If you are like me and you are wondering why in the world Adobe decided to eliminate the previous functionality of the Paint Bucket tool in Illustrator CS3 with the introduction of the new ‘Live Paint Bucket’ tool, fear not — a solution is at hand.
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A plugin that I always forget to tout, since the functionality it provides seems so intrinsic to Illustrator once it’s installed, I forget it’s a third-party enhancement.
Select Menu for Adobe Illustrator (Mac and Windows, free) from Graffix Software is available for every version of Illustrator from 8 on up to CS3. It adds additional selectable items under the Select -> Objects menu.
This plugin really comes in handy at the production stage of prepping your art, allowing you to find all sorts of items that you need to preflight. It especially comes in handy after flattening transparency, such as when you export art to an older version of Illustrator. I find lots of klunky and open paths all over the place after flattening transparency, and I couldn’t imagine how much of a pain in the neck it would be to clean up art without Select Menu.
Fairly recently I worked up this cartoon goldfish for an illustration project of a cartoon style aquarium. This was part of a recent round of cartoon illustration work for a client doing some re-branding of their aquarium water treatment/cleaner/additive Algone. The cartoon fish tank illustration was used to update a product instruction sheet.
This cartoon sketch of a trendy ‘cool guy’ rocker type mascot character was created for a current project. He was to the the male ‘companion’ character for the cute cartoon indie rock/alternative rock girl created for the same project. While I love how the head and face came out, I am not so pleased with the body – could use a bit more flair. This is an initial working sketch, so had the client approved that would have been edited. The client wanted to go in a different direction with him, so he’s on the reserve list for perhaps another project.
This cartoon sketch of a cute indie rock/alternative rocker girl is one of a series of cartoon characters I am working on for a current project. She went through quite a bit of revisions in look, dress and age – but the final came out perfect.
Earlier version had her a little too old and road-weary – I thought we were going for a more ‘edgy’ character but the client wanted a younger, cuter version. The iPod, chain wallet and Chuck Taylor sneakers were a must.
Sketch of a cartoon man’s head with an evil grin. this was sketched out on a newspaper using a ball-point pen. Drew this the other night while having some beers with friends down at Ray’s Place in Kent, Ohio.
If a large, blank(ish) piece of paper and a pen is around, I can’t help but draw.
My friend Preeti snapped the photo for me.
Just saw this over at design blog BittBox: when drawing with the Shape tools in Illustrator (rectangle, circle etc.), holding the tilde key (the squiggle key to the left of the 1 key on U.S. keyboards) and then dragging the mouse will result in lots of duplicates of the shape following the trail of your mouse pointer.
I recently had the opportunity to try out a Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet, having purchased one for my Dad this holiday season. Dad is not a graphics guy by any means, but I use my Wacom tablets for so much more than just drawing and graphics applications – and love it so much – that I thought the Bamboo was a perfect accessory for another ardent computer geek.
In short, the Bamboo is a great entry-level tablet for casual users, but graphic artists will want to seriously consider investing in one of the pricier, but more fully-featured Intuos3 models. Read on for full details.
Months ago a fan emailed me to get the OK to use one of my sketches as a tattoo. I usually give the go-ahead on any not-for-profit use of my personal art (that said, unless I actually do give the OK, it’s not officially OK). In this case since it was a personal sketch I had done I was cool with it.
I have a few tattoos myself (all done by the venerable Eric Starr over at Arkham Tattoo in Akron, Ohio). I can sympathize with someone who finds the right art for a tattoo – I had Eric ink over a bunch of early stuff that I became less than enthralled with – and now have a huge Japanes-style koi fish shoulder piece in addition to my original Mayan God/Ancient Astronaut glyph.