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.
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.
Jumpcut is a very handy clipboard extender for Mac OS X. What Jumpcut does is remember a user-specified number of text items copied to the clipboard, and allows one to select from them when pasting.
The standard OS X clipboard allows the user to paste only the last-copied item. Jumpcut just keeps track of everything you have copied using the Command (⌘) -C shortcut or the Edit -> Copy menu item.
Continue reading 'Jumpcut: Free OS X Clipboard History Utility'OS X Clipboard History Utility’
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
A hit-or-miss resource I always forget to check, the Adobe Exchange has a decent amount of downloadable resources for use with just about every piece of software they offer. In particular here I am focusing on Illustrator section of the Exchange.
The Illustrator Exchange has actions, brushes, styles, swatches, plug-ins, scripts, templates, tutorials and symbols to browse or search, and there’s a 5-star rating system as well to hopefully help you sort the good from the not-so-good.
Continue reading 'The Adobe Illustrator Exchange: Great Resource For Illustrator Actions, Brushes, Scripts and More'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
Vector graphics software application DrawIt is one of many recent entries into the indie Mac developer vector graphics software field, including LineForm DrawBerry, VectorDesigner, and EazyDraw among others. Not only has the full version been updated to version 3.3.1, but a 1.0 release of the new – and free – lite version of DrawIt is now available as well.
Continue reading 'Indie Vector Graphics App DrawIt - Free ‘Lite’ Version Now Available'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
A plugin that I always forget to tout, since the functionality it provides seems so intrinsic to Illustrator once it’s installed, I forget it’s a third-party enhancement.
Select Menu for Adobe Illustrator (Mac and Windows, free) from Graffix Software is available for every version of Illustrator from 8 on up to CS3. It adds additional selectable items under the Select -> Objects menu.
This plugin really comes in handy at the production stage of prepping your art, allowing you to find all sorts of items that you need to preflight. It especially comes in handy after flattening transparency, such as when you export art to an older version of Illustrator. I find lots of klunky and open paths all over the place after flattening transparency, and I couldn’t imagine how much of a pain in the neck it would be to clean up art without Select Menu.Â
Continue reading 'Essential Adobe Illustrator Plug-in: Select Menu'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
A cool online image generator at I-Mockery.com that will create your name out of 1974 Topps Monster Initial Stickers letter art.
via BoingBoing
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
Just stumbled across these handy Mac OS X software applications to help designers and artists simulate the effects of color blindness on-screen: Sim Daltonism and Color Oracle.
Sim Daltonism works as a floating palette which converts an area under your mouse cursor to the selected type of color blindness – it works similar to the Apple Digital Color Meter sampling utility. There are 8 different types of color blindness to test. Color Oracle works as a menubar item which converts the entire monitor to the selected mode of color blindness, but only offers the three most common forms.
Continue reading 'Color Blindness Software Tools for Artists'
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
Illustrator extraordinaire Von Glitschka has a very cool podcast out that I just started listening to, The Illustrative Designer podcast. Each podcast is basically an interview by “the Vonster” (as he calls himself) with a chosen professional illustrator, cartoonist or designer. The most recent illustrator interview was with (the unimaginably prolific) cartoon illustrator & designer Bob Staake.
The “illustrative designer” moniker comes from Von’s idea that when asked to describe his work, he says he’s not a graphic designer that can draw, but rather an illustrator who can design. Hence, “illustrative designer”.
Continue reading 'Podcast review: The Illustrative Designer'
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 discovered these free PDF downloads of Inkspot, the Australian Cartoonists’ Association’s official magazine. The current issue feature über-caricaturist Mort Drucker. The publication is about 24 pages and contain interviews and news. I haven’t delved into the complete issue just yet, but looks to be a great resource.
Lots of interviews with cartoonists and other informative cartooning and cartoon industry resources in each issue.
by George Coghill -
View my cartoon character and mascot illustration portfolio • Contact me to get started on your own custom cartoon illustration projects.
