Category: Inspiration

Posted on by

Wacom Cintiq 13HD

Cintiq13HD This afternoon, I had the pleasure of attending an online briefing for the new Wacom Cintiq 13HD Pen Display.  For those familiar with the Wacom line of tablets and displays, the 13HD is the replacement for the Wacom Cintiq 12WX.  Let me tell you, this might just be the one you’ve been waiting for.

Let me preface this post by saying, if you’re expecting an unbiased critical ‘pros and cons’ review, you’re not going to find it here.  I’m a big fan of Wacom tablets for the simple reason that I make my living as a digital artist.  The computer is my medium, but only if a Wacom tablet or display is connected.  I would not be able to sketch, draw or paint with a mouse, and I’ve yet to meet a professional digital painter who is not using a Wacom device at some level.

Over the past ten years, I’ve used all versions of the professional Intuos line of tablets, a few of the entry level Bamboo tablets, the Cintiq 12wx, and my current go-to display is the Cintiq 24HD.  Each has had unique features that distinguishes itself from the others and from the previous models.  For my daily work, I’m using the Cintiq 24HD.  It’s a joy to create with, and it excels in quality and performance.  Combine that with the fact that I can customize all of the features and I find it does everything I need it to.  Well, except for one thing.  It’s a monster and you can’t take it with you!  With the Cintiq 24HD, you find a place for it and you leave it there.  Since I work from home in my office at my desk everyday, it’s all I need most of the time.

But from time to time, I like to do painting demos in galleries, instructional presentations, or give lectures at schools.  The Intuos5 tablet works very well for that and I can still do all of my work with that tablet without a problem.  But let’s face it, I’m not only used to working on the screen now, but I really enjoy it.  The Cintiq 13HD paired with a laptop will now give me the portability and performance I need, not to mention the HD quality I’ve become used to and thrive on.

So in the briefing today, there were a few things that really caught my eye, features that made me sit up and take notice.  Or should that be, sit up and beg?

They’ve gotten rid of the connector box that came with the 12WX.   That box meant that every time you wanted to hook it up, you had to deal with plugging and unplugging what seemed like more cables than were really there.  To be honest, it was a pain to cart around and I didn’t like that very much.  Of course, the Cintiq 13HD still has cables, but they’re a lot neater.  In fact, it’s a 3-in-1 cable.  It also comes with an AC adapter to plug into the wall, as it’s unrealistic to expect a state of the art HD display to run on the power from a USB cable.  For those who want the VGA connector, you can easily find adapters at most electronics stores.

Power

Obviously, Wacom has tried to find the balance between portable and performance with this device, because the Pro Pen that comes with the Cintiq 13HD also comes with a handy carrying case, complete with the interchangeable nibs and other accessories that Wacom pen users have come to expect and appreciate.  One of the best features with the pen is that it is compatible with the Intuos 5 tablets and other Cintiq displays so you don’t have to keep switching pens if you’re using multiple Wacom devices.  I love that!  One pen to rule them all.

Pen

The display stand is ingenious.  With three different settings to allow you to adjust the height and angle, there will be a workable position for anyone.  But if you’re the type of artist that likes to work with it on your lap or flat on the table or desk, the entire stand is removable, leaving you with just the display.  Incidentally, the whole thing is less than 3 pounds!

Stand

One of the greatest features with any Wacom tablet or display is the ability to customize the Express Keys, Touch Ring and Radial Menu.  With the Cintiq 13HD, they’ve replaced the Touch Ring with a Rocker Ring, which now gives you four more programmable buttons.  As someone who usually has a hard time deciding which features win the coveted Express Key status, I’m pleased they gave me more options to choose from.  The ability to make my tablet or display my own is a very important feature for me and I use these features in every image I work on.

RockerRing

Until I get my hands on one of these little wonders, I’ll just have to drool from afar, but it has definitely made this year’s technology wish list and I’m looking forward to getting one.  The Wacom Cintiq 13HD will be shipping very soon, sometime in the middle of April.

 

Posted on by

A Look at the Books

For some reason, I had an overwhelming urge to clear out the books that I was no longer using.  I’ve currently got three bookshelves in my office.  A couple of them hold novels, magazines, binders, some photo albums, and even a couple of novels I wrote years ago that I never published.  Most of what I cleaned out was from those shelves.  My wife cured me of any hoarding tendencies many years ago and now I hate clutter and hanging on to things I don’t need.  When it comes to art books, however, it’s tough for me to let those go and all of those reside on the bookshelf right beside my desk.  Sure, it was easy to recycle the Photoshop World class notes book from 2009 and a Tips and Tricks book from Photoshop CS3, but most of that bookshelf stayed.

Over the years, I’ve seen other artists share insight into what sort of books they have on their shelves, so I thought I’d do the same.  First of all, I like reading books and magazines on my iPad, but when it comes to art books, I still like being able to grab one off the shelf, pour a cup of coffee and spend a half hour on the couch leafing through it.  It’s just not the same with an e-reader. These are the books I still reference, look through for inspiration, or just enjoy revisiting once in awhile, especially if they’re artists whose work I admire.  While I’m not going to go through these book by book, I’ll tell you a little bit about them.  I’ve picked these up at the Calgary Expo, bookstores, or online.  Some I’ve gone looking for, others I’ve just discovered.

Forgive the badly stitched first photo, but this is the top shelf.

Shelf01wbe

In no particular order since you can find the ones I’m talking about.  Drew Struzan is easily my favorite artist and I find endless inspiration from his work.  The days of illustrated movie posters are behind us now, but he was the best at it.  He still does one or two when fans like Writer/Director Frank Darabont ask him to, but he’s mostly retired, now.  Many of these books are instructional by cartoonists and animators I admire and still learn from.  Bruce Blitz, Chris Hart, Tom Richmond, Jack Hamm, Tom Bancroft, Richard Williams.  Both of Bert Monroy‘s books on Painting in Photoshop are here and those are great.  Bert’s style is very photorealistic and while very different from my own work, I’ve learned a lot from him over the years, both in person at Photoshop World and online.  There are a couple of books on sculpting with polymer clay, something I’ve always wanted to try but haven’t yet made the time for.   A lot of great photo reference books here.  Mark Simon‘s Facial Expressions is a fantastic resource.  He has one for adults, and another for Babies to Teens.  I would recommend these books to any cartoonist or animator.  There are a couple of Virtual Pose books, different positions of poses in print and on CD.  The Artist’s Photo Reference Series, and not surprisingly, a number of photo reference books for animals.  Jill Greenberg’s Bear Portraits and Monkey Portraits are two of my favorite books.  She is a master photographer of posed animals and I love her work.  Skin by Lee Varis is a cool book for photographers, all about lighting and retouching faces in photos.  A lot of applied theory in this book directly relates to painting skin as well.

Shelf02webThe second shelf consists mostly of books that feature the work of other artists.  The first two on the left are beautiful photo books of faces.  Celebrities, actors, well known people of accomplishment.  While I’d never use these photos for main reference for a portrait, they’re wonderful for seeing detail in human features, skin texture, lighting.  Love these books.  Tangled is a favorite animated movie for the artwork.  Rustboy was a one man 3D animated movie that never got finished. But the artist had some great ideas, the book is excellent, and he’s moved on to other things.  Some artists represented on this shelf are Stephen Silver, Frank Cho (Liberty Meadows cracks me up!), Greg Horn, Luis Royo, Joe Chiodo, Jason Seiler, Bobby Chiu, Joe Bluhm, J.M. Linsner, DPI Studios, Jenn Llewellyn and Tom Bancroft again.  A few collections from The Calgary Expo, CrossGen Comics, Ballistic Publishing.  Two favorite artists on here that specialize in animal character design are David Colman and Joe Weatherly.  Their work has been a great inspiration to me.  One book on this shelf, Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair is a must have for cartoonists and animators.  I can’t count how many times I’ve referenced this book over the years.  And finally, there are books on the right side that I keep within easy reach.  Fowler’s Modern English Usage, The Complete Color Harmony, Selling Art 101, Licensing Art 101 and the Graphic Artists Guild bible; Pricing and Ethical Guidelines.  While the prices in here aren’t always accurate, due to market fluctuations and the economy, there are great benchmarks for all sorts of freelance artists to base their pricing structures on.

Shelf03webAnd finally on the third shelf down are the comic strip and editorial cartoonists.  Collections of Canadian editorial cartoons by Aislin, Macpherson, Elston, Rodewalt, De Adder, Innes and Raeside as well as a few years of Portfoolio books.  Uderzo’s Asterix books have long been favorites, I’ve always loved his artwork.  Trudeau’s ‘Doonesbury’, Darby Conley’s ‘Get Fuzzy‘, Berke Breathed’s ‘Bloom County‘ (easily my favorite comic strip of all time), Larson’s ‘The Far Side,’ Scott and Borgman’s ‘Zits‘, Lynn Johnston’s ‘For Better or Worse‘ and Watterson’s ‘Calvin and Hobbes.’  On another shelf, I have four books of Frank Cho’s ‘Liberty Meadows’, which I consider a close second or third to Bloom County.

So there’s a vast amount of useless information for you, a look at which books and artists rev my creative engine and inspire me to want to be a better cartoonist, illustrator and painter.  There will always be artists better than you are and it’s in your best interests to seek them out and learn from them.  I’ve always found that the best way to do that is to get to know their work.

Posted on by

Working for Free and Clearing the Air

This topic seems to be floating around a fair bit lately and that’s a great thing.  Too many artists are doing work for free because many companies expect them to.  While I could write a long post about this, and I have in the past, Stephen Silver says it best in this video below.  If you are a freelance artist and aren’t yet aware of Stephen’s work, I would suggest you follow him.  He is respected for good reason.  He has great advice, is very inspirational and has been working in the animation and design business for a long time.  I’ve even taken an online character design course from him years ago and learned a lot.  While I don’t consider myself as accomplished a cartoonist or character designer as he is, my work is definitely better from having learned from him.  Now this video below is an angry rant, and this is out of character for Stephen, but he’s passionate about protecting artists from being taken advantage of, and you can see that in the video.  If you’re easily offended…well you wouldn’t be here, so never mind.

Before I get to the video, however, I’d like to address something I’ve been taking a bit of flack for the past couple of months, something that has direct bearing on this topic, and that’s the fact that I gave Emilio Estevez the painting of his father for free.  While I could easily dismiss the criticism as ‘some people are just angry at everything,’ I feel it’s important to address this because it’s not just me being slighted in the criticism, it’s Estevez as well.  While I’m sure he has thick skin and is used to being criticized for anything and everything in his profession, it bothers me that some think he got the painting for free because he expected it for free, simply because he’s a celebrity.  That’s not the case.

Throughout our correspondence, he was always offering to buy the painting.  He never expected me to give it to him.  When I explained that I couldn’t sell it because of why I painted it (you can read about that here), he then offered me other incentives from which I could make money from the print and I still declined.  My decision to give the painting was always mine.   I make a good living as a commercial artist, I do not do commission work for free, and nobody is taking advantage of me.  I wasn’t asked to do the painting.  That would have been something entirely different and I would have charged appropriately for my time and effort, just as I would have if the painting was going to be used commercially.

Let’s say that I had been in the same head space I was in when I painted that image of Martin Sheen, but had instead been inspired to paint somebody on the street in Calgary.  Let’s say I took a photo, and painted that person for my own enjoyment.   Let’s also say that person’s son or daughter saw the image and wanted to give that image to their father, the subject of the painting.   I can honestly say that I would have done the same thing, charged them only the printing and shipping and given them the painting, the same arrangement I made with Estevez.  The decision was not about celebrity.  It was about me, where I was at a couple of months ago, and what my instinct told me at the time.  The difference was that the inspiration came from a film, so the painting ended up being a character played by a well known actor.

Estevez was nothing but gracious and genuine throughout the experience and in addition to the signed prints I requested, and paying for the shipping and printing,  he even gave me a copy of the memoir written by him and his father, signed personally to me by both.  Some have suggested I should have gone for the big money grab because he was a celebrity.  That’s just not me.  While the story did get a fair bit of press in Canada and a little bit in the U.S., the experience doesn’t mean anything in the long run to anybody but me and the recipients of the painting.   It’s already long over, as most stories of this nature so quickly are.  To do it all again, I would change nothing.  While I have some very nice souvenirs of the experience,  I’m back to doing what I do best, drawing cartoons, illustrations, and painting funny looking animals for a living.  Throw in the odd portrait for fun and inspiration and that’s where I want to be.

Hopefully that clears a few things up for a few angry people out there.  If not, feel free to continue to wallow in it.  It’s your problem.  For the rest of you, take a look at this video by Stephen Silver.  If you’re an artist, it might inspire you to believe in your own worth.  If you’re not an artist, but someone who might hire one, perhaps this will enlighten you as to the struggles being faced in the industry.  We’re all building our own individual careers, but we also need to look out for one another as well.

Posted on by — 10 Comments

Martin, Emilio, and Tom’s Road.

PromoSheenFinalSometime around the middle of December, I finished painting a portrait of Martin Sheen.  More accurately, the portrait was of his character, Tom, from the movie The Way, written for the screen and directed by his son, Emilio Estevez.  While the painting was done purely for my own enjoyment, sometimes a seemingly innocent pursuit will take on a life of its own.  Since the movie inspired me to paint the portrait, as did their father/son memoir ‘Along the Way,’ I wrote about that when I posted the painting.  Click here, if you’d like to read it.

As is my practice, I posted the link on social media and also tagged Estevez’s account on Twitter, especially since he has used that vehicle to promote the film.  I thought that if he saw it, he might like what I wrote and painted, but didn’t actually expect anything to come of it.  Twitter is a busy place and it’s impossible to keep up, so a lot more gets missed than noticed.

Imagine my surprise when just a couple of hours later on that same Saturday, an email arrived from Estevez via my website.  He thanked me for my support of the film and then asked about buying a print, with the intent of giving it to his father for Christmas.  With just five business days remaining, I had to tell him that even a rush job would have been impossible by the 25th, especially considering that I’d want to be meticulous about the proofing, given the recipient.   I told him I’d be happy to set things in motion in January, if he was willing to wait.  He was very gracious, completely understood, and we began talking about it again after the holidays.

In the meantime, his mother had seen the painting and wanted him to inquire about buying the original.  Here’s the technology hiccup when you start talking originals and digital painting.  A digital painting exists only on a hard drive and screen until it’s printed, so there really is no original in the traditional sense.  One solution is to supply documentation that certifies a specific print to be the original.  Mine are always printed on canvas and I gave Emilio the option of choosing the size.  After a month of proofing, printing, signing, and packaging, the original 18″X24″ stretched canvas shipped last Friday.  I also certified the canvas itself by writing the title of the piece and an additional signature on the back.  Incidentally, until all of this occurred, I hadn’t titled this painting, but decided it needed one before it shipped.  Yesterday, “Tom’s Road”  arrived at Martin’s home.

MartinSheenThe reason for this piece in the first place was to take a small break from the commercial work, as every image I’ve created lately has been a product.  The whole point was to get away from everything being about money and marketing, if only for a moment.  I wanted to paint my best portrait work, for no other reason than that.  I am a commercial artist, no doubt about it, and I make a good living at it.   This is my business, my livelihood, and my career.  But this piece was special, inspired by a movie I loved, which was, in a way, a light at the end of a tunnel.  My gut instinct told me that to try and make money from this would have tainted the whole experience, something that was worth much more to me than a paycheque.  So, when Emilio asked to buy the original, I chose not to put a price on the work, but still offered the painting, charging only my printing and shipping costs.

Sometime in the near future, I’ll be receiving a paper print that I’ve asked them to sign.  I’ll have it framed for my office, a souvenir of the experience, and a constant reminder that I must make time for personal work.  I’ve also asked Emilio to have Martin sign one more print, something I can reserve for a charity auction sometime in the future.  He was happy to oblige, and you can bet that I’m going to be very picky about which cause benefits from this unique item.

There is no doubt in my mind that had I attempted to orchestrate any of this, had I painted the portrait with the intention of bringing about these events, none of it would have happened.  I created this portrait for me, to remind myself why I paint, and since I truly enjoyed working on it, that was enough.   But to have it appreciated by his family, was a wonderful and unexpected bonus, not to mention a validation of my recent choices.

If all that weren’t enough, the greatest compliment I received was something offered by Estevez in one of his e-mails this past month.  He said, “…the image is gorgeous and you have captured my father in a way that few have.”

It just doesn’t get much better than that.

Posted on by

A couple of hours at the zoo

Penguin2

This past Thursday found me in Calgary, running a few errands that had been piling up.  Had to exchange a faulty hard drive, buy some office supplies, and meet with the Retail Manager at the Calgary Zoo.  I’ve had Totem prints in their store for a little while now, and we’re still learning what works and finding new ways to promote the work.  I also wanted to show her the shirt samples I received recently, as the zoo sells The Mountain tees already.  So while I did get a cartoon out that morning before I left, it was largely an out-of-office day.  I had been trying to get into the city for about a week, but the roads and weather kept putting the kibosh on that.  Calgary is only about an hour drive from Canmore, but Hwy 1 can get slick and the main city routes are even more treacherous in bad weather, especially considering that many Alberta drivers are notoriously aggressive.  My rule of thumb has always been, if the weather is bad and I don’t have to be on the road, don’t bother.   It only takes one wing-nut in a hurry to ruin your whole week.

Turns out that the repeated delays benefited me a great deal.  When I finally did get into the city, the weather was downright warm for winter, thanks to Chinook winds, and a day running errands turned into a great outing.  Considering I was at the zoo already and have an annual membership, I brought my camera to see if I could get some reference photos.  I’ve said many times that I’m not a good photographer, largely because I have no interest in putting in the work required to become one.  I take snapshots.  On recent trips to the zoo, I had a borrowed zoom lens and tripod for our camera, an older Nikon D-60, which is basically just a higher end point-and-shoot, or at least it is the way I use it.  With the zoom lens, I just couldn’t take a decent shot to save my life, so this time I left it at home.  Setting the camera on automatic, I figured I’d wing it and take what I could get.

The strategy worked well.  The Calgary Zoo is very popular and is often quite busy.  Their newest exhibit, the Penguin Plunge that opened last year, can often have very long lineups in the summer months.  When you do get in, you only have a limited time to spend, as others are waiting.  It’s a great enclosure, designed so that you’re so close it would be simple to reach out and touch a penguin as it swims by, the water’s surface at chest level.  Of course, there are attendants on hand to ensure people don’t touch them, but it’s great to have that proximity.

Penguin

On Thursday, the zoo was so quiet, that after my meeting, I just walked into the Penguin Plunge, and spent almost a half hour in there just snapping photos.  The penguins were active, talkative and a lot of fun to watch.  At any one time, there were only about 10 people in the enclosure.  Must have taken a hundred or more photos, and about 10 of those ended up being great for painting reference.  While I’ve already painted a Rockhopper Totem, I’ll be painting a Gentoo at some point as well.  That’s the species in the above image.

Meerkat

Once I got to this little meerkat, she seemed to have no issues with me taking photos of her.  Turning her head this way and that, only about three or four feet away, she stood tall, crouched down, gave me almost every angle I could want.  A gentleman standing near me actually said, “She’s posing for you!”  It certainly seemed that way.

And finally, while I was hoping for some photos of the red pandas, just before I reached their enclosure, a woman deliberately changed her direction, walked over to me and said, “They just fed the tigers.  They’re all right there if you want to get some pictures.”

I thanked her (it really was a nice gesture on her part) and walked over to their nearby enclosure.  Sure enough, the mother and her three cubs, who aren’t small anymore, were lying down together eating whole raw chickens.  A real treat to see as one cub snarled at another for getting too close to his meal, the mother grooming one of the other cubs, just getting to see them so close and active on a such a nice day, with very few people around.  Even through glass, the shots turned out quite well.

KittyWhile I`d thought I’d taken 500 photos,  turns out it was around 400 as there were already a bunch on the card.  The wonders of digital cameras, taking as many shots as you like without incurring any expense.  Once I got home, I just opened up the card in Adobe Bridge and started deleting everything with bad focus, light, composition and within 10 minutes, I had about 20 photos that will serve me well for future painting reference.  I had a very enjoyable day, one of the best I’ve had at the zoo.  Not bad for an errand day in the city.

 

Posted on by

To thine own self be true

SnowmanThe last few weeks have been less than stellar.  While I find winter tough to take most years, a cold snap hits my mood especially hard.  When the temperature drops to -20C and below, I’m about the unhappiest camper you’re going to find.  Vitamin D, sunlamps, and other home remedies, I’ve tried ’em all.  Short of moving away to a warmer climate for 6 months of the year, I’ve just learned I have to ride it out.  Add to that the holiday season, of which I am not a fan, and a nasty cold that knocked me down hard on my one slow week of the year, and the last few weeks have felt like I’ve been living at the bottom of a deep dark hole.  Don’t get me going again on the fact that I’m supposed to be in Vegas this week.

There seems to be this ridiculous belief that if you are fortunate enough to love what you do for a living, you’re happy and upbeat all the time, and everything is right in the world, every minute of the day.  Trust me, that’s not the case.  While I’d much rather chart my own course than have somebody else tell me where to go and how to do it,  there will always be bad days and bad weeks, just like at any job, even one you enjoy.  Think of it this way, if somebody offered you your favourite food for dinner tonight, you’d jump at the chance.  If they offered it to you tomorrow, you might still be happy.  Now, imagine you have to eat it every night for the next year.  Would it still be your favourite, or would you be willing to pay anything for a rice cake?

It is not only in an artist’s nature to keep trying new things and new ways of being creative, it’s an absolute necessity.  If new challenges don’t present themselves, you have to go looking for them, otherwise what used to be exciting just becomes routine.  Creativity doesn’t do well with routine.  It withers and ends up on life support.

There is an elusive state of being that we all seem to be looking for called ‘balance.’  Parents try to find the balance between a fulfilling work and home life, workaholics need to balance their schedule and time off, creatives look for a balance between inspired work and selling out.  I’ve come to the conclusion that this balance is an illusion, it doesn’t exist, and that to try to find it leads to a futility that only makes  a person feel even worse about their situation.  This is largely because your perception of balance is fluid.  Find that extra hour in a week to read a book, and you’ll be looking for two next week.  Manage that, and you’ll be wanting a whole day off, then two, then three and pretty soon you’re running out of money because you’re never working.  Balance is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  The closer you move toward it, the further it moves away.

Perhaps you’ve heard the fable about the scorpion and the frog.  The scorpion needs a ride across the river and asks the frog for a lift.  The frog declines saying the scorpion will just sting him.  The scorpion argues that it if he did that, he’d sink, too, so the frog gives in to a logical argument.  The scorpion climbs up on the frog’s back and they start off across the river.  Before too long, the scorpion stings the frog, and the frog says, “Why did you do that?  Now we’ll both drown!”

The scorpion says, “I can’t help it.  It’s just my nature.”

Rather than listen to all of the people that tell me I should relax more and take time off and try to find some balance, I’ve decided to make peace with the fact that I’m only content when I’m working.  Even when I’m not working, I’m thinking about work.  With that in mind, I’ve packed my next few months, and most of it will be quite challenging, because a lot of it will be new ground.  I’ll be recording a new DVD on painting portraits, something I’ve been talking about for months but haven’t actually gotten around to doing.  I’ve been commissioned to paint a couple of cat portraits and have received inquiries about two more pet portraits this week.  Another Totem is being prepped to paint as is another portrait, a painting of one of my absolute favorite characters in film.  The last one, I’ll be trying to paint in Corel Painter.  I haven’t used the Painter software since Painter Classic many years ago, and I’ve been wanting to try Painter 12, bought this past week.  The best way to do so is to just throw myself into a painting and learn as I go.  I have no desire to stop painting in Photoshop, but I also don’t want to be restricted to it, either.

There are a couple of online courses I’ve wanted to take for awhile, and there’s no time like the present.  Waiting for my schedule to slow down is just another way of saying that it’s never going to happen.

And finally, I’m well into the planning for my booth at the Calgary Expo in April.  There’s a lot to think about and organize, everything from which prints to sell and how many of each, banner design, and all of the other logistics involved with having my own booth and selling my own work at the event.  It’s very intimidating, I’m likely going to be stressed about it, but at least it’s not routine.

Some of the work will be fulfilling, some won’t.  Some of the deadlines will be ridiculously short, others will give me far too much time, which inevitably leads to procrastination and working at it last minute, anyway.  There will be up days, low days, but mostly just middle of the road days where it feels just like punching a clock, just like any other job.  That’s the cold hard truth of it and anybody who is thinking about being creative for a living should know that.

Motivation and inspiration, these are wonderful things.  Sometimes it’s the kick in the ass that will get you moving when you feel like you’ve got cinder block boots on.  But when everybody is telling you to be Polly Anna, optimistic, happy go lucky, and you-can-do-it, it can also wear on you.  Chasing that high will eventually lead to an overdose.  From time to time, you just need to turn off all of that noise and just get the work done, regardless of how you feel about it.  That’s all anybody does, no matter what they do for a living.

So what’s the point of this melodramatic post?  Simply put, sometimes it’s OK to feel bad even when things are good.  Don’t beat yourself up about it.  The pressure as a freelancer to be ‘up’ all the time is maddening and I’d bet that a lot of folks out there, the ones you think are riding high all the time, are either faking it as a marketing tool or they’re heavily medicated.  Even the most optimistic of personalities has down days, too, and you’re entitled to yours.  I’d rather share with you the reality of being a self-employed creative than be a complete hypocrite and sell you a bill of goods.  In my experience, it can do a lot more harm than good.

But this too shall pass.  For while I’m having a few down days lately,  I know that two weeks from now, you’ll see me giddy with excitement when I pick up a certain painting from the printer.  Bet on it.  After that, there will be something else exciting, and before too long, it’ll be Spring again, my favourite time of the year.  Enjoy the highs, resent the lows, but be who you are and stop trying to please everybody all the time.  It’s exhausting!

You may not be happy all the time, but at least you’ll be sane.

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

The Hidden Power of Blend Modes in Adobe Photoshop

http://www.adobepress.com/ShowCover.asp?isbn=0321823761

While Adobe Photoshop can easily be called the most versatile imaging toolbox on the market, it is a monster piece of software and monsters are often frightening.  With so many features and often multiple methods of accomplishing similar tasks, it can be very intimidating for even the most experienced user.  Because of that, there is an abundance of training resources on the market, from large phone book manuals that try to tell you everything to books that dissect specific features in the software.

Trying to learn everything there is to know about Photoshop is an exercise in futility.  True there are a number of experts out there who know a lot more than the average person, but even the most educated and skilled of those professionals will agree that there is always something more to learn.

Even though my use of Photoshop is limited to what I do, which has very little to do with photos, I’m constantly looking for new ways to improve my painting skills and to streamline how I work.  Speed and efficiency applies to art as much as it does to technical operations, especially when you venture into the land of commercial art and deadlines.

I don’t recall when I started using blend modes in Photoshop, but I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t, so it has been awhile.  There isn’t a painting, editorial cartoon, or illustration that I do these days that hasn’t been touched by at least one blend mode during the process.  The four blend modes I use most in my work are Soft Light, Multiply, Screen, and Color.  In fact, I even have Actions set up in my Wacom Tablet Radial Menu for them.  If your eyes are starting to glaze over, don’t worry about it.  This happens to a lot of people when you start breaking down the building blocks of images in Photoshop.

The thing about blend modes is that the more you dig into them, the more uses you find for them.  Scott Valentine’s new book, “The Hidden Power of Blend Modes in Adobe Photoshop,”  from Adobe Press,  has answered a need that a lot of people likely didn’t realize they had.

With Photoshop evolving every 18 months or so, anybody who uses it has to keep learning and the information in Scott’s book is as current as you’re going to find.  But even if you don’t have the latest version of Photoshop (CS6), you’ll be able to apply the knowledge to previous versions, as blend modes have been around for awhile.

So what are blend modes?  It’s funny, but if you’d asked me that question before I read Scott’s book, you’d have been met with a long pause.  The truth is, I had a good idea of what blend modes are, I knew what they did and how to use them for my own work, but I really wouldn’t have given you an answer that would have left you satisfied.  Today, my answer would be this book.

Without going through chapter by chapter, I’ll simply say that Scott has done an excellent job of breaking down what blend modes are and how to use them.  He gives very technical information for those who want it, but he also offers explanations for those who don’t.

No matter how you use Photoshop, you’ll find a reason to try blend modes, but without real world examples from different disciplines, it would be easy to get lost in the information and you might fail to see the practical uses.  In this book, Scott has assembled Photoshop professionals from a number of digital creative mediums to show how they use blend modes in their own work.  In other training materials I’ve seen, you usually only get one professional’s perspective, opinion and methods.  While there is value in that, it’s great to see how many ways others use blend modes, because one artist may offer a technique that is of no use to you, but the next one could reveal the buried treasure you’ve been looking for.

In the interest of full disclosure, my own blend mode techniques are featured in this book.  I was happy to offer some of my tips for using blend modes in cartooning, painting and illustration, but even without my small contribution, I would have still bought this book.  I’ve been through it a couple of times and I’ve no doubt I’ll continue to reference it, because I learned a lot about a feature I already thought I knew.  Turns out I had just scratched the surface.

What this book does very well is reveal possibilities.  Rather than give you a step-by-step for one procedure or just give you tips and tricks, “The Hidden Power of Blend Modes in Adobe Photoshop” shows you solutions that can be applied to a number of problems, even if you don’t know what those are yet.

I’m not exaggerating when I say I’d be very disappointed if I was no longer able to use blend modes in my work.  It would take longer to do my work and painting light and shadow (which is what I primarily use them for) would feel less dynamic and more difficult.  I’m certain there are more uses for blend modes in my own work than I am currently using and I will be looking to this book to help me find them.

The tools for art and creativity are like anything else.  When you first begin to use them, you may feel awkward and it’ll take some time before you develop any finesse in your methods.  When it comes to developing that skill with Photoshop, I’d recommend giving blend modes a closer look.  Scott’s book is the best resource I’ve seen to help you do that.

To find out more and to purchase the book, follow this link to Adobe Press.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Otter Totem

This is my latest painting, the Otter Totem.  Under normal circumstances, I’d publish this post on the same day that I finish the painting.  In this case, however, I was a little swamped with other deadlines and it kept moving down on the priority list.  But better late than never.

This Totem was done in about a week, which is the fastest I’ve ever painted one of these.  While I’m sure the hours spent were close to the same as prior Totems, I had a few very late nights and early mornings, largely due to the fact that this was being used in another deadline, a painting video for Wacom.  Despite the quick turnaround, I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.  As I’ve said many times before, I don’t pre-plan the expressions and they’re often as much a surprise to me as they are to anybody else.  The personality just seems to ‘show up’ at some point during the painting and I just go with it.  In this instance, the personality was there very early on and I really loved the curiously goofy face that emerged as I spent more and more time on the details.

This was also my first painting on the new Wacom Cintiq24HD and the experience of painting on this display was very enjoyable.  While I’ve never had any complaints about the Intuos tablets for painting, I just felt a lot more connected to the brush strokes with my pen directly on the screen.  I’ve always enjoyed digital painting and never felt that I was missing any of the tools I needed to get my best work onto the canvas.  The Cintiq, however, gave me something I didn’t know I was missing and improved the experience.

As for that video for Wacom, it is part of something else that will be coming a little later on, but they posted it on their YouTube channel, which means I’m able to post it here as well.  If you haven’t seen it already, it shows a high speed time lapse of the Otter Totem, from start to finish.  The narrative is aimed at traditional artists who might be considering the digital medium, but haven’t yet taken the plunge.

Enjoy!

Posted on by — 1 Comment

My Wacom Cintiq 24HD Settings

For this second blog entry on the Wacom Cintiq 24HD (read the first one here), I wanted to show all of the different settings I’ve chosen for the Express Keys, Touch Ring and Radial Menu.  I’m very comfortable using these hardware features on the Intuos tablets, but had to change everything up for the Cintiq for two reasons.  The first is that there are more settings to choose from.  The second is that working directly on the screen changed how I do things.

These Photoshop settings are in no way being shared in order to tell you what you should do.  Feel free to borrow anything you see here, of course, but I would encourage you to experiment with the settings and find ones that work best for you.  There are so many possible configurations that you can almost program each of the Express Keys, Touch Rings, and Radial Menu for anything you want Photoshop to do.  The feature I like best is that you can even program different settings for every piece of software you have.

My buddy Jeff Foster is an Author, Producer and VFX Artist at Sound Visions Media.  My setting for brush size on the pen, which I’ll explain later, was his suggestion and it works very well.  Since I’m no longer using the Touch Ring for brush size, he also suggested that the Touch Ring can be used for any keystroke operation at all, so it’s important to think differently and creatively.  I still haven’t finished experimenting with my Touch Ring settings, so some of the ones I show here will likely change.

Because there are so many settings to explain, I’ll just get right to it.  Here are some photos that show you what the buttons I’ll be talking about look like on the actual hardware.  I got these images directly from the Wacom site, so if you want to know even more about the Cintiq 24HD than what I’ve shown here, just click on any of the images and you’ll be instantly transported to their website.  It’s like magic, don’t you know?

As you can see from the image at the beginning of this post and the ones above and below, there are five Express Keys and a Touch Ring, with three settings each, on either side of the display.  Additionally, there are three buttons above the display for features I’ll explain later.  On the top edge of the display, which you can’t see here, there are a series of buttons like you would find on any monitor, to adjust your display color, brightness and contrast settings.  Incidentally, I like to work with my monitor brightness a lot lower than most people.  I have my Contrast set to 50, my Brightness to 13, and my Backlight to 0 (Zero).  You might think that a little odd, but it works very well for me.  My monitors have always been set to low brightness and my eyes don’t get strained as easily from long hours in front of a display.

Let’s talk about those three little buttons at the top right above the display.  From left to right, there is one that has a lower case letter i, one that looks like a keyboard, and one that looks like a wrench.  The i is for information, and when you press that, you get the image that you see below.  It fills the display, regardless of the software you’re using, BUT the settings you see displayed will be the ones you have set for that particular piece of software, or the default settings.  What you see here are my settings for Photoshop.  This is a great feature because you might forget what you have a button set for and this will show you in real time.  We’ll zoom in on all of these in a minute.

The second button will bring up the on-screen keyboard, which is pretty self-explanatory.  Sometimes you just want to type in a layer name, or press a number, and you don’t want to have to go fishing for your actual keyboard, especially since it might be under your Cintiq.

Finally, there is the button with the wrench on it, which will bring up your Wacom Tablet Properties.  I just think this is very clever to include this as a hardware button because sometimes you just want to make a quick change to your settings, and you don’t want to leave your software or go searching for it in your menus.  Press the button, it will bring up the panel you see here, make your change, close it and go right back to work.

Now let’s take a closer look at how I have my Express Keys, Touch Rings and Radial Menu set up.  I won’t show you how to make these changes, because that will require a whole new post.  If you want some help, I recorded a couple of videos for the Intuos5 and those will show you how to change your settings, even on the Cintiq.  Here are a couple of links, one for the Express Keys and Touch Ring and another for the Radial Menu.

Let’s take a look at the Express Keys and Touch Ring Properties.  As you can see below, the three buttons for the Touch Ring are currently set to Zoom, Brush Size, and None.  Rather than use the default Zoom, however, I have mine set to Ctrl- and Ctrl+ (Cmd- and + on the Mac) shortcut for Zoom.  The reason is that will zoom in and out in increments that keeps my painting sharp and crisp.  Some of the other increments in between can make images a little blurred and I don’t like that.  So my zoom isn’t a smooth transition, it goes in steps.

Brush Size is self-explanatory, although I now have that on my pen, so I’ll be finding another use for this spot, I think.  The third one is normally set for Rotate, as in rotating the canvas, but I have it set to None simply because I was recently recording a video and didn’t want to accidentally zoom in while recording if my finger touched the ring, so I set this to none and left it there while I recorded.  Again, I’ll be finding another use for this one, too.

For the Express Keys on the left of the display, I have them set as follows:

1) Undo – Ctrl-Alt-Z. (Cmd-Option-Z on the Mac).  When I’m painting, I pretty much keep a finger on this most of the time and it allows multiple undos.

2) Color Picker – This is not a normal keyboard shortcut, so I had to create one, which is fairly easy to do in Photoshop.

3) Shift – a Modifier Key that will give many tools more options.

4) Ctrl – (Cmd) another modifier key.

5) Pan/Scroll – In Photoshop, this is the Hand Tool and it will allow you to move around the canvas.

On the right side of the display, the Touch Ring again is still set for the default settings.  I know I’ll find a use for it, I just have to get creative and even more efficient.

For the Express Keys, they’re set as follows:

1) Gamut Check – Ctrl-Y (Cmd Y).  I draw and paint in sRGB, but I’m always aware that my editorial cartoons are printed in CMYK and some of my paintings and illustrations may be printed that way as well.  My color picker is set so I can only choose colors that are ‘in gamut’, which means when converted to CMYK, they won’t shift.  But sometimes when I make a Levels or other Color adjustment, it will shift colors too far, so I’m always checking Gamut to make sure everything looks as it should.  Newspapers do not have universal color settings.  Some publications have downright hideous printing, so I try to find a happy medium to please everybody.  Yeah, I know…good luck with that.

2) Hide – Ctrl-H (Cmd-H) When I’m working with selections, this hides the little ‘marching ants’ that define a selection, because I hate looking at the moving dotted lines when I’m painting.

3) Radial Menu – This is Wacom’s way of giving you even more choices.  It’s an onscreen heads-up display that gives you an opportunity to program your own menus and submenus.  I’ll show you my Radial Menu settings in a minute.

4) Fit Screen – Ctrl-0 (Cmd-0) Zooming in and out of a painting or drawing, often I just want the image to reset to fit screen.

5) Display Toggle – I have multiple displays, my other one is above the Cintiq.  When I want to access the other display, I press this button and my pen can move the cursor to my other screen, which makes the top half of the Cintiq display work just like a traditional Wacom tablet.  It’s a great feature.

My Pen Settings are as follows:

Erase – This button is a waste for me and I can’t even think of a reason to use it for something else, either.  I’m sure other people do use it, but I never have.

The button on the pen is actually two buttons.  Originally, it’s set for a Left Mouse and Right Mouse configuration, but as mentioned previously, my friend Jeff gave me a reason to consider other options.  For the left Mouse Button, the one furthest from the tip, I have it set to the keystroke configuration you see in the image.  What this allows me to do, when I have the Brush selected in Photoshop, is change brush size very fluidly.  I press the button, move the pen left or right and I can see the brush size change on the screen.  This was one of those, “I wish I’d known this sooner!” moments, because I would have had my Intuos tablet set to this as well.

The Right Mouse button, the one closest to the tip, is set to Alt (Option on the Mac).  When I have the brush selected in Photoshop, this toggles the Eyedropper Tool for easy selection of color in a painting.  I use this constantly for better blending and color transitions in my work.  So now I can change brush size and select color quickly and easily right from the pen.  It’s a very enjoyable way to paint.

And finally, here are my Radial Menu settings.

When you press the Radial Menu button, you get the circle on the right, which is fully customizable.  If you wanted to, you could make every one of those pie pieces into a submenu.  I currently only have three.  When you click on each of those submenus, you get  the images on the left.  Each submenu can not only have a full selection of pie pieces, but those can be submenus as well.  I’m no math wizard, but that gives you a LOT of choices for custom configuration.

Obviously I don’t need to explain every one of them, but I’ll give you some thoughts on what some of the more unique ones do.

Blend Modes Submenu – I use four Photoshop Actions for Blend Modes all the time in my drawing and painting.  OK, that one that reads ‘Cartoon Websize’ is an Action for something else, but I had nowhere else to put it and I use it every day.  But the rest are for Blend Modes, I assure you.  If you don’t know about Blend Modes in Photoshop, my buddy Scott Valentine just wrote a great new book that explains them very well.  I’ll have a review of the book very soon, but if you want to check it out, here’s the link.  The Hidden Power of Blend Modes in Adobe Photoshop.

Flip Canvas – Often when I’m painting, I want to shift my perspective, so I’ll flip the image I’m working on horizontally.  You’d be surprised how helpful this can be, especially when it comes to likeness in portraits.  Sometimes I’ll just know that something doesn’t look right but I can’t put my finger on it.  By flipping the canvas, the problem will almost always become immediately apparent.  Your brain gets lazy and this will often give your perception a bit of a slap.

So there you have it.  These are my settings on the Cintiq 24HD…for now.  I fully expect to make little changes and tweaks as I get more used to the display, but these settings are working very well for me at present.  There really is no excuse for not being able to customize this display to work exactly the way you want it to.  Yes, it will take some time to get it perfect, but it’s worth it.  Wacom has not only provided hardware that will allow you to create the best drawing and painting experience possible, but the software takes it even further.

Don’t be afraid of making changes.  There is a default button in the Wacom Tablet Properties.  If you mess it up too much, you can always start again.  When you do get the settings you want, however, back them up!  I can’t stress this enough.  Computers aren’t perfect, software can conflict with other software, and stuff happens.  There is a Wacom Tablet Preferences Utility included with the software.  It will allow you to save and restore your preferences should the unthinkable happen.  Just as you should back up your images and files, you should also back up your preferences.

If you have any issues, Wacom’s technical support is very helpful.  And finally, if you just have any questions, I’m happy to help, too.  Thanks for stopping by and hopefully this helped you see some possibilities you might not have considered, whether you’re using Wacom’s Intuos tablets or their Cintiq displays.

 

 

 

 

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Whose life are you living?

Art is a weird job.  Whether you’re a musician, painter, photographer or any other professional in a creative field, your job is largely going to be one where you’re flying by the seat of your pants.  When you’re first starting out, you spend a lot of time looking to the people who’ve come before you to see how they got where they were going and that’s a good thing.  Most success stories start that way.  If you’re lucky, as I have been, you’ll find a few mentors along the way, people who might see your potential and give you a helping hand.  It’s important to listen to those people because they just may save you from making some mistakes.  Oh, you’ll still make lots of mistakes, but if you’re smart, you’ll skip a few, too.

While you’ll always have something to learn as an artist, eventually it’ll dawn on you that you’re no longer a student.  You’ll start to realize that not only are you really uncomfortable at the kids table, but you’ve felt that way for some time.  Getting up from that table will be uncomfortable as well, because you may not be sure that you’re entitled to.  There are some who may turn to look at you with distrust and stern expressions when you do so.  Resist the urge to sit back down.

Deferring to your elders will eventually reveal itself to be a double edged sword.  While their experience and expertise should be respected and admired, their course is not your course, and in an artistic career, modeling yourself after someone else’s successful career will not propel you forward.  It will, in fact, keep you prisoner.  At some point, you’ll begin to realize that what worked for somebody else is not going to work for you, based on nothing more than your gut instinct and the knowledge gained from your own experience.  Chances are that some who’ve come before you won’t see what you see, and they’ll tell you that you’re doing it wrong.  Some will even resent you for your audacity.  To move forward, you have to learn to make peace with that and hopefully won’t turn around to see smoke rising from any bridges behind you.

We get caught up in following every little trend and bit of advice, flailing about to hop onto the coattails of others because they may appear to be more successful, and we feel that if they’re doing it, it must be right, even if everything in our being tells us its wrong for our own path.  Successful people don’t become so by copying someone else’s dance steps.  Photographers that try to be Annie Liebowitz, painters that try to mimic Van Gogh, and actors that pattern themselves after Tom Hanks are eventually going to realize they have no identity of their own and that their life’s work is a poor copy.

Learn from your predecessors, evaluate their methods, and admire their successes, but be yourself.   Someone else’s judgment should not supersede your own, simply because they appear to be more successful or have had a longer career.  If you only get this one go round, and you’re fortunate enough to be able to do so as an artist, don’t waste it living someone else’s life.