When your work goes from screen to tangible.

Ok, I previously posted some info on vectors, which are nice.
But whats even nicer, is when you can get your work from
the screen and make it more tangible. Now I'm lucky enough to
have the opportunity to be able to.

While most of you are probably thinking of printing, which is
nice also of course, I think most of you will like this also:



This one is from Afro FM.
The "print" (can't find a better word for it, but actually its being heat pressed on)
is made of a very thin layer of rubber called "Superflex".

It starts off with a whole roll of this, which is loaded into
a plotter, which cuts the pattern following a loaded vector image
(thats where the vectors come in).

After that, you have to manually remove the excessive Superflex from
around the image you eventually want.

Once that is done, it's press-ready.

Pressing is done at a heat of 170C for 17 seconds with quite some pressure,
hard to give an exact example, but you don't want to get stuck in between.

So after the 17 seconds you let it cool down a bit and than remove the backing.

The image above is one of the examples of what the end result can be.

Although the menu is still under construction, here are some more examples
of clothing I made.

On Pixels and Vectors.

I know this community is mainly Photoshop based, but I think a bit of side
tracking once a while won't do to much harm.

A while ago some of you requested 3D tutorials so I assume those of you
are familiar with Vector's. But I assume that there are also a lot of you
out there that have no clue what vectors are.

First thought, Pixels.
Pixels are the little squares that build up your screen. Pixels have a fixed
size. If you enlarge a small image, your computer can only make the squares larger.



While Pixels are nice when you don't scale them to much (specially important when printing).

But thats what Vectors are good for. Vectors are actually not much more than two
points, between which the computer calculates the line. The advantage is that you
can scale an image as big as you like, while keeping the sharpness of the image.

3D programs also use vectors to build up models the same way.
Personally I like to use vectors better, but most often you get very straight
illustrations with it.

Although you can make very nice work with it its very hard to get to that level.
My favorite site for such.

So well this is just some very very basic on Vectors and Pixels I just felt like
posting, but I would recommend to do more research for your self if your interested.

Specially if you want to work with Illustrator or Flash, its not bad to know the basic
behind it. Its also handy when you work as a Signmaker (from personal experience).

Armour

Here's a Mamluk armour, an Islamic military caste- the dude's a 13th century Turkish general stationed in Egypt. The sword is too big for the scabbard - because I pimped up the sword from the original costume reference.

How to Make Thumbnails Tutorial. Tropical Enviroment. Step for Step.

I start out with a A4 page in photosop. Here I can draw thumbnails. This is a process to test out different ideas, composition, lighting. Everything really.

1) I sketch out a rough idea with a small brush. I draw basic outlines. Then I fill in the basic values. This is the first step and is definitly the most important one. Think about composition. The blue lines show the rule ot thirds. This is higher than wider which is less common than a wide one.Notice the red lines. All objects points at the point of interest. The point of interest is located in the middle-ground. Dont't include any details.




2) I remove the lines and refine the shapes. You can clean up the lineart and keep if you want to too.





I haven't got any further with it, so that's all for now.

Lunch Thumbnail Sketches

First i drew this. I call it "Adventure in the cave". Took about 5min. No details. Quick thumbnail. Good warm up ^^



Then I edited it and made this. Took only a few sec. I call it "Birth of the Iceage"


C&C welcome.

Later.

Some more.

This one came from some random comment a friend of mine once made.
I thought I mind as well post it, better than nothing.

New Concept Sketch

It's not really new, but it's probably new for you guys. Here's a sketch I've done:



Check this blog every day. Let's get some community going.

GREAT color palette creator & Tutorial

This a good web application for colors.

http://kuler.adobe.com/#


Learn more:

http://tv.adobe.com/#v=http%3A//adobe.edgeboss.net/flash/adobe/adobetvprod/cs_podcast_designers/54_cpd_010.flv%3Frss_feedid%3D1065%26xmlvers%3D2


btw: I'm mainly here to give crit and look at art. I'm also here to draw, paint, sketch and create.

I'm mainly a environment artist so that's what you'll see the of most from me.


Tutorial

Here's some tips when painting digitally in Photoshop. It's not made by me. I just thought it would be helpful for at least a few.

part 1: http://fox-orian.deviantart.com/art/WACOM-Photoshop-Tablet-Tips-5744050
part 2: http://fox-orian.deviantart.com/art/WACOM-Color-Painting-Tips-31987599

Sky Train Speedpaint

I got some basics wrong. I'll try harder next time. No ref.

9/11

With today being 9 September, I thought I might post one
of my pieces from my portfolio, regarding the WTC attack.

The text is from BBC.

I'm still working on my site but here is an animated WTC crash infographic.

Afternoon sketch.

Made this one from a sketch in my black book. Thought I mind as well post it.

^-^

hello everyone :)
I don´t really know what to say. I like to paint but I don´t speedpaint very often and scribble and sketch mainly traditional. - but I want to do that more...
(so I can post something :D )

I very 'creatively' titled this one "grass" and it took me about 15 mins... :) I want to learn how to paint environments... so my poor charackters don´t have to live on plain white.
Thats excactly the problem I have with the second pic.
I don´t know what to do with it. The creature is nearly finished (I uploaded it big... there are lots of details already on the head) but I´m not sure if I will finish it. The way it is now it looks just lost in the format and all BG´s I tried looked stupid... It would be nice if anyone had an idea... or maybe something I can do better next time...
(oh and it´s not a speedpaint... ther are maybe about 5-6 hours in it already...)


so thanks and greetings to everyone :)
*waves*

Weekly topic and stuff..

Ok I haven't been to keep in keeping up the weekly topic
and posting any art my self, but I've been working a lot
these days and I got something big coming up soon.
(Xia I'll keep you updated via mail)

But until I know what the whole planning is, Ill try to keep
things up here as good as possible.

As for the weekly topic, feel still free to post. Or any other
art you might want to share. Any idea's from your side, you can
of course also post and see how anyone reacts on it.

For any discussion, commenting on the latest IDG.com post
seem to work out well, as a replacement for the old shoutbox
we had prior to the relaunch of this community.

My character =)

This is my character Eizo:-) I think he's quite good....for more art visit www.eizofukuzawa.blogspot.com Cheers:)

Photoshop Tools

Ok so here is something for you to mess around with.

What you see here is an interactive demo for the basic tools of
Photoshop, since there was ask for it. Enjoy.



I uploaded the full version now. This one features full tool
menus and an about page. Maybe later, I will add key-shortcuts
and some other features to make it mimic Photoshop better and
make the use of tools more clear.

CS3 Icon Tutorial

So here is a new tutorial on how to make your own custom icons.
In the example we will make an CS3 style icon. Personally I favor
Adobe Fireworks for these kind of things, but since this is a Photoshop
based community, Photoshop it is.

Note that at the end of this tutorial we need to use a small program (so
small you can run it without installing) from Greenfish, a Hungarian company
that makes free-ware software. I found the Icon Editor to be quite nice as
a converter, since the actual editing blows.

You can download the editor free from the Greenfish Download Page.

So here we go:
First start Photoshop and open a new document.


In this case, the icon will be used for thumbnail view in windows (48x48).
Next set the background to "transparent". This can specially be important
when making icons used for desktops.

Other sizes:
24x24 Toolbar
32x32 Desktop


Next select the Marque tool (M) and draw a square taking up about 80% of the
canvas. This will be the size of the "body" of the icon.

With a square setup, we can colour it. Press G to select the gradient tool.
Depending on what you used last it can look different:
In our case we need the right one, since the left one is the
"Bucket Tool" used to fill only in one colour.

At your upper left, you will see a small preview of the gradient and some other
options.

The one highlighted right is to make a radiant, rather than a linear gradient.
The gradient has to glow from the upper left corner.

Next, click the thumbnail gradient, highlighted left. This will open the
gradient menu.


When clicking the lower pastels for colour, you can adjust the colour using the
preview. Clicking this will open the normal Photoshop colour palette.

Note that the highlight should be on the left side.

The upper pastels are for opacity, so we can leave those.


After applying the gradient, it should look something like this.


Next press T for the Text tool. Draw a text area large enough to fit a capital
and regular letter. By default the font is set to Myriad, which suits our purpose.
Depending on your gradient, pick a font colour. The CS3 icons all use white.


I used "Wa" in this case for the Wacom Drivers.

Again, select the Marque tool (M) and select the square again. With the body
selected again, go to the bottom of the layer panel.

The second icon on the left is the effects list, select "Drop Shadow".


In the Drop Shadow Menu, adjust the settings to your liking. Most often adjusting
the angle and opacity will be enough. Also make sure you have the preview on.


After applying the drop shadow, we are done with Photoshop. Time to save.
Go to: File -> Save as. or Crtl + Shift + S. Pick .PNG from the list since
.psd doesn't work with the icon editor program and any other format (.jpg or .bmp)
doesn't support transparency. .gif does on the other hand, but the quality is not
to well.

Now comes the part where we boot up Greenfish Icon Editor.

Select "Open File" and search for the .png you just saved.

The only thing we will do with this program is re-save it as .ico.

This I found is the only way to get decent icons. Making one in Photoshop and
than renaming them from .bmp gives very poor icons with no transparency.

After you saved your new icon, you can change folders or programs there icon.
Right click the shortcut or folder and select properties.

The far right tab (Dutch Windows here) should say "Adjust" or something like it.

Selecting that tab should show this:

The button highlighted here should read something like "Change Icon".
Press it and you will get a selection of windows standard icons for folders.
Program shortcuts might have a standard selection or program specific icons.

Click the "Browse" button at the upper right and locate your custom icon.
Select it and just "OK" you self out of the menu's.

And than your done, having your own custom icon.

Of course the possibilities are endless now. Specially in combination with a
custom wallpaper. Like when your at work and all the games are banned. You
can make a chess board as a wallpaper and make the pieces out of icons.
Not to mention office spread Battleship during the break.

On advertising.

First of all, I hope you all like the new look of the community website.
I tried to make it suit more with the IDG site and personally I think
its not to bad. Of course changes can still occur when the new IDG site
is launched.

Second, a few posts back I mentioned a book in the comment, for those
who can use some help in getting inspiration.

The book is "Creative Communication by Mario Pricken". But apperantly
there is a second version on the market now called "Creative Advertising,
Second Edition". The cover looks much the same only that the name in in
yellow on the book I mentioned.

Creative Advertising, Second Edition on Amazon

Now the following book is not so much for getting inspiration for drawing, but
still is a great book, specially if your into advertising.

Guerrilla Advertising: Unconventional Brand Communication mainly has double page
size pictures with some explanation about the champaign. It's hard to explain a
selection, it's best viewed in person.

But in short, guerrilla advertising is using new or odd mediums to get the message
over. The most important part is the talk you generate with it.
Guerrilla Advertising: Unconventional Brand Communication on Amazon

Now this book, I don't have. But more than a few people I know have recomanded this
book. If I get this one in the future, I'll let you all know if its any good.
Advertising is Dead: Long Live Advertising! on Amazon

Finally , Contribution!.. er Chicks With Guns!

Hey guys. I drew this almost a year ago.. but its still one of my better drawings lol...

I couldn't seem to post my images at home from my computer So I had to do it from work and this was the only one I had access to lol.

Makes me a little annoyed to think I haven't improved beyond this...

Anyway. Yay for me , finally able to stick something up :D:D

My new blog

Hi all =) I've just opened my new blog. I did it to motivate myself couse i'm realy lazy and i draw once a month. Now i want to change it, and i'm ready for it. Come and vist my blog from time to time, please =)

http://eizofukuzawa.blogspot.com/


P.s. Xia i hope that you're not angry that i'm advertising my blog on your site:) cheers;)


Thank's for reading and visiting =)

Dogfight

Well I guess it became time I started again, so here
for the weekly topic (bit overdue but better than none at all)
the Dogfight (Mustang and Zero's, WWII fighter planes from
the US and Japan).


* The cockpit has been finished and some weather conditions have changed.
Our pilot just found him self flying near a typhoon (common for East Asia
between May and November).

~Post has changed since the second comment.

Howdy folks - this isn't a dogfight (is that with fighter planes?) , but it's a sword fight, so I thought maybe it would be of interest... it's a medieval knight vs. a Mamluk soldier (Mamluks being a middle eastern warrior caste). Pencil & marker sketches.

Welcome Back

First of all, welcome back everyone, and a regular welcome
to those who are new.

Like Xia mentioned in the previous post, I will try to keep
things going around here.

I've put up a new weekly topic, but of course any other work
is still wanted.

If anyone has any suggestions for a topic or any other
comment ext, you can contact me via this link.

Hope to see you back soon!

So back to the old bloggy community

Just decided to switch back because the new one seems pretty distance.
I am working on putting Drupal + word press + coppermine (gallery) onto the idrawgirls domain....
So...there will be a lot of work.

But for now we are back here.

Knuckle is the Admin here....
Feel free to make up new topic and tweak however if you feel like you want to get the people going and do some activity.

PEACE!!!

Thanks for the support guys!

Community Announcement!!! (IMPORTANT)

Hey Guys!!!

As you all know that this place is a Temporary HOME for the community.
I have been looking around and try to evaluate which platform will be GREAT for the future of the SMALL community to come.

And after reading a bunch of tech BLOGs and such...
I FOUND this really COOL place!!!!
IT IS BRAND NEW by a start up company in England I think.

It's new and have all kinds of new (embed, widgets, feeds, videos) stuff that we need!!!
The NEWEST FORUM/COMMUNITY Platform I could find!!!

Provide a Better Experience for THE Community Members

• Multimedia - Embed photos and videos with ease, just copy and paste.
• Threaded Comments - Makes for easier to follow and deeper topics of conversation.
• Social Forums - Member profiles generated from the topics they participate in.
• Hottest Topics - We balance popularity and freshness, to bring you the hottest topics in your forum.
• Forum Search - Actually FIND what you are looking for in your forum.
• Unread Message Tracking - Quickly see what's new since your last visit.
• WYSIWYG - (What You See Is What You Get) Rich Text Editors allow you to SEE your formatting changes as you type.

SO HERE is the NEW COMMUNITY HOME:

http://forum.idrawgirls.com/

Go check it out, REGISTER, and START POSTING!!!
Let me know what you think!!!

I will switch within a week or or two, depending on the time frame I have available.

PS: Knuckle>> Let me know if you are cool with the look and feel.
PEACE!!!

Drawing caricature of Bjorn Borg

Here is a caricature of the swedish tennis player under the 80´s. It was published in the book Drawing Faces.

My name is Esbjorn Jorsater, and am a comic art school teacher in Stockholm, Sweden. I also work with the social network Comicartschool.ning.com