I’ll not only be creating collage pieces (an example I did is shown here) and other extensive large format Photoshop work in this new position, but I’ll also be stretching my wings with other graphic design applications in creating multimedia and web-based exhibits. I look forward to hearing from you in the future as I embark on this new path in my career!

Tillamook Vista

While I specialize in digital hybrid sketches, I also create high-end digital painting illustrations for architects, developers and real estate professionals. Click here to see the process I used to create the digital painting ‘Tillamook Vista’.

Photoshop.com – Create a personal gallery and library, find out about products, and view tips and tutorials.

Planet Photoshop – Goes hand in hand with NAPP’s member site, full of tutorials, reviews, a forum, and product reviews.

Computer Graphics Society – Their portf0lio and gallery are inspiring, with over 165,000 portfolios and nearly 300,000 viewable images.

Photoshop Blog – Found through photoshopsupport.com, the format is a little strange with such a long scroll, but there is a wealth of information to be found here.

flickr: Marcin Wichary

Thought I’d shared some cool shortcuts. If you’re like me, keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop not only are really cool and can possibly save time, they also bring much joy…I hope they do so for you. Much joy all around.

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E: makes flattened copy of selected multiple layers on top of those layers.

Alt, click ‘n drag: makes a copy (on new layer) of contents of a layer, including text layers.

Alt+click in mask: to see only the mask. Paste in a texture in mask. Alt+click again to go out of mask view.

Alt+click on layer eyeball: shows only that layer’s pixels. Alt+click again to restore other layers as they were, on or off.

Anyone up for some whiplash?

I occasionally will create a walk-through animation of a project in Google SketchUp for a client, and I usually am excited to show her or him the finished product. But there’s one thing that I’m constantly embarrassed by when I click ‘play.’

The biggest complaint I have is not that the animation is not realistic. I understand that SketchUp is not intended to be photo-realistic, it is extremely helpful to quickly enable the client to visualize a space, to ‘see’ what it would look like in advance of construction. But when the finished animation of a walk-through begins, as it cycles through the various stops along the way, you come to a screeching halt at each stop. Then you get whiplash as you take off for the next station point.

A smooth, gradual start and stop at each position would seemingly be an easy addition to this software. If anyone knows of a way around this problem, I’d be first in line to find out about it.

Cropped aerial perspective done for YMCA

You get another angle on things when you see it from above…not seeing directly down as in the case of an illustrative plan, but rather an aerial or “bird’s eye” view. This creates an informative angle on your project, and can show as much or as little detail as you want to convey. It also allows for the laws of perspective to help tell the story, while covering a lot of ground.

Most aerials will be generated first in a rough computer model so the ideal viewing angle can be established and approved before getting into the hand sketch. It may be particularly helpful to visualize your project using both an aerial drawing and traditional eye-level perspective sketches.

Photo courtesy of Exquisite Exteriors

Photo courtesy of Exquisite Exteriors

Typically I will do illustrations for a project that is in its early stages of design, so the client can visualize what it may look like someday. But for this project in Virginia, I worked ‘backwards’–creating an illustrative plan for a project that was already built!

This digital rendering mimics a watercolor technique, thanks to a unique mix of stylized edges filters and soft light layer styles in Photoshop. I have developed this technique over the past year and am very pleased with the results.

The drawing is done exclusively on my Wacom tablet, with multiple layers built on top of the plan drawing provided by the client. This enables multiple revisions and details to be accomplished easily under a tight deadline. Many photos of the site were referenced for detail and accuracy.

NAPP’s website, photoshopuser.com, is one of the best sites I’ve seen on the topic of all things Photoshop. It is chock full of helpful tutorials, tech support links, news and reviews. Members are able to post images to a portfolio gallery, and I have spent hours perusing these galleries randomly. I never cease to be impressed with the diversity of creative output shown in these portfolios. The website also has member discounts for equipment and software, and gives one access to thousands of postings in the user forums.

Other perks of NAPP membership are Newswire email newsletters and the free subscription (printed or electronic, your choice) to Photoshop User Magazine. This comes out every other month, and I love ‘flipping’ through page after page to see what’s up in the digital imaging industry. It’s inspirational.

Finally, membership in NAPP gives one a substantial discount (one which more than covers NAPP membership, by the way) to attend the world’s largest Photoshop convention, Photoshop World. There are two held each year, one on the East Coast in the spring and one at Las Vegas in the fall. For three days, attendees gain a veritable wealth of tips, tricks and training geared towards beginners and the most advanced users alike. I was absolutely blown away when I attended this convention. The sheer scale of it was incredible–thousands upon thousands of creative people like me who love everything about Photoshop. Check out more details at photoshopworld.com.

Hand drawn illustration

Built project (photo courtesy BHA Design)

Architectural illustrations can very accurately capture the look, the feel of a place before it ever comes into existence.

In this example, the marketplace was built up quickly in SketchUp using elevations from the architect. This way, multiple angles can be freely explored. The perfect vantage point was found, the image was printed and the rest was done by hand. Illustrations produced this way exhibit an effective collaboration of technology and artistic skill.

Rather than trying to depict the scene with a photorealistic, fully computer-generated rendering, we brought it to life instead with a soft, hand drawn look while still maintaining accurate details.

An illustration does not have to be computer-rendered to portray a scene accurately. They can convey exactly what you want your drawing to convey, and still be ‘loose.’ And the pure, artistic quality of a hand rendering is highly appealing–and hard to come by.

Can you picture your project before it is built? Perhaps the better question is, can you afford not to?

Sample downloaded texture

I love finding stuff online to use in my Photoshop work…especially when it’s free, and better yet, free and COOL. I came across one site today that is a mother lode, called Lost and Taken. Check it out!

This is a site “all about textures….glorious and wonderful textures. The blog focuses mainly on giving away free high-res textures to all of the dirt-poor, starving artists and designers out there.”

Created by a freelance photographer (and designer and cook, a man after my own passions), this site has galleries of free high-res textures. I downloaded a few that were 3261 x 2336 pixels (that’s 8″ x 11″ at 300 dpi)!

You can find out more at http://lostandtaken.com/about/#ixzz0qr3JCzK1

Now, that’s what I’m talking about…