Resources

Raster and Vector Graphics — An Overview

| George Coghill

raster-vs-vector

I recently needed to explain to a client the basic differences between Raster and Vector graphics, and came across this handy Raster and Vector Graphics overview at Mike’s Sketchpad.

While the explanation there is a nice summary, I would recommend any Adobe Illustrator (or other vector graphics software) users out there do a bit more research into vector art.

However for a quick explanation for a client or a non-vector graphics friend, the overview linked above pretty much sums it up as much as a non-vector art geek wants to know about the topic.

Tom Richmond’s ‘Drawing Hands’: An In-Depth Tutorial

| George Coghill

Cartoonist and illustrator extraordinaire Tom Richmond has an excellent in-depth guide to drawing hands over on his blog. As per usual with Tom’s instructional articles/blog posts, he goes into far more detail and insight than one could possibly imagine he would have time for, even down to supplying illustrated diagrams explaining everything.

Here’s a quote demonstrating the level of insight you’ll find:

Many people think the knuckle of the finger rests directly behind the crease that represents the base of the finger right under the bottom finger pad. Now turn your hand around. That main knuckle is SIGNIFICANTLY lower on the hand. In fact it’s below the upper pad of the palm that curve below all the fingers. A lot more of your finger resides inside the palm/body than you might think. Understanding that is a big part of figuring out hands.

At some point I can see Tom collating all these posts into a book of some sort. His blog tutorials are better than any book on cartooning I’ve ever seen, and this one is no different.

Probably one of the more difficult parts of the human body to draw, and Tom is a master at the cartoon hand. Head over there and learn from the best.

Zen Of The Pen

| George Coghill

Vector pen tool icon artSharon Steuer’s free “Zen Of The Pen” PDF is an excellent introduction to the inner mysteries of the vector pen tool in Adobe Illustrator.

Update: Sharon has kindly asked me to remove the link to that PDF, she’s working on an updated version. I highly suggested you head over to her website and sign up for updates. Sharon is the mastermind behind the excellent Illustrator WOW! vector tutorial books for Adobe Illustrator.

The pen tool is one of those obscure graphics programs tools that everyone tries once, and then gets so confused by that they never get any further with it. And understandably. It looks like a fountain pen, but it doesn’t act like one. Click and “draw”, you get weird “handles” sprouting out from a dot. Ignore that, and some annoying rubber band line gets stuck to your pen tip, all distorted out of — not even a straight line! Right there most Illustrator users think to themselves “this program sucks”.

But they couldn’t be further from the truth…

Continue reading →

20 Comic & Cartooning Photoshop Tutorials

| George Coghill

A collection of links to twenty great comics and cartooning tutorials over at PSDtuts. Lots of tips for inking in both Photoshop and Illustrator, coloring, using Photoshop layers to your advantage, achieving halftone effects and other comic-book style looks to your art.

A great resource. You can never have too much information about how other artists use graphics software to create their work. I often take tips from multiple tutorials and create my own workflow from just a tip here and a technique there.

Continue reading →