My custom Sketch Prep action — as you can see from the screenshot — simply resets your color swatches back to the default black/white, does a Select All on the background layer, cuts the image to a new layer (leaving you with a flat white background layer) and then bumps the opacity of the newly-created layer down to 20%. It then adds a fresh new blank layer for you to start drawing in.

Typically when scanning artwork in, I scan just roughly sketched concepts and use the power of Photoshop layers to refine the sketch. This is why I bump down the opacity and work on a new blank layer.

I also like to have a flat white background layer so it simulates working on paper, but the actual sketching itself I want to be on it’s own transparent layer to making potential copying & pasting easier.

Installation is simple: download the Sketch Prep action file (right-click the link and do a “Save As…”) to your hard drive, open your Actions palette in Photoshop, click on the fly-out menu (in the top-right corner of the palette). Navigate down to the menu item that reads “Load Actions” and in the resulting dialog box, navigate to where you saved the downloaded action file. That’s it! Now it’s a new folder in your Actions palette and ready to help you create your next masterpiece.

If you find this Action useful, or have any tips to improve on it, I would love to hear about it in the comments section below. Enjoy!

Scanned Sketch Prep — Free Photoshop Action is a post from: Cartooning & Illustration Blog: Coghill Cartooning

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Key commands are formatted for Macintosh; Windows users swap out “Command” for “Control” & “Option” for “Alt”

Create A New Layer: Command (Apple key)-Shift-N
Illustrator bonus tip: I used to think you couldn’t do this in Illustrator using a keyboard command, but I was recently digging into the Keyboard Shortcuts prefs and discovered the keyboard shortcut for creating a new Layer: Command-L. Awesome!

Jump to the next/previous layer: Option – ] or [
This would be similar to selecting an object

Move The Selected Layer Up or Down: Command - ] or [
This would be similar to moving an object up or down

Copy A Selection To A New Layer: Command – J
Similar to an option-drag to copy an item

Select Any Object, Regardless of the Current Layer:
Similar to selecting Illustrator’s Selection tool and selecting/moving an object. When using Photoshop’s Move tool, hold the Command key and click on the object. That object’s layer will be selected as well. The Move tool’s options allow you to set this as the default behavior, but I find it odd to work that way. I much prefer using the modifier key to enable the feature.

Manipulate An Object With Transform Handles:
Highlight the layer whose object you wish to  manipulate, then hit Command-T. The Transform box will appear, and you can then drag the object around as well as resize with the transform handles.

A bonus, non-keyboard tip for resizing just a Selection: make your selection using the Marquee tool (or any other selection tool), then go to the Select menu and choose “Transform Selection” to get the transform handles.

6 Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts For Illustrator Users is a post from: Cartooning & Illustration Blog: Coghill Cartooning

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The pen tool is one of those obscure graphics programs tools that everyone tries once, and then gets so confused by that they never get any further with it. And understandably. It looks like a fountain pen, but it doesn’t act like one. Click and “draw”, you get weird “handles” sprouting out from a dot. Ignore that, and some annoying rubber band line gets stuck to your pen tip, all distorted out of — not even a straight line! Right there most Illustrator users think to themselves “this program sucks”.

But they couldn’t be further from the truth…

The vector Pen Tool — once harnessed — is one of the most powerful resources in your digital illustration graphics software arsenal, and not just in Illustrator (think: clipping paths in Photoshop). But in no way is it intuitive. For starters, just forget what the icon looks like — it’s not a “pen” in the sense you know one, and nothing like the fountain pen the icon is based on.

A super-quick tutorial to learn Illustrator’s vector Pen Tool: figure out how to draw the letter “S” freehand with the Pen Tool. The letter “S” has pretty much every variation of vector paths and anchor points you’ll use the majority of the time, all combined into one shape.

For a more in-depth exploration and step-by-step walkthrough of all the functionality of the Pen Tool however, I direct you to Sharon Steuer’s “Zen Of The Pen” (PDF link). I first encountered Steuer’s “Zen Of The Pen” in the Adobe Illustrator 8 WOW book (a how-to book on Illustrator going past the basics and more in depth on vector image creation techniques and effects). Finding it available for free online was a nice surprise that I thought I would share.

“Zen Of The Pen” will walk you through exercises on the creation of increasingly complex vector paths and shapes. Once you’ve gone through the exercises, you should have a solid understanding of how the vector Pen Tool functions and be well on your way to vector path enlightenment. Ommmmmmmm…

Zen Of The Pen is a post from: Cartooning & Illustration Blog: Coghill Cartooning

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I have been an extremely satisfied user since way back in the OS 9 days, and highly recommend you pick up a license while this great deal is going on. Default Folder is worth every penny of the $34.95 standard price, so at almost half off it’s a steal.

What does it do? Here’s a quick overview:

Default Folder X attaches a toolbar to the right side of the Open and Save dialogs in any OS X-native application. The toolbar gives you fast access to various folders and commands. You just click on the buttons to go to your favorite and recently used folders, manage the folders and files shown in the list, and make changes to your settings.

Default Folder also fixes a number of problems in Open and Save dialogs, allowing “rebounding” back to the last selected file, putting the path listing back in the top menu, and correcting bugs in scrolling column views.

It’s hard to describe, but once you use it for a day or so you’ll understand. The biggest feature for me is the rebounding in Open/Save dialog boxes — you can invoke a keyboard shortcut to jump to the last X number of folders you’ve recently used in any Open/Save dialog box on OS X. And it can also be set to that Open/Save dialog boxes jump to the enclosing folder of the file you are working on; super handy when working in graphics programs where you may be all over the place opening files from different folders, but need to save each in it’s own respective folder.

Take my word for it, you will love this piece of software. Awesome icon too ;)

Must-Have OS X Productivity Tool Default Folder 43% Off 10/27/2008 is a post from: Cartooning & Illustration Blog: Coghill Cartooning

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Illustrator supports scripting from AppleScript, Visual Basic, JavaScript, and ExtendScript. What’s a script you ask? We’ll they’re kind of like plug-ins, kind of like Actions. Basically they are small chunks of software that you can invoke to perform functions.

You don’t need to know anything about programming, coding or anything like that. It’s as simple as downloading the files and placing them in the  Adobe Illustrator CS3/Presets/Scripts folder. After doing so you’ll find them in the Scripts menu (under the File menu).

Lots of great scripts. Here’s what you’ll find:

• Close All Paths / Close All Selected Paths: Speaks for itself
• Divide Text Frame: Divide multi-line text fields into separate text frame objects.
• Join Text Frames: Joins text frames or selected text frames. 
• Fleurify: This script will create flowery shapes from basic shapes.
• Metaball: This script will create connecting arcs from shapes you have drawn.
• CMYK to Pantone v.2: Gives you the closet match of a PMS color from a selected CMYK color.
• Vary Hues / Randomize Colors: Randomizes and varies hues for a selected color.
• Save File With Timestamps v.3: This script will rename the current open file, save the  file, close and re-open the file with a new timestamped name.
• Circle: This script will create a ellipse with a specified amount of anchor points. Illustrator has a function where you can add more anchor point to an object, but you can’t specify how many extra point you want to add.
• Swap Objects: This script will swap the positing and size of two selected objects.

Some of these add functionality not found in Illustrator, others extend the tools and functions in Adobe Illustrator. Worth checking out and downloading.

10 Free Adobe Illustrator Scripts is a post from: Cartooning & Illustration Blog: Coghill Cartooning

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