Although technically these tips apply to any graphics software, this particular tutorial over at Spoon Graphics focuses on the exact steps to set up bleeds for print design in your document within Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. The method to do so in other graphics application might be slightly different, but these walkthroughs should give you enough info to apply it to non-Adobe software.
Continue reading 'Setting Up Bleeds For Print Design In Creative Suite'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
I didn’t know about this – and don’t ever plan to switch to Windows – but I thought it might be worth passing on the info that you can indeed switch from Windows to Mac (or Mac to Windows if that’s your desire) and take your Adobe software right along with you without paying for another software license.
Supposedly there is a misonception (and one that I had as well) that once you bought a license for either Mac or Windows, you had to buy another brand new license for the new platform you switched to.
Not so, and really it seems to make the most sense on Adobe’s part. If you paid for the software and switched, most likely if you contact Adobe about this you’re not trying to swindle them – if that was your intention, there’s plenty of options out there for those who don’t feel they have to pay for the software they use.
Continue reading 'Adobe Software: Switching From Windows To Mac (or vice versa)'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
I just finished up a t-shirt illustration – ‘The Hairy Canary‘ – for mail-order/catalog company What On Earth for their pub t-shirts line.
The basic premise of the t-shirt designs are as follows: the artist is given a choice of bar/pub names to choose from, and from there a design is worked up to go with the name. I believe all the bars & pubs are actual places, but these aren’t officially sanctioned or anything.
From the list I was given, the name ‘Hairy Canary’ just jumped out at me and I knew it was a theme that would spark a cool illustration.
Continue reading '‘Hairy Canary’ T-Shirt Illustration'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
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Just stumbled across these handy – and free – Photoshop plugins which should be a huge time-saver for comic artists who ink & color their pages in Photoshop. A process also known as ‘flatting’.
These have to be a huge productivity booster to any artist working with coloring line art in Photoshop, not just comic book artists and the like.
I can already envision many applications for these in my workflow, even though I am primarily a vector artist.
Continue reading 'Free ‘Flatting’ Photoshop Plugin For Comic Artists'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
I recently finished up this ‘Theology On Tap’ cartoon character mascot/logo project for a youth ministries client.
The client is a youth ministries minister, and his new program is focused on bringing discussions of theological matters into more casual settings to try and reach additional young people.
The artwork is intended to be used on various advertising and promotional materials, as well as a t-shirt design.
I thought it odd at first, but I suppose there’s nothing really wrong about talking about religious matters in a bar, right? And I suppose a minister knows the deal. My only concern was to create a great illustration for him and his project.
Anyways, read on for an in-depth overview of the process to create this cartoon character mascot/logo from start to finish, including unused sketches created along the way.
Continue reading 'Monk/Friar With Beer Keg – Cartoon Mascot Illustration'
by George Coghill -
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While I had no idea that Photoshop had a 3GB RAM limit, a clever user over at MacOSXHints.com has figured out a hack/solution/workaround using a RAM disk as a virtual scratch disk. Clever.
Continue reading 'Photoshop’s 3GB RAM Limit – A Workaround For OS X Users'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
Cartoonist Mike Foran has a couple of cool number 2 pencil Photoshop brushes – free to download – that I stumbled across the other day. For some time now I have been on the casual lookout for a Photoshop brush that mimicked a regular-ol’ number 2 pencil. Seems Foran was on that line of thought as well.
Foran’s brush has a nice line quality, varied from thick to thin based on your Wacom tablet pressure, and has a slight angle similar to a flat-worn pencil tip.
The brush also has a nice light feel at light pressure, and darkens quickly with pressure added. The texture and look of the brush marks/pencil lines is perfect.
Continue reading 'Free Photoshop Brush: Stumpy Pencil'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
I just came across a serious bug in Photoshop CS3 under Mac OS X 10.5.3 (the newest version as of this post).
Seems saving a file to a networked drive will result in a corrupt file. I found this out the hard way, unfortunately.
Adobe and Apple are aware of this bug, and John Nack over at his Adobe blog is under the impression that this will be fixed in the next Mac OS X update. This seems to imply that the issue is with 10.5, but not necessarily I suppose. Adobe has posted a TechNote on the issue as well.
Continue reading 'Photoshop Bug: Corrupt Files When Saving To Network Volume On Mac OS X 10.5.3'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
This cartoon character drawing was created for a friend’s upcoming party, which will also be doubling as a U.S. wedding reception for our friend Setty, who just got married over in India.
Setty is obsessed with the drinking dice game “Left, Right, Center”. He’s also notorious for exclaiming “Shots!” when out drinking, therefore the shot glass.
The friend who requested the art suggested creating it in the Odd Rods/”Big Daddy” Roth style which I am known to emulate from time to time.
Continue reading '“Left, Right, Setty!” cartoon character drawing'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
I just stumbled across some more Creative Suite 3 issues on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, on the Adobe support site Photoshop page. Supposedly this will be fixed by an OS X update, not an Adobe update (and Adobe and Apple are working together on this issue).
Continue reading 'Even More CS3 & 10.5 Leopard Issues: Photoshop CS3'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio
Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
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