I've been playing around with Photoshop a lot recently. Here's something I think turned out pretty well.
The Original:
My tweaks:
Photoshop is amazingly powerful, but for all that power, it still sucks to DRAW and PAINT in it. I still fight every time I have to draw a curved line. . .I'm thinking I might have to augment my Photoshop with something else. Something out there must be more 'drawing-friendly'.
What I did here didn't take me as long to do as redoing the Napalm Cowboys logo did.
Since I started with pen and paper, I still can't draw with a mouse. I take two approaches to this. Either I'll sketch out what I want and scan it into PS, or I use a graphics tablet. The tablet is quite a bit faster, but still lacks the control of a real pencil.
For about a $100 or so, a tablet would help you take it to the next level. I'd suggest one that uses magnetic tracking instead of a battery in the stylus. After a couple of days it just becomes another mouse attached to your system.
lexx wrote:Nice, your growing in leaps and bounds.
Since I started with pen and paper, I still can't draw with a mouse. I take two approaches to this. Either I'll sketch out what I want and scan it into PS, or I use a graphics tablet. The tablet is quite a bit faster, but still lacks the control of a real pencil.
For about a $100 or so, a tablet would help you take it to the next level. I'd suggest one that uses magnetic tracking instead of a battery in the stylus. After a couple of days it just becomes another mouse attached to your system.
I'll keep that in mind. I've thought about it in the past. I had a lightpen for my c64, but it sucked.
For drawing I usually use Illustrator or Google sketchup which has the bonus of being able to do things in 3D. There's also an open source program called Inkscape that is supposedly very much like illustrator.
I think the problem with drawing is you need vector instead of Photoshops raster. Give Illustrator a look. I never messed with it, but I've heard it's more draw friendly. It also has the benefit of being able to scale without pixelation.
Thanks for the ideas. I don't think I'm ready to jump into 3-D stuff, but I'll look at what you've all mentioned. I've never even heard of SketchUp before. I was thinking of looking at Corel Painter, but that might be TOO MUCH. I think what I need is a version of PAINT on steroids. Just something that has incredibly easy, basic drawing tools to let me quickly sketch out stuff, then take it over to PS for the heavy duty work. If I have to spend an hour working out how to draw a curved line, that kills my creative process.
I COULD sit down with a book and work it out, but I'm sorely tempted to say 'Fuck it" and just get some kiddie tool to do my basic stuff. Maybe there are coloring book simulators out there. . . 😉
It DOES look pretty cool. All it took was poking thru a book a bit, and the willingness to play around with reflection maps, textures, beveling, etc. It was pretty easy. Photoshop's a damned amazing program. It actually would've been harder for me to draw the simple picture I based it on. . .which is why I'm looking for a second program that makes it easier to draw.
I think they have a point. I'd forgotten about Illustrator. I used to use it alot when I was doing URA facades. I liked the fact that I could type in a sign and vector it from pixels up to a foot high perfect letter for printout. Then I could trace it onto mdo and cut it out with a bandsaw.
Atomm wrote:Remember, Photoshop was originally for Pictures and Illustrator was for Graphic Designers/Artists. Your just using the wrong tool. 😛
I had a program called Deluxe Paint for my Amiga, way back in the late 80's. All I'd like is the addition of a couple tools from that program, and they were dirt simple. I'll keep an eye out for the programs you're suggesting(and similar ones), and try them out when I get the chance.
DocJon wrote:But Deluxe Paint was for illustrators too, and it had the tools I'm looking for. I'll keep an eye out for the programs you're suggesting(and similar ones), and try them out when I get the chance.
YOU did all that ??? The napalm site, so nice.
Amazingly sweet stuff, Doc.
I can feel for you tho. What you said about creativity. You seem to have lots of it, tho when it gets blocked by a missing tool and you have to draw one f hour for what you needed normally (freehand) only a couple of minutes - it sux big time. You are a lot less limited once you found the right program. 🙂
saintchism wrote:YOU did all that ??? The napalm site, so nice.
Amazingly sweet stuff, Doc.
I can feel for you tho. What you said about creativity. You seem to have lots of it, tho when it gets blocked by a missing tool and you have to draw one f hour for what you needed normally (freehand) only a couple of minutes - it sux big time. You are a lot less limited once you found the right program. 🙂
lexx wrote:I think she meant the cabal cartel site.
Saint, Doc did all the graphics for the cartel website, under of course my suburb supervision 🙂
Whatever I asked for he just did the exact opposite 😉
Really?! (greening) So that is how things get done so well. I <3 the CGC site. It is so eery, it still happens to me... Entering the site I first see all the highlighted red aereas and only afterwards I get aware of the hidden eyes staring at me.
I guess, I should tell me what happened to me, when I took a glimpe at GRB fori today. Was not logged in and then it always shows the google add. While scrolling down to view the posts having the google add directly beyond one of my posts I realized with the corner of my eye that it was a very strange add. It had - and I looked closer - an blue tongued polar bear in it. Still I did believe it was google thinking they must be a really weird folk too. So that was when the whole picture came in. All that did not take longer than not even a second or so, but it was a fine almost surrealistic surprise.
😄 🎉 🎉 🎉
DOC I am so happy you made me such a beautiful sig. It just feels right too. I <3 it.
saintchism wrote:I guess, I should tell me what happened to me, when I took a glimpe at GRB fori today. Was not logged in and then it always shows the google add. While scrolling down to view the posts having the google add directly beyond one of my posts I realized with the corner of my eye that it was a very strange add. It had - and I looked closer - an blue tongued polar bear in it. Still I did believe it was google thinking they must be a really weird folk too. So that was when the whole picture came in. All that did not take longer than not even a second or so, but it was a fine almost surrealistic surprise.
😄 🎉 🎉 🎉
DOC I am so happy you made me such a beautiful sig. It just feels right too. I <3 it.
🙂
Anyone that hangs out here as long as you have deserves their own sig. If you have something else that you'd like to use, or something you'd like to change or add to it, let me know. I just went looking for a few pics of the islands, and I found a polar bear pic that would sit nicely on the rocks that were in this one.
