And now something completely different!
Following the rumors on more and more people claiming to be Vampires, I decided to start a magazine “Vampire’s health”, or at least design a cover page in case anyone ever decides to make a magazine for that particular “type” of people.
So, since I took the time and effort to make this cool cover page, thought I might as well show you how it’s done :) so if you are into or plan to become a professional graphic designer this will be funny and cool way for you to learn how to make a cover for the magazine.
Enjoy!
This is a part one of the tutorial named: “How to make a cover page layout for the Vampire’s Health magazine” Examine the cover page very closely before proceeding with the tutorial.
Done?
Examine…! Did You? OK.
As you can see, a good copywriting is a part where graphic designer and the editor get the inspiration from. The rest is “just” Photoshop. Tutorial is finished.
In our next edition: PORTABLE COFFINS: Take it along – wherever you go (backpack solutions)
Noise reduction in coffins: Find your own peace, latest technology explored Article preview: “Does it sometimes happen that kids in the yard scream so loud that you cannot find peace and sleep in your own coffin? In this issue we examine the latest technology of noise-reduction systems in coffins.”
Report from Europe: Unexplored undergrounds – The Paris underground secrets revealed!
Making money on-line: A fully fledged vampire web site in three easy steps, how to attract visitors
Lifestyle: The thrill of the last three minutes before sunrise; push your adrenaline to the next level! A complete vampire’s weight loss program, loose 2 pounds in 7 nights! Complaints: FedEx delivered in daylight? Why can’t (don’t) they understand?
Travel: Traveling across the ocean: Getting there (in a) safe! The best cargo agencies Tschau!
You’ll need:
Typography: Clarendon Cn BT (90%, regular), Clarendon Hv BT (heavy, faux bold), Swiss924 BT (regular), Arial Rounded MT Bold (faux bold)
Brushes:
Blood splats, Photoshop brushes: Download –>
Finger Prints, Photoshop brushes: Download –>
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Photoshop brushes: Ivy leaves; high resolution, set of 8.
Here’s the Download link. Hope you like it.
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Let me show you how I created a simple web shop icon (shop trolley). In Illustrator (or similar vector software) make a simplified shop trolley “L” shape (the handle + basis).
Now, we will select the basis line and copy it two more times to get something similar to E shape where the left vertical line end up above the top horizontal line.
Draw one vertical line that will close the shape.
As for the wheels, create two circles below the basis of the trolley. Make one ellipse and then a second one, smaller in the middle of the first one.(Do that using Ellipse tool). Select both ellipses, and subtract them with “Pathfinder -> Subtract from shape area” option. There is our wheel :)
Copy that wheel and position them under the basis.
Now for the background circle follow the same procedure as for the wheels. One small difference is that holding ALT+TAB will make this ellipse a perfect circle. Color it, place it behind the trolley and – voila!
© Photographer: Bsilvia | Agency: Dreamstime.com
Simple, innit?
Let me know if you need any help.
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I have another set of high-res (805-2229 pix) Photoshop brushes.
Download free “Splatter” brushes set for Photoshop (11 brushes) here
Sorry, 5 days subscription free download offer expired. However, you can still get those! Join GBG and enjoy this free Photoshop brushes set + more than 1500 other free downloads. Please read about our free download policy and join our GBG for more free downloads. Thanks!
Here is one of the graphics where I applied “Splatter” brushes (and if you like or need for some of your future projects you can buy this graphics for as low as $0.26, just click on it):
© Photographer: | Agency: Dreamstime.com
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It’s Thursday!
I’m here, but looks like I’m talking to myself :).
Nevermind.
Need a Photoshop brush? – Download collection of 17 grunge floral shapes brushes today and own them!
Sorry, 5 days subscription free download offer expired. However, you can still get those! Join GBG and enjoy this free Photoshop brushes set + more than 1500 other free downloads. Please read about our free download policy and join our GBG for more free downloads. Thanks!
See you on Monday! (maybe sooner? maybe…)
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December, 12th update: How to create big pop art circle in Photoshop, VIDEO tutorial
Little update: please make sure to set up the image in Grayscale mode before applying the filter.
And, please, please: it has to be done on a background layer! Don’t create a new layer.
Create a new document in Photoshop. Make sure it is in equally proportional dimensions (like 600×600 pixels or similar). Fill it in using „Radial gradient“ from black (inside) to transparent (outside).
Use „Custom fill“ option, and make gradient as in the image below (or similar).
Now use Filter –> Pixelate –> Color Halftone, and play with the options (for example radius size depends on the size of your document).
Voila!
Go even furter – vectorize this image, play with it and enjoy the results.
See you next Thursday, same place :)
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Using bitmap image from tutorial How to create your own custom brush in Photoshop you can easily create your own vector brushes in few steps:
Step 1
Simply place an image (download it here) in Illustrator and use live trace or Silhouette plug-in… you should get a grungy style vector brush like this one:
Step 2
Choose one of the elements with select tool (use “V” – keyboard shortcut for selection tool), ((for instance, you can rotate it 90 degrees.))
Step 3
Open the Brush palette (Window – Brushes) and choose New Brush option. Select the brush type, in this case – Art. Leave other options as they are and rename it. Save.
Voila – try it!
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Actually, I don’t think I would ever stumble upon this book if it was not for my friend Marijana who did the illustration for the cover page.
The illustration it self is rather interesting because of the innovative technique she used. It is made in clay and then digitally re-done in Photoshop to get the impression of 3D, depth in the illustration.
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Use brush on old fashioned, real white paper to make some more or less straight lines. Scan them in gray or B&W mode on 300 pix/inch resolution.
You should get an image that looks like this:
Now you can simply create brush in 2 steps.
Use Rectangle Marquee tool to make selection. Go to Edit – Define Brush Preset.
New Brush dialog pops out, rename it if you want.
Your new brush in Brush Palette is now available for selection.And, if you need these brushes but don’t feel like going through all this, get them for free
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While using a drawing tablet isn’t a necessity for website designers or graphic artists, many do opt to use them for a variety of reasons. For example, sufferers of carpal tunnel syndrome find using a pen is much more comfortable than a computer mouse that can often be very repetitive on the wrist. For artists who started off with hand drawn sketching, they simply find it quicker to stay drawing with a pen rather than learn how to use a mouse to create their cartoons and animations.
Wacom Intuos3 4 x 6-Inch Wide Format Pen Tablet (PTZ431W)
The Wacom drawing tablet is compatible with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash as well as many others as listed on their website.
How to use a Wacom drawing tablet link: hypergurl.com
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Take a look at your desktop (the real one – not the screen ;)) It’s there, whatever you see you can, for instance – scan and start from there.
In this example I will show you how to use stuff from your desktop to get compelling illustration.
So, as I sad – scan something that you found on your desk. In this case it’s mobile phone and pencil. Important: Don’t forget to cover copyrighted words or logos.
Place them into Illustrator (or CorelDraw –) and trace it in b&w (2 colors mode. Both Illustrator and CorelDraw –offer built-in tracing feature.)
These “messy” spots and dots are actually very welcomed because we will use them to get some grunge look of the illustration. Place your vectorized stuff around the background.
And after some playing around with dots and spots – voila, the illustration is done!
On the other hand, if you need this illustration for any purposes, why bother going through all this when it can be bought for just 1$ at Stocxpert.
Get this illustration for only 1$!
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Try a little exercise called “Vase/Faces” where you can see how a side benefit of learning to draw is getting to know your own brain a little better.
Source: drawright.com
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Starting in the 1990s, traditional illustrators confronted a challenge from those using computer software such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and CorelDRAW ().The use of Wacom tablets and similar apparatus also increased the ability of drawing and painting directly in a computer. Whilst some of the new generation of illustrators are trained at colleges directly in front of the screen, most are merely made aware of the technology available and expected to train themselves to utilize it.
While illustrations have been previously been considered just a small part of the creative and entertainment industries, they are becoming a new and significant factor in industries such as games, animation, advertising and publishing. Nowadays, because the entertainment and creative industries are very dynamic and have an easily bored market, it can be especially difficult for a title to survive without creative and appealing illustrations. This is because the imagination inside the illustrations presents a more unique sensibility and helps manipulate a reader’s mood through their imagination.
Wikipedia list of illustrators
Source: wikipedia.org
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A few words about history of illustration.
Illustrations can be used to display a wide range of subject matter and serve a variety of functions like:
- 1. giving faces to characters in a story
- 2. displaying a number of examples of an item described in an academic textbook
- 3. visualizing step-wise sets of instructions in a technical manual
- 4. communicating subtle thematic tone in a narrative
- 5. linking brands to the ideas of human expression, individuality and creativity
- 6. inspiring the viewer to feel emotion in such a way as to expand on the linguistic aspects of the narrative
Early history
The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric cave paintings. Before the invention of the printing press, illuminated manuscripts were hand-illustrated.
15th century through 18th century
During the 15th century, books illustrated with woodcut illustrations became available. The main processes used for reproduction of illustrations during the 16th and 17th centuries were engraving and etching. At the end of the 18th century, lithography allowed even better illustrations to be reproduced. The most notable illustrator of this epoch was William Blake who rendered his illustrations in the medium of relief etching.
Early to mid 19th century
In the early 19th century the proliferation of popular journals, which often serialised novels for mass-circulation, produced a boom in popular illustration. The medium moved away from steel engraving which was the standard in the early century towards wood-engraving which could more easily be incorporated into pages of text. Book and journal publishers would employ workshops of wood-engravers to render artists’ drawings onto polished blocks of fine-grained yew or box-wood which could then be locked directly into the printing-chase with the metal type. Notable figures of the early century were John Leech, George Cruikshank, Dickens’ illustrator Hablot K. Browne and, in France, Honoré Daumier. The same illustrators would contribute to satirical and straight-fiction magazines, but in both cases the demand was for character-drawing which encapsulated or caricatured social types and classes.
The British humorous magazine Punch, which was founded in 1841 riding on the earlier success of Cruikshank’s Comic Almanac (1827-1840), employed an uninterrupted run of high-quality comic illustrators, including Sir John Tenniel, the Dalziel Brothers and Georges du Maurier, into the 20th century. It chronicles the gradual shift in popular illustration from reliance on caricature to sophisticated topical observation. These artists all trained as conventional fine-artists, but achieved their reputations primarily as illustrators. Punch and similar magazines such as the Parisian Le Voleur realised that good illustrations sold as many copies as written content.
Source: wikipedia.org, answers.com
Illustration: The Aberdeen Bestiary (12th century).
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This is the first post in my blog which will, eventually, become one of the most popular blogs on graphics and illustrations in a time to come.
It’s a hard work and I have a long way to go, but I intend to make it so useful, that you will just love it. (If you are in any way in graphics/design/photography business).
OK. Now, where do we start … just like in old-fashioned books on theory of something let’s see what wikipedia has to say on the definition of graphics and illustration.
graph·ic (gr?f’?k)
adj. also graph·i·cal (-?-k?l)
- 1. Of or relating to written representation.
b) Of or relating to pictorial representation.
c) Of, relating to, or represented by or as if by a graph. - 2. Described in vivid detail.
- 2. Clearly outlined or set forth.
- 4. Of or relating to the graphic arts.
- 5. Of or relating to graphics.
- 6. Geology. Having crystals resembling printed characters.
n.
- 1. A work of graphic art.
- 2. A pictorial device used for illustration, as in a lecture.
- 3. A graphic display generated by a computer or an imaging device.
A visual representation such as a photo, illustration or diagram. A graphic may contain text, but text by itself is not considered a graphic unless it is done in a stylized fashion. In the computer, a graphic is a file such as a JPEG or GIF.
il·lus·tra·tion (?l’?-str?’sh?n)
n.
- 1. The act of clarifying or explaining.
- 2. The state of being clarified or explained.
- 3. Material used to clarify or explain.
- 4. Visual matter used to clarify or decorate a text.
- 5. Obsolete. Illumination.
Visual element in an advertisement. The illustration is an efficient way to represent an idea and works in concert with the headline to attract the reader to the advertisement. It is the illustration that helps to make the copy believable.
Graphics
are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain. Examples are photographs, drawings, Line Art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings, or other images. Graphics often combine text, illustration, and color. Graphic design may consist of the deliberate selection, creation, or arrangement of typography alone, as in a brochure, flier, poster, web site, or book without any other element. Clarity or effective communication may be the objective, association with other cultural elements may be sought, or merely, the creation of a distinctive style.
Graphics can be functional or artistic. Graphics can be imaginary or represent something in the real world. The latter can be a recorded version, such as a photograph, or an interpretation by a scientist to highlight essential features, or an artist, in which case the distinction with imaginary graphics may become blurred.
An Illustration
is a visualization such as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that stresses subject more than form. The aim of an illustration is to elucidate or decorate a story, poem or piece of textual information (such as a newspaper article), traditionally by providing a visual representation of something described in the text.
Source: wikipedia.org, answers.com
Illustration: Marijana Jelic
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