CreativePro.Com Illustration

Scanning Around With Gene: Best in the West Graphics, 1970

GeneGable — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 03:50:00 -0700

In 1970 I was a freshman in high school. Although I wasn't aware of graphic design as an art form, I was beginning to notice the effect design had on me as a consumer. Book jackets, billboards, record-album covers, and magazines were an important part of my life. In a few more years I would begin to appreciate the talent they represented.

Best of the Blogs: Old School and New Skills

Editor in Chief — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:23:31 -0700

Typography

Best of the Blogs: August 1, 2011

Editor in Chief — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 02:31:01 -0600

Don't have time to read scores of blogs every day? Don't worry, I've done it for you, and picked out the best posts you shouldn't miss.

Typography

Cutting-Edge Conference for Print and Digital Publishing

Editor in Chief — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:25:20 -0700

The lengthy session list at the 2012 PEPCON print and ePublishing conference could be boiled down into one sentence: Attend this event or fall behind.

Seriously, just look at these session titles (which are only a sampling of the full list):

• InDesign to iPad and Android Apps
• Making Your Folio Come Alive: Embedding HTML and RSS
• XML for Print and Digital Publishing
• Stay on the Cutting Edge: Five Tools to Learn Now

Scanning Around With Gene: Colorful Produce Crate Labels

GeneGable — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:13:00 -0700

When railroads became a dominant form of transportation, and especially after the completion of the trans-continental railway in 1869, it was possible for farmers to ship their goods great distances. And with the advent of the refrigerated rail car, the concept of nearly year-round availability of produce became a reality.

Create Picture Frames in Photoshop: Part 2

Editor in Chief — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:19:56 -0700

In Part 1 of this tutorial, I showed you how to turn a plain gray box into a realistic-looking photo frame in silver, gold, or wood. You also learned how to place a photo into the frame and play with perspective so that the framed image looks like it's skewed to the right or the left.

Create Picture Frames in Photoshop: Part 1

Editor in Chief — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:01:09 -0700

Recently, Reader's Digest magazine asked me to design a photorealistic picture frame into which they could drop a different photograph every month. It occurred to me that, using Photoshop's Smart Objects and an Action to drive the process, it would be possible to create a variety of frames from two different angles, and have them all generated automatically simply by dragging the image onto a Droplet.

Download 3D Apps for Free

Editor in Chief — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:10:48 -0700

Digital Art Zone (DAZ) is giving away several of its 3D software programs from now until February 29, 2012. To download DAZ Studio 4 Pro, Bryce 7 Pro, Hexagon 2.5, and the 3D Photoshop Bridge, go to the special download page on the DAZ site.

Scanning Around With Gene: The Dire Consequences of Careless Bike Riding

GeneGable — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:01:11 -0700

One of my most popular columns of recent times highlighted a safety booklet from the 1940s entitled “It’s Great to Be Alive.” If you didn’t catch that installment, you should take a look — it’s pretty funny how gruesome some of the safety warnings for kids were back then.

Scanning Around With Gene: A Visit to the Sunshine State

GeneGable — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:05:13 -0700

I’ve been to Florida a number of times, but always for business and only to the Miami and Orlando areas, which are small representations of a very large state. And I’ve never been to Disney World or any of the other Orlando attractions. So I can’t say I really know the state.

Scanning Around With Gene: Painting With Air

GeneGable — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:02:03 -0700

When I came across a 1947 edition of “Painting With Air” (published by the Paasche Airbrush Company and written by Frank J. Knaus), I assumed the airbrush had lost favor in our digital times. Once a standard for photo retouching and original illustration, the airbrush was a common tool in many commercial art and design studios. Now it’s software like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop that dominate the creation of original art and the retouching of photographs.

Scanning Around With Gene: Winter Wonderland

GeneGable — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 03:57:00 -0700

Winter is the one season I don’t know very well — at least not in the ways we traditionally think of winter. I’ve lived on the West Coast my whole life, so winter has always been mild to say the least. While I’ve travelled to places where winter comes in the form of snow, barren trees, and frozen ponds, I’ve never had to shovel a driveway, missed school because of a snow day, or ridden a sleigh down a bumpy hill. And my limited experience with ice skates took place indoors during the summer.

Hand-Lettering Lovers, Rejoice

Editor in Chief — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:42:04 -0700

You may have heard Lisa Congdon's name before. She's an artist, illustrator, and an avid collector, and in 2010, she documented 365 of those collections. You can see them all on her Collection a Day website.

Introduction to Illustrator: Part 2

Editor in Chief — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 02:45:18 -0700

Excerpted from Vector Basic Training: A Systematic Creative Process for Building Precision Vector Artwork by Von Glitschka. Copyright © 2011. Used with permission of Pearson Education, Inc. and New Riders.

In addition to the HTML version of the excerpt below, you can also download the excerpt as a PDF that retains the full design of the printed book.

Daily Drawings Reach One Thousand

Editor in Chief — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 07:54:27 -0700

Four years ago, illustrator and graphic designer Chris Piascik made a major commitment: Draw something every weekday until he hit 1,000 drawings. Last week, he reached that goal.

As you might expect, the quality of those drawings can be uneven, but they're all interesting. Here are a few: