Having a great time at Photoshop World. This is my third time going to this great convention. The keynote event was hilarious with a KISS rock band theme. Those Photoshop guys can really play! I had a great class with Russel Brown and Corey Barker. Two of my all time favs! I’ve met some wonderful people and shared work stories. It’s so much fun. I’ll post pics when it’s all over. Here’s a clip of what Russel Brown did at the Keynote. It was amazing and very funny.
Archive for category News
Brushes and Graphic Styles
Sep 22
I added a few new brushes and graphic styles I’ve been working on just for fun. You can download them in my Tutorials and Resources section of my gallery.
Last week I was listening to Deke McClelland’s Martini Hour podcast. Have you ever had one of those revelation moments? The kind where you smack your forehead and think omg! ..or maybe a big DuhHuh?
I had never really thought of using a raster image as an opacity mask in Illustrator. To get Photoshop-like grunge effects in Illustrator I usually placed a grungy image I made in Photoshop and then live traced it in Illustrator to give me a clipping mask and a basis for an opacity mask. Mordy Golding’s method is a hell of a lot easier and much more flexible. Check it out now!
Wowee this is fun to play with!
Rise Against
Jul 25
Lauren and the band
I usually don’t post non-art related stuff here but I had to tell you about the Rise Against concert I took my daughter Lauren to on Monday. Last year I contacted their manager about getting my daughter back stage passes to meet the band. I couldn’t believe when I heard back the same day. She got to meet them last year and they were so cool. They actually sat down and listened to her and were very gracious and polite.
Since they are on tour again this year and were coming to my area, I emailed their manager again. She set up a meet and greet before the concert and Lauren gave them a picture wallet of their previous meeting and a letter she painstakingly wrote for the band. They talked to her and posed for pictures. It was so wonderful of them to do that for her. The highlight of the evening was when the band dedicated their last song “Ready to Fall” to Lauren. I thought she was going to jump out of her wheelchair!
That makes me a Rise Against fan forever!
The August issue is finally out so I thought I’d finally post the artwork I did for their annual Jewellrey Supplement. I did the currency art, borders, and background guilloche patterns. Since this is for the UK issue only I don’t have a copy of the final versions. I’ll post some screenshots as soon as I get my copy. A special thanks to Anika at Vanity Fair UK and her wonderful team. It was a nice experience for me to work for such a great magazine.
Update: I finally got my copy today. I added some scans of the pages from the magazine.
Vanity Fair Magazine
May 2
Last week I just finished a commisioned artwork for Vanity Fair UK. They contacted me about my Counterfeit President artwork and asked if I was the artist. After I told them I was, they asked if I could do some currency art for their annual jewelry issue. I did the currency art and some border and background art for the other pages. They were really nice and helpful and seemed to really like the work I did. The issue comes out in August and then I’ll be able to post some of the art for you to see. This is the first time I’ve been published in a magazine so I’m pretty excited about it. I’m glad I had already done work like it for the Zoovolution project so I was used to working on a deadline.
I just posted a video tutorial on how to create a realistic grassy text effect in Photoshop. I used this technique on a couple wallpaper designs I made for DeviantArt. Hope you all enjoy it.
More currency art
Mar 7
I’ve got some new projects in the works. One is for some currency notes for a 150 year old Bookstore in Split Coatia. What are beautiful place and a beautiful bookstore. I love ancient history and Spit has an amazing place.
Morpurgo Bookstore
I was also contacted last week by Vanity Fair magazine UK to do some art for an upcoming jewelry supplement. They want some currency art too. More details later! I recently did some CD cover art for a up and coming county singer Paul Christopher. Hopefully he’ll make more music and I can do the artwork!
Also my Zoovolution currency can now be seen at www.zoovolution.com It’s a brief flash intro when you first load the page so it might take a few browser refreshes to see it pop up. The currency is actually used in the game too as bonuses that you can use to buy things in the Zoovolution store. I am so proud of how they came out.
The Prisoner Art
Jan 27
I was mourning the loss of Patrick McGoohan last week and decided to finish the Prisoner DVD series I bought a while back. It brought back a lot of memories watching it as a kid. It was WAY ahead of it’s time. So much so it only lasted 1 season. In memory of Patrick and a salute to the show I made some new Prisoner art. All done in Illustrator CS4! Check it out in my fan art gallery.
The Village Map is based on the map shown on the DVD and the paper map that came with the set. I spent a lot of time recreating the penny-farthing bicycle in color. The detail doesn’t show up on this wallpaper but I plan on doing one with just the bicycle and the prisoner type. Speaking of type. The type I used was the Village font based on Albertus, but while doing the artwork I noticed the Village font had really messy vectors and didn’t quite match the inter-titles from the TV show. I ended up redrawing the font from screenshots I took from the DVD to match the shows credits.
During research on for the art I found out that AMC is producing a new Prisoner Mini-Series starring Ian McKellen! Hopfully it will live up the the original.
Lace Pattern Swatch
Jan 15
I just posted a few lace pattern swatches to go along with the lace pattern brush I created. These are a lot of tedious work but they save lots of time once you turn them into a pattern. You can check them out in my Tutorials and Resources gallery. Both created in Illustrator CS4 and saved as version CS2.
