RESOURCES WORTH

FREE$225+
The magazine for Adobe Photoshop professionals

135

PRO TYPE

I
N
WITHT
SKS

SECRETS
Take control of Photoshops
typography tools today

L
TO CEARN
REF REA
LE TE
MAPCTION
S

ippi
lly nneg and la
ed to yer m
know ask

US

am
nd u CC keybStudios
Stor se fl
m St oweoard rate
udio r bru d
put t
o theshes
test

CRE
EFFATE AM
SH ECTS AZIN

STE
RN
EW
SKI
LLS

W TO
H IM ILLUS
T
l ad PAC
T RATE
ital vice

ES WORTH $63

ISSU
E 13
5

POL
PER Y
SIDET

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

ISSUE 135 CONTENTS

WorldMags.net
ISSUE 135

WELCOME

Welcome to the latest

issue of Advanced
Photoshop. This issue we
delve into one of the big
trends in artwork at the
moment: low poly. This
issue has everything you
need for a masterpiece!

APRIL MADDEN
Editor
IN THIS ISSUE:
TYPOGRAPHY
ILLUSTRATION
PHOTOMANIPULATION
DIGITAL PAINTING
LOWPOLY

COVER IMAGE
WOJTEK FUS

fb.com/fus.wojtek

Wojtek Fus is a
22-year-old concept
designer and illustrator.
Working as a freelancer,
he creates concept art,
promotional illustrations
and pitch art for games
and animations. This is
part of a series of works.

There are two ways to create low-poly artwork,

and we take a look at both of them this issue. 3D
low poly is created by combining 3D models with
Photoshop techniques, and weve got a complete
tutorial on p46 to help you create it with the aid of a
free 3D program. 2D low poly is created using
vectors in either Photoshop or a mix of Photoshop
and Illustrator. Our cover artist explains how he
created his 2D low-poly piece on p52. We also speak
to digital artist JR Schmidt on p12 to discover the
secrets behind his masterful low-poly style.
Elsewhere in the issue we take a good look at
Photoshops type tools and how to use them (p28),
explore masking techniques to turn photos into
professional-quality paintings (p56) and discover
how to use clipping masks in creative ways (p66).
Our experts share their 20 top Photoshop tips for
better illustrations, and we get hands on with the
Editors Keys Photoshop CC
Enjoy the issue!

12 THE WORLD

PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW:

BUILDER

JR Schmidts unique style combines 3D and

Processing with Photoshop to stunning effect

FIND US ONLI
@advancedpshop

/AdvancedPhotoshop

.co.uk

66 USE CLIPPING MASKS

WORKSHOP:

CREATIVELY

Get more from clipping masks by combining

them with illustrative elements

WorldMags.net

003

FOR BACK ISSUES, BOOKS

AND MERCHANDISE VISIT:

WorldMags.net
ISSUE 135
CONTENTS
EYE ON DESIGN

Whats hot, whos in and the

latest art & design happenings

08
10
12
18
20

PRO PANEL
Meet this issues experts
INDUSTRY NEWS
Art prizes, apps and a special offer
PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW
The world builder
PROJECT FOCUS
Illustrating games
STUDIO INTERVIEW
Cream Studios

20 CREAM STUDIOS
46

004

28

PRO TYPE TECHNIQUES

CREATE A LOWPOLY PLANET

WorldMags.net

ISSUE 135 #/.4%.43

WorldMags.net
TECHNIQUES

Professional artists reveal their high-end Photoshop skills in

our easy-to-follow workshops

28
40
46
52
56

FEATURE

Pro type techniques

WORKSHOP

Add hand-drawn eects to fonts

WORKSHOP

Create a low-poly planet

HOW I MADE

Low Poly

WORKSHOP

Turn photos into paintings

62
66
72
86
90

HOW I MADE

Lollipop

WORKSHOP

Use clipping masks creatively

REVIEWS

We put the latest creative kit

and apps to the test

80
84

FEATURE
Editors Keys Photoshop CC keyboard
REVIEW
Paintstorm Studio

FEATURE

20 tips for better illustrations

READER INTERVIEW

Dare to dream
RESOURCE PROJECT

Make flower brushes

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

SEE PAGE 26 OR 51 FOR THE LATEST OFFERS

96

RESOURCES

Free with issue 135 of

Advanced Photoshop

TAILORMADE
CREATIVE CONTENT

&OLLOW ALONG WITH OUR EXPERT VIDEO TUITION

FROM 0HOTOSHOP PRO +IRK .ELSON

56 TURN PHOTOS INTO PAINTINGS

PREMIUM RESOURCES

&REE TEXTURES PHOTOS FONTS AND MUCH MORE TO

D L DF

P US:

62

HOW I MADE: LOLLIPOP

e 4UTORIAL PROJECT FILES

e 0REMIUM TEXTURE PACKS
WorldMags.net e "ONUS RESOURCES

005

READERS SURVEY
WorldMags.net

JOIN OUR

READER PANEL
TODAY!
Take our 3-minute survey at
advancedphotoshop.co.uk/survey
and win a place on our panel

We love creating Advanced Photoshop

we hope you love reading it too. Th
were asking you to tell us wha
from your magazine. Our quick t
survey lets you tell us exactly wha
want to see, from the kind of artwor
like to the Photoshop techniques you w
to learn. Share your opinions with us today
and make a difference to your magazine. W
cant wait to see your thoughts!
APRIL MADDEN
Editor

At work: The Advanced

Photoshop team making the
magazine look beautiful

006

WorldMags.net

www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk

WorldMags.net
Complete our survey to join our
Advanced Photoshop panel and:
See new ideas and changes before anyone else
OGet invited to attend special events in your area
OTest third-party products for review
OGet a chance to meet the Advanced
Photoshop team
OShape the future issues of the magazine
OEnter into exclusive competitions
O

Take the
survey on
any device

Step 1
Complete
survey

Only
takes 3
mins!

Step 2

Get involved

Step 3
Earn rewards

Planning: The Advanced

Photoshop team planning
future issues of the mag

Complete our survey and win your place today

advancedphotoshop.co.uk/survey
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk

WorldMags.net

007

EYE ON DESIGN PRO PANEL

WorldMags.net
PRO PANEL

MEET THE PROFESSIONALS SHARING THEIR PHOTOSHOP

EXPERTISE AND TECHNIQUES IN THIS ISSUE
ALEKSEI PUSHILIN

www.behance.net/plannit
Using as little as you can to achieve as much as you want is a big deal for any designer or illustrator. Low-poly art for 3D design is like pixelbased art for flat illustrations: you simply scale up the technique. If you are able to make the model you want in one hundred polygons or
one hundred pixels, a few million of them are not a problem any more.
Find out more about Aleksei Pushilins low-poly techniques in his tutorial on p46

Aleksei Pushilin

MARY WINKLER

www.acrylicana.com
Use gradients to speed up
rendering illustrated work. Create
a new layer, use the Lasso tool to
select a section of shadow or
highlight, and use the Gradient tool to place a linear
or radial gradient that goes from transparent to your
fill colour. This will speed up the process of rendering
shadows, highlights, and even blocks of colour.
Discover more tricks for speeding up
illustrations in Mary Winklers tutorial on p66

Colour schemes can really

breathe life into an art
piece and set its mood. Dont
be afraid to play around with
different colour schemes

Mary Winkler

GENEVA BENTON / GENEVAB.COM

008

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

The magazine for Adobe Photoshop professionals

GENEVA BENTON

genevab.com
Colour schemes can really breathe life into an art piece and set its mood. Dont be
afraid to play around with different colour schemes and use them to your advantage
in your art. Feel free to experiment with different shades, but also dont be afraid to
go back to the basic, tried and true schemes and deviate from there.
Get more digital art advice from Geneva Benton in her tutorial on p56
Geneva Benton

Imagine Publishing Ltd

Richmond House, 33 Richmond Hill,
Bournemouth, Dorset, BH2 6EZ
 +44 (0) 1202 586200
Web: www.imagine-publishing.co.uk
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk
www.greatdigitalmags.com

Magazine team
Editor April Madden

[email protected]
 01202 586218

Editor in Chief Amy Squibb

Production Editor Rebecca Greig
Designer Rebekka Hearl
Photographer James Sheppard
Senior Art Editor Duncan Crook
Publishing Director Aaron Asadi
Head of Design Ross Andrews
Contributors
Julie Bassett, Geneva Benton, Rob Carney, Wojtek Fus,
Andy Hau, Larissa Mori, Kirk Nelson, Aleksei Pushilin, Poz
Watson, Mark White and Mary Winkler

Advertising
Digital or printed media packs are available on request.
Head of Sales Hang Deretz
 01202 586442
[email protected]
Advertising Manager Alex Carnegie
 01202 586430
[email protected]

FileSilo.co.uk
Assets and resource files for this magazine can be found on
this website. Register now to unlock thousands of useful files.
Support: [email protected]

International
Advanced Photoshop is available for licensing.
Contact the International department to discuss
partnership opportunities.
Head of International Licensing Cathy Blackman
 +44 (0) 1202 586401
[email protected]

Subscriptions
For all subscription enquiries:
[email protected]
 UK: 0844 848 8402
 Overseas: +44 (0) 1795 592 880
13-issue subscription (UK) 62.30
13-issue subscription (Europe) 70
13-issue subscription (ROW) 80

Circulation
Head of Circulation Darren Pearce
 01202 586200

Production
Production Director Jane Hawkins
 01202 586200

Finance
Finance Director Marco Peroni

Founder
Group Managing Director Damian Butt

Printing & Distribution

Printed by: William Gibbons & Sons Ltd, 26 Planetary Road,

Willenhall, West Midlands, WV13 3XT
Distributed in the UK & Eire by: Marketforce, Blue Fin Building,
110 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0SU
0203 148 3300
Distributed in Australia by: Network Services (a division of Bauer
Media Group) Level 21 Civic Tower, 66-68 Goulburn Street,
Sydney, New South Wales 2000, Australia
+61 2 8667 5288
Distributed to the rest of the world by: Marketforce,
Blue Fin Building, 110 Southwark Street, London, SE1 0SU
0203 148 3300





Disclaimer
The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any unsolicited
material lost or damaged in the post. All text and layout is the
copyright of Imagine Publishing Ltd. Nothing in this magazine
may be reproduced in whole or part without the written
permission of the publisher. All copyrights are recognised
and used specifically for the purpose of criticism and review.
Although the magazine has endeavoured to ensure all
information is correct at time of print, prices and availability
may change. This magazine is fully independent and not
affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein.
Photoshop is either a registered trademark or trademark
of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/
or other countries and is used with express permission.
All $ prices are US Dollars unless otherwise stated.
If you submit material to Imagine Publishing via post,
email, social network or any other means, you automatically
grant Imagine Publishing an irrevocable, perpetual, royaltyfree license to use the images across its entire portfolio,
in print, online and digital, and to deliver the images to
existing and future clients, including but not limited to
international licensees for reproduction in international,
licensed editions of Imagine products. Any material you
submit is sent at your risk and, although every care is taken,
neither Imagine Publishing nor its employees, agents or
subcontractors shall be liable for the loss or damage.

Imagine Publishing Ltd 2015

ISSN 1748-7277

WorldMags.net

009

EYE ON DESIGN INDUSTRY NEWS

WorldMags.net

WIN A SHARE OF
$9184 WITH ARTGEMINI
THE ARTGEMINI PRIZE IS BACK FOR A THIRD EDITION WITH AN EVEN BIGGER
PRIZE POOL AND EXHIBITION AT THE MENIER GALLERY

orn to promote international

contemporary art for emerging and
established artists all around the world,
the ArtGemini Prize certainly presents a
very tempting event to enter.
Though it does cost money to enter with a
minimum Single Entry Price of 20, there is no age
limit for applicants to the independent competition.
Its also open to artists from anywhere in the world
and there is a total prize pool of 6000 ($9184) as
well as an exclusive exhibition of your work in
London if you get selected as a finalist.
Shortlisted artists have opportunity to further
their careers, explained Vanessa Champion,
founder of PhotoAid Global. Ellie Davies [the]
first prize winner of the Photography ArtGemini
Prize 2014, had her work selected for the
Singapore Art Fair. Three of her prints were sold in
Singapore. Entries submitted will also benefit
from being seen by some very influential judges
including Dr Christina Bradstreet from the National
Gallery, Sarah Ryan from New Blood Art, and Zoe
Wishaw, a commercial photography consultant
who was previously European director of
photography at Getty Images.

Any potential applicants to the ArtGemini Prize

will have four categories to submit to. The Painting
and Sculpture prize will see first, second and third
place winners win 2,000, 1,000, and 500
J>KH><LBN>EQ OABE> LA> 2MG@ JLBKL )JBR> ? g OBEE
go to a creative under 25. The Photography Prize is
divided into two categories with Professional winning
1000 in prize money and Amateur winning 500. A
third sub-category, the Special PhotoAid Award
sponsored by PhotoAid Global this year, will be
looking specifically for the best social or
environmental documentary image submitted and
awarded 500. Finally, the Public Choice Prize of
250 will be fully open for voting by the public during
the final ArtGemini exhibition, and the winner will be
announced at the end of the show.
After entries close on 7 July this year, the jury will
draw up a long list of up to 120 works from all the
images submitted online before shortlisting up to 40
works by 4 August for the finalists exhibition in
London. After viewing each shortlisted work
individually, judges will then select the prize winners
except for the Public Choice prize.
The 2015 finalists exhibition and private view will
be held in September at the Menier Gallery, which is

situated within the historic Menier Chocolate Factory,

minutes from London Bridge, Borough Market and
Tate Modern, revealed Champion. Plus all
photographers who enter the photojournalism
category will be considered for potential partnership
with PhotoAid in the UK and potentially abroad in
their education and travel programmes.
For further information on the ArtGemeni prize
and information on how to enter, visit www.
artgeminiprize.com.

The 2015 finalists exhibition and private view will be held

in September at the Menier Gallery, which is situated
within the historic Menier Chocolate Factory, minutes from
London Bridge, Borough Market and Tate Modern
Vanessa Champion, founder of PhotoAid Global

ArtGemini Aims: Between the Trees by Ellie Davies.

The aims of the prize are to promote creativity and
excellence around the world, help artists to exhibit
and sell works in London, and to support a selected
charity with a cash donation each year

010

WorldMags.net

Winning work by Ellie Davies: View the

shortlisted artists from previous years to get an
idea of what the judges are looking for at www.
artgeminiprize.com/shortlisted-artists-2013/
shortlisted-artists-2014/

HOW TO ENTER
k ><B=> G LA> <:L>@JQ :G= LA> GMF;>J ?
works you wish to enter.
k Acceptable media: Painting, including oil, mixed
medium, acrylic, watercolour, drawing, ink,
calligraphy and original print, photography, digital
art and selfie (new). Maximum size 100 x 100cm.
Sculpture maximum size 50 x 50 x 50cm.
k "F:@>K ? OJDK FMKL ;> BG CH>@ ?JF:L
Recommended ideal size is 1MB, with minimum
size 250KB, maximum 2MB. For best viewing,
ArtGemini recommend a maximum resolution
of 300 dpi and pixel dimensions of 1024 pixels or
more wide.
k &:PBFMF KBR> BK  P <F BG<EM=BG@ ?J:F>
except sculpture where maximum size is 50 x
50 x 50 cm.
k 2M F:Q >GL>J MH L LAJ>> KBP ?J HAL@J:HAQ
original works created in the last three years.
Any work submitted must be available for sale
in the exhibition if shortlisted.
See more at www.artgeminiprize.com/
how-to-enter.

WorldMags.net
IS THIS AWARDWINNING APP
A MINIATURE PHOTOSHOP?
TYPIC ALLOWS USERS TO NOT ONLY EDIT PHOTOS WITH FILTER AND EFFECTS
BUT ALSO ADD TEXT, DESIGN ELEMENTS, AND EVEN A PERSONALISED LOGO
Since its 2012 launch by Columbia-based tech
company Hi Mom, innovative photography app
Typic has been enjoyed by millions of users around
the world. Now, the Typic team is celebrating as the
app available to download both on iPhone and
iPad achieves a huge global success with more
than 3.5 million downloads and counting. In fact, its
officially become the number one photo and video
app in over 70 countries.
With unique photo filters and effects along
with the ability for users to add inspiring text in
84 different fonts, as well as 240 different design
elements that give photos a professional final

touch, its easy to see why. Users can even add

up to four versions of their personal or company
logo to photos as an In-App purchase, an
invaluable option for anyone hoping to promote
their brand.
Hi Mom co-founders Julin Urrego, Steve
Urrego and Margarita Acosta set out to create a
photography app that was not only functional and
easy to use, which also made Typic a huge hit
with children. In response to the overwhelming
demand Hi Mom released Typic Kids in February
2014; a child friendly version of the app created to
inspire the minds of budding young designers.

For more information about the Typic apps visit

www.typicapp.com or simply search Typic in the
Apple App Store. Both Typic and Typic Kids are
priced at 1.49/$1.99.

Top In-App purchases for Typic include a 36 Words

Pack and a Custom Logo Pack to add up to four
company logos to the images a user edits

BUY A COLORMUNKI AND GET

A YEARS WORTH OF CC FREE

XRITE LAUNCHES A COMPELLING NEW OFFER THAT WILL GIVE

CREATIVES PROFESSIONAL COLOUR CALIBRATION TOGETHER
WITH ONE YEAR OF LIGHTROOM AND PHOTOSHOP FOR FREE

An exciting offer for artists and Photoshop users

everywhere has brought together Adobes tools
with the worlds leading camera, monitor, and
printer colour calibration solutions from X-Rite in
a whole new way.
Now, any purchases of X-Rites ColorMunki
Photo or i1Photo Pro 2 will provide an
automatic one year free membership to the
Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan. Worth
102, the plan includes access to both
Lightroom and Photoshop CC. The offer is only
available to users in the Middle East, Europe
and Africa.
When working in Lightroom CC, Photoshop
CC or both, photographers need the confidence
that they are seeing an accurate representation
of their image. They need the reassurance that

the adjustments they are making in these

powerful applications will appear correctly on
screen and in print, commented Geoffrey
Clements, managing director of X-Rite Photo
Europe. The ColorMunki Photo, i1Photo Pro 2 and
i1Display Pro set the standard for accurate colour
management technology. They provide users with
the peace of mind they need to get creative with
their images.
The ColorMunki Photo and i1Photo Pro 2
enable users to colour manage their screens,
printers and projectors with speed and accuracy.
Combined with the creative power of Adobe
Photoshop CC and the management and
enhancement tools within Adobe Lightroom and
Lightroom mobile, X-Rite has aimed for this offer
to provide users with a comprehensive, industry

For those interested in X-Rites i1Display Pro as a way

to ensure a high level of on-screen colour accuracy
instead, there is also the option to claim a 15%
discount on a one year membership to an Adobe
Creative Cloud Photography plan

standard set of tools to create, manage and

accurately reproduce the very best images possible.
Buy ColorMunki Photo for 414 and i1Photo Pro
2 for 1434.00 at www.xritephoto.eu/adobe.

WorldMags.net

011

EYE ON DESIGN PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW

WorldMags.net
THE WORLD BUILDER

www.cargocollective.
com/jrschmidt

JR SCHMIDTS UNIQUE STYLE COMBINES 3D AND PROCESSING

WITH PHOTOSHOP TO STUNNING EFFECT. CURRENTLY A MOTION
DESIGNER AT GOOGLE CREATIVE LAB, IT SEEMS THERE IS NO
END TO THIS ARTISTS TALENTS

effrey Robert Schmidt is somewhat of a

creative enigma. His most notable, and
captivating, 3D imagery uses tiny
building blocks to build colourful
landscapes; he uses Processing to design
stunning particle-based posters; and his work for
NeonMob a series of surreal, polygonal
landscapes is nothing short of incredible. He
has the kind of versatility and inspirational skill
that youd of course expect from a designer at
Googles famed Creative Lab. We caught up with
Schmidt to talk style, technique and thinking
differently as a creative.
TELL US ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND AS AN
ARTIST AND DESIGNER?
When I was younger I focused mostly on
traditional art drawing, painting, a little sculpture
and so on. My interest in video games heavily
influenced my desire to pursue 3D graphics, and
continues to influence my work today. After I
graduated I was planning on majoring in film and
animation, but I decided to switch to something I

had never heard of a programme at the Rochester

Institute of Technology called New Media Design. It
ended up being one of the best decisions of my career
because I was exposed to a huge variety of
technologies in addition to film and animation:
web-design, illustration, interactive design, scripting,
object-oriented programming, programmatic art, and
on and on. After college I worked in advertising for a
couple of years and eventually started to feel pretty
disillusioned that drove me to do a lot more personal
illustration work. Eventually I wound up at the Creative
Lab at Google, which has been great so far.
SO WHATS YOUR ROLE AT GOOGLE CREATIVE
LAB AND HOW DOES IT INSPIRE YOU?
Coming from an agency background, the Creative
Lab was refreshing, unpredictable, intimidating and
entirely unique. The general attitude in the lab is to
do what youre excited about, so I bring a lot of 3D
design into my work, along with motion graphics. I
work directly on the products themselves and create
content that goes out into the world, or I work with

developers to guide the process. That can mean

really massaging a button animation or transition so
it feels just right not too long, but long enough to
show you the effects of your finger tap. Sometimes I
screenshot my animation curves and send them to
the engineers. The Google Creative Lab is full of
people that are vastly more talented than I am. Its
humbling and I feel incredibly fortunate to work there.
HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP YOUR STYLE AND
WHAT DRIVES YOU TO CREATE
YOUR IMAGES?
To be honest, Im not sure I can meaningfully pin
down my own style, whatever it is, and even if I did it
would be constantly changing. Right now I think its
interesting how people react to different visual cues.
What is it about an image that draws you in? For
some time everyone was going crazy over
polygonal-looking stuff. And for a while people just
couldnt stop putting 45-degree long shadows on
their icons and logos. Why is that? It really

All images JR Schmidt

I know how quickly projects can spiral

out of control and end up unfinished, so
I usually limit myself to one-off experiments

012

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

The Google Creative Lab is full of people that are

vastly more talented than I am. Its humbling
and I feel incredibly fortunate to work there
New York: With this image, Schmidt wanted to visualise
New York using toy blocks. This image is based off of
some data showing energy usage per building, he says

WorldMags.net

013

WorldMags.net
Polygonal posters: These stunning creations are
another personal project by Schmidt. I love
isometric video game level design, he explains, and
I think thats what was inspiring me here

014

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
fascinates me. Im always trying to pay attention
to those things that inexplicably catch on and get
re-used. I try to experiment with different styles,
and I think the common thread among those
styles is that they stand against the tool with
which they were made.
WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR FAVOURITE RECENT
PROJECTS TO WORK ON  BOTH CLIENT AND
PERSONAL WORK?
I made a set of 50 isometric landscape illustrations
for a startup called NeonMob (www.neonmob.
com/@jrschmidt). Its a place for people to find
and trade digital collectable illustrations. I really
enjoyed making those. When I started I wasnt sure
how I could possibly make them all unique. It was
great challenge and very satisfying on a creative
level. Im also pretty excited about a mobile game
Im working on right now. I cant say much about it
yet, but it does involve more 3D landscapes. I cant
seem to get away from that subject matter.
WHATS USUALLY THE MOST CHALLENGING
PART OF CREATING YOUR IMAGES?
Getting started is definitely the biggest challenge
for me. I know how quickly projects can spiral out
of control and end up unfinished, so I usually limit
myself to one-off experiments. That helps me
settle on something that I can get excited about
and really run with.

The right insurance

for YOU?
With a full rang
ialist policies
for Photographers, Video-makers, Film
Processing Labs and everyone involved in
Image-makin
ng makes insurance
simple, effective and hassle free.
Imaging str
ive you excellent cover,
service, security and value for money.

HOW DID YOU DISCOVER YOUR POLYGONAL,

BUILDING BLOCK STYLE?
I used to build with LEGO and toy blocks constantly
when I was a kid. I still have this urge to build
something with my hands, but at the same time I
want to keep working digitally. So I tried modelling
a little set of digital blocks in Cinema 4D. I thought
about their proportions and measurements, made
sure they would fit together however they were
rotated, and I started stacking them up. The nice
thing about doing this on the computer is that you
never run out of blocks, so I just went crazy. I built
a tower, and then I cloned it and built an even
bigger tower made of smaller ones. I was careful
to keep everything somewhat procedural, so I
could go back in and modify one of the blocks in
the set, and the rest would update.
HOW DOES PHOTOSHOP FIT INTO YOUR
EVERYDAY WORKFLOW?
For still images, Photoshop is usually my last step.
When I render something in 3D, I usually separate
the passes colour, shadow, specular, and so on.
When I bring all the passes into Photoshop I can
make adjustments to them more efficiently than if I
had to re-render them each time. Its particularly
useful with depth passes, black-and-white images
that represent areas on which the camera is in
focus. These work great with the Lens Blur filter.

For a quote or more information,

call Imaging Insurance now on...

01277 243016
Or visit our website...

www.imaginginsurance.co.uk
Imaging Insuranc
ding name licensed to Vantage Insurance Services Limited (VISL) by Niche Insurance Services Limited.
VISL is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. VISL is registered in England, No 3441136.
VISLs registered address is: 5th Floor, 41 Eastcheap, London, EC3M 1DT
Imaging Insurance can be contract
d Floor, Juniper House, Warley Hill Business Park, Brentwood, CM13 3BE
Tel: 01277 243016, Fax: 0207 6558060, Email: [email protected]

WorldMags.net

EYE ON DESIGN PORTFOLIO INTERVIEW

WorldMags.net

AND WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE TOOLS

AND FEATURES?
A while back I set about learning Processing for
creating generative art. I started by writing a little
script that would spawn particles and draw lines
as they moved. I realised right away that the
difficult thing is getting the particles to move in a
way that isnt rigid and boring. My solution was to
move them through little force fields that I would
place when I started the script. The effect was
similar to those gravity simulator games where
you have to sling something through space, while
it gets pulled around by all the planets. Once I had
that working I pumped the particle count way up
so they would flood the screen. I also tied the
RGB values of each particle to their velocity
and acceleration.
SIMILARLY, WHAT ABOUT YOUR STUNNING
NEW YORK IMAGE? HOW DID YOU CREATE
THIS AND WHAT WERE THE CHALLENGES?
Ive always been inspired by maps. I started by
gathering as many high-resolution maps of the city
as I could find, particularly any that were driven by
some kind of data. I was hoping for something that
mapped building height across the city, but I ended

Rather than build a castle, for some reason I have this

urge to build a set of blocks first, and then get the
computer to do the heavy lifting
up settling for an infographic that showed energy
usage per building. I took my maps into Photoshop
and started lining them all up so they were
geographically the same. Using these as a base, I
created maps for what I intended to building height
and building colour. In Cinema 4D I modelled a few
bricks. Then I built a system that cloned and
coloured the bricks based on the maps I created.
From there it was a process of trial and error,
getting the image to look the way I wanted. The
maps made it easy to make changes, so most of
the work from that point on was done in
Photoshop, tweaking colours. I would tweak the
maps in Photoshop and the bricks would update in
Cinema 4D.

that I enjoy building systems for making things.

Rather than build a castle, for some reason I have
this urge to build a set of blocks first, and then get
the computer to do the heavy lifting.

WHAT DO YOU THINK SEPARATES YOU

FROM OTHER ARTISTS?
There are a lot of talented people in this field, and
Im not sure its even fair for me to distinguish
myself from them. If I have to pick one thing, Id say

FINDING YOUR STYLE

SCHMIDTS TOP TIPS FOR FORGING YOUR STYLE
AND DEVELOPING YOUR CAREER
ON THE INDUSTRY
Dont be afraid to go after something different if you find
yourself stuck doing something you hate. You could have
played it safe and become a pharmacist, but instead you
took a risk and went after an art career. That means youre
entitled to love what you do, every single day.
ON SOFTWARE
Master the tools but dont rely on them. Be an artist and a
designer, not just a software operator. Try to keep learning
things everyday.
ON PORTFOLIOS
Its better to have a few strong pieces than a big selection
with not-so-great pieces mixed in. And dont put anything in
there that you wouldnt want to work on again. Thats the
only thing people see, and when they reach out to you for
work, thats what theyll ask for.

NeonMob: These images, typical of Schmidts

style, are a personal project, to re-create the
sort of toy blocks I played with as a kid

016

WorldMags.net

Up To: 2x 14-Core CPUs . 256GB DDR4 . 4x AMD FirePro W9100 . 64GB GDDR5 . 24x 4K Displays

+44 (0) 800 180 4801

[email protected]

cgi illustration by sanders.shiers

WorldMags.net

www.workstationspecialists.com

Copyright Workstation Specialists Acecad Software Ltd. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their
respective owners. E & OE.

WorldMags.net

EYE ON DESIGN PROJECT FOCUS

WorldMags.net

ILLUSTRATING GAMES
FREELANCER CHIARA VERCESI REVEALS HOW SHE USED
PHOTOSHOP TO DESIGN A GAME WITH A PURPOSE
ABOUT THE ARTIST
CHIARA VERCESI
www.behance.net/chiaravercesi

Vercesi got her degree in

illustration from the IED [Isituto
Europe di Design] in Milan in 2006
and has been a freelancer ever
since. A couple of years ago she
moved to Amsterdam where she
currently lives and works, using
the city as a never-ending source of
inspiration for her illustrations.

NAME OF PROJECT
STEAMPILOTS

ver since graduating from the Istituto

Europeo di Design in Milan in 2006, freelance
illustrator Chiara Vercesi has had the career
many Photoshop artists dream of. Currently
living in Amsterdam, she has worked for several
publishers as well as created art for international
organisations such as Google, Facebook, Enel, and
Bic, as well as collaborating with the research
department at Philips as a graphic designer.
Her favourite projects over the years, however, have
been working with universities on research projects
involving traditional boardgames and digital games.
I have worked for many years with Spartaco
Albertarelli, a well known Italian game designer, who
has been my thesis supervisor and taught me
everything I know about the games world, Vercesi
explains. I met Fausto Dassenno through Spartaco
Albertarelli. When Dassenno sent her an email
asking if shed be interested in working on
Steampilots, a new game with a purpose (GWAP; a
game designed to make processing information fun
and rewarding) developed for Cubrik with
Moonsubmarine, Vercesi was delighted. After her
work with universities, developing illustrations for
Steampilots was a natural transition with its own
new challenges to overcome.

WAS IT DIFFERENT TO DESIGN AN

ILLUSTRATION FOR A GWAP AS OPPOSED TO
A NORMAL GAME OR BOARD GAME?
Yes, definitely. After three years this is still one of
my favourite portfolio projects, because I was
given the freedom to illustrate the scenario in
my very own way, regardless of all the
stereotypes and boundaries you have to keep in
consideration when you are working on a
traditional board game.
I had worked with an international research
team of developers in two different universities,
but since it was a research project, the client
was more interested in the quality of the final
product than in matching tight deadlines for
the market.
I hope all my colleagues have the chance to
work on this type of project at least once, it has
been really interesting: I had the chance to visit
the IT laboratories in London, and to speak with
some of the professors who were leading the
team, to better understand the kind of project it
was, and not just from an illustration point of
view. To read a bit more about their research,
and to find out what the purpose of a GWAP is,
you can visit www.cubrikproject.eu.

Steampilots logo
Colourful bullets

All images Chiara Vercesi

Developing the clock

018

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
Using Photoshop helped me in giving the
piece the warm feeling I was looking for
and to work on the details after having
defined the basic shapes with Illustrator

I decided to use the whole

range of oranges and turquoises
to get a right balance between
cold and warm tonalities

I obtained the texture for the

background out of a scan of a sheet
of rice paper which had been lying
in my useful stuff folder since the
beginning of time and, [by] playing
with Multiply options and opacity
levels I got the effect I was after

The final colour correction

Work in progress

The enemy spaceship

HOW DID YOU DEVELOP THE CLEAN SHAPES

AND LOOK OF THE DESIGN?
It was a very traditional workflow. I always start with
pencil and paper, that is the only way I can make up
my mind about an idea. Once the team had approved
the sketch, I made a colour mood board and collected
some paper textures.
The study of the colour palette was really
important to give the image the playful mood I was
looking for. I decided to use the whole range of
oranges and turquoises to get the right balance
between cold and warm tonalities: the turquoise is a
less serious colour compared to blue and, as the
orange was less intense than red, I found it a good
combination. It was also a great palette when taking
into account the fact that the user would have to look
at it for quite a bit of time while playing the game so it
had to be something not too tiring for the eyes.
Finally, I developed the basic shapes with
Illustrator, exporting everything in Photoshop to add
texture, adjust colours and polish the illustration.
The layer masks are really useful to apply textures
and filters just on some parts of the illustration. The
Noise filter helps a lot to warm up and give a more
traditional look to vector illustrations.

WOULD YOU CONSIDER THE FINAL DESIGN

A SUCCESS?
I am still happy with it, even if today I would maybe
work it out in a different way. I have loved this
project so, yes, it has been a success.
IF YOU COULD GIVE OUR READERS ONE
PHOTOSHOP SECRET YOUVE LEARNED OVER
THE YEARS, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Keep experimenting with functionality and
combinations. There are a lot of unexplored
possibilities; I keep on discovering new things every
day and 50 per cent of the time it happens just by
mistake. The rest of the time I try to find a faster or a
better way to get the exact image I have in mind.
The internet is an infinite source of tutorials and
manuals and there is always something new to
find out. If you just sit on what you have learned in
school you will be out of the market in few years.
On the other hand, a lot of effects and a good
technique are not enough to make a good
illustration and sometimes, showing off all your
technical skills, over-polishing a piece, could
actually be self-defeating. There are artworks that
are amazingly done from a technical point of

view, which nonetheless are not interesting at all,

while sometimes, simpler illustrations are a more
catchy way to communicate a message and are
quickly published around the world. So, my secret
for you could be to learn how to recognise
when its enough and use just what you need to
get the desired result you will not get any
awards for having used all the available filters on
a single image.
Draw every day, work hard, keep loving what
you are doing, never forget to read, see and taste
whats going on around you. Dont focus just on
the illustration world, there are a lot of interesting
people out there doing really crazy stuff, go and
meet them you will never regret it and you
never know how it could end up.
CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT WHERE YOU
AIM TO BE FOR THE FUTURE  SAY IN FIVE
YEARS TIME?
Wow, thats a good question. Now everything is
running so fast and well that I did not really have the
time to make plans for the future. I am in transition at
the moment and I am living the present day by day,
enjoying a particularly good moment of my life.

WorldMags.net

019

EYE ON DESIGN STUDIO INTERVIEW

WorldMags.net

CREAM STUDIOS

WORKING FROM A WIDE OPEN STUDIO DESIGNED TO ENCOURAGE

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS, CREAM
STUDIOS CREATES DETAILED, REALISTIC DESIGNS FOR SOME OF
THE WORLDS BIGGEST BRANDS

reativity and collaboration are key for this

Australian 3D and retouching studio. Known
for its high-end, photorealistic work and good
communication with clients, its no wonder
that Cream Studios is going from strength to strength.
The studio was started 14 years ago and has
grown over the years to a staff of 12 with a modest
aim to be the best. Director and owner Steve York
says: Good work attracts great people and thats
whats happening here now.
The studio itself is in Sydney and offers a wide
open space that encourages communication
between the different departments, as well as
separate suites to sit with clients in a quieter
environment. People always comment when they
walk into the studio that were pretty lucky with the
space were in, says senior retoucher Lee Turner.
Weve got lots of space and art on the walls; its a
really lovely environment to work in. The space
means that its easy to sit down at each others desks
when were collaborating on a job. Everyone here
has plenty of industry experience and theyre very
open to sharing information, so we often ask each
others opinion on a job sometimes you need that
fresh perspective.
The layout of the studio and the closeness of the
team mean that it is easy to work together on
projects to deliver quality results to clients, making
the production process much smoother. With the
larger jobs now involving [both] CGI and retouching,
its important to brief [the two departments] together
at the beginning of the job, explains York. 3D artists
often drag a retoucher over to their screen for advice
or to offer up different passes for a retoucher to
either speed up the process or to give the retoucher
more to work with. Daily WIPs between production
managers on the jobs in progress also helps us plan
for timings and what we are offering as drafts for the
clients to approve. Having good production
managers that know whats happening with a job
always makes the client comfortable.
This collaborative effort sparks a lot of new and
exciting creative ideas, so is the studio able to add its
own unique style and input into briefs? Yes and no,
says York. Some photographers we collaborate with
have a very good idea of what theyre after and just
want our team to put together an image seamlessly as
laid out in the brief. Others are very happy and keen for
us to contribute our own creative input. Our 3D work
actually requires more personal input, as you are

020

Everyone here has plenty of

industry experience and theyre
very open to sharing information, so we
often ask each others opinion on a job

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
ABOUT THE STUDIO
CREAM STUDIOS
www.creamstudios.com.au

Steve York
Director/Owner

Conor Harll
3D Generalist

Lorett Foth
3D Generalist

Lee Turner
Senior Retoucher

Easy to collaborate : The space means that its

easy to sit down at each others desks when were
collaborating on a job, says Lee Turner

All images Cream Studios 2015

With an enviable reputation for

high-end photographic
retouching and 3D imaging,
Cream has established itself as
one of the industrys leading
studios in Australia. The team of
highly skilled and experienced
artists work in tandem with art directors, designers and
photographers alike, ensuring the step from concept to reality
is as seamless as possible.

WorldMags.net

021

EYE ON DESIGN STUDIO INTERVIEW

WorldMags.net

Banlice: A campaign for Banlice by JWT,

with photography by Sean Izzard
Kirks Watermelonade: Working with a brilliant idea for Kirks,
our 3D artists created the liquid, type, Chupa Chups and CGI
characters, focusing on positioning and subtle detail

Mix of hardware: The retouchers are at home using Macs,

but the 3D department make use of high-end PCs

working a bit like a photographer when directing the

lighting and positioning of the elements throughout the
image. An example of this can be seen in the Banlice
image where we get to play with the hair and the
structure of it to create the image. It isnt merely a prop
that is shot and handed to us.
The kind of work that Cream Studios is producing
requires a lot of experimentation with the latest
technology, finding the right software programs to
achieve the right results. The majority of its 3D work
is created using a combination of Autodesk 3ds Max,
Chaos Group V-Ray, Pixologic Zbrush and, of course,
Photoshop. From here, they can use plug-ins and
additional programs to tailor the workflow pipeline to
suit needs, as Conor Harll, 3D generalist, explains:
Fortunately, in the CG world, there is a whole gamut

022
40

of various programs and plug-ins designed to

specifically ease the workflow of creating
photorealistic images. Some of the more notable
ones that we use regularly include Hair Farm, HDR
Light Studio and the brilliant Itoo Software Forest
Pack. Although V-Ray is our go-to renderer of
choice, as technology evolves so do our needs and
expectations of software. A perfect example of this is
our use of rendering software Octane. Capable of
extremely realistic renders, Octane Render is an
unbiased GPU-powered rendering engine. While not
quite there yet, I believe in time this could be an
integral asset to our CG pipeline.
This flexibility and willingness to find and
experiment with new programs was a key asset in a
recent project for Banlice. 3D generalist Lorett Foth

hadnt done hair before and this brief involved

creating recognisable shapes out of hair. Not
deterred by the challenge, Foth came up with a
solution through trial and error: I was looking into
the 3D market to see what software was out there
and I ended up trying four different hair programs.
That meant sitting down and spending days on
tutorials, software manuals and forums. I spent a
long time trying to get the results I was looking for in
Zbrush, I tried 3ds Max Hair and Fur, and then
Ornatrix after. I finally ended up with Hair Farm,
which was perfect for the job. After that it became
easier, I could concentrate on getting the design of
the gondolas and deciding on how the bridge
construction could be woven out of hair. I really enjoy
doing hair and I feel I can tackle any hair job now.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

JACK DANIELS HONEY  BEES BEACH BAR

TO PROMOTE THE NEW JACK DANIELS TENNESSEE HONEY WHISKEY, A HOST OF MINIATURE
$-/$%,,%$0%/0,%7%2%0/3)4)/.%$4/,//+,)+%!37!2-/&"%%3/.!"/44,%

01

$7)2%&2!-%/&4(%7()3+%9',!33

To get the drops of condensation looking just right on the glass, we

found that manually placing them created the most realistic result. For this
we used 3ds Maxs object paint. The glass, ice, liquid, lime and spritz were
then brought into Octane Render where a sun-drenched HDR image helped
achieve that late afternoon, warm summer mood.

03

02

'2%92%.$%2/&0/05,!4%$"/44,%

Between the two final layouts, there were well over 5,000 miniature
people placed on the bottles. We used Itoo Softwares scattering plug-in, Forest
Pack. Probably the most challenging part of this step was carefully adjusting the
textures and positioning of the people, so that from a distance, they appeared to
be a swarm of bees collecting around the bottle. Add to this some key characters
and props (including the man himself, Jack Daniel) and the job was done.

OC4!.% "%!549
2%.$%2/&*$"/44,%

Being the real hero of this image,

it was essential to get the look of
the bottle spot on. After playing
around with various lighting and
shader setups within 3ds Max
and V-Ray, we eventually
achieved the desired result with
the insanely powerful renderer,
Octane. Ever-so subtle natural
glass bumps and refraction
helped with the overall realism of
the Jack Daniels bottle.

WorldMags.net

04

BO44,%62!9,!"%,
!.$0%/0,%5.'2!$%$

The background started with a

single portrait image, which was
extended for landscape and then
graded for a late afternoon feel.
The bottle label was rendered in
V-Ray and enhanced in Photoshop.
A variety of passes were produced
in V-Ray and layered up in
Photoshop, including a grounding
shadow, sun shadow and people
reflections. They were all then
graded to fit the scene.

023

EYE ON DESIGN STUDIO INTERVIEW

WorldMags.net

Photoshop has a large role to play in the studios

output and there is a wealth of experience among the
team members to get the best out of it. Two of our
retouchers have been using Photoshop since its early
days, when we were working with scanned slides or
negatives, and things that didnt exist had to be
created by model makers, says Turner. Of course,
times have moved on since then and Photoshop is
often used alongside the 3D software that is so
essential to this kind of work: With the advent of 3D,
the nature of creating advertising images is changing.
Now, as a retoucher, every day is different.
Sometimes were manipulating a pure Photoshop
image created with photographed or sourced images.
Even though our 3D department is capable of
creating miracles, the images always pass through
the retouching department. Sometimes its a
collaborative effort, with ideas or different passes
bouncing back and forth; sometimes its just a tiny bit
of polishing, adding a touch more photographic reality
to a 3D model. As Photoshop continues to change, so
do the number of ways to play with an image.
A recent project, and one that stands out for Conor
Harll, shows another side to the studio. As well as
manipulating images and creating high-end,

Even though our 3D

department is capable of
creating miracles, the images
always pass through the
retouching department
As Photoshop continues to
change, so do the number of
ways to play with an image

Audi TT: Audi TT campaign, retouched

by the team at Cream Studios

technologically capable 3D designs, it also

contributes to projects with a different kind of
reward: Recently, we were lucky enough to team
up with Leo Burnett Sydney and the World Wildlife
Fund Australia, to create an entire CG image to
promote the upcoming Earth Hour campaign. Due
to the sheer amount of computer-generated
geometry in the scene, my hands were certainly
full trying to keep the render times reasonable,
while maintaining a photorealistic render. 3ds Max
and V-Ray were the tools of choice to create this
image, along with plenty of Forest Pack to scatter
realistic foliage on the parched farm landscape.
V-Rays Lens Effects were used to finish off the
bloom on the globes filament. It was a superchallenging yet incredibly rewarding project to
work on, for such a worthy cause.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF STEVE YORK

A social conscience goes hand in hand with a

good work ethic, which comes across in the way
that Cream Studios works with its clients. It is
important to the team that they dont let their clients
down, and that they stick to whatever they quote for
a job. This bodes well for the future of the studio;
Steve York hopes to break down barriers in the US
market, believing that they can offer some real
benefits: American agencies produce some great
work with flexible budgets, which would allow for
Cream to spread its creative wings even further and
achieve some great work on an even larger scale.
Also, the time difference actually works to their
advantage: while they sleep we can be working on
the job, so its ready for review when they wake up
in the morning. I really believe that Creams skill
level has the potential to meet the markets
expectations and more. We cant wait to see this
studio expand even further.

WE FIND OUT WHAT A DAY IS LIKE FOR THE DIRECTOR OF CREAM STUDIOS

09:00

MORNING WIP

WIP Meeting between production

and sales to discuss new and existing jobs, who
would be the best to operate that job at the time
and to make sure were all on the same page.

024
040

10:00

CLIENT MEETING

Meetings with photographers and/

or art directors are usually scheduled for around this
time. We usually set up in one of the suites and
discuss the job at hand with one of the operators.

13:00

BREAK TIME

Lunchtime! If Im lucky I get to go

out and have a bite, or its one at the desk!

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
I really believe that
Creams skill level has the
potential to meet the markets
expectations and more

The main office space: Good work attracts great people

and thats what is happening here now, says Steve York

TOP 5 PRODUCTION TIPS

Earth Hour: A beautiful collaboration with Leo Burnett
for a very worthy cause, WWFs Earth Hour campaign.
Built 100 per cent in 3D by CreamStudios

IMAGE LIBRARY
Always keep an eye out for great images or textures that are difficult
to replicate. Nature is random, and computer-generated material is
rarely random enough to look real.
REFERENCE
Take the time to think and research at the start of each project and
pay attention to detail. An abundance of reference material from the
get-go can often save a lot of headaches down the line, and create a
better final image.

Allens Snakes Alive: A great campaign by JWT for Allens

Snakes Alive, made completely in 3D. Our CGI artists
focused on giving the snake some nice detail on the
scales and, of course, a little bit of character

GET OUTSIDE
If possible, take advantage of a break at some point during the day to
get outside and readjust your eyes. Constantly staring at pixels for
hours on end can really have a negative effect on productivity, as
well as creativity.
KEEP IT REAL
Its very difficult to fool the eye; youve got years worth of images
stored in your head as reference. Sometimes the best way to create
torn paper is to go and shoot some torn paper.

All images: Cream Studio 2015

FILE ORGANISATION
Always try to organise your files with others in mind. If someone
else (more often a client these days) needs your layered file, a
complicated layering or non-existent naming system helps no one.
Delete nothing.

14:00

PROGRESSION CHECK

After lunch, I check in with the team

and see how theyre progressing with their work. We
discuss any questions or problems they may be
facing and problem-solve together.

15:00

ALL SYSTEMS SET TO GO

Everyone is back from lunch and

we are banging out our work to get some WIPs to
the client before the end of the day in time for review
and hopefully feedback in the morning.

17:00

AFTERNOON DEBRIEF

Working out what needs to be

done this evening to get it off to the client in the
morning. Still getting jobs walking through the
door at this time!

WorldMags.net

025

SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION OFFER

WorldMags.net

SUBSCRIBE FOR ONE YEAR

FREE

& GET THE

2ND YEAR

HALF

PRICE
OFFER

vice
i ws and ad

l tutorials
Professiona

ORDER HOTLINE

0844 848 8402

ONLINE AT

WWW.IMAGINESUBS.CO.UK/APS

WorldMags.net

BY POST

Send your completed form to:

Advanced Photoshop Subscriptions, 800 Guillat Avenue,
Kent Science Park, Sittingbourne, Kent ME9 8GU

WorldMags.net
YOUR DETAILS

EVERY
ISSUE
PACKED
WITH...

Title
Surname
Address

First name

Postcode
Telephone number
Mobile number
Email address

Country

DELIVERY DETAILS

(IF DIFFERENT FROM ABOVE)

Professional tips for getting the

most from Photoshop

Title
Surname
Address

Advanced techniques
Interviews and advice from
industry experts

First name

Postcode
Telephone number
Mobile number
Email address

High-quality tutorials to help you

create incredible images

Country

CREDIT CARD DETAILS

WHY YOU
SHOULD
SUBSCRIBE...

YOUR EXCLUSIVE READER PRICE, 2 YEAR (26 ISSUES)

Q UK 62.30 (Save 50%)

Cheque

Q I enclose a cheque for

(made payable to Imagine Publishing Ltd)

Credit/Debit Card

Q Visa
Issue number

Save 50% o the cover price

FREE delivery direct
to your door
Never miss an issue

ORDER BY

Q Mastercard

Card number

Maestro
Expiry date

QQ (if Maestro)

Signed
Date
Please tick if you do not wish to receive any promotional material from Imagine Publishing Ltd by post Q
by telephone Q via email Q
Please tick if you do not wish to receive any promotional material from other companies by post Q
by telephone Q Please tick if you DO wish to receive such information via email Q

TERMS & CONDITIONS

Terms and Conditions: This offer entitles new UK credit card subscribers to pay just 62.30 for 26 issues,
saving 50%. Offer code PTF15 must be quoted to receive this special subscription price. Subscriptions will
start with the next available issue. Details of the Direct Debit Guarantee are available on request. This offer
expires 31 July 2015. Overseas rates available at www.imaginesubs.co.uk

31 JULY 2015

Use code PTF15 for this offer.

Q Amex

WorldMags.net

 Steven Simpson

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

PRO TYPE TECHNIQUES TECHNIQUES

PRO
TYPE
TECHNIQUES

EXPERTS REVEAL HOW TO MASTER PHOTOSHOPS

TYPE TOOLS AND EXPLAIN HOW YOU CAN CREATE
TYPOGRAPHIC DESIGNS LIKE A PROFESSIONAL

ypography swirls with words, leaps with

letters and dazzles with definitions, while its
something that all graphic designers,
motion designers, comic book artists, and
illustrators indeed anyone who uses a computer
has to tackle at some point, its also an area in which
you can specialise to an incredible degree. You can be
a type designer, creating the fonts for the rest of us to
use, you can be a typographer, wrangling and laying
out those typefaces, or you can be a lettering artist,
creating the individual letterforms and words needed
for specific illustrations.
Indeed there is so much terminology that even
design-literate folk can get it wrong. Seth Mach points
out that, for instance, A typeface has come to mean
the style and design of visual aspects of an alphabet
and specific letterforms. A font refers to
categorisation of aspects of the specific weight (book,
bold, black), size (points) and style (condensed,
extended, oblique) of a typeface. Essentially, a font is
the delivery method of a typeface in a specific weight
and style in the digital file format.
Once you have the basics fixed in your mind then
you can start to get excited about the possibilities that
text offers. Remember, leading is the amount of
space between lines of text, tracking is the space
between groups of characters, and kerning is the
amount of space between two particular characters.
For Charles Williams, part of the fun is that he has a
more brief-centric open-minded stylistic approach [to
type projects] than I do with pure illustration. This is
because typography briefs require the type to
respond creatively to the specific messaging of

MEET THE EXPERTS

Alexander Klement

STEVE SIMPSON

Linzie Hunter

36 Days of Type A: 3D Days of Type is a fun project of Alexander

Klements, where every day a new letterform needs to be
designed. Its great for keeping creativity flowing in a short
turnaround and working as quickly as possible, helping to build
many core skills used as a graphic designer

For Every New Thing: During the month of January, explains Linzie
Hunter, I put a shout-out on social media for people to share their
New Years resolutions with me. Each day I would pick one and
create an image inspired by the words and the sentiment behind
each goal. I combined lettering with illustration

LINZIE HUNTER

ALEXANDER KLEMENT

(44034%6%3)-03/.02/3)4%#/-
34%6%3)-03/.
Steve Simpson has 30 years of
award-winning graphic design,
illustration and typography under
his belt, with clients including
Vodafone, Absolut and the Wall
Street Journal.

777,).:)%(5.4%2#/5+
,).:)%(5.4%2
Linzie Hunter studied illustration at
Chelsea College of Art and
Design. She is a hand-lettering artist,
whose work is created digitally, but
she also enjoys traditional
print-making.

777!,%8!.$%2+,%-%.4#/!,%80+,%-%.4
A graphic designer at 999 Design,
Alexander Klement loves working with
type to create interesting graphic
solutions, and is pleased his current
role has a varied client base so he can
keep developing his typographic skills.

ANASTASIA STANKEVICH

ANDY HAU

BART VAN DELFT

777!.+!34!.),,5342!4)/.#/!.+!34!.!24
Freelance artist and illustrator
Anastasia Stankevich mixes
traditional and digital techniques in
her work, and takes much of her
inspiration from nature.

777!.$9(!5#/@ANDYKWHAU
Andy Hau is the creative force
behind A.H.A. Design Ltd, a design
studio that insists on being
multi-disciplinary. Nevertheless,
typography is one his key skills.

7777%"&!2-.,
"!246!.$%,&4
The work of Dutch graphic designer
Bart van Delft spans a range of media,
but typography is a particular interest
of his. He describes himself as a
minimalist when it comes to type.

JANELLE CUMMINS

MARTIN SCHMETZER
777-!24).3#(-%4:%2#/-!24).3#(-%4:%2
An illustrator who focuses on
hand-drawn lettering, Martin Schmetzer
lives and works in Stockholm.

MURILO LOPES

777*!.%,,%#5--).3#/Motion graphics designer Janelle

Cummins recently graduated from
Savannah College of Art and Design,
and is currently based in California.

SETH MACH

CHARLES WILLIAMS

7773%4(-!#(#/3%4(?-!#(
Seth Mach is a visual designer and
artist based in San Francisco. He
received his M.F.A. degree from the
Savannah College of Art and Design.

777-!$%50/2'
4()3)3-!$%50
Made Up is the name of Charles
Williams London-based illustration
and type studio. He has worked for
clients like Adobe, Google and Nike.

WorldMags.net

777"%(!.#%.%4-52),/,/0%3
Art director and motion graphics
designer Murilo Lopes is a
freelancer working out of Sao
Paulo, Brazil.

BRANDON NICKERSON
777".)#+3#/Brandon Nickerson is a designer
from Florida, who now lives and
works in New York. He is passionate
about using his skills to build brands.

029

TECHNIQUES PRO TYPE TECHNIQUES

Alexander Klement

Anastasia Stankevich

Martin Schmetzer

WorldMags.net

Renaissance Raven: I guess my style is

a fusion of old and new, vintage
1900s-era feel with a full-blown street
graffiti temperament, says Martin
Schmetzer, who did this piece for
Baltimore Magazine

030

Linzie Hunter

explains that, if hes creating packaging for a

shaving brand, Im most likely going to use a clean
legible font (to play off of the clean and crisp look
you have after shaving) that has some sort of
approachable aspect to it (to play off of the fact that
you are putting a razor to your face and throat, so
you dont want to come off too edgy). What helps is
breaking down whatever it is you are trying to say
and play off of those certain aspects that stick out.
Nickerson says that your type design is creating
the visual voice of the brand. This requires serious
thought, only dont think too hard or youll
overthink it.

Anastasia Stankevich

whats being said, whereas illustration requires a

consistency of style to be applied to different subject
matter, so that the work is recognisably that of the
mercantile-minded illustrator.
As Andy Hau puts it, lettering and typography need
to convey a deeper level of meaning that isnt
expressed in the words. All design needs to have a
story and a concept its what makes the product
interesting, engaging, resonant and ultimately, sincere.
They say a picture speaks a thousand words, and
in effect, the typographer is providing the picture for
those words. Different typefaces, sizes, weights and
so on, all impact on the message and meaning that
the text itself conveys. For Anastasia Stankevich, that
means using ornamental and decorative typefaces,
something that has concept and detail as its close to
what I like to create. To create the letters for her
piece SPRING, she used plants, flowers, butterflies
and birds to create and decorate the letters, with
more light and pastel colours to complement the
fresh spring look. The LOVE illustration called for a
romantic feeling so I combined roses with delicate
evening colours.
Mood and meaning have to be at the fore of your
mind in advertising work. Brandon Nickerson

SPRING: Anastasia Stankevich likes the

idea of using type as an illustration in
and of itself and being able to create a
visual message with both the word and
the imagery

WorldMags.net

 Martin Schmetzer

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

031

TECHNIQUES PRO TYPE TECHNIQUES

WorldMags.net

PHOTOSHOP TOOLS FOR TYPE

1 First things first: Once youve
chosen the basic Horizontal or Vertical
Type tool, the basic settings can be
tweaked from here. You can change
font, point size, or turn your text 3D

1
2

2 Give your work character: From

the Character panel you have more
control over your text, and can
manage tracking, leading, kerning
and so on

3 Fountain of fonts: Which font to

use is obviously critical. Janelle
Cummins says her favourite fonts
tend to be those with large font
families. Because of the variety of
line weights, styles and
condensations, I am able to use only
one typeface. This creates unity.

4 Layer it up: Text is created on

separate layers so you can manage
it and apply different effects. If your
client is yet to supply you with all
the words they want, you can
create Placeholder Text from the
main Type menu

5 Chunks of text: Manage how your

text is broken up and displayed in the
Paragraph panel. Here you have your
alignment and justification options,
and you can choose whether to
hyphenate or not

032

LEGIBILITY VERSUS READABILITY

THEY SOUND LIKE THEY MEAN THE SAME
THING, BUT TYPOGRAPHERS HAVE TO
JUGGLE BOTH CONCERNS
Essentially, legibility is how easy it is to distinguish
an individual letter form, while readability is about
how easy it is to read and understand the text. The
former depends on large X-heights and large
counters and occurs when the designer deeply
understands human perception and language,
including the end purpose of the typeface, as Seth
Mach put it, while the latter is about point size, line
length and letter spacing. Mach adds: Readability
is obviously how easily a typeface is able to be
read, but a lot of decisions go into that design such
as point size, line lengths, tracking, leading and
type alignment, among other factors like the
background contrast. All these can affect the way
people perceive letterforms and words.
As a typographer, Bart van Delft adds, its
sometimes tempting to choose a beautiful thin font
for headings. Not all clients can see the beauty of
lean lettering and prefer readability over design. So
try to search for a legible but still attractive typeface.
over pictograms and symbols to describe complex
ideas in the modern world.
When he was learning, Martin Schmetzer used
graffiti to explore the alphabet and learn how the
letters are put together. You dont have to follow strict
traditional typographic guides and can twist and bend
the letters until you tame them into your own. Make
each letter look different in unlimited ways. In fact, I try

Bart van Delft

Typography can seem very technical. There are

rules laid down to ensure legibility and readability,
and you may feel your creativity stifled. Skilled
typographers, says Mach, spend thousands of
hours with letterforms and have studied their
historical metamorphosis and public use. There are
rules that have been decided upon. Although it could
be argued that typography is subjective, some
aspects have to be intrinsically correct. This is the
separation of design and art. Yet, it is clear that
typography changes as human need changes. A
good example is that insular and blackletter scripts
are no longer used in modern books.
Indeed, these days, Murilo Lopes says that you
can often see more clean styles, less gradients, less
information. The principal rules that I use is
alignment and colour combination. And readability!
For example, an image with much information
behind the text, with many colours and contrast does
not help the readability. A common mistake that
Janelle Cummins spots is too little leading and
tracking, or the unnecessary use of multiple
typefaces [that] hardly relate to the message of the
piece. In general, no more than two or three
typefaces should be used at one time and should aim
at enhancing the meaning of the words.
Novice designers often make type too big,
says Mach. Of course you have to design for
specific situations and people, but when I am
struggling with a text layout, it nearly always
comes down to my tracking being too tight and
type size being too large. Trained typographers use
size, tracking, weight and careful typeface
selection to convey meaning and mood. These are
reasons why letters and alphabets have won out

not to have guides or rules in consideration when I

design, other than legibility and the aim to create
something visually appealing.
Often, the typographer will push the latter, while the
client may want to play safe with the former. In this
regard, van Deflt mentions the wish of the client to use
comic-style fonts for headings or body-text. I am glad
when I can convince them not to go for something

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
Novice designers often
make type too big. Of course
you have to design for specific
situations and people, but when I
am struggling with a text layout, it
nearly always comes down to my
tracking being too tight and type
size being too large
SETH MACH / WWW.SETHMACH.COM

KERN A FONT IN PHOTOSHOP

LOOK AT SHAPES AND FORM, NOT JUST LETTERS, ADVISES SETH MACH,
WHO EXPLAINS THAT KERNING IS ABOUT RHYTHM AND IS RARELY
CORRECT IF LETTERS ARE EVENLY SPACED

01

CHOOSE YOUR WEAPON

03

EVALUATE YOUR WORDS

Steve Simpson

Although bitmap images are not the

most conducive to viewing or editing letterforms,
as Mach puts it, there are times when youll have
to type directly and kern in Photoshop. Select the
Horizontal Type tool (T) and hover over a spot
where the letter-spacing looks optically incorrect.
Click between the letters. There should be a
blinking cursor. Here the space between the P
and H is too tight, while the space between the T
and the O is too loose.

EDIT AWAY

Hold down the Alt/Opt key and use the

left and right arrow keys to nudge the letters
together or apart. The left arrow key decreases
spacing and the right arrow key increases spacing.
Mach also suggests you Track out the type a bit. A
little secret is that more letter-spacing overall
hides kerning mistakes between specific letters.
Because the human eye recognises relationships
between forms, letting each letter breathe can
save time and look better in the end. But be careful
of this practice with body copy.

due to shifting. Lastly, read the words again. It is

easy to be so focused on the technical aspects of
kerning that misspellings can slip through.

Seth Mach

Raglan Road: My choice of lettering style is dependent on the

overall feel of the piece Im working on, says Steve Simpson. I
sometimes mix in a few different styles depending on the effect
I want to get. Its similar to drawing features on a face; its all
about the expression

To exit out of the Type tool, press Esc and

then V to get back to the Move tool. After kerning,
the type may have to be realigned in the design

02

Running Squirrel:
Janelle Cummins
agrees that
typography is full
of rules, saying
but because I
have a better
understanding of
these rules, I am
able to choose
when to use them
and when to
break them

Janelle Cummins

Stillis: The best typefaces do not really convey a meaning, says

Seth Mach, but more of a singular feeling because of its structure.
It is the graphic designer who ends up using the finished typeface
to take on the job of creating a mood and meaning through type
size, hierarchy and layout

childish. Something annoying which every designer will

understand is when a client would like to switch the
copy of your typography masterpiece. When you finally
have created your beautiful heading and the client
changes the text you can basically start all over again.
So I verify the text a few times before I start and explain
the consequences of an alteration to the client.
But you shouldnt feel battered by the twin cudgels
of readability and legibility. For, as van Delft continues,
the basic principles of typography still exist, but they
have faded a little. The fonts we use nowadays are a bit
more exciting than they used to be, but strange kerning

or goofy fonts as body text are still a no go. For Steve

Simpson, its like any skill, you need to learn the rules
before you can choose which ones to work with and
which ones to discard. I think its the same with
illustration, there are certain things you always do and
certain things you never do. These make your work
look a particular way and give it a style.
Beginning to feel confident in your own style is the
one of the things that establishes an artist. And when
you do, you can really start testing the technical rules,
pushing the boundaries of legibility, and even getting
down and dirty with the letterforms themselves.

WorldMags.net

033

TECHNIQUES PRO TYPE TECHNIQUES

WorldMags.net

DESIGN YOUR OWN LETTERING

appreciated. I live in London and there has been a
rising interest for bespoke and hand-painted signs, for
example, with many designers turning to using these
more traditional techniques. I think thats great, though
I personally prefer a good balance between traditional
and digital.
Simpson didnt come to illustrating his own letters
until quite late in his career. He says, As an
illustration-focused designer I would be working
mainly with text for titles and headings rather than
body copy. I found picking fonts very frustrating (but

heaps better than using letterset catalogues), it always

seemed to be a case of the font wasnt exactly what I
wanted but Id spent far too long searching for the right
one So it would just have to do. Soon I realised I could
change and adapt letter forms (and that it was actually
okay to do this), this made my work look so much
more cohesive. I guess the eureka moment for me
was when I realised that by hand drawing my own
letter forms they perfectly matched my illustration and
that it worked so well because it was my hand that had
both illustrated the image and illustrated the text it

q-URILO,OPES

If you cant find the font that fits perfectly, then why
not edit one so that it does? Nickerson often
chooses a font that he thinks has a complementary
base (and what I mean by base is the foundation and
overall traits such as the contrast from thick to thin,
unique characteristics and so on) to what look and
feel Im trying to accomplish. From there I honestly
just mess around, sometimes I try connecting
certain aspects of the font to others (almost like
weird ligatures), sometimes I overlap the letters;
this is basically just having fun with the type and
letting my imagination go wild.
Or you can go further and simply create your own
letters. A big trend right now is hand-drawn
typography, says Schmetzer. The craftsmanship
behind typography is almost as important right now as
the final result it seems. This is a trend that covers
more areas than typography, people appreciate the
crafts behind a product or design, so theres a story
behind hand-crafted shoes or the good cup of well
roasted coffee. Its popular when the design looks
vintage and well-worn, even if its an effect made in
retrospect in Photoshop.
This certainly appeals to Stankevich. Since my
focus is on hand-drawn, she says, I like the fact that I
can see more and more of this style being used and

City: I made the street and billboard texture in Photoshop,

SAYS-URILO,OPES)HADTOMAKETHEEDGESINAWAYTHAT)
COULDREPEATTHEIMAGEUNNOTICED4HEBRIEFWASTOCREATE
SOMETEXTTHATREPRESENTSTHEMEANINGOFTHEWORD

CASE STUDY: JAMESON IRISH WHISKEY DESIGN

One of my most recent projects is a limited

edition label forJameson Irish Whiskey, says
Simpson. It uses a lot of hand lettering and icons.
The whole label was created in Photoshop CC. I
use the Pen tool to create my shapes. Some of
these get rasterized so I can add texture others
are left as shapes and exported to Illustrator if
foils or embossing are required. I didnt use any
fonts, deciding to re-create the Jameson branding
so its ever so slightly quirky.
That style is mainly on the fun and quirky side,
as Simpson puts it. Standard letter spacing and

034

uniformity is less important than if I was dealing with

more serious subjects. I like the way letters can reach
under, over or even through other letters. My feeling
is every letter should have its own space depending
on the letters on either side of it. Im not sure any app
can do that yet.
Hand lettering is a big part of Simpsons arsenal,
and in the design world at large, he really believes
that hand lettering is back in a big way. In design
theres a definite move towards a more authentic,
analogue, less digital feel and hand lettering is
certainly part of that.

WorldMags.net

Steven Simpson

34%6%3)-03/."2/5'(4()3(!.$,%44%2%$ !002/!#( 4/ 0!#+!').' &/2 *!-%3/.

WorldMags.net
TOP 10 FONTS

Andy Hau

OUR EXPERTS REVEAL THEIR FAVOURITE TYPEFACES AND WHAT MAKES THEM STAND OUT

1. GOTHAM

2. FUTURA MAXI

A modern classic, Gotham is perfect for headlines. Seth

Mach explains that the 2000 font was based on signage
and architecture from the Thirties and Forties, and still
feels uniquely contemporary with its proportions and
powerful geometric structures.

There any many different versions of Futura out there,

but Maxi has such a nice balance between being
approachable yet established, says Brandon Nickerson.
Its clean, legible, unique and not as commonly used,
which is always a plus.

3. FELL TYPE

4. KNOCKOUT

Typefaces from the time of the Reformation have been

brought back in digitized form, and are remarkable in
their power. I like revival fonts, says Steve Simpson, Its
the imperfections from their original reproduction
methods that gives them a warmth for me, in much the
same way I like the sound of vinyl over MP3s.

Such a great font with an abundance of diversity,

says Brandon Nickerson. Each weight not only gets
bolder but expands in width while keeping
proportions consistent. Knockout is also one of
those fonts you dont hear much about.

www.typography.com/fonts/gotham/overview/
$199 (Gotham 1-8 styles, for 1 computer)
Sometimes, Andy Hau says, legibility and readability take a back
seat and you let the emotive qualities of the text wash over the
viewer first. Even with the most cursive of lettering and typefaces,
you can maintain readability by treating the letters as a composition
to ensure that the flow of words is natural and easy

I guess the eureka moment

for me was when I realised
that by hand drawing my own
letter forms they perfectly
matched my illustration and that
it worked so well because it was
my hand that had both illustrated
the image and illustrated the text
it became one big illustration

http://iginomarini.com/fell/the-revival-fonts/
Donation

www.fonts.com/font/monotype/futura-maxi
108 (4 font family)

www.typography.com/fonts/
knockout/styles/
$169 (5 styles, 1 computer)

STEVE SIMPSON / HTTP://STEVESIMPSON.PROSITE.COM/

became one big illustration. I was hugely inspired by
David Kleins TWA posters, especially that cohesive
feeling of wholeness he manages to get between his
lettering, illustration and colour.
Linzie Hunter, who describes herself as a
hand-lettering artist, is also interested in cohesion: The
letters I draw only exist to be placed next to the letter
beside it. The advantages are that I only ever have to
worry about creating the characters in the word or
phrase Im working on and not a full typeface. As a
hand-letterer I have greater flexibility and freedom
when it comes to creating letters and Id say, an easier
job on the whole. For me its a less technical approach.
I use my instincts to decide on placement, spacing and
decoration. I rely solely on what looks or feels right to
me and I dont measure anything out. Talk to me about
leading or kerning and my eyes quickly glaze over and
Im soon out of my depth. When I visualise how a piece
of custom lettering might look, Im usually seeing each
letter as an individual illustrated or graphic element
each of these complement each other and combine
together to hopefully create a cohesive illustration.
Hand-lettering is just as popular in the world of
motion graphics, with Cummins explaining that
designers are embracing the imperfections these
produce. These types of fonts provide a more
personal touch which is sometimes lost by traditional
computer fonts. Another trend is the use of
installation and environmental typography where
creatives use physical objects and materials to create
letterforms. This also succeeds at humanising the
message of a piece.

5. AVENIR

6. UNIVERS

Another classic, Seth Mach calls it one of the best

typefaces I have found to complement Gotham. It is also
san-serif and a good alternative to common serif
typefaces for body copy.

Univers was a ground-breaking sans-serif achievement

when Adrian Frutiger designed it for the Deberny &
Piegnot Foundry in 1957. Now its the designers secret
weapon for establishing a steady, even tone.

7. DOVES TYPE

8. ROCKWELL

Not only is this a digitised version of an old typeface

(punchcutter Edward Princes single-sized 16pt type
from the turn of the 20th Century), but Robert Green had
to rescue the metal letters from the Thames to re-make
it, after Thomas James Cobden Sanderson dumped them
when fighting over ownership with Emery Walker.

This strong, slab serif font from the Monotype

Design Studio first appeared in 1934, and remains
popular to this day.

www.linotype.com/72/Avenir-family.html
108 (4 typefaces)

www.typespec.co.uk/doves-type/
40

www.fontshop.com/families/univers
39 (1 style)

www.fontshop.com/families/rockwell/
30 (1 style)

10. COMIC SANS

9. NEUE HAAS UNICA

http://fontsgeek.com/fonts/Comic-SansMS-Regular
Free

Everyone knows Helvetica, but not everyone knows

Haas Unica, which was designed to be its replacement
but was forgotten when the company behind it had
financial difficulties. Now, its back, remade for the
digital age.

Probably the most mocked and reviled font in existence,

Comic Sans has a surprisingly cool history, having been
based on hand lettering from the graphic novels The
Dark Knight Returns (lettered by John Costanza) and
Watchmen (lettered by Dave Gibbons) says Steve
Simpson. Its also supposed to be easier for dyslexic
readers to understand.

www.monotype.com/libraries/neue-haas-unica/
42

WorldMags.net

035

TECHNIQUES PRO TYPE TECHNIQUES

WorldMags.net

I think colour plays a large

part in my lettering style,
so I like to be able to work in
colour from the start and
working in Photoshop means
than I play with a lot of different
colourways at the same time or
with a few clicks
LINZIE HUNTER / WWW.LINZIEHUNTER.CO.UK

Seth Mach

Of course, its one thing to design a few letters and

illustrate or animate one example of them being
used, its quite another to design a whole font of
your own. Indeed, Designing a typeface is perhaps
the most difficult process in all of graphic design,
says Mach. A typeface has to be close to perfect,
which can take months or years to finish. The eye
for detail gets better with experience as well, so
there is a constant revisiting to get the weights,
terminals or counters of letters to work correctly
next to one another. After the letters are complete,
the kerning phase begins in a program like Fontlab,
which takes additional time. Thinking about how
letters work together in words and sentences helps
the most. A helpful professor once taught me the
best way to begin a typeface is to take inspiration
from something like a piece of architecture or a
subtle part of nature. Sometimes an idea can even
come from a single letter, sign or old poster that
does not have a full alphabet built out. It is the type
designers job to fill in the blanks.
But whatever level and style of typography youre
doing, Photoshop can be part of the process.
Alexander Klement says he always works in a
non-destructive way with my Photoshop files. Smart
layers are my best friend, they are so useful in
keeping layers clean and manageable with lots going
on within the nested Smart layer. I also use
adjustment layers and on occasion Smart filters.
Stankevich uses Photoshop to enhance my
drawings with colour and to combine and
collage elements from different drawings into one
composition. I also use it to create patterns from the
artwork. My primary tool is the Brush with all its
various presets, as well as the Gradient tool for
colour effects. I also use masking and layer blending

Bart van Delft

ENHANCE TYPE IN PHOTOSHOP

M: Seth Mach says he has taken inspiration from Art Nouveau when
designing softer flourishes or nature-based explorations

CASE STUDY: FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN

JANELLE CUMMINS EXPLAINS HOW SHE COMBINES WORDS AND MOVEMENT

Motion graphics designer Janelle Cummins

created a piece in her final year at the Savannah
College of Art and Design called Fear of the
Unknown, and she enjoyed the freedom it being
a personal project gave her.
While most of the project used typography
as texture, she explains,the very first scene
depended heavily on type for communication. I
chose to use a Moorish proverb to depict the

036

theme of Fear of the Unknown. I worked out of

sequence and designed my third and fourth frames
first so that I could get an idea of the visual
language of the piece. Once that was done, I
experimented with different computer generated
fonts. I looked at serifs, sans serifs, geometric,
slabs, basically everything in my font library.
Nothing felt personal or tactile enough for this
piece. So, I made the decision to use my own hand

crafted type. I used a computer generated font

to determine the layout, hierarchy, color and
size of the text. Once I was pleased with this I
rewrote everything with my own handwriting
and used the Pen tool to create cutout paper
letter forms. Using my own handwriting was
not the first solution I came up with, but I am
glad that it was the final solution, as it
personalised the piece.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
EDIT LETTERFORMS WITH THE PEN TOOL
MARTIN SCHMETZER EXPLAINS HIS PROCESS WHEN USING
THE PEN TOOL TO MODIFY LETTERFORMS

01

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND

Anastasia Stankevich

I use the scanned sketch as base to

redraw my letters using the Pen tool and
geometric shapes. The vertical strokes of each
letter I often build up with a rectangle that I
copy/paste to each position to get the same
width on each line. Actually the whole letters are
often made up by several separate blocks and
islands before I merge the shapes together to
create one single path.

02

OUTER LIMITS

When you are working with the Pen

tool, adds Schmetzer, a good tip is to place your
anchor points on the extremities of each
letterform. Dont try to force it but it usually helps
to use as few anchor points as possible to keep
the rounded shapes smooth and seamless.

Linzie Hunter

Summer: My illustration style is all about combining traditional

drawing techniques with digital enhancement, says Anatasia
Stankevich, using Photoshop to improve composition and add
colour and richness to my line drawing

03
A For Average: My style is playful, sometimes considered naive,
says Linzie Hunter, who has created a series of uninspiring quote
posters. She likes to mix contrasting styles and often intersperses
upper and lowercase characters

modes on a regular basis; the Color, Overlay and

Multiply modes are essential when adding colour to
the linework. Recently Ive discovered the Mixer Brush
tool, which has allowed me to be more experimental
when adding textures and mimicking traditional
colouring methods. I love all these tools for making my
work process a lot faster and letting me create unique
mixed media illustrations as well as giving the final
piece a more clean and polished look.
Hunter says: I know many hand-lettering artists
start with grid paper and do their sketches in pencil
first, but I tend to do all my sketches digitally these

IN COLOUR

Schmetzer tries to stick to one

colour during this process, both because he
believes a well executed design should look
good as a one-color artwork, so its a kind of

days. I use a bog standard Wacom pen and tablet to

sketch my lettering out in Photoshop. This is a
much more efficient way for me to work and I find it
just as easy, if not easier to draw on the computer
than on paper. I like the flexibility it allows me to
play about with layout and make changes quickly.
This is especially useful when trying to visualise a
book or magazine cover. I think colour plays a large
part in my lettering style, so I like to be able to work
in colour from the start and working in Photoshop
means than I play with a lot of different colourways
at the same time or with a few clicks. When

a quality assurance for me to have this process.

Another tip to check the quality of a design is to
flip the design horizontal and see if it still feels
balanced when mirrored.
creating my sketches I use a variety of dry and wet
Photoshop brushes. Some I have created myself,
but not all. I also also draw a fair bit freehand with
the Lasso tool, especially when blocking in lettering
during the early stages of a commission. Once the
rough version of the lettering is approved by a client,
Ill use that as the base layer and then move onto
the final high-res art. At this stage I pay a lot more
attention to spacing and flow. I will make sure all my
lines are clean as required, and will add any
decorative details or textures using brushes or
scanned textures.

WorldMags.net

037

TECHNIQUES PRO TYPE TECHNIQUES

WorldMags.net

MASTER 3D LETTERING IN PHOTOSHOP

Soho House:
Charles Williams
admits Its difficult
when you spend all
your time working
with type and
images as your
eyes and brain
become
hyper-attuned to
the intricacies of
the work you and
others are creating,
so you are less
good at identifying
areas of illegibility
that the general
non-designer
public would
struggle with

Charles Williams

Of course, hand-lettering and the hipster look isnt the

only thing happening in typography. Williams has
observed various other trends that are dominating
the typographic landscape. These include: Angled
hard shadows falling off 3D type, which he describes
as sexy, popular, yet shady, like a femme fatale.
Then theres Ugly type, where the type is distorted
and transformed in a faux-naive fashion, disregarding
conventional rules such as holding the Shift key down
when you transform the scale of the type, lending it
an avant-garde, artful aesthetic, especially when
paired with a certain Yves Klein-y deep blue. And
stripes. This is one trend I am definitely a fan of,
though its not just limited to type. Using stripes to
create simple 3D forms, type or otherwise. Lastly,
impossible shapes. Escher-like 3D forms that are
confusing yet somehow very pleasing to behold. This
is everywhere! I love using this trick but it has become
so ubiquitous that I generally only use it as part of a
wider stylistic approach, or if a client specifically
requests it.
As Photoshop has become more and more
powerful in terms of creating 3D, this is clearly a
typographic path that is going to be pursued. 3D
typography has exploded in use over the last few years
with many people using Cinema 4D to create 3D text
and then bringing that in to Photoshop to compose and
tweak, says Klement. I have noticed a current trend in
getting 3D typography to look as real as possible with

realistic textures while still holding a polished 3D

generation. In my personal work I am also trying to
achieve this realistic 3D look, I work in Cinema 4D
with the many tools available to create 3D letterforms
which I then render out in separate passes to tweak
later in Photoshop, with the separate layers I can
blend them together.
But perhaps because of the intricacies of
hand-drawn and 3D work theres also a shift in
typographic style toward the less-is-more

approach. The idea of minimalism, specifically

regarding typography, makes a lot of sense to me,
says Nickerson. The main purpose of typography is
to inform and hopefully enhance an idea. Its our
way of putting crazy ideas into a somewhat tangible
form, so breaking things down to its bare content
and having a clear idea of what is trying to be
explained seems like a good route to take.
For Mach, graphic design as a whole is going
through a transitional period because designers

In code: Charles Williams specialises

in text that is challenging to read, and
this was a particularly challenging
brief, for Wired Germany. The aim was
to create a typographic double page
spread to accompany a feature about
quantum cryptography
Jazz it up: Describing himself as
pretty old school when it comes to
Photoshop, here Williams used the
program to add subtle shading to
the image to accentuate the
legibility of the vector type
Learning to read: Coming up with a
solution that both challenged
legibility (as part of the concept), but
could also be easily read, was the key
challenge here. Perfect for a designer
who says he questions legibility,
admitting he now puts a little more
onus on it than he used to, because he
got bored of non-designers saying
Cool.what is it?

Charles Williams

Font of all fonts: Williams doesnt

have favourite font, he sees in the
same way a bricklayer sees his/her
bricks or a surgeon sees his/her
scalpels: tools of the trade. I use type
as a springboard for something else
a combination of type and image, so
I create bespoke type for each project
that forms the basis for the more
elaborate, exploded end product. I
often look to bold geometric san-serif
type-faces for inspiration, such as
DIN 1451 and Gotham

038

Lost in translation?: Williams was

pleased with the results, although,
since the text is in German, it was
hard to ascertain the legibility. The
client had no problem reading the final
version, whereas even I struggled!

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
EXTRUDE 3D TEXT IN PHOTOSHOP
BART VAN DELFT EXPLAINS HOW YOU CAN ADD DEPTH TO
YOUR WORDS. FIRST, HE SAYS, GET YOUR CONCEPT CLEAR

INTO THE THIRD DIMENSION

02

SHADE YOURSELF

Now its time to make it look a little bit

cooler, he says, so we are going to add some
shadows and extra manual lighting. I added a light
in the upper-left corner and a shadow in the
lower-right corner, these layers are on top of the
rest. After this step I have added a drop shadow to
the text and a manual long shadow to both parts
of the text layer.

Lathe: Alexander Klement created his custom typeface Lathe

from Futura as I wanted to give the font a new twist and add to
its visual language, he explains

Martin Schmetzer

Start off with a texture, says van Delft,

then create your text with a nice variety of fonts
or just one really beautiful one. Then apply the
3D effect and play a little with the depth of the
extrusion and lighting. Once you have the perfect
position of your text you can start adding the
texture to the sides of the element. Try to make
it look natural.

Alexander Klement

01

03

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

This is where the fun starts; we are

going to freestyle. In this example I have created
a little extra depth to the scene by adding
elements in front and behind the text. I have
gone for a little smoke and some rocks to make

it look more dramatic. The depth effect is

enhanced by making the elements close to the
camera a little blurry. Now imagine these layers
in a website moving slightly from each other
depending on your mouse movement.

The main purpose of

typography is to inform and
hopefully enhance an idea. Its our
way of putting crazy ideas into a
somewhat tangible form

Andy Hau

BRANDON NICKERSON / WWW.BNICKS.COM

KaWaii Desu: Andy Hau knows that Photoshop aficionados hate it

because it can look unconvincing, but he is a big fan of drop shadows.
Sometimes, even the faintest of drop shadow can help enormously to
bring out the legibility and readability of your text, he says

are redefining the acceptable stylisations of

typography. There is a combination of several
hundred years of experimentation and discovery
that is now readily available through the Internet.
In lettering, nearly every style is flourishing
including scripts, three-dimensional type
extrusions, hand-drawn elements and even
physical, sculptural letterforms that are being
built and photographed. None of these are really
new, but the combinations coming about are
novel and in flux. In digital development, web
fonts are one of the most dramatic and helpful
additions. Many of these options are free and
easily accessible. Typographic translation across
platforms is also getting better and more user
friendly overall. With the beneficial advent of
Opentype that can support multiple glyphs,

ligatures and iterations of the same letter,

designers should look forward to a bright future
for more dynamic options and end results.
Perhaps it is because we are becoming so
tech-obsessed with short attention spans, but
having condensed information that is easy to digest
is definitely a plus these days, adds Nickerson. This
is demonstrated, he says, by the vast amount of
sans serif fonts: the simplest letterform. For Hau,
its the resurgence of normcore (aka Hipster 2.0: the
Second Coming), which has brought back a lot of
ideas from the Nineties and Noughties; stark,
inoffensive and neutral typefaces kerned tightly,
which are either all caps or no caps. So perhaps
despite the rules and the flourishes, the terminology
and technicalities of typography minimalism is
where its really at.

WorldMags.net

039

WorldMags.net

040

WorldMags.net

ADD HANDDRAWN EFFECTS TO FONTS TECHNIQUES

WorldMags.net
ADD HANDDRAWN
EFFECTS TO FONTS
LEARN HOW TO CREATE BEAUTIFULLY WEATHERBEATEN
PAINTED LETTERING WITHOUT EVER TOUCHING A PAINTBRUSH

here is something very nostalgic and

whimsical about old-fashioned painted
fairground signs. The way that these signs
manage to draw power from the world that
they depict makes them so attractive and intriguing.
They somehow capture the electric velocity of the
attractions and offer the viewer a glimpse into them
experience theyre about to embark on.
Unlike modern typography, which seems to be
either self-consciously quirky or painfully utilitarian,
fairground typography is unapologetic in its
relentless desire to provoke an emotional response
from the viewer. Perhaps it is because of their ability

to entice and beguile that has meant that painted

fairground signs have changed very little since their
inception and even the recent renaissance of
fairground typography has produced little more than
mere pastiches of the original.
In this tutorial, we are going to create a
weather-beaten painted sign for the digital age one
that requires no paintbrushes and no paint. Drawing
colour inspiration from the effervescent lights of the
fairground and incorporating the jubilant flourishes
of its rides, the aim is to capture the excitement of
the fair by any means possible. So come and run
away to the circus with us and lets get started!

OUR EXPERT
ANDY HAU

www.andyhau.com
@andykwhau
Andy Hau is a London-based
architect, designer and the owner of
A.H.A Design. For him, design is an
escape from the futility of modern
life, not an endorsement of it.

START WITH THE BASICS

SETTING UP THE FOUNDATIONS FOR YOUR LETTERING

01

CHOOSE YOUR COLOUR PALETTE

To create an ombr effect reminiscent of

fairground signs for the lettering, choose colours
that naturally blend well together. Ive chosen
orange (d85a29) and magenta (a8118b). To make
the lettering really come to life, choose a
contrasting colour for the shadow: Im using
turquoise (00d5c0). For the lettering outlines,
choose a metallic, gold colour (c3996c).

02

PICK A TYPEFACE

For the text, you can either hand-draw the

lettering from scratch or you can cheat and take an
existing cursive typeface and adapt it. Choose a
typeface that has many ligatures and alternates to
make the text seem natural and hand-written. There
are plenty of good, open-source typefaces that are
free to download, such as Lobster and Pacifico.

WORK IN
PROGRESS
PAINTED LETTERING
WITHOUT THE MESS

Progress 1: Choose the typeface

Progress 2: Bring the

lettering to life

03

ARRANGE YOUR LETTERING

Start by sketching loosely on-screen

how you want your text arranged. The lines of text
should look balanced and there should be a flow
that leads the eye from the beginning of the text
to the end. Dont worry too much about the large
gaps that are naturally formed these will be
filled with embellishments later on.

WorldMags.net

Progress 3: Add the background

041

TECHNIQUES ADD HANDDRAWN EFFECTS TO FONTS

WorldMags.net

04

TYPE ON A PATH

For the first line of text, start by drawing a

diagonal path using the Pen tool (P). Make sure that
Path is selected in the selection box in the Toolbar.
Once this is done, select the Type tool (T) and click on
the path. The text will now follow the alignment of the
path. Type in your text and change the size, style and
tracking of the text where necessary through the
Characters palette. Create new paths and repeat the
process for each line of text.

05

CLEAN IT UP

As with all cursive fonts, there may be

letters that dont join up properly. Additionally, with
the Pacifico font, the strokes of many of the letters
end abruptly. These will need to be cleaned up to
appear more natural and handwritten. Right-click
on the text layers and select Rasterize Type. Use
the Polygonal Lasso tool (L) to either delete
unnecessary areas or to create additional fill areas
so that the text appears clean and flowing. You can
also take this opportunity to refine the placement
of some of the letters.

06

ADD SOME EMBELLISHMENTS

Embellishments not only help to add drama

to the image but also help to encourage the flow of
reading. Use the Pen tool (P) to add embellishments
and swirls to some of the letters. To create curves,
click and hold down the left Mouse Button and
manipulate the handles to get the curve that you
want. To edit the anchor points afterwards, select the
Pen tool (V) again, hold down Cmd/Ctrl and click on
the anchor point that you want to edit.

QUICK TIP
Whilst this type of lettering can be created from
scratch in Photoshop, you can make your life easier
by creating all the text outlines in Illustrator, which
offers a lot more control over the editing of objects.
Once youre done, simply drag your objects from
Illustrator into your Photoshop canvas.

07

08

PLAY WITH OVERLAPPING

To introduce an element of fun and

some unpredictability, incorporate illustrations
into the lettering. Make sure that these
illustrations relate to the meaning of the words
and that they are stripped back and simplified so
that they dont compete with the letters. To
highlight the word Quartz, we are going to add a
crystalline symbol. Draw this by using the Pen
tool (P) make sure that Shape is selected in the
selection box in the Toolbar. Select No Colour for
the Fill setting and gold for the Stroke setting.

Create breaks in between areas that overlap

to bring some depth to the image. This gives the
impression that the letters and the embellishments
are going above and under each other. Use the
Polygonal Lasso tool (L) to create boundaries and
delete the areas just before and after an overlap,
making sure that each break is approximately the
same size for a convincing effect. Be sparing with
these overlaps and leave the majority of the letters
alone so that you dont affect the legibility of the text.

042

ADD SOME ILLUSTRATIONS

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
NOW TO WORK IN TECHNICOLOR
INTRODUCE COLOUR TO YOUR LETTERING

09

CREATE SOME SHADOWS

Select the layers with the lettering elements and make a copy of them. Merge these copied layers
together. Place the new layer behind the existing lettering layers and move it slightly to the right to create a
shadow. Double-click on the new layer and select Color Overlay. Set the colour of the overlay to the turquoise.

001

10

Double-click on the layer with the first line

of lettering and select Gradient Overlay. Click on the
Gradient box and change the colour of the gradient to
the orange and magenta colours we chose in Step 1
by double-clicking on the Black and White boxes in
the Gradient Editor. Change the angle of the gradient
so that the orange colour aligns with the top of the
text and the magenta colour aligns with the bottom
of the text. Repeat this step for every line of text.

002

003

001 ARRANGE
THE LETTERING

A cursive font was chosen and the text

was laid out. Anomalies in the lettering
were cleaned up manually

11

002 ADD SOME

EMBELLISHMENTS

The lettering was embellished to create a

more flowing look. Breaks were introduced
in areas that overlap to add depth

TWEAK THE LETTERING OUTLINES

Double-click on the layer with the first line

of lettering again and this time select Stroke. Adjust
the Stroke size accordingly (approximately 8px in this
case) and change the Fill colour to the gold colour
we chose in Step 1. If you want to add an extra
sparkle to your outlines, choose the Gradient option
instead of the Color option in the Fill Type selection
box and blend the gold colour with a lighter gold
colour. Repeat this step for every line of text.

SELECT GRADIENT OVERLAY

12

003 PICK THE

RIGHT COLOUR

A jewel-bright gradient fill and gold

coloured outline will be added to the
lettering to bring it to life

Fairground typography is
unapologetic in its relentless
desire to provoke an emotional
response from the viewer

MAKE THE BACKGROUND

Fill the Background layer in black. Drag in

the repeating timber planks texture and copy it
repeatedly, tiling it systematically as you go to fill
the entire canvas. Merge the timber texture layers
together and drain the colour out of it by selecting
Image>Adjustments>Desaturate. Place the layer
at the top in the Layers panel and select Hard Light
as the blending mode. The text should now show
through the texture as though it has been painted
on top of it. Lower the opacity setting of the texture
layer accordingly.

13

PAINT TEXTURE

Drag in the paint texture into the canvas. Its

likely that the Paint texture image will not fill up the
entire canvas. To extend the texture, select the layer
and draw a boundary using the Polygonal Lasso tool
(L) in the areas where you would like additional paint.
Select Content-Aware under the Fill command
(Edit>Fill) and Photoshop will add additional paint
areas using the current image. Place the layer below
the timber texture and change the blend mode of the
layer to Screen and lower the Opacity to below 20%.

WorldMags.net

043

TECHNIQUES ADD HANDDRAWN EFFECTS TO FONTS

WorldMags.net

FINISHING TOUCHES
ADD THE ADJUSTMENTS TO FINISH OFF YOUR MASTERPIECE

14

ADD TEXTURE TO THE TEXT

To create a subtle painted effect for the

lettering, drag in the paint texture again into the
canvas. Follow Step 13 to create enough paint
texture so that it covers the lettering. Place this
layer directly above the lettering layer in the Layers
panel, right-click on it and select Create Clipping
Mask. The paint texture will now be clipped by the
lettering layer. Set the blend mode for the paint
texture layer to Linear Light and lower the Opacity
setting to below 40%.
QUICK TIP
Sometimes you just want to work on one layer
without the distraction of all the others. Instead of
hiding each layer manually, simply hold down Alt
and click the eye symbol on the layer that you want
to work on and all the other layers will be hidden.

ADJUSTMENT LAYERS
I never used to be a fan of non-destructive editing
life is too short to be tentative! However, since
being introduced to adjustment layers, I am now
almost evangelical about them. The edits made
with an adjustment layer usually affect all the
layers beneath it. To apply edits to only the layer
directly underneath the adjustment layer, simply
select the adjustment layer in the Layers panel and
then click the Clip icon at the bottom of the
Properties panel. To affect multiple layers, place
these layers into a Group (Cmd/Ctrl+G), place the
Group directly under the adjustment layer and the
effect will be applied to the whole Group.

044

15

CURVES ADJUSTMENT LAYERS

17

ADD AN EXTRA SOMETHING

To correct the washed out effect that the

paint textures create, click on the circular icon at the
bottom of the Layers panel and select Curves. This
creates a Curves adjustment layer, which will adjust
the tones and contrast in the image. Place the Curves
adjustment layer above the clipped paint texture
layer and slowly but surely, change the RGB, Red,
Green and Blue curves in the Properties panel until
the contrast looks correct. Use the suggested values
in the screenshot as a basis.

16

ADJUST THE VIBRANCY

With two paint textures on top, the colours

on the lettering may start to look a little muted. To
bring back some of the vibrancy of these jewel-bright
colours, create a Brightness/Contrast adjustment
layer and place it directly on top of the lettering layer.
Increase the Brightness setting until the colours look
correct (approximately 15 in this case). The effect is
very subtle but its the cumulative effect of all of
these subtleties that bring this image to life and
make it convincing.

It is always good to hide a little something in

your designs to give your work a bit of an edge, it can
be something obvious, or something more cryptic
but they all serve to add another level of interest to
the image. For this image, we added an Egyptian
mau at the top. Create the illustration with the Pen
tool (P) on a new layer like Step 8. Right-click on the
layer and select Rasterize Layer. Change the blend
mode to Subtract. The illustration will appear to have
been burnt into the timber.

18

TIME TO ADMIRE YOUR DESIGN

Zoom out using Cmd/Ctrl+0 so that entire

image fits onto your screen and check that you are
happy with the overall composition of the image. The
image should look balanced and the lettering should
be easy to read. There should also be a natural flow
from the start of the sentence to the very end without
any distractions. Finally, make sure that the colours
in the lettering are not too overwhelming and that
none of the illustrations compete with the text.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

046

WorldMags.net

CREATE A LOWPOLY PLANET TECHNIQUES

WorldMags.net
CREATE A LOW
POLY PLANET
LEARN THE BASICS OF 3D MODELLING IN BLENDER
AND HOW TO CREATE A LOWPOLY ILLUSTRATION

raphics are becoming better and much

more complicated day by day ten years
ago a model of an object with a few
thousand polygons was considered
technically advanced. Nowadays we can see billions
of polygons, unbelievable light and shadow,
technologies on the edge of possibilities; sometimes
its even hard to separate 3D graphics and reality.
In the time of super-powered graphic cards, a
new genre is born and its called low-poly
graphics. It uses as few polygons as possible to
make artwork look classic, a bit old-fashioned but
still fresh and awesome. It looks simple, but

low-poly art requires a huge amount of work. Its

somewhat similar to jewellery making, because
every polygon needs to be in the correct place, to
really make the artwork shine.
In this tutorial we will learn how to create a
low-poly illustration using Blender and Photoshop
from the basics of 3D modelling, to the final polishing
of the image. Blender is absolutely free to use
software, and you can download the latest version
for your system here www.Blender.org.
Once you have installed it, you are ready to start
this tutorial and create your first 3D low-poly
illustration by following our step-by-step guide.

OUR EXPERT
ALEKSEI PUSHILIN

www.be.net/plannit
@plann_it

Aleksei Pushilin is a 25-year-old

graphic designer from Chelyabinsk,
Russia. Now working in the
biggest bank in the region during
the day, and freelancing during the
night, his true passion is to make
low-poly 3D models for games, UI,
maps and navigation.

SOURCE FILES
On FileSilo you will find a pack of
small environment models, ready
e.

LEARN THE BASICS

SET UP THE SCENE AND CREATE THE MODEL

01

SET UP THE SCENE

WORK IN
PROGRESS

First, launch Blender, and adjust the

render parameters: change the render type to
Cycles at the top of the screen, then change the
render resolution on the right to 1200x1500
pixels. Dont forget to set to 100% in the window
below. To reduce the noise, go to Sampling inset
below, and make at least 500 samples.

02

CREATE THE BASE MESH

Now we are ready to create the planet.

First, delete the cube from the scene: right-click
and press Delete. Then press Shift+A>Mesh> Ico
Sphere, and immediately change its subdivisions
to three, at the left bottom of the screen. You will
see a faceted sphere this is going to be the base
mesh for the planet. Go to View> Camera, to
change the point of view.

FROM SPHERE TO YOUR

OWN TINY WORLD

03

FORM THE LANDSCAPE

The buttons you will need are: G for Grab, S

for Scale, and R for Rotate. Use them to position the
sphere. After this, press TAB to switch to the Edit
mode. Change selection type to Face select below,
and then holding Shift select all the polygons you
want to make land or mountains by right-clicking.
Press E to extrude polygons, and press the left
mouse button. Use Scale to adjust the height.

Progress 1: Create the

basic mesh

Progress 2: Add materials

Progress 3: Post-process

WorldMags.net

047

TECHNIQUES CREATE A LOWPOLY PLANET

WorldMags.net

04

MAKE THE MOUNTAINS

Now, when we have a basic landscape, lets make it more

interesting by adding mountains or hills. In Edit mode select all the
polygons of the model manually, or by pressing A. Then hit W>Subdivide,
this will increase the amount of polygons by two. Change selection type to
Vertex, select below, and using Grab and Scale, deform the landscape to
make mountains or any other landscape marks you want. Dont forget to
change selection type, if needed. Dont go too crazy with it its good
when low-poly illustrations have straight and logical form.

05

ADD SOME COLOUR

Change the Display Mode below, from Solid to Material so you can see the
changes you make. Go to Material>New. You can change it to any colour by clicking the
colour box. First, make a blue one and name it Water. Then click + at the top this will
enable you to create another material. Make it green for the grass, select the polygons of
the land, and click Assign. You can create as many materials as you want, and paint the
whole model. Dont forget to use bright and natural colours.

QUICK TIP
The Sun and the Moon are contrasting colours. The Sun is warm and yellow, and the Moon is cold and
blue. This is a great way to make low-poly art seem even more faceted and sharp when the light
sources are separated on two channels from opposite sides of the model. You can improve this feature
adding a few more light sources.

06

PLACE THE ENVIRONMENT MODELS

Now we are going to add details to the

planet view. Open the file from elements.blend in
another Blender window. You will see a pack of
models, ready to use in your scene. Copy and
Paste all of them in your main Blender window.
Now adjust the Snap tool this will help a lot.

Activate the Magnet button below, select a Face

Snap, Active Snap target and enable rotation with
the snapping target. Now the magic begins! Use
Grab to place any model onto the planet its so
easy to do. You can Copy and Paste any model to
use it twice or more.

07

CREATE THE SUN

08

CONSTRUCT THE MOON

You already know how to create an Ico

sphere, so lets make one for the Sun. Create an Ico
sphere with two subdivisions (look at Step 2 if you get
lost). Using Grab and Scale place it to the top left side of
the planet, and dont forget to turn off the Snapping tool
from the previous step. Now create a new material for
it, but this time we will use another surface. Choose the
yellow colour, and then open a surface inset above,
choose emission, and change Strength to three. Now
the Sun will really radiate the light.

Repeat the Steps above, and create an Ico

sphere for the Moon, and place it on the bottom right
side. To make it look interesting, make craters on the
surface. Switch to Edit mode with Tab, select the
faces of the sphere in the shape of a hexahedron,
and then use E to extrude the polygons, and S to
scale them, forming the craters. Three to four craters
should be enough to make the Moon look nice. Then
create material similar to the Sun, but blue, and paint
the side polygons of the model, so they form a sickle.

048

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
LET THERE BE LIGHT
CREATE LIGHT SOURCES FOR THE SCENE AND RENDER THE IMAGE

09

LIGHT THE MODEL

Create two big planes, by pressing Shift+A>Mesh>Plane. To make them radiate light, adjust new
materials to them blue for one, and yellow for another. Use the Emission surface, as on the Sun and
Moon, but change the strength to five, which will make them brighter. Using Rotate, Scale and Grab place
the planes perpendicular to the planet, yellow on the top-left side, blue on the bottom-right side.

001

10
002

003

001 THE SIZE

When creating the planes, make sure

they are much bigger than the model
at least twice the size. This will make
the light much smoother

11

002 THE POSITION

The best way to use planes as light

sources, is to place them perpendicular to
the model, but parallel to the point of
view. This way the light scheme is optimal

CREATE THE BACKGROUND

You are now finished with Blender, launch

Photoshop and open the render you have saved from
the previous step. If you have done everything right
you will see a planet on a transparent background.
Now create a new layer, take a Gradient tool with
#144e96 and #192841 colours, and drag it from the
bottom right corner, to the top left so the darkest
part of the gradient should be under the Moon, and
the brightest under the Sun. Dont forget to check the
Dithering to make the gradient look smoother.

12

003 THE CAMERA

Switch to the Camera View, and check

that there are no light planes in the
camera field of view. You dont want to
see the light planes in your final render

ADJUST THE COLOUR

Its much faster to correct and adjust the

lightness and the colour of the render in Photoshop.
The render result greatly depends on the colour you
have chosen and how you placed the light sources.
To get the best result, use Levels and Saturation to
make your render bright enough to see what
happens on the Moon side, and dark enough to feel
the night and day border the balance is what youre
looking for. Adjust the colours so they are not too
bright and keep the natural look.

RENDER THE MODEL

First go to Render>Film and check

Transparent now when you render the model,
there should be a transparent background. Go to
the Render>Render Image at the top left of the
screen. You will see how your model is rendered
in real time. This will take a while depending on
your computer. If the render looks too noisy,
increase the samples parameter. Also, you can
press Esc to abort the render, if you want to
change something in the scene. After you are
done, press Image>Save As Image at the bottom
left of the screen to save your render.

The goal of low-poly

artwork is to emphasise
the faceted, polygonal look

13

APPLY A FILTER

The goal of low-poly artwork is to

emphasise the faceted, polygonal look. After you
make a render, you can improve the faceted look
by applying the Smart Sharpen filter. Go to Filter>
Sharpen>Smart Sharpen. Be very accurate with
this tool, you should catch the edge between
polygons, but shouldnt make the whole model
look noisy. A one to two pixel radius and 50%
effect should be enough, but this depends mostly
on what you want to get as the result.

WorldMags.net

049

TECHNIQUES CREATE A LOWPOLY PLANET

WorldMags.net

FINAL STEPS
PAINT OVER THE RENDER

14

ADD MORE CONTRAST

To make the model look even better, you

can manually paint the polygons. This is a great
way to add contrast and adjust the faceted look,
because the real render is sometimes not as
expressive as it should be. Create a new layer,
select the Pen tool, and select polygons on the
border between light and dark, or polygons on
small models, to attract more attention to them.
There are two rules: first, make the light polygons
lighter and the dark darker, so the contrast
increases. And second, use smooth big brushes.
The best results are when the painted polygons are
not distinguishable from the non-painted ones.

15

INTRODUCE SOME GLOW

17

REFLECT THE LIGHT

18

LIGHT UP THE SUN

All the effects like glow, halo, flares and

lighting are almost always made in post processing,
not in a 3D redactor, because its much easier and
faster. Lets make a little diffuse glow around the
emission polygons, to make it look shiny. Select the
Magic Wand tool, and click on every yellow light
polygon, except the sun. Then make the selection of
a new layer by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+J or go to
Layer>New>Create on a new layer. Then go to
Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur, and use it with five to six
pixels. After this, change the blend mode to Screen.

16

MAKE THE STARS

To make the space more beautiful and

realistic you should add some stars. Usually such
things are made with Soft brushes, but in low-poly art
a pencil will do a much better job. So create a new
layer, take the Pencil tool with a two to three pixel
radius to make big stars, then make one-pixel-radius
small stars. You can use white and blue colours for
them, and you should only put them on the dark side of
the space. Dont make too many though as they might
take too much attention away from the main model.

To make the two colour light scheme look

even better, you should manually create patches of
reflected light on the borders of the model. Its a very
tricky thing, so be careful. Create a new layer, using
the Pen tool, select sharp and thin borders that are
addressed to the Moon, and paint them with a bright
blue colour like #00e1ff. These patches should be
solid with no gradient. This will add a depth to the
scene, but dont make too many of them.
Last, but not the least, create a filling light from the Sun. Create a new layer, pick a bright yellow colour
like #ffff87 and a Gradient tool. Drag a Radiant Gradient from the Sun, forming the big spot of light. After this, go
to the Blend modes of the layer and change it to Screen. Adjust the Transparency of the layer by 50-60%, or
more, if youd like a brighter light in your scene.

SIMULATE 3D LOW POLY IN 2D

As the low-poly genre becomes more and more
popular, more people are trying it out, but not
everyone knows how to do it properly. To learn
the basics of Blender, you should probably
spend few days learning, but it could take an
eternity to learn every aspect of it. The same
could be said about any other 3D software.
However, there is an alternative way you can
simulate low-poly 3D style using any 2D
redactor you like, vectors in Illustrator, or the
Pen in Photoshop. The pros of this method are
you will not waste your time on theory of 3D
modelling and waiting hours for your model to
t the cons are you will never get the
ng and shading in a flat illustration.

050

QUICK TIP
If you find a mistake that cannot be fixed in Photoshop, you can render it again. You can either delete
objects you dont need, so you dont have to wait for the whole scene to render, or, if you see the part
you need appear before the render finishes, press Esc a
he
first layer and erase everything that you dont need.

WorldMags.net

Special offer for readers in North America

WorldMags.net

5 ISSUES FREE
FREE

When you subscribe

resource
downloads
in every
issue

e authoritive,
onal resource for
hop professionals

Quote

Online at www.imaginesubs.co.uk/aps
*Terms and conditions: This is a US subscription oer. You will actually be charged 80 sterling for an annual subscription. This is equivalent to $120 at the
time of writing, exchange rate may vary. 5 free issues refers to the USA newsstand price of $15.50 for 13 issues being $201.50, compared with $120 for a
subscription. Your subscription starts from the next available issue and will run for 13 issues. This oer expires 31 July 2015.

WorldMags.net

USA

for this
exclusive
oer!

WorldMags.net

I used to hear opinions that its

impossible to create a feminine portrait
without curves, so I made it a challenge for
myself to prove the opposite

WorldMags.net

TECHNIQUES HOW I MADE

WorldMags.net
LOW POLY

WOJTEK FUS

DISCOVER HOW THIS IMAGE COMBINES DIGITAL PAINTING WITH A LOWPOLY

STYLE TO CREATE A UNIQUE AND BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF ARTWORK

ow-poly is often thought of as either 3D or

vector, but either way its treatment of
colour is often solid. In this image, 22-yearold artist Wojtek Fus combines the
low-poly style with painterly colour and texture to
create something unique. In my Low Poly portrait
series Im sticking to the concept that everything in
my painting will be either a straight line or a
triangular shape, he explains. I used to hear
opinions that its impossible to create a feminine

01

portrait without curves, so I made it a challenge for

myself to prove the opposite. Setting up a few
strong rules before you start painting will save you
a lot of trouble later in the process and will make
your artwork stand out. Make sure you are not
afraid of experiments and stick to what you have
planned in the first place!
The image is part of a series (two images so
far) that Fus describes as All about balancing out
stylisation and realism together. Most of the time

stylisation means simplifying or exaggerating,

subtracting whats unnecessary to make room for
the features [and] themes you are captured by. On
the opposite side there is realism, which means
depicting things as they are. In order to create a
convincing stylised painting I had to have an opinion
on what to extract from the realistic image I was
interpreting and twist it to my own taste and own
vision. It can mean stylising shapes, exaggerating
colours, [and] playing around with the anatomy.

HAVE A PLAN

This is always my first step. I am thinking

about my portrait as I would think about designing a
logo. I want something bold, unique and I want it to
communicate a certain mood. In this case I am using
as many straights as possible. I dont care where the
lines end, I will use these intersections to my
advantage in the later stages, when I will be building
shapes on top of them.

03
02

CREATE THE SHAPES

Then I extract the shapes from the lines,

picking interesting angles that will give the artwork
an energetic composition.

USE BRUSHES

Locking the transparency of the shapes

I created enables me to work inside of them with
a soft brush, getting the form somewhat right. I
use different blending modes on the brush
(Multiply, Overlay, Color Dodge, Soft Light) to get
nice colour richness.

WorldMags.net

053

TECHNIQUES HOW I MADE

WorldMags.net

04

START RENDERING

07

CREATE CUSTOM SHAPES

Now, I go in and start to render the features

like eyes, nose and mouth with just a couple of
brushes. Its not really that important which brush
you will use, you can do it perfectly fine with just a
standard Round brush.

05

SELECT AREAS TO PAINT

Making a selection around the area youre

painting means that you can keep the precise
low-poly shapes but combine them with the brush
strokes and colour effects you get from rendering
with brushes.

To quickly create Custom Shapes that can be used more than once, make a
selection with the Pen tool, Right-click and choose Define Custom Shape it will now be
in the Shape dropdown and can be re-used again and again.

08

FINISHING TOUCHES

06

Then I paint on top, grabbing the Polygonal

Lasso tool, creating triangular shapes in strategic
places, filling them in with a flat colour that I pick
from underneath.

PEN TOOL TRICKS

HOW THE PEN TOOL WORKS AND WHAT YOU CAN USE IT FOR
The Pen tool can be set to Shape or Path on the toolbar at the top
of the interface. When set to Path there are a number of different
tools that you can select from the Pen tool icon. The regular Pen
tool lets you click around the outline of a shape to make a Path.
The Freeform Pen tool lets you draw freehand and is ideal for using
with a graphics tablet. The Add, Delete and Convert Point tools
allow you to modify the paths youve created.
When set to Shape, the Pen tool will generate vector shapes on
a new shape layer as you make points on the path. These can be
complex and intersect with each other. All shapes and paths made
with the Pen tool can be made into Selections and Custom Shapes,
and the paths can have a stroke and/or fill applied.

In this step you can see that I am building on top of what I have established
before. In the later stages of your painting its really easy to get distracted by the details,
so make sure you are staying focused! I have applied some postproduction with a Color
Lookup adjustment layer with the preset Crisp Winter.

054

MAKE IT LOW POLY

WorldMags.net

BUILD
A
BETTER
WEB
WorldMags.net
www.webdesignermag.co.uk

Available
from all good
newsagents and
supermarkets

SOURCE
RE

EVERY IS
DS

E s FREE
SU

ON SALE NOW

WNLOA
DO

How to build a brand | JavaScript 6: what's new? | Build with Web Components
PRACTICAL TIPS

BEHIND THE SCENES

INDUSTRY OPINION

BUY
YOUR
ISS
Print edition available at www.imagineshop.co.uk
Digital edition available at www.greatdigitalmags.com
Available on the following platforms

WorldMags.net
facebook.com/webdesignermag

twitter.com/webdesignermag

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

TURN PHOTOS INTO PAINTINGS

WorldMags.net
TURN PHOTOS
INTO PAINTINGS

LEARN HOW TO TURN STOCK PHOTOS INTO COLOURFUL

AND VIVID WATERCOLOUR STYLE PAINTINGS

n this tutorial, you will learn how to take separate

photo images and turn them into a colourful,
watercolour style painting. A combination of
layer effects, filters, layer masking and general
creativity will bring the art to life. A graphics tablet
with pen pressure capabilities will be needed as a
majority of the tutorial will require brush strokes and
opacity that a mouse cannot easily achieve. At least a
basic knowledge of the Photoshop interface and
tools are also needed. Stock photos will be used as
an integral part of the artwork, but both premium
and free stock is readily available to find and use
online. The main image can be purchased from
Dreamstime.com (code 37368747); the flowers can

all be downloaded for free from www.freeimages.

com (search petals, poppies and wildflowers), and
the background paper texture can be downloaded for
free from www.CGTextures.com (filename
PaperDecorative0026_3_L).
Inspiration for this tutorial stems from the look of
traditional watercolour on textured paper, and
combining it with the myriad of colours and
techniques available for digital mediums. Photoshop
is the easiest to use as it simplifies the process of
prepping photo files while also supplying the tools
and methods needed to create manually. This
tutorial requires only a certain styled brush that can
be used for more watercolour projects in the future.

TECHNIQUES

OUR EXPERT
GENEVA BENTON
GenevaB.com

Geneva Benton is a self-taught

American artist who creates for a
living and as a way of self expression.
She prefers to use bright bold
colours and organic shapes.

SOURCE FILES
On FileSilo is a single brush .ABR file
that can be used for the majority of
the tutorial steps. The brush can be
edited to the users needs.

GET STARTED WITH STOCK

USE STOCK PHOTOS TO LAY DOWN YOUR FOUNDATION

01

WORK IN
PROGRESS

SET UP THE FILE AND BASE

The aim is to turn photos into a

watercolour illustration. First, create a new
document (File>New), at least 1500 pixels high
and wide, at 300DPI. Fill it with a paper-like
pattern or image. You can create your own, use a
pre-made stock, or use a pattern. In this tutorial,
a stock paper texture is being used.

FROM STOCK TO FINISHED

ARTWORK

Progress 1: Set up stock photos

Progress 2: Colour over

stock photos

02

ADD THE WOMAN

The next step is to bring in your stock

image. The subject of this art is a woman with
flowers decorating her hair and clothing. On a new
layer (Layer>New>New Layer) bring in your stock
photo of a woman and fill the entire document with it
(Edit>Transform>Scale). We will mask her for the
background in a few more steps.

03

ADD THE FLOWER SNAPS

Next is to bring in your flower stock photos.

On a new set of layers, cut out or mask out the
flowers (Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All) and separate
petals from your stock photos and layer them over
the top of her hair, bandeau, and cloth. To create
variance and volume, you can continuously copy and
paste flower bits and petals.

WorldMags.net

Progress 3: Finishing touches

057

TECHNIQUES TURN PHOTOS INTO PAINTINGS

WorldMags.net

04

RECOLOUR THE FLOWERS

Continue to layer your flowers and

petals. Do not fill the intended areas completely
with stock, as it will be filled with simpler
brushed petals in future steps. Mask off or erase
any areas of the flowers that are not completely
clean, and group the flower layers together
(Layer>New>Group). Merge the group together.
Next, desaturate your merged group
(Image>Adjustments>Desaturate), then recolour
it to an aesthetically pleasing matching red
colour (Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation).

05

MASK FOR THE BACKGROUND

Next, time to clean up and mask your

female stock photo. To get a crisp, accurate
mask, use the Pen tool (P). For smaller, more
detailed areas, use a small Hard Round brush (B)
in combination with a tablet. The goal is to show
the earlier paper texture base underneath, so
mask off any open space areas that arent
explicitly the subject matter or the flowers. Make
sure to keep the mask enabled as it will also be
needed for future steps.

06

Now it is time to find the edges of our

image. Duplicate the woman layer and the
flower layers separately. Next for each layer go
to, Filter>Stylize>Find Edges, which will turn
the layers into coloured lines with a white
background. Desaturate these layers as well,
and use Levels to clean up excess lines
(Image>Adjustments>Levels). To get cleaner
lines, bring the White, Grey and Black sliders
together in the Levels panel. You can also
clean up lines by using the Brush tool.

QUICK TIP
Importing brushes into Photoshop is quick and
easy. Simply double-click on the brush to import
it or import manually by clicking the drop down
menu on the Brush Presets Panel
(Window>Brush Presets) and selecting Load
Brushes. You can also save your own premade
brushes by going to Edit>Preset Manager.

07

SET UP TO COLOUR IN

Once your new linework is cleaned up,

set the layer settings of both layers to Multiply.
You should be able to see the flowers and
woman underneath. Next, duplicate the woman
layer again underneath the original, and fill it
(Edit>Fill) with a neutral colour matching the
background. This will be the base when masking
inside the main layers. The next several steps will
be focused on detailing the woman. Create a new
group for the woman layer only and attach a
blank white mask onto this group.

058

08

CREATE THE LINE ART

MASK OUT HIGHLIGHTS

This step requires masking with the

Brush tool, preferably with a tablet. On FileSilo
there is a simple watercolour-style brush called
Spongy Brush. Import this brush into
Photoshop. It can be easily adjusted for different
areas by changing the Spacing and Shape. On
the woman group mask, mask out the lighter,
highlighted areas, showing the neutral colour
underneath. Use variety in the size and shape of
the brush for more creative masking.
Afterwards, use Color balance
(Image>Adjustments>Color balance) to add a
reddish tint to the image.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
GET INTO DETAIL
LAY COLOUR AND BRUSH STROKES TO CREATE A PAINTED FEEL

09

START TO COLOUR IN

Time to start colouring in our image. Create a new layer over the woman layer but underneath the line
art layer. Using the new reddish colours as a base, brush over the details of her face using the same brush
listed earlier. Keep within the lines with her face and skin, but use artistic licence when colouring her hair.

001
002

10

Refine your colouring further. The

colouring should ease in well with the image and
not look too smooth or jagged. If you are finding its
becoming muddy, try Color Balancing your brush
strokes, or try setting your brush setting to Multiply
or Overlay. Colouring her hair a few different
shades of blue has added more interest to the
image. Be sure to keep the strokes relatively loose
and layered. Afterwards, mask off the colour layer
and creatively mask areas of interest, like where
her hair and the flowers intersect.

003

001 KEEP IT LOOSE

Since the idea is for a watercolour look,

keep the brush strokes a bit loose with
a textured feel

11

002 USE REFERENCES

This is a good time to use references of

how light and shadow affect a persons
face for accurate detail

ADD EVEN MORE INTEREST

To add further interest, pull in some

additional colours. Be sure to have colours that arent
too contrasted and work well with your current
palette. In this image the woman has been given a
different look compared to the original stock art,
mostly by using liberal strokes and flatter shades of
colour. Colours from her hair and flowers were also
used on her skin to harmonise these elements.
When satisfied with your colouring, mask off some
of the line art that is no longer needed.

12

ADD IN INTEREST

003 ADD COLOURS

Start with a single colour for shading, and

continuously pull in different colours for
shading via Eyedropper (I) or Color Picker

The colouring should ease in

well with the image and not
look too smooth or jagged

START ON THE FLOWERS

Now that the base details for the woman

are done, group the related layers into one group.
On the flower line art layer, make sure the lines are
cleaned up using masks, filters, or erasing. Lock
the transparent pixels of the flower layer (located
under the Layer Settings in the Layer panel), and
brush in a secondary colour. A brighter orange
was used to make the flowers pop. Underneath
the flowers layer, add a new petals layer. With
lower Flow and Transparency settings, create
lighter scattered petals.

13

ADD CASCADING PETALS

Continue adding in your petals in various

shapes and sizes and create a cascading effect
from the foreground flowers. The goal is a loose
feel of the petals, but make sure to keep them
relatively petal shaped. Make sure they are
blending seamlessly with the foreground flowers.
To help achieve this, further mask some of the
original flower line art and add in the same pop
colour. To help with the cascading effect, more
loose hair was added to the womans colour layer.

WorldMags.net

059

TECHNIQUES TURN PHOTOS INTO PAINTINGS

WorldMags.net

USE ARTISTIC LICENCE

ADD DETAIL AND KEEP IT LIGHT WHILE ADDING YOUR OWN FLAIR

14

RECOLOUR THE FLOWERS

When turning a photo into an artistic style,

its important to keep each layer separate and
make sure they are easily editable. Doing so makes
changing entire formats and colour schemes
easier to get the desired effect. To demonstrate, the
flowers and petals have been switched to a
stronger red. Brush in darker pits to the existing
flowers and give the background petals more life by
masking out their transparency around their edges.
Lock the transparent pixels, and use a Gradient to
give whole sections of petals an orange hue.

15

ADD DEPTH

Mask off the petals and brush strokes that

intersect undesirably, like on her arms and some
areas of her hair. Duplicate the background petals
layer underneath itself and set it to Multiply, giving
the petals more depth. Play with the opacity. Next
add a new layer below the precedent layer and set it
to Multiply also. Brush in smaller, lesser petals,
mostly focusing on her hair. Add a new Multiply layer
above the flowers layer and repeat, but focusing on
the cloth in her hand.

16

ADD IN HIGHLIGHTS

18

SIMPLIFY THE BACKGROUND

Create a new layer over the flower line art

layer, and pick a light, relatively neutral colour that
fits in with the art. With the watercolour brush, add in
small highlights to the petals. Brush the highlights
on random petals and keep them sharp, but keep in
mind the light sources of the art so the highlights
dont conflict. Using a small, splotchy brush, add
splashes of red to the sides of some flowers. Add
some splashes to her hair also.

QUICK TIP
Masking is an effective way to delete elements in
an image, while still keeping the deleted data just
in case. Masks work in black and white; black
being what is being erased and white is what is
visible. Filters and brush effects can be applied to
masks, an advantage over erasing.

17
STOCK IMAGES AND TEXTURE
The stock surface texture used in this tutorial is
a soft grunge papery texture from www.
lostandtaken.com, a royalty free stock website.
There are an innumerable amount of places to
find stock images that can suit almost any need.
However, make sure when using your stock
that you abide by the stock creators usage
requirements and copyrights. Some places offer
royalty free, commercial free stock that is free to
use anywhere, but some require payment or
notation that the stock is being used. Others
also require a timed usage licence. Also make
sure the stock is a good enough quality and size
for easier editing.

060

ADDING FINER DETAILS

Now that the flowers have been

completed, group all of the layers involved. Keep
these layers separate for any future editing.
Looking back, some sections of the woman can be
adjusted to match the flowers. Remove or add
some of the line art to your liking and use Color
Balance if necessary. A clear contrast needs to be
made between the woman and flowers, but at the
same time it must look harmonious. Add in small
details such as highlights to her eyes, hair and lips.

Next is to simplify the background. It needs

to match the feel of the art. First, sort the woman
and flowers into a single group and attach a blank
mask. Very lightly mask the edges of the ground to
blend with the background. On a layer above the
background, use the Soft Round brush with Transfer
on and pick a matching neutral colour. Lightly colour
around the woman and flowers. Keep the edges
textured. With the watercolour brush, pick a red from
the flowers and loosely colour around them.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

19

ADD ADDITIONAL PETALS

With the Soft Round brush, mask any extra

brush strokes that cover too much of the textured
background. Make sure the added colour feels
neither too smooth or too jagged. The left side of the
art feels too open and plain, so add in some petals
QUICK TIP
Three tools that come in handy when
recolouring are the Color Balance, Hue/
Saturation and the Replace Color
(Image>Adjustments>Replace Color) tools.
With Color Balance and Hue/Saturation, you
can recolour an entire image. With the Replace
Color tool, you can select and recolour a single
or multiple shades in an image.

22

for decoration. Make a new layer above all of your

pre-existing layers, and brush in some smaller
petals on both sides of the woman. Make them
spaced out and very few, as the focus must remain
on the woman and original flower petals.

21

ADD A SURFACE TEXTURE

23

ADD AMBIANCE WITH COLOUR

REFINE ADDITIONAL PETALS

24

FINISHING TOUCHES

The newly added petals should help box in

and bring focus to the womans face. Use the Lasso
tool (L) if needs be to rearrange each petal. Using
previous methods of masking and brush strokes,
soften the edges of these petals and bring in aesthetic
colours such as a bright orange and deep red to match
the art. Keep these petals less defined and softer than
the original petals. Make sure they do not cover too
much of the background or original art details.

At this point of the tutorial, a paper texture

is needed to tie the whole image together. Create or
find a stock paper texture that has varying shades,
but isnt too dirty or repetitive. Bring in your texture
over every pre-existing layer. Desaturate it and use
Levels to make it mostly white with soft grey shades.
Next, use the Gradient tool and set its settings to
Overlay. Overlay a limited number of previous
colours from the art at randomised places.

COLOUR THE SURFACE TEXTURE

On this texture layer, attach a blank mask.

Using the watercolour brush, mask out areas of the
texture, revealing the art underneath. Focus on
masking around her face and flower petals and start
with multiple light strokes. Try not to keep the
strokes too uniform; the texture needs to look
diverse. Set the texture layer to Multiply and Opacity
at 80%. Once applied, the texture should blend with
the art, and give it a slightly darker tint. Apply the
Sharpen filter (Filter>Sharpen).

20

Next, add some overall ambiance to the

art. Create a new layer. Again using the Gradient
tool, select a greyish-red colour and make a Linear
Gradient from the bottom to a quarter up the image.
Set this gradient to Multiply. If needed, resize the
gradient to be further up or lower on the art
(Edit>Transform>Scale). Duplicate the gradient, flip
it vertically (Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical) and place
it at the top of the art.

On another layer, place different coloured

Radial Gradients on different parts of the art, such
as near the edges and around the flower petals.
Check your work for any details that have been
missed or need to be added. Next, select the
entire document (Select>All), copy it (Edit>Copy
Merged) and paste it as a new layer. The art
should all be on this one layer with the original
layers underneath. Apply another Sharpen filter
and use Color Balance to bring in a bit of blue tint.

WorldMags.net

061

WorldMags.net
LOLLIPOP

ANDREW MCINTOSH

Andrew McIntosh

HOW ANDREW MCINTOSH USED SOME REFLECTIVE TRICKS

TO PAINT AN OCTOPUS LOOKING FOR A TASTY TREAT

WorldMags.net

TECHNIQUES HOW I MADE

WorldMags.net

ustralian artist Andrew McIntosh

(andrewmcintoshart.deviantart.com)
says, I have a fondness for the
whimsical It inspires my design
process and I feel more relaxed creating
something that puts a smile on my face.
Lollipop Popped into my head while walking

01

no exception. There is always something in

each piece that I have not experienced or
want to try [to be] better at. This particular
one was the reflection. There is a single
reflection layer where I painted in the colours
from the surrounding environment onto the
octopus as if it were a shiny metal sphere.

the dog. I thought it would be cute to have

an octopus who had found some treasure
that they could not get at.
He produces artwork for games by day
my paintings are my hobby and creative
outlet but always challenges himself to
try a new idea or technique, and Lollipop is

02

INITIAL SKETCH

The preliminary sketch is always kept rough to allow

for larger changes to shape and composition later.

REFINE THE DETAILS

Lighting is a very big factor for me when painting and so I try to work
out the direction of the lights and shadows as soon as possible.

There is always something in each

piece that I have not experienced
or want to try [to be] better at

03

ADD THE BASE COLOURS

I prefer to keep my colour layers separate as it allows for

adjustments throughout the process without affecting the lights.

WorldMags.net

063

TECHNIQUES HOW I MADE

WorldMags.net

04

BASIC LIGHTS AND DARKS

06

UNIQUE STEP, REFLECTION MAP

08

FINAL LAYERS

I always start with a basic light and dark layer to help settle the form.
This helps to bring it out.

This was the first time I attempted this and tried many versions.
I found painting it as its own diffuse layer first helped to work out the
exact bends in the reflected light.

05

AMBIENT AND REFLECTED LIGHT

07

APPLYING REFLECTION

These, I find, help to set the subject in the scene more. Also an
occlusion (sometimes done on the darks layer) helps to set characters and
items against each other more believably.

The reflection map is blended over the surface of the octopus

and the opacity is reduced to create a subtle and believable reflection.

REFLECTION MAPS
WHAT IS A REFLECTION MAP AND HOW DO THEY WORK?

This is typically the final look of my layers at the end of a painting

(not including background and additional props). There is often also a Post
Effects folder that includes global light effects, light balance and colour
balance layers) This painting did not have those.

064

A reflection map is basically a texture in your document that maps reflections

of the environment around the reflective object. They can be rendered in 3D
using environment-mapping techniques, which will produce the most
accurate results. When a reflection map is incorrect it affects the entire image.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

SAVE RHINOS NOW

10% OF OUR PROFITS HELP FIGHT POACHING

BUY
An animal in crisis

In eastern Africa, poachers use

automatic weapons to slaughter
endangered rhinos. The animals
are shot and the horns are hacked
away, tearing deep into the rhinos
esh with the rhino left to die.

Make a difference today

Ol Pejeta is a leading conservancy

ghting against this cruelty.
It needs more funds so more
rangers and surveillance can be
deployed on the ground to save
rhinos from this horrible treatment.

Join World of Animals

World of Animals magazine tak

stand against these atrocities an
is proud to be in partnership with
the Ol Pejeta Conservancy 10%
of our prots go towards saving
rhinos in the ght against poaching

Buy World of Animals

at all go
WorldMags.net

worldofanimalsmag

@WorldAnimalsMag

TM

ANDHELP
FIGHT
POACHING

animalanswers.co.uk justgiving.com/olpejeta

 Mary Winkler

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

USE CLIPPING MASKS CREATIVELY

WorldMags.net
USE CLIPPING
MASKS CREATIVELY
UTILISE CLIPPING MASKS AND BLENDING MODES
TO COMPLETE A PAINTERLY ILLUSTRATION

nspired by current trends in design and apparel

featuring galaxy and nebula imagery, this tutorial
will show you how to incorporate Photoshops
fantastic tools and effects in digital painting to
create an otherworldy piece of artwork.
Using clipping or layer masks, various effects,
vector tools, and blending modes within Photoshop
can not only speed up the creation of a fantastic
digital painting, but also brings something new to the
design that may have been avoided due to tedium, or
not have been executed as well if done manually.
Photoshop is a powerful tool, and using it to its

fullest is a great way to expand your skillset and get

your artwork to a higher level.
In this tutorial, well use clipping masks to
complement a painterly design. Well start off
drawing a sketch of the portrait and establish our
composition. Then, well refine our line artwork, paint
and render our subjects face and body using default
and edited brushes. Last of all, well use stock
images to create a nebulous hair design. Using
clipping masks and blending modes within our
layers allows our elements to remain editable as we
apply non-destructive changes.

TECHNIQUES

OUR EXPERT
MARY WINKLER

www.behance.net/acrylicana
@marywinklerart
Mary works as an illustrator and
graphic designer under the brand
Acrylicana designing apparel,
jewellery, and illustrating for
companies like Disney Consumer
Products, Jakks Pacific, Jada Toys,
Tuts+, and more.

SOURCE FILES
Included are two line art sketches. You
can download the stock images used
from www.dreamstime.com, image
numbers 11693269, 25682422
and 31634656.

PREPARING THE BASE

CREATE SKETCHES AND LINE ART AND PREPARE YOUR STOCK

01

PREPARE THE SKETCH

Open a new document in Adobe

Photoshop and create a new layer in the Layers
panel. Were going to start with a simple, rough
compositional sketch. Use the Brush tool (B) and
a Default brush of your choice to sketch out a
portrait similar to the one pictured. Use reference
if it helps with your design.

02

REFINE THE LINE ART

Create a new layer in the Layers panel and

use the Pen tool and Ellipse tool in order to better
define the shape of the head and jaw. On another
new layer refine your original sketch. This may take
a few layers of progressively cleaner line art. Once
satisfied with your work, merge (Cmd/Ctrl+E) your
final line art layers together.

WORK IN
PROGRESS
FROM CONCEPTION
TO COMPLETION

Progress 1: Prepare the sketch

Progress 2: Render the face

03

PLACE THE BIRDS

Use the bird silhouette stock photo to copy

and paste birds onto new layers over others. Use
the Lasso tool to select the area around each bird
when copying them into your working document.
Use the Magic Wand tool to delete the background
of the birds. Collect layers into folders in the Layers
panel to keep yourself organised.

Progress 3: Drawing and

rendering the portrait with

the Brush tool

WorldMags.net

067

TECHNIQUES USE CLIPPING MASKS CREATIVELY

WorldMags.net

04

ADD SOME FLAT COLOURS

Under the line art layer, use the Brush tool,

set to a default Hard brush, to fill in your portraits
skin tone. Were going to use various brown tones for
this design, but you can deviate from any of the
presented colour palette if it works better with your
overall design. On a new layer, colour in the eyes with
shades of grey-violet. Later well use a clipping mask
in order to add stock images to each eye rather than
rendering the irises manually.

05

HIGHLIGHT THE FACE

08

PAINT THE FACE

Well draw highlights onto the face on a

layer above the skin tone layer. Using a Smooth
Hard brush, map out areas of the face that would
be hit by light first. Consider the nose, chin, part of
the forehead, beneath the eyebrows, and the sides
of the mouth as areas to highlight. Use a light
brown a few shades lighter than the base skin tone
rather than white for this step. Well add bright hot
spots to the design later.

06

SHADE THE FACE

For the shadows, well use a brown thats a

few shades darker than the skin tone. Paint it into
areas where facial features are overlapping and
casting shadows onto other parts of the face.
Consider under the nose, inside the ear, on the outer
edges of the upper eyes, and under the chin to be
areas cast in shadow. Reduce the opacity of your
brush while painting shadow shapes in order to build
the value up. You may also change the lighting
completely if you feel it benefits your composition.

QUICK TIP
So far weve used Hard brushes. Now that were
on the rendering section of this design, use softer
brushes with modified Opacity and Flow in order to
blend the pixels while painting on each layer. This
brush type works well on the cheeks and to blend
shadows around the jaw.

07

USE GAUSSIAN BLUR

Next well go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur

to apply a smooth Gaussian blur. The radius applied
to the layer will depend on the size of your
document. Were going to apply a radius of 16.9
pixels so the highlights and shadows blend together
without extending too far beyond the face within the
design. Hit OK and use the Eraser tool to erase the
blur effect from outside of the face. This will keep
your design and background clean.

068

Create a new layer above the blurred layer

and continue building up values in the same manner
as was done before. Vary the opacity of your brush
and consider using textured brushes in order for the
skin to look more painterly rather than as if its been

cel-shaded like a cartoon. You can also use the

Blur tool to blend pixels in smaller areas of the
portrait rather than blurring an entire layer. Add
mauve-coloured blush to the cheeks and warm
brown for the lips.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
WORK UP THE COMPOSITION
ADDING HAIR, BIRDS, AND ASSORTED FANTASTICAL DETAILS TO THE DESIGN

09

MAKE CLOUDY HAIR

On a new layer, well build the hair. Our subjects hair is fluffy and cloud-like. In order to create it youll
need to overlap ellipses with the Ellipse tool. Hold down the Shift key while drawing your ellipses in order to
create a singular mass. Fill the shapes in with a bright, easy to see colour in the Properties panel.

001

002

10
003
001 BIRDS STAND OUT

Use the Paint Bucket tool to change

each bird silhouettes colour to
something bright and noticeable
against the black background

002 BUBBLY HAIR

Add smaller ellipses around the hair

and birds so the hair looks bubbly
and fantastical. Take advantage of
negative space

003 DRAWING
BEHIND THE HEAD

The hair behind the head, neck, and

ears is on a new layer underneath the
rest of the designs content

CLIPPING MASK THE HAIR

Import one of the galaxy stock images

listed on p63 to your document. Place it above the
filled-in hair layer in the Layers panel. With the
galaxy layer selected, go to Layer>Create Clipping
Mask (Cmd/Ctrl+alt+G) to clip that layer to the one
below it. Now we have fantastic galaxy hair! Note
that you can use the Move tool to change what
portion of the galaxy image appears within the
boundaries of the hair so long as youre only
moving the galaxy layer.

Clipping masks applied to

a layer above a folder will
clip to the folders contents

11

MASK OTHER ELEMENTS

Repeat the previous step of applying a

clipping mask to the portion of hair in the layer
behind the back of the head. You can either adjust
the stock image so both galaxy layers line up or you
can choose a darker portion of the stock image to
give the illusion of depth within the hair. Then, youll
do the same thing to the bird silhouette folder and
the eyes. Clipping masks applied to a layer above a
folder will clip to the folders contents.

12

SHADE UNDER THE HAIR

On a new layer underneath the base hair

layer, paint brown and dark brown to give the illusion
of the galaxy cloud casting a shadow onto our
subjects forehead. When you reduce the Opacity of
the brush to 40% and the Flow to 60% you can build
up the value slowly and use a softer brush to blend
those shadows in together. Follow the direction of
the shadows we created earlier in the tutorial to
remain consistent within our design.

13

SHADE THE EYES

Direct your attention to the eyes. On a new

layer, use the same dark purple or dark brown we
used in creating the line art to shade the eyes.
Reduce the Opacity of your Soft brush to 20% and
build the shadows up organically to create depth
within the face as well as soften the look of the eyes
themselves. Were not going to add any more detail
to the eyes than this, since the second galaxy stock
image is detailed enough.

WorldMags.net

069

TECHNIQUES USE CLIPPING MASKS CREATIVELY

WorldMags.net

BRING IT ALL TOGETHER

FINALISING THE DESIGN AND FOCUSING ON COMPOSITIONAL DETAILS TO TIE EVERYTHING TOGETHER

14

COMPLETE THE PORTRAIT

Next well finalise the portrait on a new

layer above the rest. Smooth out the values on the
face, add additional highlights to the eyelids, and
deepen the shadows being cast by the hair. Move
down from the face to the neck and shoulders. Add
shadow and subtle highlights with a soft,
transparent default brush. Switch to a Chalk or
Scatter style brush to add texture to the skin on the
face and body. Doing so gives the portrait a slightly
realistic touch.

15

CREATE THE RAIN

Now well work on some fun details within

the rest of the design. Notice how our subjects
galaxy cloud is raining in the final image. To make
the rain effect use a very small one to four point
Round brush and draw a series of dots around the
bottom of the hair on a new layer. Go to
Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and apply a Distance of 156
pixels at a 90 Angle. Duplicate the layer, repeat, and
set the Opacity of the second layer to 41%.

16

ADD RIM LIGHTING

18

ADD ADDITIONAL BIRDS

In the Layers panel, select the bird folder,

right-click, and hit Blending Options. Choose the
Inner Glow option to create a rim lighting effect. Set
the blend mode to Color Dodge, Opacity to 53%, and
the Color to pink or blue. Set the Technique to Softer,
Source to Edge, Choke to 22% and the Size to 49%.
The other settings are all at their default. You may
find that you adjust these settings to work better
with your composition and colour palette.

QUICK TIP
Most of the time we spent rendering the face was
beneath the line art layers. If you paint details over
the line art layer you can get a more painterly look
compared to a cartoony look. The final design that
we have created is a mix of the two styles.

OUTSTANDING DROP SHADOWS

To get elements like the birds or hair to pop out
from the figure, consider adding a drop shadow
as the blending option. Such an effect was
applied to the second folder of birds that are
flying around the figures neck. Set the blend
mode to Multiply, Opacity to 60-65%, and the
Angle to 120-degrees. Set the Distance to 28 px,
the Spread to 8%, and the Size to 49 px. Finally,
if you set the Noise to 11% or so, texture will be
added to the drop shadow, which goes well with
the painterly style of this design.

070

17

CREATE AN OUTER GLOW

Once again, select the bird folder in the

Layers panel, Cmd/right-click, and hit Blending
Options. Choose Outer Glow this time. Under
Structure set the blend mode to Color Dodge,
Opacity to 56%, and the Color to indigo or purple.
Under Elements set the Technique to Softer,
Spread to 7%, and Size to 250 px. Finally, in the
Quality section, set the Range to 73% and the Jitter
to 0%. This and the previous step help the birds
pop out from the dark background.

Add additional birds as a sort of necklace

or shoulder decoration in order to fill in the
composition and finalise the image. Like the other
bird folder, make sure each bird silhouette is cut
out from its background and a galaxy stock image
is clipped to the folder itself. Draw sparkles,
highlights, and raindrops with a Small Round brush
as was done with the rain effect earlier in this
tutorial. Perhaps the rains colours mimic those
from the galaxy images themselves.

WorldMags.net

Learn
to
inspire
WorldMags.net
www.dphotographer.com

Available
from all good
newsagents and
supermarkets

SOURC
RE

VERY IS
DE

E FRE
E
SU

WN
DO LOA

ON SALE NOW
> Colours that pop > Master astrophotography > Outdoor portraits
LANDSCAPE TIPS

SHOOTING ADVICE

WILDLIFE PHOTOS

PORTRAIT GUIDES

CAMERA REVIEWS

BUY YOUR ISSUE TODAY

Print edition available at www.imagineshop.co.uk

Digital edition available at www.greatdigitalmags.com
Available on the following platforms

facebook.com/DigitalPhotographerUK
WorldMags.net

twitter.com/DPhotographer

20
BETTER
ILLUSTRATIONS
TIPS FOR

WorldMags.net

PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL ARTISTS AND ILLUSTRATORS SHARE THEIR ESSENTIAL

ADVICE FOR IMPROVING YOUR ILLUSTRATION TECHNIQUES AND EXPLAIN HOW
TO GET THE MOST OUT OF A RANGE OF KEY PHOTOSHOP TOOLS

01. ADJUST COLOR DYNAMICS AND TEXTURE

02. USE GRADIENT MAPS

Graphic designer and illustrator Shaivalini Kumar (www.behance.net/shaivalini) talks us through

the key Photoshop tools used in this fantastic image.

Aaron Campbell (www.aaroncampbell.ca) is a

designer and illustrator based in Vancouver, DC. For
him, gradients are an important part of his
illustration process. I almost always start with a very
rough sketch. I like leaving my sketches a bit on the
vague side so that theres lots of room for
experimenting and changing things when I get into
Photoshop. Quickly brushing in some black and
white for values is a very easy way of establishing
your lighting early on in the piece, so theres no
confusion once you start painting the final. I then
draw out a perspective grid and start Pen-tooling in
the largest blocks of colour. Once most of the parts
are blocked in, I begin adding in the lighting, starting
with the largest areas and the main focal point. I also
like to add some Gradient Maps over the top of the
whole piece to add harmony to the whole colour
palette. I like mixing it up between multiple Gradient
Maps on different blending modes and opacities
since it can give some very unexpected results.

Smudge tool : On the face,

in order to give depth under
the eyes, I used the Smudge
tool. The Smudge tool is
good for highlights and to
fade a foreground colour
into the background colour

Texture with brushes: To get good

texture, I recommend a few preloaded
Photoshop brushes: numbers 44 and
29. Downloaded dry medium brushes
and watercolour brushes are also good.
I prefer to keep a good balance of
textured and non-textured brushes, as
it makes parts of the illustration stand
out. Here the face, etc, is flat, but the
body of the monster is textured.

Colour transitions: To achieve colour

transition through the brush strokes I
choose brush no.44, go to Brush Presets
and turn on Color Dynamics. Set the tones
for your brush (the background colour and
foreground colour). The colour of your
stroke will transition from the background
colour to foreground colour. I usually set
Hue Jitter, Purity and Background Jitter to
5% (it balances the colour transition).
Keep the Apply per tip option checked

Gradients: Subtle gradients, shadows and

highlights add a lot to the illustration. For each
part that I want to put gradient on, I Clip-mask a
gradient layer over that specific object and, after
adding the gradient at 20% Opacity, I go over the
areas that require shadows with a Dry brush

Aaron Campbell

Shaivalini Kumar

Blend in text: I mostly create my

text in Adobe Illustrator. However, to
blend the text into the image, which
is quite rendered and textured, I go
over the text once with Airbrush
(Soft High Density Grainy)

Aaron Campbell

03. TAKE CONTROL OF PATHS WITH THE PEN TOOL

072

Aaron Campbell (www.aaroncampbell.ca) explains

how to get the most out of this essential Photoshop
tool: I use the Pen tool in Path mode instead of Shape
mode, therefore for my shapes and lines I use Fill
Path or Stroke Path instead of having separate shape
layers. I like working this way since it makes it easier
to edit the shape in almost any way and paint over the
top of them or use the Pen tools Make Selection

function to minus off any part of the shape. Since I

often do my illustrations as paintings, I find having
rasterised blocks of colour makes it easy to paint
other colours into the shape, erase parts and merge
other shapes together. If they took away every tool in
Photoshop and only left in the Pen tool, I could still
create a full piece with no problem since it offers so
much variety in just one tool.

WorldMags.net

 Giulio Rossi

WorldMags.net

04.DRAW SHAPES
WITH THE PEN TOOL
Giulio Rossi (www.behance.net/giuliorossi) is
a self-taught illustrator. His designs are clean
and sharp, often introducing quirky characters
with lots of expression. For him, the Photoshop
Pen tool is essential to his workflow. In fact, it is
one of the key tools that he uses in designing his
stylised work, mainly for creating vector shapes
within his illustrations. I use the Pen tool to
create the basic shapes of my illustrations.
Starting from the initial sketch, I trace the edges
of the elements I want to keep separated from
the rest so I can work directly on them with the
brushes. It helps me to be more clean and
precise, which is something I really enjoy when I
include geometric shapes into my portraits.

WorldMags.net

TECHNIQUES 20 TIPS FOR BETTER ILLUSTRATIONS

WorldMags.net

Andr Souza

05. CREATE AND CUSTOMISE PHOTOSHOP BRUSHES

Eric Proctor (tsaoshin.deviantart.com) is also a fan of the

brushes in Photoshop, especially custom tips: Being able to
set and adjust various brush parameters such as scatter,
opacity and linking actions to tablet pressure gives me the
control I need to create a brush set that emulates traditional
methods. My library for brushes includes custom brush tip
sets to help me automate tedious tasks like creating blades of
grass, texture on rocks and strands of hair.

Van Orton Design

Eric Proctor

Fredy Santiago

Andr Souza (www.samurai.cc) likes the variety that the

Brush tool in Photoshop offers him: I dont know if its the
most important tool, but I really like and know the
importance of how to work with brushes, I think you can
achieve a great variety of [art], only using brushes. You can
paint, you can retouch, you can cut with brushes, and you
can [customise] this in infinite ways

Fredy Santiago (www.imsugarcoated.com) uses

Photoshops brushes to add texture to his art: The way I
use the paintbrush is mostly to control textures that I want
in certain areas; it gives me the opportunity to display
contrast within the image. The Brush tool has also allowed
me to use different tricks with it, like experimenting with
opacity, Flow, brush assets and [variable] options. From
time to time I create my own brushes; I am a big fan of
graphite-like texture brushes and watercolour ones.

Marco and Stefano of Van Orton Design (www.

vanortondesign.com) also rave about the importance of
brushes when it comes to delivering their electric designs:
Perhaps the answer will be trivial, but for us the most
important tool is just the brush and a good tablet,
absolutely essential for the success of some phases of our
work. Also a good use of black marks and appropriate
selections complete the work in the right way.

06. USE PHOTOSHOP WITH OTHER SOFTWARE

074

Shaivalini Kumar

Many illustrators use other programs, such as Adobe

Illustrator, 3D software and painting programs, but
Photoshop has a key role to play in these workflows.
For Shaivalini Kumar (www.behance.net/
shaivalini), Photoshop is an essential component in
getting the illustrations to completion: Being a
graphic designer, I use Adobe Illustrator a lot. But for
all my illustration work, I use Photoshop, as it gives
me more control over my rendering. I often create my
base shapes in vector format in Illustrator, and then
texture them and give them highlights in Photoshop.
A lot of my illustrations require the use of the
Airbrush, Dry brushes, Watercolour brushes, etc,
therefore my final compositing for my illustrations is
done in Photoshop.
What Photoshop also allows me to do is use
pressure sensitivity while drawing, therefore giving
me maximum control over my strokes. I am also
heavily into typography and editorial design.
Photoshop, therefore, is the best place for me to
create hyper-realistic mockups. It helps me in
presenting my work in the best manner. The
action-coded layers in Photoshop mockups make it
very easy to use them. For me, Photoshop is a
complete package [and in] using [it] I can create my
artwork and deliver it in the best way possible too.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
07. A DIGITAL ARTISTS TOP TOOLS
DIGITAL ARTIST FREDY SANTIAGO SHARES THE TOP FOUR
TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES THAT MAKE UP HIS IMAGES

Texture: I often use the Brush tool with texture and apply
it into surfaces to make things a little more lively

Gradients: The Gradient tool helps me bring depth

and interesting colour shifts in areas that I select

Sugar Coated

Paintbrush: The Paintbrush is a master tool when it comes

to adding highlights in illustrations

Burn tool: The Burn tool gives the final touches

when giving objects more volume

08. BRING IN
ELECTRIC COLOURS

Van Orton Design

Van Orton (www.vanortondesign.com) is

comprised of twins Marco and Stefano from Italy,
working as illustrators and designers. Their work
is distinctive thanks to their use of electric, popping
colours, which are retro but utterly modern at the
same time. How can you add a touch of the
electric to your own illustrations? You have to go
back to the Eighties, say the duo. We are very
inspired by the graphics and illustrations of the
Eighties and Nineties. In those years, these electric
colours were used everywhere. For our work we
really like to start from two or three main colours
and add more and fill the palette evenly. Also, the
use of pattern and texture in pop-art style is critical
to finish the work.

Emi Haze

09. COLOUR CONTROL AND SELECTIONS

Emi Haze (www.emihaze.com) explains how
Photoshops staple tools are essential to good
illustrations: I use blending modes Multiply,
Overlay, Soft Light to obtain peculiar effects in the
combination of different layers and textures, for
instance the double exposures. The blending allows
me to combine different elements, colours and
images in a single work, creating shape and colour
compositions beyond imagination.
Colour is an element of primary importance for
the final perception of the artwork. Thanks to the

application of colour adjustments to every single

layer like Curves, Levels, Hue/Saturation,
Selective Color I have complete control over the
colour throughout every phase of my work.
Finally, I cant forget the Selection tools. There
are a multitude of techniques to obtain a good
selection: from a bitmap or vector mask, the Color
Range tool, selecting with colour channels or,
especially when working with a [graphics tablet],
the fastest way to be precise is using the Lasso
and Pen tool.

WorldMags.net

075

TECHNIQUES 20 TIPS FOR BETTER ILLUSTRATIONS

WorldMags.net

10. USE REFERENCES FOR EVERYTHING

around you: the people, the nature and the animals, the
way they move, talk and act. You will always find
wonderful references in this. Listen to good music,
keep the habit of watching movies, reading books and
comics, play a lot of videogames never
underestimate the power of pop culture. And draw, if
you like it, a lot. [In conclusion], be a good observer.

Andr Souza

Andr Souza (www.samurai.cc) is the partner and

director for Samurai.cc, a creative content company. He
suggests that up-and-coming illustrators looking
for a way to better their work and break into the
industry simply take the time to look at the world
around them and find inspiration: What I would like to
say to them is: always look. Always observe the world

12. KEEP AN
INSPIRATION FOLDER
Anna Lisa Wardles (www.annaillustrations.
wordpress.com) work often encompasses fashion
illustration, which requires finding inspiration and
influence to create designs. She explains how to find this
in everyday life: Inspiration for any creative individual is
everywhere. Its in cultures, fashion and people. You just
have to indulge yourself. As an artist, I try and keep
many influences and dedicate as much time into staying
amazed by the arts as I can. This only makes me want
to work more. I have folders full of artists work on my
computer and plaster their work on walls surrounding
my desk as a constant inspiration. I have always loved
manga and oriental styles; they have always been my
main inspirations. However, I also find Renaissance
paintings, photography and fashion to be key influences
too. There are countless artists I love to spend hours
researching: Lois Van Baarle, Audrey Kawasaki, Amy
Sol and Soeymilky to name a few! My advice would be
not to give up on your work if you feel like youve hit a
wall with your image. Its a horrible feeling, so searching
the web, magazines or various art books for new artists
always helps to spark my interest [again].

11. WORK WITH TONAL VALUES

ANNA WARDLE TALKS US THROUGH THE CREATION OF HER GEISHA CREATION, WHICH
$%6%,/03 &2/- -/./#(2/-% 6!,5%3 4/ &5,,#/,/52 -!34%20)%#%

01

MONOCHROME VALUES

I normally start off in black-and-white.

This helps with contrasts in lighting, especially if
you tend to get distracted by colour. I make a dark
silhouette to set a great base to build on. I always
use a reference, as this is really important.

Anna Wardle

02

076

TONES AND LIGHTING

Next, I [start to] build in my tones and

lighting roughly with a mixture of textured brushes,
trying to keep loose. Then bit by bit it all comes
together and you start to see the image forming.

03

COLOUR AND DETAIL

A Color layer helps to add colour

without losing any of the painting foundations
already laid down by working in black-andwhite. I slowly work on top using a Normal
layer, adding more colour and details to make
the piece stand out as much as I can.
Anna Wardle

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
14. 8 STEPS TO
AMAZING ILLUSTRATIONS
TIM HASTINGS WALKS US THROUGH THE
PROCESS OF DESIGNING AN AMAZING
ILLUSTRATION IN PHOTOSHOP

Composition: You are ready to begin

sketching. During the compositionsketching phase, keep your sketching
loose and try to create as many
different variations as possible of your
concept. Allowing yourself many
options will increase your chances of
creating something better than if you
were to fixate on one single idea

Flip your view: When sketching your

compositions, always flip your canvas
(Image>Mode>Image Rotation>Flip
Canvas Horizontally) to see proportional
errors, and other things you might have
missed by viewing the piece in only one
direction. If you are sketching
non-digitally, the same technique can be
applied by simply turning the paper upside
down and viewing it from that angle

Creating inking brush settings: I get asked a

lot about the Photoshop brush settings I use.
In truth, the settings I use are very basic in
comparison to what Photoshop can really do.
My brush settings mimic that of an ink and
brush technique, or a pen drawing style. I use
the Default Circle brush with 1px Spacing and
100% Hardness along with only the Shape
Dynamics checked and set to Pen Pressure.

Explore different colour palettes: After your final

art is complete, you should always explore other
colour options. One easy way to do this is to
Image>Duplicate>Merge, then Cmd/Ctrl+U to
bring up the Hue/Saturation menu. Sliding the Hue
slider will allow you to see almost every other
colour set within the same Hue family. Sliding the
Saturation slider will also allow for more colour
variation, along with the Brightness slider.

Giulio Rossi

Conceptual planning: The prequel to the

sketch, conceptual planning is a definite
must for creating better illustrations no
matter what skill level you are at. This
means figuring out what you want your
piece to say. Combining a concept or
message with your art will not only
improve the outcome, but in general
allow your audience to connect to it.

13. COMBINE REAL MEDIA

AND DIGITAL DRAWING
Create colour sets: Create a Photoshop document
with vast colour sets ranging from two to eight or
more colours. Creating premade, limited-palette
colour sets on a separate PSD will give you the
ability to drag full colour sets into your current
work seamlessly, saving you time. Always update
your colour palettes PSD and mix and match your
previous colour sets to create new ones to allow
colour diversity in your art.

Colour is everything: Along with conceptual

planning, colour is key in what you want your
piece to say. Every colour has its own meaning
and can change the mood of the illustration
instantly. Limiting your colour palette creates
dramatic emphasis and will allow the
illustration to become more sophisticated. A
good formula to use is a neutral colour and two
complementary colours within the same hue.

Set up for screenprinting: 90 per cent of my work is set

up for screenprinting. The best and most effective way to
set a design up is to prepare before you start. Every colour
must be on a separate layer and stacked accordingly. The
linework is always my first layer, but in the end this layer
will end up being the T-shirt colour so it must be at the top
to Select>Load Selection>Example Layer, then Edit>Clear
from each colour layer that is underneath the linework
layer. The last layer in your layer menu is a fill of what
colour you will be using for your shirt. You must also do the
same thing for each colour layer that is over the top of
another colour layer to ensure zero overlap when printing.

Tim Hastings

Illustrator and graphic designer Giulio Rossi (www.

behance.net/giuliorossi) came from a traditional
painting background and shares how he made the
change to digital: Since I bought my first graphics
tablet, I [have] discovered a whole new way to express
my creativity! I always thought that traditional and
digital methods were so different from each other, so
when I started creating things with my computer I
didnt try to replicate what I used to do before. I
preferred to test my ability to draw, working with the
great potential that a digital environment could offer. Of
course, all the practice Ive had with traditional art
techniques was pretty valuable, and even if I draw with
my computer most of the time, I [have] never quit
doing it the old-fashioned way. Digital painting has a
different approach to drawing and its all about the fact
that you can work with several layers for just one
illustration, which is an advantage over traditional art.

WorldMags.net

077

TECHNIQUES 20 TIPS FOR BETTER ILLUSTRATIONS

WorldMags.net

15. BLENDING MODES,

TEXTURES AND MASKS

16. MASTER PHOTOSHOPS ADJUSTMENT TOOLS

Digital artist Eric Proctor (www.tsaoshin.
deviantart.com) says that his top tip for better
illustrations is to master colour control using
Photoshops tools: Learn to use the colouradjusting tools such as Curves, Levels and Color
Balance. These tools are some of Photoshops
strongest assets and can help you see
imbalances in your work as you compose. I often
fuss with the colour in my paintings through

these tools. They help me to create broader colour

palettes or correct lighting problems, especially
early on in the painting when Im laying down the
initial palette. I find that working with the Curves
tool and Color Balance, I can shift a painting away
from looking murky or cloudy to something more
vibrant and saturated. Before I finalise any
painting, I tend to do a final run of colour
adjustments to add the last bit of pop.

Giulio Rossi

Emi Haze (www.emihaze.com) is a freelance digital

artist and illustrator, whose work retains a
traditional, handmade feel thanks to the blending of
many media elements, including photography and
custom textures. He draws on his experience in
traditional media to give his digital work this
tangible feeling, as he explains: Before working in
digital art and illustration, I [started out in] drawing,
painting and later graphics. I always loved the
gesture and the warmth of creating a sketch, in the
stroke of acrylic or oil colour, in the splashes of
watercolour or ink. So [nowadays], when I start
developing an image I try to include my manual skill
in the design and in the use of colour, digitally
importing it into my artwork. [In a single image] I
combine hundreds of Photoshop layers with many
and many graphic elements and textures. All of the
blending modes, layer masks and adjustment layers
I use, make the starting image less digital and more
similar to a painting or drawing.
This phase of manual elaboration is then merged
with a strictly digital phase. Selecting parts of different
photo images, I try to blend, using the double exposure
technique, the human body with nature and its four
elements: fire, air, water and earth. The result is the
vision of an imaginative world hanging between reality
and fantasy, dream and utopia, and in which colour and
sensitivity have the predominant role.

Eric Proctor

Emi Haze

17. CUSTOMISE PHOTOSHOP FOR YOUR TABLET

078

Giulio Rossi (www.behance.net/giuliorossi)

creates his striking character designs using a
graphics tablet, which is an important tool for many
digital artists and illustrators. However, how you use
it is key if you want to improve the quality of your
illustrations. Rossi doesnt change a lot from the
default settings of his tablet, but he does assign
specific keyboard shortcuts for each software [that
he uses], but it really depends on the graphic tablets
model youre working with. His general advice is to
customise your Photoshop workspace to make
working with the tablet easier: I suggest everyone
customises the Photoshop user interface and
creates different ones according to the type of work
you have to do. I have my own working space for

digital painting (which is very minimal with only the

tools and panels I actually use to create an
illustration: Layers, Brush Presets, Color, Swatches)
and another one I use when I have to work for
different projects. So more complex than the other
one, with more icons of the tools I need, for
instance, to organise, align [and] modify the
elements inside the page such as text, shapes.
Finally, if you are using a tablet a lot, then the kit
needs to be right for you: An ergonomic comfortable
stylus with a pressure-sensitive tablet is crucial to get
your best potential in drawing in the most natural way
possible, but you can also improve it by changing the
Opacity and the Flow of the brushes so you can work
easily at your own pace.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Anna Wardle

18. FOLLOW A LAYERBASED WORKFLOW

Tim Hastings

19. WORK WITH THE

EYEDROPPER TOOL
Graphic designer and illustrator Tim Hastings (www.
mindkillerink.com) explains how he builds up his
designs: My typical workflow process begins with at
least a days worth of working on another project
that is already in progress, while having the next
project in the back of my mind, conceptually planning
it out in my head and visualising what direction to go
with. After sufficient mental planning, I will begin
digital composition sketches, usually around three
for client commissioned work. After composition
sketches are complete, I generally let the client view
them, then we review and see which has the best
direction. When a final sketch is decided upon, the
process is always the same. I begin the linework
phase; this generally is 60 per cent of the final

illustration, combining the darkest shadows and

linework into a single layer, while the sketch is on
another layer at low opacity and locked to ensure I
stay on the correct layer at all times. Upon the
completion of the linework, I again get feedback
from the client, and once all is approved I move to
colour. Colour is generally predetermined by the
composition sketch phase and then its a process of
stepping each colour layer by layer until the final
illustration is complete. Finally, I explore other colour
options, see what set works the best and send it off
to the client, and then usually set it up for printing.
This whole process can take anywhere from eight to
20 [plus] hours, depending on the complexity of the
concept being illustrated.

Anna Lisa Wardle (www.annaillustrations.

wordpress.com) is a UK-based freelance illustrator
who creates work focused on pattern, design and
colour, with a distinct style and a portfolio stacked
with engaging portraits. Her key Photoshop trick lies
in a less-used tool: the Eyedropper. Having a
favourite tool is relative to your style. For me, it
would be the Eyedropper tool. It is perfect for
blending. I use Eyedropper tool constantly, literally
every second when painting. It is amazing for picking
colour samples from any image you find and
applying it to your work. This really broadens your
mind when thinking about colour. Blending becomes
easier when you use the shortcut (Opt/Alt) to access
it rather than pressing it separately on the toolbar. If
you have a graphics tablet you can hotkey it, which
saves time enormously.

20. USE PHOTOS AS A BASE

EMI HAZE EXPLAINS HOW HIS ILLUSTRATIONS START FROM A PHOTO AND ARE
BUILT UP WITH TEXTURES AND HANDMADE ELEMENTS

The artwork starts from a photo and the

first step is its retouching. I cut out the subject
from the background with a selection usually
using Pen and Lasso tools, working with a tablet,
and create a bitmap mask. Then I remove part of
the image to prepare it for the next step.

02

HANDMADE ELEMENTS

I do various handmade elements, such

as scratches, ink marks, acrylic or watercolour
stains, which I digitally import in the work. I merge
all these elements with the subject, using blending
modes, adjustment layers, various bitmap/vector
masks and selection tools.

03

IMAGE PROCESSING AND

COLOUR CORRECTION

I select from other photos different natural elements

and I import them on separate layers, trying to melt
them to the subject with the double exposure
technique. In the end, after numerous retouchings to
finish the work, I proceed with the final colour
correction of the image using adjustments layers.

WorldMags.net

Emi Haze

01

PHOTO RETOUCHING

079

REVIEWS EDITORS KEYS ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CC BACKLIT KEYBOARD

WorldMags.net

Perfect addition: Designed

to help every designers
workflow, speed and
accuracy

Colourful: Bright, but not garish colours

group the various tools together for ease
of use

080

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
EDITORS KEYS ADOBE
PHOTOSHOP CC
BACKLIT KEYBOARD

WILL THIS KEYBOARD DEVOTED TO THE COMMANDS AND SHORTCUTS OF

PHOTOSHOP BENEFIT THE AVERAGE DESIGNERS WORKFLOW OR IS IT
JUST ANOTHER GIMMICK LACKING PRACTICALITY?
www.editorskeys.com
SPECIFICATIONS:
m 5GLBMUQ ?LB +?A AMKN?RG@JC
m 31 AMLLCARGTGRW

100
 ..0-6

igital art and designing are timeconsuming hobbies. Photoshop users are
always looking for ways to get through
their workflow quicker, whether thats
through using Actions to make life easier,
personalising the most-used parts of the program
into shortcuts, or even just colour-coding layers to
save time flicking through them. There are
hundreds of ways that you can quicken your design
workflow, and Photoshop offers some handy tips.
In terms of hardware though, besides the
obvious choice of a graphics tablet, keyboards
specific to Photoshop are also worth checking out.
The idea is that by having shortcuts printed onto
keys, these keyboards can save you time; Editors

Keys claim that they can help you edit up to 40 per

cent faster. They also boast their collaboration with
leading opticians in order to create a product that
helps to prevent eye-strain.
First impressions of the Editors Keys keyboard
are good. Its sleek, light, and measures in at 48cm
long; thats enough space dedicated to the keys
without it being too big to transport. The keys are
assorted into groups of colours, but retain a
tastefulness in design, with pastel shades of yellow,
pale blue, white and lilac. Its a great-looking product,
one that looks professional, and its a great idea for
anyone familiarising themselves with the commands
of Photoshop. But can the Editors Keys keyboard
also benefit the more advanced user?

Backlit: Editors Keys has collaborated with

leading opticians to create a keyboard that
helps to tackle eye-strain

WorldMags.net

081

REVIEWS EDITORS KEYS ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CC BACKLIT KEYBOARD

WorldMags.net

You might not even notice, but this easy to

operate product eliminates mistakes and helps
you find the keys youre looking for efficiently

AM ONE CLEAN KEYBOARD CLEANER

082

If youre going to spend 100 on a keyboard,

youre going to want to keep it as shiny and new
looking as the day you bought it.
All keyboards end up showing a bit of wear
and tear, but Editors Keys themselves
recommend the AM One Clean Keyboard
cleaner to use in conjunction with your new
Photoshop keyboard. The cleaning unit comes
with both a sponge and a spray in one, is
refillable, and even looks pretty swanky too.
Keyboards are an obvious source of germ-

spreading, so to have an anti-bacterial unit that

kills 99.9% of germs is a no brainer. This One
Clean unit ticks all the boxes, making it simple to
clean your keyboard without the risk of damage;
something that all too often happens when you let
liquid seep into a keyboard. The best thing about
the product though is that its available on the
Editors Keys website for a very welcome price of
13. So keeping your new Photoshop keyboard
looking good and performing smoothly neednt
break the bank.

As expected for a product so useful to Photoshop

beginners, its extremely user-friendly. There are no
drivers to install: all you have to do is simply plug it in
and begin. The keys resemble those of most laptops
too, but is slightly bigger than the average keyboard.
It may come as a surprise to most users of
Photoshop, but the Editors Keys Photoshop
keyboard has the potential to teach even a seasoned
Photoshop veteran a few new tricks. Even if you
know every single shortcut off by heart, the keyboard
can aid with both key commands and Control
commands; theres an icon on each key for visibility,
the Control keys are red, and each Control command
is written in a smaller font on the key in the same
red. Everything is handily grouped in colour, with the

opacities coloured pink and the drawing tools

being royal blue.
Its little details like this that make the Editors
Keys Photoshop keyboard as much for the
professional as the beginner. You might not even
notice, but this easy to operate product eliminates
mistakes and helps you find the keys youre
looking for efficiently.
Additionally, the keyboard is backlit to help with
working in a dark room, any glare is hidden under
the keys and the colours of the keys are still
visible. Its touches like this that give the keyboard
both substance and style; its a product that most
will buy for its usefulness, but also because its a
cool aesthetic addition to your computer set-up.

WorldMags.net

User-friendly: Having Photoshops

keyboard commands at your fingertips
makes photo editing easier

Practical: Super thin, sleek design

WorldMags.net
CHECK OUT THE
ALTERNATIVES

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CC  PREMIUM

APPLE MAC DEDICATED KEYBOARD

www.lg.com

110 Extremely similar to the backlit model, the

Photoshop CC Apple Mac Dedicated version of the
keyboard feels much more like an Apple product. If
youre a Photoshop user with an Apple set-up and
want to continue with the aesthetic youve already
got, this is probably the keyboard for you. It doesnt
stand out as much as the black model, and naturally
it only works with a Mac. It also doesnt include the
backlight that the cheaper model boasts.

Photoshop tools: Youll learn a few tricks

about advanced keyboard shortcuts and
tool functions thanks to this keyboard

EDITORS KEYS ULTRA THIN

SILICON KEYBOARD COVER

www.eizoglobal.com

35 If youre rather attached to the keyboard

youre using at the moment but youd like the added
benefit of seeing the Photoshop commands on your
keys, the Editors Keys keyboard cover might be
worth investing in instead. Not quite as professional
or cool-looking as a wide keyboard, but just as
useful. Obviously missing the backlight too.

MIUXE ADOBE PHOTOSHOP

KEYBOARD STICKERS

Clear: The tools are named and illustrated

on each key, for extra clarity

www.nec.com

9 Cheaper still, Miuxe offers colourful stickers

The Editors Keys Photoshop CC keyboard is one
of those products that you wont believe you ever
survived without. If youre someone who doesnt rely
on shortcuts all that often, the keyboard will change
the way you work, and if you are someone who likes
using commands, its there to speed you up and stop
you from making simple errors.
Theres a fine line between simple and simplistic
though, and this keyboard just about teeters on the
edge. If the LED backlight is a little bright for you,
theres only the one setting unfortunately, but thats a
minor quibble. The lack of height offered by the tiny
feet either side of the keyboard is another gripe, but
then the Editors Keys kit is designed to simply
replace your existing keyboard: it doesnt necessarily

have to be any more compact, adjustable or even

that much more stylish than your original keyboard,
especially when it offers you a quick guide to the
whole of Photoshop so simply. Ultimately, the
product as a whole is ingenious, cool and practical,
but also very understated.
While its perhaps a long stretch to say every
designer should own a piece of kit like this, its
certainly true that just about everyone could benefit
from it, whether they need a little help remembering
the commands, or whether theyre a seasoned
professional. The Editors Keys Photoshop CC
keyboard can be the silent hero of your workflow,
helping you reach the shortcuts of Photoshop
without you even noticing.

WorldMags.net

with black letters, designed to replace the familiar

keys of a Mac. This feels nicer than silicon, but theres
always the danger of the stickers peeling off; plus,
theres no guarantee they wont come off when you
clean your keyboard. Perhaps the option to go for if
youre looking to give Photoshop keys a trial run.

VERDICT
Features: 7/10
Ease of use: 10/10
Quality of results: 9/10
Value for money: 7/10

FINAL SCORE:

8/10
083

REVIEWS PAINTSTORM STUDIO

WorldMags.net

PAINTSTORM STUDIO

COMBINE THIS NEW PAINTING SOFTWARE WITH PHOTOSHOPS EDITING

TOOLS AND ACHIEVE INCREDIBLE ILLUSTRATIVE EFFECTS
www.paintstormstudio.com
SPECIFICATIONS:
m 5GLBMUQ @GR MLJW
m 5GLBMUQ 4GQR? MP J?RCP
m % +CKMPW MP EPC?RCP
m + &"" QN?AC

$19
_ ..0-6

ainting is one of the hardest digital art

forms to master, but one of the more fun
exercises to let your imagination run wild
with, using a graphics tablet, a little
imagination and a good painting program. So many
programs have to compromise between
accessibility and quality; painting is a talent that
everyone would love to master, but how can you
make it exciting for novices, without alienating the
more comfortable artists?

KEY FEATURES

HOW DO SOME OF PAINTSTORMS TOOLS PERFORM WHEN PUT INTO PRACTICE?

01

GRADIENTS

One of the most exciting things about

Paintstorm, and something that you can waste
hours on just playing with, is the ability to paint
gradients. Gradients can be used with any brush,
and set with a wide range of colours to create
effects that dont even look painted and brush your
way to fancy designs.

Paintstorm Studio places itself firmly as a

program for the more experienced digital painters,
but its still one of the more enjoyable options on the
market. This comes from the visual nature of the
program; menus are fully moveable and
customisable in colour and opacity, which are
packed with features, options, tools and brushes. The
focal point is the Mixer to the right-hand side of the
program, which can be used in just the same way as
a painters palette, as you mix previous colours with
new shades in your picture. As you start painting
onto an image, the colours of the background
conflate slightly with those that you brush onto your
canvas, with the intelligent Dirty Mode. From the
start, Paintstorm feels extremely realistic, and its
this realism that makes the program so in-depth.
Not only is Paintstorm extremely authentic, with
the styles of brushes, their reactions to a canvas and
the way that the colours blend and mix with each
other, it also has many other exciting features to try
out. There is a respectable number of brushes to
choose from, which have the ability to paint in either
solid colour or gradient, and numerous other
alterations, including shape, angle, scatter,
stabilisation and opacity of the trail. The program
also boasts Post Stroke Correction, which offers a
touch-up of your brushing as youre working.

03
02

POST STROKE CORRECTION

Use Post Stroke Correction to alter

your pictures as youre brushing them. This
means that you can have total command over
exactly how a brush stroke should look,

084

without having to accurately paint over and over

again until you get it right. Here, Post Stroke
Correction was used to create the grass and the
shooting stars.

PERSPECTIVE GUIDES

Set guides to help you paint more

precisely and manage depth of horizons. The
Perspective Guides help you paint from far away to
closer up, retaining the exact size and scale of the
brush you need. This eliminates the need to judge
perspective when you brush and just allows you to
be as creative as you need to be with your painting.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

TOP PAINTING
SOFTWARE
ARTISTA IMPRESSO

www.jixipix.com

$20 Mimic impressionism with

your photos, just with a few presets
and sliders. This software is great to
play around with and perfect on the
go as a smartphone app.

COREL PAINTER

www.corel.com

280/$418 Perhaps the go-to

program specifically built for digital
painting, Corel is almost the complete
package; its user-friendly, its eclectic
and its compatible with everything from bitmaps to
Photoshop documents.

ARTRAGE STUDIO PRO

www.artrage.com

$50 A more basic program than

others, but does have most of the
right tools nonetheless. The lack of a
mixing palette is disappointing, but
provides fifteen different tools for drawing or painting.
Again, available on a smartphone.

AUTODESK
SKETCHBOOK PRO

www.autodesk.com

$65 Autodesk SketchBook Pro is

powerful but simple. There arent as
manyy options available in the
software for drawing as there is with other
competitors, but the quality of the tools on offer can
rival almost any program.

PIXARRA
TWISTEDBRUSH
PRO STUDIO 19

www.pixarra.com

$99 TwistedBrush Pro lacks any

kind of preset or ability to
auto-paint, but with the number of brushes on offer
with this software, along with the superb blending
capabilities, its a program for any professional to
seriously consider.

Paintstorm never loses the essence of playfulness that

makes digital painting so appealing in the first place
Paintstorm is fully equipped to handle any kind of
artwork, whether youre looking to touch up an already
painted picture, turn a photo into a realistic painting or
start completely from scratch. Parameters are
optional, and can be set to keep perspective while
youre brushing, to avoid having to resize your brush
with every stroke.
Whilst there are so many hundreds of options and
so much to explore in the program, Paintstorm never
loses the essence of playfulness that makes digital
painting so appealing in the first place. A great tool for
the expert and a fun one for the beginner.

WorldMags.net

VERDICT
Features: 8/10
Ease of use: 8/10
Quality of results: 9/10
Value for money: 9/10

FINAL SCORE:

9/10

An impressive piece of software with

limitless potential, Paintstorm is well
worth any digital painter delving into

085

READER INTERVIEW DARE TO DREAM

WorldMags.net

DARE TO DREAM

CONCEPT ARTIST AND PHOTOSHOP INSTRUCTOR BENEDICK BANA TALKS

ABOUT WORKING DAY AND NIGHT, AND HOW HE HOPES TO ONE DAY BE
PART OF A MASSIVE SCIFI PROJECT LIKE STAR WARS

WHEN DID YOU START USING PHOTOSHOP?

I have been using Photoshop for the last 14 years, during
four years of college and ten years as an instructor and
freelance concept artist. The other software packages I
use are Adobe Illustrator and After Effects.
HOW DID YOU START WORKING AS A PRO?
I started as a freelance artist working online. My first
work was to create logo illustrations and character

illustrations. I then expanded my portfolio and joined

several art community sites to showcase my artworks.
It was through these sites that I was contacted by
clients and was asked to do concept arts for their game
projects, indie film projects, and so on. And as well as
that, I am now a full-time instructor teaching basic
sketching, Photoshop and animation to both
undergraduate and graduate students in the Digital Arts
and Computer Animation Department of Ateneo de
Naga University, Naga City, in the Philippines.
WHATS A TYPICAL DAY FOR YOU?
Well, I am a full-time instructor at the university by day,
and an online artist at night. It is in the evenings and
throughout the nighttime that I usually work from
home, taking [on] online projects such as character

Concept art is something that comes naturally to me. I really

love to draw and rarely run out of ideas to illustrate
086

WorldMags.net

OUR READER
BENEDICK BANA
benedickbana.deviantart.com
www.artstation.com/artist/
benedickbana
@BenedickBana

Time Warp

All article images Benedick Bana

enedick Bana is a concept artist from the

Philippines who also teaches art, animation
and Photoshop. We caught up with him to
find out more about how he started out,
what truly inspires him and what the future could
hold for him and his unique art style.

WorldMags.net

Meteor: Theres a simplicity of style and a lightness of

brush that makes Banas work so appealing as concept art
Sol Blade: Outside of his job as a Photoshop instructor, Bana has worked on
character designs, logos, and illustrations for varied purposes such as games,
mobile phones, card-based illustrations, websites and so on

Codename 75: Right now, Bana is spending his nights working

on a second issue of a sci-fi/horror motion comic project

WorldMags.net

087

WorldMags.net

Anubis

Hot Space Chick

Learning from other artists helps

me not only to create a unique
identity for my sci-fi artworks but also to
go out of my comfort zone sometimes

Heavy Fire: To improve your own work,

Bana suggests exploring all of
Photoshops features, even those you
dont think you need. For instance,
create your own brushes, start with
greyscale because it is easier to create
values, shadows and highlights, use
silhouettes in forming the character and
gradually add details, and so on

Drag Buster: I am more into sci-fi

themes and when I create concept
designs, I usually use flat brushes [and]
geometric brushes to give a more
mechanical feel to each detail, says Bana

088

WorldMags.net

DARE TO DREAM READER INTERVIEW

WorldMags.net
commissions and creating assets for a game or film. It
is a good thing I am highly nocturnal, I usually go to
sleep at around 2am.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE PHOTOSHOP
FEATURES AND TOOLS?
I always use Brush tools, [the] new tools for better
and easy editing, the famous Blur setting, and
image adjustments. I use most of them for my
digital painting.

DESIGN TIPS
Draw every day, says Bana, when asked how other digital artists can improve their work. Grow in
this area every day. Dedicate a time each day to sketch your ideas into paper or digitally. He also
suggests that you Learn from other artists, too. Be open to criticism and the suggestions of others
who see your work. And work on it. Manage to try other styles but do not forget to hone your own style
and signature. Last of all, Bana says Experiment all the time. Do research and look for references to
get ideas about the characters you wish to create, and always explore the many features of
Photoshop to find and refine your style.
Female Warrior Lumina: Bana likes working on
commissioned projects, because he can
express my art and apply my style while
ensuring that my clients standards and plans
for their projects are also satisfied. By doing so,
I dont feel stagnant as theres a never-ending
opportunity to improve my craft

WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

I am especially inclined towards watching sci-fi and
fantasy movies and playing sci-fi games because mech
and gigantic robots appeal to me. I have always been
fond of watching sci-fi movies, even when I was a kid.
The Star Wars saga was one of the things that had a
great impact on me. I especially like how the characters
were created, their unique weapons such as the Light
Sabers and the settings and environments. It was then
when I started being interested in drawing mechanical
shapes and integrating human forms [with them].
Because of my interest in sci-fi, I learned how to
integrate photos with paintings using Photoshop, which
is called photobashing by other artists. I am also
inspired by other professional artists in the industry
who have the same or similar approach as mine in
doing sci-fi art. Learning from other artists helps me
not only to create a unique identity for my sci-fi
artworks but also to go out of my comfort zone
sometimes and explore more of what is quite
challenging for me, such as doing human and monster
designs that dont have a sci-fi feel to them.
WHAT IT IS ABOUT CONCEPT ART THAT
REALLY EXCITES YOU?
Concept art is something that comes naturally to
me. I really love to draw and rarely run out of ideas
to illustrate. This is what I find most appealing and

exciting. On the other hand, what challenges me

most is doing a detailed digital painting of a human.
HOW HAVE YOUR PROCESSES, AND THE WAY
YOU USE PHOTOSHOP, CHANGED SINCE YOU
FIRST STARTED OUT?
I started working through the traditional way, sketching
the subject using a pencil and having it scanned before I
could finally apply colours [to] it. But now, I sketch, paint
and colour directly using Wacom Intuos 4
and Photoshop.

Assault on Sector Zero: Assault on Sector Zero is one of Banas

favourite pieces, because its one of the artworks I created
with a full environment. I would seldom use a background for
my artworks, that is why I think this piece stands out from the
rest. I like the composition and colours I used

FINALLY, WHAT ARE YOUR AMBITIONS FOR

THE FUTURE?
While I am happy teaching student artists, I also dream
of being able to work in a big animation industry, doing
concept designs for films. [But also], I want to expand
my portfolio even more and be given opportunities
through which I can help other artists to develop their
skills in creating concept art.

WorldMags.net

089

WorldMags.net
GATHER THE PROJECT MATERIALS
MATERIALS YOU CAN USE TO CREATE FLOWER BRUSHES

Flowers: For this project you will

need a variety of flowers in a
range of shapes and sizes; the
types of flowers is up to you

Paper: You will need a piece of

drawing paper if you want to draw
flowers to turn into brushes

Pens: A variety of different

sized pens will be useful for
drawing flowers because
pencils will not scan as well

Craft Knife: You will be needing

a craft knife to precisely cut the
flowers for photographing or
scanning them

090

WorldMags.net

MAKE FLOWER BRUSHES ON FILESILO

WorldMags.net
MAKE FLOWER
BRUSHES

LEARN HOW TO MAKE CREATIVE BRUSHES FROM FLOWERS

hen the cold grey of winter has given

way to the bright warmth of spring, this
brings about bright colours, warm
weather and of course flowers. These
colourful blossoms are ideal for crafting your own
digital resources in Photoshop at any time of year. In
this tutorial we will help you create your own flower

Photoshop brushes from real flowers. You can use

wildflowers, cut flowers or even flowers from your
own garden. This is a great way to connect the
outdoors with the indoors, and the natural
elements with digital design. It puts a little bit of
spring in your designs both literally and
figuratively. In this tutorial weve used cut flowers

of many varieties, such as lilies, daisies and

chrysanthemums. Of course the brushes that you
make will be unique to where you live, what
flowers can be grown there, or the flowers you
buy. They dont just have to be springtime blooms
either try these techniques with leaves, flowers
and seeds all year round.

CREATE FLOWER BRUSHES

USE REAL FLOWERS TO CREATE USEFUL BRUSHES

01

OFF WITH THEIR HEADS

04

#/.6%244/",!#+!.$7()4%

Using your craft knife, cut as close to the

petals of the flower as you can without making the
flower come apart. If you want the stem in the
brush just cut lower down the stem.

Once youve photographed your flowers,

select the clearest images and open them in
Photoshop. Then simply desaturate the image to
start the process of making it into a brush.

02

LIGHT THEM WELL

05

ADJUST THE LEVELS

In order to make your job in

Photoshop easier, make sure your lighting is
even. There shouldnt be sharp shadows on the
petals or the background. Use diffused light
and a white background.

Using the Levels dialogue box, make the

whites whiter until the background is perfectly white,
and adjust the blacks as greys so they look good.
Remember the closer to white, the more transparent
the brush will be.

03

PHOTOGRAPH THE FLORA

06

CREATE THE BRUSH

Photograph your flowers quickly after

cutting them so they dont wilt. If needed, prop the
flowers up to get a straight-on shot but dont be
afraid to have many shots at different angles.

Under the Edit menu click Define Brush

Preset. Look at the thumbnail on the left side, if
the brush is super-small with lots of space
around it, it could mean your whites arent white.

WorldMags.net

091

WorldMags.net
THINGS TO AVOID
AVOID DOING THESE THINGS WHEN PHOTOGRAPHING FLOWERS TO MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER
When photographing flowers for brushes you have to be aware of both the
flower and the surroundings. Here are some things to avoid to make your
work in Photoshop both easier and better looking.

Dont use white flowers: Especially if you have a

white background, avoid photographing white or
yellow flowers as they wont have defined edges
and will be difficult to isolate

Dont photograph bouquets: While

you can photograph groups of
flowers, dont just take a picture of
your table arrangement, it will be too
big and messy to make a good brush

Dont hold your flowers: Holding the flower

so you can see inside may be good in theory
but it makes it hard for the camera to auto
focus and it will be difficult to isolate

092

Dont Ignore the flower: Look at the flower

and pay attention to which parts are light
and dark. Here the inside of the flower is
dark and will make an unusable brush as
opposed to if it were more evenly lit

WorldMags.net

MAKE FLOWER BRUSHES ON FILESILO

WorldMags.net
CUSTOM FLOWER BRUSHES
HOW TO USE THE RESOURCES TO CREATE A WILDFLOWER EFFECT
One of the most useful applications of these
custom floral brushes is the ability to quickly and
easily fill a field with wildflowers. The key lies in
the settings for the brushes found in the Brush
panel. Begin by increasing the Spacing found in
the Brush Tip Shape tab. Then add in some

Scattering, some angle and size Jitter, engage

the Flip X Jitter and add a touch of Color
Dynamics to give a slight jitter to the Hue
setting. These values all require a bit of
experimentation to get right. Once the brush is
set as you like it, carefully begin filling the fields

with flowers. Start with the background using

a small brush size and tight spacing. Then
increase both of those as you move towards
the foreground. If this all seems confusing, be
sure to check out the video tutorial where we
explain it click by click!

WorldMags.net

093

ON FILESILO MAKE FLOWER BRUSHES

WorldMags.net

DRAW YOUR BRUSHES

CREATE YOUR OWN BRUSHES FROM DRAWINGS

02

SCAN YOUR DRAWINGS

03

CREATE THE BRUSH

Once youve drawn your flowers, scan

them or photograph them. Make sure you leave
enough space between the drawings so that you
can crop each brush individually later.

01

DRAW SOME FLOWERS

Using pens, draw the flowers. This seems simple but you have to make a lot of decisions
because the brush will look exactly like your drawing. Experiment with just outlines as well as different
shading techniques for different looking brushes.

094

As youre defining your brush, dont assume

because its ink on white paper that it will be a clean
brush. Look at the thumbnail to make sure you dont
have a grey rectangle as pictured here.

FLOWER BRUSHES

DRAWN FLOWER BRUSHES

12 FLOWER BRUSHES FROM PHOTOS

HAND DRAWN FLOWER BRUSHES

These brushes are carefully isolated from the

photos in our project and work great for adding
a splash of natural colour to any design.

These illustrated floral brushes are perfect for

crafting a hand drawn effect to adorn a headline
or other text effect.

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
Learn
in style

The
Series
Discover more with the Book series expert, accessible tutorials for
photography, 3D art, Photoshop, web design and more

BUY YOUR COPY TODAY

Print edition available at www.imagineshop.co.uk

Digital edition available at www.greatdigitalmags.com
Available on the following platforms

WorldMags.net
facebook.com/ImagineBookazines

twitter.com/Books_Imagine

RESOURCES FILESILO

WorldMags.net
YOUR FREE RESOURCES
LOG IN TO WWW.FILESILO.CO.UK/ADVANCEDPHOTOSHOP AND
DOWNLOAD YOUR FANTASTIC PHOTOSHOP RESOURCES NOW

EVERYTHING YOU
NEED TO FOLLOW
ALONG WITH THE
MAGAZINE AND
CREATE GREAT
PHOTOSHOP ART

CREATIVE
RESOURCES
YOUR BONUS
RESOURCES
ON FILESILO THIS ISSUE, FREE AND
EXCLUSIVE FOR ADVANCED PHOTOSHOP
READERS, YOULL FIND RESOURCES
WORTH $239, INCLUDING
Premium Go Media textures worth $63
Aquarelle Designers Kit worth $20
Triangle patterns worth $10
Video tutorial on how to create and use your
own flower brushes
Low-poly backgrounds worth $8
Fonts worth a total of $138
All tutorial files for this issue

EXPERT TUTORIALS
TOTAL
COMBINED
VALUE:

$239

PREMIUM TEXTURES

www.filesilo.co.uk/advancedphotoshop
096

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net
FILESILO THE HOME OF PRO RESOURCES
DISCOVER YOUR FREE ONLINE ASSETS
A rapidly growing library
Updated continually with cool resources
Lets you keep your downloads organised
Browse and access your content from anywhere
No more torn disc pages to ruin your magazines

No more broken discs

Print subscribers get all the content
Digital magazine owners get all the content too!
Each issues content is free with your magazine
Secure online access to your free resources
This is the new FileSilo site that replaces
your disc. Youll find it by visiting the link on
the following page.
The first time you use FileSilo youll need to
register. After that, you can use the email
address and password you provided to log in.

The most popular downloads are shown in

the carousel here, so check out what your
fellow readers are enjoying!
If youre looking for a particular type of
content like brushes or fonts, use the filters
here to refine your search.

Cant find the resource youre looking for in

these filters? Click on More Types to specify
exactly what kind of resource you want.
Green open padlocks show the issues you
have accessed. Red closed padlocks show
the ones you need to buy or unlock.
Top Downloads are listed here, so you can
get an instant look at the most popular
downloaded content.
Check out the Highest Rated list to see the
resources that other readers have voted for
as the best!

Find out more about our online stores, and

useful FAQs like our cookie and privacy
policies and contact details.

Discover our amazing sister magazines and

the wealth of content and information that
they provide.

WorldMags.net

097

RESOURCES FILESILO

WorldMags.net

HOW TO US

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT

ACCESSING YOUR NEW DIGITAL REPOSITORY

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
question about
the magazine.
You can access
plenty of
content for free
with the issue.

02

If youre 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 you have any

problems with
accessing content on
FileSilo, or with the
registration process, take a
look at the FAQs online or
email filesilohelp@
imagine-publishing.co.uk.

NEED HELP WITH

THE TUTORIALS?

Having trouble with any of the techniques in this issues tutorials? Dont know how to make the
best use of your free resources? Want to have your work critiqued by those in the know? Then why
not visit the Advanced Photoshop Facebook page for all your questions, concerns and qualms.
There is a friendly community of fellow Photoshop users to help you out, as well as regular posts
and updates from the magazine team. Like us today and start chatting!

facebook.com/AdvancedPhotoshop
Issue 136 of
098

is on sale 11 June 2015 from GreatDigitalMags.com

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

Where ideas
take shape.

Bring your projects to life with Shutterstocks diverse

library of over 50 million images, videos, and audio tracks.
Flexible payment and subscription options make
creating even easier. Save up to 20% now.
shutterstock.com
NEW! Convenient monthly billing NEW! No daily download limit Innovative search tools

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net

WorldMags.net