Project files, desktop

designs, stock art…

ISSUE 26
Putting on a show | Neon effects | Make money from stock art | Using 3D models | Interview: McFaul

NEON EFFECTS
Master fluorescent lighting
HOW TO…
Make money from stock images
Get to grips with Smart Guides
Set up your own home studio Put on
a show
Incorporate 3D into your art

B Inspirational ideas
EE

A RU for planning your

IM ND SHE
O AG ST S degree show
FR

M N TH ES OCK
CD ON IS
-R TH
OM ’S

CEL-SHADE
6-PAGE MASTERCLASS

STYLE ART Combine photos with line sketches

£5.99 ISSN 1748-7277
ISSUE 26
26

771748 727009
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk

INTERVIEW: MCFAUL Pages of professional

How is the successful UK-based tips & essential step-
26
UE

design studio making its mark? by-step tutorials

ISS

001_APM25metal_CK.indd 1 30/11/06 16:41:11

 Cover

Cover image
This image, titled Snow White is the creation of digital
artist Tom Bagshaw. Working under the name
Mostlywanted, Tom’s career started life as a small
online portfolio for the illustrator and designer. Along Imageer:
with his trusty Wacom table, Photoshop is the most TOM BAGSHAW
valuable tool he uses to create his heavy graphic style
illustrations. However for this image, Illustrator was
used to create the more complex vector shapes such TOM’S CAREER
STARTED LIFE AS A SMALL
as the rabbits.
/ www.mostlywanted.com

ONLINE PORTFOLIO
4
Advanced Photoshop

004_AVP_26_intro.indd 4 7/12/06 10:23:07

 nds
mme
Reco

PUTTING ON A SHOW 7 38
Is it time for you to start planning your degree
show? Check out our in-depth feature for
inspiration and essential hints

ISSUE #26

inside... LETTERS
Our readers’ comments and feedback
7 10
INSIGHT 7 12
News and showcases from around the globe
All the latest events, exhibitions and awards 12
Portfolio from Jay Koezler 18
The work of Jan Willem 20
The glorious cover image from Tom Bagshaw 24
HELPDESK 7 76
Your technical traumas shared with fellow readers
and answered by our expert

THE COVER
Captivated by the metallic sheen on this month’s
RESOURCES 7 83
Vital assets to improve your Photoshop work
cover? Turn to page 24 to find out more about the
image created by Tom Bagshaw 46 Supplying stock art 84
Go sci-fi with
Kurt Miller Books 88
File sharing 90
Fonts 91

THIS MONTH’S CD 7 94
. Superb stock art, project files to go with this

B E .. month’s issue and more!

I 74
S CR age off
B p s
SU rn toave £price
Tu d s ver 52 70
an e co Featured artists
of 2006
Find out what your peers
have been getting up to
th

6
Advanced Photoshop

006-007_AVP_26_contents.indd 6 6/12/06 12:18:28

 32
David Newton shows you
how to create cel-shade style
Photoshop art

TECHNIQUES
Faster, better, more… How can you work smarter?
CEL-SHADE STYLE ART 7
Combine your photographs with line art illustrations
32
FEATURES
INTERVIEW: MCFAUL 7 26 SCI-FI SCENES 7
Use the files on the CD to recreate Kurt Miller’s artwork
46
John McFaul tells us about the team’s latest ventures

PUTTING ON A SHOW 7 38 CREATING NEON SIGNS

Apply a glowing hand-made neon effect
7 60
Essential considerations for your degree show

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? 7 52 INSIDER INFO

SMART GUIDES 7 66
We catch up with our featured artists of 2006 Rodger Page shows you how these will aid your layout

PEER PRESSURE 7 70 INSIDER INFO

Inspiring and challenging images from your fellow readers HISTORY 7
Find out how to use the History palette and Art History brush
68
ROUND UP: HOME STUDIOS 7 78
Don’t rely on stock libraries. Take your own source imagery

MAKING MONEY 7 84
Supplying your illustrations to stock libraries

7
Advanced Photoshop

006-007_AVP_26_contents.indd 7 6/12/06 12:18:39

 Letters

Mailbox
Got something to say about the magazine or
Photoshop in general? Write in and tell us!
Email us at advancedpshop@imagine-
publishing.co.uk or visit www.
advancedphotoshop.co.uk to share your
views and comments with your fellow readers

SUBJECT: Student discount delivered straight to your door – bonus! Turn to

FROM: Steph Macleod page 74 of this issue right now, for more details
First off, I want to say I love the mag, and on how to subscribe.
appreciate all the hard work that must go into
its production, so thanks very much! SUBJECT: Ewww…sticky what it’s for! From our experience, the CD lifts from
I’m currently a student studying Interactive FROM: Hans de Waard the page without any problems, and it’s important
Multimedia. We have copies of your magazine in I’m a loyal reader of your magazine Advanced to use a secure glue to avoid discs going missing
our library, but because of their popularity we Photoshop, and have learnt quite a lot from the when they’re on the shelves.
can’t borrow them. I was wondering if there tips and tricks I’ve read. I was pleased that you As for the index idea – you read our minds! Take
might be any discounts offered to students? changed the printing on the enclosed CD from a look at page 96 for our index of all tutorials and
the name of the month to the issue number. features included in Advanced Photoshop so far.
Editor replies: Now it’s easy to archive the CDs and the
Thanks for your kind words Steph. Unfortunately magazines, and quickly look them up and match SUBJECT: Image rights
student discount isn’t something we currently them together again. However, I have one little FROM: Paul Douglass
offer, although it may be an option in the future. problem with your magazine – the way you glue The cover of issue 23 was fantastic, and I was
One of the best ways to save money is to the CD! Every time I carefully try to remove the wondering how legal it is to sell images similar
subscribe. By doing this, you’ll save a whopping 50 plastic CD-holder I damage the paper of the to that where you don’t own the copyright.
per cent off the cover price, and it will be magazine. When the CD-holder is removed a I’ve sourced images for a few friends from their
residue of glue is left behind, sticking pages favourite scenes in films and from the internet,
together and creating more paper and printing and altered them in Photoshop in a similar way
damage. Please use a glue that’s more to how Radim did with the Marilyn image.
On the disc
removable and doesn’t stay behind on the Obviously, he still credits the source image, but
paper. Also, here’s a suggestion – why not put an who owns the rights to that picture now? Could
Here you’ll find all the tutorial resources you need to follow
our expert masterclasses and workshops. Simply follow the
on-screen prompts to find the relevant files – then create!
If you want to create your own digital masterpieces from
scratch, check out the free essential stock art and typography

index of the published issues and tutorials in the Radim go on and sell it? I didn’t think his work
resources. You can use these files for all your own
non-commercial Photoshop projects.

December magazine, so readers can easily build
up an archive and quickly find the issue they
want to read.
Editor replies:
The inside back cover has been designed
specifically to house the CD with no editorial
written on the page. This way, if you do want to
pull out the CD from the page, it really shouldn’t
matter if a small area of the page is torn as that’s
could be sold without permission, or having
purchased the rights, but I was confused when I
discovered websites such as www.
thecanvaslounge.co.uk, especially the section
on legends.
I’ve had a look around and been bamboozled
with the legalities surrounding items such as
these, in terms of the copyright issue,
permission and derivative work, etc. I do quite a
bit of work using other people’s images from

“WE ALWAYS ADVISE THAT YOU GET

099_APM25_cdpage.indd 98

A STICKY DECISION: The inside back cover

14/11/06 13:03:19

A SIGNED DISCLAIMER FROM THE

OWNER OF THE IMAGE”
of Advanced Photoshop magazine is specifically
designed to house the CD, and to accommodate
for any sticky situations

10
Advanced Photoshop

010-011_AVP_26.indd 10 4/12/06 11:41:52

 Mailbox
shorts
Let’s take a look at some of the other
issues that are concerning our lovely
readers out there

Subject: Manga tutorial

From: Nicole Young
My son recently purchased Issue 22. I was
just wondering, which version of Adobe
Photoshop does he need to be able to work
with the CD for Manga Art?

Editor replies:
All of the masterclasses, features and
workshops are written for Adobe Photoshop
CS2. However, many of the techniques will be
applicable to older versions of this software.

Subject: Missed an issue

PERMISSION: We suggest that if you want to create artworks using celebrity-based images, you get in
touch with the owner of the image as we did with Tom Kelley Studios (www.marilynfineart.com). Don’t just
use original imagery for your art – it could get you in serious trouble, and even see you end up in court!
various stock photo sites such as iStock,
Shutterstock and Fotolia and always purchase
the extended agreement that allows me to then
sell them on if I choose.
However, I was confused in terms of the
movie stills. Especially as I contacted one of the
above to see if they could find an image for me
and alter it, and when I emailed asking about
any legal issues I was informed that: “If you
make alterations to the picture yourself and sign
a disclaimer it should be fine. I think it’s classed
as personal interpretation.” It’s a minefield!
Editor replies:
It would be very unwise to sell images without
permission for copyright or payment for usage,
even if you have manipulated them. The
consequences could be disastrous and you could
find yourself with a hefty fine!
For the Marilyn image we contacted the
original photographer’s son and paid for the rights
for ‘one time usage’. Tom Kelley Studios is now the
owner of the final Photoshop artwork, as well as
the original photograph, and Radim has been
given permission to showcase the artwork in his
portfolio. Obviously each image is a different case,
and the rights to use the image can be negotiated
on an individual basis, but we advise that you get
a signed disclaimer from the owner of the image.
From: Corinne Brincat
I just missed Issue 22 of Advanced
Photoshop (the one containing the Manga
front page) and would like to know how I
can order it. I’m from Malta, and just visited
your site hoping I could pay by Visa for
shipping of a back issue. However, I couldn’t
find the necessary URL. I hope you can help
me because I’m a digital anime artist and
would do anything to get my hands on one
of those copies.
Editor replies:
You can order back issues of the magazine
using your credit or debit card by visiting
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk
Subject: Online version
From: Brandon Wells
Is there currently an online version of
RIGHT Advanced Photoshop that I could subscribe
CONFUSIN’: Some
websites may confuse to? Living in the USA, the subscription price
the issue of rights, is fairly high. I was just wondering if there
make sure you always was a cheaper way of getting your excellent
check legalities
publication.
Editor replies:
We envisage an online magazine would pose
OUR MARILYN: copyright worries for all our contributors, so
We contacted the we’re afraid for now, this isn’t plausible.
photographer’s son
to avoid any
unwanted upsets

11
Advanced Photoshop

010-011_AVP_26.indd 11 4/12/06 11:42:02

 Insight is here to keep an eye on the latest trends
in photography, manipulation and design

High achievers e 20 07 Ad ob e De sig n Achievement Aw

ards, a competitio
nvergence of tec
hn olo
n
gy
g for entries for th g the powerful co
Adobe are callin vement reflectin created
e stu de nt ac hie du al an d group projects
set up to celebrat tig iou s aw ard showcases indivi
arts. This pres
and the creative ve software. s of
e’s range of creati credited institution
with any of Ad ob
ro lle d in vis ua l arts courses at ac ar, pr oje cts
en to students en cromedia last ye
The contest is op . W ith Ad ob e’s acquisition of Ma .
across the globe obe or Macromed
ia software
higher education arily with either Ad al
be cre ate d pr im inc lud ing Animation, Digit
can now also n en ter pr oje cts in categories ot he rs.
oups ca design, amon g
Individuals and gr eractive and Web tel accommodati
on
ati on , Di git al Ph otography and Int air fare to or in the US, ho
Illustr rec eiv e $5 ,00 0, an of th eir ch oice.
dual winners are products
First-place indivi Macromedia softw
isc o an d a to tal of seven Adobe or tea m m em bers, airfare and
hotel
in San Franc
e $5 ,00 0 to be split among the ea tive Su ite 2 Pr emium,
ll receiv e Cr
Group winners wi tea m lea de r, and either Adob sig na ted
for the designated are for each de
accommodation Pr od uc tio n Stu dio Premium softw
dio 8 or Adobe
Macromedia Stu
be r.
team mem ment Awards will
07 Design Achieve
Entries for the 20 th e fir st round by an
scored online in
be reviewed and s, wh o are among the
nel of six judge
independent pa ls.
sign professiona
world’s leading de u ne ed to prepare digita
l
AD AA , yo
To enter the 2007 Ad ob e to ols (ov er 50
d primarily with
files of work create e address below
:
loa d your work at th
per cent), and up

.com
www.adaaentry

2007’s competition
ADAA: Entries for by the 18th May
must be in

s
ND: This strip wa
GOATING AROU by Kyley Hellhake
sho p
created in Photo

TRAVEL DIARY: A Photoshop-based

animation by Keng-Ming Liu

S: Won
UNTITLED FACE
graphy
12 the Digital Photo
category in 2006
Advanced Photoshop

012-015_AVP_26.indd 12 6/12/06 12:33:22

 Creative minds
01.07
Adobe has announced the immediate

DIARY
availability of the Adobe Creative Suite 2.3
Premium edition. This updated version of the
must-have bundle now includes Dreamweaver
8 and Adobe Acrobat Professional 8. The

DATES
package, previously only including Photoshop
CS2, InDesign CS2, Illustrator CS2, Adobe
Bridge, Version Cue CS2, Adobe Stock Photos
and GoLive CS2, now allows users to make use
of Acrobat Professional 8’s PDF pre-flight and
repair tools.
The new version offers improved synergy ALIEN NATION
between applications; including the ability to Until 14 January 2007
.3 is a
THE FUTURE: CS2 synchronise colour settings, support for ICA, The Mall, London
t,
Photoshoppers deligh
transparency flattener presets and a shared
prepare to be dazzled
print technology. For those not tempted by FISHCLI & WEISS:
the new deal, it gives a little taster of the
things to come in the much-anticipated CS3.
FLOWERS &
A CS2.3 upgrade is available from £158.62,
QUESTIONS
while a full version can be purchased for Until 14 January 2007
£1,051.62. If you need a little convincing, and Tate Modern, London
would like to see a taste of what can be
achieved, with designs from Joshua Davis click EXHIBITION OF 20TH
on the website below: CENTURY
PHOTOGRAPHY
Until 28 January 2007
www.adobe.com/creativemind Barbican Art Gallery, London

EPSON PRINT
ACADEMY
Robin Preston on Photokina 2006 Until 28 January 2007
Touring event

During Photokina, I had time

presenting on the Adobe and
to look around now and then
Wacom stands. I of course wen
between PLAYBOY
searching for any thing interest t Until 7 April 2007
ing for the readers of Advance SMILE PLEASE
Photoshop. I’ve noticed lately d : In
Robin Preston ha between presentations, Proud Camden, London
that Hewlett Packard are tryin s time to hobnob
harder to get into the photo prin g even Adobe crew at Ph with the
ter section, so I gave a guy som otokina 2006
my images to print. I didn’t tell e of
him which colour prof ile I had
with the images. I thought – “the used
y’re going to make a pigs ear
this”, but was pleasantly surp out of
rised when it produced a grea
result. The images were printed t looking
on HP’s new A3+ B9180 ink
photo printer.
At Adobe’s after show part y I
met up with the legend Thomas
Knoll, and of course I discusse
d the upcoming PS3, which is
its Beta trials, and should be out now in
in March nex t year. I was surp
that Thomas still had his head rised
in a computer after all these year
told me to say an extra “hello” s. He
to all the Advanced Photoshop
and asked you all to try and get readers,
to Adobe Live nex t year, as he’s
going to be there!
From Germany, I was back in
London at Mac Expo and met
couple of young guys there mak a
ing podcasts, and was badgere
into giving them a short intervie d
w. If anyone’s interested, thei
pomcast.com, video reports r site,
on all three days, so if you didn
there take a look . ’t get
Nex t month I’m going to writ
e about some innovative soft
was given recently for image ware I
manipulation, although I nee
a bit more and put it through d to test it
its paces!

13
Advanced Photoshop

012-015_AVP_26.indd 13 6/12/06 12:33:32

 insight
kuler than you into B&Q with the intentio
n
If you’ve ever wandered nt, the n
h a spl ash of pai
of sprucing up a room wit
rwhelmed with the
you’ve probably been ove right
involved in getting the
amount of technology our s for
king the righ t col
shades and swatches. Pic but , apart
jus t as imp ort ant
your Photoshop work is
downloads on the web,
from a few independent our
n any way of seeking col
there’s never really bee ideal for
harmo ny and are
swatches that’ll work in
your work.
nched ‘kuler’, the first
Adobe have recently lau s
lication from Adobe Lab
creative hosted web app and to
h to sta nd alo ne
CHERRY CHEESECAKE: designed to be used bot s.
Just one ative Suite 2 component
of the colour schemes on
offer to complement Adobe Cre ion Scr ipt
Flash and Act
Built using Macromedia
make your web pages kule
r
ws you to qui ckly search, create share
3.0, kuler allo
me s onl ine. It’s a very
and exchange colour the
use and sur prisingly quite fun
simple application to
’re happy with your kuler
and therapeutic! Once you
nload them as an Adobe
colour theme you can dow te
E) for use in Creative Sui
Swatch Exchange file (.AS
2 components.
ially some teething
Although there were init
kuler, Adobe appear to
troubles with access to
and it’s available to
have solved the niggles,
gin g onto http://labs.
experiment with by log
olo gie s/k uler
adobe.com/techn

http://kuler.adobe.com
e swatches
and tailor-mak
ith colours
ay around w
ler allows users to pl
e Create section of ku
CREATE: Th

Restoring history
Scientists who worked on the Archimedes Palimpsest, are
now able to use modern technologies to digitally restore
a 700-year old palm-leaf manuscript containing the
essence of Hindu philosophy.
After running a total of 7,900 images through various
image-processing algorithms using Photoshop software,
each palm leaf of the sacred manuscript, the Sarvamoola
granthas, is captured and stitched together.
Speaking about the original artefact Professor Mukund,
the Gleason Professor of Electrical Engineering at the
Rochester Institute of Technology says: “It’s literally
crumbling to dust… The book will never be opened
again unless there’s a compelling reason to do so,
because every time they do, they lose some. About 15
per cent is already lost. After this, there won’t be a
need to open the book.”

ALL SEWN UP: The original leaf from the text was photographed using a Sensys scientific digital camera and then stitched together using
Photoshop and Knox software

14
Advanced Photoshop

012-015_AVP_26.indd 14 6/12/06 12:33:42

 01.07
DIARY
ALIEN INVASION:
Who’s out there, or
here already?
who’s

DATES
THE CREATIVE SUITE
CONFERENCE
February 27 – March 3 2007
Miami Beach Convention Center

SEEING &
INSPIRATION
SEMINAR
February 7– 8 2007
Phoenix, Arizona

CREATIVE
PROFESSIONAL
ASSOCIATION
ANNUAL
CONFERENCE
May 8 –10 2007
Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort

EMERGING ARTIST
FELLOWSHIP
EXHIBITION
Until 4 March 2007
Socrates Sculpture Park

STARDUST: JEAN-
POSTERS: fabulous artwork or political message? This CHRISTIAN
exibition blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction BOURCART
Until 24 February 2007
SERIOUS FUN: The artwork is fun to

Alien Nation look

at, but holds deep underlying meanings
Andrea Meislin Gallery, New York

This futuristic exhibition is forward thinking in terms of the
artwork and the message it portrays. Tackling issues of
race, invasion and fears of “otherness”, it’ll appeal to sci-fi
geeks, deep thinkers and people who are simply
fascinated by today’s society. If this sounds like you, or you
just fancy a gander at some brilliant art, get yourself down
to the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, for an
exhibition we predict will be out of this world.
Alien Nation is an ambitious exhibition co-produced by
the ICA and the Institue of International Visual Arts that
explores: “the complex relationship between science-
fiction, race and contemporary art”. Curated by John Gill,
Jens Hoffman and Gilane Tawadros, the show features
the work of twelve comtemporary international artists.
The featured work encompasses film, sculpture,
photography, multi-media installations and 3D
painting. Alien Nation will also show a collection of sci-
fi film posters from the Fifties to the present day,
courtesy of The Reel Poster Gallery.
This extraordinary exhibit is on show at the ICA in
London until 14 January 2007. Check out the website
for more info: www.ica.org.uk

15
Advanced Photoshop

012-015_AVP_26.indd 15 7/12/06 09:44:22

 insight
MILES DAVIS: “I get my
influences from all sorts of
mediums – visual or
otherwise. Heck, I could also
throw Miles Davis and the
Surrealists in there as being
a heavy influence on my
way of seeing”

BACKPAIN: “I would describe my style as ‘conceptual surrealism’. I’m heavily concept-driven, by virtue of my
photo-journalism background”
Jay Koelzer
Digital illustration is a second career for Jay. He trained as a photo-
journalist at the University of Kansas in 1977, and specialised in
shooting sports and studio illustration work. “In the early to mid
Nineties I was fortunate to win quite a few national awards for my
photo illustration work, which made me think I could be successful if
I switched to freelance,” Jay tells us. “The transition to freelance
away from the safe cocoon of spoon-fed journalism assignments
was a humbling one to say the least”. After a few years Jay’s software
and computer capabilities began to improve, and he pulled the
career switch to digital illustration. “The intriguing aspect was that I
could create with software anything that my mind could conceive. I
was finally doing what I wanted, creatively. I was just swamped with
learning multiple software applications in order to technically pull
off what was in my head.”
Jay didn’t really study design in the classroom sense: “I consider
myself a student of composition and light until the day I die”. His
creative workflow usually starts with the application Poser if it
involves people, then it moves through to Vue, Cinema 4D or ZBrush
depending on his intentions. “The final steps are in Photoshop with
a little bit of Painter thrown in, depending on the look I’m trying to
create. Photoshop is the glue that holds it all together. In Photoshop,
I’m either tightening up loose ends, or implementing the style that I
have visualised for the image.”
/ www.jkoelzer.com

18
Advanced Photoshop

018-019_AVP_26.indd 18 5/12/06 13:00:31

 01.07
BUSINESS DISASTERS: “I’m so fortunate that with the
software and computers we have today, I can approach
my images in a way that I would never have been able to
do before. Technology can be a beautiful thing!”

BIRD FLU: “I’ve always wanted to portray my

view of the world with a surrealistic approach”

LITTLE
SAY HELLO TO MY
ce on a boy
FRIEND: A fantasy pie
friend
and his magical frog

OFF TO WORK: “At

the moment I’m trying
some time off pushin to take
g assignments, to try
two new visual 2D styl to develop
es that I keep seeing in
So I’m doing a lot of exp my head.
erimentation work, cre
things and then trashin ating
g the outcome and the
beginning again until n
I get the styles that I like
”

19
Advanced Photoshop

018-019_AVP_26.indd 19 5/12/06 14:23:42

 insight
MODERN TOTEM: “The main illustration for this
piece was created in Illustrator. The image was then BURST OF CREA
taken into Photoshop, where I fiddle with scanned TIVITY: “I drew severa
idea in my ske tchboo l variants of this
textures or photos. I placed these on top of the k and scanne d them
These were use d as into Photoshop.
image and set the layer to Overlay mode” a guide to create the
Illustrator, which we vec tor s in
re then taken into Pho
finalisation. The tex toshop for
ture use d for this des
fab ric set to Overlay ign is a scanne d
mo de with decreased
Op acity”

PLAYFUL TODDLERS: “In Photoshop

I’ve used a number of filters and the Burn
and Dodge Tools to create extra
dimension. Something I like to do to help
give an image a bit more roughness is to
add some noise, about 0.5%. It can add
just that little extra”

20
Advanced Photoshop

020-021_AVP_26.indd 20 4/12/06 11:54:25

 01.07
MAKING LOVE: “I took a shirt and put it under my scanner.
Usually you need to rework a scanned texture to get the desired
effect, such as increase the contrast and change the hue or colour”

Jan Willem/Zeptonn
Jan was always busy drawing and doodling between his lecture notes, or in his dummy
sketchbook. So in his second year at university he decided to make more of his whimsical
sketches, and began making T-shirts with some friends. He decided to learn how to use
Photoshop and Illustrator to create the designs, and was hooked instantly.
Since then, a number of his designs have been printed at leading websites such as METAMORPHOSIS: “After creating the main illustration
threadless.com, teetonic.com and splittheatom.com. He’s also completed work for Blik and composition in Illustrator, the design is reworked in
Photoshop to add dimension, shadow and texture”
(whatisblik.com), where you can take a look at Jan’s recently printed book, Stingermania.
Describing his work as fun, wacky and joyful, Jan likes to create something new and
imaginative. “What also applies to most of my work is that I really enjoy making it, and I AAAHRG: “This design was created
in a similar way to Burst
of Creativity by mak ing scans of
hope I convey that to the viewer. I think if someone sees my work and gets the impression lots of imag es from my
sketchbook. By using different
that I had a lot of fun creating it, I’d be happy.” types of paper, you’ll get varie d
textures in your scans”
Jan tends to use a variety of techniques for his illustrations. “Some illustrations are
heavily based on sketches, and coloured in Photoshop and/or Illustrator. Other illustrations
are created straight into Illustrator and later touched up in Photoshop. I think the tools I use
mostly in Photoshop are the Dodge and Burn Tools, which I use to create extra dimension.”
At the moment Jan is working on some skateboards and wall decals for popcling.com, as
well as a shirt graphics book with around 30 other designers called Do Not Iron. So you
could very well soon spot some fashionable soul sporting Jan’s designs in a street near you.
/ www.zeptonn.nl

CHICKS ARE EVIL: “The initial sketches for this piece were scanned into Photoshop where I
used the Curves function (Ctrl+M) to increase the contrast in order to make the lines a bit
‘harder’. To export your linework to Illustrator you can use the Magic Wand Tool to select the
sketches, and then use the Make Work path (right-click), to make the selection into vectors”

21
Advanced Photoshop

020-021_AVP_26.indd 21 4/12/06 11:55:18

 insight
Matt Dixon
Matt has always enjoyed creating
images. “I remember drawing
spaceships for my friends in the
playground at infant school, so the urge
to draw must have been with me from a
very early age and it’s never gone away.”
As he grew up, toys very quickly gave
way to art material of various kinds, and
his bedroom became more of a studio
than a place to sleep. “Music and girls
began to compete for my attention as I
entered my teenage years, but even
ConceptArt.org artist community
COW: A mascot designed for the

those powerful distractions couldn’t

stop me doodling! I sometimes wonder
if there’s a reason why I like to wave a
pen around, but I haven’t found any
mystical meaning to it. I think it’s simply
that drawing is the thing I enjoy most.”
Matt’s dad bought him an 8-bit home
computer, a Commodore VIC-20 in 1980.
“At eight years old I was naturally thrilled
with the games available, but I was
equally excited when I discovered that I
could assemble letters and symbols
from the keyboard into simple pictures.
Before long, I had learnt how to program
my own bitmap characters, and my
relationship with the computer as an art
tool had begun.”
Photoshop is the only tool Matt uses
on just about everything he does
nowadays. Despite using an entirely
digital process he finds himself applying
fairly traditional techniques, including
sketching, values, under-painting and
rendering. “I use my own collection of
custom brushes throughout, most of
which are based on scanned ‘real’ brush
marks. I very rarely use layers in my
process. I suppose I’m something of a
digital luddite, but I find that having a
simple working process helps me to
focus on the image rather than
managing the tools.” Asked to describe
his style Matt reveals: “Someone who
was surprised to discover I used
Photoshop, rather than acrylics or oils,
to create my images described my stuff
as ‘tradigital’. I don’t know how accurate
that is, but I like the word!”
/ www.mattdixon.co.uk

NUMBER SIX FINDS A FRIEND:

A short comic strip based around this LEMMY: “Originally a doodle to
piece was published in 2005 help me rid artists’ block, I was inspired
by this gravel-throated crooner”

22
Advanced Photoshop

022-023_AVP_26_insight.indd 22 4/12/06 12:00:55

 01.07
WELL
O
insp ire ILED: “Just
d y
the mo to e xp ress him o ur averag e
on and au
thre e b self thro ugh to man,
ottles o so
f x X x S ng by
u p a Lu
be”

OLD MAN OF THE WOODS: “There’s a whole story around the

characters in this image which I hope to find time to illustrate in the future”

ROCKET SCIENCE: The first in a series

of pinups which began life as some cover
proposals for Heavy Metal magazine.

23
Advanced Photoshop

022-023_AVP_26_insight.indd 23 4/12/06 12:01:06

01.07
insight

024-025_AVP_26_fullpage.indd 24 4/12/06 12:05:07

024-025_AVP_26_fullpage.indd 25
Tom Bagshaw
“Apart from blending, I use Photoshop for pretty much everything else. The figure
(Snow White) is painted with a certain amount of overflow outside of the known
outline, then the layer is masked with a vector clipping path. For more complex
shapes, Illustrator is needed.” Along with his trusty Wacom tablet, Tom admits that
Photoshop is the most valuable tool in his workflow.
/ www.mostlywanted.com

4/12/06 12:05:09
 Inter
view

26
Advanced Photoshop

026-031_AVP_26.indd 26 6/12/06 13:59:46


FROM
HAMPSHIRE
WITH LOVE ese, bikes,
lks biscuits, ch e
John McFaul ta o to sho p BY EMMA CA
nd Ph
coconuts… oh, a
E
msworth is a delightful village
nestled on the south coast of
England. It’s the sort of sleepy little
fishing hideaway with narrow street corners
and miraculously great pubs. A little dicky
bird tells us “it’s going to be the centre of the
Universe before you know it... purely
because of the great ice creams you get in
Flintstones café”. And no, this little dicky
bird wasn’t Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall nor
have Advanced Photoshop been dabbling in
a spot of property hunting.
You see Emsworth is the home of McFaul –
one of the most prolific and well-respected
design studios in the industry. The fact that
McFaul shares an office with “those cheeky
monkeys” iLoveDust, suggests Emsworth is a
design utopia where Gaussian Blurs give the
BRANCHING OUT: McFaul are MCFAUL ISN’T A ONE MAN BAND
LIKE MOST BELIEVE
venturing into new ground with their art.
“We’re now positioning ourselves as a
multi-disciplinary design group”
026-031_AVP_26.indd 27
Inter
view
KE
streets a soft sparkle, and skies are saturated
to perfection. Well, that’s probably not the
case, but it would be lovely to think so.
Ask any successful professional artist who’s
on their list of favourite peers, and you can
pretty much guarantee that McFaul will pop
up somewhere in the top ten. In fact, the
Advanced Photoshop team are so used to
hearing the name being dropped, it seemed
like a ridiculous error on our behalf that we
hadn’t caught up with them sooner. It’s time
to put things to rights.
The team
Fronted by John McFaul, an illustrator with 11
years’ experience, McFaul isn’t a one man
band like most believe. The team in fact
changes in size from project to project, but
27
Advanced Photoshop
7/12/06 09:42:45
 Inter
view
THE NAME MCFAUL HAS
BEEN AROUND FOREVER
is never without its chief designer, Ollie
Munden. “It seems as if the McFaul name has
been around forever under different
circumstances (my grey hair and crows feet
are testament)”, John tells us, explaining that
the ‘brand name’ has been reinvented a couple
of times in an attempt to keep ahead. “The
past has made things easier to get where we
want to go, but we don’t look back. McFaul
was previously one of those names in the
illustration scene, but we’re now positioning
ourselves as a multi-disciplinary design group
taking on a multitude of projects for a
multitude of outputs,” explains John. “It was a
long time coming really... it’s not that the
illustration scene was boring, far from it, it’s
just that we’re interested in so much more.
We’re creative and want to try new things.
Sure, things aren’t always as easy as they
seem, but it’s fun trying and it makes getting
up early everyday worthwhile!”
If you aren’t familiar with the name McFaul,
chances are you’ve seen their images even if
you weren’t aware. At the moment, McFaul are
adorning the small screen with a Specsavers
commercial (a collaboration with Nexus) and
28
Advanced Photoshop
026-031_AVP_26.indd 28
previously, the company was responsible for a
hefty Vodafone advertisement campaign back
in the summer (posters of which may possibly
still be adorning billboards in your area at the
moment), as well as a Kinder Egg project too.
The projects
It’s not unusual for a design team that’s made
it big to be able to reel off a list of well-known
projects, but the difference with McFaul is that
they tend to lead the way and create a path
that other artists can merely follow and aspire
to do as well. So what makes them different?
“We’re both over six foot, quite cheeky and
drop-dead gorgeous,” quips John. “Seriously
though, it’s hard to say why we differ. All I can
say is that we endeavor to push ourselves with
every new project. If it doesn’t work in our
minds it doesn’t leave the studio. If we aren’t
excited to the point of explosion we work at it
from another angle until we are! We want
everything we do to be that much lovelier,
that much more ‘oooh’ and that much better
than anything else we’ve seen or have done
before. That’s what this is all about after all!”
Other than Mother Nature, McFaul’s list of
11/12/06 10:21:46
 McFaul
artists that inspire is “as long as the jumper
John’s Mother-in-law knitted for him last
Crimbo.” Ollie jabbers on about James Jean,
Tomer Hanuka, Jeremy Fish, David Foldvari
and Kozyndan among others. “I can randomly
add to that Basquait, Richard May (hello
mate!), Wayne Hemingway, bikes, SEA LEGS: ”We took a trip
out for St David’s on a RNLI
skateboards, food and sleep. We love all the
lifeboat around Ramsey Island...
things that excite our senses... especially light. Oh my goodness! That was a life
It creates such an atmosphere. I was out (on a changing experience”
very rare holiday) on the Pembrokeshire coast
with my lovely lady a few weeks back. Each
afternoon we took a stroll up on the cliffs as
the sun went down. The light was amazing
and at certain points there was total silence. MCFAUL’S DED
ICATION (BEL
Just sitting there for an hour each night was
“We want every
thing we do to OW):
lovelier and that be that much
much better th
the most uplifting experience. The stuff of we’ve seen or ha
ve done before”
an anything els
e
dreams.” Other inspiring life experiences are of
a more adventurous nature. “We took a trip
out for St David’s on a RNLI lifeboat around
Ramsey Island. Oh my goodness!! Ha ha ha.
That was a life changing experience. Not that
we wanted to be in the RNLI afterwards, but
more that we, for a few minutes, remembered
what life was all about.”
Describing their style as somewhere
between “lush, lovely and ooooh” imbued
with “multiple levels of gorgeous”, McFaul’s
relationship with Photoshop isn’t completely
exclusive. “Photoshop is part of a long list of
things in our process,” explains John. “It’s

UP THE DUNNY (ABOVE): McFaul’s

designs adorn more than just walls. Here’s a cute
customised ‘Dunny ‘ for Kid Robot

THE LOVE OF ART (LEFT): “If we aren’t

excited to the point of explosion we work at it
from another angle until we are!”

MCFAUL STYLE (FAR LEFT):Photoshop

is an important, but not solely exclusive tool in
McFaul’s creations

29
Advanced Photoshop

026-031_AVP_26.indd 29 6/12/06 12:40:05

 Inter
view
KID ROBOT
(LEFT): A
customised ‘Dunny’ by
McFaul, available to
purchase on www.
kidrobot.com
REPORTER
(BELOW): “Every day
brings in something
new and that’s the way
we like it!”
PHOTOSHOP IS A FAB APP, OLLIE
IS THE SHORTCUTS MASTER
neither the definite starting point nor a
definite ending point. It just happens. It’s
always open, but so is Illustrator, our scanners
and a packet of biscuits.” That’s what we like to
hear. Having formed a bond with Photoshop
since version 3, McFaul knows a thing or two
about the app and can create some fantastic
things. “It’s a wonderful tool. Ollie is the
master of shortcuts. A trick for every minute of
the day I’m sure,” he tells us. “I’ve got one of
those minds that can’t seem to hold those
tricks, so things take a bit longer, but I get
there in the end!”
Photoshop isn’t their only passion in life
however, John tells us as he waxes lyrical
about his passion for bikes. “If McFaul didn’t
exist I’d be riding a bike for a living as a tester
for Santa Cruz, Pace, De Rosa or director of
Howies (probably the best company in the
world). Ollie is finding it difficult to answer
(and getting a little depressed),” John reveals,
“he can’t imagine not doing this. Ha ha... A
worm farmer, a coconut man (on a beach), a
snowboarder, skateboarder, chief taster for
anything with cheese! That’s the best you’re
going to get off him I’m afraid! That’s why I
answer the phone. Total jibberish.”
30
Advanced Photoshop
026-031_AVP_26.indd 30
Daydreams about cheese out of the way and
back to the art, McFaul’s snowed under at the
moment with a whole list of projects under-
way including a series of ads for Camel, a
Selfridges window and “something toppety
secret” for Nike. Other commitments include
“finishing our bloody website, a 30-foot
window graphic for a housing development in
Brooklyn and a big McFaul show of shows for
2007, and several other things that are written
down on our ‘to do’ list right now.”
And in terms of future projects, John would
rather not say. It’s nothing against Advanced
Photoshop readers and we’re sure they’re not
bothered about leaking out secrets. “Every
day brings in something new and that’s the
way we like it,” explains John, “it’s naughty
really and it’s probably why we don’t really
know exactly how to tell people what we
actually do! We don’t have a clear goal as we
just want to be creative, have fun and
encourage people to push us into thinking
differently for every project. All our work has
our hallmark but everything has to make us
think. Obviously we will move Heaven and
Earth to stay competitive and we’ll continue
producing work that we consider exciting and
‘oooh!’ So the future can’t help but look
promising. Lets start with a show of shows in
Summer 07 off the back of a little teaser for
Selfridges in Spring. So many ideas...so little
hours in the day!’ 5
6/12/06 14:07:27
 McFaul

PHONES GALORE
(ABOVE): McFaul
has an impressive list of
clients, including
communications
giant Vodafone

COMBINING
INTERESTS (TOP
RIGHT): John lists
snowboarding as a
special interest.
Thankfully McFaul
allows him to combine
this with his work

A LITTLE BIT OF
“OOOO”
(RIGHT): This image
opposite captures the
loveliness, lushness
and ‘oooo’ that McFaul
claims inspires its art

31
Advanced Photoshop

026-031_AVP_26.indd 31 6/12/06 12:40:47

 MASTERCLASS
Create illustrations
with atmosphere
C
ritical to any piece, colour can make or break an
illustration. Some artists have a tough time
really nailing the mood they want, and need a
few tricks to help push a piece to the next level.
Maybe you have a demanding client who wants to take a
nearly finished piece in a completely new direction. With a
little bit of clever Photoshop layering and a few tricks, you
can separate the content of the piece from the lighting and
mood, therefore leaving yourself a little, or in this case, a lot
of wiggle room in the final feel of the piece. And with each
element of the piece separated into layers, it’s a snap to go
32
Advanced Photoshop
032-037_AVP_26.indd 32
Design cel-shade style art
with a little rainy ambience
back in and tweak until everything is just right. Use this
approach to quickly work through colour and light
variations of a piece before settling on a final design.
First, we’ll take the original line work and quickly fill in a
few conventional daytime colours. Once we have a base
colour scheme set up, things take a detour as we plunge
our sunny city into a rainy evening. To finish, we’ll show you
a few simple ways to work a little more depth into the
image, with layering of rain and fog and specular bloom – a
trick borrowed from 3D and motion design to give your
otherwise hard-edged illustration a soft, muted feel.
ON THE DISC
Open up this month’s CD on the
inside back cover, and you’ll find the
original ‘linework.jpg’, ‘color’ and
‘headlight’ images that you can use to
follow along with David’s tutorial.
OUR EXPERT David Newton
David has been working in the graphic design, 3D and
illustration circles for over eight years. He currently works as an
art director in dreary (his words, not ours) Boston,
Massachusetts. To view more of David’s work, pay a visit
to www.paperraincoat.com.
7/12/06 12:49:09
 1 Line work
We’ll start off with the line work. You can use
pretty much anything to generate your lines – scanned
drawings, photo reference, or just draw from your
imagination. We’ve used a combination of drawing and
photo source material and redrawn the image from
scratch using a Wacom tablet. Set the Layer Mode to
Multiply, and Opacity at around 80%.
2 Colour
Create a new layer underneath your line work, and
start painting in solid colours. Start with local colour, and
then move towards white and black for highlights and
shadow. If you’re working from a photo, you can sample
colours with the Eyedropper Tool. We’re going to control
colour with a separate layer later on, so don’t be afraid to
use some crazier colours. For now, keep the foreground
(girl) as a separate layer so we can cut her out later on.

3 Midground colour
Continue to paint in all
solid areas of colour. Areas
that face towards a light
source, such as the sky,
should be given a lighter
colour than areas that are
obscured by objects, such as
the sides of buildings. Don’t
be afraid to experiment. You
can always paint over
anything that isn’t working.
For now, leave the sky
transparent, we’ll fill it in in
the next step.

4 Background colour
As objects recede into the background, you
should paint them both lighter (towards white) and less
saturated. Essentially, push the colour toward the sky
colour. This mimics natural haze and pollution, and
creates depth. It’ll also blend in nicely with the fog that
we’ll create in a moment.
5 Sky gradient
Create a new layer, and using the Gradient Tool,
pick a desaturated orange and blue in the primary and
secondary colour swatches. The gradient should fade to
the darker colour near the horizon. Normally the sky
would darken as you go up, but this’ll eventually be a
night time scene, so the reverse typically works better.
Unifying
colour
Sometimes when collaging photographs taken
under different lighting conditions, the pieces sit
in their own space and refuse to blend. One way
to combat this is to use a unifying layer of colour.
Create a new layer and fill it with a colour of your
choice, set the Blending Mode to Color and the
Opacity to around 5-10%. This’ll bring cohesion
to your scene. Films often use this trick to create
an overall mood, such as The Matrix, which used
different tints for the separate worlds.

33
Advanced Photoshop

032-037_AVP_26.indd 33 4/12/06 12:12:52

 MASTERCLASS
6 Arrange the layers
Move this layer into the background, underneath your line work and colour. No special Blending Mode is
necessary. With the sky in its own layer, it’s much easier to make changes to it later on.
7 Fog
Create a new layer for fog. Start with a medium
grey value, fading to light grey at the bottom. Use the
Magic Wand to select the outside of the Foreground
layer. Select Invert and Delete to cut out the shape of
the girl from the fog. Use a large (200-300 px), soft-
edged Eraser with a fill of around 10% to erase parts of
the foreground on the right, left and bottom. The idea is
to end up with more fog in the background, and less in
the foreground to increase the sense of depth.

10 Colour blending
Set this layer to the Color Blending Mode,
with an Opacity of around 70%. This allows some of the
original colour that we painted earlier on to show
through. You could use more or less opacity depending
on how much of the original colour you want to keep in
the illustration, it’s up to you.

8 Fog blending
When you’ve finished erasing parts of the fog
from the foreground, set the Blending Mode to Screen,
and the Opacity to 30%. You can also set this before
erasing, to get a better feel for how the fog is interacting
with the rest of the image. This’ll also lighten the image
considerably, which we can fix later on.
9 Colour
Now we set the overall mood with a layer of
colour to unify the piece. You could use a layer of solid
colour using the Paint Bucket, or an image that you’ve
adjusted using Hue/Saturation. In this case, we’ve used a
small photo of clouds that’s been Gaussian Blurred and
colour adjusted towards a light green.

11 Adding rain
Create a new

“THE LINE TOOL

layer. It may help to hide all
layers except the sky so

AND A LITTLE
that you can see what
you’re drawing. Using the
Line Tool and a white
colour swatch, simply draw
BLUR IS ALL YOU
a few diagonal lines at the
same angle. You can copy NEED TO
and paste groups of them
around the sky until you CREATE A QUICK
have enough. The Line Tool
and a little blur is all you CONVINCING
need to create a quick
convincing rain effect. RAIN EFFECT”
34
Advanced Photoshop

032-037_AVP_26.indd 34 4/12/06 12:13:07

 “TO MAKE CHANGES, THERE’S NO NEED TO GO BACK
AND START OVER – SIMPLY TWEAK AWAY TO YOUR
HEART’S CONTENT USING THE OPACITY SLIDERS”
12 13
Rain blending
In this case, either the Normal or Screen
Blending Modes will work. Set the Opacity to around 15-
20%. After you’re finished, add a little Gaussian Blur or
Motion Blur to soften things up. If you use Motion Blur,
make sure that you blur in the same direction that
you’ve drawn the lines.
Adding contrast
For the next step, create a new layer. Select
the Gradient Tool again, but this time make sure you
set the Gradient Tool to Radial. Now click on the default
white and black colour swatches. Next, drag from the
edge of your image to the centre of the girl. Hopefully
you should end up with a Radial Gradient similar
Specular
to this image.
Bloom
Specular Bloom is the photographic tendency of
the brightest parts of the image to ‘bloom’ or
spread outwards. This can be caused by the
emulsion of the film spreading, or by bounced
light in the lens or camera. In some cases, these
bright points of light can form into circles or
hexagons called ‘bohek’ or ‘lens flare’.
In illustration and 3D, you can add a little extra
realism by faking this effect. Select the brightest
parts of the image, copy them to a new layer and
then blur using a Gaussian Blur filter.

14 Gradient
blending
Set the Blending Mode
to Color Burn with an
Opacity of 10%. This’ll

16
increase the contrast of
the image, darkening the Blending headlights
edges and lightening the Set this layer to the Colour Dodge Blending
girl. It also helps even- Mode with an Opacity of 90% or 100%.
out the soft pastel effect Using the Move Tool, line up the headlights so that
that the fog added. they’re over the ones that we’ve drawn.

15 Adding
headlights
Here we’ve added a
photograph of two cars that
are similar in placement to
the ones we’ve drawn. Using
the Adjust Curves command,
drag down the centre of the
Curve slider until only the
bright parts of the image
remain. This is the only part
of the image we need.

35
Advanced Photoshop

032-037_AVP_26.indd 35 5/12/06 14:41:17

 MASTERCLASS
“YOU CAN USE 17 Specular Bloom
Now we’ll create a quick 2D Specular Bloom effect. Create a new layer for the effect. Using the Eyedropper,

ANYTHING TO select the lightest part of the image. From the top drop-down menu, go to Select>Color Range. Move the Fuzziness

GENERATE YOUR
slider to the middle. This’ll select all of the light parts of the image.

LINES: SCANNED
DRAWINGS,
PHOTO
REFERENCE, OR
JUST DRAW
FROM YOUR
IMAGINATION”
18 White fill
Fill this selection
with pure white. We’ve
19 Specular Bloom blending
After blurring, set this layer to the Screen
Blending Mode and the Opacity to 60%. You may want
shown this layer over a a higher or lower opacity depending on how much
temporary black layer bloom you want. Be careful with this, however – add too
underneath so you can see much, and the image can have a tendency to look too
the effect. Add a Gaussian soft and washed out.
Blur filter of around ten
pixels to bloom out the
white highlight.

20 Finishing – soft light

Now we just have to do the final touches. All
of the fog and bloom have washed out the image a little
too much, so we’ll need to increase the contrast. Select
the entire image canvas (Select All, or Ctrl+A), then
Edit>Copy Merged (Shift+Ctrl+C) and Paste (Ctrl+V)
to paste the entire scene into a new layer. Set this layer
to the Soft Light Blending Mode with an Opacity of
60%. The Soft Light Blending Mode is an excellent
way to increase the contrast and saturation in a washed-
out image.

36
Advanced Photoshop

032-037_AVP_26.indd 36 4/12/06 12:13:32

 21 Finishing – post production
Repeat the Copy Merged process. Select the entire image canvas (Select All, or Ctrl+A) and Edit>Copy
Merged (Shift+Ctrl+C) and Paste (Ctrl+V) to paste the entire scene into a new layer. This time, add a slight Gaussian
Blur with a Radius of around four pixels.

Post
production
Post production is a broad term used in audio,
video, film and effects work, that happens after
the creation of the source material. It typically
involves ‘finishing’ work. In the case of computer
graphics this usually entails level adjustment,
colour correction, matching footage to a
background plate and other special effects.
For this tutorial, adding a copy of the image on
top with a slight blur in Screen Mode, helps to
soften the image out and remove some of the
hard-edged, computer-generated look. This is
typically unnecessary for photos but works well
with illustration, 3D renders and occasionally

22
graphic design when a soft effect is desired.
Soften and
lighten
Set this layer to the
Screen Blending Mode
with an Opacity of 40%.
Like the Specular Bloom
effect, this’ll further
soften and lighten the
image and blend edge
colours together.

24 The completed image

And here’s the finished image! Take note of
the stack of layers. In each layer, using the Opacity
sliders, we can separately tweak and adjust the
background and foreground colours, rain, the overall

23
green colour, headlights, Specular Bloom and post
Finishing – Levels production softening, as well as a final contrast
Again, the lightening/ adjustment. So the next time you’re faced with a difficult
softening effects have lightened the client, or just fancy a change, there’s no need to go back
image a bit more than we would like. and start over – simply tweak away to your heart’s
As it’s a night time scene we would content using the Opacity sliders. 5
still like to have darker areas and
shadows. To balance out the
previous layers, create a new
Adjustment Layer and select Levels.
You can drag the sliders around to
see how they affect your image.
We’ve dragged the Black Input Level
to 53, and the Output Level to 16.
This’ll further darken the dark areas
of the image without affecting our
soften and bloom effects.

“THE SOFT LIGHT BLENDING MODE IS AN EXCELLENT

WAY TO INCREASE THE CONTRAST AND SATURATION”
37
Advanced Photoshop

032-037_AVP_26.indd 37 4/12/06 12:13:45

 Degree show special

EE

Putting o
G R
DE HOWAL
S ECI
SP
Online galleries and portfolios are a great way to sh
you step out of cyberspace and into the real worl d
38
Advanced Photoshop

038-045_AVP_26.indd 38 7/12/06 12:54:45

 PUTTING ON A SHOW

g on a show
ILLUSTRATOR: Carrie Williams

to showcase your creative endeavours, but what happens when

orl d and put on your very own show? Nick Spence finds out.
39
Advanced Photoshop

038-045_AVP_26.indd 39 5/12/06 16:03:55

 Degree show special
NOWADAYS, ONLINE GALLERIES,
PORTFOLIOS AND SHOWREELS ARE
COMMONPLACE
I
t’s easy to forget that just a few short years ago
the only real way to showcase your creative
talents to the public at large, and specifically
potential clients, was by a traditional exhibition.
Pictures on a wall, invitations in the post and a
steady flow of beer, wine and nibbles normally did the
trick. The internet changed all that, and now online
galleries, portfolios and showreels are commonplace.
So much so, that you can often be lost in the virtual
deluge of new creative talent. While the digital
medium, including work done in Photoshop, clearly
benefits from being shown digitally, even a lifetime of
more conventional artwork can now be scanned,
uploaded and viewed at the click of a mouse.
The thought then of actually printing, framing and
hanging work in a show or gallery may now seem
terribly old fashioned. But many, including digital
pioneers, still see the clear benefits. “Doing your own
show is something I feel everyone should attempt.
First and foremost it’s actually great fun,” says John
McFaul (www.mcfaul.net) best known for his magical
melding of Photoshop and Illustrator (see page 26 for
our six-page interview). As co-founder of Black Convoy
(www.blackconvoy.com), McFaul and his creative
cohorts put on one of the best and most memorable
shows in recent years. “The Jaguar Shoes show was
much bigger than we originally planned,” reflects
McFaul. “We somehow found ourselves designing
some incredibly expensive wallpaper, which perhaps
ANDY BAKER: Andy’s SHED show collected
together the ideal sheds of over fifty
illustrators, designers and photographers,
collectively known as the ‘Sheddists’
40
Advanced Photoshop
038-045_AVP_26.indd 40
took some of the original energy out of it.” Despite this,
the wallpaper looked great. The show inspired many,
including Sam Stubbings, the brain behind 4WALL
(www.4wall.co.uk), a project dedicated to bringing
the best contemporary artists and illustrators together
for exhibitions, commissions and collaborations. With
successful shows across Europe and the US, Stubbings
clearly sees the plus points of putting on a show. “Too
much communication, exhibiting and selling is done
from behind a computer. And with purely digital art
becoming less and less relevant in illustration and fine
art design, I think it’s impossible for your work to
communicate what you want it to, without people
seeing it for themselves in the flesh,” says Stubbings.
Taking the pressure off
The other obvious advantage for putting on an
exhibition is showcasing self-initiated work and
projects, sometimes lost to the pressures of working
for commercial clients and meeting tight deadlines.
“Creative freedom is a key reason for putting on your
own show,” insists respected illustrator Andy Baker
(www.debutart.com). “Most illustrators will find that
working on commercial commissions involves a
degree of creative compromise. A self-initiated
exhibition is different. It allows the scope of the project
to be considered and set on the basis of the creative
needs of the illustrator or designer. It allows for
experimentation with content, style and format.”
SELF-INITIATION
:
when a show is ini Andy Baker believes that
tia
creative approach ted by the artist, a more
can be taken
5/12/06 16:04:18
 N a m e: A
Web: w w
Quote:
n d y B ak
w.debuta r
“If you w
e PUTTING ON A SHOW
rt.com
work it ’s ant to se
my expe ll
that eve rience
digital p
n high q
rints lac
uality Be seen!
premium k the Submitting your show det
of the ha ails to websites and foru
made m nd - ignite interest. Here we ms is a great way to spark
ark. Peo pick some of the best onl support and
part wit p le will your show a success ine resources to get you see
h mu c h n and make
money fo more
r authen 5oup ((www.5oup.net) If you’re just starting putting
originals tic
that can
be dupli ’t together your first show, then chances are you may
cated.”
still be at college. 5oup is an online community for
student artists. As well as the lure of free online
portfolios and a forum with over a thousand members
you can also submit details of any upcoming shows.

The AOI (www.theaoi.com) The Association Of

Illustrators (AOI), active since 1973, is the only
body
For illustrator Chrissie Macdonald (www. to represent illustrators and campaign for their
chrissiemacdonald.co.uk) – part of the famed rights in the UK. As well as useful resources and
links
Peepshow collective (www.peepshow.org.uk) – a the AOI also has a busy forum where you can submi
t
looming show can inspire creative growth. “For me, it your show details, as well as a free listings servic
Advanced Ph e.
provides an incentive and deadline to produce new otoshop Fo
start prom rum (w w w
personal work outside of my day to day commissions.” oting your .advanced
show and, photoshop
They’re also a great platform to highlight specific friendly face being close .co.uk /foru
d regulars. to home, yo m) A good
a forthcom Th e forum ev u ’r e likely to en place to
new ventures, attracting old and new clients, meeting ing show o en includes counter so
also a great r website la a dedicated me
like-minded people and indeed making new friends. place to test u n ch you want to Sh ow case sectio
the waters advertise. Th n if you hav
“Exhibitions are not only a good way of promoting if you’re no e Peer Pres e
t sure whic sure sectio
yourself, but also a handy way of promoting something h images to n is
select.
specific to a captive audience in conjunction with the Artshole (ww w.artshole
.co.uk) Dedicated to
show, like the launch of a new website or showreel,” promoting artists and pro
viding information on art
says Macdonald. “It’s also a good excuse to remind exhibitions across the UK,
you can submit show
existing clients about yourself and contact potential details and images for free
. Listings are grouped into
new ones, as well as meeting up with other people categories such as Illustra
tion, Graphic design and
who do what you do.” Fashion. With 500,000 visi
tors each month, the
exposure will help attract
visitors to your own show.
Collaborations
Collaborating with other creative minds is another “show case and expose all
ationmundo.com) Designed to
reason for putting on a show, as illustrator Colin IllustrationMundo (ww w.illustr rs a great platform to
d today”, IllustrationMundo offe
Henderson (www.colin-henderson.co.uk) suggests. the great illustrators in the worl thin gs you can submit to this
s. There’s a whole host of
“The show for next year, which will be a show present your exhibitions and show ts’ work , illustrators’ websites and
les, items for sale, artis
site, including: show details, artic ion!
An invaluable resource in our opin
interviews, among other things.

MySpace (w ww.m
yspace.com) It ma
sparkle of late, bu y have lost some
t if it worked for
why not you? If yo the Arctic Monkey
ur budget is zero s,
still ‘under constru and your website
ction’, this is a fre is
upload images an e way to advertise
d generally netw ,
ork.
Netdiver
(w w w.ne
portal. Th tdiver.ne
e popular t) Netdive
site is “de r is a digit
Galleries re voted to tu al culture
ceive over toring, em magazine
and upco 2 00,000 hit powering a n d n ew m
ming proje s daily, an and stimu edia desig
cts. d visitors lating cre n
actively sc ativity ”.
out for tale
nt for on-g
oing

Pixelsurgeon (w ww
.pixelsurgeon.com)
daily news section off Pixelsurgeon’s
ers a regular stream
to help stimulate the of varied links
creative mind. There
updated portfolio we ’s links to
bsites and must-see
Submit your own sho exhibitions.
w details, while bro
of reviews from the wsing hundreds
resourceful Pixelsurg
eon team.
Strangefruits (w ww
.strangefruits.nl
another art and de ) A useful source of
PEEPSHOW: For Chrissie Macdonald of Peepshow, sign portal that fea inspiration, Stran
tures a selection of gefruits is
fame exhibitions are a good excuse to remind existing has an accompan creative websites.
ying website you If your show
thousands submitt ca n su bm it it and hope that
clients about you, and contact potential new ones ed. The Xposure se it’s picked from th
ction features int e
erviews with fellow
creatives.

41
Advanced Photoshop

038-045_AVP_26.indd 41 7/12/06 12:58:26

 Feature
XXXX
COLIN HENDERSON: worked with fellow
ton
students as part of the University of Brigh COLIN HEND
e Show . Nove l ideas included a free ERSON: An on
Free Rang going projec
or t based on Te -
poster that people could take away, draw tris
add their own work to and then send back
simultaneously held in London and Toronto, was born
out of an idea that myself and a designer from Canada,
Liam Johnstone, had. We’ve got the idea of creating a
fictional country, in which all the people involved will
act as inhabitants, alter-egos of themselves.”
The ambitious project will feature the work of
around 20 young illustrators and designers united by
common ground. “The show just came out of having
seen each other’s work, liking it and finding that we
had very similar ideas.” Working as a collective also has
more practical benefits, such as sharing costs and
workload, and dishing out the donkey-work that few
people enjoy!
Collaborations also stimulate creativity and inspire
new ways of working to accommodate contrasting
styles. They also have the potential to match new
talent with more established creative types, who
already have a reputable client base and following.
Getting some big names involved may also help raise
your profile and make the show a success. Many are
easily approachable, all you need do is ask. Nurturing
new talent will help with future showcases once those
new names become established, returning the faith
and favour you showed early on.
The stage
Finding a suitable venue is key to the success of a
show, one that’s easily accessible, clearly sign-posted
and with good public transport links. “The most
important thing is the venue. If it’s in London it has to
be close to a central tube station,” insists Sam
Stubbings. “People simply won’t follow more than
three or four directions.” Logistics play a major part in
putting on a show, especially when participants can be
spread far and wide. Finding a suitable venue, whether
an established gallery space or more guerrilla-style
location can be tricky and expensive, as award-
winning illustrator Paul Blow (www.paulblow.com)
suggests. “In an established space it’ll have its own
42
Advanced Photoshop
038-045_AVP_26.indd 42
FEAR AND SELF INTEREST: This poster
was part of the Free Range show
mailing lists and may be able to suggest suitable
sponsors. Plus of course it can foot some of the other
bills such as costs for invites, drink and general
advertising. The downside is however, gallery spaces
can take a hefty cut of anything you sell, as much as 50
per cent in some cases,” says Blow. “If the guerrilla style
of exhibition is chosen, there’s ultimately more
freedom and more creativity. But all the work has to be
done by the artist, so this is when a collective can work.
Members of that group can each organise different
aspects of the attack. From venue sourcing, such as old
warehouses to vacant shops, to organising and
designing invites and distribution.”
Recommendation and word-of-mouth play their
part in finding the right venue for you. It pays to ask
around your friends and contemporaries as well as
visiting current exhibitions. Try and gauge what the
venue will look like on a wet Wednesday afternoon in
winter, and how work is lit and displayed, away from
the distractions of a private view. Monsters (www.
monsters.co.uk), a London-based collective of 11
freelance illustrators, chose a space it knew well for a
recent, successful London jaunt. “We chose the venue,
Beyond The Valley, as it was somewhere we were
familiar with, having had an exhibition there before,
and it’s in Central London, which is convenient for
everyone”, says Monsters’ Suzanne Barrett. The
fashionable shop/gallery space close to Carnaby Street
and run by Central Saint Martins’ graduates, also set
the right tone. “The shop/gallery is an exciting space
for new designers, and as we also sell our products
there, it was the perfect location to have the show,”
says Monsters’ Mariko Jesse. With commercial
considerations never far from your mind setting the
5/12/06 16:05:32
 PUTTING ON A SHOW
N a m e: P
a
Web: w w ul Blow
w.paulb
Quote: low.com
“Pitfalls
come in may
all shape
sizes, su s and
ch as the
clashing night
Name: Mariko Jesse with the
Web: ww w.monster
s. England
choosin
match o
g a nigh r
The 4WALL
Case Study: Sam Stubbings,
co.uk no one w t whe n
the look ants to h
Quote: “Decide on out. Nea ead
and theme for your
show r the we
ekend www.4wall.co.uk
people a
me up mo re work re genera
first. Fra more rela lly Trouble on the tube, a bus strike and a typically dank November night
u will
than will fit, then yo may ma
xed and
ges. failed to dampen spirits as 4WALL ((www.4wall.co.uk) launched its
have room for chan ke a
ople purchase latest show Production Lines, with a packed private view. Founder
Invite many more pe !”
u thi nk wi ll co me Sam Stubbings, initially inspired by a 2005 Black Convoy ((www.
than yo
and advertise as blackconvoy.com) exhibition, pulled together some of the best
blackconvoy.com
much as names in contemporary illustration to ensure a healthy turnout and
possible.” a hit show. Key to any success, suggests Sam, is managing your time
and maximising both audience and income. “My main tip is time
management. Whenever you undertake a marketing task think how
this is going to benefit your show and allocate time accordingly.”
As costs can spiral it’s vital you combine the creativity with a
sound business model, especially if you plan on having future
shows. “Good ideas for making money back, and increasing your
attendance are to organise events around the show and theme
certain days or nights to gain more press and listings,” adds Sam.
THEMES: 4WALL’s
“At Production Lines we’re holding a fashion show, a beer-tasting private
preview invite, co
day, a live painting day and a 99p bargain-bin art fair. Each of mbined
with themed even
ts en
these has achieved listings, so we have four times the that Production Lin sured
es was
free advertising space that we would have had just a huge success
listing the exhibition.”

COLLABORATIONS:
Colin raves about the
practical benefits of wo
rking with others

right tone is vital. “A tiny room above a pub is not

going to sell work over £500, as the art-buying
world is obsessed with aspiration and luxury,”
warns Sam Stubbings.

Money makes money PRODUCTION LINES: Creating great art is only half the
Ultimately costs will determine where you show battle, this artwork has to be backed up with fantastically
your creative endeavours, unless you’re able to well-planned marketing
secure funding via sponsorship and patronage.
Costs can triple during the life of a show so
budgeting carefully is essential and calling in
favours is a must, otherwise your first show could
t
be your last. “Cost! Everything costs,” says John 4WALL: Its recen
show
McFaul. “Going back to that wallpaper, it was very Production Lines
show,
expensive indeed. We were very lucky that I had a included a fashion
arity bargain-bi n event
ch
research grant from the University I was lecturing at. night to
and beer-tasting
blicity
That covered all the wallpaper and several other help maximise pu
things, so in actual fact the show cost us, as individuals,
very little except time.” Potential funding is often
available through arts funding and sponsorship, but
routing it out requires diligence and planning ahead.
FRONT WALL: 4Wall was founded
“It can take time to apply for drinks sponsorship, some in 2005 by Sam Stubbings. It has
companies have a specific slot when this can be done, attracted the crème of
so it’s worth finding out in enough time before the contemporary illustration
show,” adds Chrissie Macdonald. including Andy Potts, John McFaul,
Richard May, Lucy Macleod and
Allowing enough time is also vital to ensuring a
Erin Petson
successful show. Don’t leave things to the last minute
and allow adequate time for collating, storing and

43
Advanced Photoshop

038-045_AVP_26.indd 43 5/12/06 16:06:26

 Top 10 things to rem
Degree show special when putting on a shem
ow
ber
Location, location, location
Find a venue that’s fairly cen
well sign-posted and fits the tral,
size and ambition of your
Employ a friend as a welcom show.
ing face somewhere by the
Supply a map when necessa door.
ry and details of local tran
along with a link to multim spo rt,
ap.com with emailed invites.

r venue and size up available

Made to measure Research you
ks and crannies. It can save
wall space to exploit little noo
men ts over the best spots when
valuable time and argu
layout on paper to best
hanging your show. Plan your
ning entrance
maximise space and create a stun
The price is right Think about a price list, this is a
commercial venture. If this is your first show, look at hanging your work, especially if you decide on a more
other
similar shows both in the flesh and online. Print up cost effective group show. “You can never over-
limited
edition prints on a need-to basis, after they’re sold. estimate how much time these things take,” says John
The trick
is to price things high enough to cover costs, but cheap McFaul. “Our schedules are already mad, so
enough to encourage impulse buying. shoehorning extra stuff in there is tricky to say the
least. It’s something that people generally don’t
Timing A w understand.” Be realistic and set obtainable deadlines,
et and wind
for a quick y Tuesday ni
jog to the lo ght in Janu sharing the chores and responsibilities. You can lose
cal pub, but ar y might b
venture furt people may e fine
her for your be reluctan more than face if you pull out due to poor time
time that ’s p rivate view t to
long enoug . Pick a date management. “Cancelling a show can be costly,” warns
and those ar h to cover ea and flexible
riving fashio rl y b irds straight Andy Baker. “Even if you pull out weeks in advance,
nably late. from work
galleries will invoice you. There’s little chance of them
filling an empty week in the calendar at short notice, as
Focus Don’t get distracted by the smallest of detail everybody knows the run-up involves so much
and lose sight of the bigger picture. Prioritise the big preparation.” Don’t forget to budget time for taking
jobs and delegate the smaller ones, avoid office down the show, make sure you’ve got guaranteed help
politics and discussing minor quibbles, especially in to disassemble it, patch up the walls, and remove all
front of potential clients during the private view. left-over work. “Most galleries supply brushes and
paint for retouching walls, but check what they have in
Be selective Don’t throw store and that you have access to it. Their supplies are
all your work like mud at
hope that it sticks. Select the wall and often depleted or have dried up,” adds Andy Baker.
the work best suited to
type of venue. If in doubt the size and Good, unusual, eye-catching presentation can also
leave it out, or ask the opi
those you respect to hel nion of help make a show a success. Having a theme or
p decide what stays and
at home. Try and create what gets left displaying work in a unique manner can attract more
something new for the
hasn’t been seen on a we show that than just admiration. Look at any listings magazine and
bsite or any where else.
Name: Jo you’ll see that galleries, like websites, are abundant so
hn
Web: w w McFaul Keep them achieving a distinctive look is a must. “The days of a
w.mcfau peeled Unf
Quote: l.net an ywhere so ortunately designer/illustrator simply popping 12 images in black
“There a ensure valu thieves can
considera re many ables, expen strike frames on white walls is long gone in my opinion,” says
ti o ns: locati on e- of f ar tworks are sive prints
timing, p on , se cu re and McFaul. “The punters just don’t react to that stuff
romotio ov er night. Ke d and safely lo
endless. n, the lis ep an eye on cked up
Black Co t is up g atec anymore in general. Create a stir. Do things differently.
these sh nvoy do and spoil a rashers who
ows in o es private view can turn Create a ‘space’, an environment. Make the show an
pub across tempted ov
members rder for its the road by
th
er from the
experience. Make people think. Be creative. Do
togethe to work e sm ell of free b
r on a co ooze.
mmo n something you want to do. Start talking about the
goal. Ea
ch show show in weblogs and discussion boards. Emailing a
underta we s require you to
ke is a w Open for business Some gallerie
working ay of they app ear closed to the teaser campaign could also be very effective. “
with ring a bell, otherwis e
supe rvise ope ning hours for Attracting the right people as well as the support of
others” public. Hav e som eon e
ther e can be dull, friends and family is also imperative, digging out those
the length of the show. Sitting
trad e to com e in. old client details a must. “We sent out invitations to
but it’ll encourage passing
about five hundred art directors and designers, and
Budget Don’t be left wit
h a student sized debt

GALLERIES ARE
your show. Try and bud at the end of
get realistically and spl
fairly among participan it the costs
ts, with money collected

ABUNDANT, SO
front. Look for sponso ideally up
rship, patronage and fun
likes of the Arts Counci ding from the
l and National Lotter y.

Leave them happy A little booze and a few savory snacks can
ACHIEVING A
pay dividends. The best private views are often the ones you
can’t remember, but keeping your guests well supplied with
DISTINCTIVE LOOK
refreshments, along with some suitably chilled music will create
an ideal atmosphere for networking and doing business.
IS A MUST
44
Advanced Photoshop

038-045_AVP_26.indd 44 5/12/06 16:07:03

 PUTTING ON A SHOW
The Terminology

MONSTERS: The Monsters illustration collective’s recent

also invited friends,” says Mariko Jesse. Sharing client exhibition attracted attention for continuing a Mexican-
lists in group shows can also be advantageous, style Loteria cards theme throughout the show
opening doors to potential future commissions.
“Having a group show can be beneficial as each
exhibitor will have their own client list and contacts to
bring along, as well as you being able to split the
costs,” adds Chrissie Macdonald. “It’s important to
research who you’d like that to be and send them a
well-designed invite. Even if they can’t make the show
it’s a good way of making contact.”
Thinking big and getting your show listed alongside
established galleries and museums also helps to
attract potential buyers lured by the promise of a
possible bargain from the next big thing. Degree
shows, particularly those in London are often packed
with buyers on the hunt for a bargain, your show
should be no different. “Make sure at the very least you
get listed in The Guardian Guide, Timeout, and The
Independent,” offers Sam Stubbings. “These
publications go to millions of the right kind of people,
so they’re worth a million times as much as a long
begging invite to a friend who isn’t going to buy your
art anyway.”
Remember that ultimately you’re always looking to
sell artwork, gain new and potentially lucrative
contacts and drum up interest in future ventures. You
may put artistic principles above all else, but sound
business sense will help you achieve your goals. “It’s
essential to contact the listings magazines to let BLOWN AWAY: Award-
people outside of your mailing list know,” concludes winning illustrator Paul Blow,
exhibits his work extensively
Andy Baker. “They’re more likely to feature you if the
throughout Britain and in New
show has an angle. This might be the theme, its use of York. He recently won Gold
media or simply the venue.” 5 and Bronze awards from the
Association Of Illustrators

45
Advanced Photoshop

038-045_AVP_26.indd 45 5/12/06 16:08:06

 MASTERCLASS

46
Advanced Photoshop

046-051_APM26.indd 46 5/12/06 16:57:55

 Incorporating 3D art
Let’s create a sci-fi book cover by taking photographs and 3D models,
and combining them in Photoshop for a complete, finished piece of art

W
elcome to the world of Kildar, a former Navy SEAL who found himself rescuing hostages from
ON THE DISC
terrorists in a near future, third-world nation. This was the cover art for a fiction novel, which has
You’ll find all the files you need to get started on
been altered a bit for this tutorial. this tutorial, including the starting 3D models
To illustrate this book cover I began using multiple 3D programs to create a science-fiction atmosphere. I started and textures, on this month’s cover CD
with 3D Max for modelling weapons and clothing, Poser 6 for the terrorist, Kildar and imported the Max files for
OUR EXPERT Kurt Miller
fitting and Bryce 3D for the background scene and the futuristic floating gun. When modelling the figures I wasn’t
Kurt Miller is a freelance illustrator whose client list includes Activision,
pleased with the end result of the young girls, so thinking ahead I turned to using a digital camera. My next Baen Books, Electronic Arts, Hasbro and Take Two Interactive. He’s been in
problem was having these two resources together in one image. I knew they would definitely clash, so relied on the visual communications field for over 15 years, going back to the early
days of Photoshop. Eight of those years Kurt spent as an in-house
Photoshop to solve this problem. In this walkthrough, I’ll use the photo references and the 3D resource renders
illustrator for a game company. Currently a self-employed illustrator, you
(supplied on the CD) in Photoshop to find ways to make these two look very convincing. I’ll show you ways to edit can find Kurt’s work on sci-fi book covers or on adventurous computer
clothing with a Warp, and also ways to make your photos and 3D renders look like a digital painting. game covers. For more details visit www.kmistudio.com

1 Importing the Distance mask

Open ‘Kildar_bgDistanceMask.jpg’ and ‘Kildar_bg.
jpg’. Starting with ‘DistanceMask’ hit Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C and
3 Start laying your base colours
For the clouds, make the lightest one off-centre, and
gradually paint darker levels going outwards. Choose a soft
paste it to Kildar_bg.jpg, then label it ‘Distance mask’. With round brush at a size of 45 pixels. Make the edges bumpy so
this layer selected, click on Select>Color Range. Set 130 for as to form the clouds movement, and paint in large masses.
Fuzziness with the image selected on the bottom right,
now sample the white sky with your mouse and click OK.

2 Fire in the sky

Hide the Distance mask layer. Select the Background
layer, label it ‘Sky’. Lock ‘transparent pixel’ on the top left of
Layers palette. For your foreground, select a light yellow
from the Swatches, and for your background a red/orange
and paint with a radial Gradient Tool. Starting just off-centre
to the right, draw downward to the left edge of the image
to fill in your sky – this’ll be your under paint.

4 Softening the edges

Your preset comes with an array of
brushes, but most look ordinary. Let’s create
some custom brushes. Try and explore all of
the different settings. Click to open the Tool
Preset picker next to the Brush icon on the
Options menu bar. Pick a soft round Airbrush,

5
with a Flow of 50%. Set your brush size to
about 35 pixels and Opacity about 45%. Shadows and highlights
Select Scattering from the Brushes palette Choose a soft round brush, Opacity 75% and Flow
on the right side of the Options menu bar, 80%. Select Shape Dynamics from the Brushes palette, set
and set it about 142%, and for those graphic Size Jitter at 18%, Minimum Diameter to 5%, Scattering to
tablet users, select Control>Pen Pressure. 118%, the Count at 2 and for Control, select Pen
Click Brush Tip Shape and set Spacing to Pressure>Smoothing. You can reduce the size of the brush
10%. In Other Dynamics, click Opacity as you paint toward the ends of the clouds by hitting the
Control>Fade. Now begin to make more square bracket key on the keyboard. For shadows start
defined soft edges. For each level edge dabbing over the thicker parts of the clouds repeatedly to
colour you can select it by pressing the Alt increase the intensity. You can adjust your foreground and
key for the Eye Dropper Tool. background colours by hitting X on your keyboard.

47
Advanced Photoshop

046-051_AVP_26.indd 47 6/12/06 10:39:36

 MASTERCLASS
6 Smudging and blurring the clouds
Zoom in to about 200%, and start at the top left.
Choose the Smudge Tool, set the Strength at about 41%
and the Size to 21. Unlock the layer and make circular
motions throughout the coloured edges of the Sky
layer. Zoom out, and once satisfied, go to
Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, set the Radius to 2 pixels. On
the Sky layer set the Blending Mode to Hard Light.
9 10
Distance
blur
Reveal the Distance
mask. Go to
Options>Color Range
and set Fuzziness to
100, then select the
lightest mountain.
Hide Distance mask
and select
Background layer, go
to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set Radius to 1.3,
deselect Marquee. Reveal your Distance mask layer again.
Go to Options>Color Range, set Fuzziness to 50 and select
the next dark grey shade of mountain. Select
Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, set Radius to 0.8. Click on Color
Range set Fuzziness to 10 and select the mid grey, which is
the right-side apartment complex. Set another Gaussian
Blur with a Radius of 0.55 and deselect Marquee Ctrl+D.
11 A little orange/yellow
At this point Kildar is not
consistent with the ambient lighting of
our background. It’s important that you
plan your model’s light source angles
before you combine the two elements. In
our background we have a warm colour,
which we’ll need to add in our imported
figure. To do this use Color Balance
(Ctrl+B). Still on the Kildar layer, go to
Image>Adjustments>Levels and change
the Input Levels values to 0, 1.00, 255 from
left to right. Go back to Options>Image>
Adjustments>Color Balance and change
the Color Levels to +55, 0, -30 from
left to right.
“START COLLECTING INTERESTING
PHOTOS TO USE AS TEXTURES”
48
Advanced Photoshop
046-051_APM26.indd 48
7 Matching the background to the sky
We need to match the main background
atmosphere with the sky, so select the Background layer.
Choose Image>Adjustments>Color Balance. Adjust the
Red level to about +75 and Blue at -25 moving it towards
the Yellow. Look it over and don’t worry about the blue
haze of the mountain range, we’ll take care of that next.
The 3D hero
Open up ‘KildarSoldier.tiff’. With the Background
layer selected, go to Channels select the Alpha 1 layer. Go
to Select>Color Range set Fuzziness to 199 and click in the
white area of Kildar. Select the RGB layer and then hold the
Ctrl key and move your cursor into the marquee Kildar, and
a scissors icon will appear. Click and drag Kildar onto your
composition ‘Kildar-bg.tiff’ and centre him. You also want
to leave some room on the bottom for the two girls.
8 Blue mountains no more
Unhide Distance mask. Choose Select>Color
Range, set Fuzziness to 200. Select Midtone mountains
on the left side. Hide Distance mask and select Sky,
make sure Transparent is unlocked. Go to Preset Tool
Picker>Airbrush>soft round, set Opacity to 80%. Under
Brushes Preset select Shape Dynamics>Scattering, set to
114% , the Count to 3 and under Control select Pen
Pressure for tablet users, and Other Dynamics to Jitter at
12%. Set Master Diameter to 30 and paint in your colour
by clicking Alt and sampling the dark oranges from Sky.
You want to decrease the opacity of the brush as you
paint towards the lower horizon, leaving more of that
blue haze. Notice that the Marquee only keeps about
75% of your colours from the foreground elements and
sky. Deselect the Marquee and smudge out the dark
colours around the mountain peaks. Soft erase around
the horizon and any dark colours that are sweeping over
the mountain highlighted areas. Try to vary the opacity
as you make your circular motions with your Eraser.
Choose Eraser>soft round, Master Diameter 70 pixels
and Opacity 20%. Select Sky, hold down Ctrl and select
Background, then hit Ctrl+E.
12
Bring in the dead
Grab ‘DeadTerrorist-1.jpg’ and repeat the same
importing method as above. Use the Move Tool to drag the
dead down to the bottom, so that it lies in front of Kildar
and bleeds off to the right just where it cuts his hand and
wrist. Go to Image>Adjustments>Levels and change the
Input Levels values to 0, 1.14, 212. Go to Image>
Adjustments>Color Balance and set to +48, 0, -32 from
left to right.
5/12/06 16:58:10
 13 Another
dead one
Import ‘DeadTerrorist-2’.
14 Dead are piling up fast
Import ‘DeadTerrorist-3’ under the
Kildar layer. To see some interesting features like
Go to Edit>Transform> the terrorist’s face and chest, we would have to
Scale, set the scale from set this one back a bit and resize it. Because the
the Options menu. Press positioning is so tight, we don’t want to cover too
the lock symbol to much of the house in the background and not
maintain aspect ratio at have the terrorist’s hand touching the first
W: 103.9%, then push terrorist. Last is to position the looming face so it
the check-mark on the lies just above the first terrorist’s abdomen. This
Options menu. Position would require us to use the Set Reference Point
this on the bottom left Location when scaling. Go to Edit>Transform>
corner just to where it Scale, press the lock and set it at W: 81.4%. In the
cuts off his shoulder and Options menu, go to Set Reference Point
have this layer on top. In Location and type in under the X: 1273.7 and
Levels, set Input Levels Y: 2008.5. Press the check to OK it. Set Levels at 0,
to 0, 1.00, 149, and Color 1.00, 199. Click OK and set the Color Balance to
Level to +35, 0, -26. +51, 0, -20 then click OK.

15 The last terrorist

Import the last dead terrorist ‘DeadTerrorist-4’
and drop this layer at the bottom. Scale it to about 80%
16 Use
photos
Using photos as a
by holding the Shift key and grabbing a corner box and reference is another
moving your mouse inward. Position this layer on the tool to complete the
back left open space, we may reposition it later. Set Levels image. Open the
3D
programs
at 0, 1.00, 192 click OK and the Color Balance set to +47, 0, ‘photo_ChildInArms.
-30 then click OK. jpg’. Select a Hard
Round Brush, size 5, set
the Mode to Normal,
The three pieces of software we used to create
Opacity to 100% and Kildar are: Bryce 5.5 3D (www.daz3d.com/
Flow to 100%. You may program/bryce) Poser 6 (www.e-frontier.
have to adjust the brush size in the corners. Select the com/article/articleview) and 3D Studio Max
Quick Mask option. To change back to the regular (http://usa.autodesk.com). If you like what
selection mode, simply click on the Standard Mode you’ve seen, check out the websites for more
button. You can change between modes with these info on these fab pieces of equipment
selectors. Zoom in about 300% and trace out the girl.
Notice the mask is in red to represent Rubylith masking.
Painting a Quick Mask with the foreground as black
provides a total mask, while white masks nothing.

17 Resize
Select the Paint
Bucket, set Foreground Mode
at Normal, Opacity to 100%,
Tolerance at 200%, check Anti-
alias and Contiguous. Go ahead
and fill the girl with your
bucket. Click Standard Mode,

19
go to your Option menu and
push Select>Inverse. Hold Ctrl Girls look to their saviour
and move your cursor to the Open ‘photo ref-girls.jpg’. Repeat step 16 with
centre of the girl, click and drag Quick Mask and import both girls to your main
her to your main composition. composition. Move the layer to the second from top and
Position her around Kildar, then label it ‘Girls’. You’ll have to scale them to the correct

label that layer ‘child’. You’ll have to scale her down to the
size of a five year old. Go to Edit> Transform>Scale at 72%
go to Layer palette set Opacity to 45% so you can see
Kildar’s arm. Try to position her armpit on Kildar’s forearms.
You can move the girl into position by dragging inside the
Bounding Box. Hit Enter and set Opacity back to 100%.
Close ‘Photo_ChildInArms.jpg’.
18
Less saturation
Adjust the level to 45, .90, 223. Go to Image>
Adjustments>Hue/Saturation, adjust the Saturation slider
to the left at about -22, click OK. Set the Color Balance at
+63, 0, -40 and click OK. Don’t worry about the edges at
this point, that will be the next step.
proportion. Go to Image>Transform>Scale and simply drag
on the handles at the corner of the bounding box, also
holding down Shift to increase the girls size. We adjusted
them just below Kildar’s shoulder, which gives the girl direct
eye contact with the child in Kildar’s arm. You should have a
good idea how to adjust the Levels, Saturation and Color
Balance, so make those adjustments now in that order.

49
Advanced Photoshop

046-051_APM26.indd 49 5/12/06 16:58:17

 MASTERCLASS
20 Reviewing the layout
Critique your image layout before any merging of
layers. We think the float gun is too big and too close to Kildar,
21 The float gun is moving
Open ‘Mask_FloatGun.jpg’. Hit Ctrl+A Ctrl+C, go
to your main composition and hit Ctrl+V, move this layer to
22 Rotating the float gun
Select the Move Tool, move the float gun about
an inch up and right. Go to Edit>Transform>Rotate by the
which is taking away from the top and select the Magic Wand Tool. Set Tolerance at corner handles around the bounding box and rotate it about
our main focus point. Let’s about 10, uncheck Anti-alias and Contiguous. Click your a 45 degree angle. Go back to Edit>Transform>Scale, reduce
make it smaller, rotate it Magic Wand inside your float gun and hide the layer. Select the size about 35%.
and move it to the right. Background layer and hit Ctrl+C+V, discard the Mask Float
This would give some Gun layer and close your ‘Mask_FloatGun.jpg’.
breathing space between
Kildar and the float gun.
We also could move the
girls, Kildar and child to
the right a bit. We may
later move the dead
terrorist in the
background to a more
interesting spot.

23 Cloning the sky

Select the Background layer, pick the Clone

Stamp Tool, set the Master Diameter at about 30-35,
Mode to Normal and Opacity to 100%. The spot near
Kildar and the child looks a good area to stamp. Hold
down Alt and you’ll see a cross hair on your cursor, left-
click and start painting over the original float gun. If you
have Aligned checked-off on your Options menu bar,
your selection will return to its original spot. Pick the
Smudge Tool and move the paint in a circular motion
and a sideward motion for the long clouds. Label the
Float Gun layer ’Fgun’.
24
Move people
Move Kildar and the girls to the right about
1/2 inch. Duplicate the ‘DeadTerrorist-4’ layer. A part of
this unit has bled off the page, which you can use for
another dead terrorist. Move that Layer 6 copy to the
middle background. Right-click the copy layer and
merge down.
25
Looking for a new outfit
Open ‘photo_GirlDress.jpg’. Select the Lasso
Tool, Marquee the bathing suit, cut and drag it to the
main stage. Place it over the girl with the striped top. Set
Saturation to -40, click OK, Set Level about 44, 0.91, 235
click OK, set Color Balance to +88, 0, -48, click OK.

26 Fitting into my new dress

Cut and paste, then Clone and Erase. Use the
Lasso Tool to marquee the bottom square of the dress.
Move this up to her mid section and go to Edit>
Transform>Warp. This’ll allow you to form the piece of
dress to her figure, repeat this to the top and bottom of
the dress. With a 100% Opacity right-click to merge
down. Use the Clone Tool to fill any gaps. For her
27 Cleaning up the photo’s edges
Starting with the child we need to erase
unwanted stuff, like what you see around her foot and
heal. Select the Eraser Tool, pick a soft round brush and
set the size to about 5 or smaller for those tighter spots.
When you’re done with the child, do the same to the
girls. At this point you want to ignore the part of the
bodies that will lay behind any other body parts.

Locking the shoulder area clone her skin. You’ll smudge that area
later, but you want to erase the overhanging cloth away

under layer from her shoulder.

Like the lock transparent, you can lock one

layer and work on another with the lock effect
from the original layer. Say you have a lock
transparent portrait on a layer, and you want
to add some mode effects, not on this layer
but on other multiple layers with a lock effect
on. All you need to do is hit Ctrl+A, Ctrl+left
arrow (Cursor control key), then Ctrl+right
arrow and Ctrl+H.

50
Advanced Photoshop

046-051_AVP_26.indd 50 6/12/06 10:44:29

 “BEFORE YOU FLATTEN, CRITIQUE 29 Smudging, smudging and sharpen
Zoom to 300% and select Child layer. Get rid

YOUR IMAGE BY ROTATING IT 180°” of the photo grain using the Smudge Tool. Set the
Strength to 41% on your Option menu and start pushing

28
the brush to smooth. Try not to loose any definition and
Body parts work with the lights and shadows. With the hair, use a
Select the Child layer smaller brush size. Do the same to the girls. Use the
and lower the Opacity to 45%. Use Unsharp Mask and set the Amount to about 43%, Radius
the Lasso Tool to Marquee the to 2 pixels, and Threshold to about 8 then click OK.
areas that would be exposed. With
the mother’s hand remember what
lies underneath, you’ll paint in the
appropriate item later. Choose a
soft round Eraser at 5, rid any
overlaps of Kildar’s forearm. Set the
Child layer’s Opacity back to 100%
and retouch the foot, leg and
anything else you see behind with
the Smudge Tool.

31 Painting hair
Use the Smudge Tool and set the Strength at
40%. For the base of the hair, use a hard round brush
and in the Brushes preset, select ‘Noise’ to represent dirt.
Next add some messy curls. For the highlights use a
basic brush with Shape Dynamics and set the Mode to
Vivid Light at a very low opacity. Then blur with the Blur
Tool to give it a more realistic look.
32 Spicing up the 3D renders
Leaving the 3D models as they are would
really kill this piece of art. A Soft Round Eraser at a size 3
can take care of pixelated solid parts, like the rifle, arm
shield. A size 5 Smudge Tool can work on the clothing
and hair. For stronger textures go to the Lasso Tool and
map out the area you wish to texture. Select Filter>Texture
>Texturizer for the folds in the clothing, Dodge and Burn
work well for this.

30 Shadows and highlights

Create a new bottom layer ‘Shadows,’ set it to
Multiply, bring the Opacity to 80%, the Fill to 90%. Soft
erase any imported 3D model’s original shadows. Select a
soft round brush, choose Multiply Mode. Set Opacity to
45% and Flow at 75%. Start painting cast shadows, folds
on clothing and the left side of each figure. For the
highlight choose Vivid Light with a low opacity.

34 Add some smoke

Create a new layer above the Background
layer. Choose a basic Airbrush and adjust the Shape
Dynamics and Scattering, this’ll give a more organic and
random effect. Experiment with varying opacities of the
brush so you can slowly build up the effect. Choose a
light warm colour for the background and a slight darker
cooler colour for the additional layers that are closer to
the viewer. For the Layer Mode setting we like to use
35 The finishing touch
Before you flatten, Go to Image>Rotate
Canvas>180, to review it. Save with layers and then
flatten layers by choosing Flatten Image. Go to Filter>
Artistic>Watercolor and set Brush Detail=14, Shadow
Intensity=0, Texture =1, hit OK. Do this before you do
anything else otherwise you’ll loose this option. Go to
Edit>Fade your watercolor about 15-18%, this should
really tie your image together. 5

33
Hard light, Linear Light, Lighten, Soft Light and Overlay.
Making everyone dirty
Open ‘Dirt.jpg’. Select the Clone Tool, set the
Mode to Soft Light, Opacity about 80-85%, Flow 65%.
Select your Brush palette, set Scattering to about 38%
and select Noise. Stamp your texture file ‘Dirt.jpg’ and
clone onto any of your figures with a lock transparent
selected. You should see some light developing on your
image. Another technique is to select the Burn and
Dodge Tool at a very small brush size and Opacity about
40% and start burning dirt and scratches to your figures.

51
Advanced Photoshop

046-051_APM26.indd 51 5/12/06 16:58:30

 Feature

Where are
We catch up with some of the artists
previously featured within these
pages to see what they’re up to now

I they now?
f you ask any inspiring – or established –
designer, we’re sure they’ll all tell you how
difficult it can be to get your first break in the
design industry.
Getting your artwork seen by the right people can
be an almost impossible task, due to the
competitiveness, and sometimes ‘cut-throatness’, of in the Photoshop world, but also those newcomers to At Advanced Photoshop we work on a kind-of “it’s not
the market. This can mean then, that the same the genre. Therefore you’ll find that each Insight, Peer just for Christmas…” mantra, we also care about what
designers pop up time and time again, leaving other Pressure or Head to Head artist has their own unique happens to the lovely creatives that we feature. So this
talented folk out in the dark. artistic style, as well as differing levels of experience. month, as we round off another year of fabulous
Every month, featured between the pages of For those lesser-known artists, opportunities to be Photoshop-ing, we thought we’d check back in with
Advanced Photoshop, are a wealth of designers, exhibited in a magazine like Advanced Photoshop can some of the imageers we’ve previously featured, to see
illustrators and artists. As a creative publication, we often make the difference between having a how life has changed since being first showcased in
strive to showcase not only the big, well known names successful career as a Photoshop artist, or designing Advanced Photoshop...

52
Advanced Photoshop

052-057_AVP_26_.indd 52 5/12/06 17:14:38

 Where are they now?
Micah Ganske First time tutorial writer, issue 19
Step-by-step
Workshop

WHERE WE FIRST SAW THEM: tigious Adobe Design

tion early in 2006 after winning the pres
Micah first came to our atten posi tions , which put him in his very own
ography. His uniq ue com
Achievement Award in Digital Phot , this isn’t where his love of the arts
made for a great tutorial. However
Being John Malkovich moments, gh his Photoshop talents were clear
in Painting at Yale, and even thou
started. Micah gained a Masters at the mom ent. “I’ve been working non-
back into his painter past
for anyone to see, Micah’s dipping ch Projects in New York City,” he
for a solo show of painting at Deit
stop on preparing a body of work ds like a lot of time, I spend up to
is October 2007, and while that soun
explains. “The date for my show ty fast for me.”
, so this next year will go by migh
four months at a time on a painting Mica h belie ves he learnt a lot from the
rent artistic avenue,
GET PERSPECTIVE
start is to use
might think. The simplest way to

Although he’s opted to walk a diffe

may, of
the supplied source photos, or you
to create
course, create your own. If you wish

photo work has always been

image there
your own first-person perspective

Advanced Photoshop. “My digital

are a few things you’ll need.
you can

experience of writing a tutorial for

First of all, you need a tripod so that
like a painter.
Abandon literal photography and think you see
camera angle and position.

tion of its own. It was also very

maintain a fixed
of your hands
Because you’ll be taking pictures
what
Show the world what it’s like to see
so it’s nice that it can receive atten
no way to
in front of the camera, there’s really
probably want

S
start without a tripod. Next, you’ll

secondary to my painting work,

there
ince photography’s inception allow you to
BY MICAH GANSKE of a decent digital camera that will
have been hundreds of millions and white

nity before.”
maintain fixed aperture, shutter
photos snapped around the world.

print, as I’ve never had that opp ortu

that your
you expect balance settings – this will ensure
With that many images, how can same, giving
source photos are all exposed the

interesting preparing an article for

is why, as a
to take an original picture? This
why people you accurate lighting throughout.
painter, I have always wondered Consistent lighting is very important
to the
76<0-,1;+ so literally.
approach digital photography although
Micah has supplied you with five ideas that cohesion of the final collage, and
There are so many possibilities and lighting
Photoshop can be used to fix
can
source images with which you
of digital
recreate his shaving creation. are only possible with the advent between images, it is easier and
will
Wouldn’t it be more fun to star
in I ask myself inaccuracies
photography and Photoshop that way in the
your own Being John Malkovich themselves with look better if it’s just done the right
why artists continue to constrain it is also imperative
moment, though?
and reality. first place. For this reason

web: www.micahganske.com
the limits of straight photography the photos. A
that no flash is used when taking

/
7=:-@8-:< Micah Ganske
a little
Using a camera, a computer, and conditions
After receiving his Masters in Painting
from Yale School of
there are new flash will give you impossible lighting
Art, Micah Ganske won the 2005
Adobe Design Achievement imagination, we find that finally so make sure there is enough
steps you’ll see for this exercise,
Award in Digital Photography. Primarily
a painter, Ganske
photos to be made. In just a few pictures.
Micah’s site at www. as hard as you light available to give you crisp, in-focus
now lives in New York. Check out that fabricating reality isn’t nearly
his work.
micahganske.com for more of

66

MICAH’S DIPPING BACTKHEINMTOO

)L^IVKML8PW\W[PWX
1/6/06 17:10:14

66
066-069_APM19_workshop.indd

d
ISSUE 19: In his debut in Advance
to abandon
Photoshop, Micah taught us how

HIS PAINTER PAST AT

traditional photography

RD: Micha takes

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOA
opp ing and pho tography back to the basic
Photosh
principles of pain ting

53
Advanced Photoshop

052-057_AVP_26_.indd 53 5/12/06 17:15:20

 : Sarah’s
EYE-CATCHING s been helped
Feature developing succes
no end by gaining
s ha
agent support

ISSUE 18 COVER: Sarah blew readers away with

this head-turning cover for issue 18

Sarah Howell
WHERE WE FIRST SAW THEM: Insight and cover,
issue 18
Regular readers will remember the striking stylings
of Sarah Howell from issue 18’s cover. Her dramatic
red artwork caught many an eye – just what we
wanted for our front cover! But that wasn’t the end
of her Photoshop career. In fact Sarah’s work is
increasingly sought after.
“I’ve been working mainly on advertising,
particularly in the States. It’s been pretty hectic but
fun. I still get the occasional editorial job, which I

delights, Sarah
love. I’m about to start working on another ad over
the next few months, but it’s top secret .”
Sarah’s also just put on her first solo exhibition, a
great achievement for her: “I got to do the work I
wanted without the confines of commissioned work.”

th her Photoshop
Having achieved such a lot in such a short amount
of time, we couldn’t help but ask what her advice for

e for Martini
those following in her footsteps would be: “Find a
great agent that has the same goals and mindset as
you. Your agent in a lot of ways is responsible for has worked on ma ING: Since tantalisng readers wi
shaping your career, and you both need to be seeing
including this on
the same vision otherwise you end up with jobs that
really don’t sit well. Also, I think it’s important to
remember why you’re illustrating in the first place and
don’t lose sight of the big picture, no matter how long
you have to spend hunched over an image.”
ny ad campains,

Down the road Sarah sees her career taking a more

solo slant, with a desire to open her own gallery.
“Illustration work can be quite fleeting and you have to
evolve your style constantly to remain in work. I would
IS

love to own my own gallery or be exhibiting full time,

EXPERT ADVERT

perhaps in a little studio somewhere painting pictures of

my dog.” Sounds good to us.

/ web: www.debutart.com

54
Advanced Photoshop

052-057_AVP_26_.indd 54 6/12/06 10:51:15

 Where are they now?
(RIGHT) Illustration by

graduate showcase
Rob Flowers

5A?7:3.=;-;,:)
15)/-:A?1<0.7= ?6
6,7*2-+<; MEXICO (BELOW):

Chintu Shah
807<7/:)80A)6,+744)/-
“I always intended to do
some work based on
experiences in Mexico
since visiting last year.
This
takes a humorous twist
on
the Day Of The Dead
festival, which Mexicans
celebrate every year.”
ISSUE 17: We were mig
htily impressed
with Chintu Shah’s sub
WHERE WE FIRST SA mission to our
W THEM: Graduate sho graduate showcase
We discovered the tale wcase, issue 17
nted Mr Shah when we
and coming design gra were searching out up
duates. He clearly stood
we were soon commis out from the rest and
sioning him to illustrate
two issues later. But wo our lead feature just
rking for Advanced Pho Chintu Shah
design wonder has bee tosh op is not all this STUDIED: Illustration
, Loughborough

n up to: “At the moment

University School of Art
and Design
ABOUT CHINTU: Chintu

I’m working on an
Shah is a British Asian who
grew

advertising campaign
up in Leicester. He has concepts. I try not to plan
enjoyed drawing, painting the look of the overall image
being creative since a very and the early stages, as it’s inevitably in

for the Labour Party,” he

young age. “As a youngster, going to change once
was always encouraged I get into Photoshop and I
to pursue my art by both experiment. Once in Photoshop,
of my

reveals. “It’s for a new

parents and teachers at will access the various I
school. I think it’s quite folders I keep full of different
rare for

task force started by the

someone coming from textures, backgrounds,
an Asian background to patterns and facial features.
encouraged to pursue be If I’m trying to create a particular
a career in illustration or

Government, who are

the character, I will
creative industries, so I concentrate on this separately.
am very lucky to have had Once all the individual
full

going to tour the

support from my family.” elements are worked out,
I will bring them together

country next year to enc

INFLUENCED BY: “Pop finally create the final compositio to
art, Richard Hamilton, Peter n. So there are many,
Romare Bearden, vintage Blake, many layers involved.”
Indian graphics.”

ourage the greatest pos

HE WOULDN’T BE WITHOUT: WHAT’S IN HIS CRYSTAL
Dodge and Burn BALL? “I hope to see myself

sible degree of
“I am always coming up established in the design
with new, exciting colours and illustration industry.

ethnic minority involvem

textures that can then and been approached by a I have
be collaged – the Dodge former teacher who wrote
tools are invaluable for and Burn children’s story and has a
doing this.” asked me to illustrate it.

ent in the party at all lev

WHAT HE’S DOING NOW: should be interesting, as This
“I have produced a few I have never attempted
magazine covers for local to

els. It’s a great

illustrate a whole storybook
temples and community before! I am also going

commission to work on
centres. I also recently submitted collaborating with a family to be
an illustration to be friend who teaches Gujarati
used in an e-mag entitled language in schools to

as one of the tasks I wil

The Thing Is…, which was create some clip-art-styl
together by fellow young put of the various Indian and e images
creatives.” other exotic fruits and

l have to undertake is
HOW HE APPROACHES vegetables. This will hopefully
HIS WORK: “My work be turned into a CD.”

showing many of the Min

consistently fuses drawn HE WOULD LOVE TO:
imagery with found objects, Learn more about animation
photography and collage. push his imagery into this and
In my own working process

isters in a humorous ligh

direction.
view the technology as I JANE: “This was one of
a series of images that
simply a tool to achieve
want. I will normally approach what I aweb: www.chintushah.com produced on the theme I

t to appeal to a
of ‘fireworks’. The idea
any project in the aemail: chintu@chintushah.com the series was to simply behind

younger generation!”
sketchbook first, where play on the names of the
I will come up with the
ideas and acontact: 07833 698424 fireworks that you can
an actual character and
various
get. I also turned the firework
had the character thinking into
what she could get up of
to once lit!”

His current success, Chi

ntu believes, is in part dow 53
)L^IVKML8PW\W[PWX

n to being showcased
050-055_APM17_graduates
.indd 53

pages. “Being featured within these very

was a great platform for 29/3/06 11:02:46

Since the feature, I’ve bee getting my work notice

n working as a freelance d in the industry.
have made that leap from illustrator and designer,
student to the working and am glad to
Although Chintu is now world.”
a regular contributor to Many
he has tried to stay true publications such as Xb CLEVER COMBO:
ox magazine 360, ons
place, so as the saying
to his own style, “This is
the thing that got me not of Chintu’s illustrati
th a
goes, if it isn’t broke, wh
y fix it?”
iced in the first combine humour wi
So what does the future
hold for this Photoshop serious message
firm believer in fate. I hop artist? “I cannot predict
e that wherever I am, I that, but am a
maintain my creativity.” will always continue to
illustrate and

/ web: www.chintusha
h.com EXPRESSIONS: He app
lies his
very recognisable style
across all
his designs, in particular
the
magnificent faces of his
characters

:
ETAIL
U R F UL D ion to
t
COLO intu’s atten se of
Ch ate u
il a n d intric fabulous
det a r is a s
colou f his design
to
aspec

55
Advanced Photoshop

052-057_AVP_26_.indd 55 7/12/06 10:15:05

 Step-by-step
Workshop

WORKING WITH
BLENDING MODES
Add some va-va-voom
to your images by
learning how to use
silhouettes, blending
modes and textures to
great effect
BY VINCE FRASER

I
f you’ve ever wanted to turn your rather
average-looking photos into something a
little more spectacular, then read on! With
the help of layer modes and simple selections
in Photoshop, you’ll be able to create an
Eighties-style poster that’s fit for any wall.
The great thing about layer modes is that you
never quite know what you’re going to end up
with, which makes the process all the more

ISSUE 19 WORK: Vincent

enjoyable. When combined with linear blends
and textures the result is always a pleasing one,

Eighties-up their artwork!

and you can spend days rearranging different
modes to achieve striking effects. Just several
small tweaks and re-shuffling a few layers can

showed readers how to

make a world of difference.
With the correct use of colour, you can make
specific elements in an illustration communicate
better without destroying the strength and
impact of the other areas. This tutorial will help
you to experiment with and understand layer
modes, linear gradients and selections while
showing you the true potential behind these
powerful tools. Go create!

76<0-,1;+
You’ll find all the files you need to
complete this tutorial on the CD:
‘tree.jpg’, ‘Mandy.jpg’, ‘Butterflies.jpg’,
‘Leaves.jpg’ and ‘vectorbutterfly.jpg’.
However, why not try to create the
images from your own source shots?

7=:-@8-:< Vince Fraser

The creative force behind Morphic-art, Vince Fraser is a
London-based 34-year-old freelance designer and illustrator.
Having originally come from an interior design background,
Vince has eight years’ experience in the field of digital arts.

56
)L^IVKML8PW\W[PWX

056-060_APM19_workshop.indd 56 1/6/06 17:04:26

Vincent Fraser
WHERE WE FIRST SAW THEM: First time tutorial
writer, issue 19
“Being featured in Advanced Photoshop has given me
added exposure,” enthuses Vincent Fraser. “As a digital
artist you need to get your work out there in order to
be seen by a wider audience.”
When Vincent’s email portfolio first pinged to our
attention, we were immediately impressed. So much
so that we commissioned a tutorial from him to show
Advanced Photoshop readers how to recreate his hip
Eighties style artwork. Since his tutorial, this
Photoshopper has found himself much in demand.
“I’ve been completely snowed under with commissions
varying from editorial to publishing, but I can’t complain
it keeps me busy! I’m working on completing my new
website, which should be up and running by the end of
January 2007 so watch out! I’m also looking at doing a
new range of t-shirts with a Seventies urban influence.”
As well as all these varied projects, Vincent’s also
appeared in other creative magazines: “It was an edition
focusing on the very best in up and coming illustration. I
felt very privileged to be included.”
But this certainly isn’t the last you’re going to see of Mr
Fraser. He has some big plans for his Photoshop future. Teis Albers
Reload magazine, some animations and a lot
“I’m hoping to improve my Photoshop styles and become WHERE WE FIRST SAW THEM: Head to Head,
more versatile as an image-maker. I don’t want to be more! Business is going well and I roll from one
issue 18
project into another.”
pigeon-holed or known for one style, which I think is a “I’ve been doing some animations for television
His work may be varied but then, so is his
mistake a lot of illustrators make. I hope to collaborate with over the past four months and I really like it,”
style. A veritable Photoshop chameleon, Teis’
other digital artists on new projects and break into the exclaims former Head to Head artist Teis Albers.
style is constantly evolving: “I try to change my
advertising industry.” “I hope to learn a lot more about it and hope to
style because I sometimes get tired of using the
have a kick-ass showreel one day! Besides this
/ web: www.vincentfraser.com I’d like to do work with other creatives on
same shapes/techniques over and over again.
But sometimes if the client wants a design
free projects.”
One of the challengers in our first ever Head similar to previous work, I have to go back to
using that style. But in my personal work I’m
to Head tutorial, the feature saw Teis creating a
always changing.”
piece of art for the brief, Goddess. And
Teis believes that being featured in Advanced
everyone in the Advanced Photoshop office
, Photos hop is one of the reasons he has achieved
loved the concept he came up with – a bright
such a successful Photoshop career. “It helped
airy, intricate artwork that wowed readers and
me to display my work to a bigger audience –
staff alike.
“Since then I’ve been working on some flyers, thanks so much for that. I also had some emails
from readers telling me the work rocked!”
a website for a stylist and I’ve been
commissioned to restyle a Swedish game
magazine. I’ve also done some spreads for / web: www.hypnoteis.nl

: Vincent
G STYLES
CHANGIN elop his illustrative
ev
is keen to d out new
try
styles and future
in the near
techniques
56
Advanced Photoshop

052-057_AVP_26_.indd 56 5/12/06 17:17:41

 Where
Top design
are they
courses
now?
y has
: Jerem
E A KING eaking his
TW time t
w
e love
spent ely…and w ults!
t s
style la th e
e r

Feature

Jeremy Prasatik
Jeremy grew up
initially set out to
in Missouri City,
Texas, and didn’t
1 Back to black
Open a new canvas.
background colour
First of all change
the
be so caught up swatch in your Tools
world. “I’m not sure in the design 7=:-@8-:< Jeremy and then select this Palette to black
Prasatik in your new canvas
why I got into design. dialog by
to draw as a kid, I used Age: 27 changing the Backgro
but quit doing that und Contents drop-do
early age and took at a pretty Place of birth: Houston,
Texas
black. Keep the resolutio wn menu to
to playing outside Now lives: Dallas, n of your page at
time back then. most of the Texas 300dpi.
One of my classes Works for: norwal
InterChange by
some basic web at college had and www.jp33.com day
stuff and that kind Studied:
by night
back into things of got me Bachelor’s degree
a little. One of our Management Informatio in
to build a simple projects was First commissio
n Systems
website, but it quickly n: “Probably a band
this huge challeng became logo and poster
I did for a local band
e to me. I wanted here in Dallas. I’ve
site as cool as I possibly to make the an old computer.
I recall it being pretty
got the file still on
could. Looking back, fun to go back and bad as well. It might
turned into the it look at some of
that stuff one day
be
single most hideous in a really good
mood” when I’m
known to the Internet creation ever Describes his style
, but to me it was mood I’m in, what
as: “All over the
place depending
beginning of all a I’m listening to, on what
sorts.” interview Mike Young what season it is.
I read an
Jeremy grew from did and he just said
always liked that he ‘made stuff’. I’ve
a web designer and I’ve adopted
someone with a into Heroes: “My parents that form of thinking”
real passion for and my wife – it’s
apparel. “I still feel print and your life who only
want what’s best
great to have people
in
very new to the Last commissio for you”
and that inner desire design world Future projects:
n: A few album
covers for Flicker Records
to create new things “I’m doing a website
for an up-and-co
much alive within is very country music artist
and doing a number ming
me. I can throw

PERSONA
projects that you

5
my of different print
headphones on, guys might see
featured around
sit down at the comput and in a few magazines
. I’ve also got a few the Internet
fully engaged for er and be Line art

L
I’m going to release personal prints

Teis uses his STYLES:

hours and hours soon and I’ll probably that
For this Goddes at a time.” someone out there
will like them and
sell online. Hopefully Colour was added
s challenge Jeremy I’m also involved buy a couple. to the image using
by sitting down will start off in a new business
venture, Oddica.com
Rectangular Marquee the
with a pencil and the very first T-shirt
company to give , Tool to add some
down some ideas. paper and write in the company. the designer/artist shades to the design. bars of different
“I tend to jot down Go check it out a share Any colour scheme

sp
His message to at www.oddica.com” could have

develop new are time to

and things that keywords Teis: “Dude, whoever been chosen for
first spring to mind hold me. I’ll cross you are, you can’t this, although I decided
given a brief.” See when I’m your design up
Allen Iverson crossover. and spit it out like something that was to go for
more at www.jp I’ll shoot holes in an light and fun. It is
33.com. Dirk Nowitzki jumper” your ideas like a include any gaps important not to
on these bars.

ill
styles and co ustrative
ncepts

Feature
Jeremy Prasatik 9 Light lumino

set their blending

mask on each layer

Lower the opacity

Repeat this process
sity
Drag these layers
to below the coloured
modes to Luminos
and brush away
right. I brushed almost
so as not to overpow
with other shapes,
bars and
ity. Create a layer
what you feel looks
all of them away
for a subtle look.
er the image.

WHERE WE FIRST SAW THEM: Head to Head, issue 18

lines and large circles. such as curves

1 Big it up
First up, open a new document. Most of the time I

“Kudos to Advanced Photoshop for giving the little guys

start off at A3 300dpi, as this gives me the option to use
I
the image in the future at the highest quality possible.
tend to recycle and remix work at least two times to
create new pieces!

like myself the opportunity to show off our stuff, I very

52
much appreciate it.” This thanks comes courtesy of
Jeremy Prasatik. Alongside Teis Albers, he produced work
048-053_APM18.in
dd 52

ISSUE 18 WOR
K: Je
for the Head to Head Goddess feature and his fabulous Teis Albers in issue remy went Head to Head again
2/5/06 11:14:03

5 Flower clippings
18 st
photo illustration and outgoing personality was an
To keep with the natural atmosphere theme I
made some clipping paths around the flowers and then
pasted these into my composition. After mirroring these
I kept all of them as they were except one, which I
blended with the Soft Light layer mode to keep the
shape at the top of the wings.
immediate winner with the Advanced Photoshop team. “I Most recently though, I’ve accepted a new fulltime
think my style, my personal style, has changed a little. I position at Neiman Marcus as an art director. I’ve only
been there a total of three days (as of writing this), but so
Teis Albers tend to lean towards the simpler side of things…
Teis is a freelance graphic and multimedia
designer whose office is based in his apartment in
Design School in Eindhoven and later set up his
own company, Graphik. His first commission was
for a local company designing websites,
illustration/vector based stuff. I’ve had the opportunity to far so good!”
‘s-Hertogenbosch, in the Netherlands. “I also live

9 And although the Photoshop wonder sees himself

brochures and advertisements, while in the

do a few apparel projects with a ton of creative freedom,

with my girlfriend, who, by the way, makes a Bling bling!
evenings he would experiment with freestyle
mean spaghetti.” He was educated at the Graphic Add some more stars to your image using the
work without boundaries. “I learned a lot that way
Teis Albers Linear Dodge mode, and rotate and scale them
7=:-@8-:< and I also designed posters for a youth club on a
randomly to make sure your image doesn’t look too

settling in his new job for a few years to come, he’s not
Age: 24
regular basis. This let me loose on some strange

Place of birth: Heusden, the Netherlands
Now lives: ‘s-Hertogenbosch,
the Netherlands
Works for: MTV, Chemistry, Reload, Code,
Stationery Team, Lucky Strike, N-Store,
and I think I’ve come across a nice little style that I’m fairly
a
regimented. This gives your artwork a bling effect that
typographics and illustrations, and allowed me to
lot of people like and gives it an added dimension,
use different kinds of paper and copying
almost as if it is shining out of the paper.
techniques.” Teis’ first major opportunity came

quite ready to give up on his personal work yet either. “I’d

when he contacted Reload magazine. “They let

happy with for the time being. I know things are always
Growing Concepts, Dzone, MINT, SPCL
Magazine, Mavis Media, Lava me design a cover and printed an interview with
Studied: The Graphic Design School, Eindhoven
First commission: Teis was paid to design a new website
for a me, enabling me to present my work to a larger
local contractor public. That really worked out well for me as I had

love to get into designing dinnerware (dish sets) and also

Describes his style as: “Colourful, bold, fresh and shiny a whole load of new clients calling me to design
mixed media”
Heroes: Batman, Spider-Man, family and girlfriend, Lennon,
Dylan, Anton Corbijn, Thomas Schostok, Joost Korngold
Last commission: Twelve individual zodiac illustrations
for a
new projects – the phone never stopped ringing.”
Teis intends to approach the brief of Goddess
by setting his mind to zero and working on the
changing and I like to try and stay ahead of the curve as
new magazine

maybe do a few patterns for purse designs. I’d love to do

project on autopilot. “To me this is divine, as I can

much as possible so I’m always looking to try new

that will
Future projects: “I’m working on four big illustrations
be printed on tiles for an office in Groningen. I’m also
and create free work without boundaries. I love to
commissioned to do another 200-page Hip Hop Journal
some more spreads for Reload magazine”
combine shapes, colour and photographic
His message to Jeremy: “Do what feels good – life’s
too short
elements and mix this into a composition.” To see

techniques and trying to come up with a unique spin on work with Kate Spade so if anyone from there happens
to do something you don’t like” more of his work, visit www.hypnoteis.nl.

50
)L^IVKML8PW\W[PWX

2/5/06 11:13:02
certain styles. So apart from tweaking his style, what has to read this please give me a chance!”
ISSUE 18 WORK:Teis’ Head to Head commission
048-053_APM18.indd 50

Jeremy been up to since we last caught up with him?

in issue 18 helped him rocket to well deserved “I’ve started selling a few of my prints online, that’s been
Photoshop success going well and has and been lot of fun (www.jp33.com).
/ web: www.jp33.com

57
Advanced Photoshop

052-057_AVP_26_.indd 57 5/12/06 17:18:13

 60

060-065_AVP_26.indd 60
Advanced Photoshop
SIMULATING NEON LIGHTING
If you’ve ever wanted to see your name in lights, then this tutorial is for you. Tim Shelbourne
demonstrates how to create neon lighting effects in Photoshop
Step-by-step
Workshop

7/12/06 10:33:31

ON THE DISC
You can apply neon effects to any
of your own images you may have
in your collection. However, if you’d
like to follow this tutorial from start
to finish then you’ll find the base
image on www.istockphoto.com
reference number 2330193
OUR EXPERT Tim Shelbourne
With 20 years’ experience as an artist and illustrator, Tim is
one of Photoshop’s leading lights. Alongside writing expert
tutorials for this publication, Tim’s book Photoshop Photo
Effects Cookbook is a must-read. He works as a senior
designer for a web design company and maintains http://
user.fundy.net/morris.
es
n iqu
ch
Te
C
reating your own neon sign is much easier than you may think, especially if you do it the Photoshop way. Yet
again, through this example we’ll prove just how accurately you can simulate real-world effects by using just a
few techniques that make the most of the brilliant Adobe application.
Of course, to create a sign of any kind, you need some words, and that’s what we’ll start with here. Using a simple type
layer in Photoshop, we can build up the initial framework to make selections from. Once we have these active selections, we
can stroke each of them with colour to create the neon tubes. When you’ve got these tubes, you can then add some
highlights and neon-like glow to these to great effect.
The sign we’re going to end up with isn’t going to be simply a flat one-dimensional one! Once we’ve constructed the sign
itself, we’ll apply it to a scene, manipulating its geometry until we get a feeling of real perspective and the final effect
becomes thoroughly convincing.
It’s important in the project that you make full use of Photoshop layers, so that you have the ability to isolate each
component, allowing you to manipulate specific areas of the sign and reposition elements at will. So, if you’ve always fancied
seeing your name in lights, follow the walkthrough and power up the neon!

1 Choose a font
Open the start image and hit D to revert
to default foreground/background colours. Hit
X to swap these colours so that the foreground
colour is White. Choose the Horizontal Type
Tool. Click in the Font box in the Options bar
and choose a typeface. We’ve used Gill Sans
Ultra Bold as it’s best to use a strong typeface.
2 Add some text
Now hit the Centre Text button in the
Options Bar. In the Font Size box, choose 72pt.
Now, with the Type Tool active, click near the
top of the image. Type the word ‘Moulin’ and
press the Return key. Now type ‘Rouge’.
Remember, you can use Smart Guides to align
these up correctly (see page 66).
3 Filling the pixels
Now choose the Custom Shape Tool from
the toolbar. Click in the Shape Picker in the
Options Bar. Hit the small right-pointing arrow
at the top right of the Picker and choose Arrows.
Click on the thumbnail for the Arrow 9 shape.
Now, at the far left of the Options bar, hit the Fill
Pixels button.

4 Size the arrow

Now click and drag with the tool to create the arrow below the word. Remember, because
we’re putting each element on a separate layer, we can move each of them around later. Alternatively,
if you want to include a custom arrow you can create a new shape using the Pen Tool. If you have CS2
suite then you may want to import from the selection of arrows within the Symbols Library.

Transforming
layers
We use the Edit>Transform group of
commands a lot throughout this project,
and it’s worth taking a look at how these
commands work. Once you’ve called an
Edit>Transform command, the elements
on the target layer will be surrounded by
a Transformation Bounding box.
Perspective is very important when
you’re transforming elements in your
image. An awkward angle can spoil the

“WHEN FOLLOWING THIS TUTORIAL,

illusion of your transformation. To avoid
this you may find it handy to select

USE A GOOD, STRONG TYPEFACE”

Show>Grid on top of your work in order
to judge the perspective effectively.

61
Advanced Photoshop

060-065_AVP_26.indd 61 7/12/06 10:33:37

 Step-by-step
Workshop
Locking
transparent pixels
5 Zoom in
Choose the
Rounded Rectangle Tool
from the toolbar. Add a
Locking any transparent pixels on a layer new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N).
is a great way to recolour layer elements. Ensure that the Fill Pixels
Once you have clicked the Lock button is active in the
Transparent Pixels button in the Layers Options bar. Now, as
palette, you can then paint directly on shown in the screenshot,
the layer, and the colour will only be click and drag to pull out a
applied to the image information on the filled rectangle. Zoom into
layer. Any blank layer areas will not be this rectangle ready to
affected by the brush.
transform it.

6 Size the rectangle

Working on the Rectangle layer, go to
Edit>Transform>Perspective. Grab the bottom
left corner handle on the Bounding box and
drag it inwards a little to make the bottom of
the rectangle narrower.
7 Rotation
We want to make this shape the start of a
windmill blade. Use the Move Tool (V) to drag
this shape upwards and drop it just above the
‘M’ of Moulin. Now go to Edit>Transform>Rotate
and with the bounding box move it around 30-
degrees anti-clockwise or enter your numeric in
the upper toolbar. Remember it should be -30-
degrees to move it anti-clockwise.
8 Duplicate the layer
Hit the tick in the Options bar to commit
the transformation. Duplicate this layer (Ctrl+J).
Use the Move Tool (V) to drag this duplicated
shape to the right. Now return to
Edit>Transform>Rotate, place your cursor over
the top right handle and drag the shape
clockwise a little. Hit the tick to commit.

9 Positioning the shapes

Click on the lower shape layer again to duplicate it (Ctrl+J). Via
Edit>Transform>Rotate, rotate this shape anti-clockwise to mirror the
10 Merge the layers
Have a little play
around with the positioning. Once
shape on the upper right. Again position the shape by dragging within you’re happy with the positioning
the Bounding box. Press the tick to confirm. of all three windmill vane shapes
(which you can tweak with the
Move Tool) click on the top shape
layer and go to Layer>Merge
Down twice, to merge the shapes
together on a single layer.

“LOCKING TRANSPARENT
PIXELS IS A GREAT WAY TO
RECOLOUR ELEMENTS”
62
Advanced Photoshop

060-065_AVP_26.indd 62 7/12/06 10:33:43

 es
n iqu
ch
Te
11 Change the foreground
Click on the Background Layer and
add a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N). Click the
13 The sails
Click on the Sails layer and drag it
down the layer stack, dropping it below the Type
Foreground swatch and choose Grey from the layer. Now go to Layer>Merge Down to merge
Picker. Choose the Rounded Rectangle Tool the sail and the rectangle layers together. Now
again. In the Options bar, enter 30 for Radius. right-click the thumbnail for this layer and
Now drag a rectangle to enclose the words and choose Select Layer Transparency. Now hit the
the arrow. Backspace key on the keyboard to delete the
contents and leave just the active selection.

12 Join the windmill sails

Position the rounded rectangle so that
it crosses all of the windmill sails and joins them
together. You can adjust the size of the rectangle
so that it encloses the words and arrow via
Edit>Transform>Scale, dragging on the corner
handles to size the rectangle.

14 Choosing
the location
Choose White for the

15
Foreground swatch. With
the selection active, go Raterise the type
to Edit>Stroke. Enter 14 Right-click the Type Layer and choose
for Stroke Width and Rasterize Type. Now select Edit>Transform>Scale.
choose Outside for the Drag on the handles around the Bounding box
Location. Now press OK to increase the size of the type a little. Centre the
to commit the changes. type in the surrounding box by dragging inside
Hit Ctrl+D to deselect. the Bounding box. Click the tick to commit
the transformation.

16 Merge the arrow and type

Click on the Arrow layer and go to
Layer>Merge Down to merge it with the type
layer. Now right-click the thumbnail for this
merged layer and choose Select Layer
Transparency. Now go to
Select>Modify>Expand. Enter 4 pixels for the

“HAVE A PLAY
Expand By value. Click OK.

AROUND WITH
THE POSITION
OF TEXT AND
17 Delete the layer contents
Hit the Backspace key to delete the IMAGES BEFORE
layer contents. Then go to Edit>Stroke. Enter the
following values: 15 for Stroke Width and YOU MERGE
choose Centre for Location. Now hit OK. Press
Ctrl+D to deselect. THE LAYERS”
63
Advanced Photoshop

060-065_AVP_26.indd 63 7/12/06 10:33:50

 Step-by-step
Workshop
18 The Brush Tool
Click the layer containing the type
and the arrow. In the Layers palette, hit the Lock
19 Paint the words
Choose a red colour for the
Foreground swatch and paint over the other
Transparent Pixels button. Click the Foreground word, and the centre of the first ‘O’. Choose
swatch and choose a vivid blue from the Colour another colour to paint over the arrow with.
Picker. Choose the Brush Tool and select a hard
round brush from the Brush Picker. Now paint
over the word Moulin. Don’t paint over the hole
in the middle of the ‘O’ yet.

20 The Eraser Tool

Hit the Lock Transparent Pixels button
again. Choose the Eraser Tool and select a small
hard brush from the Brush Picker. Now zoom in
closely to the lettering and use the Eraser to create
the breaks in the neon tubes.

21 Set the transparency

Right-click the thumbnail for this layer
and choose Select Layer Transparency. Add a
new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N). Now go to
Select>Modify>Contract. For the Contract By
value enter 4. Click OK. Now go to
Select>Feather. Use a Feather value of 3. Click
OK. Go to Edit>Fill, choosing White for Contents.
22 Draw a Marquee
Hit Ctrl+D to deselect. Now again
right-click the layer thumbnail and choose Select
Layer Transparency. Choose the Rectangular
Marquee Tool, hold down Shift and Alt, drag a
Marquee around just the blue lettering. Click on
the Background layer and add a new layer.

23 Feather effect
Go to Select>Feather. Use a Radius of
10. Choose the same blue as before, go to Edit>Fill,
choose Foreground Colour for Contents. Hit Ctrl+D
to deselect. Now repeat these two steps, but this
time dragging a Marquee around the red lettering
and the arrow. Fill the selection with Red.

“IT’S EASY TO 24 Increase the intensity

You can increase the intensity of the neon glow by duplicating both

INCREASE THE
of these glow layers. Use the above steps in just the same way on the Outline
and Windmill Sails layer to colour, highlight and glow that part of the sign.

INTENSITY OF
THE NEON
COLOUR AND
GLOW. SIMPLY
DUPLICATE
BOTH GLOW
LAYERS”
64
Advanced Photoshop

060-065_AVP_26.indd 64 7/12/06 10:33:57


25 Leave the background
Once you’re happy with the Neon
effect, hold down the Ctrl key and click on
every layer except the Background layer. Now
go to Layer>Merge layers. On the merged layer,
go to Edit>Transform>Perspective.
es
n iqu
ch
Te
26 The perspective
Grab the bottom left corner handle
on the Bounding box and drag it downwards.
Keep your
layers intact
When the perspective looks about right, drag
inside the box to move the sign over to the wall. It’s always a good idea to keep a copy of
Once positioned, you may need to skew the sign your file with all the layers intact, just in
slightly by dragging up or down on the central case you might want to return to the file
right hand handle. later and make alterations to one of the
layers. This is simple to do. Just before
you’re ready to flatten the layers in your
file, to allow you to save it as a JPG
image, go to Image>Duplicate. Save this
duplicate image under a different name,
and as a PSD file.

29 Add a blur
Duplicate the main sign layer (Ctrl+J).
Now go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Use a
Radius of 27 pixels. Click OK. Choose the Move
Tool (V) and drag this layer slightly to the left.
Now grab this layer in the Layers palette, drag it
down and drop it just above the Background
Layer. Set the Blending Mode for this layer to
Linear Light.

27 Scale
the sign
When you’re happy,
hit the Commit tick in
the Options bar. You
may need to reduce
the sign now via
Edit>Transform>Scale.
Hit the chain link

28
between the
dimensions in Options Make any adjustments
and then simply drag You can make fine adjustments to the
on one of the corner geometry of the sign via Edit>Transform>Distort.
handles to reduce the Within this transformation you can adjust each of
size of the sign. the handles individually. Again, click the Commit
tick when you’re sure that the sign fits the wall well.

30 Make a reflection
Add a final new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N). Set the Blending Mode for this layer to Overlay. Choose
the Brush Tool and select a soft brush from the Brush Picker. Reduce the Opacity of the brush to 20% in
31 Reflect
on the
wall and ground
the Options Bar. Choose one of the colours from the sign with the Eyedropper and paint small areas of Continue to choose
this colour on the ground. You can use a Gaussian Blur to blend the colours. other colours from the
sign, painting small
areas of each colour
on the ground and on
the opposite wall to
serve as reflections of
colour and light from
the sign. When you’re
pleased with the
result, you’re done! 5

65
Advanced Photoshop

060-065_AVP_26.indd 65 7/12/06 14:20:13

 Insider INSIDER
Info INFO
Smart Guides
Never create an image with mis-aligned elements again. We show you how
to make the most of Photoshop’s intelligent Smart Guides

I
f there’s one word that’s foremost in Adobe’s mind, it would have to be
convergence. With every new release of our favourite digital-imaging
application, there seems to be another feature brought in from Illustrator,
InDesign and Flash; making what was already a mammoth application even
bigger, and gives ample opportunity for synergy between the programs.
We’re sure Adobe’s goal for Photoshop is for it to be a super dooper application
and do everything from emailing, to creating a spreadsheet. With the latest
version of Photoshop this trend has continued with some fantastic leaps and
bounds, such as the emergence of Smart Objects, Layer Groups and our personal
favourite, Smart Guides. The best feature of Illustrator has made it into Photoshop,
and if you’ve never used Smart Guides before, then using Photoshop is about to
become even easier.

OUR EXPERT Roger Page What are smart guides?

Currently working here at Imagine, Rodger relies
on Photoshop in all the main multimedia areas,
from print to web and everything in between. He
regularly bores his girlfriend by pointing out
dodgy Photoshop jobs in her girlie mags.
Lock to guide
Smart Guides are very useful, and if
you regularly use the Snap
function, then Smart Guides are an
additional visual representation of
that. Once the Smart Guide is on
screen then the moving object can
lock to that line enabling you to
position the object knowing that
it’s perfectly aligned to that axis.
So what are we talking about? Smart
Guides are a visual representation of
where one object is in relation to
another. So for example, if you wanted
to move an object and align it with
another object on the opposite side of
the page, a guideline would appear to
indicate that the top-edge of the
moving object is in line with the anchor
object. This line stretches from both
objects. By doing this, you can see
exactly which element you’re lining up
with. This of course works on both axes
and the centre point. It’s a very handy
utility as it eliminates the need to use
the often frustrating Align function. If
you’ve ever used this feature in
Illustrator, then you’ll notice straight
away that the Photoshop version is not
as intuitive as its counterpart.
How to use Smart Guides
Smart Guides are accessed by choosing
the menu option View>Show>Smart
Guides. Although they’re not apparent
when you first start designing, they
appear as a default pink line once you
begin to move separate objects around.
Slice it
Use Smart Guides in combination
with the Slicing Tool, to ensure that
you never miss a slice, and you can
guarantee that every single slice
will be bang on each of its
containing graphics.
SMART GUIDES: Intelligent Smart Guides will appear when separate elements are
aligned, provided you’ve switched on Smart Guides in the View menu
Smart Guides are useful for letting you in the Photoshop version. Who knows,
know when the top, bottom, sides or this may be a problem that’s addressed
centre of the content in transit is aligned in the eagerly anticipated Photoshop
with each other. It’s possible to alter the CS3. So, faults out of the way, why
appearance of Smart Guides by opening should you use them? Well along with
up Preferences. Using this dialog box the Snap function, Smart Guides really
you’re able to adjust the colour of the do make life a lot easier. With many
Smart Guides using the alternative people using Photoshop for the concept
preset colours, or you can set a and layout of websites and mag pages,
completely different colour tone for they really come into their own and can
your guides using the Color Picker. It’s save valuable time. So click on
important to remember to pick a colour View>Show>Smart Guides, to see if they
for the guide that doesn’t interfere with change your Photoshop life!
any of the colours in your image, so
you’re able to spot the guides without
squinting for your life!
In our opinion
Smart Guides are great, as before they
were introduced into Photoshop CS2
there were problems aligning
everything without the use of unsightly
Guides and Grids. However, in our
opinion they do feel a little clunky and
rushed at times as they have problems
detecting the edge of an irregular
object. Also, with the Illustrator version,
SMART GUIDE COLOURS: Having
prompts are displayed on the guides to
problems seeing the Smart Guides over
indicate the angle, distance, centre your images? You can alter the colours
point, etc, but this feature isn’t present using the Preferences option

66
Advanced Photoshop

066_AVP_26.indd 66 6/12/06 12:46:07

 Insider
Info
INSIDER
INFO
History options
We all make mistakes now and then. Luckily Photoshop CS2 comes packed with
plenty of History features to help you step back in time and correct your errors

I
f you’re organised and like to be on top of your Photoshop work, chances
are you’ve mastered a way of working around any slip-ups. Getting
organised with your layers is one way to avoid the total disaster of having
to scrap a creation because of an error.
However, while this will spare you the misery of having to start all over again,
the amount of work that may be on a single layer could be phenomenally
impressive, and therefore would be pretty devastating to lose.
A better way to fix a Photoshop boo boo is to make use of the many History
features that the program supplies. While these features are powerful, they
appear too simple to be any good, and so are often overlooked.

The History palette

States
Each state is listed with the name
of the tool or command used to
change the image so it’s easy to
spot. However, you must
remember that the History palette
works in the opposite way to the
Layers palette, so rather than work
from top to bottom, states are
applied to the bottom of the list
and work their way up.
ART HISTORY: The Art History Brush
can be used to apply states to specific
areas within your image
One of the most useful features for
stepping back in time, and getting rid
of unwanted elements or deleting
applied features and edits is the
History palette. This can be accessed
by selecting Windows>History or by
pressing the shortcut key F8. The
History palette is used to jump to any
recent state of an image created during
the current working session. The use of
the term ‘recent’ is important, as you
need to remember that the History
palette isn’t completely magical, and
you won’t be able to undo any edits
you’ve made on canvas during the
course of your creation.
By default, the History palette lists
the previous 20 states of your image in
list form. This could be anything from a
simple crop, to a change in colour
mode or an application of a filter.
However, it’s possible to raise the
number of states recorded in the
History palette by adjusting your
preferences. Older states are deleted
from the History palette in order to
avoid your machine grinding to a halt
from lack of memory, so it’s important
not to be too greedy in order to stop
working at snail’s pace.
If there is a particular edit you’ve
made that you may think is a little risky,
you can keep a state within the palette
by using the snapshot icon at the
bottom of the window. Once you close
and reopen the document, all of the
states in the History palette are erased
and you start from scratch, so it’s worth
PREFERENCES: The History palette has a small number of preferences that you
can use to achieve a base snapshot of your original image state
making sure you’re completely happy
with all of your edits before you close
down a document. Photoshop doesn’t
place a new state to the top of the list,
but rather adds it to the bottom so it
works its way up to the top as each new
edit is carried out. If you experiment
with states without altering the
preferences, then deleting a state
deletes that state and all the others
that came after it. This can be a bit of a
blow if you only wanted to get rid of
small details, so it’s worth clicking on
the Allow Non-Linear History option so
that edits only get rid of the
highlighted state.
The History Brush Tool (found within
the Tools Palette) can be used to paint
with the selected state or a specifically
created snapshot found within the
History palette. And similarly the
Eraser can be used along with the Erase
To History option, to get rid of applied
states within the History palette.
Art History Brush
The History palette can also be used
with the Art History Brush to create
impressionist effects. To make use of
this, you should select a state within
this History palette window and click
the box in the left-hand column of the
state to use it as a source for the Art
History Brush Tool. An icon appears (a
brush with a swirled line) to show that
this state has been selected.
You can then select a brush preset,
blending mode and style just as you
would if you were applying a brush
from scratch. However, you’ll have the
ability to apply filter effects to specific
areas, rather than simply apply it to the
whole image.
Restoring
You can restore your image with a
snapshot of the initial state of the
document. You’ll need to take a
snapshot yourself in order to
maintain the state within the
window. Alternatively, choose
History Options from the Palette
menu and check the option
Automatically Create First
Snapshot option.

68
Advanced Photoshop

068_AVP_26.indd 68 5/12/06 17:43:21

 out at night to
MOONLIT WALK: Kyle ventured
Eye-catching imagery that capture the imag es he need ed to prod uce this image

inspires and challenges

W
e showcase the best examples of Photoshop work we’ve been sent
this last month. The next few pages show off a fantastic mixture of
individual styles and techniques.
Do you think you could impress us enough to get your images showcased
within this section next month? Well you won’t get showcased if you don’t send
your images in! Getting your images in print is an ideal way to get your name out
there. We always ensure we print your contact details and web address so anyone LEFT: This image used a total of 16
images, a variety of Blending Modes and
who’s interested in your work can quickly get in touch with you. a lot of imagination!
If you’d like to see your own work on these pages, please send us low-res
versions to advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk – we’ll get back to you DESKTOP: Kyle is reminded of the
for more information and higher resolution copies if we need to. Alternatively, log beauty of Photoshop everytime he
glances at this image on his desktop
on to our forum at www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk and scroll down to Peer
Pressure in the Creative Projects section to post a link to your image samples.

Forgive
NAME: Nash Francisco
EMAIL: nash_francisco@hotmail.com

Nash is a graduate with a BFA in Visual

Communications. At the moment he makes money
in masonry, while he works on a portfolio and
promotional material for a job as a designer or
illustrator. “I’m from the countryside where the
nearest store serves as a deli, grocery store and
post office. So my goal is saving money to go to a
city. However, the countryside has been a great
place to be really creative, study and put together
a nice personal studio.”
Nash took the source photograph for this image
a few years back and always thought that it was
“beautiful” and “magic”. Colour correction was
carried out using the Levels command and
Thresholds. The next step was to use the airbrush,
copying the corrected image and applying a Dust
and Scratches filter to smooth out all the features.
“It’s good practice to use a small brush and work
in a dabbing technique, while being careful not to
remove parts of the mask that would smooth out
the features that should remain intact with a good
amount of detail,” Nash explains.

70
Advanced Photoshop

070-073_AVP_26.indd 70 5/12/06 17:30:37

 es
n iqu
ch
Te
Facing it
NAME: Graeme Mc Allister
EMAIL: graeme@remedymedia.co.uk
WEB: www.remedymedia.co.uk

Graeme McAllister is a 25-year old practicing artist and designer

based in the city of Newry, Northern Ireland. He has just completed
a degree in Multimedia in June 2006 and is currently running his
own design company called Remedy Media.
“My art is mainly symbolic in nature, due to my interest in
mythology and psychology. I’ve always been particularly inspired
by the Surrealist movement and fantasy art.” Graeme names his two
favourite artists as being Susan Seddon Boulet and Salvador Dali. “I
enjoy blending diverse and seemingly unconnected imagery into
something new,” he explains, “I also place a heavy emphasis on
colour in my work and use this to capture the intended mood.”
‘Facing it’ was composited in Photoshop using Dodge layers for
lighting. “I then over-painted using Project Dogwaffle and a Wacom
graphics table to achieve the hand-painted look. The image is
about how people in modern society are always seeking something
without knowing what it is.”

Safari
NAME: Kyle Parr
EMAIL: kyleparrdesign@hotmail.co.uk

Kyle Parr is a 19-year-old student currently studying A levels in

Graphic Design and Media Studies. He began using Photoshop a little
over a year ago, and immediately loved the idea that he was able to
turn his photographs into anything he wanted. “I work by thinking ‘I
wonder how it would look if...’” Kyle tells us. “I try many different things
with each image until I find something I like. I often use a large
number of layers, layer masks and adjustment layers.” To create the
giraffes on the bridge, Kyle took his camera out late at night on to the
motorway bridge and put it on a tripod using a 30 second exposure.
“When I got home I opened the images in Photoshop and just sat for a
while staring at my pictures. I started to think what could be done
with them. I found a picture of two giraffes which I had taken earlier
in the year at Chester Zoo.”
The chimp image was created by layering different photographs on
top of one another and altering the Blending Modes. All in all Kyle
used 16 photographs in total. “I made the elephants as a background
for my desktop on my home computer. I got the idea after seeing a
photograph of a sunset. I started by drawing a circle with the
Marquee Tool and filling it with a gradient. I made a selection on a
new layer and filled it with black that I used to create the ground. I
used a grass-shaped brush to brush in some grass. The trees and By submitting images to Advanced Photoshop’s Peer Pressure, you hereby grant Imagine
elephants were then added by using some pictures that I took at the Publishing and, if relevant, clients to whom the relevant work has been provided, an
zoo. These were cut out and coloured black. The clouds were added irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-free licence to use intellectual property in relation to work
similar or equivalent to the work. This includes the right to showcase work on multimedia
by using cloud-shaped brushes.”
formats. By submitting work you also confirm that your images do not infringe any
copyright regulations should they be published.

71
Advanced Photoshop

070-073_AVP_26.indd 71 5/12/06 17:30:43

 The thinking behind the art

BE
Merging mediums IN ST
SH
NAME: David Carron OW
EMAIL: david@avadav.com
WEB: http://avadav.com

David Carron is a student currently studying at

Minneapolis College of Art and Design. His
interest in art started out as simple pencil
drawings, and as he grew older he merged the
traditional art medium along with his newly
discovered technological skills. Since then he WHITE BIRD PLANT: “I
started out with
has been using Photoshop on almost all of his a blank image, and carefully
cho
colours I wanted to use. From se what
work. “From adjusting levels on drawings, to there the
Pen Tool was used to mak
e a selection of
creating images from scrap, the possibilities are all the objects. The colourin
g was done
endless. I have been using Adobe Photoshop for under the line layers, and
a few objects
about five years now and there really isn’t were actually reused with
different
Blending Modes, then plac
anything I don’t know how to do in the program. ed elsewhere in
the image. The image give
s off a fine-
The hard part is finding a creative touch to point feel since most of the
lines are very
ideas you’re wanting to execute.” small and end up converg
ing at key spots”

72
Advanced Photoshop

070-073_AVP_26.indd 72 6/12/06 11:00:35

 es
n iqu
ch
Te
Sam skeleton
NAME: Darius Portilla
EMAIL: dariusjulian@aol.com
azine. He
Advanced Photoshop mag
Dar ius is an avid reader of s whi le atte ndi ng The Art
ool mat hem atic
cur rently teaches high sch ign . “I’ve been
ract ive Med ia and Des
Inst itute of Hou ston for Inte you r mag azin e def initely
rs now and
using Photoshop for two yea e one more
of my class. I only hav
helps keep me at the head I’m pre par ing myself for
duate, so now
qua rter left to go unti l I gra I feel like I’m
help of you r magazine
one last big push. Wit h the ima ge man ipul atio n.”
n it comes to
adequately prepared whe

AMOEBIC: This image was a collaborative effort with my friend Mike

Harrison (destill.net). The image was first sent to me with most of the
foundations already laid out. The background was a stock image and was
heavily edited to support Mike’s additions. Many masks and Blending Modes
were used to show off the full range of colours

(RGB or CMYK), 300dpi minimum, and can be printed at 15 x 15cm minimum. Don’t forget to include a short text file detailing how you created your work, too.
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

OPEN EXPRESSION: “This image was created for the

Oxygenetic Artgroup I’m part of. The theme for the art
release was ‘freestyle’. One particular idea I wanted to
get across was the mixture of both traditional drawing
skills and digital manipulation. This then laid the
foundations for an image that would portray a
freestyle creation in the making”

73
Advanced Photoshop

070-073_AVP_26.indd 73 6/12/06 11:01:02

 Helpdesk
We have some great tips and techniques ranging from Lab Color to web design in this
issue, provided by Imagine Publishing’s interactive media manager BY LEE GROOMBRIDGE
SHUTTERSTOCK IMAGE
One of my clients has provided me with some
artwork designs for a new website. One of the
images he’s used is from issue 24 of your
magazine, it’s a picture of a clock from a company
called Shutterstock. The image is royalty-free, so
can I just go ahead and include this image in the
final website that I produce for free?
Andrew Bell, Poole
After checking the disc, the answer to this question is
no! The images provided on this disc were royalty-free
but only for Non-Commercial use. As soon as you use
the image for a company, or in this case charging a
client for designs that include the image, you must pay
Shutterstock for it otherwise you’ll break the copyright
license. This particular image can be purchased by visiting
the following link: www.shutterstock.com/pic-1329143.
COPYRIGHT: Always make sure you check and fully
understand the copyright concerning an image before using it
76
Advanced Photoshop
076-077_AVP_26_Helpd.indd 76
INK SPLATS
Do you know where I can get my hands on some of
those cool ink splats that people are using to create
that grungy design style that’s going around at the
moment. I don’t fancy getting ink everywhere by
creating my own and scanning them in!
Chris Green, Wolverhampton
You’re in luck. There’s a guy called Tom Tirins that has
produced some great ink splats that, as far as we’re
aware, are free for you to download and use as long as
you credit him. The splats are available at http://www.
tomtirinscreations.co.uk
However, even though it can be messy, there’s no
substitute for creating your own grunge ink splat material.
The results are so random, some of effects you can
SAVE PRECIOUS TIME: Use the Alt key to easily and
achieve are amazing, and you would never be able to quickly duplicate layers
reproduce them any other way.
CHEQUERED BACKGROUND
COPY LAYER STYLES I’m creating an image that has an Alpha channel around
Hello, firstly can I just say that I think this section of the it. Because of this the chequered background that
magazine is great. I’ve picked up so many good tips represents transparency is visible. The problem is the
that I would otherwise never have known existed. I’ve graphic I’m producing uses the exact same tone of grey
hopefully got a fairly simple one for you here. I’m as the chequered background, and it’s hard to see the
creating a website design that’s got quite a few buttons edge of my shape. Is there any way of changing the
in it on different layers. To speed up my workflow I was colour of the transparency squares?
wondering whether there’s a keyboard shortcut for Ms Attwood, Southampton
copying layer styles from one layer to another?
Ms Dimmick, via email This is a common problem when creating graphics with
Alpha channels in Photoshop. However you’ll be happy
Thank you for your compliment Ms Dimmick, it’s much to know that the answer to your question is yes. You can
appreciated! This is a great question, one that we’re often change both colours by going to Photoshop>
asked about. Many people think the only way to copy a Preferences>Transparency and Gamut. From here you can
set of layer effects is to Ctrl+click (or right+click) the layer
from the Layers palette, select Copy Layer Styles, and then
select the desired layer, Ctrl+click again and select Paste
Layer Styles. This in itself is not the most long-winded
thing to do, but you can speed it up – which we’re sure
many of you out there will be pleased to know!
Create a new layer and add any Layer style, a Drop
Shadow for instance. Once applied, a small ‘f’ should
appear in the layer indicating the style has been applied.
Create another layer and while holding down the Alt key,
click and drag the small ‘f’ into the desired layer.
You will hopefully see that the style is duplicated and put
into the new layer.
5/12/06 12:54:30
 es
n iqu
ch
Te
Color by Dan
OK: This book on Lab
subject
we’ve found on the
BO
SHADES OF GREY: Graphics need not be hard to see when

CURL UP WITH A
using Alpha Channels, use the Preferences tab to alter them

Margulis is the best

change the grid size, then either select the preset option
of dark, medium or light colours or choose two complete BLACK AND WHITE: Experiment with the Saturation of
bespoke colours for your transparency grid. an image, or the Channel Mixer to create colourless effects

BLACK AND WHITE FULL SCREEN BACKGROUND LAB COLOR

I’m a Photographer and have taken a set of colour COLOUR I can’t remember what
issue of your
photos for a clients wedding. However, they want some Hi Advanced Photoshop, I have a really quick question magazine it was, but the
of the pictures in black and white. I’m aware of the for you about full screen mode. I have a Mac and often
re was a great
tutorial about Lab Color
Desaturation function in Photoshop but I’m wondering work in Full Screen mode when using Photoshop by
a couple of months
ago. I was just wonderi
ng if you could advise
if this is the best way to convert the colour pressing the F key, so that the desktop icons are not me of any good book
s I can buy to find out
photographs, or if there’s a better option? visible. I really want to alter the background colour to more about this?
Rob Chapman, Reading white instead of the default grey colour or black. Is Tim Fitzgerald, via em
ail
there a way to do this?
This is actually quite a recurring question that’s discussed David G, via email The tutorial on Lab Col
or was in issue 24. On the
among photographers. There are many ways that you subject of getting more
information, we’ve don
can convert an image to black and white, one of which Nice to hear someone has the same idea as us, we our research and unfort e
unately there are few goo
is the one you mentioned, Desaturation. Each method like having a clean background too when working in publications on this top d
ic, as it’s very advanced.
has pros and cons. The benefit of using the Desaturation Photoshop. We also wanted to change the colour of advanced that even som So
e Photoshop profession
method is that it maintains all your original image detail, the background in Full Screen Mode. It’s quite simple to may never of even hea als
rd of it! The only worth
so this is probably the quickest and most efficient way do you’ll be glad to know. Go to Full Screen Mode with book that we’ve read on while
this topic is called
of converting you images. However it’s also worth the Grey colour in the background. Now change the Photoshop LAB Color
: The Canyon Conund
experimenting with the Channel Mixer. You can access foreground colour in the Tools palette to the colour you and the Other Adventur rum
es in the Most Powerf
this by going to the Layer>Adjustment Layer>Channel want the background to be. Now with the Paint Bucket Colorspace, written by ul
Dan Margulis. The boo
Mixer. Tick the Monochrome option and play around Tool – Press G or Shift+G if the Gradient Tool is active, into great depth and we k goes
think it explains Lab Col
with the sliders. As long as the number of the Red, Green Shift-click anywhere in the Background area. You’ll see the really well. or
and Blue add up to 100 then the photo will remain at the colour change before your very eyes!
same exposure level. If however you want to tweek the
exposure at the same time you can make the numbers
add up to less than 100 to obtain an under-exposed FU LL SCREEN:You can alte
in Full Screen Mode to r the colour of the bac
effect, or similarly over 100 will give you an over-exposed suit your image kground
effect. Hope this helps you Rob. For more information,
there was a great Masterclass article in issue 16 of
Advanced Photoshop if you can get your hands on one!

HELPDESK
CALL FOR QUESTIONS
Want help with your Photoshop problems?
Then let our team of experts sort you out.

Send your emails to us at:

advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Remember to specify whether you’re using
a PC or Mac and the version number of
your edition of Photoshop.

77
Advanced Photoshop

076-077_AVP_26_Helpd.indd 77 7/12/06 14:25:56

 home
photo
studios
HOME PHOTO STUDIOS
Become self-sufficient in your art with your very own personal home studio. We
round up the cream of the crop
T
he key to great illustration and
design work is to have an archive
of material ready to hand at a
moment’s notice. Whether it’s an
album of textures and patterns, products and
objects or people and poses, having the
choice and versatility allows you to be far
more creative in your work.
It’s for this reason that a home photographic
studio is a great luxury. With everything on hand to
capture professional looking shots, you can build
up your image bank rapidly – providing yourself
with an unlimited library of material to work with.
Not only does it offer you boundless creative
freedom over the look and feel of your base
images, but your working practice becomes self-
sufficient too. This way of working means you
spend less money on purchasing stock from image
libraries, and can bring greater satisfaction and
productivity to your projects. The greatest benefit
78
Advanced Photoshop
078-081_AVP_26.indd 78
of all is that those lounge lizards among you can
be 100 per cent dedicated to your art, without
stepping foot outside the front door.
You can produce your source imagery in a
manner of ways, each varying in terms of quality
and price. One of the cheapest home studio
options is actually a Blue Peter style setup you can
make yourself. So if you’re feeling a bit creative (or
generally rather skint) then a white-lines box and
a couple of desk lamps are better than nothing.
However, there are some easier and more
productive combinations for you to try. First,
there’s the photographic tent – a pop-up
material-based cube through which light can be
diffused from all angles. These are the cheapest
option in terms of shop-bought studio kits, and
come in a vast range of sizes.
Next there are the table-top kits, which are
great for product photography. Fairly compact in
size, they can sit tucked away quite neatly when
not in use. These offer a simple and easy to use
option for shooting objects or textures, but that’s
it in terms of versatility. For greater creativity
across a broader spectrum of subjects, then a
lighting kit will serve you well. These free-
standing lights can be positioned anywhere you
wish, making them perfect for both portrait shots
and product photography too. Obviously these
kits are generally more expensive than others, but
they’re available on the internet for fairly decent
prices. When searching for a home studio it’s
worth checking out both the high street and the
internet. In all honesty, we probably wouldn’t buy
from the high street due to the inflated prices,
but it’s a great place to research which setups are
most suited to your image needs and, more
importantly, your working space.
We’ve sourced a range of easy-to-use home
studio kits, perfect for producing a top quality
image archive.
6/12/06 11:05:46
 Home Photo studios
ROUND UP

Includes:
• Two flash heads
• Two 90cm silver/ white umbrellas
• Two 120 degree wide-angle
umbrella reflectors
• Two ‘Handy Stand’ lighting
support stands

Bowens esprit Gemini

125 Studio-in-a-box
Web: www.bowens.co.uk Contact: 01255 422807 Price: £579

Bowens is one of the granddaddies of photographic

equipment. Originally founded in 1923, it’s responsible
for paving the way in product design, producing the
first single-unit electronic flash, and godsend of many
photographers – the monobloc. This British-based
company still produces kit from its factory in South
East England, offering a top service to enthusiasts and
professionals alike.
The esprit Gemini 125 two-head kit is ideal for
beginners to photography, who want to experiment with
lighting effects. It works well both as an indoor studio
setup, as well as a location kit too, allowing you to extend
your photographic capabilities to the great outdoors.

Setting up a home studio
The main object of setting up an effective home
studio is being able to produce great lighting. By
this, we don’t just mean lots of it! We mean light
that flatters the subject.
You want to avoid images with harsh shadows
cast over or around the object, and likewise you
don’t want bright reflections flaring in the shot. You
first need a clear space to set up your gear. Often
a corner of a room will suffice. Remember if you’re own home studio. Remember to think angles,
using a lighting kit then you’ll need a backdrop to flattery and space, and you’ll be fine!
surround your model or object. If you’re using the
shot as a source image, then plain white will work
best, making cutting out of the shape in Photoshop
a lot easier.
Next you need to set up your lighting to flatter
Position your subject at a suitable angle. Make sure it’s
the subject. We’ve produced a simple lighting positioned at a decent amount of space away from the
setup, which is a good start when planning your background to avoid a shadow being cast

79
Advanced Photoshop

078-081_AVP_26.indd 79 7/12/06 14:31:14

 home
photo KARLU.COM IS BRIMMING WITH EVERY
studios LIGHT, FIXTURE AND FITTING IMAGINABLE,
AND WITH LOW PRICES TOO!
Includes:
• Lastolite Cubelite
• Carry case

Karlu Daylight
Product /Still Life
Table Kit
Web: www.karlu.com Contact: 0870 765 2000 Price: £269

For a comprehensive site that covers every

aspect of studio photography, you can’t get
much more in-depth than Karlu.com. This site
is brimming with every light, fixture and fitting
imaginable, and its vast range means prices are
kept low too.
The great thing about this site is it offers ‘Live
Chat’, enabling you to ask questions about the
products before you buy. We love this site for its
great personal service and friendly staff on the
other end of the phone.
This table-top kit is great for shooting a
selection of objects, and its smooth graduated
back offers an effective backdrop for most
products you may wish to shoot.
Check out the site Karlu.com, for more
information on what the company has to offer
– we bet you won’t be disappointed!

80
Advanced Photoshop

078-081_AVP_26.indd 80 6/12/06 11:12:33

 Home Photo studios
ROUND UP

Lastolite Cubelite
Web: www.lastolite.com Contact: 01530 813 381 Price: From £69

Lastolite has been around for the last 20 years,

producing great portable studio accessories. It made
its name with the first collapsible reflector, and
now Lastolite is a recognisable world wide brand. It
produces equipment for beginners through to the
most renowned of pros. Not only does it produce a
stack of reflectors, backdrops and studio setups, but
it also offer calibration cards, perfect for obtaining
spot-on exposure.
The Lastolite Cubelite is just one of the many Includes:
contorting objects in the range. It has a flexible • Studio-out-of-the-box
frame, which means it can flat-pack down in a handy • Also available optional 25 cm/
carry bag when it’s not in use, or when shooting on 10” long tube-type lamps

location. Not only is it practical, but it’s functional too.

It’s perfect for creating well-lit product shots thanks to
its soft light-diffusing walls. Kaiser Studio-out-of-the-box
Web: www.firstcall-photographic.co.uk Conta
ct: 01823 413007 Price: £129.99

Firstcall is renowned as a darkroom speci

alist, but has extended its expertise to all
things
Includes: photographic now the digital age is in full
sales options, and sells everything from
swing. It offers both web-based and telep
studio equipment through to printing supp
hone
• 1 x Falcon Eyes mini still-life table There are frequent deals online, as well as lies.
• 2 x interfit 5200k daylight heads a stream of brand new products popping
the site. up on
& bulbs, UK
• Mains power leads It offers this all-in-one studio setup, which
takes up minimal space, while offering a
• 2 x interfit lighting stands complete studio effect. It consists of a baseb
(COR750) / Giottos Pro oard, with white backdrop and trapeze arms,
which you attach your camera to. It’s great
• Air cushioned stands for photographing objects and textures.

IT TAKES UP MINIMAL SPACE

YET IS A COMPLETE STUDIO

How to get results –

basic concepts of shooting
in a studio
Backdrop: Make sure this is a plain colour to make the cutting
out process easier. The great thing about a home studio is that
you can shoot images specifically how you want them, making
the Photoshop process quicker.
Lighting setup: Never light from just face on, your subject will
look flat and washed out. Always try to have at least three lights
to illuminate your subject – two angled from either side and one
just off-centre from the front.
Lighting effects: The light strength has a pronounced effect on
your image. For example, a very directional light will create a very
strong light cast and create harsh shadows in the process. If you
diffuse the light with a photo tent or sheet then it’ll be a lot softer
with fewer shadows.
Reflection: Using reflectors also helps to minimise shadows and
illuminate the subject evenly. And if you take a look at the boxout
on page 79, you’ll see that lighting is extremely important. Use a
silver or gold reflector to bounce light back onto the subject to fill
in any darker areas with light.

81
Advanced Photoshop

078-081_AVP_26.indd 81 5/12/06 17:32:57

 Further Photoshop research
Widen your artistic circles with the help
of these essential resources

supplying stock 84
Discover how to make money by
selling on your illustrations

books 88
Curl up with a good book and learn
some new Photoshop techniques

file sharing 90
Cut down the hassle of sharing image
files with these handy sites

mends
Recom

fonts 91
Expand your typeface library with
these must have fonts

W hile the joy of creating our own individual art in Photoshop is enough to keep most of
us inspired, we don’t think there’s a person out there who wouldn’t have an extra boost
of energy at the mention of making a bit of cash from their images.
Stock libraries are an excellent start for artists looking to gain financially from their images. There are
plenty out there, but how do you go about submitting your illustrations for the first time, and who
should you be targeting? Find out by turning to page 84.
This month has seen a huge number of new releases in the book stores. If you’ve got a few gift
vouchers saved up from Christmas, and they’re burning a hole in your pocket then a new book to settle
in with on a rainy afternoon could be just the ticket. As always we give you our honest and unbiased
opinion on what’s worth a purchase in our reviews on page 88. Also, if you find sharing those big image
files a pain in the neck, then a file sharing site could be the solution, turn to page 90 for our pick of the
best. Email bounce-backs will be a thing of the past.

83
Advanced Photoshop

083_AVP_26.indd 83 6/12/06 10:24:35

 Feature

URC E
© IMAGE SO

© IMAGE
S O U RC E
URC E
© IMAGE SO

Selling © IMA
GE SO
U RC E

images on
online image
directories
The days of pounding the pavement, have been replaced by
the option of pounding the keyboard, as more online image
directories are requesting submissions from imageers to feed
an internet-wide increasing user base BY NATALIE JOHNSON

84
Advanced Photoshop

084-087_AVP_26.indd 84 7/12/06 11:59:35


© IMAGE SOURCE
O
ver the past five years there’s been a
significant surge in the volume of online
image stockists circulating the web,
creating a wealth of new opportunity for
Photoshop artists looking to make money from
their art. Whether the consumer is looking for
ready-made art or ‘enhanced’ images, Photoshop
pros stand to receive a commission every time one
of their images is downloaded from a site. So
everyone, from hobbying Photoshop users to
Imageering professionals could stand to make
money for old rope.
Online image banks giants such as iStock, Getty
Images, Shutterstock and Fotolia are a handful of the
more well known brands ruling the roost. But there
are more independent banks popping up everyday,
and many Photoshop artists are even creating sites of
their own as a way of retailing their handiwork. The
possibility of making money, or getting your work
noticed, ultimately depends on the popularity of your
art. Currently the market favours photographers who
are profiting from supplying ‘clean’ shots that
Photoshop artists themselves will testify to using for
their own manipulation. As such the Blue Peter-style
“Here’s one I made earlier” pieces are less marketable.
But there’s an indication of a steadily growing trend
that suggests more customers than ever are searching
084-087_AVP_26.indd 85
THE POSSIBILITY OF MAKING
MONEY ULTIMATELY DEPENDS ON THE
QUALITY OF YOUR IMAGES
for creative and unique Photoshopped pieces that
can be used for everything, from home-made canvas
art, to multinational advertising portfolios. The
opportunity is incredible and relatively still untapped.
Stock sites
Shutterstock (www.shutterstock.com) is one of the
most recognisable sites, selling subscription access to
a library of over 1.2 million high quality, royalty-free
stock photos. In the last six months the site has seen a
record 500,000 images uploaded. Jon Oringer, set up
the website to sell his own images online, and was
flooded with requests from photographers and
Photoshop uers to allow them to sell through the site
as well. Currently 43,000 submitters from over 120
countries around the world make money from
Shutterstock. “Some people earn enough in a year to
pay for a new lens or a new camera. Others earn a
comfortable living and do it as their full-time job. It all
depends on how many images you have in your
portfolio and how versatile and unique your subject
matter is”, says Adam Riggs Shutterstock’s CFO/COO.
“We look for images with a clear subject or theme,
because that’s what our customers look for when they
search our library. We now accept about 40 per cent
of what is submitted to us, but our content runs the
gamut from untouched, to highly manipulated.”
A keen advocate and customer of this vein of sites
is Bert Monroy, a respected Photoshop guru with over
20 years of experience, creating images for
advertisers, magazines and independent
commissions. Bert uses image banks when looking to
create a Photoshop masterpiece, or when he wants to
sell his art and fund his enterprise. “My fine art is
marketed primarily over the web”, he tells us. “The
internet is the primary avenue for selling my art as it
provides a central place where all of my work can be
viewed. These sites provide an image bank which
serve as a place where I can market my art and
make money.”
Top tips for selling
In terms of advice, Adam Riggs knows the trade
secrets of success. “Look carefully at what’s selling. If
you’re an expert in a particular topic or region, or you
have a special angle on a familiar theme, start from
there. Attention to detail is what sets apart the best
from the rest. The subscribers who are paying for
access to our library are not kids looking for photos
for their blogs or school projects, they’re the world’s
top business and creative professionals. They craft the
message of nearly every type of company and
product you can imagine, and their attention to the
details of an image cannot be overstated.”
Rival firm Fotolia (www.fotolia.com) is another
infamous multinational image market place enjoying
success after only two years of being in operation.
“Every Photoshop artist has an opportunity to make
money on Fotolia, and fast.” Chad Bridwell, Director of
Fotolia’s US Operations tells us. “If the image is
approved, the images will be online within 24 hours.
Once the image is sold the photographer will earn a
commission which ranges between 33 and 80 per
cent.” Chad claims in its first year the number of
posted stock has rocketed from 100,000 to 1.7 million
images. “The average imageer with a large portfolio
could earn about $400 a month. However, the best
make over $2500. To become one of the ‘best’ we
recommend artists review their images at 100 per
cent, as this is how we review each image. Watch for
excessive noise, over sharpening and smudges left by
the cloning tools. In addition to this, we encourage
users to add keywords to them in the IPTC data
available through Photoshop.”
In terms of size, most sites suggest “the bigger the
better” but convey the optimal dimensions must be
300 dpi at five inches by seven inches, with a
minimum 1200 x 1600 pixels. As the artist, it’s your
responsibility to enter keywords and descriptions,
and the more descriptive you are, the more likely a
search will match with your image. Include at least
ten keywords and use a title. The more keywords you
supply the more searches your image will match.
Photographer Ian Britton created FreeFoto (www.
Freefoto.com) after visiting Venice over ten years ago.
He decided he wanted to share his snaps via the
internet, thus FreeFoto was invented. Nowadays the
site hosts around 750,000 visitors who view around 8
million pages. Ian confides that because the market is
becoming crowded they have had to diversify in
order to attract customers and aid artist’s
commissions. “The whole sector is changing all the
time with new companies coming online as well as
price pressure from the micro-payment end of the
business. That’s why we’ve started offering more
services to benefit both consumers and submitters.
85
Advanced Photoshop
7/12/06 11:12:24
 Feature
IF YOU FIND ONLINE IMAGE BANKS
AREN’T REWARDING ENOUGH, TRY
SETTING UP YOUR OWN SITE
For example 60,000 of our images are now available
as high quality photographic prints.” Ian has shrewdly
observed what many larger image bank sites are
choosing to ignore; a rise in smaller independent
companies that are threatening their market share,
but are being welcomed by digital artists looking to
peddle their wears.
For example Findanimage (www.findanimage.co.
uk) has been building an internet presence since April
but claims to have one of the toughest acceptance
policies. “We encourage images from professionals
and amateurs alike, so long as they meet our quality
standards” says company partner Carolyn Fuller.
“We’re getting a lot of enquiries from Photoshop
artists, but we’re ruthless about rejecting poor quality
images. At present we have about 95 per cent
unmanipulated images, but we’re happy to accept
Photoshopped images as long as they meet our
quality criteria.”
Go it alone
If you’re finding the online image bank process isn’t
proving rewarding enough (and this may be the case
due to the process sometimes being too strict or
lengthy), self-promotion may be an offshoot to
explore. Bert Monroy agrees that this is a viable
option: “My advice to Photoshop artists who have
tried image banks but want more sales, is to create a
website of their own. Make it attractive, enjoyable and
easy to browse through. Additionally prepare some
mailers to direct potential clients to your website.”
Concerns over poor commission rates and
unfathomable rejections by some image bank sites
have pushed more digital artists into going it alone.
Entrepreneur Scott Hortop did just this and decided
to launch Photoconnect (www.photoconnect.net
(www.photoconnect.net) as
© IMAGE SOUR
86
Advanced Photoshop
084-087_AVP_26.indd 86
a self-promotion site. But within days of being live he
was hounded by a flurry of imageers looking to use
his site as an avenue for sales. “Initially I spent far too
having a great
much time dealing with submissions that were just COM: As well as
BETTERPHOTO. site also offers tips and
not marketable, I felt guilty about not being able to this
stock of photos, nt photos
include them, but the reality is that I had to be choosy rials on how to create excelle
tuto
about who I took on”, Scott confides. “Now, my
business is growing because I only deal with digital full copyright to any image you upload. This means
artists and photographers who are IPTC aware, and you must be the photographer or artist that created
who can upload 15 images that are ready to go the image. All trademarks will need to be removed,
straight on to the site in a few clicks”. including logos, brands and entities with copyright or
As a Photoshop pro it’s advisable to explore the trademarked elements. This could also extend to
range of sites available by trawling through the web trademarked products such as cast sculptures, toys,
to discover what type of submissions each site accept architecture and other elements of design. Although
(ie, clean photographs, Photoshop art, vector the amount of money you’re likely to make depends
illustrations, Flash files, video clips, etc). Most are on the quality and popularity of your work, the big
looking for clean images only, but sites like iStock. guns such as iStock, Getty Images, Shutterstock,
com feature the largest percentage of Photoshop Fotolia and FreeFoto are likely to attract the largest
work. Thoroughly read and digest the company’s user base, and therefore offer a more prominent shop
terms and conditions and determine whether you can window for your art.
supply images to more than one site. Recognise what
the commission rate is and how it compares to its
rivals. It’s also important to understand how
consumers can use your image.
After you decide which site or sites you wish to
supply, there will be instructions on how to upload
your images. Once you’ve attempted this, the site’s
creative team will then judge whether your images
are suitable for their company. The most likely reasons
for rejection are: the image isn’t of a high enough
quality, has legal ramifications, or isn’t the right size. If
you have used an ‘identifiable face’ in your art, most
sites will need you to supply a model release form,
many of them will offer this as a downloadable PDF. FREEFOTO.COM: Was set up to sell some holiday
Unless otherwise stated it’s common that images snaps… now it hosts over 750,000 visitors
must be RGB JPG format only, and you must own the
ISTOCK.C
OM: This is
banks out o
there and so ne of the largest onlin
it attracts a e image
large user
base
CE
7/12/06 11:13:05
 OWENBSLITIENSE WW
After

onlin
on

or th
W
subm ly going
ission
ei
run f mage ban
. FOT

eir m
s and

k
oney
OL I A
live j
regis
i s givin
.COM
ust tw
tered
o sho
users
g the
rt ye
everyd
estab
ars a

lishe
go, a
n
ay, th d growin
d vet
is fle
dglin
g
g wit
h
eran
s a go
od

W W W.ISTOCK .COM
A leading image bank
site, which many Photos
users find highly profita hop
ble because of its tenden
to look on digital art wit cy
h the same high regard
STOCK .COM clean digital photograp as
W W W.SHUTTER stock.com has a
hy
directories Shutter
As with all image ly the best
eck process, so on
ruthless quality ch
tured
images will get fea

M
Y IM AGES.CO compensate
W W W.GETT lin e im ag e bank world. To
g gu n of th e on at m ore high-end
Another bi
m ar ke t, th is service looks only
for the over-cro
wded phs. Therefore
ed ito ria l re lated photogra
es or
creative imag submit to this
site.
can probably
professionals

87
Advanced Photoshop

084-087_AVP_26.indd 87 7/12/06 11:14:50

resources
books Swot up on the latest tips and tricks, and
curl up with a good read
From Gutenberg to Opentype
Author: Robin Dodd
Publisher: Ilex Press
Price: £19.99
ISBN: 1904705774
Web: www.ilex-press.com
T
ype design is not a modern day phenomena, it’s been
with us for centuries. This title explores its making.
From Gutenberg to Opentype is an illustrated history of type in
chronological order. The opening chapter provides an
introduction to type and trawls through history revealing major
influences that are still present. ‘Heading to the Renaissance’
describes the period when type began to make a real
impression. The book talks about Claude Garamond, a name
that may mean little to most, but the 16th century typecutter’s
legacy is still seen today. It continues to trace the path of type
through to ‘Post Second World War Two’, where type really
The Complete Guide to Digital Illustration
Author: Steve Caplin
Publisher: Ilex Press
Price: £19.95
ISBN: 1904705006
Web: www.ilex-press.com
T his title is a combination of seven parts that cover the
complete spectrum of all that’s digital illustration.
Each section opens with a discussion relevant to the
forthcoming material and provides solutions and methods to
achieve the style. The opening section of the guide takes a
practical approach and gives the lowdown on exactly what a
digital artist needs. This ranges from instructions on buying a PC
or Mac to choosing the best software, input devices and extras.
With the basics absorbed, the reader can then take a logical path
through digital painting, digital printing, illustration and animation
or simply head straight to the style of choice. This is where the
Create Your Own Graphic Novel
Author: Mike Chinn
Publisher: Ilex Press
Price: £14.99
ISBN: 1904705901
Web: www.ilex-press.com
T he graphic novel is a style to be admired and this title
takes the core concepts to heart and presents itself
from start to finish in the long form comic book style.
This can be seen as a great example or a cheap gimmick, but
the book is well illustrated, well presented and really works. The
sole intention of this title is to take the reader (in its own words)
from pencil to pixel. Along the way teaching how to translate
writing and drawing skills into digital artwork. Complete
novices, newcomers and enthusiasts will all find something for
their skill level. The book opens with the basics and brings
together a few essentials before getting to the good stuff. The
88
Advanced Photoshop
088-091_AVP_26.indd 88
books
Photoshop CS2 for Digital
Photographers Only
Authors: Ken Milburn, Doug Sahlin
Publisher: Wiley
Price: £25.99
ISBN: 0-471-74689-4
Web: www.wiley.com
As the title of this book indicates, it’s
squarely aimed at digital photographers.
Digital Photographers Only provides a logical
set of chapters that guides the reader through
the complete picture process. The starting
point is a section entitled ‘Shooting and
Improving Photos’, which brings together the
formed the basis of the fonts we know today. The book’s in- finer points of organising, viewing and
depth knowledge is accompanied with many illustrations. 5 preparing images. ‘Camera Raw’ then looks at
fine-tuning your images. The middle section of
Rating: 3/5 this book takes a close look at editing;
including creating selections for localised
editing, retouching and adding special effects.
This is before it touches on getting images
ready for output. To finish up there’s an
extremely useful couple of chapters on
improving and automating workflow. 5
Rating: 3/5
Photoshop for Right-
Brainers: The Art of Photo
Manipulation
Author: Al Ward
Publisher: Wiley
Price: £25.99
ISBN: 0-7821-4430-6
Recom
mends
Web: www.wiley.com
This second edition doesn’t flirt
with some of the more obvious techniques
adopted by the competition. It dives straight
in at the deep end and brings readers
book is a winner, a great reference that can be picked out at will immediately up to speed with the art of photo
with some great examples and guides to the chosen technique. 5 manipulation. The opening chapter, ‘Tools for
Building Your Masterpiece’, is a great indicator
of what to expect. This broaches the subject of
Rating: 3/5 using Blend Modes, extracting an image from a
background, layer masks and displacement
mapping. The following chapters of the book
swing to the right of tedium, and try to
integrate a sense of imagination and creativity
into the process. Discover how to embellish
portraits, generate plastic from scratch plus a
whole lot more. 5
mends
Recom Rating: 4/5
Stingermania
Author: Jan Willem Wennekes
Publisher: Zeptonn
Price: 15 Euros
ISBN: 90-811226-1-4
Web: www.zeptonn.nl
This is an interesting little spectacle from the
artist known as Stinger (see page 20).
In this 44-page guide, text is kept to an
absolute minimum and lets the artwork do the
talking. Stingermania provides a collection of
main core of this title is dedicated to getting the script written, his recent work, which concentrates mainly on
drawn and published, giving vital tips along the way. 5 print design: shirt prints, posters and canvas
prints. If you have yet to sample the delights of
Stinger, it’s well worth a trip to his website. 5
Rating: 4/5
Rating: 3/5
7/12/06 11:27:43

books
Circles and Dots
Authors: Keith Stephenson, Mark Hampshire
Publisher: RotoVision
Price: £15.00
ISBN: 2-940361-16-9
Web: www.rotovision.com/
Designers with a taste for the world of
round will find this compact 256-page
offering a delight to view.
The very title Circle and Dots conjure up a
myriad of circular objects and desires, with
many making an appearance here. The book
embraces design and choice from all design
disciplines, the author himself having
designed contemporary wallpaper. The book
itself boasts a host of photographs that reveal
the unique, obscure and everyday objects that
are naturally or manually of the spherical. From
shots of crop circles from outer space, to
Stonehenge, crockery, badges and road signs.
This book pretty much has it all. 5
Rating: 3/5
Digital Horror Painting
Workshop
Author: Martin McKenna
Publisher: Ilex Press
Price: £17.99
ISBN: 1904705928
Web: www.ilex-press.com
Digital artists who wished to integrate this
form of illustration into their portfolio or
alternatively, want to pursue this particular
career path, should take a look at this book.
Digital Horror Painting is a disciplined and
definite art form and this book embraces the
techniques needed and gives them to the
reader. The workshop offers detailed step-by-
step tutorials, analysis of finished paintings,
work-in-progress drawings and sketchbook
pages from leading artists working at the
forefront of the genre. Each of the sections
gives readers a guide to the creation process,
from inspiration to inception. This is a must
have for lovers of the gruesome, macabre
and supernatural. 5
Rating: 4/5
Photoshop CS2 Workflow
Author: Tim Grey
Publisher: Sybex
Price: £27.99
ISBN: 0-7821-4396-2
Web: www.wiley.com
Not the most inspiring of titles, but then
again the true aim of this book is the
functional rather than the creative.
However, it’s the construction of a well-
planned and structured workflow that really
let’s the creative process flow. This tidy tome
opens with the solid foundations of a
productive workflow before uncovering the
basic adjustments any CS2er needs to know.
Advanced adjustments are well covered
before the book starts to wind down with
‘Finishing the Workflow’. This book will prove
to be far more useful than you imagine. 5
Rating: 3/5
088-091_AVP_26.indd 89
resources
Digital Fantasy Painting Workshop
Author: Martin McKenna
Publisher: Ilex Press
Price: £17.95
ISBN: 1904705375
Web: www.ilex-press.com
F antasy art is a distinctive style that has a long
tradition. It went through a stylistic revolution in the
Eighties with the widespread adoption of the airbrush.
However, another revolution was just around the corner, and
Photoshop has taken the whole concept to another level. The
digital age has brought with it a host of tools and techniques to
simplify the process. This title offers a quick introduction to the
creative process before concentrating on the three main throughout. However, we cannot forget the expert tips and
categories within the genre: fantasy, science-fiction and horror. comments that permeate the pages offering inspiration for all. 5
Each is adequately catered for with step-by-step guides. This is
essentially the crux of the book, and the theme continues Rating: 3/5
Digital Sci-Fi Art
Author: Michael Burns
Publisher: Ilex Press mends
Recom
Price: £17.95
ISBN: 1904705324
Web: www.ilex-press.com
S
tunning, futuristic images are the staple diet of sci-fi
art, but the real winner is the artists imagination.
Faraway worlds can exist in any form they wish and it’s down
to the artist to recreate their thoughts in a style that befits their
creativity. This is another book that adopts the step-by-step
approach to ensure that digital artists can follow the techniques
needed. However, before delving into Photoshop, Digital Sci-Fi
Art gives readers a quick grounding in the main components point out exactly how parts of the image are created along with
that help create their masterpieces. Examples are provided by what tools were used. 5
well-known artists with a pointer to the software used to create
the art. Further examples break down an image and annotations Rating: 4/5
Web Photoshop: Start Here!
Author: Peter Cope
Publisher: Ilex Press
Price: £14.95
ISBN: 1904705049
Web: www.ilex-press.com
T
his title boasts the tagline: ‘From zero to hero in easy
lessons’, and this just about sums it up.
The book is a practical guide to Photoshop and how to use its
toolset to create great graphics for the web. Much of the book is
pretty basic Photoshop techniques, but there are specific
sections related to its web capabilities. Like all good books Start
Here begins with an overview of the main components to be
encountered throughout the rest of the guide. This includes basic image manipulation. It’s then that the book breaks into the
more web specific features such as HTML, other web languages web stuff with optimising images and creating web elements. 5
and web browsers. Beyond this the opening chapter breaks
down the core Photoshop experience before continuing on to Rating: 3/5
89
Advanced Photoshop
7/12/06 11:27:48
 online treats
resources
From files sharing to P2P, here’s
our pick of the best around

YousendIt file sharing

Developer: Yousendit
Price: Lite – FREE, Plus – $4.99 per month Free Covers
Web: www.yousendit.com Developer: Free Covers
Price: FREE

Y ouSendIt is exactly what the customer does with this Web: www.freecovers.net
Recom
mends
email service. Free Covers is an
interesting concept for a
This web-based service, no software downloads here, comes
site and one that has a whiff of
in two versions and allows registered users to send large files the DIY about it.
via email. Once activated the Lite or Free version gives users the It’s true to say the site is essentially a host of
option to send files up to 100MB in a single instance. Simply covers from films, albums, software, PS2, Xbox
add the address, locate the file and send it. Using Lite does and a mixture of consoles scanned and placed
into a web directory. However, the collection is
incur a few restrictions, such as the file size and single file sends.
pretty comprehensive and provides a wide
Upgrade to Plus for larger files – a maximum of 2GB, multiple range of covers that’ll prove inspirational as well
file sends and automatic backups. Alternatively, try out Business as productive. To get to grips with the scale of
Plus for your own branded pages. 5 this site, the Movies category alone boasts
nearly 50 pages with over 2400 covers. This site
Rating: 3/5 is definitely an acquired taste but one that
could prove eternally useful. 5
Rating: 3/5

Pando Art-e-zine
Developer: Art-e-zine
Price: FREE
Developer: Pando Networks Web: www.art-e-zine.co.uk
Price: FREE mends
Recom
Not the greatest website design you’ll ever
Web: www.pando.com see and the navigation is nothing to write
home about either.

P ando is a P2P service that allows users to send large

folders and files with the help of email, instant
messaging and the web.
However, putting these little exertions aside
you have a unique collection of vintage images
that corner a niche market. The site presents a
long list of links accompanied by a short
The beauty of Pando is, once downloaded, you can send
description to inform the user. Head into the
large files across the internet using an existing email account. A page, browse at your leisure and save any
limit of 1GB is imposed, and with such a large file the download images you love. Plus don’t forget to look at the
is not the quickest but still a viable option. Sending a file is no Vintage Image resource. The one
more difficult than adding an attachment in your everyday downside is image resolution, with many
only being fit for web work. If you like the site
email. Enter the address, drag and drop folders and files, enter a make sure that you make a small donation to
subject and the job is done. Get your friends to download the help preserve its future. 5
software and you’ll be swapping large files with ease. 5 Rating: 3/5
Rating: 3/5
Image After
Developer: Image After
Price: FREE

Limewire
Web: www.imageafter.com
Image After describes itself as the ‘raw base
for your creativity’, and provides a concise
Developer: Limewire Project collection of images and textures.
The image base is primarily restricted to
Price: Basic – FREE, Pro – $18.00
architecture, nature, objects and vehicles. This
Web: www.limewire.com does not deter from what are some great

T
images, albeit at varying resolutions, and subtle
he term file sharing means different things to different
search fields. A favourite of ours is the Filter By
people, but Limewire is definitely the more traditional Colour option, which as you would expect,
app people expect. matches up images to the selected colour. A
This popular P2P file sharing application has been around for low resolution preview is immediately available,
a while now. The software has slowly developed and evolved while a full size preview is just a single click
away. To assist in the selection process each
into a legitimate file sharing service. The latest incarnation
thumbnail presents the actual resolution plus a
boasts a guaranteed clean install, no bundled software and clippings icon which allows for batch selection
offers ease of use. Installation is a breeze and the program a and easy download. 5
doodle to use. The search facility makes the whole process very Rating: 3/5
simple, with the option to search via different categories.
Remember to Enable Content Filters, and keep it legal. 5

Rating: 3/5

90
Advanced Photoshop

088-091_AVP_26.indd 90 7/12/06 11:27:50


font sites
Identifont
Web: www.identifont.com
This site dedicates itself to helping users
identify a typeface from a sample, by
answering a series of questions about key
characteristics.
The opening page is simple, concise and
direct. Centre stage is taken by two options:
Identify a Font and Find a Font. Identify a Font
takes a reader into the realms of the site’s core
objective and helps decipher a font by
appearance. For more interaction users can
search via name, similarity, designers or
publishers. To add to the circus, Identifont
offers one-click access to its Latest Additions,
Top Ten and its collection of Free Fonts. 5
Rating: 3/5
Type Now
Web: www.typenow.net
A quick glance at the home
page of TypeNow is
insufficient in showing what
Recom
mends
lies beneath its ordinary exterior.
Head to the Navigation drop-down menu
and take a stroll down the list to find Themed
Free Fonts alongside Themed Commercial
Fonts. Plus a comprehensive collection of free
and commercial fonts arranged alphabetically.
The themed sets provide an impressive
collection of fonts used for well-known TV
shows, films, bands, album covers and video
games. If you really need the font used for
Airwolf, The Goonies, Spongebob Squarepants or
Sin City – this is the place to get it for free. 5
Rating: 4/5
Blue Vinyl
Web: www.bvfonts.com
Blue Vinyl doesn’t provide the biggest
collection of fonts, but it does provide an
environment that suggests you’re going to
get style.
Split into the standard ‘free’ and ‘pay’
categories, both offer something for the design
cause. A browse through the list offers some
attractive fonts and dingbats, all on display and
closely accompanied by a download icon for
quick access. The pay fonts, as you might
expect, get a little more attention to detail. Take
your pick and press ‘Click here’ to see more,
which presents a quick demo of the font in all
its glory. Plus, many get the Look Book, to view
real examples of the chosen font. 5
Rating: 3/5
088-091_AVP_26.indd 91
font sites
resources
Beat the winter blues and jazz up your
designs with these fab font sites
1001 Free Fonts
Web: www.1001freefonts.com
T here’s a big clue in the title of this comprehensive site
with an abundance of decent fonts on offer.
Categorised alphabetically, users can get to browse through
one of the 26 categories with a single click. Each category is
arranged with a simple scrolling page that presents the font in
big bold self-titled letters, to make sure viewers know what
they’re getting. The vast majority of the fonts are available for
PC and Mac, with each font attributed a corresponding button.
Simply hit the appropriate button and the font is yours. The
free fonts, while plentiful, lack a little class – proving functional
rather than stylish. However, with such a large collection there
are some real gems in there. While it may take a while to find
them it’s worth the effort. 5
Rating: 4/5
Dingbat Depot
Web: www.dingbatdepot.com
T
his site strays from the standard font theme and
provides a delve into the world of dingbats.
So, if you’re on the lookout for standard issue fonts then this
site is a definite no-no. However, if the dingbat is an item that
tickles your fancy then this site provides more than enough to
keep most Photoshoppers happy. The site is a simple affair with
the home page revealing a random selection of dingbats
handily placed next to a category list. Select an aptly titled
category, and Dingbat Depot produces a list of samples for
each and every font. Navigation is much the standard process
of jumping from page to page and scrolling, while
downloading is a doodle. Make sure you pay this site a visit, as
there’s creativity and imagination a-plenty. 5
Rating: 4/5
MyFonts
Web: www.myfonts.com
mends
‘F Recom
ind, try and buy’ is the motto, and visitors get plenty
to choose from with over 51,000 fonts available.
The home page is a little lacklustre with the promotional
Font of the Day, plus an indistinct selection of categories on
offer. However, it’s the tabbed browsing that brings into play
this comprehensive collection. A quick click of Find Fonts and
you’re instantly presented with a myriad of choices to find a
font. You can search using keywords or price brackets, or by
names or font foundry. Beyond the standard search, the site
introduces a number of alternative methods, including What’s
New, Best Sellers, Starlets and the very interesting
WhatTheFont – a great tool to identify a font that you’ve found
online or in a publication. 5
Rating: 4/5
91
Advanced Photoshop
7/12/06 11:27:53