It’s a wrap. This session has covered a mix of digital illustration articles on theory and in depth case studies. We’ve looked at various artist’s work and their workflows. We’ve taken a close look at the topic of style development, finding your market, and promoting your work. This session posted across numerous Tuts+ sites: Psdtuts+, Vectortuts+, and Cgtuts+. We’ll continue to expand each session as we cover new topics and integrate your feedback. Let us know what you think of this session’s material.
Digital Illustration – CS Content
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Basic Principles of Digital Matte Painting
Digital Matte Painting is a huge creative field that can add wonder and excitement to static film shots. Learn about digital matte painting principles, like set extension, camera mapping, as well as professional tips that matte painters employ.
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Software Assisted Illustration in the Form of Information Visualization
Thinking about illustration inevitably calls to mind images of pencils and sketchpads and an analog, old-school creative process. There’s a certain charm to hand-drawn images, an intimate bridge between artist and page. But the digital age has brought its own magnetism to the illustrative process, liberating artists to do more than they ever could before and offering an entirely new platform for self-expression.
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Developing a Diverse Range of Illustration Styles
Making a living as an illustrator is a dream for many young artists – but it takes more than dreaming to impress potential clients. A successful illustrator needs flare, persistence and a strong portfolio. Over the years I’ve experimented with various mediums and techniques to establish a broad range of styles. In this article I’d like to share my thoughts and experiences with using multiple illustration styles, as opposed to fixating on just one.
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From A Childs View: 30+ Creative Children’s Book Covers
This inspirational post is all about showing you a great selection of different ways the digital medium is put to use in the modern day world to create illustrations for children’s book covers: from toddlers’ short novels and picture books, to books about color for the youth, to older kids who have a keen interest in art and design – and of course everything in between.
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Eighteen Artists Share Their Opinions on Artistic Style – Part I
Talk to some artists or take a look at an online conversation about artwork and there’s a mighty good chance you’ll hear or read a mention of artistic style at some point. But for as often as it’s mentioned, style seems under-appreciated and misunderstood. So what exactly is behind a style? How does an artist develop a style and what does style mean to an artist? To find out, I spoke with eighteen highly-talented artists and I’ve conveniently assembled their responses for your edification and entertainment.
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Eighteen Artists Share Their Opinions on Artistic Style – Part II
Talk to some artists or take a look at an online conversation about artwork and there’s a mighty good chance you’ll hear or read a mention of artistic style at some point. So what exactly is behind a style? How does an artist develop a style and what does style mean to an artist? To find out, I spoke with eighteen highly-talented artists and I’ve conveniently assembled their responses for your edification and entertainment. This is the second part of a two-part series. What’s that? Missed the first part? Well check it out!
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Scratching Your Niche Market
As opposed to discussing just the specific techniques used to target a precise niche market, I would like to start off with a few overarching thoughts. I will cover some basic, yet very useful principles to keep in mind for the bigger picture (Get it? ‘Bigger picture,’ like your career – hehe), and then supply a case study of how I have used them in my work.
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Incorporating Surrealism Concepts into Your Digital Artwork
Have you ever wanted to incorporate Surreal concepts into your artwork, but weren’t sure how to approach it? In this article, I share my personal pipeline for fusing Surrealist notions with my imagination to create fresh work. Learn to unleash your mind, capture your dreams, and fuse wild ideas into well crafted digital works of art through experimentation, planning, and execution.
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Realistic Vector Motorcycle Portraits
Every semester, in my Illustrator classes, my students always want to know how I create the Motorcycle Portraits I am known for. I often give them a brief explanation, but I have never really sat down and described the process in detail…until now. My approach to getting a realistic look in my work is a bit tedious, but I think you will agree that the end results are well worth it. Enjoy!
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‘Faux’ Magazine Cover Design
With digital tools (such as, a combination of Poser and Photoshop) one can create faux cover designs much like the surface effects of traditional painting techniques. Furthermore the speed, turn around, and cost benefits in work flow these tools provide might just put a much cherished form of illustration back at the magazine editors doorstep. Let’s review a case study on creating a “Faux Fantasy and Adventure Magazine” cover, with an authentic look and worn vintage feel from yesteryear.
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The Making of Lost – Part 1
In this tutorial series, I will be covering the basic process of how I created my piece “lost.” The first part of this two part series covers the basics of creating 3D abstract pieces and how to incorporate them with photo manipulation; the second part will focus on the creation of effects in Photoshop and how to enhance and strengthen the final image.
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The Making of Lost – Part 2
In this second tutorial of this two part series, we will add a background and enhance the image with Photoshop effects. Keep in mind that a key to succeed in following this tutorial series is to experiment. I will be teaching the basic techniques but in order to create a strong composition and attractive shapes, you will need to alter the settings, and experiment with other effects. Patience and determination are mandatory skills for any artist. So let’s finish this image!
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Selfless Self-Promotion: How to Promote Yourself Without Talking About Yourself
Promoting yourself doesn’t have to mean talking about yourself. There are so many other ways to get your name out there and market your brand. This is something that is too often overlooked by creative professionals. Let’s look a few simple ways to promote yourself without talking about yourself.
Your Thoughts on this Digital Illustration Session
We’d love to here your feedback and suggestions on how to improve Creative Sessions. We’re actively working to improve this project, by consistently adding more high quality material, and new intensive two week sessions releasing each month. We look forward to your comments.
Coming Soon, Interface Design – Creative Session
Our next session will be on interface design. In the next session we’ll cover a wide spectrum of interface design topics. We’ll dive deeper into the theory of user-centered design, creating mobile interfaces, GUI design, and more. We’ll also follow some interface designers through their working process. We have a great session lined up on interface design coming soon. Expect to see this next session post around the middle of July.
