Recently I was dealing with a problem in GarageBand, where the application would lock up when I was attempting the change the tempo of a song. For many months I struggled with this until it got to the point where I decided to do some in-depth troubleshooting. How does this relate to illustration you may ask? Turns out the problem was font related, and affected the performance of the software. Since this could affect any piece of software on your Mac, and therefore productivity, I thought it worth passing along as this could easily affect your graphics software as well.
Continue reading 'Mac OS X 10.5: Essential System Fonts'
iPhone Photo Keys is an interesting iPhone/iPod Touch Photoshop helper application available on the iTunes App Store.
Photo Keys turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a Photoshop companion tool by putting the entire Photoshop toolbar, as well as many useful shortcuts right at your fingertips. If your iPhone or iPod Touch is nearby that is.
After downloading the iPhone app from the Apple app store, you also must install a server app on your computer so that the Photo Keys app can connect to it via wi-fi. The main toolbar screen contains all the tools in the Photoshop toolbar palette. Simple click any tool to select it in Photoshop. For tools that contain multiple tools, such as the Rectangular Marquee tool, you can cycle through the tools by clicking the same tool multiple times.
Continue reading 'Photo Keys: Photoshop Toolbars On Your iPhone'
Here’s a freebie for all my loyal readers: a free Photoshop action I created myself to eliminate repetitive tasks I (used to) go through each time I scanned in a new sketch for further work in Photoshop. Boost your productivity with this free Photoshop download.
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.
Continue reading 'Scanned Sketch Prep — Free Photoshop Action'
I recently wrote a guest-review over at Mac OS X-based graphic design blog The Graphic Mac for the brand-new font management utility Fontcase.
In short, I have found Fontcase to be a very cool new font manager for OS X. It has a few limitations, but the good news is that the developers at Bohemian Coding have told me all the small gripes I had were to be remedied in the near future and the ones they weren’t aware of (which I suggested) were also added to the feature list.
Continue reading 'Fontcase Review at The Graphic Mac'
I don’t own a Wacom Cintiq graphics tablet, but I have heard quite a bit of grumbling from Cintiq owners about the way the cursor is displayed: I guess it’s offset a bit with the idea that your hand would obscure the cursor so Wacom has offset it a bit, which takes some getting used to.
But those Cintiq users are in luck: there’s a utility out there that might just ease your pain.
Continue reading 'Cursorcerer: Hide Your Cintiq Cursor'
I recently finished up the first round of a series of custom avatar illustrations for the Cleveland, Ohio convention and visitor’s bureau Positively Cleveland. The initial set of avatar illustrations were for the “web women” of Positively Cleveland — the main online team for their website.
Continue reading 'Custom Avatar Illustrations: Positively Cleveland'
Here are a few handy keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop for those of you out there like me who spend an inordinate amount of time in the Creative Suite primarily using Illustrator. These are not keyboard shortcuts that you can use in Illustrator, but rather are keyboard shortcuts providing methods of doing things in Photoshop that you are used to doing in Illustrator that at first it might seem isn’t possible, like click directly on an object to select it, drag to a new layer, etc.
Continue reading '6 Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts For Illustrator Users'
It’s happened to all of us digital creatives. The dreaded day when you just cannot get one of your Adobe applications to launch. Usually there’s a deadline looming (of course). You’ve restarted your computer (three times) and still you cannot get Photoshop to launch. You’ve tried a few tips from some Google searches, but still nothing. Your geek cred is showing it’s limitations. And your deadline isn’t getting any further away.
What if I told you this could be avoided, virtually forever? And also, that you can get back to work with all your settings just the way you like them?
Continue reading 'Adobe Apps: Backup Your Prefs'
http://www.vimeo.com/2304440
Another brief video in my series introducing some great new features in Photoshop CS4 for artists, cartoonists, illustrators and anyone else who sketches or draws using Photoshop.
This video features the excellent new keyoard shortcuts that allow you to drag-resize the size of the brushes using the mouse pointer.
Continue reading 'Video: Photoshop CS4 Drag-Resize Brush Keyboard Shortcut'
Cartoonist and regular MAD Magazine artist Tom Richmond just posted some insider tips on working for MAD Magazine over at his excellent blog.
Sorry to say, there’s no secret handshake or magic words, but the good news is that it’s at least easier nowadays to get your work in the mag than it was back in the 70’s & 80’s — MAD has opened up to a wider range of styles as well as a wider pool of freelancers that they work with.
And to quote Tom on the likelihood of your artwork getting seen:
Trust me when I say that anyone who sends work into MAD will get the proper attention paid to it, usually by art director Sam Viviano himself.
That’s good to hear, although Vivano’s artwork is phenomenal—it’s gotta be nerve-wracking to submit to him. I remember his work way back in my Scholastic Book Club days, in Dynamite Magazine. Now that’s going waaaay back!
Continue reading 'Working For MAD Magazine: Insider Tips'
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