I recently completed an amazing online class taught by Will Terry and Jake Parker who have created a 'School of Visual Storytelling'. I can't say how much I loved the class and have come out of it with more focus and motivation to keep working toward this dream of becoming an illustrator of children's books. Additionally the students in the class were great and we have come out of the class with a community of support.
There is so much to learn, but I am working on babysteps. On of these first steps is going to focus a little more of digital painting and harnessing the power of Photoshop. I found a great tutorial last week on apply texture by Alexandria Neonakis. On this page, there is also a link to some great textures that are free to download.
I have been a silent fan of Tiffany Varga for a long time. Recently I saw this tutorial that she posted on Youtube. It's amazing and a style that I need to practice. She has a number of other video tutorials that one can find through the "Video" page on her website.
I also found a three video lecture series that Tiffany has posted, below is part one...
This post was particularly enlightening. Tiffany explained a concept that I have never heard of before. She was introduced to the concept herself apparently after art school while reading a book by Richard Schmid entitled "Alla Prima". The concept is basically conserving value by turning the form with color, which in the process also maximizes the readability of the piece. If that makes absolutely no sense, watch this video and you'll totally get it.
Hair has always been a challenge for me to draw. I seem myself getting better as I practice, and Matt from DTO has some great tutorials that have given me some insights into how to draw hair more realistically. But for those times when I want to draw realistic hair that is a little more 'cartoony' I seem to gravitate toward Manga hair. Here is a great tutorial by Mark Crilley on drawing Manga hair that I watched today.
Just a quick note of some great tutorials that have been posted by classmates at Marks and Splashes - thanks to all for sharing!
Monster Cutie has posted links to 20 'mighty fine' tutorials, I have tried a couple and loved them all I highly recommend spending some time looking at these. drawinghowtodraw.com has some great stuff on photoshop, illustrator, using a wacom tablet etc... Digital Art Secrets has a great post on using traditional painting techniques in Photoshop
I have come across a couple sites that provide free tutorials in Photoshop that look intriguing, something I'm going to have to sit down and go through one day.
Why is it always hard for me to keep up with the drawing and the learning that I want to do?? I have had a Wacom tablet for a couple years and I still haven't spent much time figuring it out!! Well here are some tutorials that will give me a chance to try it out (although the tablet is not necessary) to do it.
Found a great tutorial on making a sketchbook from a Moleskine datebook. I want to try this one day but will never remember where I read about it unless I link it. Thanks again Trumpetvine!
Since I am very new to digital art processes, I have been very busy this weekend finding some tutorials on the subject. There are so many generous artist out there sharing their process, tips and tricks. Here's a great one by Rivkah that I am going to try to follow this week.
Last week I found the best tutorial on straightening a scanned image...I have been looking for it ever since and discovered it again tonight on Gina Perry's blog. I am just adding the link here for safe keeping.
