt design.”
He continues: “Recently, I have also been trying out photomanipulation, with
great success. It’s a lot of fun to collage and blend a mix of completely
different images into a single, photorealistic creation. And the finished piece
is a real feast for the eyes.”
Taylor describes online communities and showcase sites such as
deviantART as “an invaluable outlet”: “They’re great when it comes to
collaborating and communicating with other like-minded young designers,
and offer a place to discover inspirational art.”
Taylor hopes to continue studying Graphic Design for the next two years,
developing his style and improving his digital skills further. “Hopefully, I may
even pick up some small commissions along the way, you never know!”

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 Discover the thinking behind the art

CYLINDRIKAL MUDD: Blake combines

a number of 3D applications with
Photoshop to create his fantasy scenes

Jigsaw puzzles
NAME: Chris Blake
EMAIL: mudded@hotmail.co.uk
WEB: www.portfolios.com/chrisblake

Chris Blake has always been into art from way back
in primary school where teachers used to praise him
for his creative pictures. “Something about straight
lines moved me into designing houses, bridges, etc,
for friends and various other people,” Blake explains.
“I stumbled upon digital illustration while messing
about with various animation software like Bryce,
Poser and Vue, then taught myself the basics of
Photoshop 6 and 7, moving onto CS and CS2.”
When asked about how he creates his images,
Blake says: “I use a jigsaw puzzle technique – I create
a scene in one application, create characters/objects
in another and put them all together. I would describe
my style as simple but effective.” Photoshop is used for
the finishing touches of the characters that he creates.
Blake describes himself as an ‘underground’ artist,
and finds inspiration in one of his peers: “My top
favourite digital artist is another from the
underground scene, Richard Amoah. [He’s] full of
ideas and creativity.”
Looking to the future, Blake has plenty of work
ahead: “I recently built a city from scratch using Vue
D’Esprit 4 and Vue 6 Xstream for a personal project. I
am currently working on walkpaths and detailed
attention to my ‘city dwelling characters.” FISH 2: This aquatic number shows off Blake’s “simple but effective” style

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 es
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best in
Fantasy illustrations
NAME: HanXian Chen
EMAIL: chenhx_xian@hotmail.com
WEB: http://chenhx.deviantart.com

HanXian Chen, 20, was born in China’s Guangdong Province. He got tired of school life and went out
to get a job in graphic design. However, within a couple of weeks, he realised that this was not the
career path for him. In September 2006, he met his first teacher Lorland Chain (fantasy artist – http://
lorlandchain.deviantart.com) and was attracted by his work. Since then, he has decided to become a
fantasy art painter and illustrator, and he loves his work!

LOST LOVE: “If given the opportunity, [this

image] will be published for everyone to see.
I hope that people will like my work”
show
Sponsored by…
Not only is Nick Taylor this
month’s Best in Show, he has also
won a year’s full Option 3
membership to the Illustration
Source, worth £150 and Featured
Artist slot for March. The Illustration
Source Ltd is the newest source of
original art, freelance illustrators,
photographers, artists and
designers on the net. Visit
www.illustration-source.com for
more information. If you’d like to
stand a chance of winning an
Illustration Source portfolio, send
your images to advancedpshop@
imagine-publishing.co.uk.

Image requirements
You’ll stand a better chance of
seeing your work in print if you
adhere to the following criteria:
Make sure that your images are
high-quality TIFFs or JPEGs (RGB or
CMYK), 300dpi minimum, and can
be printed at 15 x 15cm minimum.
And don’t forget to include a small
text file detailing how you created
your work.

Terms and conditions

By submitting images to Advanced
Photoshop’s Peer Pressure, you
hereby grant Imagine Publishing
and, if relevant, clients to whom the
relevant work has been provided,
an irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-
free licence to use such intellectual
property in relation to work similar
or equivalent to the work. This
includes the right to showcase work
on multimedia formats. By
submitting work you also confirm
that your images do not infringe
any copyright regulations should
they be published.

THE PRIZE: Check out The Illustration

Source’s website to see the portfolios of
previous winners of Best in Show

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 Discover the thinking behind the art

Peer Pressure
Web Challenge –
the winners
On our website, www.advancedphotoshop.
co.uk/competitions.php, we run a web
challenge where you are asked to create an
image in Photoshop using at least one of
three images provided. Each challenge lasts
three months, and the winner gets a year’s
subscription to the magazine. Check out the
website for details of our latest challenge
(ref: AP 038, closing date: 21 March 2008)
and how to enter.
Above are the three images that entrants
had to use in the last challenge (ref: AP 035).
Here we present the winner and runners-up.

WINNER – ROSS PEART –

BATTLEGROUND (RIGHT):
“The only original parts are the
shed and the mountain range.
The robot was photomontage
using various parts. Everything
was placed in Photoshop and
then a hand rendered lighting
effect applied”

RUNNER-UP – YANICK COUYAVAH – BACK TO NEVER-

LAND (BELOW): “I inspired myself from the story of Peter Pan and
imagine his return to Never-land. I used mostly customised brushes,
blended images and textural effects”
RUNNER-UP – DEREK BOLDEN – FINAL (BELOW RIGHT):
“The car, grass, and mountains were from the photos provided, so I
used all three images. The graffiti was created in Illustrator”

Stock and ref images:

www.istockphoto.com, www.sxc.hu,
http://mjranum-stock.deviantart.com,
http://anodyne-stock.deviantart.com, artist’s own

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 Feature
Running a
successful studio
requires both
artistic vision and
solid business skills,
balancing creative
craft with hard
graft, as Nick
Spence discovers
or many, earning a living being
creative is a dream job. What better
way to pay the rent than to produce
something striking and seductive that has a
life beyond the walls of the average office?
Designing, illustrating, creating websites and
motion graphics all have a high job satisfaction factor,
but boundless creativity needs to be combined with
sound business basics if you want to succeed.
In recent years, thanks to the internet, the term
‘design studio’ can mean anything from a large trendy
studio in London’s Hoxton running the latest Macs, to
a bedsit in Hull relying on second-hand equipment.
Location and size matters less as long as you have
good communications with the outside world. A
reliable internet service provider, with a website that
won’t buckle due to heavy traffic, email and a phone
are fundamental basics for setting up a studio.
Although still students, currently in the final year of
a degree at Manchester Metropolitan University,
Graham Sykes and Rob Walmsley of Teacake Design
(www.teacakedesign.com) have already started
gaining admirers for their work. The pair, who admit
their studio is more bedroom than office space,
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082-087_AVP_41_Studios.indd 82
wanted to be taken seriously by
potential clients, so set up their
sometimes virtual studio. “Working under
a studio name has undoubtedly helped us
to appear as a professional outfit,” says
Sykes, who has undertaken several major
projects over the last 12 months.
A good web presence showcases your
talents to the rest of the world and has been
vital to Teacake’s embryonic success. “Moving
onto the internet helped massively in the
promotion of our studio. We wanted a name so that
we could build our own identity and have fun with it,”
enthuses Walmsley. “For us, it is better than
freelancing under our own names and it means that
the ‘studio’ can grow and still retain its identity. We
have always wanted it to be more than just Graham
and I. Whether that happens remains to be seen.”
The duo also maintain a busy blog (www.
teacakedesign.blogspot.com) and, like any good
studio, actively promote its potential: “We promote
ourselves primarily by emailing and talking to people;
we have a blog that we maintain somewhat actively.
We have produced mail shots and always try to be
13/2/08 10:27:47
 Studio secrets

“Working under a studio name

has helped us to appear as a
professional outfit… Moving onto
the internet helped massively”
Rob Walmsley, Teacake Design

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 Feature
© Teacake
OUTDOOR ADVENTURES (ABOVE): Design
studio Teacake spent some time working on a
photoshoot where it set up its studio in the hills of
Lancashire; unfortunately the weather put a premature
end to proceedings
INSIDE TEACAKE (RIGHT): Design studio Teacake is
rich with potential. “We are simply working hard in order
to stand us both in the best ground when we finish
university,” insists Graham Sykes
professional and polite while pestering people. We
make use of other design blogs and creative networks
where we can promote Teacake,” adds Walmsley.
Teacake and others show that modest means can
still achieve results. Although many studios will be
run on Apple Mac computers, traditionally the choice
of professional creatives, and Adobe software, you
don’t necessarily need the latest hardware and
software to compete professionally. Many studios
grow organically, acquiring the latest computers and
applications over time, combining old and new, using
the faster computers for the more demanding tasks.
Laptops add portability and allow for on the road
presentations and client visits. Studios, whatever the
size, should back up all-important files and data, from
Photoshop artwork to client contacts and emails,
ideally on a central server or external hard drive. Most
will share work files across workstations to enable
collaboration and ensure consistency of output.
A healthy environment
As well as the tools of the trade, it’s important studios
create an ambiance that helps promote both
creativity and a professional working environment.
Too informal and work may not get done; too formal
and staff may feel restricted and despondent. Studios
may be short of space, but it’s important room is
found for free thinking and time away from the hum
“The designers try to keep to 9 ‘til 6,
but inevitably when pitches are due
or projects are nearing deadline
they will stay late”
Ed Templeton, creative director, Red Design
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082-087_AVP_41_Studios.indd 84
© Teacake
and gaze of computer screens. Creating a community
feel also helps promote a shared sense of worth and
pride in your work. “All the employees are working
together in an open landscape, which is both social
and inspirational,” explains Sandro Kvernmo of
Norwegian strategic design agency Tank (www.tank.
no). “We all eat lunch together and one person is
responsible for making it each week. It’s good to have
a kitchen, that way we can use the office after-hours
for parties, dinner with friends and so on.”
Situated in the high street of Tromsø, Tank is built
around Apple Mac computers, Adobe software,
furniture from IKEA and a faithful coffee machine.
Perfectly balancing work with pleasure, Tank will
often have clients and others dropping in for lunch, or © Teacake
even a game of football. “We have a magnificent view
of the snowy mountains surrounding the city and we
can watch the shifting weather and seasons change, magazines,” explains Kvernmo. “We often bring
from the dark period in winter when the sun is below interesting books home when travelling abroad. We
the horizon to the light summer with the midnight also subscribe to several magazines such as IdN,
sun. It’s a great inspiration to us,” adds Kvernmo. Creative Review and Scandinavian design mags.”
Inspiration is also found in the resources used to Brighton-based consultancy Red Design (www.
spark ideas and ways of resolving client briefs. A good red-design.co.uk) is another studio that maintains a
studio will have a great collection of books, collection intended to inspire its award-winning team.
magazines and websites bookmarked under “We have a library of hundreds of design, art,
‘Favorites’ to help stimulate ideas. “As we’re situated illustration, photography and fashion books plus
north of the Arctic Circle we find lots of design- collections of design and lifestyle magazines,” says
specific input and inspiration online and in books and creative director of Red, Ed Templeton. Having
inspiration to hand is important, as hours in the
studio can be long, especially when deadlines are
looming. Although some studios try and maintain
normal office hours, the nature of the job may require
the occasional hard day’s night. “The designers try to
keep to 9 ‘til 6, but inevitably when pitches are due or
projects are nearing deadline they will stay late,”
explains Templeton. “While us owners and
management tend to work much longer hours!”
13/2/08 10:28:22
 Studio secrets
© Kate Moross

Case study
Small studio -
big on ambition
London-based designer and illustrator Kate
Moross (www.katemoross.com) is still just 21
and yet has attracted the kind of big name
clients any design studio would be proud of. A
nationwide billboard campaign for Cadbury,
and signature clothing range for Topshop are
among her numerous achievements. Surprising,
then, that Moross is a student at Camberwell
College Of Arts and set up her own studio last
year. It’s a testament to her drive and ambition
that she has been able to establish her own
studio while studying. “It has been a juggling
act, but luckily my college projects occupy a
completely different part of my brain, and I hold
them at the upmost importance. I have
managed to be consistent and get work
completed on time, for both parts of my
© Kate Moross practice, school and freelance,” explains Moross.
Attracting and maintaining impressive clients
has meant establishing a range of digital
resources, and Moross has been collecting
equipment ever since her foundation course. “I
have a sweet studio suite: an Apple Mac tower,
dual 30” and 19” displays, scanners, large-
format printers… the whole nine yards,”
enthuses Moross. “I have photocopiers,
lightboxes, photographic and filming
equipment. It’s my goal to have everything I
need at my fingertips; the more tools you have,
the more options there are to apply to projects.”
Working on multiple projects at the same
time, Moross keeps the process fluid and stops
anything from stagnating creatively while
© Kate Moross
keeping an eye on deadlines: “Some deadlines
are tight, but I work well with limitations.
STUDIO BUILD: 2007 saw Kate Moross build her own Normally I am bombarded with ideas at the
studio while studying at college and running her own start of a project, and I work very quickly so I
record label, releasing lavish highly collectable vinyl suit these jobs.”
Long hours are sometimes the result of poor
leadership and bad time management, lack of good
communication between staff, taking on more work
than viable and agreeing unfeasible deadlines.
Delegating and planning ahead is imperative, especially
when balancing several clients and projects at once and
starting a brief. “We try to evaluate the project to find out
both who is available and who is most fitting for solving
the task ahead,” suggests Sandro Kvernmo. Design
studios will normally include people with a range of
talents, including graphic designers, web designers,
Flash developers, project managers and art directors so
it’s important to match the individual skills with the job
in hand. “We start out with a kick-off with all of us, get
all the ideas on the table, no matter how crazy they
may be. As the process continues, we select a
strategy, concept direction and the visual options,
before the final delivery and presentation. As it’s
much more inspiring to work in groups we rarely
work alone on projects.”
© Kate Moross

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 Feature
© Tank / photo credit Lina Livsdatter
INSIDE TANK: Inside the Tank studio where employees
work together in an open environment to help promote
creativity and staff unity. “We make a great lunch,”
promises Sandro Kvernmo
For Ed Templeton, the delegation process is based
on several factors. “If we’ve won a job from a pitch
then whoever worked on the winning idea is usually
first in line to carry the project. However, client
commitments may rule that person out so then I will
choose the lead designer based on a combination of
availability and suitability.”
As a busy studio will have several jobs running
simultaneously, it’s good to have an idea what
everyone is doing. “Whether jobs are done
individually or in teams depends on the size and
length of the job. We tend not to have more than
three designers working on any single job, but we will
often develop ideas, concepts and brainstorm as a
group,” says Templeton. Even when staff resources are
limited it’s still important to decide early on who is
doing what. “We tackle many jobs together from
initial conception right the way through to the end,
but when work loads are higher we have to take more
responsibility for the things we are better at,” adds
Graham Sykes of design duo Teacake.
Communicate ideas
Good communication is also paramount when
dealing directly with clients, as feedback before,
during and after a project will ensure you share the
“As we’re situated north of the Arctic
Circle we find lots of design-specific
input and inspiration online and in
books and magazines”
Sandro Kvernmo, Tank
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© Tank
© Tank
same creative vision and hopefully attract repeat
business. “At this early stage we are trying to do the
basics. We try and be aware of those around us, keep
in close contact with our clients throughout a project
and always explain our ideas, which means we can
gain vital feedback at all stages,” explains Rob
Walmsley. Initially, at least, it’s good to have some
human contact with the client, which should help
foster a solid working relationship and better gauge
the client’s needs and ambitions. “We communicate
regularly with clients and prospective clients via
email, telephone and, most importantly, in person,”
insists Ed Templeton.
While much of a studio’s output can be viewed
online, visiting clients offers the opportunity to
inspect your designs up close and personal. Here,
presentation is important, so a quality portfolio with
work carefully selected to reflect your client’s need
RECENT WORK: Recent work from Tank. “Make some
simple household rules, be honest, challenge your
clients, and yourself, stay creative, eat together and have
fun while doing it,” suggests Sandro Kvernmo
helps maintain a feeling of professionalism and
secure work. For printed material it also gives new
and potential clients a chance to visualise how other
considerations such as paper stock, size and format
will influence your designs.
London-based designer and illustrator Kate Moross
(www.katemoross.com), who set up her own studio
in 2007, will occasionally supply the client with both
original artwork and digital files. “The work always
ends up digital, but for Topshop I ended up couriering
them the final seven illustrations, which was amazing
as I felt they had more weight for presentation to the
client,” insists Moross. Like many others, Moross likes
to work on several projects concurrently. “I work on
multiple projects at the same time, and swap
between them constantly, it keeps the process fluid
and stops anything stagnating.”
Larger studios tend to employ studio managers to
ensure someone is keeping an eye on each project.
Templeton says, “I have employed a managing director for
my company who handles invoicing, fee negotiation,
debtor chasing etc, which leaves me free as creative
director to manage the design team, overseeing
everything from idea creation to achieving deadlines.
We have an hourly rate which we try to achieve but
often clients will come with fixed budgets which we then
work to.”
13/2/08 10:29:39
 Studio secrets
© Red Design
Case study
The right start
An essential foundation for any creative career is
learning your trade professionally, whether by
studying at college or being self-taught. The
skills you develop will serve you well and help
secure work in an industry where it can be
notoriously hard to make an impression.
Recently, Middlesex University (www.mdx.
ac.uk) has invested millions in a state of the art
digital darkroom facility that goes some way in
helping students develop real world working
practices. “Learning about and using digital
technology and techniques, the students at
Middlesex have the opportunity to gain
invaluable experience and produce work that is
of a professional standard,” explains Rob Crow,
senior photographic technician. “The students
are encouraged to embrace all contemporary
© Red Design
forms of image production, as this will benefit
them immensely when seeking employment.”
Forty gleaming workstations are built around
Apple Mac Pro computers, Adobe Photoshop
CS3 Extended and Adobe Bridge. It’s a setup few
could afford or find room for in your typical
bedsit or flat share. Students are encouraged to
© Red Design work with Wacom Intuos tablets, and store and
save their images on their own memory cards
and external hard drives. A selection of pro-level
scanners and oversize printers are available to
ensure quality control. Studio lighting is
carefully calibrated to guarantee consistency
and a team of worthy staff support the facilities.
“Working with cutting-edge digital imaging
technologies, the students undertake a range of
EMAP INSTALLATION (ABOVE):
Brighton-based Red Design created this photographic assignments and projects that are
interactive installation for Emap. “We tend to delivered by a team of tutors who have an
produce two to four ideas for clients,” says extensive range of professional and real world
Red’s Ed Templeton experience,” adds Crow.

Knowing what to charge is fundamental to running

a successful studio. Value your work too low and you
could be working for less than minimum wage;
budget too high and you could struggle to attract
clients. If a studio does have an hourly rate, it’ll have
an idea how much time to dedicate to a client. Any
additional costs or expenses need to be agreed early
on. “Our budget is presented to our clients and is
always approved before we start,” adds Sandro
Kvernmo. “We have a simple yet efficient invoicing
system that keeps us updated at all times. We try to
work concentrated on our projects and with
manageable deadlines.”
With many smaller, more flexible studios
flourishing, it’s probably as good a time as any to set
up a studio. With technology helping to level the
playing field, small studios can at last compete with
larger design teams more effectively. Combining
talent with hard work should eventually reap rewards,
as Ed Templeton suggests: “Work hard, have
confidence in your product and be prepared for it to
take some time to see any financial reward.”

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resources

Wacom Cintiq 12WX

Find out if the little brother to the Cintiq
21UX lives up to expectations

E
ver since Wacom released the 21UX
pen tablet, every designer,
illustrator or Photoshop professional
has longed for a smaller, more portable and
cheaper device, and at last it has arrived!
The Cintiq 12WX, as the name implies,
measures just 12.1 inches. Its slight complexion
and weight of only 2,000g give the product the
perfect dimensions for use anywhere.
As you would expect, the tablet is sublime.
Drawing onto the glass, 1280 x 800px screen, is
effortless; the pressure-sensitive display reacts
instantly to your actions and accuracy is
excellent. The pen’s 1,024 levels of pressure
sensitivity, combined with rotation and tilt
sensors up to 60˚, produce some stunning
natural results from Pen, Brush and Eraser tools.
The need of a mouse and keyboard is greatly
reduced with customisable Touch Strips and
ExpressKeys found on both sides of the screen.
Touch Strips allow you to zoom or scroll by
sliding your finger along them – much like a

“It really is hard to Good looking: Sleek and stylish,

the 12WX will appeal to those who

criticise the Cintiq 12WX” want a functional device that will look
good on the workstation

built-in touchpad on a laptop, while the a customisable double-sided switch – a natural

ExpressKeys: Customise
your ExpressKey and Touch
Strip settings to allow one button
to perform different tasks in each
application. A Touch Strip could be
set to zoom in Photoshop and then
scroll through a PDF file
ten, fully programmable ExpressKey buttons
are real time-savers. When you eventually
remember to use them, you can minimise
keyboard use by assigning commonly used
actions or events – such as Step Backward
or switching between program tools – to
an ExpressKey.
The ergonomic design of the 12WX has
clearly been thoroughly thought through. The
adjustable stand offers three comfortable
viewing positions. A 65˚ vertical position gives
you the opportunity to use the tablet to
display your work or use the screen as a regular
monitor. A 25˚ incline offers a relaxed working
position, while using the 12WX flat on a desk or
on your lap offers the same flexibility as a piece
of paper – allowing you to rotate the display to
reach those awkward corners.
The pen is perhaps the most important
piece of any pen tablet. It needs to be
comfortable to hold, sensitive and easy to use,
all helping to reduce cramps and aches. The
Cintiq’s standard pen is near perfect; the size
and weight of the pen complement each other
beautifully. There is a clever eraser positioned
on the end, and within the chunky grip there is
position to add further functionality to the
included pen.
It really is hard to criticise the 12WX, and for
many reasons we don’t really want to. But
unfortunately we did have some niggles with
it. While actually using the tablet the only
problem we came across was when working
near to the edge of the screen, as the cursor
was sometimes unresponsive – which was
frustrating when trying to enter menus.
We were also disappointed to learn that the
Wacom tablet isn’t really as portable as
advertised. Due to the mass of cables and
converter unit, setting up isn’t a quick process
and carrying the cables around with you isn’t
much fun, but at least you are working in a
more ergonomic manner.
Wacom’s Cintiq series of displays are
designed to work as an extended desktop
together with your computer monitor. This
seems to work fine on many desktop PCs and
all laptops, but we discovered that you can
only ‘mirror’ the display on iMac G5s, and not
extend the desktop, meaning that both
displays are the same. As many creative
professionals use desktop Macs it’s

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 resources
Similar products
Wacom Cintiq 21UX
Manufacturer: Wacom
Web: www.wacom.com
Price: £1,800
Spec: 21.3” diagonal screen size
LCD screen with UXGA
resolution (1,600 x 1,200)
Adjustable display stand
Cordless, battery-free grip pen
and stand
Replacement nibs (1 stroke nib,
1 felt nib, 3 standard nibs)
Pressure levels of 1,024
Apple Mac OS X 10.2.x
Microsoft Windows 2000, XP
If you have the money then why not splash out
on the bigger brother of the 12WX — the
21UX — Wacom’s first interactive pen display.
The extra screen space can be a real benefit
when you’re designing. The Wacom Cintiq
21UX is another masterstroke from Wacom,
offering not just another top-performing
market alternative, but also a truly intuitive
product that gives users further advanced
options with
heightened
navigation,
control and
comfort. Makes
creation a digital
dream.
Rating: 5/5

PEN: The wire and battery-less pen

is supremely comfortable to
use – in fact it’s a design Sympodium ID350
interactive pen display
masterpiece when you consider
what is packed into it

Manufacturer: Sympodium
disappointing news, although it’s not a
Web: www2.smarttech.com
Wacom issue, merely an area that Apple hasn’t
Price: £1,410 (www.pcwb.com)
yet addressed.
Spec: 15” interactive screen
When we first picked up the tablet we saw it
Battery-free tethered pen
as an expensive, specialist tool to be used to
accomplish delicate tasks such as drawing,
painting or finely touching up an image. Of
Specifications Pen-tool and function buttons
Function buttons
On-screen display buttons
course it does that, but its comfortable design, Manufacturer: Wacom
Web: www.wacom.com Adjustable tilt stand
ease of use and interactivity make the 12WX
Price: £830 VESA mounting plate
extremely absorbing. It was developed as if it
Spec: 12.1” diagonal screen size USD computer hook-up
were a sketchbook – lightweight, flat and
LCD screen with WXGA RGB video
manoeuvrable, something you can quickly pick
resolution (1,280 x 800) This is a product for those that want effortless
up and have a doodle with or draw a
Adjustable display stand presentation. You can write over slides in digital
masterpiece – characteristics the Cintiq 12WX
Cordless, battery-free grip pen ink, save your notes, access any website or
has certainly inherited.
and stand multimedia files and project your work onto a
You really feel in control of this tablet. The
Replacement nibs (1 stroke nib, large screen. You can also touch the screen
pen sits nicely in your hand, and with high- 1 felt nib, 3 standard nibs) with your finger to navigate the interface
pressure sensitivity you can easily draw and get Pressure levels of 1,024 menus of your room-control system. Better
the same stroke density results you would Apple Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher with software such as
expect from a traditional brush or pencil. Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, Vista Windows versions of
Representing excellent value for money, the
Summary: This tablet will be a popular Microsoft PowerPoint
Cintiq 12WX will suit many people, especially
choice for anyone with restricted space and Word. More of a
those who want the same features, accuracy,
or budget. Disappointingly, the extended business product
sensitivity and quality of the 21UX without the
desktop is not compatible with desktop- than a design
vast workspace. If you have around £800 to
based Macs. device, however.
splash out on a new gadget, this should
Rating: 4/5 Rating: 3/5
definitely be near the top of your list. 5

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resources
Color Management
A Comprehensive Guide for Designers
Manufacturer: Rotovision
Web: www.rotovision.com
Price: £22.50/$43.90
Spec: 224 full-colour, fully annotated pages
10,000-hue swatch system on free CD
Technical issues relevant in communicating
colour in 2D/3D environments
Aesthetically pleasing presentation of page
and image
B right, bold and vibrant, Rotovision’s Color
Management title is a real visual delicacy. This book
grasps an impressive creative capacity when presenting all
subjects, with an easy-to-follow layout.
However, at times, what a title makes up for, it lacks in other
essential areas. So does the aesthetics of this title dissuade
readers from the issue of education? Well, no, actually. This is a
title that aims to evolve education in a progressive and
digestible fashion, so even the most enthusiastic or unaware
are made aware of the true value and effect of colour
management in all composition.
With seven chapters split over 224 full-colour pages,
Color Management starts from the top, presenting the
language of colour and its physiological effects. Other
essential topics present are the additive colour theory and its
varying theories and sciences behind colour legibility, forms
Adobe Photoshop Elements 6
No need to worry about the element of surprise with this creative resource
Manufacturer: Focal Press
Web: www.focalpress.com
Price: £22.99/$39.95
Spec: Full-colour easy to follow step-by-step tutorials
CD containing video tutorials
Supplemental website
CD/book provides visual guide to key
features
A dobe Photoshop Elements 6 presents a title that not
only teaches fundamental techniques, but prides
itself on providing readers with the means to employ
them practically.
A creatively concerned resource, this latest Focal Press
release promises to benefit ‘both seasoned pros and new
users’ alike.
Like many of Focal Press’s latest releases, this title
provides consumers with precise and practical tutorials to
test their technique and to develop the proficiency of
their skill, through the book itself and accompanying CD. At
first glance this title seems a little jam-packed with
objectives, but techniques are easily distinguished with
annotations and boxouts, coherent through the popular
means of colour coding.
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and functions of the colour wheel – relating each theory’s
set of colour primaries – and behavioural effects and
attributes of colour.
Such subjects, at first thought, may seem daunting.
full of colour: No colour goes unattended.
However, what starts as a fun approach, turns into a riveting Even the colours used to decorate the pages are
read and ultimately a profound edifying experience. It is this referenced in corner-page Pantone swatches
discovery, of the true capacity of colour within creation, which
will surely hold a reader’s attention. Essentially, this title will
provide you with the terminologies and knowledge that will
act as a building block to evolve understanding. Summary: A truly attractive textbook
Apprehension may set many readers back when faced with that not only provides insight, education
reading Color Management, but through intrigue, and with and great aesthetic appeal, but also a
each page coupled with clearly defined annotated references, cost-effective product within its
included hue swatch CD. A real one-
learning becomes less daunting and more content. Also, the
stop resource for colour all enthusiasts.
book comes with a CD, offering consumers a 10,000-hue
Rating: 5/5
swatch system, all for the handsome sum of £22.50. 5
Each tutorial reveals a way to optimise workflow using
Elements 6-specific options. Consumers can familiarise with
the new features of Elements 6 even before approaching
tutorials, introduced to the latest interface and navigation.
They can then indulge in the books more proactive sections
such as Hands On Techniques, Photo Projects and
Photomerge Stitching.
Tutorials include essentials such as balancing image size
and picture quality, and processing with Elements 6 and
Adobe Camera Raw, through to more fun, creative tasks like
photomerging faces and creating albums and scrapbooks
with the revamped photo-layout features.
This title may seem specific, but is in no way exclusive to
photographers. It also provides techniques that can be Professional advice: Get one-on-one
training from professional photographer, best-
assumed and applied in different methods, such as selling international author and alpha tester
understanding the fundamentals of producing imagery for Philip Andrews with this title’s accompanying
web and print. tutorial CD
For consumers that feel this title isn’t sophisticated
enough, consider investing in Focal Press’s Adobe Photoshop Summary: Obviously a step up from the
Elements 6 Maximum Performance. This book, presented by previous instalment, Adobe Photoshop
Elements 6 provides readers with an all-
international freelance photographer Mark Galer, unleashes
inclusive read, learning essential
hidden performances, essentially revealing the most
working practices.
powerful post-production editing techniques, all for
Rating: 4/5
£19.99/$39.08. 5
13/2/08 10:32:05

Squares, Checks, and Grids
Check out this creative resource that really isn’t as square as you may think
Manufacturer: Rotovision
Web: www.rotovision.com
Price: £15/$21.66
Spec: 256 pages of full-colour images
Five informative sections
Fashion, architecture, contemporary
aesthetics and more are addressed
Provides historical and educational information
Images accompanied with clearly
defined annotations
S quares, Checks, and Grids seems a bare title. After all,
why would most readers want to study a volume
about the simple square, you may well ask?
This third and latest instalment from Rotovision’s successful
Communicating With Patterns series, sets out explaining the
interesting language and visual patterns that squares, grids
and checks present in society on a daily basis. It offers five
informative sections that not only present inspiring visual
examples, but also an educational resource of creative
sciences and intriguing historical morsels. From the first
appearance of the tartan pattern to the style rituals of
Burberry and Argyle, there is something to inform and inspire
all creatives, from graphic designers to fashion enthusiasts.
Theses sections, including Classic Checks, Membership and
Identity, Themes and Mood, Signals and Information and
Digital Character Painting Using Photoshop CS3
Add a bit of character to your composition using this fun tutelage title
Manufacturer: Charles River Media
Web: www.charlesriver.com
Price: £25.66/$49.99
Spec: Step-by-step full-colour tutorial
Essential topics including eyes, hair, face and
fabric creation
Tutoring in traditional and digital skills
Basic principles for improving traditional
techniques
Accompanying resource CD
D igital Character Painting Using Photoshop CS3 is a
title that at first glance seems an attractive
proposition. With its eye-catching cover it entices readers
with the promise of entertainment. However, upon closer
inspection, its interior fails to inspire. With a standard layout
approach, the provided examples for learning seem less
rousing than first imagined.
However, this doesn’t really diminish the amount of fun and
reward that readers will get. After all, we all need to walk
before we can run, so they say, and with this in mind it
becomes apparent that Digital Character Painting is a title for
enthusiasts. Well presented and coherent, each section
provides an informative approach to each and every task.
092-093_AVP_41_Resources.indd 93
resources
Form and Function, relate profound topics regarding modern NOT SO SQUARE: We agree that this title
does supply an attractive source book of pattern
architecture, retro interior design, the proficiency of pixels, ideas to suite designers across the spectrum
even addressing the iconography of the Rubik’s Cube. This of disciplines
title is a real visual homage to all things four-sided.
We’d have to agree that this title is an inspirational
graphical collection and an unrivalled source of creative
inspiration, but only as there aren’t that many titles
specialising in squares. However, that does go some way to
reflect the innovation of what first appears as a modest title.
The one major reservation in this book seems only to be on Summary: For £15 there are probably
an aesthetic level. Yes, it does serve wonderful full-colour more aesthetically pleasing titles on the
images of a plethora of artistic delights, but we feel that the market, but this is a great specialist
keepsake for fans of the cube, offering
page layouts seemed laboured at times. Presented all in
an informative and attractive read.
framed format, in accordance with its theme, pages became
Rating: 3/5
derivative as the read progressed. 5
Illustrated with full-colour working examples, clearly
annotated and related in the text, all essential applications are
made apparent. This provides the means to master technique
and build a foundation for more adventurous creative
ventures. Consumers can experience teachings in how to
successfully blend edges and colour, understand and create
specific lighting effects and then employ these in realising
form by creating eyes, faces, hair and fabrics.
Consumers can indulge in projects such as creating a
friendly dragon, a dragon’s lair, monsters from scratch and
painting your own professor image. This really is a title for the
fantasy enthusiast. Fun this may seem, but perhaps
conservative topics to more adventurous creatives.
However, like all good titles, Digital Character Painting is
BRUSH UP: This title provides practical ideas and
techniques to help all enthusiasts improve their
creative projects
accompanied with a resource CD that allows readers instant
self-education in all methods. This is all-inclusive, providing
sketches, textures, brushes and gradients offering means to
replicate every tutorial.
There are also varied resources that allow readers to initiate
their own designs from the skills learnt. All in all a fun set of Summary: An entertaining title that
tutorials provide practical insight into using Photoshop CS3’s really does deliver in educating creatives
in combining traditional techniques
powerful painting functions, including customisation of
with contemporary digital methods.
brushes to achieve professional outcomes. All in all, this is a
Rating: 3/5
book that has a lot for the money. 5
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