FREE CD!

Project files, brushes, stock art,

patterns, textures…
ISSUE 19

MACROMEDIA
Killer Photoshop | Design course special | Selling yourself | Create album masterpieces

& ADOBE
What the merger means for you

£5.99
19

771748 727009
Album artwork

ISSN 1748-7277
Create your own CD covers

ISSUE 19
5+

9
4 U S S
BORN THEICSDI
E
S
HSUEE’S
FR

HOW TO… COVER ARTIST INTERVIEW

KILLER
Master realistic perspective
Make the most of Version Cue
Present the perfect portfolio
Banish blemishes with Spot Healing

PHOTOSHOP
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk

No renders, no drawing, just Photoshop

DESIGN COURSES pages of inspirational

We look at digital art’s top alumni artwork and
19
UE

and see what they’re doing now professional tips

ISS

001_APM19_LoFaro.indd 1 25/5/06 15:40:08

 Cover

Cover image Imageer:

With a lifelong interest in dinosaurs, fantasy JERRY LOFARO
and art, our cover image sums up its creator
perfectly. Crafting this image from toy models
of T-Rex and co, coupled with photographs of
foliage and trees from Jerry’s back garden, this
is one technique you’re sure to want to explore
more. And you can. Jerry will be joining the DESPITE BEING THE
Advanced Photoshop team in the near future to
create a tutorial for you to follow based on this MOST COMPUTER-INEPT
imaging technique.
/ For more of Jerry’s images, turn to page 16 STUDENT IN THE CLASS,
I MANAGED TO ACHIEVE
THE BASICS
3
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003_APM19_intro.indd 3 1/6/06 15:31:11

 nds
mme
Reco

A CLOSE SHAVE
Adobe award winner Micah Ganske shows you
7 66
how to create the perfect illusion through a sharp
combination of perspective and skilful Photoshop

ISSUE #19

34
inside...
Revealing the tricks of the
trade in Pitch Perfect
LETTERS
Our readers’ comments and feedback
7 8

INSIGHT 7 10
News and showcases from around the globe
All the latest events, exhibitions and awards 10
Cover artist Jerry Lofaro shows all 16
Gothic images from Vincent Chong 18
Take a look at Si Scott’s portfolio 20

HELPDESK 7 78
Your technical traumas shared with fellow readers
and answered by our expert

7 85
THE COVER
Jerry Lofaro gets his claws into the
imagination of the imaging world
RESOURCES
with his unique style of artwork. Vital assets to improve your Photoshop work
Find out how he creates his work
by turning to page 16
Macromedia merger: The facts 86
Online portfolio sites 90
Books 92
Stock art 94

...
THIS MONTH’S CD 7 96
BE 6 Superb stock art, all the project files to go with

C RI ge 7 f this month’s issue and more!

UBSto pa £s ofce
S rn ave pri
Tu d s ver 22 52
an e co Maggie Taylor’s
dream-like world
Introducing the 2006
AP Photoshop Relay
th

4
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004-005_APM19_contents.indd 4 1/6/06 15:32:31

 28 TECHNIQUES
Master album artwork Hone your skills to perfection with our expert guides

7 28
with Kerry Roper
MASTER ALBUM ARTWORK
Be the mastermind behind CD creations
FEATURES
INTERVIEW: MAGGIE TAYLOR 7 22 TRANSLUCENT EFFECTS
Master the art of lucid imagery
7 40
Discover the techniques behind the art

PITCH PERFECT 7 34
BLENDING MODES 7
Learn how to use blending modes to create Eighties art
56
Learn how to sell your work, and yourself, to clients
INSIDER INFO
TOP DESIGN COURSES 7 46 SPOT HEALING
When to use it, and how
7 62
Everything you need to know before you enrol

PEER PRESSURE 7 72 INSIDER INFO

VERSION CUE 7 64
Inspiring images from your Photoshop peers
Keep complete control over your workflow

ROUND UP: PORTFOLIOS 7 80 GET PERSPECTIVE 7 66

Present a perfect portfolio Put yourself in the picture with this tutorial

ADOBE & MACROMEDIA 7 86 INSIDER INFO

What the merger means for you COLOUR CORRECTION 7
Keep your colours constant, whichever app you’re using
70

5
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004-005_APM19_contents.indd 5 1/6/06 15:33:20

 Letters

Mailbox
Send your emails about the magazine to
advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk
or check out our brand new forum at
www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk
SUBJECT: Hungary for Photoshop
FROM: Edd Carlile
I’ll start here by saying that I really enjoy Advanced
Photoshop – brilliant value and content. Waiting for
it to hit Hungary is nail-biting!
For some time now I’ve been creating
photomontages as a creative outlet separate from
my more ‘traditional’ photography.
From the beginning Photoshop made it all

“I’M A BIG FAN OF

possible (the very first Agnes picture came from me
managing to make a glossy button and then not

PHOTOSHOP AND
wanting to leave it alone I slipped a distorted image
under it… hey presto Agnes was born!), and as I

continue on my warped journey with Agnes I
continually hone my meagre Photoshop skills to
produce better work.
I began the series as a response to a lot of
photomontage I saw on the Internet that was taking
elements of the human form and then applying
Photoshop to produce disturbing slash/cut imagery.
I felt strongly this was a disservice to
photomontages. In my opinion it’s quite easy to
disturb and offend people’s sensibilities through
photo manipulation; it’s quite another thing to make
them laugh!
So Agnes has been a reply of sorts to that
manipulation. The reaction to them among friends
and online has swung from an indulgent worried
smile to outright hilarity.
YOUR TUTORIALS
SHINE ON: Head to www.eovia.com for
information on Carrara 5 or the free 5.1 upgrade
ARE SO INVALUABLE”
SUBJECT: Dimension details
FROM: Andy Broadbent unlike some other magazines I have seen. I was
I am new to your magazine, but enjoyed issue 17 a subscribed to Digital Creative Arts, which was a
lot. I loved some of the features and something on great magazine too and it’s a shame this stopped, but
page 23 interested me a lot, so I wondered if you the remainder of the subscription got passed over to
could help me. Advanced Photoshop and I’m very pleased as it is
One of the images (the one of the unsuccessful great. I’m a big fan of Photoshop and your tutorials
Ministry Of Sound pitch – the figure with the swirled are so invaluable and explained very well.
texture applied) was really striking. In the text that I have received issue 17 in the post without a disc
accompanied it, you said that the texture was warped at the back – is there a way I can get this?
to the figure using 3ds Max.
This software seems very expensive and I wondered Editor replies:
if there was another 3D package or plug-in which For any missing discs, please drop us an email at the
could achieve the same results for less money. Any Advanced Photoshop email address above and we’ll
help would be much appreciated. be pleased to help.

Editor replies: SUBJECT: On a positive note

HORSING AROUND: Explore Carlile’s work by
searching for ‘Agnes’ at the www.photozo.com gallery
Hi, Andy. There are a few packages that can be used
to create similar results, some which are a lot cheaper
than others. Animation Master, Carrara and Realsoft
3D are just three packages you could look into, and
these are more likely to suit your budget.
SUBJECT: Disc claimer
FROM: James Reynolds
I just wanted to take this opportunity on my email to
say well done on a fantastic magazine. I find every
issue so far very interesting to read front to back,
FROM: Matt
I hardly ever look at magazines any more, because
they always seem to be aimed at amateurs. Nice to
hear that there’s a mag out there that’s called
Advanced Photoshop, and for once it contains what
it says on the cover. It’s a very pretty magazine, with
very useful and interesting content. By presuming
readers already know what a layer is the magazine
can go for more complicated stuff, like changing a
summer photo into a winter scene, or explaining how
to use Bridge to enhance workflow.

8
Advanced Photoshop

008-009_APM19.indd 8 1/6/06 15:58:08

 WE LOVE FEEDBACK:
Love a tutorial? Let us know
by emailing us or signing on
to our forum at www.
advancedphotoshop.co.uk

SUBJECT: White wedding
FROM: Philip Daly
I wanted to send you my first, rather rushed, effort at
your tutorial from Advanced Photoshop issue 16,
and say what a brilliant tutorial I thought it was – it
was really easy to follow. I love this snow effect and
I’m looking forward to shooting winter weddings
even more now!
Anyway, thought you Advanced Photoshop lot
would like these images – the wind just whirled the
veil naturally. What a lucky shot!
www.dalypix.com
SUBJECT: Stay sharp
FROM: Medley
I would very much like to see either a tutorial or a Big
Technique discussion of CS2’s Smart Sharpen filter. Of
all the wonderful things that Photoshop can do,
being able to clear up a blurry photo has always
SMART SHARPEN: Easily counteract common
image blurring with fine correction control based on
the specific blur types: Motion, Lens, and Gaussian
seemed just out of grasp. Now, with the advent of
CS2’s Smart Sharpen filter, we may have the power to
change that. If you have someone on your staff that
has a good technical understanding of the filter, I beg
you to consider an article in a future issue.
Editor replies:
Message received and understood! Keep an eye out
between these pages over the next few months and
your wish will be our command.
SUBJECT: Content discontented
FROM: Richard Jansen
I was so excited to get my very first issue of Advanced
Photoshop as a gift, seeing as it is a bit pricey! I got
the CD into my computer, excited to try out the Zip It
Up Orange tutorial and there was no ‘Grass.jpg’ file,
leaving me unable to finish it. I also found the tutorial
hard to follow and unclear. When you have a CD,
make sure the correct content is on it – I’m scared to
look at the rest of them now.
Editor replies:
Hi Richard, I’m sorry you’ve found your first issue
disappointing. We do try to pitch our tutorials at a
fairly advanced level and so they can be a little
overwhelming if you are unfamiliar with a technique
or element of the application.
With regards to the disc, we are aware that issue
16’s disc did suffer with some missing files, if you
would like these files emailed to you, please drop us a
line and one of the team will be happy to send you all
the resources you’re lacking.
Straight to
the point
Forum fun
Subject: Tough techniques
From: revjessecuster
I got issue 17 a few days ago. I enjoyed it, but not
as much as issue 15 (I didn’t get 16). The tutorials
weren’t as interesting – but you can’t please all
the people all of the time!
The ice tutorial did give me a good idea and I
made something similar using different
techniques. The main problem I found with
most of the tutorials in this month’s mag was
they really relied on having other programs like
3D to make the robot or drawing skills to create
the art for the console art and the brushwork.
Although I know these were on the disc, you
need these other skills to further your skills or
make original art.
Subject: Still in the dark?
From: hi-liter
Although the content of the two magazines I’ve
purchased overall is really impressive, I read
through the shadow tutorial in issue 16 and was
left disappointed. Although there are techniques
the author uses that are advanced, the shadows
themselves were basic. The cast shadow down
the steps, given the direction of the light source
and height of the stairs, certainly wouldn’t butt
up against the riser as there would be shadow
cast from the step.
From a magazine called Advanced
Photoshop I’d really like to see a tutorial
covering complex shadow casting, from
multiple light sources, reflected light and even
one on how to make an overcast shot into a
sunlit one. The shadow tutorial was basic. Push
the edge, show me how to do the complex…

“NICE TO HEAR THERE’S A MAG Editor replies:

OUT THERE THAT’S CALLED If you’ve got a comment, good or bad, about the
magazine, why not join in the banter on our

ADVANCED PHOTOSHOP, AND FOR new online forum? Just go to www.advanced

photoshop.co.uk and tell us what you think!

ONCE IT CONTAINS WHAT IT SAYS

ON THE COVER”
9
Advanced Photoshop

008-009_APM19.indd 9 1/6/06 15:58:30

 Keeping an eye on the latest trends in contemporary photography, art
and design, Insight sets out to snapshot innovation in the making
Top marque(e)s
This year sees the seventh annual Serpentine Gallery
Pavilion, which will be co-designed by Pritzker Prize-winning
architect Rem Koolhaas and innovative structural designer
Cecil Balmond.
One of the most influential architects of his generation,
Koolhaas has completed numerous projects including: Casa
da Musica in Porto, 2005; the Prada Epicenter in Los Angeles,
2004; the Seattle Public Library, 2004. Koolhaas says of his
latest project: “The 2006 Serpentine Pavilion will be defined
by events and activities. We are proposing a space that
facilitates the inclusion of individuals in communal dialogue
and shared experience.” Balmond continues, “These
Pavilions have evolved with various structural typologies
and materials, provoking a debate on architecture; this year
the exploration continues not only with typology and
material but with the very definition of Pavilion.”
10
Advanced Photoshop
010-011_APM19_insight.indd 10
ition of works
D: A major exhib
ART ON DEMAN t Thomas Demand will also
artis
by the German ring this period
e Serpentine du
be on show at th
This year’s Serpentine Pavilion will feature a spectacular
ovoid-shaped inflatable canopy that will float above the
gallery’s lawn. Made from translucent material, the structure
will be illuminated from within at night. The canopy will be
raised into the air or lowered to cover the amphitheatre
below according to the weather.
The walled enclosure below the canopy will be used as a
café and forum for daily televised and recorded public
programmes. The highlights will include two 16-hour events,
bringing together leading artists, writers and thinkers to
map the culture of London. Check it out for yourself
between June and October.
www.serpentinegallery.org
1/6/06 16:00:27
 HOT WHEELS: Team McLaren Mercedes’
MP4-20, the team’s 2005 Formula One
challenger. © Team McLaren Mercedes
07.06
A SUMMER BALL: Why not support the
country’s football stars by checking out the
patriotic footballs between 9 June and 10
July? Design by Assa Ashuach with
Metropolitan Works. © Assa Ashuach

The beautiful
game
Just in time to coincide with that
wondrous event that is the World Cup is
Football Fever. On display in the Design

Get into gear Museum Tank, this new exhibition

explores some innovative redesigns of
for the Great the humble football. And with

Design Race designers like Jerszy Seymour and

Barber Osgerby as well as textile design
PIT STOP: The pit team company Timorous Beasties, they’re
In a summer so dominated by football, it can
moves onto a Renault R25 sure to be quite the sight.
be hard for any other sport to get a look in. driven by Giancarlo The footballs – able to be
However, ever keen to recruit new followers, Fisichella during the 2005
Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix customised, redesigned, remodelled
Formula One looks set to reveal some of its (Friday Practice) in Sakhir, and generally reinvented – were
closely guarded secrets. Bahrain. © Lorenzo
produced in Pakistan under Fairtrade
On from 1 July to 29 October at the Bellanca/LAT
conditions, and have been donated by
Design Museum is Formula One: The Great
The Fairtrade Foundation and Fair Deal
Design Race. Revealing for the first time to
Footballs. So if you’re strolling past the
the public the design innovations at the PRIX D’EXCELLENC
E: Taken last year at riverfront of the Design Museum
Grand Prix in Sakhir the 2005 Bahrain
heart of this secretive sport, The Great , Ba
Alonso driving a Ren hrain. The race winner was Fernando between 9 June and 10 July, check out
ault R25, below. ©
Design Race features iconic cars and Charles Coates/LAT
the range of creations.
deconstructions of F1 technology.
Formula One invests hundreds of millions
of pounds every year on design and
technology – with £500 million spent by the
racing teams to optimise their engines
alone. An F1 car consists of over 10,000
components requiring 4,000 drawings and
accuracy to within a tenth of a millimetre.
The Great Design Race will explore the
history of F1 design, and how billions of
pounds has been invested in design and
technology in order to make the cars ever
faster and safer.
Worth a look, even if racing isn’t usually
your thing, just to see how billions have
been spent on creating the perfect vehicles.

www.designmuseum.org

11

010-011_APM19_insight.indd 11 2/6/06 10:53:46

 insight

James Cuddy
TALENT SPOTTING:
Free Range provides a
Free-range talent
platform for art graduates to This is traditionally the time of year when thousands flock to see
showcase their work in a
the work of up-and-coming designers at their graduate shows. If
unique environment while at
the same time being a golden you want to see Europe’s largest free showcase of graduate art
opportunity for talent scouts and design, head down to the Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane
to headhunt the cream of the
UK’s art and design graduates between 1 June and 24 July.
Free Range has become so successful over the past few years
that for two months it takes over most of the Old
Truman Brewery’s huge 11 acre site on East London’s
Brick Lane. Providing a platform for art graduates to
showcase their work in a unique environment while
at the same time being a golden opportunity for
talent scouts to headhunt the cream of the UK’s art
ddy
James Cu

and design graduates.

Including the work of over 2,000 students from
over 50 of the UK’s top art and design universities
and colleges, Free Range is the place to go to see
the next Rankin, Insect or Daniloff.
Free Range coordinator Tamsin O’Hanlon
explains, “Free Range is an explosion of talent
on a massive scale. This is the best opportunity
for industry players and the general public to
discover artists in fledgling mode before
reputations and prices soar!”
www.free-range.org.uk

:
JIN TONIC
’s
ca lib re of this year
The high includes Ja
mes
Free Range y, above, and
Cudd
miths,
from Golds
Aowen Jin t inexhaustible
alm os
who’s ready
r art has al
passion fo mmission
to
he r a co
earned it of the Queen
po rtra
paint a is year’s ro
yal
as part of th lebrations
birthday ce

RANGE ROVERS:
Free Range, featuring work by young
artists including Emma Barley (right),
is held at the Old Truman Brewery,
described by Time Out as “the
Emma Barley

creative hub of the East End”

following ten years of regeneration
and investment

12
Advanced Photoshop

012-013_APM19_insight.indd 12 1/6/06 16:06:14

 07.06
DIARY
DATES
CHRISTOPHER
CAMPBELL: THE DAY
UNTITLED, 1983:
Photograph by David OF THE TRIFFIDS
Kunzle, Grenada. This
mural, which was over three
Until 11 June
metres high, was destroyed GUERRILLERO HE
150 Columbia Road, London
RO
during the American Havana, Cuba. © Th ICO: By Alberto Korda, March 1960,
Invasion of Grenada in 1983 e Korda Estate
DOGS OF THE
SILVER SCREEN
The importance of being Ernesto Until 23 June
The Kennel Club Art Gallery, London
On from 7 June until 28 August at the V&A is representation again and again? Korda’s
Che Guevara: Revolutionary and Icon. Looking representation of Che is both populist and
at arguably one of the most iconic images of counter-culture, from the image of guerrilla
INNER WORLDS
our generation, the exhibition showcases how leader and anti-establishment hero through to OUTSIDE
pop culture has emulated this portrait. pop celebrity and symbol of fashion’s Until 25 June
The portrait of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, fascination with radical chic. This iconic image Whitechapel Gallery, London
Guerrillo Heroico, photographed by Alberto has inspired art, fashion and culture for the
Díaz Korda on March 5, 1960, is considered to past 45 years and is recognisable even in its TEN PORTRAITS OF
be the most reproduced image in the history
of photography.
most simplified form.
Che Guevara: Revolutionary and Icon will
JEWS OF THE 20TH
That Che Guevara himself was young, focus on the narrative of this single image, CENTURY: WARHOL
handsome, charismatic, and died at the age of encompassing art from over 30 countries. Until 2 July
only 39 inevitably contributes to the mystique www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/future_exhibs National Portrait Gallery, London
surrounding his image, but why do people
such as Ricky Gervais choose to use this DEC 25TH REVOLUTION BEGINS: THE PRESS
Chas Bayfield and Martin Casson for
Churches Advertising Network (CAN) PHOTOGRAPHER’S
UK, 2005. Offset lithograph Gift of
Maiden Outdoor to the V&A
YEAR
LEARN FOR LESS: For more Until 8 July
information on free training in
National Theatre, London
north London and to see if you

Master your art

qualify, check out the website at
www.enfieldartspartnership.org
to hone
READY, STEADY, GO!
ant the chance
liv e in No rth London and w rth er . Until 17 July
If you then look no fu
ur Ph ot os ho p skills for free is of fe rin g Chelsea College of Art and Design
yo Partnership
ly, Enfield Arts
Throughout Ju e Photos ho p sk ills .
ct intermediat and 3, Two BODIES: THE
courses to perfe s, Ph ot oshop levels 2
de
The co
e
ur se
Di m
lis
en
t in clu
sional Design
Using AutoCA
D City and
itectural
EXHIBITION
and Th re d Ar ch
g level 3 an Until 30 July
Cisco Networkin
Guilds level 2, Earls Court, London
2.
Desktop level rth partnership
, all
ed by th e Cr eative Skills No rth Lo ndon.
Fund llege in No
cour se s w ill ru n fro m Southgate Co
you need prev
io us ex pe rience – ROYAL ACADEMY
To qualify fo r th e co
nd
ur
in g
se s
at least – befo
re enrolment on
to SUMMER EXHIBITION
de rs ta .
or a basic un e within North
London 12 June – 26 August
d you must liv my Towns at
the course, an co nt ac t Je re London
r m or e in fo rm ation, please
Fo hip.org.
ldartspartners
jeremy@enfie

13
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012-013_APM19_insight.indd 13 1/6/06 16:07:33

 insight
Jerry Lofaro
Jerry Lofaro has been doodling ever since he could hold a pencil.
Strongly influenced by the scientific art that appeared in Time Life
books and later artists like Frank Frazetta and Roger Dean, he
always knew he wanted to be an illustrator. “I only lasted for three
semesters at university, but thrived at The Art Students League of
New York”. Jerry started illustrating in 1986, creating his work in
acrylics with an airbrush and fine paintbrushes. His first
commission came after beating the streets of New York for a year
with his portfolio.
“Although I wasn’t adverse to digital art I never really planned
to get into it, but the industry was changing and I knew I needed
to as well. I enrolled in The Pioneer Commuter School of Art in
New Hampshire for an eight-week course. Despite being the
most computer-inept student in the class, I managed to achieve
the basics. The same day the system was installed in my studio
my first digital job came in. It was an ad for a computer game,
due in the next day – a real trial by fire!”
For Jerry, Photoshop is essential for his work. “Illustrator just
doesn’t work for me, and although I like Painter, and dabble in it
a little, I find that Photoshop addresses all of my artistic needs. I
try to keep my work simple and naturalistic. I use filters sparingly
and don’t use any other plug-ins for effects. Aside from the
Airbrush, my main tools are the Eraser, Smudge and Blur.”
Currently, Jerry is in the midst of a national campaign for
BLUEBERRY BEARS: Created for Celestial Seasoning’s Iced Tea packaging, Jerry began this
Trojan condoms and packaging of baby wipes and toilet paper design by enhancing photographs of blueberries with painted aspects. “Occasionally, I’ll scan
for Cottonelle. “Picasso had his ‘blue period’. At the moment I pieces of one of my existing paintings and distort them to fit in with my new concept. This was
the case with parts of the landscape and water. The bear is cobbled together from a
seem to be having my bodily function period!” He is also
number of different sources and painted over”
working on the expansion of Celestial Seasoning’s product,
creating the label art for a new line of food seasoning spices.
/ To find out more about Jerry’s work and visit his
History Gallery, log onto http://jerrylofaro.com

ANIMAL MAGIC:
Jerry created this
image for Heat &
Glo Fireplaces. He
created a mock-up
scene with toys,
shining a flashlight
through orange
paper for the fireplace
light. “For the Aurora, I
randomly painted a
line across the sky with
the spacing set
between 300-400%. I
then carried out a
transform and motion
blur upwards, playing
with colours and opacity
until I was satisfied”

16
Advanced Photoshop=

016-017_APM19_insight.indd 16 1/6/06 16:11:28

 MARRAKESH EXPRESS: This was created for Celestial Seasoning’s
tea packaging. Jerry uses a Nikon Coolpix 5000 in his photography
and blends photos with digitally painted elements. “I photographed
a toy train, baskets, and friends as the characters and then started
building on top, adding stuff as it occurred to me such as the circular
TREASURES: “I do
07.06
animal illustrations.
plenty of furry
Moroccan design. A motion blur was added for effect” In order to help
me accomplish the
look I want I have
created a couple of
brushes. I combine the custom fur
m with shape
dynamic settings in
create tapered strokes my palette to
, and sometimes
apply noise to height
en the effect”

A JURASSIC JOURNEY: Created as a poster to

promote reading for DEMCO, Jerry photographed
woods on his property to create the scene. “I hung a
white sheet behind the ferns before I shot them,
anticipating that they would be much easier to select
against a plain background. I then photographed
some of the dinosaur toys and models I’ve collected”

GIGANTHOPITHICUS: “This was the

largest ape to have ever lived and was
about 12 feet tall and was the possible
origin of the Yeti legend. I often use the
Smudge Tool at a fine setting to drag the
fur and hair and create a softer, more
naturalistic edge”

23
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016-017_APM19_insight.indd 17 1/6/06 16:13:06

 insight

WIRE WORK: “Created

for The Wire, this was Si Scott
drawn with fineliners,
then scanned into “I’ve been drawing ever since I can remember, so I knew from an early age I
Photoshop wanted to do something to do with art,” says Si Scott, former graphic design
and inverted”
student at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College. Counting Casio, The
Wire, Hanne Hukkelberg, D&AD, BBC Television and The Chase among his
clientele, there’s no denying that Scott has done very well for himself.
Although a late bloomer into the wonders of Photoshop, he admits he
couldn’t be without the technology now. “All my work is done by hand first but
recently I have started to use the computer, which is adding an extra dimension
to my work and pushing me in new directions.”
His ability to create his work by hand before even turning on his computer
means that his work looks organic and fluid: “My work is created by hand and
then scanned on to the computer and pieced together. If need be elements are
added then, such as colour, layers and paths.”
In fact, Scott has become so renown in his field that the exhibition scene has
been calling his name. As well as showcasing alongside New York great Vault49
in March, he’s also got a solo project in the pipeline. “I will be starting work on
pieces for my own exhibition at Soma Gallery in October time. Hopefully I’m also
going to be working with Love Creative in the near future.”
/ www.siscott.co.uk

TIME PIECE: Af
ter scanning his
into Photoshop, wo
Scott re-drew th rk
image in Illustr e
ator. This allow
work to be colou ed the
red and meant
could achieve th he
e detailed finish

018-19_APM19.indd 18 1/6/06 16:14:34

 07.06
BUETTNER NAKED: “This
brief from Angelika Buettner
Photography saw me piece
together Buettner’s work with
hand-drawn elements, which
were then scanned into
Photoshop and coloured up”

PIXIE PIXELS: “Drawn

with fineliner and scanned
into Photoshop,” Scott then
pieced together this image
to create a surreal and
quirky-looking fairy

D&AD CONGRESS CONCEPT DESIGNS: Designed for The Chase, this elaborate design had to
incorporate the D&AD logo as well as getting its message across. To create the image, Scott drew the
image by hand before scanning it into Photoshop and adding the finishing flourishes

MEDIA
AN STUDENT
THE GUARDI im age was created
06 : “T his
AWARDS 20 and then scann
ed in
with fineliners d in Photoshop”
ce s an d lay ere
separate pie

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 insight
Vincent Chong
After studying for a BA Hons Graphic Design degree at Northumbria
University, Vincent set up shop as a freelancer to firmly establish himself
as an illustrator and designer.
“I started out from a more traditional background, mainly painting
and creating sculptures. It wasn’t until the second year of my degree
course that I developed an interest in photography and discovered the
power of Photoshop. Since then, there’s been no turning back, I started
to truly find my voice and establish my own style.”
Vincent spent a month piecing together his own portfolio and once
it was up and running embarked on a heavy bout of self-promotion,
emailing links to as many potential clients as possible. His first
commission came from providing some illustrations for a story
written by the American author Joe Hill for the fiction magazine The
3rd Alternative. “He liked my illustrations for it and my style of work
and kept in touch. He later personally commissioned me to provide
the artwork for a Flash game for his site to promote the book [www.
joehillfiction.com].”
Vincent uses a variety of different techniques to create his
images, combining mixed-media elements with photography and
digital manipulation. “In one way or another, Photoshop has been
involved in the creation of all the images featured in my portfolio,
from the simple retouching of photographs to compositing and
heavy digital manipulation. I try to use it subtly, in such a way that
the final artwork doesn’t scream out that it has been digital
created and has a painted feel.”
Recent collaborations have included a contribution to Ilex’s
Surreal Digital Photography, illustrations for The 3rd Alternative and
sister magazine Interzone. His work will soon by exhibited at the
National Museum of Australia in Canberra.
/ www.vincentchong-art.co.uk

d as
is image was create
MECHA MAN: “Th t as
of a per son al pro ject and came abou
part ing
ult of pla yin g ab out and experiment
the res while
som e ran do m ph otographs I’d shot
with
aks and lights in the
in New York. The stre lly a shot of a subway
rou nd we re act ua
backg
a platform”
carriage passing by

STORYTELLER: The background of this

image is a combination of paint, mixed-
media, photography and digital type MODERN GOTHIC: “I was contacted at
brought together in Photoshop, while the the last minute to complete the cover art for
book was a finding from a charity shop. the book Sheena And Other Gothic Tales
“The writing was actually an inscription that by Brian Stableford after the original artist
was already inside the front of the book. I let them down. The book was a collection of
liked the calligraphic look of the writing so gothic tales set in modern times and one
then decided to incorporate it into the image. was a story of a vampire living in a modern-
I photographed the book, propping the looking glass building”
pages open and separating them using a
series of drawing pins to give the effect of the
pages flying open”

20
Advanced Photoshop

020-021_APM19_insight.indd 20 1/6/06 16:19:33

 07.06
ENSCHOL BRALCHT: Vincent created this image as cover art for
Simon Satori’s book Assumptions & Carnations. “The face was created
by combining various photographs of faces shot at different angles
with some blurred and out-of-focus. The background was assembled
using various photographs I chose out of my own stock photography”

Prints a
vailable
/ w w w.p online fr
rints4u om:
Vincen .net/ Vir
tualArt
/
t _Chon M ar t / V
w w w.p g.htm AM _
/
odgall
w w w.s ery.com
olgalle
ry.com

CYNOCEPHALUS: “The body is a

photograph I took of myself holding a
broomstick. I later transformed this into a
spear by adding the spearhead and
feathers. I sculpted the jackal’s head and
photographed this separately”

BLACK ARTS
: Th
book Necroman is was created as cover art for
tra the
finding a female by Phil Emery. “I had a problem
model with the
running out of right look and
time for the comm I was
re-using a phot ission so I ende
o I already had, d
retouching it he up
avily”
MANTICORE
: “The scorpion
modelled from ’s tail was
Plasticine base
looked up on th d on images I’d
e Internet. The
painted, scann body was
ed in and then
some photos I ha co mbined with
d in my stock lib
rary of trees”

21
Advanced Photoshop

020-021_APM19_insight.indd 21 1/6/06 16:20:39

 Inter
view

Inter
view
BOYS WITH THINKING CAPS:
“I was a bit reluctant to use images of
children initially, as they seemed almost
too precious, too cute”

A LANDSCAPE
OF DREAMS
In Maggie Taylor’s weird and wonderful world, pigs
can fly, girls wear dresses made entirely from bees,
and wings sprout from the backs of prim Victorian
women, all with a little help from Photoshop

M
aggie Taylor’s work is reminiscent of
old Victorian masterpieces;
contemporary, surrealist artwork
that would look at home within a gold gilded
frame. Few artists explore Photoshop’s ability
to create such images as well as Taylor does.
“Photoshop is really the only tool that I know of
for making this kind of work,” she enthuses. “It
offers all the options that I need at this point.”
Born in Cleveland before moving to Gainesville,
Florida, Taylor and her photographer husband,
Jerry Uelsmann (www.uelsmann.com), enjoy the
triumphs and turmoil of artistic life together.
“I would say we are more supportive and enjoy
seeing each other’s work and commenting on it,”
she explains. “Neither of us sees art-making as a
competitive activity. We both get a little frustrated
and grumpy if we are not making new images, so
having time in our studio is important to us.”
Beginning her artistic life while studying for a
bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Yale
University, Taylor went on to achieve a master’s
degree in Art (Photography) from the University of
Florida in 1987. From these origins, she spent most
of the first decade of her career working with a 4x5
camera, producing mainly still-life photographs.
Then she discovered the power of Photoshop,
and the rest, as they say, is history.
Method and madness
“First, I’ll use a scanner for capturing the images of
small objects. Occasionally I also use a very small
digital camera for images of clouds and scenery,”
Taylor says of her imaging technique. “All of my
work is done in Photoshop using quite a few
layers as well as adjustment layers.
I try to keep my working process as simple as
possible and I don’t really know what the finished
image will look like when I start working. I begin

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Advanced Photoshop

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 Maggie Taylor

GIRL WITH A BEE DRESS

with the old photographs and little objects that I
love. Once I have scanned them, I begin simple
retouching and then branch out to more creative
work from there.”
This imaging technique has seen the digital
artist and photographer create images
completely unique in the Photoshop world. In
fact, they have caught the imagination of so
many people that her art can currently be seen
adorning the opening sequence of hit US series
The Ghost Whisperer.
“Working on a new image can start out
sometimes as a very frustrating or daunting
activity,” she explains. “But usually I come to a
point where I really like what I am doing, and feel
excited about the image. They always surprise
me, since I don’t start out with a preconceived
notion of what I want to make.
I tend to work in cycles, finishing up a group of
images and then taking on some sort of very
different task (for example a brick path in the
garden!). Then I go back to a new group of
images with a sort of renewed energy.”
Even though Taylor admits to having no
predetermined image at the beginning of her art,
anyone who has looked at her site can see
(ABOVE): Taylor posed for the torso of
SUBJECT TO CHANGE this shot, while six carpenter bees were
(FAR LEFT): “In about 2001, I taken from her windowsill and scanned
realised that I had not made as in to create the surreal swarm. The head
many images of men, so I made was cut from a 19th-century photograph
an effort to correct that”
ALL OF MY WORK
IS DONE IN PHOTOSHOP
USING QUITE A FEW
LAYERS
23
Advanced Photoshop

022-027_APM19.indd 23 1/6/06 16:28:42

 Inter
view
GOOD GIRLS: “In my work, animals play a
number of different roles, sometimes even
within the same image. They can be very
domesticated… or misrepresent the intentions
of a person”
that she isn’t short on ideas. Bursting with portrait
style galleries of work, www.maggietaylor.com is
a veritable ideas workshop.
“I am influenced by a little bit of everything,
from surrealist painting and sculpture – which I
love to see when I travel to other cities such as
New York and Houston – to folk art and television,”
Taylor enthuses. “You never know what will come
to mind as you are sitting in front of an image on
the computer screen. I also spend a lot of time
gardening lately. I think it is important to step
away from the computer and do something
completely different on a regular basis.”
This new-found love of gardening could well
go some way to explaining some of Taylor’s more
surreal images: portraits of women with bird
heads, a girl in a dress made of bees and elements
of nature scattered throughout her portfolio.
Starting with objects that she finds on eBay, in flea
markets and in her own surroundings, Taylor uses
a combination of her camera and scanner plus
Photoshop to produce images of surprising
beauty and emotional impact.
“Through the process of working with an old
photograph I usually come up with a variety of
ideas of what could be done with it,” she reveals.
“The images take quite a long time – at least a few
weeks and in most cases months – to complete.
As I am working I will often switch around from
image to image, usually working on three or four
images as a small group.
Then I get input and advice from my husband,
Jerry, as I am working as well. After a certain point,
when I am happy with an image, I make a proof
print to see how it looks on paper. These are never
24
Advanced Photoshop
022-027_APM19.indd 24
ADRIFT ( TOP
RIGHT): The
backdrops often come
from shots taken on
Taylor’s Canon Elph,
which are seamlessly
blended into the
dreamlike landscape
GARDEN (RIGHT):
“Headlessness serves
lots of purposes. With the
head removed, it’s not a
specific person
and the viewer can
project a personality
onto the figure”
the final prints though, there is always something constant challenge – just when you think
that I want to go back and change.” everything is working well, some of your software
This perfectionism in Taylor has even allowed or hardware changes,” she believes. “I think it is
her to see past her triumphs in Photoshop to see important to keep up to date with technical
the app’s drawbacks. “I don’t use too many of the concerns, but not to become overwhelmed by
filters; I think they can be both destructive and the technology. So learn a lot, then try to use it in
overwhelming,” she says. a unique and personal way, I guess.”
It was following this advice that has turned
A step ahead Taylor into one of the best-known names within
Having found her own inspiration in the realms of the Photoshopping universe. But with equal
sculpture, surrealism and the past, Taylor suggests investments in photography and digital imaging,
those snapping at her heels look to the future for why did she choose to work with Adobe’s program
their influences. “Working with the computer is a in particular?
1/6/06 16:29:33
 Maggie Taylor

MAN PRETENDING TO BE A RABBIT

(ABOVE): “I usually prefer the darker images
and sometimes set out to make more unsettling
pieces – but they just don’t end up that way most TURNING (RIGHT):
of the time” Taylor weaves a deeper
symbolism into many of her
Photoshop creations

WORKING ON A NEW IMAGE

CAN START OUT SOMETIMES
AS A VERY FRUSTRATING OR
DAUNTING ACTIVITY
Advanced Photoshop

022-027_APM19.indd 25 1/6/06 16:31:14

 Inter
view
“Working with layers allows me to try many
different combinations of objects and images in
order to find the ones that I like. I also use
adjustment layers all the time to change the colour
and tonality of parts of the image.”
And it’s not just the adjustment layers that the
imageer has a passion for, as she explains. “Right
now I love the Warp feature, which lets me warp an
object, for example a flat drawing of a fish, into a
unique shape.
“I work on a Mac with a Wacom tablet and an
Epson scanner and printer. My camera right now
is a 4MP Canon Elph. I have 4GB of RAM, which is
helpful because my files are quite big with all
their layers.”
Out of the ordinary
It’s refreshing to find a digital imageer more like
an artist than most – “I usually say that I am a
SLEEPWALKING:
“This is either a man
dreaming about a fish, THE MAIN FOCUS FOR ME IS FINDING
IMAGES THAT I WANT TO WORK WITH
or a fish dreaming
about a man.”
26
Advanced Photoshop
022-027_APM19.indd 26
SOMETHING TO DO
(LEFT): “The condition of
tintypes is not important…
cracks and fading can be
visually interesting”
MOTH DANCER
(BELOW): This background
is a shot Taylor took in Spain,
while the main image was an
original tintype found on eBay
digital artist, however I am not that fussy about
the title.” Taylor produces her work as art, for
exhibits or galleries rather than for more
commercial ventures. “I don’t think of myself as
having clients exactly. Once in a while I have done
a book cover or a music CD cover, but only a few
times a year really.”
This ability to produce work for herself and not
for big-named businesses has allowed Taylor to
produce a rare form of digital art which would
not look out of place hanging on the walls of the
Louvre, the National Portrait Gallery or New York’s
MoMA. In fact, the Lupe Gallery of Photography
in London exhibits Taylor’s work, as does New
York’s Laurence Miller Gallery.
With her work decorating pages of the Internet
as well as some of the world’s most famous walls,
you would have thought Maggie Taylor would be
satisfied. But with her name becoming
1/6/06 16:32:13
 Maggie Taylor

SURROUNDED (TOP
RIGHT): The grass texture came
from Taylor’s garden, while the
dancing girl is brought to life with
some delicate Photoshop colour
MAN IN HIS OWN
WORLD (ABOVE):
Despite the diversity of
her image sources,
Taylor’s visions emerge
as complete creations

synonymous with galleries, both online and off,

ONE AND A
she’s delved into a new area.
HALF SISTERS:
Adobe Photoshop Master Class: Maggie Taylor’s Taylor’s images invite
Landscape Of Dreams is a book dedicated to comparison with
surrealists such as
Taylor’s works. Offering illustrated examination of Magritte for her
her working practice, the book follows her juxtaposition of the
images from inspiration through to execution real and the dreamlike
and includes interviews with Taylor as well as
some of her peers.
As for the future, things aren’t about to let up
for the imageer any time soon. Although working
on a computer leads some people to believe her
working process must be quick, she produces
around only a dozen images a year. “I am working
on new images all the time, and next fall I have a
couple of gallery shows to prepare for. This
summer I plan to stay at home and make quite a
few new images.
“I don’t really have a career strategy and I don’t
look at a lot of other digital work really. The main
focus for me is finding images that I want to work
with, and sitting at my computer getting things
done. I believe too much worry about the state-
of-the-art world is really counter-productive.” 5

27
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 MASTERCLASS

Working with bands to create

album designs can be among
your most exciting and
creatively challenging projects
BY KERRY ROPER

Design for music

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W guides
alk into any music store and you’ll find
thousands upon thousands of albums.
Some use photography, others
illustration – each one can be viewed as an
individual canvas upon which the band portrays its
image. Music captures you; it helps to create or
trigger your emotions and it can evoke memories.
When you get a brief from a record label, or directly
from a band, the first thing you should do is to listen to
the music that you are going to be creating a design for.
Getting hold of the lyrics is another great way to inspire
your thoughts. In this case, the band The Beauty Room
has a magical almost Sixties or Seventies feel to the
music combined with a contemporary twist.
Photoshop was used to build the master artwork to
be used on the music materials needed: album CD,
single CD and a 7-inch vinyl. Although the techniques
used are simple, the final design is very intricate and
detailed because of the combination of various textures
and hand-drawn elements. Essentially it’s using
Photoshop as a compositor for the final image. What this
should show you is that the result can be memorable
and striking without becoming over-complicated. It’s all
about balance, composition and ultimately trying to
reflect the music through your image-making.
Top of the ‘shops
1 The blank canvas
Start by gathering all of the main elements that
you’ll need for the illustration. This can be a selection of
chosen photographs, illustration and various textures. I
usually set up a master canvas size of 12 inches by 12
inches for album covers – this will usually suffice for the
various formats that may be needed.
028-32_APM19_masterclass.indd 29
ON THE DISC
You’ll find all the files needed for the single
design on the Advanced Photoshop CD.
These are called ‘cutter_guide’, ‘line_
drawing_01’, ‘pink_circles_01’, ‘swirls_01’,
‘texture_01’ and ‘texture_02’.
Cutter
OUR EXPERT Kerry Roper
Kerry Roper (www.youarebeautiful.co.uk) studied graphic design
and advertising at Buckinghamshire College and is now an
established graphic designer and illustrator. His work combines
traditional illustration, photography and typography. He has Usually, you’re supplied a template from
exhibited at the Native Weapon exhibition 2004 and at the AKA whoever is going to produce the CD and all of the
Gallery in Rome 2005. Kerry’s work is known across the globe and has
packaging components (various file formats will
led him to design sleeves for various record labels such as Hed Kandi,
Peacefrog and Quiet City Recordings. be available such as Quark, Illustrator or InDesign
templates). It is important to spend time
studying these templates to make sure that the
If you do take on board a project like this then it’s illustrations or designs will fit the guides
essential to communicate with the band at all times to supplied. There’s nothing worse than spending
make sure that they’re happy with the direction that hours on an illustration only to find at a later
you’re going in, as ultimately you’re creating a visual stage that it’s too small or doesn’t fit. Checking
image that represents them and their music. It can be a files for the correct colour settings is essential, as
good idea to present three or four different ideas and there’s no point sending a CMYK file for a CD
approaches that you can then discuss with the band on-body design if you intend to print only one
and record label (once again, the earlier the better to colour. It’s all about preparation and spending a
bit of time planning your layout – then you can
help the project run smoothly!).
get on with the business of being creative.
2 Compose yourself
The initial design construction can now begin. It
may help if you have a rough layout of what you intend
3 Flipping symmetry
The final design is very symmetrical, and the
Transform Tool is used to flip the various elements. You
to achieve; over time you will be able to create straight could also create one side of the illustration and then
to screen. It’s always a great idea to have your own duplicate it and flip it at the final stages of the process.
source bank of various textures and marks, as these
organic shapes and textures can help make illustrations
look much more natural and less computer-generated.
“THE RESULT CAN BE MEMORABLE
AND STRIKING WITHOUT BECOMING
OVER-COMPLICATED. IT’S ALL
ABOUT BALANCE”
29
Advanced Photoshop
1/6/06 16:35:19
 MASTERCLASS
4 Ink credible
All the layers should be set to Multiply to allow
the layers below to show through. At this stage an ink
5 Blot a lot
Another graphic element is added to help
construct the symmetrical layout. Try various positions
splodge is added to help loosen up the image a bit. of the elements. Again the layer is set to Multiply Layer
Using the Multiply Layer mode allows the other mode to allow the other layers to show through.

“WHEN YOU elements to be visible. Another ink splodge is added to the design to help the
image appear more spontaneous.

GET A BRIEF,
THE FIRST
THING YOU
SHOULD DO IS
LISTEN TO
THE MUSIC”
6 Keeping it real
Now the eyes are added. These were printed on a
black-and-white printer, photocopied and then scanned
7 Go with the grunge
A series of grungy textures are now placed over
the image, and the layer mode again is set to Multiply to
8 Just your type
Now the band’s name is added to the layout. In
this case the font chosen was Suburban Light. This layer
in to help create the grungy halftone dot effect. As with allow all of the previous layers to show through. Try to is also set to multiply to allow the overprinting of the
the previous layers, the layer mode is set to Multiply. You experiment with various textures and also play with a black ink. You can now flatten the file and convert the
could also use Photoshop’s Bitmap setting to create range of layer modes such as Overlay and Screen to colour mode to CMYK ready to import into a DTP
various halftone effects. Using photocopiers and fax create interesting effects. package to add the rest of the written information. As
machines helps create much more raw images. always, you should retain a copy of the layered version to
help prevent any headaches at later stages when
changes to the illustration may be needed!

9 Single files
The single design needs to reflect the same kind
of aesthetics as the main album imagery. We start off by
again gathering all of the elements and setting up the
canvas. In this case, cutter guides are used as a layer to
show where the design should sit. You can find the
‘cutter guide’ file on the CD.

10 Line art
In this case the main element is going to be the line drawing of a woman (‘line_drawing’). As with the
previous examples, the layer transparency mode is set to Multiply. You could also try a more photographic approach,
where you use images of people rather than line drawings. It’s a simple design, so try a few experiments.

30
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 11 Just a swirl
Hand-drawn swirls
(‘swirls_01’) are added to the
layout, again setting the layer
mode to Multiply. Experiment
with the positioning of elements A design
such as the decorative swirls, and
try using other hand-drawn
elements such as pencil, biro and
for life
crayon marks to help add variety Creating album art that reflects the music and
to the illustration. band image is key to a design that works, so
research your client’s style and previous covers.

12 Adding scale
The drawn swirls can then be added and 13 Colour and shapes
Now we add the circular shapes that were

flipped vertically using the Transform menu. The various
swirls have also been scaled to help add variety to the
design. The layer mode is also set to Multiply.
14
created in Illustrator (‘pink_circles01’). You could add
variety by adding lines, circles and other geometric Base texture
shapes to the design – shapes like these often A bottom layer of texture (‘texture_01’) is
complement the more free-flowing hand-drawn added, which should be placed at the very bottom of
elements. Again, the layer mode is set to Multiply. the layer order.

“MIX HAND-DRAWN ELEMENTS, 17 Face foundation

A new layer is created and with the selection

MARKS AND TEXTURES WITH we now fill it with pure white. The layer should be set
below the face line drawing; this way the upper layer of

PHOTOSHOP-GENERATED IMAGERY” texture will fill the face but none of the base texture.
Also, the swirly lines will now appear to be coming out

15 16
of the woman’s mouth.
Top texture Light definition
Another layer of texture (‘texture_02’) is The Magic Wand tool is used to select the
added and positioned on the uppermost layer. The white areas of the face line drawing.
transparency is then set to Multiply.

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 MASTERCLASS
“IT’S ALL
ABOUT TRYING
TO REFLECT
THE MUSIC”

18 Flatten the image

A new layer set is created. All of the elements
except the main textured backgrounds are placed in
here. A mask is created to stop the main image bleeding
over the right where the song titles and various other
bits of information are going to be placed. Once you’ve
finished you can flatten your image and convert it to
CMYK ready for printing. Always keep a backup layered
file in case changes are needed later.

19 CD side
For both the album and the
single, the main illustrations are used on
20 The album disc
The album image is now imported into
Illustrator complete with CD template guides. Here the
the CD on-body. All that needs to be band title, production and legal notices are set.
altered is the removal of the background
textures. The CD is to be printed with
one colour, so the files need to be set as
Greyscale. Once you’re happy with the
positioning of the illustrations flatten the
image, making sure you remove the CD
guide layer. Now it’s ready to be placed
into Adobe Illustrator, where the relevant
type and details will be added. Make
sure you retain a layered version just in
case any changes are needed later on.

21 Single CD on-body
The single CD image is imported into
Illustrator with the CD template guides, as with the
album on-body, ready for the small print to be set.
22 Album booklet
All of the final images for the album booklet
are now placed into Illustrator. Text details such as the
band details, lyrics and production information are
added at this stage.
23 Single layout
Similarly, the final image is now placed into
Illustrator for the single layout. Again, all the important
text stuff is added, so here it’s important to make sure
that you stay within the guides supplied.

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 Feature

Pitch
To make it as a creative pro and bag the
big commissions you’ll need to develop a

perfect
unique identity and sell your skills!
BY JASON ARBER

Main image: SAM GILBEY

I
f you’ve just graduated, or are thinking of leaving that
job you’ve always hated, and want to strike out on your
own, you need a plan. It’s pretty daunting, admittedly,
and there’s no guarantee of success, but if you’re sensible
you can certainly militate against the chance of failure.
Sipping martinis in your own swimming pool may be
further away than you think, but there’s nothing quite like
being your own boss. Although you can’t blame anyone
else if things go awry, at least you can bask in your own
glory when things go well.
Not everyone is cut out to be their own boss: it takes a
certain amount of discipline. So if you find yourself getting
sidetracked by random Internet searches and looking dreamily
out of the window, perhaps you should consider doing that on
somebody else’s time. However, if you think you’ve got the
chops, grab a blank sheet of paper and start writing.
The graphic arts can be a cut-throat business, and for you to
succeed in competition with everyone else, you need to define
your USPs. USPs – unique selling points – are a quick way to find
out if you can differentiate yourself in the market. Draw a
vertical line down the centre of your piece of paper and write a
list of your commercial attributes on one side and your
potential competitors on the other. Don’t know who your
competitors are? Time to do some research.

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 PITCH PERFECT

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 Feature
Bitchin’ pitchin’
If you’re asked to pitch for a job, the client will want to see at least two different
approaches. As a rule of thumb clients will always choose the route you like the
least, so make sure all the ideas you present are strong and are not just there to
make up the numbers. Print out the best quality A3 prints you can muster and
stick them to 5mm foamboard; while you’re doing your presentation, hand them
around and then leave them with the client when you go. Nobody does
presentations better than Apple’s Steve Jobs, so take a leaf out of his book. Keep
the graphics in your PowerPoint or Keynote presentation simple and use just a
couple of bulletpoints per page. There’s nothing worse than sitting through a
presentation where the text is read verbatim from the screen; it’s better to see a
touch of spontaneity and personality shine through. And unless you’ve built up a
good relationship with the client, never leave them with a CD of digital images.

SECRETS OF SUCCESS
Your USPs may have you sucking the end of your
pencil and squinting into the middle distance, but it
really is a crucial step. If your page is still blank or full
of doodles (and let’s face it, doodles are no bad
thing; you’re creative, right?) then try these
suggestions as a starting point. What skills do you
have? Know Photoshop inside out? Know how to
retouch photographs or create fantasy art from
scratch? What about non-creative skills? Know your
way around Microsoft Excel? (Sadly, when running
your own business, familiarity with these kinds
of applications becomes mandatory, unless
you want to present your accountant with a
shoe-box full of receipts.)
Once you’ve made a note of your skills, try
thinking of some other USPs. What about
location? If you live somewhere remote,
perhaps you’re the only designer or Photoshop
artist for miles. If you’re running your new
business out of your bedroom, you don’t have
the overhead of renting an office. Write it down,
it’s a USP. If you consider it a plus point in your
favour, put it on the list, no matter how
esoteric. You can always cross off ‘owns
pencil sharpener’ later.
Time to compare the two lists: your
USPs versus your competition. If things
look good and you’ve not sunk back into
your chair clutching your head, it’s time
to get practical. Setting up on your own
your spine). Create a list of all your
monthly expenses, such as the wages
you want to pay yourself, your Internet
connection, hosting fees, stationery and so on.
Don’t scrimp just to make your list look good:
remember, this will all come out of your pocket so
you need to know now if you can afford it.
Multiply the total by four (if you’re being
optimistic) or six (if you’re being realistic) and take a
long hard look at the total. Do you have that kind of
cash stuck in the sofa? If not, it’s time to rob a bank
or ask that kindly uncle if he’d like to invest in a new
business opportunity.
Big decisions
You could of course try juggling a part-time job with
your new endeavour, and this solution may work for
some. But if you’re really serious, you’re going to
want to spend as much time on getting this new
venture to work. It’s not going to seem very
professional if you’re taking business calls on your
mobile phone while delivering pizzas.
If you are looking for investment (from that kindly
uncle or the bank) you’re going to need a business
plan. And frankly, even if you have enough money in
your building society account, writing a business
plan is always time well spent. In essence, a business
plan is a timetable outlining when you’ll be
profitable. The worst kinds of business plans are
those that pluck figures out of the air, suggesting
that you’ll make your first million by the third
quarter, in order to secure a loan in the first place.
You could really do without the bailiffs marching

DO A GOOD
can be an expensive business. You have
to find those clients, do the work, invoice
them and then wait to get paid, and that
could take months. You want to make JOB AND YOU’LL
sure you have a generous enough slush
fund to keep you going for a minimum of four FIND YOURSELF
SELF DSTRUKT: Chris Hewitt from design
agency Dstrukt recommends that you
months (although six months, if you can afford it,
would be advisable). GETTING ASKED
exploit the contacts that you already have
when on the lookout for new commissions
Time to break out Excel (or a fresh sheet of paper
if the thought of a spreadsheet sends shivers down BACK

36
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 Pitch perfect

out of the door with your shiny new Mac because your
business plan was co-authored with the Brothers
Case study TAK!
Grimm. To be of any use whatsoever, your business TAK! recently produced some photos for a magazine portfolio viewer which we used to present. We
plan must be optimistic but grounded in reality. There for Clarks Originals. “Part of our pitch involved generally present differently each time we pitch and
are plenty of online resources for writing business capturing the look and feel of the magazine. We this is usually based on the size, creativity and
plans, and even your bank will be delighted to help created some visual moodboards that attempted to importance of the job.
point you in the right direction. capture the flavour we were going for,” TAK!’s Dom For example, a straight development job would
Before you start knocking on doors looking for explains. “We presented three distinct routes. This just get a written proposal in PDF format, whereas
then influenced our design work for the actual mag. an idea and visual led pitch would include a fully
work, you need to ask yourself, “what kind of business
The moodboards were created from scans from branded screen presentation, mock-ups and demos.
am I?” Should you dive straight into incorporating
magazines and other source materials some of Sometimes we even make books to give to our
yourself and turn your business into a limited which we worked up into mock designs to further potential clients.
company or ease yourself in by setting yourself up as a illustrate our concept. This whole package (along It is my firm belief that presentation of a pitch
sole trader? There are different legal and tax with other ideas) was then put into a custom-made helps sell us as much as the concept we are selling.”
implications to each route, however, and creating a
limited company may be overkill initially. In short, a
limited company is one that has limited liability,
usually to the value of capital invested. It means that
the owners enjoy limited responsibility from legal
action and essentially become employees of the
company. A limited company requires a director and a
company secretary – who can’t be the same person –
and faces more stringent tax regulation.
Conversely, a sole trader is a business in which there
is no legal distinction between the owner and the
company. Although you may not enjoy the restricted
liability status of a registered limited company, you
will not have to pay corporation tax (or double
taxation) either, and in those early days, you want to
try and avoid handing over money to anyone, let
alone the tax man.
If there is a gang of you considering going into
business together, then you may want to consider a
partnership, which is a business entity in which the
partners share both the profit and loss. In both cases, TAK ATTACK: The TAK! team
(www.taktak.net) often develop
you can always ‘upgrade’ to a limited company when
mood boards to convey the way
it’s deemed necessary. that they perceive a brief, mixing
As with all the points raised in this feature, take ideas and influences
professional advice if you can. Citizens Advice (www.
citizensadvice.org.uk) and Business Link (www.
businesslink.gov.uk/startingup) are good places to ONE OF THE BIGGEST ISSUES
start looking. And find yourself a good accountant,
preferably on recommendation from someone you YOU’LL FACE IS DECIDING HOW MUCH
know. An accountant who’s used to dealing with the
TO CHARGE
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 Feature
IF THIS IS A
NEW VENTURE
FOR YOU, THEN TO VAT OR NOT
START SPREADING TO VAT
THE NEWS TO Deciding whether or not to charge VAT
EVERYONE WHO
(Value Added Tax) is actually rather simple
In the UK, if your company turned over
WILL LISTEN £61,000 or more in the last 12-month period,
you have to charge VAT. If your turnover is less
than that, you can voluntarily register to
charge VAT, but that means more paperwork,
despite the ability to claim back VAT on
purchases that you have made. On balance,
unless you are legally obliged to charge VAT (or
simply want the kudos of being a VAT-
registered company) it may be better to wait
until you pass the registration threshold.
Inland Revenue can actually save you
money, as well as allowing you to spend more
time being creative.
The best bit
And speaking of being creative, it’s now time for
the fun part: building an identity and the
associated business stationery and website. A
snappy, easy-to-remember name is worth its
weight in gold, and could give you an advantage
over the competition with a less sticky name.
Trends in naming companies ebb and flow, and
the current Web 2.0 fashion is to knock a vowel
out of the name (such as Flickr, SuprGlu or Gtalkr).
Whatever you choose, it shouldn’t date too
quickly or seem vaguely embarrassing this time
next year. Remember to check that the really cool
name you just thought of is not too similar to
your competitors’ names and is available as a
URL. There’s no point deciding to call yourself
Apple and then discovering that www.apple.
com is, for some strange reason, unavailable.
Being an artistic sort, you might not be able
to help yourself from creating a cutting-edge
website, full of large Flash movies and
FUSION ART: The Profission team
incorporated the artistic talents of Andrew
Zbihly into the layout for the Moeker
Transmission album design (above)
38
Advanced Photoshop
034-039_AP19_Pitch.indd 38
obscure navigation. But spare a thought for
potential clients, and at least make it easy for them
to find examples of your work and contact you. The
last thing you need is a potential job walking away
because they couldn’t figure out where your
telephone number was.
One of the biggest issues you’ll face is deciding
how much to charge. Some jobs may have a fixed
budget, so the only decision you have to make is
whether you can do the job and make a profit. But
sooner or later, you’ll hear the dreaded words: “how
much would you charge…? “
It’s tempting to try to be the cheapest kid on the
block, because everyone likes a good deal, so in
theory that should get you more work. The problem
with this approach is that, aside from appearing like
a bargain-basement solution, you will often come
across difficult jobs or awkward clients that will soak
up your meagre profits and have you making a
massive loss. It’s much better to build in a buffer
against that eventuality from the beginning.
So how much should you charge? There are
several elements you can factor into your equation,
including any third-party services or skills, such as a
web designer, you may need for the job. Look at
how much your competition charges. Ensure you
charge the same, not less, and let your USPs
differentiate you, not cost.
Calculate a daily rate based on how much money
you need a month to make a comfortable profit,
then look at the job. If you think the job will take a
week, then quote for eight or ten days to add a
buffer and extrapolate a cost from that. If your daily
rate works out to be between £100-£160 then you’re
probably in the right ballpark.
Showing off
Potential clients like dealing with established
companies rather than deal with the potential
unknown of a brand new company, so your online
portfolio should contain examples of several jobs
you’ve already done. In the early days it may be a
good idea to do some freebies for friends and
family, just to get the ball rolling. Once you’ve
reached your target of
three or four jobs in your
portfolio, try to avoid
taking on any more free
jobs, because this is a
business you’re trying to
run. One thing you
shouldn’t do – and this
happens far too frequently
in new start-ups – is to
pretend that you are your
own client and include all
1/6/06 16:42:34
 Pitch perfect

the variations of your logo or website in your
portfolio section. It really looks like you have no
clients and are a bit desperate to pad out your work
examples. Perhaps appearing desperate is part of
your business plan, but it really shouldn’t be.
Once everything is set – you have the catchy
name, a slush fund and a cool portfolio with some
real-world jobs to show potential clients – it’s time
to find some work. So how do you find those elusive
clients? Chris Hewitt from Dstrukt (www.dstrukt.
com) reckons the old aphorism, “it’s not what you
know, but who you know,” has more than a grain of
truth. His advice is to “lean on old contacts that
know how good you are and have worked with in
the past.” And if this is a new venture for you, then
start spreading the news to everyone who will
listen. As Chris rightfully points out, “the more folk
that know you’re now freelance or are running your
own company, the more likely new business may
swing through the door.”
Family and friends are usually a good source of
portfolio work in the short term, but the more
successful you are (which means delivering creative
design solutions, on time, on budget and to the
client’s satisfaction), the more work you should see
come from word of mouth. Profission’s creative
partner Tim Jarvis (www.profission.com) reckons
the secret is looking after your clients. “I find that
YOUR
most, if not all, of our new clients are
talking to us because of clients we’ve
handled in the past. Whether this
comes from personal referrals or from
the work itself, it cannot be said too
many times how important your
portfolio and your relationships with
your current clients are.”
Pitch perfection
Sooner or later you’ll find yourself
presenting to the client, either to
introduce yourself or in a pitch situation, and the
golden rule of presentations is preparation. Where TAKTICS: Dom from TAK! recommends that you
applicable read the brief forwards, backwards and tailor your pitch to suit the size and complexity of
inside out so any questions the client might ask you the task at hand; there’s no ‘template’ that will fit
all the permutations of the projects you take on
won’t throw you for a loop. Get there early, dress
smartly (but not like bankers; you are creatives, after
WAKE UP: Keep an eye on what the competition’s
all) and make sure any presentation material works
up to and current trends, as an awareness of the
flawlessly. Children of Finland’s Raoul Sanchez greater design world will give you the edge
(www.childrenoffinland.com) relates the story of
how a missing cable almost scuppered a
presentation. “We took a Mac laptop to the meeting
to run the presentation, like we normally do, but
forgot to bring the connector that converts the
laptop’s mini DVI out to VGA, which is often used for
office projectors. We had to burn the images to a
blank CD – provided by the client – and run the
presentation from a Windows machine. Luckily, the
client saw the funny side.” The lesson there is to
check with the client to see what projection

BUSINESS
equipment they have, don’t forget anything and
have a backup solution in case everything goes

PLAN MUST BE pear-shaped. For more on presentations see our

Bitchin’ Pitchin’ boxout.

OPTIMISTIC BUT Once you’ve won over the client and won the
pitch, the final thing you have to worry about is

GROUNDED IN actually doing the work. Do a good job and you’ll

find yourself getting asked back next time the client

REALITY needs something designing. From that point on,

you’re on your way. 5

Self-promotion
How to promote yourself is the number one question for people
WE STARTED
just starting off on their own. You could of course submit your
OUT WITH A
SIMPLE PLAN:
work to design magazines and online portals such as K10k and
Pixelsurgeon. However, these are mostly read by your peers, who
are not likely to employ you (although any kind of positive exposure
is not wasted). Instead you need to try and get your work in front of LET’S WORK FOR
people who will hire you. Grabbing the phonebook and cold-calling
people is hard work but may get you a meeting with a potential new client. For a more creative OURSELVES,
approach, you could try guerilla tactics: a clever mail-out – the kind of thing someone may want to
hang on to, such as TADO’s range of plush toys (www.tado.co.uk) , could be just the thing. LET’S DO THINGS
OUR WAY
39
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 MASTERCLASS
Create translucent art
Learn how you can use the DreamSuite Gel plug-in and
Photoshop CS2 to create objects with translucent qualities
BY EMMA CAKE
C
reating translucent objects with reflective
qualities has to be one of the trickiest effects
to master in Photoshop. Many an hour can be
whiled away perfecting highlights and colour sheens
– it can be quite a chore, especially if you want to get
going on your artwork.
Most of us want to get on with the designing rather
than concentrating on visual technicalities, so any tool to
help us along the way is welcome. There are numerous
plug-ins that are designed to aid you with tasks such as
40
Advanced Photoshop
040-045_APM19_masterclass.indd 40
this, but trawling the web for software that works and
actually looks good can be a bit of a mission. So look no
further than the Auto FX DreamSuite Gel (www.autofx.
com/dreamsuite/gel/gel.html).
This impressive package, which can be added as a
Photoshop plug-in, allows you to add vibrant, translucent
depth effects to your artwork with simple menu options.
Your creations can then be imported into Photoshop
where you can add more editing effects for a perfect
finish. DreamSuite Gel is available for $399 (£224),
ON THE DISC
You’ll find all the files you need
to complete this tutorial –
‘bubble.jpg’, ‘dreamsuite.psd’
and ‘trace.psd’ – on the CD.
although you can download a free demo version with
which to test out your techniques (with restrictions on
importing and exporting features). In this tutorial we’re
going to create a piece of art from scratch with a very
basic translucent object created in DreamSuite Gel as a
basis. If you’ve decided to purchase the program then
we’ll show you how you can create your object from a
Photoshop selection. Everyone is catered for, as we’ve
included the original object on this month’s CD so you
can get started on your own design straight away.
1/6/06 16:45:40
 Creating an original translucent
image using DreamSuite plug-in
1 Draw a circle
Here’s a basic introduction for those who have
decided to download a full working version of
DreamSuite. Don’t worry if you’re only using a demo for
now, as we’ve included our object on the disc. Start the
process by opening up a new canvas and drawing a
shape on the canvas. This doesn’t have to be a circle –
you can draw out your own shape using the Pen Tool or
a preset shape – but remember that DreamSuite will
make the image appear as if it’s 3D so stick to shapes that
will transpose well once this effect has been applied.
3 Special effects
Click on the tab in the left-hand panel and select
Special Effects>DreamSuite Gel>Gel. On first
appearances the DreamSuite Gel interface does look a
little prehistoric and simple, but you’ll be amazed at the
standard of objects and the flexibility of effects you can
create with this plug-in.
“THIS IMPRESSIVE PACKAGE ALLOWS YOU TO
ADD VIBRANT, TRANSLUCENT DEPTH EFFECTS”
040-045_APM19_masterclass.indd 41
2 Shape selection
It’s possible to create more than one shape at a
time so export to DreamSuite. Select each image by
Shift-clicking with the Magic Wand. Then, select the
menu command Filter>Auto FX Software>DreamSuite.
4 Exporting to Photoshop
There are a myriad of tricks and settings you can
use to alter the appearance of your object, but for now
we’re going to go with this simple spherical design.
Objects can be exported in BMP, PSD, JPEG, PNG and TIFF
formats, so you’re then able to open them up in
Photoshop and work some more magic on them.
Auto FX:
DreamSuite
Gel trials
To create the original bubble image in this tutorial
we’ve used the Auto FX plug-in, DreamSuite. The
DreamSuite bundle that includes DreamSuite
Series One, Series Two and Gel Series is available
for download for $399 (£224) by logging onto
www.autofx.com/dreamsuite/main.html. To
create our reflective images we’ve used the Gel
Series, which enables us to create vibrant,
translucent depth effects from selections drafted
up in Photoshop CS2, and will allow you to save
your finished products as a PSD file. It’s an
invaluable and quick way to build objects that
would otherwise be time-consuming without the
use of a plug-in. If you would like to try out the
effects that are possible using the DreamSuite
bundle you can download a demo by logging
onto www.autofx.com/dreamsuite/gel/gel.html.
You will be able to test out all of the features for
this and get a real taste for the program, but the
demo restrictions will mean you are unable to
import or export any of your own images.
5 Starting off
Open up the ‘bubble’ file found on this month’s CD.
Select an area around the bubble, making sure the drop
shadow is in your selection and Apple/Ctrl+C to copy.
Create a new canvas that’s A4 in size, with a resolution of
300dpi, an RGB Color Mode and with the Background
Contents set to White and press OK to begin your design.
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1/6/06 16:46:00
 MASTERCLASS
6 Placing bubbles
Rotate the canvas 90 degrees clockwise and paste
12 bubbles onto the canvas (you can use the file ‘trace’
on the CD as a guide). Alter the scale of the bubbles
using Apple/Ctrl+T and dragging the corners. If you are
Installing starting your own design without ‘trace’, make the
7 Join the dots
Select the Pen Tool and open the Style Picker in
the upper toolbar. Select the Blue Gel swatch from the
Web Styles option and then carefully draw thin
rectangles so that your bubbles are joined together.
Remember to keep perspective in mind; if a bar is

plug-ins
bubbles in the background smaller than in the coming into the foreground then make the front of it
foreground to keep some sense of perspective. Now, slighter larger than it is in the background.
save your image.

It’s possible to run the DreamSuite bundle as a

standalone program, but you won’t have the
opportunity to create your own selection shapes.
To make full use of DreamSuite’s plug-in features
you need to follow the installation process
carefully. To do this correctly, double-click on the
DreamSuite_Gel_Installer icon on your desktop.
Make sure you read the licence agreement and
press Accept if you’re happy with the conditions
and choose your language settings.
You will then be asked to choose where to
install your software. You will need to locate the

plug-in folder for Adobe Photoshop CS2 (in most
instances this folder will be found in
Applications> Adobe Photoshop CS2>Plug-Ins).
Don’t actually go into the plug-ins folder, simply
click on it and press Choose. Now you will be able
to access the DreamSuite plug-in under the Filter
menu in Photoshop.
8 9
Changing colour effects
For each shape you’ve just drawn, click on the
‘Reveals layer effects in the palette’ arrow to access the
drop-down menu. Switch off the icons for Inner Shadow
and Color Overlay, leaving only Inner Glow, Bevel and
Emboss, and Satin. Double-click on the Layer Thumbnail
and sample a shade from the lightest part of the bubble.
Spiky clashes
Add a new layer called ‘starburst’. Select Starburst-
Small from the Assorted Brushes selection, but alter the
size of the brush to 400 pixels. Change the Set
Foreground Color swatch to a darker shade sampled
from the bubble and then place a starburst wherever a
pole touches a bubble. This will cover up any white
spaces that exist between your circle shapes and make
the join more convincing.

“REMEMBER
TO KEEP
PERSPECTIVE
IN MIND”
10 White light
Add another layer called ‘white’ and then alter
your Foreground Color swatch to white. Give a click over
11 Starburst mask
Create a layer mask for both the ‘starburst’ and
‘white’ layers. Then, with the Eraser Tool, get rid of
12 Adjustment layer
Add an Adjustment Layer using the ‘Create
new fill or adjustment layer icon’ in the Layers Palette and
each blue starburst with a white one, although adjust starbursts that you wouldn’t normally see if you were select Hue/Saturation. We want to change the colour of
the positioning so it doesn’t fall directly on top. This will facing the bubbles straight on. Make sure that you leave the entire image so it looks more translucent. Change
give the impression that the starburst is slightly more the upper parts of the starbursts, as if they are peeping the Hue to +41 and then drop the Saturation down to
dynamic. You can even alter the sizes of the brushes so out of the top of the bubbles. -19 and press OK.
the bubbles in the distance have a smaller starburst.

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 13 Adding butterflies
Select the Brush Tool from the Tools Palette
and then find the Special Effects Brush selection from the
drop-down menu and change the Foreground Palette to
a sample of the darkest area of the bubble. Increase the
size of the brush in relation to the size of the bubble and
place a butterfly in each of them. The brush has a scatter
quality so you may need to press Ctrl/Apple+Z if you
want to get rid of a misplaced brush and try again.
14 Bend and bloat
Access the Liquify filter by clicking
Filter>Liquify (Shift+Apple/Ctrl+X). Use the Pucker and
15 Multiply the Mode
Make sure that the butterfly layer is selected
in the Layers Palette and change the Color Mode to
Bloat Tools to alter the appearance of the butterflies so Multiply. Then lower the Opacity of the layer to 35% and
that they match the spherical qualities of the bubbles. the Fill to 95% to make the butterflies look less obtrusive
You can also make small adjustments to the position by on the image.
using the Forward Warp Tool. You may need to re-enter
the Liquify dialog several times to get this right.

16 Give it a gradient
Add a new layer at the top of the Layers
selection and select the Gradient Tool from the Tools
Palette (this may be hidden underneath the Paint Bucket
Tool). Then with one straight line, create a gradient from
the bottom left-hand corner of the canvas to the top
right-hand corner of the canvas. Change the Color Mode
to Linear Burn, the Opacity to 80% and the Fill to 80%.
17 Mini adventure
Open up the ‘minipattern.jpg’ image on this
month’s CD and create a selection around the edge of
the image. Go back to your original artwork and Apple/
Ctrl+V to paste this image on top of your Layers Palette.
Use the Free Transform shortcut to stretch the image
over the entire canvas using the corner markers, then
click on the Move Tool to apply.
18 Layer effects
With this layer still selected, change the
blending mode to Overlay and alter both the Opacity
and the Fill to 70% to blend this image into your artwork
underneath. Use the Move Tool to position the image so
that the patterns in this image don’t interfere with the
bubbles too much and so it looks right on the canvas.

“THERE ARE A MYRIAD

OF TRICKS YOU CAN USE”
19 Bright white
The image is
looking a little dull now that
20 Adjustment
layer
Select ‘create a new fill or
the white starbursts have been adjustment layer’ and select
tamed down with the gradient the Hue/Saturation
and overlay layers. Get around command. With the Master
this by creating a new layer edit selected, change the
and then going over the Hue slider to -13, the
bursts again with some more Saturation to +15 and keep
white starbursts. Again, delete the Lightness at 0. When
the parts of the starburst that you’re happy with this flatten
peep over the bubble. your image and save it.

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 MASTERCLASS
Creating artwork using DreamSuite Gel
We unravel the possibilities for creating translucent artwork using this powerful plug-in

21 Start from scratch

It’s possible to create artwork solely in
DreamSuite. It’s worth keeping a selection of blank
canvases of various sizes that you can create in
Photoshop so you can be sure that your artwork size is
DreamSuite accurate for the project you want to design. For art to be
22 Colouring in
The colour of your Gel effect can be selected
by double-clicking on the Gel Color swatch. The
appearance of the gel brush can also be tweaked by
altering the value of the slider control. The Surface Color
will affect the sheen that your translucent object is given.

features
created in DreamSuite, select the Special Effects tab and Keeping the same colour as your Image Color will mean
choose DreamSuite Gel>GelPainter. that the results are kept subtle.

The dial button

found in the main
palette of
DreamSuite Gel is a
handy memory
function that will
help you to
document particular
settings. Click on a
memory dot in the interface and DreamSuite
will remember your current settings. You can go
back to past settings by clicking on the
individual buttons on the circle. Unfortunately,
there’s no real way of documenting which

23
buttons relate to each setting, so you may want
to keep notes. Sizing up
To create art in
DreamSuite GelPainter you will
need to make selections using the
Add Icon. Before you place
selections on the canvas, make sure
that you alter the preferences to
place the effect that you want. First
of all, use the bottom slider to tweak
the size. The left-hand slider affects
opacity, while the right-hand slider

24
adjusts the softness of a brush.
Adding objects
Placing objects on the canvas is easy if you
want to apply simple shapes – just click on the canvas

with the Add Brush Tool. Simple circles can be added
by carrying out one click and only altering the Brush
Size. If you click and drag using the Add Brush you,
create more fluid-like features on your canvas.
25
Joining up
DreamSuite works in a different way to other
paint programs. If you add details onto the canvas using
the same preferences as previous applications, the
program automatically gels them together and merges
them according to the shape of your new selection. You
will need to be quite rough and use a bit of guesswork to
do this, as only a basic line will appear to show you
where the brush will lie.
26
Removing elements
You can add elements to your heart’s
content, but you will inevitably find that your design will
need some tweaks at some point. Tidy up your design by
using the Remove Brush, making sure you use a soft
brush to keep the edits tame and inconspicuous. A good
trick is to use the edge of the brush as a guideline rather
than the crosshair, or you may end up removing more
than you intended.

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 27 Adding depth
You can add depth to your designs using the
Bulge Brush. Again, you can make alterations to the size
28 Indents
It’s also possible
to create indents to your
and the softness of this brush. If at any time you make a designs using the Indent
design tweak that you’re unhappy with then use the Brush. This will give the
menu command Edit>Undo. One thing that you will impression that your gel
notice and that can be a hindrance is that DreamSuite is objects have been chipped
a little sluggish. Be patient, and your effects will take away at. Keep the
place eventually. indentations smooth and
subtle by using fluid
motions. Spiky, rough lines
don’t work as well but circles
and arced lines will look
realistic and effective.

29 Gel blobs
You can add random gel effects to your
canvas using the Splatter Brush. It’s worth pointing out
that the outcome of this brush can be a little erratic, so
you should only use this if you want to achieve rough
splatters in your creation.
30 Opaque effects
If you add elements on different layers you
can experiment with opacity effects for your desired
effect. DreamSuite copes very well with recreating
layered effects and will automatically blend objects with
different colours. Make sure that you add your new
element on a different layer and press the Effects Menu
icon. Finally, adjust how extreme your transparency will
be by altering the Opacity slider.
31 Mr Sheen
You have full control over the appearance of
the sheen on your translucent object if you click on the
Surface Controls Tab within the main palette. Here, you
can not only alter how large the sheen area will appear
on your chosen object but you can also adjust how
bright the sheen will appear, giving you the opportunity
to work on the blend.

“CIRCLES AND
ARCED LINES WILL
LOOK REALISTIC
AND EFFECTIVE”

32 Altering environments
Click on the Environment Controls Tab and then press the
button underneath the Environment slider. By using a swatch from this
selection you can apply new visual effects with gel-like qualities to your
design. Then, alter the slider controls of Environment to adjust how
extreme the texture appears.

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 Feature
Top design
Thinking of starting your profession in design? We present some of the best courses
around to take the misery out of finding the right one for you
I
n the grand scheme of modern life, choosing
the right higher education course is now one of
the most important decisions you’ll ever have
to make. The dreaded wrath of tuition fees will
mean you’ll be paying for this privilege for years,
if not decades to come.
Hell, you’d better make sure you’re 100 per cent
happy about your choice or you’ll be paying for your
poor decision well and despising yourself and the
indestructible interest. It’s not something that should
be taken lightly. Your higher education course will
form the grounding steps of your design career, so you
will need to pick one that suits your individual needs.
A course structure and an institution’s philosophy will
help you to form your individual style as well as giving
you the practical skills you need to form a career as a
digital artist. Our word of advice is: don’t ever think
about rushing into your decision, even if your
46
Advanced Photoshop
046-051_APM19_courses.indd 46
cours e
secondary education tutors are getting on your case.
Tell them to back off. This is your career at stake and
that’s far more important than any school statistic.
Take the time to be absolutely certain of your course
choices. The wrong decision a good few years ago
would have meant having to hire a van more than
once in a year’s stint, much to your parents’ angst, but
now there’s much more at risk. Changing your mind
could cause your bank balance serious strife (and it
won’t do your pride much good either).
Do your homework
Finding the right design course is quite a time-
consuming process, as you’ll need to travel to all the
open days you can manage. Decisions can be made on
any number of reasons but when you’ve found the
place for you it will be apparent – it should just feel
right. Work on the principle of gut instinct. You may be
considering going to one of the most famous design
schools in the country, but if when you walk in there
you feel out of your depth or hate the location chances
are that your three years or so will be a miserable stint.
Use an open day for as much as you can, or, if you
prefer, try to arrange a one-to-one tour so that you
have plenty of opportunities to ask all the questions
you can think of and take a look around while students
are busy at work. Of course, you would have carried
out research using prospectuses, but use this time to
find out precise details on the dynamics of your
course. Your specialist subject will be Photoshop and
you will want to learn as many technical skills as you
can, but if you later find out that your course only
focuses a small amount on digital illustration,
concentrating more on other media, you will be
bitterly disappointed. Find out how the course is
structured and how you will be marked on your work.
1/6/06 16:48:45
 TRACEY TUCKER: “I love working digitally”

Top design courses

LEAP BROADSHEET: A broadsheet
collage created by Why Not Associates,
graduates of the Royal College of Art, to
promote a new Canadian battery
company, LEAP. Original photographs
by Rocco Redondo and PhotoDisc
UCAS and course information
UCAS is the central organisation that processes applications for full-time undergraduate courses at UK universities and
college. Times have changed, and now UCAS is easier to apply through than ever before. Applications are now made
using ‘Apply’ – a web application that requires no installation, all you need is access to the Internet. Applications are
saved to UCAS so there’s no risk of losing precious forms or disks and you can check or print them at any time.
If you are applying as an individual it’s possible to make an application by selecting the 2006 entry Student Login
link. You will then be required to answer a few eligibility questions before you can start your application and provide a
reference. If you wish to apply through a school or college you will need to obtain a ‘buzzword’ from the centre you’re
applying through. Your referee will then check and approve your application and send the completed application to
UCAS on your behalf. If you don’t have the guidance of a secondary education course then you’ll need to be clued up
and carry out plenty of research. Unfortunately, if you haven’t applied already you’ve missed the closing date for 2006
entry, but now’s the time to start thinking about 2007 entry as the whole process starts up again in September 2006.
Find out more about the UCAS application process at the official site at www.ucas.com.

TIMES HAVE CHANGED, AND NOW

UCAS IS EASIER TO APPLY THROUGH
THAN EVER BEFORE
A selection of undergraduate courses
COURSE CODE
UNIVERSITY COURSE (ROUTE A/B) TYPE
The Arts Institute at Bournemouth Illustration E220/W220 BA Hons (3yrs, full-time)
(B53)
Buckinghamshire Chilterns University Design for Digital Media E280/W280 BA Hons (3yrs, full-time)

s es
College (B94)
Croydon College (C92) Fine Art: Combined Media EW12/EW21/ Fdg FA/ BA Hons
(Digital Art) WW12/WW21 (2yrs/3yrs, full-time)
Dartington College of Arts (D13) Fine Art with Digital Arts E1WF/W1WF BA Hons (3yrs, full-time)
Practices
Dewsbury College (D45) Digital Arts E690/W690 Fdg FA (2yrs, full-time)
Edinburgh College of Art Visual Communication E210 BA Hons (4yrs, full-time)
(Graphic Design)
London South Bank University (L75) Digital Media Arts G540 BA Hons (3yrs, full-time)
New College Nottingham (N30) Digital Fine Art E212/W212 Fdg FA (2yrs, full-time)
Will you need to secure yourself a work placement to Thames Valley University (T40) Digital Arts Specialist E900/W280 BA Hons (3yrs, full-time)
complete a module? How much budget will you need
University of Bath (B16) Digital Media Arts W212 Fdg FA (2yrs, full-time)
to purchase materials for your projects? The answers to
these questions should swing your decision. University of East London (E28) Digital Arts WWFQ BA Hons (3yrs, full-time)
The location of your institution should be University of Hull (H72) Digital Arts W280 BA Hons (3yrs, full-time)
important. A cosmopolitan environment will mean University of Luton (L93) Digital Image and Design WW62 BA Hons (3yrs, full-time)
that you’re able to carry out plenty of vital research for Media
and seek inspiration from galleries and museums,
University of Plymouth (P60) Photography and Digital 066E/066W HND (2yrs, full-time)
although this will also mean that living expenses could
Imaging
shoot through the roof. You will also need to find out
how well kitted out the institution is. Because a digital University of Teesside (T20) Digital Media EP63/WP63 Fdg FA (2yrs, full-time)
course is technological in nature you will want to learn University of the West of England, Graphic Design E211/W211 BA Hons (3yrs, full-time)
your tricks of the trade on the best kit possible, with all Bristol (B80)
the latest software. Learning the ins and outs of University of the West of England, Illustration E224/W224 BA Hons (3yrs, full-time)
Photoshop may seem like the perfect course, and your Bristol (B80)
tutor may rant and rave about how each module will
University of Westminster Illustration E225/W220 BA Hons (3yrs, full-time)
teach you the core skills you need to make it into the
industry. However, if you constantly have to make the University of Wolverhampton Digital Media E282/W282 BA Hons (3yrs, full-time)
trudge into Uni only to have to wait for an hour for a University of Worcester (W80) Art and Design with EWC2/WWC2 BA Hons (3yrs, full-time)
spare computer, your time on the course may end up Creative Digital Media
being a laborious struggle. And you thought the only
University of Worcester (W80) Creative Digital Media W2PA BA Hons (3yrs, full-time)
thing you were going to have to worry about was
with Film Studies
the price of the student union brew.

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 Feature
Choices, choices
We’ve tracked down our favourite design institutions and caught up with some of their outstanding alumni

Royal College of Art

ENORMOUS FINGER: Taken from a small book
that Andy has just finished working on, the title is
taken from a punchline on the last page
Restructured during 1999 as a
single department,
Communication Art & Design (CA&D) reflects the
multidisciplinary nature of contemporary
Communications, Graphic Design and Illustration. The
programme consists of flexibly structured electives,
department-set projects, competitions, commercial
projects, research projects, lectures, seminars and
workshops. The tutorial staff are professional
practitioners covering a wide range of expertise. The
CA&D course consists of a mixture of introductory and
advanced courses in a variety of media: photography,
animation, computing, audio-visual techniques,
video, printmaking and letterpress typography. The
department is well known for its close links within the
industry and there are regular opportunities for
students to produce work in an applied context, either
as part of curriculum projects held in collaboration
with an industrial partner or by taking the opportunity
to pitch for one of the commercial commissions that
are regularly available. Projects in recent years have
been commissioned by the Barbican Centre, Royal
Mail, The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, The Royal
College of Music, the V&A, the Earth Sciences Gallery,
MaxMara and the South Bank Centre.

Andy Smith
Life at the Royal College of Art
“I studied for an Illustration MA and graduated in
1998. As an illustrator it’s a great place to go if
you’ve finished your undergraduate degree but
you still need more time to develop and
experiment. One of the best things about the
Royal College of Art is that it gives you confidence.
Those extra two years really give you the time to
be sure about what you’re doing and how you’re
doing it. I was able to develop characters, stories
and a way of looking at things that are now the
basis for how I tackle a brief. For example, I had
the job of directing ‘Run London’, an animation
for a Nike campaign a couple of years ago, and I
was able to draw on an animation at the College
for the project’s basic look and feel.
It takes time to find your style and lots of time
to get work so the key is to persevere and be
persistent. I’ve worked on advertising, billboards
and press ads for Nike, Vauxhall, Oddbins, Orange
and building wraps for Expedia. I’ve recently
finished two self-published books, We Are The
Target People and They Quickly Ran From The
Enormous Finger, both available from my website.”

/ web: www.asmithillustration.com

advert
SENSATION: An t
WE ARE THE TARGET PEOPLE: “This is another designed by Why No
book. It was created in Photoshop, with each colour Associates for an
A.
placed on a separate transparent layer. Working this exhibition at the RA
Rocco
way means it’s easy to translate it to silkscreen” Original photos by
Disc
Redondo and Photo

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/ web: www.rca.ac.uk
/ alumni: Ridley Scott, Len Deighton,
Richard Seymour, Why Not Associates,
The Partners, Graphic Thought Facility,
Dirk van Dooren (Tomato), Jonathan
Barnbrook, Philip Castle (A Clockwork
Orange poster), Quay Brothers (Peter
Gabriel’s Sledgehammer video), John
Pasche (Rolling Stones lips and tongue
logo), Peter Grundy, Hyperkit, Andy Smith,
James Jarvis (Silas, Amos Toys), Fuel
Why Not Associates
Why Not Associates’ David Ellis’
experience at the Royal College of Art
“I was at the college between 1984 and 1987 and
graduated at the same time as my partner, Andy –
a bumper crop, you could say. We had been doing
some work for an American cosmetics company
for a while thanks to Howard Greenhalgh, who
was also in our year group. The three of us started
designing a magazine for the company the day
after we put up our final MA show. We had no real
plans to ‘set up shop’. We just sort of fell into it as it
seemed more exciting than going to work for
anyone else. The creative director of the company
played football with our next big client and one
thing just led to another. Before we knew where
we were, we were a company.
There are some interesting stories that spring to
mind when I think about RCA. During our final
year, the Rector of the RCA sacked our professor,
Gert Dumbar. When we voiced our anger at this he
told us we were unemployable. I guess we proved
him partly right by working for ourselves.
The name ‘Why Not Associates’ was coined by
one of our contemporaries at the college and
referred to an attitude of not wanting to justify or
rationalise every aspect of the design process.
Once our first client heard the name he kept using
it so despite our best attempts, it just stuck. Since
graduating we have been involved in a diverse
range of work, from postage stamps and whole
exhibitions to television, film, sculptures and
public art. The range just keeps getting wider.”
/ web: www.whynotassociates.com
THE NIKE STORE AT FC BARCELONA: One of
many walls and displays Why Not Associates
designed for the Nike Store at FC Barcelona. Most
featured digitally treated images from FC Barcelona
archives layered with hand-drawn typography
046-051_APM19_courses.indd 49
CASSIANO SALDANHA: www.quitutaria.com.br, created for a cooking specialist
Top design courses
SAO PAULO FASH
Idea/Immagine to
2004, in which the
Central Saint
Martins College
of Art and Design
Central Saint Martins, located in central London, is one of
the most distinguished arts and design colleges in the
world and part of the University of the Arts, London. Its
students have made a profound influence on modern
culture, from the designs of London’s red Routemaster
buses and the chopper bike to fashion at Dior and Chloe
in Paris to the modern-day James Bond. The college
provides specialist education and research in the fields of
fine art, fashion and textiles, film, video and photography,
graphics and communication design, three-dimensional
design, theatre and performance, and interdisciplinary art
and design. Central Saint Martins offers everything from
foundation courses through to undergraduate and
postgraduate to research degrees.
/ web: www.csm.arts.ac.uk
/ alumni: Jonathan Barnbrook, Jarvis Cocker,
Len Deighton, Caryn Franklin, Stella McCartney
HOT DEGREE SHOW
Get down to Back Hill, Clerkenwell EC1, London and explore
Central St Martins BA (Honours) Graphic Design
degree show from 22 June – 1 July. For more information
on how to get to the show, log onto the website at
www.csm.arts.ac.uk/csm_map.htm.
KOOKS2PUNK:
Cassiano Saldanha
created this image as part
of a personal project
nha partnered with
ION WEEK: Salda
phic for Fashion Week
art direct this gra
the background
design unfurls over
Cassiano Saldanha
Cassiano’s experience at Central St
Martins College of Art and Design
“I’ve studied a number of short course at CSM,
including a Graphics summer class, Motion
Graphic Design, Typography and Interactive
Multimedia. It was quite a privilege studying at
CSM as it’s a creative Mecca for graphic designers.
Central Saint Martin’s was a great cultural
exchange as well as being a fantastic art college.
There were around 50 people from different
nationalities on one course, which was great as it
made you ask yourself ‘would this design work
anywhere around the globe?’ Thinking globally
but acting locally was one of the most important
lessons learnt at CSM. It also made me very
disciplined. My first stint as a professional artist
emerged after a teacher at university asked me to
work with him on a project for an educational
institution in Brazil. We worked hard for five days
and I earned a lot of money, probably more than I
received the whole of the next year. Since then, I
have worked on numerous projects including
Graacc (online ad for a Child Cancer ONG created
in 2005, www.darkelephants.com/hope) and
Ford Motors Brazil website (www.ford.com.br)
To be a successful graphic designer, dedication
is not a choice. You need to work hard, pay
attention in every issue, always trying to achieve
outstanding results. A little bit of humbleness
would be nice, too.”
/ web: www.thezine.com.br
COCA-COLA PITCH: A concept created with
Marcelo Pires and Felipe Mahalem
49
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1/6/06 16:52:49
 Feature
The Arts Institute
at Bournemouth
The Arts Institute at Bournemouth has developed into
being one of the leading specialist art institutions in
Europe, specifically concerned with contemporary art,
design and media. The Arts Institute works closely with its
neighbour Bournemouth University, and offers a
selection of postgraduate courses, honours degrees,
foundation degree courses as well as a number of shorter
courses including Image Production (Photoshop) and
Advanced Photoshop (Photoshop). The illustration course
allows you to create work through painting and
printmaking, as well as lens-based, digital, interactive or
time-based media. Overall, the aim of the course is to
develop confident illustrators who are able to work within
a professional environment.
/ web: www.aib.ac.uk
/ alumni: Wolfgang Tillmans and Nick Knight
THE GIRL AND THE BOMB: Tracey placed an old
photograph behind her artwork and blended them
together using filters. “I’m doing more photographic
inserts in the book I’m working on. It isn’t rocket
science, chaps. Get out there and give it a go!”
UNDER PRESSURE: “What you don’t realise when
you have all the time in the world at college are the
tiny deadlines you get when you’re working”
50
Advanced Photoshop
046-051_APM19_courses.indd 50
Tracey Tucker
Tracey’s experiences of the Arts Institute at
Bournemouth (then known as Bournemouth
and Poole College of Art & Design)
“I studied photography at Bournemouth followed by a
postgraduate year which was a bit more media-related.
I’m not sure when I graduated, around 1989 I think.
Wolfgang Tillmans was in the year below me. It was a
great place and extremely modern with great
equipment (you had to wrestle it off the store keeper in
charge of it all though, he didn’t trust the students and
I think he preferred it on the shelves looking good).
The college had controversial lecturing techniques,
to say the least. We were left to our own devices a lot,
and had some pretty ‘out there’ lecturers who’d ask you
about your childhood. I was labelled bourgeoisie in one
tutorial. I thought it was a compliment, but I’ve never
been sure. The course helped me to be aware of
creative temperaments and to get used to criticism –
that’s very important in the creative industry. You can’t
be precious about what you do and you can’t take
anything to heart, or you’d be constantly crushed by
words. Bournemouth was good for that and it made
you question your aspirations and your motives.
There were plenty of funny stories. I remember
Barnaby Wallis running naked down the length of an
abandoned ship that we found on a trip to France and
filming himself. It was quite a ‘swinging’ piece of art if I
remember rightly! People were always doing bonkers
things for the sake of their work and getting into
scrapes because of it. Someone in one of the years
above me was arrested for getting some girls in
s created for
GN: This image wa
TEACHING DESI tec hn olo gy and design
ch ing
an article about tea the metal
to children. “I was
so excite
finishes that I could
d ab
do digitally.
ou
I
t
no
all
w prefer to
d eff ect s if I can, by
make my own tex tur es an
n photographs”
fiddling with my ow
nighties to prance around a graveyard while he took
photos. A little old lady though they were devil
worshippers – or did I dream that?
My first commission after graduating was as a
voluntary picture editor for Woman’s Own magazine to
get work experience. I then worked as a researcher in a
picture library and a picture editor at Country Life and
The Times Literary and Education Supplements. I’m just
about to start offering huge giclée prints of my work,
including my photography. However, I want to use my
picture editing experience too. I’ll be offering clients
the opportunity for me to find the picture they want.
I’ve a lot of experience in dealing with private archives,
so I could find a still from a film and get it made into a
canvas, or a large print for a wall.
Self-belief is your best friend. For a lot of the time
you’ll be worried that you aren’t good enough. That’s a
good thing, as it pushes you to keep trying harder and
it brings out the best in you. Take useful points from
criticism, don’t just become stubborn and reject it out
of hand, as some of it can really help. Finally, if you
want to design for other people, remember that you’re
working for them. You have to be prepared to do what
they want and not always what you know would look
better. I often do it my way, but I always cover my back
by doing it their way too – then they have the choice.”
/ web: www.inkyminx.co.uk
1/6/06 16:53:24
 Top design courses
LATION: Maybin’s
SUBTLE MANIPU
rec ord a “se cre t story” between
images
five-y ea r-o ld daughter. Her
herself and her ph y combined with
masterful photo gra
sh op magic result
some powerful Photo t hit the viewer
tin g im ag es tha
in haun ct
with a delayed impa

Free Range
Your chance to see the work
of some of the best new graduates
With over 100,000 visitors in 2005, Free Range is in the
same league as one of the major art shows at The Royal
Academy of Arts or the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Free Range hosts over 2,000 cream-of-the-crop
creative students from universities and colleges
nationwide in order to help the artists gain a better
chance of exposure and employment.
The Free Range panel have invited a number of
celebrated and influential people from the art and
design world to select the best work in each of the
following categories: Art, Design, Graphics, Illustration
and Photography. In each category, college tutors sent
in examples of their top students’ work. Find out more
about Free Range by logging onto the website, where
you can catch up with the latest exhibitions and see a
full list of 2006’s winners.

/ web: www.free-range.org.uk

FREE RANGE 2006 FREE RANGE 2006 WINNERS

Design: Nadine Jarvis (Goldsmiths College) www.nadinejarvis.co.uk
Europe’s largest graduate art and design show at the Old
Graphics: James Cuddy (Goldsmiths College) www.jamescuddy.co.uk
Truman Brewery, Brick Lane
Illustration: Jessica Penfold (University of the Arts Camberwell College)
1 June – 24 July 2006
Photography: Edith Maybin (Swansea Institute) www.edithmaybin.com
Opening nights: Thursdays 6pm-10pm
Art: Josepha Sanna (Arts Institute at Bournemouth)
Show days: Fridays-Mondays 10am-7pm

JUST A GIRL: Maybin’s award-winning images are
pieced together with Photoshop, but she is up-front about
incorporating the technology into her work. Get down to
the Free Range exhibition to see Maybin’s work alongside
that of over 2,000 other contributors
Edith Maybin
Swansea Institute’s fêted photographer talks us through her style of art
Winner of the photography prize at this year’s Free
Range exhibition, Edith Maybin moved over to Wales
from Canada with her husband and fellow course
member David Graham-White to study an MA in
Photography at the Swansea Institute. She researched
plenty of similar Canadian courses but decided to make
use of the opportunity of family in Wales to take a
placement on the course. The school enrolled in the Free
Range show and Edith was plucked as a winner. With her
images being on display at this prestigious show she’s
bound to be hurtled into the public arena with her
outstanding work.
Take a look at her work and at first the photographs
strike you with their beautiful lighting and composition.
Yet there’s something not right about each shot and it’s
not until you spend some time observing the images in
closer detail that this becomes apparent. Edith’s
exploration into a mother-daughter relationship sees her
experiment with her imagery to create a hybrid of
bodies and backdrops. “The photographs challenge the
reader to face their instinctual questions. We find
ourselves thinking ‘why am I put off by this?’ yet at the
same time ‘why do I find this image attractive?’”
Photoshop is in no way a new, fickle venture for Edith;
she’s been using it for 12 years and currently carries out
all of her work on Photoshop CS. Although her art and
photography is her main passion she’s happy to try out
any technology that makes her concepts viable.
“I work on a Hasselblad H1D that uses Flex-Color but I
prefer to work in Photoshop. I’m quite happy to be up-
front about my image-editing and I’m not trying to pull a
fast one. The software makes the whole concept
invisible.” The images themselves are the product of a
tableau of activity.
“I carry out an action and then my daughter steps in
and mimics the same position. If she’s done something a
little different that I like we go through the same process
again. It’s like a little organic dance that goes on. Because
the images are taken in the same position with the same
lighting, the composition is easier to edit.”

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 Photoshop
relay
Photoshop relay
If you thought Photoshop tennis could get competitive,
you haven’t seen anything yet. Welcome to the 2006
AP Photoshop Relay Race. On your marks, get set, go!
O
ver the next two issues AP is
going to run its first ever
Photoshop relay race, but for
those of you as yet uninitiated
into the world of Photoshop sports, we’ll take
you through the basics.
Based on the hugely popular – and hugely
competitive – Photoshop tennis, our relay race will
have six ‘legs’. Starting with Shutterstock’s fantastic
hummingbird image (www.shutterstock.com,
image number 1319832), each imageer will add
their own element – a background, character or
effect – challenging the person following them to
do better. Over the next two issues, six contestants
will take over the image.
When the final stage is over, we’ll be judging
who ran the best leg and contributed the most to
the race. That lucky person will be crowned
STARTING WITH SHUTTERSTOCK’S
FANTASTIC HUMMINGBIRD, EACH IMAGEER
WILL ADD THEIR OWN ELEMENT
Shutterstock
www.shutterstock.com
The AP Photoshop Relay starting image is one of
Shutterstock’s thousands of images. The largest
subscription-based stock photo agency in the
world, Shutterstock was founded in 2003 and is
now one of the fastest growing suppliers of
royalty-free stock photography in the industry. Its
outstanding collection of premium images
combined with a user-friendly interface has made
Shutterstock a trusted resource for an expanding
global customer base. Shutterstock currently has
nearly 800,000 images available to its subscribers,
and that number increases every day.
52
Advanced Photoshop
052-053_APM19_relay.indd 52
Debbi Allen
Although she’s usually found
working in Word, AP’s editor was
more than willing to get her
hands dirty with this Photoshop
challenge. She may have sourced
the starting image but we’ve
Advanced Photoshop 2006 Photoshop Relay
been assured she won’t be
Champion! Altogether now: “Ooooh!” judging the contest too!
The competitors Emma Cake
We’ve brought together six of Imagine’s most Emotionally scarred after never
getting her artwork displayed in
talented Photoshop artists to face-off in collisions
Tony Hart’s gallery, Emma suffers
of differing tastes and tools, backgrounds and from some serious artistic angst.
expectations. We’re pitting men against women, She has a competitive streak not
to be underestimated and her
art editors against our creative director and word Wacom pen is indeed mightier
whizzes against design wonders! than the sword.
So, ladies and gents, if you’d please take up
your starting positions… Ross Andrews
Group art editor and Photoshop
ON THE DISC lover, Ross’ work could be seen in
If you want to join in the fun, the starting image is on this issue 18, where he lovingly
month’s Advanced Photoshop disc, so follow along or create recreated Photoshop flash
your own relay team with a group of friends and send in screens to design our two-page
your creation. The Shutterstock image we’ve supplied is for Photoshop illustration (page 36).
use in non-commercial projects only. He says, “I couldn’t work full time
on AP as I’d just be playing in
Photoshop all day!”
James Davies
You’ll have seen some of James’
work grace the pages of this very
magazine, but his full-time job is
as art editor on Imagine’s
Digital Photographer magazine.
Illustration and Photoshopping is
a passion for James and he’s
certainly up for a scrap!
Claire Kendrick
Completing the ladies in our line-
up is Advanced Photoshop’s very
own art editor, Claire. In our
humble opinion, she’s the best
designer in the company (sorry
Mark, please don’t sack us!) and
she’s an expert in all facets of
Adobe’s app.
Mark Kendrick
Founding member and creative
director of Imagine Publishing,
Mark’s been in design for
donkey’s years. He’s the top man
in Imagine’s design department
and a Photoshop wonder, but will
the guys and gals he’s trained
give him a run for his money?
1/6/06 16:59:39
 p
lay ho
reotos
ph

WE’RE PITTING ART

EDITORS AGAINST OUR
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
53
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 Step-by-step Workshops

BLENDING
MODES
7 56
The glorious Eighties style
is back in. Well, it is in this
month’s Advanced
Photoshop at least.
Vince Fraser shows us the
possibilities of blending
modes and shows you
how to create some
unique poster art. So don
your leggings, whip out
the hairspray, stick some
Kajagoogoo on your
ghetto blaster and
recreate the design using
the accompanying files on
PEER PRESSURE 7 72 this month’s free CD.

A chance to see what your fellow Advanced Photoshop readers have been
getting up to. Have a nose at their design concepts, seek inspiration for
new techniques, steal their ideas and check out the competition. If you
think you’re up to the challenge then get your designs to us by emailing
advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk or posting them onto our
forum. There could be some fantastic prizes up for grabs, as this month’s
lucky winner of the new Adobe Design Bundle, Jamie Beer, will tell you.

Insider
es
iqu

Info
n
ch
Te

INSIDER INFO 1
SPOT HEAL 62
This nifty little tool in CS2 will help you get
rid of blemishes and scratches with ease,

MIRRORED IMAGE 7 66
so make sure you’ve explored it fully

INSIDER INFO 2 2005 Adobe Design Achievement Award winner Micah Ganske reveals
VERSION CUE 64 the secrets of fabricating reality in Photoshop in our second workshop
this issue. You can perfect perspective and learn how to look out for the
What does it do and how can it help you? finer details in this subtle, original tutorial.
We unravel CS2’s little mystery package
with our look at taking control of versions

INSIDER INFO 3 HELPDESK 7 78

COLOUR CONSISTENCY 70 Quit slamming your keyboard in anger.
It’s important to know what settings you We may have the answers to all your
need to adjust between apps to keep the technical traumas in our helpdesk,
hues just perfect in your projects where our expert handles your queries

55
Advanced Photoshop

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 Step-by-step
Workshop

WORKING WITH
BLENDING MODES
Add some va-va-voom
to your images by
learning how to use
silhouettes, blending
modes and textures to
great effect
BY VINCE FRASER

I
f you’ve ever wanted to turn your rather
average-looking photos into something a
little more spectacular, then read on! With
the help of layer modes and simple selections
in Photoshop, you’ll be able to create an
Eighties-style poster that’s fit for any wall.
The great thing about layer modes is that you
never quite know what you’re going to end up
with, which makes the process all the more
enjoyable. When combined with linear blends
and textures the result is always a pleasing one,
and you can spend days rearranging different
modes to achieve striking effects. Just several
small tweaks and re-shuffling a few layers can
make a world of difference.
With the correct use of colour, you can make
specific elements in an illustration communicate
better without destroying the strength and
impact of the other areas. This tutorial will help
you to experiment with and understand layer
modes, linear gradients and selections while
showing you the true potential behind these
powerful tools. Go create!

ON THE DISC
You’ll find all the files you need to
complete this tutorial on the CD:
‘tree.jpg’, ‘Mandy.jpg’, ‘Butterflies.jpg’,
‘Leaves.jpg’ and ‘vectorbutterfly.jpg’.
However, why not try to create the
images from your own source shots?

OUR EXPERT Vince Fraser

The creative force behind Morphic-art, Vince Fraser is a
London-based 34-year-old freelance designer and illustrator.
Having originally come from an interior design background,
Vince has eight years’ experience in the field of digital arts.

56
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 es
n iqu
ch
Te
Get with

1 4
and name it ‘background’ (layer mode set to Hard
Get working Back to background
the Pen Light). Make sure that these background layers are
You might already
Open ‘Mandy.jpg’ and carefully begin to Create a new layer using the Gradient Tool be cutting out
positioned above the original photo and below
make a selection around the edge of the model with the foreground colour set to red FD0101 and images in ‘layer1’ and ‘car layer’.
using the Pen Tool. I usually start from the top of the background layer set to white. Starting from Photoshop, but if
you’re not using the
the figure and work around the whole body. the top of the image, hold the cursor and pull Pen Tool then you
downwards using the Linear Gradient Tool. Name should be for two
this gradient layer ‘layer2’. main reasons.
First, accuracy.
There is no way you
are going to get the
same level of
control using the
Lasso Tool or other
selection methods.
Using the Pen Tool
enables you select
partial pixels; this
means that the

7
edges of your
selection will always Back to Mandy
be smooth giving Now that we have the basic silhouette of
you greater control.

2
Reason two is
Mandy, begin work on individual elements of her
Rasterize! that it gives you clothing starting with the dress. Call this layer
Once the selection is completed, rasterize options. By using ‘dress’ (the simpler the better!). As before, use the
the Pen Tool there
the layer and call it ‘shape1’, choosing a fill colour are numerous post Pen Tool to make the
such as red. We will make the colour adjustments options available. selection, using a black
to the final image later. Your image should now You can save the fill colour with the
shape, or maybe fill
look something like the screenshot. or stroke it, which is mode set to Overlay.
the method used Repeat this process for
here in constructing
the initial silhouette
the boots, hair and belt.

5
of Mandy. To avoid confusion I
Radial gradient have switched all layers
Create another new layer. Keep the same off apart from ‘layer2’
colours, but this time use the radial gradient to and the elements
create a gradient in the centre of the document. It discussed in this step.
might take a few tries to get it right! Once you’re

8
pleased with the effect, call this ‘layer3’ and set
the layer mode to Difference. Magic Mandy
Go back to ‘layer1’, copy the layer and, using
the Magic Wand Tool, make a selection. With the

3
selection, create a new layer called ‘gradient’ and
Super car fill it with a linear gradient (foreground colour set
Now begin work on the car using the same to white and background colour to black), setting
process described in step two, this time naming it the blend mode to Screen. As the selection is still
‘car layer’. Choose a different colour for this layer. active, create another layer called ‘stroke’ and give
The reason for using different colours on each it a three-pixel white stroke.
shape is to distinguish each element more clearly
when we come to work on them later.

6 Once more
For the final background touch, create a
layer with the foreground colour set to aqua
00F8FC and the background to black with a radial
gradient slightly bigger than the previous layer,

“THE GREAT THING ABOUT LAYER

MODES IS THAT YOU NEVER KNOW
WHAT YOU’LL END UP WITH”
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 Step-by-step
Workshop
9 11 13
Warp or
Texture-tastic Contrasting collage Liquify? Resize and rotate
Open ‘tree.jpg’, go to Image>Adjustments> Before changing ‘leaves1’ mode to To wrap texture Back at the stockings layer, adjust the
Levels, then adjust the input levels to 209/100/245 Overlay, invert it from black to white. This gives a around the model size and rotation to achieve the desired effect,
in order to add a
(as a rough guide) and click OK. Repeat this great contrast. again inverting it to white. Repeat this process
new dimension to
process again until the image is completely black her dress or the text four times to cover the two stocking areas then
then select the white areas and press delete. Now on her clothing, you change the layer mode to Hard light.
have two powerful
that the image is prepared, drag the black tree Photoshop options
silhouette across into the illustration just above open to you.
the gradient layer (rename it ‘leaves1’). The Liquify Tool
enables you to treat
the surface of an
image as if it were
made of a viscous
liquid. Although it
can take a lot of
getting used to, it’s
great for moulding
shapes accurately
around 3D forms.
Warp allows you

12
to manipulate a
Stocking texture mesh over your
Using the same techniques shown in object, giving you
more control and
steps 10 and 11, apply texture to the stockings
ease of use. It also
selection. It is always a good idea to save allows you to distort

10
selections because they can be used later when just one layer giving
more subtle results.
Dressing down adding or subtracting different elements.
With the ‘leaves1’ layer active,
reposition it over ‘dress’ until you achieve the
desired effect. Going back to the original dress
layer, select it with the Magic Wand and with the
active selection, move back to ‘leaves1’. Now
inverse the active selection, thus selecting the
area around the dress. Press delete.

“WITH CORRECT USE OF COLOUR,

YOU CAN MAKE ELEMENTS
COMMUNICATE BETTER WITHOUT
DESTROYING IMPACT”
A better blend
Blending modes control how each layer blends with or reacts to the
14 Boots and butterflies
Open ‘butterflies.jpg’, select all the
black areas then invert the selection and hit
layers beneath. The stencil and silhouette blending modes affect the delete. With just the black butterflies visible,
alpha channels of layers beneath them. Other blending modes affect adjust the levels and drag the layer into the
how colours appear when blended with colours from other layers. illustration just above the red boots. The
butterflies are going to be used as texture.
Overlay: This mode mixes colours between layers, preserving highlights
and shadows to reflect the light and dark areas of the layer colours.

Hard Light: This multiplies or screens the resulting colour depending on

the original layer colour. The result is similar to shining a harsh spotlight on the layer. If the
underlying colour is lighter than 50% grey, the layer lightens as if it were screened. If the
underlying colour is darker than 50% grey, the layer darkens as if it were multiplied. This option
is useful for creating the appearance of shadows on a layer.

Difference: This looks at the colour information in each layer and subtracts either the
underlying colour from the original layer colour or the original layer colour from the underlying
colour, depending on which has the greater brightness value. Pure white inverts the original
layer colour values; black produces no change.

58
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15 Duplicate and transform
With the butterfly layer visible over
the boots, choose one of the butterflies and
delete the rest. We’ll resize the chosen one using
the Transform Scale Tool. Duplicate the butterfly
layer and reposition it over the boots. The layer
blend mode is then changed to Hard Light with a
38% Opacity.
17 Flora effect
With the two layers merged, create a
duplicate layer then scale and rotate it with the
Transform Tool so that it gives the impression of a
dress pattern. Follow this process five times until
the dress area is covered. Group the layers
together and merge down to one called ‘stroke
leave copy5’ and set it to Overlay.
es
n iqu
ch
Te
18 Pretty in pink
Now to give the illustration a focal
point. Either use the Pen Tool with a fill layer or
the Load Selection function to select the face.
Once you have the face selection active, go back
to the original picture layer and copy and paste,
showing the face. Rearrange the layer so it’s at the
top of the palette. Go to the Hue/Saturation
colour adjustment and tick the Colorize box.
Adjust the hue slider until you have a nice pink.

19 Warped word

16
To give it a Eighties twist, add some
Leave it text to the dress. Use the Text Tool with the font
Open ‘leaves.jpg’ and resize the leaves, this time making some colour adjustments by set to Bosox Outline at 36pt and a bright pink
changing the leaves from black to red. With the selection active, create a new layer and stroke the colour. Warp the text with a flag set to a
selection with a three-pixel white stroke. The two layers can then be merged. horizontal bend of +24.

20 Blend the text

To fill the inside of the text make a
selection then create a new layer (‘layer 12’) and
fill it with the same aqua colour used in step three
at a 50% Opacity. You can then add a texture on
Colour top of it using the butterflies.
correction
When you’re
working with
bright colours like
this it can be worth

“YOU CAN SPEND DAYS

calibrating your
monitor.
Photoshop does

REARRANGING DIFFERENT
ship with its own
software solution
but if you’d like to

MODES TO ACHIEVE do it yourself,

check out the

STRIKING EFFECTS”
Insider Info on
page 70 and get all
the information
you need.

59
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 Step-by-step
Workshop
21 24
Quick
Third dimension colour A little extra
In order to give it more depth and dimension I added some perspective gradient layers to change Save a copy of the illustration as it is,
the background. Using the Polygonal Lasso Tool, get the correct angle then fill the selection with a To change the colour then use the Elliptical Marquee Tool and select
linear gradient set to Foreground (layer mode should be set to Hard Light). A similar layer needs to be of an image, press the main area with Mandy in the centre. Inverse
Apple/Ctrl+U. This
created for the bottom part, but this time use a red fill colour. will open the Hue/
the selection and delete, leaving the circle. The
Saturation dialog circle is then stroked with a three-pixel white
box. Slide the Hue stroke and rotated slightly with the Transform
slider to change
colour, the Tool. Drag this onto the saved illustration several
Saturation to adjust times, altering size and positioning.
colour intensity, and
Brightness to adjust
brightness. Click on
Colorize to add
colour to a greyscale
image or to add a
duotone effect to a
RGB/CMYK image.
I tend to use the
Colorize function
quite often as it is a
quick and effective
way of matching or
correcting any
colour imbalances in
the image.

25 Belt up
Open ‘VectorButterfly.jpg’ and delete
the background, leaving just the butterfly. Select
it and fill it with red. Drag the layer across into the
illustration just above the dress layer, as in the
screenshot. This should give the impression that
it’s sitting behind the white belt.

22 Back to the car

With the car layer active, go to the
original picture and copy and paste the car from
the original picture into a new layer. Placing it
above ‘car layer’, change the Hue/Saturation
using a reddish colorize set to a Multiply Mode.
23 Into the shadows
To brighten the car in the background
up a bit, add some vibrant shadows using
‘shape1’. Use this as a template for the shadows
and duplicate it then give it a vertical transform.
Repeat the process for the other side of the car
using a Screen blend mode.

26 Finishing flourish
The last step is to make some colour
adjustments. Create a new adjustment layer set to
Selective Colour. By adjusting the sliders only on
the red and yellow channels you should end up
with something that looks like this. You can
experiment with various layer modes on different
layers to get a range of cool effects. 5

“BLENDING MODES CONTROL HOW

EACH LAYER BLENDS WITH OR
REACTS TO THE LAYERS BENEATH”
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 Insider INSIDER
Info INFO
Healing power
Photo retouching has never been easier thanks to Photoshop’s new Spot Healing Brush.
Just click or drag to kiss those bothersome blemishes goodbye

T
he healing tools – namely, the Healing Brush and Patch Tool – were
introduced in Photoshop 7, and it’s safe to say that these tools
revolutionised the photo-retouching industry. Never before had it been
so easy and so fast to seamlessly remove dust, scratches and other
photographic blemishes. So how do you improve upon something so amazing?
You make it even faster and even easier to use, which is exactly what Adobe did
when it added the Spot Healing Brush to Photoshop CS2.
Like the Healing Brush, the Spot Healing Brush works by applying the texture,
luminosity, and transparency from a sampled area of the image to the pixels being
healed. Unlike the Healing Brush, however, you need not specify the sample source,
since the Spot Healing Brush intelligently and automatically selects the sample
from the surrounding area.

OUR EXPERT Trevor Morris Know your options

Trevor Morris is an official Photoshop beta tester
and amateur digital photographer with more than a
dozen years’ design experience. He works as a senior
graphic designer for a Canadian web design
company and also maintains the Photoshop-centric
website GFX™ (http://user.fundy.net/morris).
PATCH THINGS UP: The Spot Healing
Brush matches the texture and tone of
the area that surrounds your selection,
making fast and faultless edits easy
even on skintone subjects
Using the Spot Healing Brush is simplicity
itself: to remove a small blemish, just
click on it. For larger imperfections such
as scratches, click and drag over the area
to be healed. For best results, select a
brush that is just slightly larger than the
area you want to correct.
Use the Mode drop-down on the
Options bar to specify the desired
blending mode. Normal mode works
best for the majority of circumstances,
while Replace mode is useful when you
wish to preserve the original noise, film
grain, and texture at the edges of the
brush stroke. Don’t be afraid to
experiment with various modes if you’re
not getting the results you want.
The Type options specify the method
to be used for determining which pixels
to use as the basis of the healing.
Proximity Match uses the pixels around
the designated area, whereas Create
Texture uses the pixels inside the area to
be healed. If one option doesn’t produce
satisfactory results, try the other – or
reverse the direction of the brush stroke.
Enable the Sample All Layers option to
sample data from all visible layers, or
disable it to sample only from the active
ONE-CLICK WONDER: Photoshop’s new Spot Healing Brush seamlessly removes
dust, scratches, and other blemishes with a single click or drag, while preserving the
original texture, luminosity, and transparency of the healed pixels
layer. This option is a real boon for non- common problems that occur while
destructive workflows, because it allows using the Spot Healing Brush are the
you to perform all of your healing introduction of artefacts and unwanted
operations on a new layer and then image details (more typical with
change the opacity, blending mode, or Proximity Match), and blurring of the
even mask the results. healed area.
If either of these occurs, try reducing
Healing help the brush size, and/or changing the
The Spot Healing Brush is an excellent direction of your brush stroke (ie, left-to-
addition to Photoshop CS2, but your right instead of right-to-left). Also, try to
results will vary depending where you avoid long brush strokes; use short
click and which options you use. In some strokes, dabs, or squiggles instead. If
situations, clicking just a few pixels apart neither of those suggestions help, try
can literally mean the difference changing the blending mode (via the
between improving the image and Mode drop-down) or Proximity Match
ruining the image. The two most type as described above.
Which brush is better?
It’s important to understand that the Spot Healing Brush does not replace the
Healing Brush, nor is it any ‘better’, it’s simply another tool in the Photoshop

“TRY TO AVOID LONG toolbox that you can use to get an even cleaner result.
For example, if you’ve trying to retouch an area surrounded by details, you

BRUSH STROKES; USE may need to use the regular Healing Brush to sample pixels from remote parts of
the image or from another image altogether, which is something that the Spot

SHORT STROKES, DABS,

Healing Brush can’t do. The Healing Brush also handles larger areas better than
the Spot Healing Brush. If you don’t like the results you’re getting with the Spot

OR SQUIGGLES INSTEAD”
Healing Brush (and you’ve already tried the other suggestions mentioned in this
article), try the regular Healing Brush.

62
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 Insider
Info
Complete control with Version Cue
Bring an end to confusing filename conventions and versioning
nightmares with Version Cue, the intuitive file-version manager
MEET THE MENU: The Version Cue
Preferences and Advanced
Administration areas are easily
accessed via the Version Cue menu in
the Windows taskbar (Windows) or
the Finder menu bar (Mac OS)
COLLABORATIVE CUE: Using Version Cue, you can keep all the files for one
project together in one place and display differing versions of the same image next
to each other for easy client comparison
64
Advanced Photoshop
064-065_APM19_Version.indd 64
S
o just what is Version Cue?
Simply put, it is a file-
management and version-
control system. A tool designed to
help individuals and creative teams
keep track of the latest versions of
their graphics, files or page layouts.
Version Cue allows you to find files
quickly using extensive search
capabilities and manage multiple
versions of the same image within
Adobe Bridge.
Most people are unaware that Version
Cue actually made its debut in the first
edition of Creative Suite, but it is only
within CS2 that it has become more
discoverable, more robust, and
ultimately easier to use.
Basically, Version Cue is a server. It acts
as a place in which you can create and
hold projects that you want to manage
with Version Cue features, such as
sharing page layouts with a co-worker,
and it can prove to be an extremely
useful extra.
INSIDER
INFO
Version Cue tutorials
For more information about working with Version Cue, check out these
excellent online tutorials:
● Heathrowe.com: www.heathrowe.com/tuts/versioncue.asp
● IT.Enquirer: www.it-enquirer.com/main/ite/more/adobe_version_cue
● Lynda.com movie: www.mininova.org/tor/185417
Other features you’re likely to want to
try include:
● The ability to name a file to suit your
preferences and let Version Cue handle
the version tracking.
● Track all versions of a file, including
historical versions generated in a
sequential workflow and alternates
generated in a parallel workflow.
● Automatically capture, store, and
search on metadata information directly
from within Adobe Bridge.
● Initiate and track web-based reviews
of Adobe PDF files. Invite reviewers to
submit comments, which are then
collected by Version Cue and made
available for reference.
● Easily share files with others working
on the same project, without fear of
overwriting each other’s work. Actively
track whether a file is in use and by who.
● Receive reminders while updating
versions or placing photos and
illustrations in layouts.
● Metadata information is embedded in
all versions of a file through XMP, a
metadata standard supported by Adobe.
Metadata stored can include status,
keywords, file descriptions, author,
copyright, and file type, as well as
content information such as image types
and dimensions. With this information
so easily accessible Version Cue becomes
“EACH OF THE
INDIVIDUAL ADOBE CS2
PRODUCTS CAN HOOK
INTO VERSION CUE”
an efficient and effective way to locate
the files you need without even having
to open them.
In a nutshell
The idea of Version Cue is to create a
‘project’ where you can store related
files together and you and other users
can access the files through any of the
Creative Suite components.
In a publishing environment, Version
Cue is the ideal tool to help keep images
from a tutorial, for example, in one place.
This way, all changes can be tracked and
if you needed to back track one step all
the historical versions, including the
original, are saved in the same place and
named appropriately.
And because Version Cue works
within all Adobe Creative Suite
components, your design process isn’t
interrupted when you work on
individual files within a project.
When a Version Cue project file is
opened, the file-manager automatically
creates a working copy on your hard
drive. You can then save this new version
alongside all the historic versions of the
same image. In this way you can use
Version Cue to track changes to a file
as you or others work on it, making it
the perfect tool for design studios and
the like.
1/6/06 17:09:22

AS IF ON CUE: The Version Cue Save As dialog now lets designers create alternate versions of files. Designers can preview
versions or alternates of Version Cue project files from within Adobe Bridge
Essential shortcuts
● Synchronise Ctrl+Shift+B (PC)
● Mark In Use Ctrl+Shift+M (PC)
● Save a Version Ctrl+Shift+V (PC)
● Make Alternates Ctrl+Shift+G (PC)
So let’s see an example of how you
might use Version Cue within Bridge.
You start by creating a new project
(Tools>Version Cue>New Project).
The New Project dialog box will open
with fields into which you can type the
project name and info. If you plan to
work with others on the project, enable
the checkmark next to Share This
Project With Others. When you are
finished, click OK.
When you create a new project from
Adobe Bridge, use a descriptive name.
It’s good idea to put a bit of info about
the project in the Project Info box as
well – you’ll be glad you did later on!
From there you can begin adding a
Photoshop file containing the main
image for a printed piece. Then, you add
art from Illustrator and text from
InDesign. Next, you can add GoLive web
elements to leverage your printed
content for use in a web page. As you
064-065_APM19_Version.indd 65
Apple+Shift+B (Mac)
Apple+Shift+M (Mac)
Apple+Shift+V (Mac)
Apple+Shift+G (Mac)
and your team work on each piece of the
project, Version Cue creates versions to
keep track of all the changes. When it’s
time to present the project, you create a
PDF of each project file and use the
Version Cue Administration utility to set
up an online PDF review. Your clients or
peers can then view and comment on
the project using Acrobat.
What else?
Version Cue projects can contain
documents of all kinds, and those
documents are accessed either via the
Bridge application or, in the case of
GoLive, from the Site window.
Mac users will see a Version Cue icon
(a leaf) in their Finder menu bar whereas
Windows users will find the icon in their
Taskbar. This icon means Version Cue is
up and running on the local machine. A
green icon means it is turned on, while it
will appear with a red cross through it if
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“THE IDEA
OF VERSION
CUE IS TO
CREATE A
‘PROJECT’
IN WHICH
YOU CAN
STORE
RELATED
FILES
TOGETHER”
PDF CHECKING: The Version Cue CS2
administration utility lets designers
initiate Adobe PDF reviews
turned off. In both cases, you’ll be able to
access several important functions of
Version Cue from this icon, such as the
Version Cue preferences and the
Advanced Administration area.
The best way to get to grips with
Version Cue is to sit down and have a play
with it. Try creating your own project or
the next time you start designing a piece,
try doing so with its help.
As the old saying goes, practice really
does make perfect!
Version Cue and GoLive
You can create a new Version Cue-enabled site or take an existing site and
convert it into a Version Cue site directly from within GoLive. To convert an
existing site, follow these steps:
1: Create a new site in GoLive and when you get to the Version Cue screen,
open the site and then choose Site>Settings from the menu.
2: Select Version Control at the bottom of the list on the left.
3: Enable Use Version Control at the top of the Settings dialog box.
4: Choose Version Cue from the Version Control System pop-up list.
5: Rename the project if you’d like, or click Browse to select a different
project to save the site into.
6: Now click the options to Show Detailed Synchronization Report and
then select OK.
7: To finish the process, click OK. The files will be uploaded to the project,
and a report will be displayed.
65
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 Step-by-step
Workshop

GET PERSPECTIVE
might think. The simplest way to start is to use
the supplied source photos, or you may, of
course, create your own. If you wish to create
your own first-person perspective image there
are a few things you’ll need.

Abandon literal photography and think like a painter. First of all, you need a tripod so that you can
maintain a fixed camera angle and position.
Show the world what it’s like to see what you see Because you’ll be taking pictures of your hands

BY MICAH GANSKE
ON THE DISC
Micah has supplied you with five
source images with which you can
recreate his shaving creation.
Wouldn’t it be more fun to star in
your own Being John Malkovich
moment, though?
OUR EXPERT Micah Ganske
After receiving his Masters in Painting from Yale School of
Art, Micah Ganske won the 2005 Adobe Design Achievement
Award in Digital Photography. Primarily a painter, Ganske
now lives in New York. Check out Micah’s site at www.
micahganske.com for more of his work.
S
ince photography’s inception there
have been hundreds of millions of
photos snapped around the world.
With that many images, how can you expect
to take an original picture? This is why, as a
painter, I have always wondered why people
approach digital photography so literally.
There are so many possibilities and ideas that
are only possible with the advent of digital
photography and Photoshop that I ask myself
why artists continue to constrain themselves with
the limits of straight photography and reality.
Using a camera, a computer, and a little
imagination, we find that finally there are new
photos to be made. In just a few steps you’ll see
that fabricating reality isn’t nearly as hard as you
in front of the camera, there’s really no way to
start without a tripod. Next, you’ll probably want
a decent digital camera that will allow you to
maintain fixed aperture, shutter and white
balance settings – this will ensure that your
source photos are all exposed the same, giving
you accurate lighting throughout.
Consistent lighting is very important to the
cohesion of the final collage, and although
Photoshop can be used to fix lighting
inaccuracies between images, it is easier and will
look better if it’s just done the right way in the
first place. For this reason it is also imperative
that no flash is used when taking the photos. A
flash will give you impossible lighting conditions
for this exercise, so make sure there is enough
light available to give you crisp, in-focus pictures.

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START AT THE SOURCE
To star in your own shaving creation you’ll need a
selection of shots to collage together
1 3
Background image
The first image you’ll need is a background.
There’s no trick to this one, it’s just a
straightforward shot of whatever you like. Once
you have your camera set up on your tripod, just
make sure you have it securely tightened into
place so that you can maintain the same
perspective and angle throughout the next
couple of photos.
2 See the light
Because the light fixture in this background
image was providing the majority of the light for
the scene, it was impossible to properly expose
the rest of the shot without overexposing and
blowing out the light fixture.
In order to make up for the lack of dynamic
range found in digital cameras, we will need to
take a separate photo of our scene that exposes
itself correctly for the light fixture alone. This will,
of course, cause everything but the light fixture
to be completely dark, but that’s totally fine as
long as the light fixture itself is visible.
066-069_APM19_workshop.indd 67
Put ‘em up
Next you’ll need to photograph your hands
and whatever it is your hands will be doing –
holding a cigarette, holding a toothbrush, etc.
Cameras usually come equipped with a timed
shutter release option and this is just as good an
option as any for taking hands-free photos.
4 Reflect yourself
Here’s where it can get a little complicated.
If where you’re ‘looking’ in your photo has a
reflection, you’ll next need to take a photo of
yourself from the point of view of the reflective
surface. This could be tricky depending on where
your scene is taking place.
In my source photo, I opened up the bathroom
mirror and actually set the camera on the shelf
inside. This will probably take a few tries because
you need to make sure you pose your hands
doing the same thing and at the same angle as
they were in your hands photos. With that done,
you’re now ready for Photoshop.
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Put things in
perspective
Part of the challenge of creating a
believable photo-collage of any type is
getting the scale of the different
elements correct. The tricky thing is that
the scale of objects in a photo are greatly
affected by the focal length of the lens
used. Wide-angle lenses describe space
in a very different way than standard and
telephoto lenses, and it can be very tricky
to describe this effect. Generally, any
focal length below 35mm is considered
wide-angle, with anything above 200mm
falling into the telephoto end and
everything between being thought of as
standard lengths.
This diagram illustrates the wide angle
range that two different lenses will
capture. As you can see, Object A covers
nearly all of the 25mm field of view
whereas it only covers half of the
200mm’s. The 25mm, however, can see
much more of the background scene than
the 200mm, even though the 200mm is
positioned considerably farther back.
Object B takes up over a third of the
200mm’s shot while only a sixth in the
25mm’s. For these reasons foreground
objects appear much larger in wide-angle
photos, distorting the sense of space. In a
confined space, however, a wide-angle
lens is the only way to get the shot.
When collaging different photos
together, you must be very conscious of
these factors to ensure the creation of a
believable image. Get familiar with the
way cameras create or negate space by
analysing photos you see throughout
your day, and use that knowledge to your
creative advantage.
“USING A
CAMERA, A
COMPUTER,
AND A LITTLE
IMAGINATION,
THERE ARE
NEW PHOTOS
TO BE MADE”
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Advanced Photoshop
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 Step-by-step
Workshop
PUT IT INTO Get real!
In order to achieve
3 Get hands-on

PERSPECTIVE
the most realistic Once you have each hand fully masked off
look for your final and selected, drag it over to the file where your
image, keep
checking your
background image is lurking. Name each layer
progress against accordingly and position them to your liking.
Now to manipulate the shots into the final photographs. By
taking a picture of
Depending on how you photographed your

illusionary image for the perfect trompe l’oeil yourself reflected in

the bathroom
hands, you may or may not need to resize or
rotate them a bit. Basically, you’ll just have to push
mirror (even though them around until their position looks right.
you’ll be holding a

1
go to the Selection menu and choose Feather. camera) you’ll be
Pick up the Pen Feather your selection by one or two pixels so able to see how big
you should appear.
With all your source photos ready, we’re that it properly blends in with the background You could even ask
ready to get ‘shopping. I hope you’re good you’ll be putting it on. a friend to pose for
friends with either the Polygonal Lasso Tool or you and take the
shot over their
the Pen Tool, because although this collage isn’t shoulder – this way
difficult it will require lots of masking. Open up you can see what
the image that you’ll be using for your size your hands
should be as well as
background, or use the one on the disc. In your your reflection.
Layer window, right-click on the background layer
and select Layer From Background.

4 A hole in one
In your Layer window, click on the eyes
next to your hand layers to hide them – they’ll
just get in the way for now. Using your trusty
Polygonal Lasso, create a selection around the
mirror in your background. Only select the
reflective portion, and not the frame. Once

“FABRICATING
selected, feather the selection by one pixel and
hit delete to create a hole in your background.

2 A bit of a handful REALITY ISN’T

Next, open up the photo(s) you’ll be using
for your hands. Use the Magnifying Glass and NEARLY AS
zoom in to where you can easily make out the
details of the contour of the hands. Using the HARD AS YOU
Polygonal Lasso Tool, begin precisely tracing the
outline of each hand. After creating a selection, MIGHT THINK”
Cut it with curves
The Polygonal Lasso is fine for quick jobs of layer and choose Select Transparency. Then

5
cut and paste, but when you need select the layer where the image you want
Topsy-turvy
precision, there’s nothing better than the is and cut and paste as you normally would.
Open up the photo that we took for our
Pen Tool. When you use the Polygonal The difference will be that you now have a
Lasso you are using a series of straight lines much smoother, more natural shape than reflection. Because we’re going to use this as a
to cut out your object and for that reason you would have had with the Lasso Tool. reflection, it will need to be flipped horizontally.
you never have true curves. Those familiar In the Image menu, select Rotate Canvas and
with Illustrator should have no problem within that sub-menu select Flip Horizontal.
adapting to the use of the Pen Tool,
because they use the same kind of curves to
create shapes. Bézier curves are not
resolution-dependent, and once created
can be scaled without a loss in data. Start by
creating a shape using the Pen Tool, then
set that shape layer’s opacity to zero. With
the layer transparent you will be able to see
and trace the object your cutting out much
easier. Once you have created a shape
around the object, right-click on the shape

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6 Just look at yourself
Drag the flipped reflection image into your
main file and name the new layer accordingly.
Place this new layer beneath the background
layer. More likely than not, the image is way too
large to work as the reflection in that small mirror.
Go up to the Edit menu and select Free
Transform. Shrink and position the reflection
image until it looks right. For a reference you can
always look at the reflection in the original
background photo to get the scale right.
7
Offset the reflection
My bathroom cabinet has a sliding mirror
door that prevents each half of the reflection
from matching up perfectly. To simulate this
effect, select half the reflection, choose the Move
Tool, and using the arrow keys nudge the image
up a few pixels. To enhance the effect further,
sample a colour from the mirror’s frame and paint
a straight line of about three pixels wide over the
crack in the reflection with a hard brush.
8
More dynamic range
Our image is almost finished, but first let’s
take care of the big blown-out light spot where
the light should be. Open up the photo that is
properly exposed for the light fixture. Once again
select your friend the Polygonal Lasso. Trace the
shape of the fixture as accurately as possible and
feather the selection by two pixels.
066-069_APM19_workshop.indd 69
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Fun with dynamic range
As countless over and under-exposed photos can tell
you, cameras capture a limited range of light. This is
referred to as a camera’s dynamic range. Photoshop’s
Shadow/Highlight Tool under Image>Adjustments is
very helpful at recovering those lost highlights and
under-exposed shadows attributed to limited
dynamic range. It is a very useful photographer’s tool,
but it’s also an excellent way to give your photos a
painterly quality.
When you see a painting done from life, it has a
certain quality of light to it that a painting done from a
photo does not.
This is because
the human eye
is far better at
perceiving
subtle The Shadow/Highlight Tool is a quick and dirty way to
transitions of fake this to a degree. By dragging the shadow and
light. The eye highlight sliders to extreme settings, one can create a
instantly rather painterly image. It also creates a lot of noise as
adjusts to take the pixels are being pushed to extreme degrees, so it
in shadow and will be necessary to use Noise Reduction (found under
highlight detail Filter>Noise). Since the goal here is a painterly image
that the camera and not a highly detailed photo, feel free to obliterate
simply cannot. the little details through excess noise processing.
10
Final adjustments
The last step is simply a matter of
making sure all your layers match each other
tonally. With the source photos provided, it
shouldn’t be too much of an issue because they
were all taken under the exact same lighting
conditions. Light conditions, unfortunately,
cannot always be so cooperative and therefore
you may need to adjust your colours accordingly.
Go to Adjustments under the Image menu and
select Match Color. For your Source at the
bottom, choose your current PSD document,
and for Layer choose the layer you wish to
colour-match it to. This is another instance where
you’ll simply have to push the sliders around until
the image looks right – but where would the fun
be without experimentation?
9
See the light
Drag the light fixture that you just cut out into your main project
file. Title the new layer and make the layer effect Multiply. Next, make the
layer’s opacity about 75%. Using the Move Tool, position the light fixture
so that it lines up with the visible parts of it in the background layer. Using
a soft brushed eraser, erase the areas of the light fixture layer that overlap
with the visible portions in the background layer.
“WHEN YOU NEED
PRECISION, THERE’S NOTHING
BETTER THAN THE PEN TOOL”
69
Advanced Photoshop
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 Insider
Info
INSIDER
INFO
Colour consistency
Why don’t colours match between Photoshop, Flash, and my other applications – including the
desktop? We look at how Photoshop treats colours and how you can control the perfect tones

M
OUR EXPERT Trevor Morris oving pixels between
Trevor Morris is an official Photoshop beta tester applications is a relatively
and amateur digital photographer with more than a straightforward process,
dozen years’ design experience. He works as a senior
but preserving the colour associated
graphic designer for a Canadian web design
company and also maintains the Photoshop-centric with those pixels can be a bit more
website GFX™ (http://user.fundy.net/morris). challenging, especially when dealing
with colour-unaware applications.
Consider, for example, something as
simple as performing a screen capture
and pasting the results into Photoshop
or exporting graphics for use in Flash
via Photoshop’s Save for Web plug-in.
Both of these common procedures can
produce unpredictable colour
discrepancies without the proper
precautions. The ‘problem’ is that
Photoshop is a colour-managed
INFO MANIA: Additionally, you can
also have the active document’s colour application, and as such, a document’s
profile appear in the Info palette by appearance is based upon the
enabling the Document Profile option in embedded profile – or the working
the Info Palette Options dialog – space, for documents that don’t have
accessed via the Info palette menu (only
available in Photoshop CS2 and higher) an embedded profile – not strictly by
the numeric colour values. Conversely,
colour-unaware applications (most web
browsers, Adobe Flash, word
processors, and so on) simply display GET CLOSER TO COLOUR SETTINGS: Photoshop’s colour settings are configured
colours based on their numeric values. via the Edit>Color Settings dialog (Apple/Ctrl+Shift+K). For most purposes, the
Colour management is one of default colour settings are recommended
Photoshop’s greatest strengths, but it
can also be a real nuisance to people setting all Color Management Policies to As sRGB was designed with the Internet
who want a ‘by-the-numbers’ (ie, Off (in the Edit>Color Settings dialog), in mind, it’s the best profile for working
unmanaged) workflow. Furthermore, doesn’t turn colour management off; it with web-based graphics (especially if
there’s no way to turn off colour simply instructs Photoshop not to you still have to deal with the deprecated
management in Photoshop. Even embed profiles for newly created web-safe palette). The default colour
documents, and to ignore profiles that settings also set the Color Management
differ from the working space when Policies to ‘Preserve Embedded Profiles’,
Assign or convert? An analogy… opening/importing existing documents. which means that documents will be
opened, edited and saved with their
To help understand the difference between the Assign Profile and Convert Set it and forget it embedded profiles, even if they differ
Profile commands, consider the following analogy: Photoshop’s colour settings are from the working space – unless of
● If I gave you one unit of currency and asked you how much it was worth, configured via Edit>Color Settings. For course you explicitly convert them to
what would your response be? most purposes, the default colour another space. All of the profile warnings
● Obviously you can’t answer that question unless you know how much settings, ‘North American General are turned off, meaning that colour
currency you have (numerical colour value), what type of currency it is (colour Purpose 2’ (‘U.S. Prepress Defaults’ in management will largely take place on its
space), and where you’re going to spend it (output device).
Photoshop CS and earlier), are own – without any intervention required.
● So, if we assume that you live in the United Kingdom and I ‘assign’ the
recommended. The RGB working space A document that contains no colour
currency a value of £1, you’d know exactly how much it was worth.
associated with these settings is sRGB, a profile is referred to as ‘untagged’ (eg,
● Conversely, if you we assume that you live in Canada, you’d first have to
‘universal colour space’ that best Untagged RGB), and is treated as a
‘convert’ from UK pounds to Canadian dollars before you could determine the
exact worth of the currency. describes the typical CRT monitor, the working space document. This means
Internet, most digital cameras, and so on. that unless you physically assign a profile

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A NEW PROFILE: Use the Advanced options in the New document dialog to create
a document with a colour profile different to the default working space
“THERE’S NO WAY TO TURN OFF
COLOUR MANAGEMENT IN PHOTOSHOP”
to the document, you won’t have control
over its appearance when outputting to
another device (eg, your monitor or a
printer) or when exporting graphics via
Save For Web. In fact, the only time the
document will appear correctly (on
screen) is when the document’s profile
just happens to be the same as the
working profile, either by chance or by
workflow. So which should you use,
Edit>Assign Profile, or Edit>Convert
Profile? (Note that for Photoshop CS and
earlier, the Assign and Convert Profile
commands are located at Image>Mode.)
Assign Profile is used to add a profile
to an image that doesn’t already have
one. It can also be used to change the
profile of an image that you know has the
wrong profile, provided you know what
the correct profile should be. For
example, some older digital cameras
failed to embed colour space info, and
when these images were opened in
Photoshop, they were mistakenly
assigned the sRGB profile. If you knew
that the images were in fact captured in
the Adobe RGB (1998) colour space, you
could use the Assign Profile command to
change their profiles.
Unfortunately, if you’re not sure how,
or with what device, an image was
created, there’s no way to know for
certain which profile to assign. Your only
choice is to ‘go fishing’, assigning profiles
until you find one that makes the image
look good. You needn’t worry about
image degradation, as Assign Profile is
non-destructive (ie, you can change the
070-71_APM19_Insider.indd 71
profile as many times as you like and it
won’t degrade the image data).
Convert Profile, as the name implies, is
used to convert documents from one
profile to another. For example, you
might want to convert digital photos
from the ProPhoto space to sRGB for
best display on the web, or to convert
scanned images to the profile of your
printer. Note that Convert Profile is a
destructive command (ie, out-of-gamut
colours are permanently clipped or
remapped during conversion process),
so it’s best to work on a duplicate
document when using the Convert
Profile command (or create a backup).
In summary, Convert Profile preserves
the appearance of the colours in the
image, regardless of their numerical
values, whereas Assign Profile preserves
the numeric values, regardless of
appearance. (You might need to read
that last sentence a couple of times to
fully digest it.) For more information, I
recommend reading Assign Versus
Convert To Profile, a free online article
written by G Ballard (www.gballard.net/
psd/assignconvert.html).
Matching colours
Ultimately, one of the goals of colour
management is to ensure consistent
colour for all managed documents. This
means that not only should the colour
for each document appear correctly (on
properly calibrated output devices), but
similar colours should also match across
documents – for example, the various
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Automatic colour space conversion
If you prefer to have your entire workflow in the sRGB space, you may wish to
change RGB Color Management Policy (Edit>Color Settings) from ‘Preserve
Embedded Profiles’ to ‘Convert to Working RGB’.
The first time you open a document with an embedded profile that differs
from the working space, you’ll see the Embedded Profile Mismatch dialog
(even if all profile warning have been disabled). To permanently disable this
warning, check the ‘Don’t show again’ option on the dialog.
PROFILES AT A GLANCE: To display
the colour profile for each open
document, choose Show>Document
Profile from the document
information drop-down menu
(the right-facing arrow at bottom
of each document window)
pieces of a web design. For colour-aware
applications, such as Photoshop, Consistent
InDesign, and so on, this means ensuring colour between
that the proper profile is embedded
when the document is created, or Photoshop
when it’s converted from one colour
space to another.
and Flash
● This tutorial is an excerpt from the
For colour-unaware applications, such
Photoshop CS2 and Flash 8 Integration
as Flash and most web browsers, this series of video-based tutorials with
means ensuring that all documents are Michael Ninness (Lynda.com). This
created in, or converted to, the sRGB series of tutorials shows you the most
colour space, as this is the assumed efficient methods for importing
profile for most colour-unaware apps. If content created with Adobe Photoshop
you use Photoshop’s Save For Web CS2 into Adobe Flash Professional 8
command to export images, it’s while maintaining as much of the
important to convert them to sRGB first original appearance as possible.
(Edit>Convert Profile). This is necessary
for two reasons: first, Save For Web strips
the embedded profile info, resulting in
inaccurate colour for documents in any
other colour space; second, colour-
Video tutorials
unaware apps assume an sRGB space
and ignore the embedded profiles.
One exception would be when you’re ● Online video tutorial (Adobe.com):
working with a non-sRGB document that http://tinyurl.com/rud9h
uses the web-safe palette: you’d then ● Direct link (Adobe.com):
need to change the profile to sRGB http://tinyurl.com/jkp33
(Edit>Assign Profile) to preserve the ● Photoshop CS2 and Flash 8
numerical values of the colours before Integration, with Michael Ninness
invoking Save For Web. (Lynda.com): http://tinyurl.com/z9wpz
Accuracy vs consistency
Please note that this article discusses some of the fundamentals for achieving
consistent colour behaviour, not accurate colour reproduction. The only way
to ensure accurate, predictable colour reproduction is to calibrate your
display using a hardware calibration device.
71
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 Eye-catching imagery that
inspires and challenges

S
ince the last issue of Advanced Photoshop we’ve
been busy scouting through your wonderful
creations to find the best and most original
artwork. These next few pages show off the
masterpieces created with these finely tuned
Photoshop skills.
Sending your images in to us for inclusion in Peer
Pressure is an ideal way to get your name out there. You
never know who’s browsing through the magazine looking
for new, fresh talent! There’s also the opportunity to kick-
start your career and see your image on the front cover.
If you’d like to see your own work on these pages, please
send us low-res versions to advancedpshop@imagine-
publishing.co.uk – we’ll get back to you for more
information and higher resolution copies if we want to
print them. Alternatively, please log on to our forum
website at www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk and scroll
down to Peer Pressure in the Creative Projects section to
post a link to your image samples.

You’ll stand a better chance of seeing your work in print if you

Core Design
adhere to the following criteria: make sure that your images
are high-quality TIFFs or JPEGs (RGB or CMYK), 300dpi
minimum, and can be printed at 15cm x 15cm minimum. Don’t
forget to include a short text file detailing how you created NAME: Chris Fearon
your work, too. EMAIL: chris.fearon@gmail.com
WEB: www.imd.chrisfearon.com & www.cv.chrisfearon.com

Chris, a 19-year-old Interactive Multimedia Design

student from the University of Ulster created these
images by “beginning with a blank canvas and letting
loose”. He started the image above with a simple stock
image of an apple core.
“Creating a horizontal rainbow and using the Warp/
Distort Tool to create the waves, I applied some grunge
brushes and layer properties to create the worn, jagged
effect. The image of the woman was originally a vector. I
used the Extract Tool along with Blending Modes to
successfully blend the woman in with the rainbow and
trees.” His grungy techniques were also used to create
the image ‘Street Beat’ on the left, again with Chris’
distinctive collage approach.

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Floating Sauce
NAME: Lorraine Robertson
EMAIL: lorraine@rigoletto.wanadoo.co.uk
WEB: http://toscarob.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk

This image was created by Lorraine

Robertson from Lincolnshire. “I am a full-time
carer to my mother, so I am at home all day. I
do a lot of crafting and I love taking
photographs and using Photoshop, although I
use a Canon Powershot G5 and haven’t
graduated to a DSLR yet. I’ve had Photoshop
for years and it’s a godsend for me and my
creative side.”
Lorraine discovered a Flood filter recently
and wanted to do something different with it.
“I’ve seen too many cars sitting in puddles. I
had just done some shopping and the bright
red of my tomato sauce jumped out at me, so I
took a photograph of it to use. I took another
image of a bright blue sky as I thought that the
colours would complement each other. The
bottle was resized and moved using the
Transform Tool. When I had the angle I
wanted I applied the filter to a level across the
bottle that made it look as if it were floating.
The two bottles on the side were dragged in
and resized. Finally, I used an Exclusion
blending mode to allow the bright blue of the
sky to show through the glass.”
Tomato
House
NAME: Pálmi Einarsson
EMAIL: palmi@pedesign.is

Pálmi Einarsson from Reykjavik,

Iceland, created this image in about
16 hours. “This composition is made
from about 15 photographs. I shot the
tomatoes separately and the
background image was taken while
on holiday in Hawaii. I looked for the
white fence for a long time without
success, so I turned to my 3ds Max
program and sketched it in, using
global sun lighting. I was opting for a
fairy-tale atmosphere, so when
people saw the image they would
dream about who lived there and
what they looked like.”
Having worked in the prosthetic
and orthotic business for many years,
Pálmi has discovered that “what you
see is not necessarily true”.

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 Discover the thinking behind the art

Branded
Jeans
NAME: Greg Smith
EMAIL: gsmith119@dslextreme.com

Regular Advanced Photoshop forum

user Greg Smith originally created this
image for a challenge on a Photoshop
website. “The objective of this
particular challenge was to give a
dairy herd treatment to everyday
items.” He began by selecting the
jeans with the Polygonal Lasso Tool,
desaturating the colour and selecting
the black pattern from the cow hide
Gothic Love Letter he had placed on a lower layer.
After inverting the cow layer he
NAME: Randy ‘SnowDog’ Monteith then softened the edges to keep the
EMAIL: snowdogz1@shaw.ca results subtle. “With the smoke, it
WEB: www.pbase.com/snowdog was a matter of isolating it using
SOURCE: www.sxc.hu the Channels palette and working from
the blue channel.” Finally, Greg used
Randy ‘SnowDog’ Monteith wanted to use a photograph of a “goth girl” and transform it into layer masking and curves to perfect
a softer, beauty salon-like image. “She has amazing eyes and I didn’t want to hide them. the end result.
First, I turned the original photograph into a black-and-white sketch by desaturating the
image and then duplicating the desaturated layer. With the second desaturated layer
selected I used the Image>Adjustments>Invert option and then altered the blending mode
to Color Dodge. This left me with an image that was dominated by white. The next step was
to use a Gaussian Blur with a radius of 3.4 to perfect the black-and-white sketch look.”
Randy then took this sketch image and placed it as a layer on top of the original By submitting images to Advanced Photoshop’s Peer
Pressure, you hereby grant Imagine and, if relevant,
photograph. He then added a layer mask and filled it with a grey pattern. “I used various
clients to whom the relevant work has been provided,
brush opacities to soften the image using the layer mask. For the eyes and lips I stroked an irrevocable, perpetual, royalty-free licence to use
them with 100% black.” Finally, he added a canvas texture to the entire image. intellectual property in relation to work similar or
equivalent to the work. This includes the right to
showcase work on multimedia formats.

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072-075_APM19_peerpV2.indd 74 1/6/06 17:13:21

 es
n iqu
ch
Te
BE
IN ST
SH
Adoesbis now the pO
Jam
W
Thes e D e roud
and e bumpe si owner of
and Mincludes Cr packagegn Bu the new
You acrom reative s are a de ndle.
by can fin edia
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Ado urning to out mor ash Pr Premiu dream
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Abstract lepho s visit or mo latest al 8.
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expressionism 208 .adob matio g
606 e.co n on
1100 m
NAME: James Beer
EMAIL: beer_jamie@hotmail.com
WEB: www.jamesbeerart.blogspot.com

These images were created by James Beer, an

18-year-old living in Goring, a village near
Reading. He is currently studying art at A-level
at The Oratory School but will soon be starting
a foundation course in art at Falmouth Art
College before moving on to complete a
degree in graphic design. “I’m just going with
the flow for the moment, spending every
spare moment I have creating art and
enjoying myself as much as possible. A lot of
the digital work I’m designing is inspired by
the abstract expressionism painting I’m
studying right now.”

DIRTY IT UP (LEFT): ”I love creating

images that are full of dirt, noise and
bold paint strokes, anything that
provides character to an image. Clean-
cut designs really aren’t for me. This was
created using strong brushstrokes using
custom-made brushes”

DIFFERENT STROKES: “I built up a

layer of brushstrokes before making several
copies of the layer. I then transformed them,
changed the blending modes, and
manipulated them in as many ways as
possible to achieve a sense of depth and
provide interesting tones across the
DEEP INTO DESIGN: “This image was inspired by the music of Nine Inch Nails, as they make extremely creative and layered composition. I used a white font with a small
tunes. I set out with three things in mind: total abstraction, intelligent use of space and creating a detailed surface. The entire soft brush to eat away at the edges. As a
piece was made using Photoshop’s standard brushes, customised to complement my graphics tablet. I built up areas of colour and finishing touch, I made a ring selection with
shape first before switching to smaller brushes to add in the detail. Blending Modes were very important in making sure that a 30-pixel feather. Then I used a radial blur
everything fitted together well without any one area becoming too dominating. The Curves Tool was used to tweak the colours to before applying a blending mode to make
create this final piece” the effect more subtle”

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 Helpdesk
Our experts tackle your trickiest Photoshop phobias, from creating
convincing glass effects to advice on how find the perfect filter

PANORAMIC PROBLEMS
I have a problem with my wide-angle
panoramas. Every time I shoot, I find that my
final images don’t line up exactly the way that
I want them. I use a tripod, but for some
reason I get major lines in the pano after
using the Photomerge option and it is so
hard to clean up! Any ideas or better way of
making my wide-angle lens panos? I use
CS2 on Windows.
Zack

Using Photoshop’s Photomerge function does take some

LOOKING GLASS
I have a great portrait of a woman and I want
to put a patterned glass effect over the top,
as though she is looking through a window,
but every time I try it appears too harsh and
takes over the image completely. What is the
best way to achieve this subtle effect?
Bill Preston
WINDOW SHOPPING: Use a combination of Photoshop
filters for an easy way to get the look of glass
Selection and choose your new Alpha 1 channel. Finally, fill
the selection by hitting Alt+Delete. You should now have
quite a subtle glass effect. You can adjust the filters applied to
the new channel to create different effects to suit your project.
getting used to in order to get perfect panoramics. Using a
tripod, as you already do, is the best starting point as this
helps you to line up the images better from the start. Make
sure that when you select your pictures in Photomerge you
untick the box that says Attempt to Automatically Arrange
Source Images. This will give you more control.
Next, arrange your pictures in the main Photomerge
window, overlapping the edges as lining up elements as
closely as possible. Use the Magnifying Glass Tool to zoom
right in for more accurate work. If you can, make sure that
there are elements in your pictures that can help you to
line them up, such as trees, lampposts or any other vertical
subject. Before you click OK and let Photoshop do its magic,
tick the Advanced Blending option. Finally, you’ll need to crop
your image to get rid of uneven top and bottom elements
where you’ve overlapped at different heights, and use the
Healing Brush to make sure that the colours are the same.
STITCHED UP: Panoramas can be stunning, but you’ll need
a fair bit of tweaking for a seamless finish

To get a soft, patterned glass effect over your image try the
following. First, open up the image that you wish to use in
Photoshop. Open the Channels palette and select the Create
New Channel option from the bottom of the palette. Fill the
channel with white by double-clicking on the channel and
changing the fill colour.
With your new Alpha 1 channel still selected, go to Filter>
Noise>Add Noise and select Gaussian, Monochromatic, and
a value of 25. Next go to Filter>Sketch>Bas Relief and adjust
the Detail and Smoothness to suit (we used a value of one
for each), with the Light Direction as Bottom. Next, go to the
Layers palette and create a new layer. Hit Select>Load

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SIMPLE SILHOUETTES
I’ve always loved the iPod adverts and want to
recreate the silhouette effect for a project I
am working on. To be honest, though, I’ve no
idea where to start! Can you help?
Jody Marks
As with everything in Photoshop, there are multiple ways to
get the same effect. To create the iPod effect, a lot relies on
getting a good starting image. Try to go for one with a plain
background so that the main subject is easier to cut out. A
single person moving is a great place to start. Open this in
Photoshop and cut around the figure. For a rough mock-up
use the Magic Wand; for a professional finish use the Pen Tool.
Copy the selection onto a coloured canvas and select your
image. Fill it with whatever colour you want as long as it
stands out against your background and you’re done. There
are more advanced methods, but this is a great way to start.
OUTLINE ART: Use strong colours and interesting poses to
create the ubiquitous iPod art
MULTIPLE WORKSPACES
I find that I use Photoshop for a number of
different tasks and for each I have different
palettes open, depending on how I like to
work. Can I save multiple setups so I can
switch between them easily?
John Baines
You can save your setups as workspaces, and even store more
than one. Set up the palettes as you want them for the first
task and go to Window>Workspace>Save Workspace. Title
it as something that is relevant to the task you use it for and
save. You can do this for each of your setups and then go to
Window>Workspace to select them as needed.
SPACED OUT: Calling up your favourite working space
gives fast access to a familiar layout
078-079_APM19_Helpd.indd 79
COOK UP A STORM
I think that I am quite experienced with
Photoshop now, but I still have trouble finding
exactly which filters I need for a specific
effect. Are there any good reference guides
for Photoshop filters?
James Brannigan
We’d definitely recommend
Photoshop Filter Effects
Cookbook, which is available
from Amazon for less than
£12. It explains all 100 filters
in detail along with ‘recipes’:
combinations of filters that
create an array of rather more
unusual effects.
WHAT’S COOKING?: Although sometimes over-used,
some filters can add a new dimension to your creations
TAKE A TABLET
I’ve bought a Wacom Intuos2 graphics tablet
for my digital artwork from eBay. It was a
bargain, but didn’t come with any detailed
instructions or anything so I need a bit of
help setting it up. How can I set the pen
sensitivity to alter things like brush size?
Simon Williams
Graphics tablets really do make your life easier in Photoshop
so well done on finding such a good deal, Simon! Setting it
up so that the brush you’re using responds to the pressure put
on the pen is easy. First, make sure that the Brushes palette is
open and click on Shape Dynamics. Select Pen Pressure from
the Size Jitter menu and you’ll find that your brush will widen
or taper depending on how heavily you press with the pen.
You can also make the opacity change according to pressure,
which is done from Other Dynamics (also on the Brushes
palette), then Size Jitter>Pen Pressure. Go through the list of
Dynamics in the Brushes palette and you’ll see that most
options can be selected with Pen Pressure.
PRESS ON: Pressure-sensitive tablets can
lend a natural look to your digital illustrations
es
n iqu
ch
Te
NEXT DIMENSION: Use Ctrl+Alt and the up arrow to
create 3D text in a flash
EASY 3D
I want to create great-looking 3D text and I
have seen so many different ways of doing it
that I’m now quite confused. What is the
easiest method to use?
Sarah Holburn
As you say, there are many ways to create 3D text and each
method has its merits and pitfalls. The method outlined here
is the simplest and a great place to start. First create a new
blank document and type your text in a good bold font.
In order to manipulate the text, it first needs to be con-
verted or rasterized. The easiest solution is to go to Layer>
Type>Convert to Shape. Use Edit>Transform>Perspective and
Edit>Transform>Distort to move the text into a realistic angle
for adapting to 3D. Select the Move Tool and hold Ctrl/Apple
and Alt. Hit the up arrow; this will duplicate the layer and
move the type up by one pixel. Keep hitting up until you are
happy with the effect. Select the second layer of type and link
it to all the new layers below it (ie, leave the original text layer
unlinked). Merge the linked layers (Layer>Merge Linked) and
apply Gradient Overlay, Bevel and Emboss, and Drop Shadow
layer styles to the new layer. Apply Inner Shadow, Bevel and
Emboss, Gradient Overlay and Pattern Overlay layer styles
to the top text layer. You can now add colours if you wish to
customise the effect.
HELPDESK
CALL FOR QUESTIONS
Want help with your Photoshop problems?
Then let our team of experts sort you out.
Send your emails to us at:
advancedpshop@imagine-publishing.co.uk
Remember to specify whether you are
using a PC or Mac and the version number
of your edition of Photoshop.
79
Advanced Photoshop
1/6/06 17:17:41
 portf
olios
SHOW
CASING
Throw away your shoddy art file and set a great first impression
with these top-notch portfolios and presentation tips
P A GREAT
resentation is everything if you’re
trying to land that first
commission. It can be a daunting
prospect to even think about
piecing together a portfolio for the first time,
but tackle the task methodically, with a bit of
creative inspiration thrown in for fun, and you
can be confident that you’re showing off your
work and your skills to the best of your
abilities. A great portfolio will give you a better
chance of landing your dream design role, it’s
as simple as that. It’s easy to get carried away
and throw piles of your images into a folder
and call it a portfolio, but that’s a lazy cop-out.
A disorganised and thoughtless portfolio won’t
communicate anything to your future employer
other than the fact that you’ll probably turn up for
work late day in, day out because you were
engrossed in Jeremy Kyle, or your freelance
commissions will be way past their deadlines for
any number of excuses you can make up on the
spot. Okay, we all know that most designers are
cheeky and a little bit slack – it’s our nature and
how the process works – but now’s really not the
time to let that show, so do yourself proud.
Get it together
A good portfolio should be a collection of
samples of work that show off all your talents in
one fell swoop. You shouldn’t expect to spend a
week building a portfolio together only to dig out
the same version time after time. Building your
portfolio should be an ongoing process and it
should constantly be refreshed and renewed as
you make new Photoshop creations, or depending
on the style of the organisation you want to work
for. If you’re already working professionally then
finding decent material to fill your folio shouldn’t
80
Advanced Photoshop
080-083_APM19_portfolios.indd 80
be a problem. You can slot in any projects that
you’ve recently worked on either as an individual
or part of a team. It gets trickier if you’re working
off your own steam and will require you to be
slightly more dedicated to the whole portfolio
process. Try to set yourself goals to create new art
pieces week by week. If you find it hard to think
up great projects without the leadership of a
brief, try seeking inspiration for tutorials found in
Advanced Photoshop. Work through each project
step-by-step, making sure you understand the
design processes and all the techniques involved,
and once you’ve got the hang of it use the same
skills to start your own original image.
Going through university or design school
should have given you a few examples of work
that are good enough to catch some attention, so
don’t forget to include these. But, and it’s a big
but, remember that current styles and trends go
out of date pretty quickly. You may have been the
student swot in your last year at uni, but two
years down the line, employers will want to see
that you’ve continued to develop your skills.
Looks matter
Portfolios come in many different styles and
qualities and it may even be the case that your
designs can be transported for viewing via email.
However, everyone loves to see a hard copy of
work so it’s worth spending some time and
budget on making sure you’re happy with a file
you can present personally. Most design studios
favour a drop-off style of portfolio that you leave
with your company. It will be worth spending a
bit more cash on a good sturdy folio so you can
have peace of mind that it won’t fall apart after
two viewings and that you can easily change the
content without ripping inside sleeves. If you’d
PORTFOLIO WILL
GIVE YOU A
BETTER CHANCE
OF LANDING YOUR
DREAM ROLE
rather send out numerous portfolios then it
shouldn’t be too much of a hassle to reproduce a
portfolio in bulk. You can case your images in a
cheaper, more lightweight and customisable
portfolio (from commissioned companies such as
folder manufacturer www.designease.com). This
will give you the opportunity to ship off objects
such as CDs, T-shirts, badges or business cards in
a case that will really catch the eye of the boss.
You might even want to personalise your
actual folio and order engravings or embossing of
your own work onto the actual folio to really
make your selection stand out from the crowd.
It’s better to have a selection of images that will
do you proud, rather than reams and reams of
half-hearted designs. Try to get around 10-20 art
pieces or snippets of projects in your folder,
showing off a range of styles and techniques.
Make sure that you’re confident enough to talk
about these images in detail and that you can
recall the brief that was set and what your
intentions were for the project. Don’t forget to
think about how you could have improved your
designs, or any plans you have for developing
your projects further, to prove that you have
thought carefully about your portfolio’s content.
1/6/06 17:18:43
 Portfolio
ROUND UP
PORTFOLIOS: SAY IT WITH STYLE
From the sleek and sexy to the quirky and quaint,
there’s a portfolio fashion to suit everyone

Fastportfolio
Web: www.fastportfolio.com
Contact: (US) 415 401 9022
Email: custservice@fastportfolio.com

Founded in 1997, Fastportfolio is a mail order service that

offers a range of art and business presentation products
ranging from book portfolios to boxes and portfolio cases.
Based in San Francisco, Fastportfolio is able to ship its
products worldwide. There are also discounts and special
offers on discontinued products available on the site, so
it’s worth exploring in detail.
For customers outside of the USA, the company advises
that you place your order online and disregard the freight
cost quoted to you. On the following morning the
Fastportfolio team will email you with your best freight
options, costs and delivery times. Upon confirmation, your
order will be shipped.

Compton The Camden Boro Camden Machina

Bookcase
These bookcase portfolio
cases are available in two
sizes and colours. Made of
black aluminium, the
boxes are stamped with a
circular motif and are
useful for transporting,
storing and presenting
artwork. Retractable
handles mean that the
boxes can be kept flat
when the clamshell casing
is open. An image can be
slotted into the window at
the front of the box or it
can be left blank for a
sneak peak into the
contents. Each box comes
with ten polyester archival
Century Box Small Case Portfolio Case Clamshell Box Screwpost
Available in number of The Camden case is This lightweight case is This storage box is This polished aluminium
different sizes, The constructed of sturdy great for transporting designed to store and screwpost portfolio can
Century Box is a classic archival grade anodized artwork and documents. present loose work, be expanded by up to
black exterior and white aluminium with Made of 0.40 aluminium, bound shots or mounted five inches. Each book
interior clamshell box. reinforced corners, the box comes with an work. Each Clamshell Box comes packaged with a
They are acid-free, spring-loaded steel acrylic display window features a small window clear archival
making them suitable for latches and an extruded measuring 6x6” into with a polycarbonate polypropylene case with
archival storage and aluminium fixed-position which you can pop an image carrier so you can ten top-loading format
made of lightweight handle. The case is lined example of your work, slide in a logo or other 11x17” polypropylene
paperboard construction with black interior lining steel handle, integral graphic. The double sheet protectors and a
with a reinforced hinge. to keep your work clean hinge and secure steel hinge design of this box zippered black nylon
You can store your and scratch-free. latch closures. The allows it to be laid flat presentation jacket. The
images safe in the hand-sanded finish of this when open. All sizes are 11x17L size can hold up to
knowledge that these $150 (£84) 12.25x15.25x1.875 box means that fine made of lightweight 30 sheets.
boxes are moisture and scratches can be hidden. aluminium.
vermin resistant, helping $124 (£69.50) 15.5x12.5x1
$164 (£92) 17.75x24.75x2.5 $76 (£42.50) 12x17.75x1.5” $109 (£61) 11.75x10x.75
to prevent flat artworks
$68 (£38) 12x14.75x1.5”
from warping.
$60 (£33.60) 12x8.75x1.5”

REMEMBER THAT CURRENT

sheet protectors. $27.50 (£15) 7x5x1.5
$29.75 (£16.70) 10x8x1
$33.50 (£18.80) 12x9x2

STYLES AND TRENDS GO OUT OF

$119 (£66.70)
12.5x10.75x1.5 (grey) $35 (£19.60) 14x11x2
$49.50 (£27.70) 17x11x2

DATE PRETTY QUICKLY

$139 (£77.90)
15x13.5x1.5 (black) $64.50 (£36) 18x14x2
$67.50 (£38) 20x16x2

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 portf
olios
Silverprint
Art Discount Web: www.silverprint.co.uk
.uk
Web: www.artdiscount.co Contact: +44 (0)207 620 0844
Contact: +44 (0)845 230 5510 Email: sales@silverprint.co.uk
.uk
Email: info@artdiscount.co
Silverprint is a photographic stockist selling
d quality case
If you want a no-frills, goo darkroom materials, papers, inkjet papers and
tran spo rt you r work in
to present and other accessories. However, it also stocks a
k no furt her tha n Art Discount.
then loo number of staple accessories, including sleek
ine store for
This is Europe’s leading onl and fuss-free art boxes and more informal
teri als and artist’s
art supplies, craf t ma portfolio books.
h del iver y to the UK and
equipment wit
. Ord ers can be plac ed via the
Europe
website, phone or fax.
Portfolio Boxes
Mapac Ebony Portfoaliorigids
The portfolio box is ideal for storage or an elegant
presentation of prints. The clamshell design opens
is built of
This basic, robust portfolio out into two trays while the spine and the top of
ction and covered in waterproof the box lays flat when completely open. The box is
coreboard constru
three sizes come
Nylon covered in Teflon. All big enough to house polyester sleeves, which are
pockets, full-length steel
equipped with two internal sold by Silverprint in packs of 10s or 50s and which
r strap, double handle,
spine, adjustable shoulde will snugly fit around your prints and will
hold er, blac k corners and fittings provide a non-destructive
internal name card
plastic sleeves (which
and a ring mechanism to hold alternative to laminating. The
are purchased separately). covers of the boxes are made of
A3: £24.29
an acrylic-impregnated black
A2: £37.49 buckram with a reinforced
A1: £49.49
Pimlico Presentation Po rtfolios hinge and lined with
a layer of white
ered in aios are cov
Pimlico Presentation Portfol archival boxboard.
on- coa ted nylo n and finished with a
waterproof Tefl
h portfolio has a steel bar
brown faux-leather trim. Eac Available in 17 different sizes
es equipped with a
encased in the spine and com
5x7”: £24.68
that ’s able to hold up to 25 A4: £29.61
burst-proof mechanism 11x14”: £37.01
straps.
sleeves as well as retaining A3: £45.65
A4: £12.25 16x20”: £51.82
A3: £15.75 A2: £59.92
£27.15
A2 (with shoulder strap): 20x24”: £81.43
£34.75
A1 (with shoulder strap): A1: £102.23

EMPLOYERS WANT TO SEE

THAT YOU’VE CONTINUED TO
DEVELOP YOUR SKILLS
Seawhite of Brighton
Web: www.seawhite.co.uk
Contact: +44 (0)1403 711633
Email: info@seawhite.co.uk

Seawhite is a well-established artist materials factory

outlet located just outside Brighton that specialises in
wholesale stock. For orders with www.seawhite.co.uk,
the minimum order is £45 (ex. VAT). Customers who wish
to purchase smaller items should log onto www.
artesaver.com for a minimum order of £10.

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 Portfolio
ROUNDUP
Helipac
Web: www.helipac.com
Contact: +44 (0)1886 880 080
Email: info@helipac.com

Slimline Case
These snazzy slimline
cases can be fully
personalised with a vast
Print Boxes range of different colours
These budget storage boxes are and textures (aluminium or see-through plastic). Each folder has
specifically designed for print storage rounded corners, an ideal option if you’re concerned about
and display. The design is similar to the protecting your images inside. They can be customised with
build of the Silverprint’s portfolio boxes, printing, blocking or engraving and can include an insert for
although cheaper materials are used. Pure Design Portfolio storing materials such as CDs.
Each two-piece box is made of black Available in three different types of
scuff-resistant paper and can easily store leather, the Pure Design portfolio is a Available in a variety of sizes
8.5x11” black conference case: from $87.50
polyester sleeves with a 6mm leeway. hardwearing bound file. Pages are
20x16x3.5” black panel portfolio case: from $162.99
secured by four concealed brass retention
18x12x3.5” black panel portfolio case: from $148.99
screws and secured with Velcro. Files can 15x12x3.5” black panel portfolio case: from $139.99
also be sent away to be embossed by 11.8x10.2x1.5” brushed aluminium panel case: from $93.99
Available in eight different sizes
(10% discount for five-pack partnership bookbinders for a personal 20x16x3.5” brushed aluminium panel case: from $172.99
orders) touch. The Split leather file is made of 18x12x3.5” brushed aluminium panel portfolio case for 17x11” paper or boards: from $157.99
15x12x3.5” brushed aluminium panel portfolio case for 8.5x14” papers: from $148.99
5x7”: £7.97 processed material to give it a smooth
A4: £9.20 11.8x10.2x1.5” clear lid panel case for 8.5x11” documents: from $93.99
and glossy black finish, the Hide
9.5x12”: £9.28 20x16x3.5” clear lid panel case: from $172.99
leather is made from whole leather 18x12x3.5” clear lid panel portfolio case for 17x11” paper or boards: from $157.99
A3: £10.67
– although this may mean that it 15x12x3.5” clear lid panel portfolio case for 8.5x14” documents: from $148.99
16x20”: £14.90
will mark more easily that the
man-made leather – and the Tan
leather folio is similar to the
black leather folio but has a
deep tan finish.
Designease
Web: www.designease.co.uk
Available in A4, 10x12”, 11x14”, A3, Contact: +44 (0)1453 8219
90
12x16”+A3 and 16x20” Email: sales@designease.com
Split leather: £89.60-£164.99
Black hide leather: £107.51-£203.93
Tan hide leather: £107.51-£203.93 Presentation
Nubuck (A4 and A3): £40-£60 cases, ring
binders,
Designer Portfolio presentation
If you’re after a no-frills portfolio and just need peace of mind that you’re able folders, boxes
to get your artwork safely from A to B, then look no further than these basic, and packaging
value portfolios. Each size has a padded textile finish with a double zip and If you’re after something a
little bit different and want
can be opened up flat. It doesn’t get much more simple than that. work out to potential clients to ship samples of your
then check out the range from
A1: £14.95 com. Using polypropylene www.designease.
to create your customised
A2: £10.95 of finishes, colours and sha folder you have free range
A3: £9.95 pes to suit the style of your
you through the whole pro work. Designease will take
A4: £4.95 cess from your first initial idea
states that “if you can draw to the final design and
it there’s every chance that
vary according to your des we can make it”. Prices
ign ideas so log onto the web
guidance, samples and pric site for advice,
es.

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 Giving you the creative edge Everything the contemporary artist needs to
make the most of their skills

Creative couple 86
Adobe and Macromedia are now one,
so what does that mean for us?

online portfolios 90
Showcase your work to the world with
this selection of online portfolio spaces

books 92
Expand your mind and enhance your
skills with these great literary titles

stock art 94
Locate your perfect starting image
Studio Dumbar

TAKE IT TO THE MAX: with these invaluable stock art sites

Luxury, profusion and excess art
– just how we like it PAGE 92

T here are three things that any serious Photoshopper needs to create successful commercial artwork.
First, the knowledge and creative spur to begin to make an art piece in the first place. Second, some
cracking imagery to start off a design. Finally, the means for getting designs out into the public arena. In this
month’s Resources pages we take a rummage through each of these topics.
A great portfolio site will be a commissioner’s first port of call, so don’t underestimate the power of an online
onslaught. We’ve located some of the best sites, featuring both free and subscription-based options. If you’re
more of a bookworm, you’ll be interested to hear that we’ve teamed up with RotoVision
for an exclusive offer. Maximalism, normally priced at £29.99, can be picked up by
Advanced Photoshop readers for only £26.99 with free P&P (UK only). Just call 01476 541
080 and quote the reference JF01* Finally, we’ve made the initial design process as easy
as possible by rounding up the best stock art sites this side of the solar system.
*Offer runs from 22 June to the end of August 2006

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 Feature

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 Adobe & Macromedia

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 Feature

A GAP TO BE BRIDGED: At the moment

there are no additional features to
incorporate Macromedia programs with
extensive Bridge features found within
Creative Suite, but watch this space

ON THE WEB: With the new Web Bundle you’ll have the chance to
showcase your wonderful Photoshop creations on the web, and
acquire some invaluable Internet skills at the same time

THERE ARE BIG

SAVINGS TO BE HAD
FLASH OF INSPIRATION: Flash, the well-loved creation kit, could help you IN BUYING PROGRAMS
transform your images into an interactive show extravaganza – perfect for
creating eye-catching portfolios with punch IN A BUNDLE
88
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resources
online portfolios A web portfolio is the fastest way to communicate
with clients, so we explore a dozen of the best sites

Voodoochilli.net Get seen online

Web: www.voodoochilli.net
I f you’re looking for a site where you can display your
work and see other people’s creations for free then
Voodoochilli.net is well worth checking out.
With nearly 3,000 members displaying their portfolios and
CVs, it’s a handy resource for people wanting to buy or
commission an image. The site also allows you to zoom in on
any image in an artist’s portfolio, where it displays how the
image was created along with its measurements, and allows
you to make comments on it (which is a great way to get
feedback for all you budding Photoshoppers!). However,
although the site is divided into genres – digital art, 3D,
illustration, etc – the searches still turn up a lot of results if you
don’t know what you’re looking for specifically. 5
Rating:
All Creative Portfolios
Web: www.allcreativeportfolios.com
Getting your work out there and
noticed can be a tough job,
especially if you’re fairly new to
the game and working to a Recom
mends
tight budget.
All Creative Portfolios offers a
range of options designed to suit any
pocket and any size portfolio. You can splash
out $75 a year and get 25MB of storage space
(or for no money at all you’ll still receive 3MB).
On the site there are also loads of resources
for you to check out to make sure you’re
making the most of your portfolio. From
articles on how to market your portfolio to
advice on gathering samples, even without
3/5 professional experience, this site provides
everything you need to get started. 5
Rating: 5/5

Directory Of Deviant Art

Illustration
Web: www.deviantart.com
Most of you are probably already aware of
this site and are already members. This is
Web: www.directoryofillustration.com because it’s one of the quickest to register
with, offers either free or very cheap

T his is one of the better-looking sites out there.

Covering topics from fine art to conceptual work, the
Graphic Artist’s Guild Directory of Illustration is where
membership ($4.95/£2.60 a month) and is
visited by thousands of people every day.
As well as being able to submit or buy work,
Deviant Art provides community for the artistic
you’ll find the best in the business – it promises you’ll find
world. There are forums galore, chances to give
today’s top illustrators, and doesn’t disappoint. feedback on other people’s work (and receive
It also offers a fantastic resource in the form of The Directory it on your own) and the opportunity to chat
Of Illustration. It’s pricey at $75 (£40), but features the work of with like-minded people and bounce around
hundreds of illustrators, so is worth it for the inspiration alone. ideas. Although not the prettiest site, it’s one of
the most functional and realistically priced. 5
Although you might not be able to get your work featured
Rating: 4/5
on this site, as the standards are exceptionally high, it will
show you how portfolio sites should be done. 5
mends Portfolios.com
Recom
Rating: 5/5 Web: www.portfolios.com
If you want to guarantee the Recom
right people always see your mends
work, then there’s probably no

The Illustration Source better site to showcase on than

Portfolios.com.
With a variety of portfolio options – from
Web: www.illustration-source.com vinyl through to titanium – as well as

W
numerous search functions, no site is easier to
hether you want to submit your work for inclusion
navigate or better to show your work on.
on the site, commission work from another A well-established company, it has been
illustrator, photographer or designer, or simply buy some around since 1995 and was one of the world’s
stock photography, The Illustration Source is the place to first searchable online directories of creative
professionals. Portfolios.com has over 20,000
go. It’s also a great place to visit if you’re a digital artist as it
clients in a variety of disciplines, so this is one
provides a range of free filters and plug-ins for Photoshop. site definitely worth more than just a look. 5
All without any effort on your part!
Rating: 5/5
This is an easy-to-navigate collection that’s hindered only by
its slight lack of artists (although this is due in part to the youth
of the site) and by its lack of connection to artists’ personal sites
to see more of their work. Yet despite its flaws, The Illustration
Source still provides a one-stop shop for all your creative needs,
and is certainly worth a browse. 5

Rating: 4/5

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Get seen online
PortfolioCity.com
Web: www.portfoliocity.com
PortfolioCity.com is an online gallery that
contains the portfolios of artists and
designers from across the world. The site
was founded by London-based graduate
Jeremy Baines to promote fresh artistic
talent and give creative people their own
space on the Internet. The site has since
grown on an international scale.
Providing portfolios from absolutely free up
to a premium (£67 per year) package,
PortfolioCity.com is aimed at both renowned
and up-and-coming artists, illustrators, film-
makers, graphic designers and their customers.
The searches are extremely quick and the
results are displayed clearly, however the
community feeling of so many other sites is
clearly lacking here. 5
Rating: 3/5
Amateur Artwork
Web: www.amateurartwork.com
Although the name of the site might sound
a little patronising, the site isn’t. Merely
welcoming good-quality work from those
not considered professionals, Amateur
Artwork showcases photography, painting,
drawing, sculpture, digital art and mixed
media. Phew!
Although the digital art category draws very
few (well, one) portfolios at the moment, with
so many other categories embraced by the site
it’s the perfect avenue for those of you who mix
hand-drawn or painted elements with your
Photoshop creations.
Although not the best-looking site we’ve
seen, or the easiest to use, as an up-and-coming
site it might well be worth being one of the
first contributors. 5
Rating: 2/5
Creative Pool
Web: www.creativepool.co.uk
Searching for jobs can be a
pain, so anything that helps
work find you is a big plus.
Recom
mends
Creative Pool is an online
portfolio site that allows you to upload
your CV, past employer comments and
examples of your work on their site, and you are
emailed job adverts to match your
requirements in return. As well as this there’s
also a searchable jobs database and a forum, as
well as all the near-7,000 portfolios being fully
searchable by potential commissions.
The ideal place if you’ve just graduated and
aren’t sure whether the nine-’til-five or the
freelance gamble is for you. 5
Rating: 5/5
090-094_APM19_resources.indd 91
resources
CIA
Web: www.centralillustration.com
B ack in 1983 a small but perfectly formed illustration
agency called CIA landed in Covent Garden. CIA has
since grown into one of the most successful and critically
respected agencies in the UK. Promoting illustrators and
artists via touring exhibitions, seasonal festivals and a
magazine as well as the website, CIA is the place for
professional illustrators to showcase.
Representing a small but illustrious band of creatives, CIA still
accepts new portfolios from up-and-coming, talented
illustrators. Just email in a few low-res examples and the team
will get back to you if you’re what they’re looking for.
Although this is quite an exclusive portfolio site, it’s well
worth checking out if you think you have the talent, as it’ll be
one of the first sites big clients go to. 5
Rating: 4/5
UKportfolios
Web: www.ukportfolios.com
U mends
Kportfolios is the idea of Grantly Lynch. After
creating his own business royalty-free library,
Recom
he was often approached by other photographers and
illustrators wanting to submit work to his stock site. Some
of the submissions were not always suitable for his niche
library, but he felt they were ideal for a new stock site.
UKportfolios allows professional and amateur photographers
and illustrators to display their work and set the prices they
want to charge. The aim of the site is to offer a wide range of
artists’ portfolios so that picture buyers can view fresh and
creative work that has not been filtered by a picture editor.
Any photographer or illustrator can upload their images and
create a free portfolio on this simple, stylish site. 5
Rating: 5/5
The AOI
Web: www.theaoi.com/portfolios
W
hether you’re a student, part of a corporation or just
a lone freelancer, The Association Of Illustrators has
your best interests at heart.
Set up in 1973 to protect the rights of illustrators and
encourage professional standards, The AOI offers members the
right to an annual consultation to make sure they’re making the
most of their page. Although it’s pricier than some sites, The
AOI offers more than just a place to showcase work. There’s
news, degree shows, useful articles, a place to discuss your ideas
and a book containing hundreds of images designed by peers
at a discounted price for members. This won’t be the best place
to showcase if you’re not a straight illustrator, but it’s a great
source of inspiration and advice for all. 5
Rating: 4/5
91
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1/6/06 17:28:00
 books
resources
Treat your coffee table to a brand new page-
turner from our collection of creative inspirations
Further reading
RE
OF ADER
Maximalism Adva FE
Maxncied PhotoshR
ma op readers c
Graphics Book
Author: Jane Austin

To ta free post lism

with Publisher: RotoVision
Recom
hotlin ke advan age and for £ uy
an b Price: £27.50 mends
Author: Charlotte Rivers ISBN: 288046790X
e t p kagi 26
from rence num476 54 this offer,ng (UK only.99
Publisher: RotoVision refe on a
01 e ofg ac Web: www.rotovision.com

Price: £29.99 22 b 10
June er JF 80 an ll the . ca ) Graphics Book is one of those rare
ISBN: 2880467942 to the 01. Of d quo tomes you’ll be able to dip in and out of for
end o fer vali te the
f Aug d technical advice, inspirational images and
Web: www.rotovision.com ust 2
006 that all-important element, entertainment.
Showcasing a host of top designers, each of

A fter years of minimalist rule, graphic design has seen a whom talks revealingly about their designs, the
way they work, their influences and their hopes
return to a more decorative approach, and this book
for the future, this book gives you a real insight
documents the rise and rise of extravagance in design. into how they got to the top of their game. It
Celebrating the ornate and the glamorous in design, this read also suggests how to deal with new challenges
is itself a sumptuously extravagant object. Examining design such as blurring of boundaries between
that appeals to the senses through luxury, profusion and excess, mediums, as well as giving a (very) brief history
of design trends. Simply put, a great read. 5
Maximalism looks at the qualities of this new genre and teaches
designers how to apply this new movement to their own work. Rating: 5/5
Showcasing the work of hundreds of talented creatives and
projects that typify maximalism in graphic design – whether Color Confidence: The
through use of materials, print processes, layout and Recom
Digital Photographer’s
composition or sheer extravagance of purpose – this book is we’ve come to be entering this maximalist trend
m ends Guide To Color
a colourful addition to your coffee table and a must-have for and how and why we will soon leave it behind. Management, 2nd Edition
by-the-computer inspiration. Also included for your money is a full list of contacts Author: Tim Grey
Publisher: Wiley
If a wealth of intricate images isn’t enough to make you part for the people who have work featured. An essential resource Price: £25.99
with almost 30 of your hard-earned pounds, though, the brief for designers, delivering the newest trend and the means to ISBN: 0471786160
Web: eu.wiley.com
history of the design cycles might. Talking you through the Art create the style. 5 Recom
mends
Establishing a successful colour
Nouveau style of the late Nineteenth century to the mid- management workflow that
Nineties and the ‘loft-living’ generation, the book explains how Rating: 5/5 produces predictable results is an
important – yet tricky – undertaking.
Most photographers and digital artists are all
too familiar with the frustration of a print not

Photoshop CS2: Before & After Makeovers matching the image on the monitor. Color
Confidence provides the crucial information you
need to get the colour you want, every time.
Written by a well-known digital imaging expert,
Author: Taz Tally
this full-colour, results-driven guide focuses on
Publisher: Wiley how to ensure that the colour in an image file is
Price: £19.99 accurately represented and reproduced from
ISBN: 047174901X scanner or camera to monitor or printer – a
Web: eu.wiley.com must-have for the successful imageer. 5
Rating: 5/5

I n the digital imaging business, creating your own

images from scratch can be a real nightmare. If your
source images are torn, scratched or are simply not exactly
Adobe Creative Suite 2
How-Tos: 100 Techniques
Author: George Penston
as you want them, you have to perfect your image-editing Publisher: Adobe Press
Price: $15.99 (£8.49)
skills before getting on to the creative stuff. ISBN: 0321446682
This book contains lots of projects to take you through the Web: www.peachpit.com

step-by-step process to achieve each result. Done in this way,
the book is simple enough for even beginners to master the art
of transforming their images yet still holds enough interest for
those who are a bit more advanced. A full-colour book,
Photoshop CS2: Before & After Makeovers contains a wealth of
images to illustrate how to alter brightness, tweak contrast,
replace a background, match colour across images and add
motion to images. It also shows readers how to perform plastic
surgery on their photos by fixing photo tears and scratches,
painting on an image, and removing distracting elements.
Although Advanced Photoshop readers will already know the
basics covered here, you will still get a lot from this read to
improve your imaging skills, gain a better understanding of the
technology and bask in the reward of amazing imaging results.
For anyone who enjoys the tutorial-inspired, doing-rather-
than-reading way of learning, this book is a great resource. 5
Rating: 4/5
Most of us are only too aware of Adobe’s CS2
and its capabilities. Enabling you to realise
ideas anywhere – in print, on the web or on
canvas – CS2 is a force to be reckoned with.
Even the best artists realise there is always
more to learn and techniques to master, and this
guide lets readers focus on the CS2 features
they’re most likely to use and showcases each in
a standalone tip. Readers learn just what they
need to know, exploring the program in a way
that makes sense. Although professionals might
find this basic, most people will find a technique
or two in here that’ll become invaluable. 5
Rating: 4/5

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 stock art
resources
No matter what your creative needs, there’s a
stock library to suit your project and your pocket

FreeStockPhotos.com Stocking up
Web: http://freestockphotos.com
Shutterstock
T here are literally thousands of stock art sites out there.
Whether you go to Corbis for a professional portrait or
to Lonely Planet for exotic travel shots, chances are you
Web: www.shutterstock.com
Stock photography is photos or other
imagery of landmarks, concepts, people,
spend more time, and money, than you’d like. and events that can be used and reused for
FreeStockPhotos.com is a site providing free photography a variety of commercial purposes, and with
for personal or commercial work (subject to conditions). over 700,000 images and thousands more
added every week, Shutterstock is one
Covering the basics – travel, animals, nature, scenery, weather –
stock photography library that isn’t likely
there’s sure to be something here to get those creative juices to disappoint.
flowing. If this wasn’t enough incentive to check out the site, A subscription-based website, you can
the links it provides to other free photo sites should be choose your plan – one month, three, six or a
year – then download up to 25 images per day
(freeimages.com, bigfoto.com and freefoto.com to name a few).
for £76.20 a month.
It might not be the most attractive of sites or have the most If you won’t use enough images a month
images, but it is a handy time- and money-saving resource. 5 to make your subscription worthwhile, a
pay-per-picture site is a better option for you.
Rating: 3/5 If you do get through your source images
though, this is great value. 5
Rating: 4/5

BAPLA iStockphoto
Web: www.istockphoto.com
Web: www.bapla.co.uk Well, you certainly can’t get cheaper than

W
this (except if it’s free!). With a starting price
hen you’re on the hunt for that perfect image and
of just $1 per picture, iStockphoto is
you’ve exhausted all your favourite stock art haunts, suitable for any pocket.
then it can be hard to know where to go next. One of the world’s fastest growing
BAPLA provides everything you need to know about finding, collections of royalty-free images, iStockphoto
buying and selling pictures. From current news and events to has no subscription fees and provides photos,
vector, and flash files.
upcoming job vacancies, this site has it all, including links to However, with so many images, searches
over 400 image specialists. Ranging from small independently can throw up literally thousands of results and
run to multinationals, BAPLA provides direct web links to the trawling through them all can feel like hard
sites of your choice. With a simple search engine you can work, especially when so many of them seem
irrelevant to your search (this is due to the
narrow your search to images of sports stars, night-time skies
photographers using too many keywords for
and abstract art, or learn more about buying from a picture their images). However, for value and volume,
agency. Clear and easy to use, although it would probably it’s still a great site. 5
benefit from showcasing an image from each library. 5 Rating: 3/5

Rating: 4/5
Jupiter Images
Web: www.jupiterimages.com
Providing over a million images online,

Crestock Jupiter Images is arguably one of the

world’s leading stock agencies.
It provides creative professionals
Web: www.crestock.com/en with high-quality images that inspire

I
ideas, illustrate concepts and enhance
f you’re after cost-effective, quick service then Crestock the design of any project, and suit any
should be your first port of call. Supplying images for a budget. You can choose from premier
fixed fee of $10 per image means you’ll never be stuck with subscription, rights-managed and royalty-free
stock photography.
a nasty bill you can’t afford or left with the disappointment
Although if you’re on a shoestring these
of finding that perfect picture only to be told it’s hundreds images might come in a little on the pricey
of pounds over budget. side, for a one-off piece or for the professional,
There’s also the opportunity to become a contributor to this library has some quality images courtesy
Crestock for all you budding photographers out there. You of Bananastock, Brand X, Image 100, PhotoAlto
and Thinkstock, among others. 5
even get paid for it! Any time your image is bought you get a
$2 fee – not bad when someone else is handling all the Rating: 4/5
paperwork! If you’re interested in contributing or buying
images from Crestock, check out the site for restrictions
and more information on what you need to do. 5
mends
Recom
Rating: 5/5

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