Anyone who was alive in the seventies will hopefully appreciate this little tutorial. I remember airbrushing these type of effects a hundred years ago…in fact I still own several thousand dollars worth of airbrush equipment. One brush I bought for close to $700 weeks before an update to the Mac OS that made it a more viable solution for the type of work I was doing than the traditional way.
Read More...

Tags: design, software, tutorial, photoshop

An often overlooked method of working with imagery in Photoshop is the use of Adjustment Layers. This provides the means to retouch an image in a non-destructive way. When you select an image and adjust its Levels or Curves you have altered that image, but using an Adjustment Layer for that identical process provides the same results but without altering the original image. This allows the ability to step back to the original image for any reason.
Read More...

Tags: design, software, tutorial, photoshop

One of the great things about working on a Mac is the ability to customize and script almost every aspect of your daily routine with ease. This functionality extends to every application, either by inclusion within their code or by using AppleScript. Adobe has provided Actions within Photoshop for several versions now, but many artists I know do not use them to streamline their workflow. Read More...

Tags: design, software, tutorial, photoshop

Often times we are called to create imagery that reflects a specified tone or incorporates certain imagery to coincide with other marketing efforts for our clients. Adding a sense of realism to a logo on a wall, or aging a icon on a T-shirt adds that sense of believability that makes your digital work stand out from the rest of the crowd.

This is another technique to add some more life in your digital composites using some good free textures available through a quick Google; Mayang's offers some great shots for free (limited to 20 downloads a day or you can purchase them all for $45) and where I got this background. Read More...

Tags: design, software, tutorial, photoshop

Within the design industry we are sometimes called upon to make simple things look much better than they actually are…like a make-up artist at the Emmy's (aw c'mon did you watch the show?). One of the tricks that I have learned over the years is adding more depth to elements creates a better sense of reality to the image.

While I was working at Disney, we had to develop numerous events and broadcasts. Without the time to really develop a 3-D model, light it and render out I came up with a simple series of steps in Photoshop to provide more depth to a simple Illustrator logo or icon. These plates always seem to generate a positive response from all of the associated parties. Read More...

Tags: design, software, tutorial, photoshop