Innholdsfortegnelse for No.140 i Advanced Photoshop

COVER IMAGE ADAM VARGA www.vargaa.com US-based concept artist and matte painter Adam Varga was the perfect choice for our in-depth feature on digital painting techniques. Find out how he created our amazing cover image in his start to finish guide on p26. Painting is possibly the world’s oldest artform, yet with Photoshop in the mix it’s still bang up to date. In this issue, artist Adam Varga gives us the lowdown on the complete painting process. In his guide on p26 you’ll learn everything you need to know about using Photoshop as a painting tool, mastering tools and techniques that will take your art to the next level (They’re also very handy skills for retouchers, photo editors and compositors too!). There’s more painting on p36 as Abeer Malik takes us…

Apple used to have a reputation for being the first to the market with a revolutionary idea. Things have changed since the days of Steve Jobs though and what Apple are more renowned for these days is releasing products that are inspired by others, and often trumping them in terms of style and efficiency. Apple might not be the first to market anymore, but they still dominate and in the eyes of the consumer, they’re the ultimate across the board, technology-wise. The iPad Pro is no different. Its new AX9 chip means that this iPad is faster and more competent at multitasking, and with an incredible new resolution of 2732 x 2048, that gives a pixel density of 264.68: roughly equal to 5.6 million pixels. It’s more equipped to deal…

ABOUT THE STUDIO SNASK www.snask.com @snasksthlm Snask is the internationally renowned rockstar creative agency that creates the heart and soul of brands. They create new brands and rejuvenate old ones. Snask stands out from the sea of studios producing computer-generated, wholly digital, imagery to wow clients. Instead, the Swedish creative agency like to work with their hands, crafting, creating and building unique works of art that are taken into the digital environment towards the end of the process. This means that no two projects are ever quite the same and the result is that the clients they work with get something completely unlike anything that their peers could produce – making Snask a very popular agency indeed. In order to create such grand, quirky and off-the-cuff artwork, the founding members…

• MAKE SURE YOU’RE NOT ONLY PRODUCING At Snask, the one who creates tends to be the best at producing his/ her own creation. So don’t get stuck under some creative director who takes all the credit for your work. • USE YOUR HANDS! Yes, you were born with them. Use them for more than just swiping faces on Tinder. Build your design in reality. It is much more inspiring and fun! • BE SOCIAL So many graphic designers we meet are socially awkward. Everyone’s got some kind of social skill so start using them, otherwise you’ll focus too much on not to [screw] up in social situations. • GET THAT STICK OUT OF YOUR BUM You are a creative, that’s enough. Stop talking about kerning and bragging about grids…

OUR EXPERT ABEER MALIK https://www.facebook.com/ abeersartwork Abeer Malik is a self taught artist from India. She’s a freelance concept artist/illustrator and loves to paint realistic portraits. SOURCE FILES You will able to follow this tutorial step-by-step from start to finish using the resources on www.filesilo.co.uk. You will get the full brush set used in this tutorial, and two .png files of feathers. WORK IN PROGRESS FROM LINE SKETCH TO POLISHED, DETAILED PAINTING Progress 1: Sketch the portrait Progress 2: Blend the colours Progress 3: Use High Pass filter Always start a painting with the questions “Who is this?” “Where do they live?” and “What time do you want to show in the painting?” This will help you to decide what you want to show and how you want to show…

Taiwanese artist Casimir Lee (casimir.artstation.com) started his career designing prints for bed sheets and pillow covers using both traditional and digital media. “It’s an interesting job, but I was hungry for more challenges. Thus, I decided to focus on digital paintings and was hired as a character designer for a game company… Now, I continue to stay active in the industry as a freelance character designer and doing art creation,” he explains. Lee’s uncle was in part responsible for this beautiful piece of art. “My uncle opened a restaurant in Xinjiang and I was thinking maybe I could draw a picture of work consistent with the style of restaurant. [He] went to Xinjiang few months ago, but unfortunately I was unable to go with him. But I have heard from…

OUR EXPERT ALEKSEI PUSHILIN www.be.net/plannit @plann_it Aleksei Pushilin is a 26-year-old freelance game artist from Chelyabinsk, Russia. He loves every side of game developing – 3D and 2D assets, characters, environments and user interfaces. He also enjoys making maps and navigational systems in his spare time. SOURCE FILES You can find an image of the water pump on www.filesilo.co.uk/ advancedphotoshop, you will also need photos of autumn leaves to complete this tutorial – make them yourself, or grab the ready-to-use images from FileSilo. WORK IN PROGRESS FROM BASIC FORM TO YOUR OWN CREATURE Progress 1: Create the basic form Progress 2: Render the creature Progress 3: Insert the render Creating an image using one technique is easy once you have spent time and mastered it, whether it’s a photo, 3D creation,…

Designers and Photoshop users are always on the lookout for useable textures. Collecting textures is an ever growing process. From clouds, to coffee stains, anything can be a texture, but few textures are as easy to find as fabric. The texture of cloth is immensely useful for making digital art from canvas texture, all the way to photo manipulations through displacement maps. Fabric is everywhere in our lives, our bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, and even on our bodies. But how often do we think to actually capture these textures? Most people do not realise the resources they already have inside their homes, so why not learn how to take advantage of them? In this tutorial, you will learn to photograph the fabrics in your home so they can be added…

TOP ADVICE FOR BEING A SUCCESS • BE ORIGINAL Innovate and create something that has never been seen before. Something original! Be the exception! Create your own unique style that best represents yourself, so that you can be identified. • SHOW OFF YOUR BEST Present your top work in the best possible way. It doesn’t matter if it is all personal projects. If it is great, be proud of it! Every time you publish a project you are not just showcasing your work, you’re presenting the world that you are a designer. • USE NATURAL TEXTURES Explore nature to find the most beautiful and intereting textures. On the ground, tree bark, leaves, etc. Nature offers many great and unique textures that spark ideas for your designs. Photograph and scan things!…

OUR EXPERT ADAM VARGA www.vargaa.com @avarga89 Adam Varga specialises in environment concept art and matte painting. He believes combining your knowledge of traditional art fundamentals and emerging digital platforms is the key to successful digital art. SOURCE FILES Head to www.filesilo.co.uk/ advancedphotoshop to get a template for drawing thumbnails, links to the custom brushes used, and a real-time video of the line drawing process. Digital painting is not just a matter of picking up a stylus and waiting for inspiration to hit – you need as good a grasp on the essential Photoshop tools you’ll be using as you do when designing typography, modelling in 3D or compositing photomanipulations. In the following guide, you will become skilled in painting and texturing from start to finish in Photoshop. For the beginning…

TYLER MAY - VANISHING POINT Link: http://bit.ly/1QnxrFI Price: Free This brush is a huge timesaver and an essential one for setting perspective guides. Draw once on a guide for one-point perspective, or twice at equal distance for two-point perspective. JONAS DE RO - INK BIG Link: http://bit.ly/1FjJC14 Price: Free The Big Ink brush mimics an ink blot on canvas paper, giving the painting a more traditional feel. Paint with very light pressure and Shape Dynamics off to depict stylised clouds and skies. TYLER MAY - ROCK BIG Link: http://bit.ly/1QnxrFI Price: Free As the name implies, this brush helps for any rock or mountainous painting, but can also add texture to your ground. Colour Fill (G) a dark rock-shaped object, Cmd/Ctrl-select the shape, and paint over with this brush in Hard…

Textured Overlays: Images of glass and neon signs were placed in Overlay blend mode for heightened realism and a futuristic effect Lens Flare: Creating bright blue rectangles set in Color Dodge mode, with a horizontal motion blur, gives a reflective and shiny effect Winding Paths: The Pen tool was used to draw several curved bands, which encompass the building and gives a futuristic feel Rock Walls: Jagged-edged shapes were drawn with the Lasso tool and painted in with the listed Rock brush to add miniature details Foreground Figures: Placing small images of people in the foreground gives the viewer a sense of scale and enlarges the structure Detailing your artwork with various brushes is not the last step in bringing a piece to life. Photographs add a realistic element that…

Cairo-based advertising and commercial photographer Amr El Saadany (www.amr saadany.com) explains his relationship to Photoshop thus: “Being in the commercial advertising world, I get to work on many different types of projects with different creative directions, but no matter how far it goes, nothing beats personal projects that allow me to take things into what I would like to call ‘my realistically unrealistic world’, where everything is possible. “Being a photographer and a Photoshop geek really makes it easier for me to project my imagination into real artwork that I can share with people. And I always believe that if I can imagine it, I can create it.” With high-end advertising campaigns for the likes of Heinz under his belt, this creative is a master of polished Photoshop imagery, and…

OUR EXPERT NEIL DUERDEN www.neilduerden.co.uk @neilduerden A self confessed Mac monkey, exceeding briefs for blue chip clients globally. SOURCE FILES On FileSilo (www.filesilo.co.uk/ advancedphotoshop) you will find a selection of paint strokes that you can use to follow along with this tutorial, or you can create your own if you prefer. WORK IN PROGRESS FROM TRADITIONAL PAINT TO DIGITAL MASTERPIECE Progress 1: Start with strokes Progress 2: Paint the text Progress 3: Finishing touches Combining traditional paint with digital Photoshop techniques is a creative way to take your typography to the next level. Follow this tutorial to discover a relatively simple way to create a paint based text effect that is ultimately flexible. This is a mix of analogue and Photoshop to give a hand rendered digital look that is suitable…

Monika Rogali›ska (ajgiel.deviantart.com) is an 18-year-old high school student from Poland. “Drawing was always my hobby and I [have been] doing it since I was little kid,” she explains. “I’m mostly self-taught in digital painting. I [go] to an art school, but they teach us only a very traditional approach to art, so I have to make my digital paintings on my own. I make them just for my own enjoyment now, but I hope one day I’ll be able to do it as a job.” Nature And Technology is one of the pieces that she has made for her own personal practice, and even at such a young age it shows the fantastic quality of her work. “I was inspired by the album Biophilia by Björk,” she says. “It’s…

To access FileSilo, please visit www.filesilo.co.uk/advancedphotoshop 01 Follow the instructions on-screen to create an account with our secure FileSilo system, then log in and unlock the issue by answering a simple 02 If you’re a print subscriber, you can easily unlock all the content by entering your unique Web ID. Your Web ID is the eight-digit alphanumeric code printed above your address details on the mailing labels of your subscription copies. It can also be found on your renewal letters. 03 You can access FileSilo on any desktop, tablet or smartphone device using any popular browser (such as Safari, Firefox or Google Chrome). However, we recommend that you use a desktop to download content, as you may not be able to download files to your phone or tablet. 04 If…

ABOUT THE ARTIST MIKE WINKELMANN www.beeple-crap.com @beeple Mike Winkelmann is a 34-year-old graphic designer living in Neenah, WI. He works as a freelance motion designer, primarily working with clients to create concert visuals. Before venturing out as a freelance artist he worked as a web designer. Aside from commissioned work he is also interested in creating short films, VJ clips, and his Everyday project has kept him busy for over eight years. NAME OF PROJECT EVERYDAY Since 2007 digital artist Mike Winkelmann has found time to create a brand new piece of work every single day, and the series has quickly developed a band of admirers and loyal followers. He’s dedicated whole years to different programs and while this year is Cinema 4D, Photoshop still comes into play “for just…

08:30 ON THE TRAIN Since most of us live in the same area you meet colleagues in the subway. Here’s me, Magnus and Magdalena randomly bumping into one another! 11:00 MEET WITH CLIENTS Meeting with our investment bank client and their other Scandinavian offices. Not sure why we’re on two monitors, however. 14:00 WORK IN THE STUDIO In the studio finding our designers Jens Nilsson and Richard Gray working on an identity project. 16:00 PERSONAL PROJECTS Dressing up and starring as an evil Chinese emperor in a self-initiated film project. 20:00 TIME FOR FOOTBALL Snask take Silver in the annual football cup for agencies in Stockholm! 01:00 AFTER HOURS Me and Erik DJ-ing in Sweden’s best rock club, Debaser.…

HARD MECHANICAL The first and most essential brush on the list is the Hard Mechanical brush, which is excellent for hard lines of varying width and opacity. This brush can be used to sketch in your scene outlines or for drawing your signature when your piece is complete. SOFT MECHANICAL Just like the first brush, except with Hardness set to 0%. The Soft Mechanical Brush can be used to paint in values and provide soft, gradient-like tones, which include skies, atmosphere, or haze. DRY BRUSH (60PX) This brush gives a foggy effect much like the basic Soft Mechanical, but with greater texture and grain. Paint in Overlay or Hard Light mode to get a vintage, streaky look. ROUND BRISTLE The Round Bristle comes close to mimicking a dry acrylic brush,…

COREL PAINTER 2016 Web: www.corel.com Price: £315 / $429.00 Corel Painter’s hyper-realistic brushes can behave like real media, including thick, fat impasto paint or runny liquid inks. It’s fully compatible with Photoshop, allowing you to save in PSD format and even use Photoshop brushes, although some layer types are unique to Painter and will need to be merged down or converted before you take your work into Photoshop. A new Photoshop plug-in, Corel ParticleShop, allows Photoshop users to make use of some of Painter’s brushes in Photoshop itself – check out our review on p84. PAINTSTORM STUDIO Web: www.paintstormstudio.com Price: $19 (£12 approx) If you like making your own brushes in Photoshop, then give Paintstorm Studio a whirl, as it allows you to create and customise an almost infinite variety…

Christina Ellis (skellopia.com) graduated in 2010 and worked at Moonbot Studios until 2015, now she’s a freelance illustrator playing with children’s books and indie comics. A passion for drawing and the mystical drives her creativity, she says, “I’ve been drawing since I could remember, surrounding myself with dinosaurs, dragons, and ghosts. I never really grew out of that, but luckily it worked to my advantage!” “This is my version of a unicorn for a story I’m working on. I was playing with how unicorns are associated with virgins. This unicorn dislikes humans, but collects young girls, knowing that they can’t make more humans if he keeps them young forever in the forest and loyal to his cause. He removes their hearts and replaces them with tree leaves. Scandinavian and Japanese…

www.benq.com SPECIFICATIONS: • Windows, Mac, Linux £535 $645 This wide-format, 27-inch monitor from BenQ is designed primarily with photographers in mind, as evinced by its ability to display 99% of the Adobe RGB colour space. It’s aimed squarely at those who want accurate reproduction of the colours they’ve captured in-camera, so for photographers and retouchers the snappily named SW2700PT could well be a challenger to the traditional high-quality Mac monitor. The SW2700PT’s advanced colour functionality, while aimed squarely at photographers by the manufacturers, would also be a boon for many other imaging professionals working in still, 2D imagery. The 2560x1440 QHD resolution (at 109 pixels per inch) is perfect for working on all kinds of images – photos, composites, graphic design – although given the monitor’s focus on this area,…

X-RITE I1 DISPLAY PRO £193 This multi-use calibrator from the experts at X-Rite is designed for both desktop screens and laptops. Its Intelligent Iterative Profiling technology means that it measures and analyses monitors based on their unique profile, so you get the most accurate results. It’s fairly expensive, but as it can also calibrate iOS and Android tablets and phones, and supports broadcast video standards, it’s an essential investment for small studios and all-round designers. X-RITE I1 PHOTO PRO 2 £1199 The X-Rite i1 Pro 2 range comes in three different options – Basic, Photo and Publish, but given that this is a monitor designed for photographers we’ve chosen to concentrate on the Photo option. This complete kit isn’t cheap, so it’s best suited to full studio environments that need…

DUST AND DEBRIS £25 / $30 One of the more subtle packs available, Dust and Debris is perfect for adding tiny particles onto a blank layer before masking exactly where you want them to show. LIGHT IT UP £25 / $30 Great for light trails, the Light It Up pack can create all kinds of light effects from fantasy to simply enhancing the natural light in a picture. HAIR £25 / $30 The hair pack is great for portraits. Again, subtlety is the key with this one, but should you have a graphics tablet, it’s easy to add smooth, believable highlights to your subjects with the power of ParticleShop. SUPERHERO £25 / $30 A pack with the ‘Wow’ factor, Superhero allows you to create all kinds of fantastic energy, light…

Dubai 2040 is an old image of Abdesselam’s, while Ark-scape is recent. “What I like about them is the fact that you can create a whole new cityscape concept, mixing 3D with photographs (also called camera mapping). The most challenging and fun part was not only blending colors from photographs and 3D renderings, but also how you can make everything getting along within a perspective’s almost perfect vanishing point.” The new tools within Photoshop CC have made it much easier for Abdesselam to achieve things that were “very difficult if not impossible” before. “Like taking out the haze with one click, forcing photographs to fit in, shape and colour wise, re-sizing photographs without losing the quality and so on. I am taking less time doing things with much better quality.”…