Archive for May, 2007

remember

8 Comments »

May 3rd, 2007 Posted 4:41 am


This painting was the inspiration for the thesis I wrote in 2006. It is a depiction of a vivid dream I had when I was five years old.

Filed under: tina illustrates

kissable elvis lips

10 Comments »

May 6th, 2007 Posted 2:09 am


This is my first painting with Corel Painter X, I am very impressed with the program, and I’m still trying to figure out all of its power.

Filed under: tina illustrates

mojo in all his fuzzy glory

3 Comments »

May 17th, 2007 Posted 5:23 pm

Filed under: photos

using textures effectively

6 Comments »

May 20th, 2007 Posted 5:14 am

You want a matured and completed look to your illustration, but there’s something missing. I find this problem in a lot of illustrations created purely in Photoshop, everything still looks too smooth and sterile. Often, adding a simple paper texture layer will do the trick. Natural looking textures bring harmony to finish up your illustration. We’ll look at the texture application in my Tattoo illustration as an example.

    Tools:

  • Adobe Photoshop (CS or higher)
  • Downloaded or scanned old paper texture (high res.)
  • Nearly completed illustration

Open your nearly completed illustration in Photoshop. Open your preferred texture file and place it onto your illustration as a new layer.

Oh, you don’t have a texture you want to use? Okay, let’s backtrack for a minute. Here are your options:

  • Take high resolution photographs of textures you like
  • Scan in (at high res.) flat textures
  • Create your own texture in Photoshop (I don’t do this, but it can be done)
  • Or the lazy easy fix, search and download (ahhh, the power of Google)

I will make it even easier for you, with some links to start you off right: mayang.com/textures, and texturewarehouse.com. (remember to give credit when required)

  • Now, pull you’re texture onto your illustration. Set the blending property of this new layer to multiply and the opacity to 30%.
  • Duplicate your newly created texture layer (by dragging it onto the new layer icon in your layers pallet). This second texture layer should be above your original texture layer. Let’s set these properties to Linear Burn at 50%.

    Here is the paper I used.

    Old Paper Texture
    Old Paper Texture


    You can mess with the blending properties, you can add more texture layers, feel free to experiment.

    The first frame has no textures, the second frame has the one layer of texture at 30%, and the third has the second texture layer at 50%. I am always pleasantly surprised by the huge difference only a simple texture can make.


    Texture Process

    Texture Process

    signs of natural life

    2 Comments »

    May 21st, 2007 Posted 1:55 am

    Filed under: tina illustrates

    wood engraving effect

    2 Comments »

    May 23rd, 2007 Posted 4:01 am

    Engraving into surfaces can be easily achieved with a few simple steps, mainly, the Layer Styles properties in Photoshop.


      Tools:
    • Adobe Photoshop (CS or higher)
    • An image with a surface that needs engraving
    • Text, a shape, or an object image you want to engrave

    Open your surface image in Photoshop, make sure your layers pallet is visible.

  • Create a second layer on top of your original surface layer that contains your shape/text/object.


  • Set this second layer blending mode to Soft Light, at 85% opacity.
  • While still on the second layer, click the Add layer style button that looks like a circle with a “f” in it at the bottom of your layers pallet. This will pop up a new window with many options.

    In the Styles, Blending Options:
    • Check Inner Shadow and click the words Inner Shadow to bring up the menu for it.

    • Set the Blend Mode to multiply, select a dark color that works with your image. Set the opacity at 75%. I chose an angle of 48 with a check by Use Global Lighting. My distance is at 1px, 0% choke, and size of 1px, the contour is linear, no check by Anti-aliased, and no noise.


    • I have set an Outer Glow as well. My setting are at Screen for blend mode, 12% opacity, no noise, a light color swatch, Softer, 8% spread, size of 10px, Contour of sawtooth1, no anti-aliased, range of 41%, no jitter.


    • Check Bevel and Emboss, set the style to emboss, technique to chisel hard, 1% depth, Down direction, 2px size 0px soften. For shading I used a 48 degree angle, use global light at 21 degrees. The gloss contour, I set to Guassian, no anti-aliased, highlight mode I set to 0% and shadow mode I set to 100% Multiply using a dark brown from my illustration.


    • I also used a Texture under the Bevel and Emboss option because a super clean finish would not work with my illustration. These settings are at a 1% scale and depth of -91%, inverted and linked with layer.


    Some of these setting will not work for your illustration/design so feel free to adjust them to fit your work. Experiment with different contour options, different shadows and highlights, and colors to achieve your desired effect. Here is my quick fix finished product:

    Filed under: art & design tutorials

    goodbye birthday plant

    11 Comments »

    May 24th, 2007 Posted 3:52 am

    Filed under: the adventures

    b to the m to the delish

    2 Comments »

    May 25th, 2007 Posted 4:37 pm

    Filed under: the adventures

    image out of text

    3 Comments »

    May 27th, 2007 Posted 10:43 pm

    Sometimes, you want to take a break from painting and use the magic of language and words to create a great storytelling piece. For this tutorial we’ll use three levels of contrast in black and white (highlight, mid light, and shadow) and place paragraphs into these three levels to create depth using only text.

      Tools for this Photoshop Tutorial:
    • A pretty good level of expertise in Adobe Photoshop (CS or higher)
    • A high res. image with a good range of contrast
    • A large piece of text
    • A high res. texture image

    Let’s open our high contrast image in Photoshop.



    Have your layers pallet open, always. Drag the high contrast image onto the Create a new layer button. Now, disable layer visibility (the eye icon) on the bottom layer. We do this as a safety measure, in case something screws up.

  • Back on to top layer, click Image > Adjustments > Channel Mixer.



    Check Monochrome, if needed adjust the numbers till you have strong highlights and shadows, click OK. Now, add a new layer on top of everything, use a color fill on this layer. Also, drag a texture image onto your current file to create another layer.



    We’re going to disable the visibility of the last two layers we added and save these for later. Find the large amount of text you are going to use, delete any excess spaces or returns, and Copy it.

  • Back in Photoshop, use the Text tool and drag a box around your whole image, Paste, paste again and again until your whole image is covered in text. I used a simple sans serif typeface at a small font size, set the font color as Black.

  • Duplicate this text layer, set the newly created layer’s text to a middle tone gray.
  • Duplicate the text layer again and set this third text layer to a light gray color text.


  • Rasterize the three text layers (select the layer, go to Select > Rasterize > Type).
  • Disable visibility to the three text layers and select the black and white image layer.
  • Click on Select > Color Range, when on the Color Range pallet, click Select: Shadows and hit OK.
  • Immediately, click Select > Inverse (or CTRL+Shift+I).



    On your layers pallet, click the black color text layer and turn on visibility on this layer, which should be the third layer from the top.

  • Hit Delete on your keyboard.


  • Click Select > Deselect (or CTRL+D).
  • Disable visibility on the text layer again.

  • Click back onto the black and white image. Click on Select > Color Range, then Select: Midtones, and hit OK.
  • Select > Inverse again.
  • Click on the middle tone gray text layer (second layer from the top), turn on visibility on this layer, hit Delete on your keyboard.
  • Deselect again, and disable visibility on the text layer again.

  • Once more, click on the black and white image layer, Select > Color Range, Select: Highlights.
  • Select > Inverse, click on the top text layer with the lightest gray text, turn on visibility, hit Delete.
  • Select > Deselect. Now, turn on visibility on all three text layers, the texture layer, and the color layer and turn off visibility on the black and white image layer.



    We are almost done, now for some slight adjustments to add more contrast.

  • On the top text layer set the Layer Blending Properties to Screen, this will lighten that text layer. If needed, make a copy of this top text layer by dragging it to the Create a new layer button, this would lighten the layer even more.

  • If the middle tone gray text layer or the black text layer need more contrast, also make copies of these layers to finish the job. You can now flatten your image and save.

    Filed under: art & design tutorials