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Bald Eagle Totem

Here’s my latest painting, the Bald Eagle Totem.  This one was a real challenge because of the ‘white’ feathers which really aren’t white at all.  I used three different reference photos for this one.  The main image was from well-known wildlife photographer, Moose Peterson.  It was a full body shot of a bald eagle and while all of the main features I needed were there and it was a very good photo to work from, I had to buy a couple of stock photos as well, ones that focused on the close-up details of the main features.  I’ve started to use a minimum of three reference photos for my paintings this year, all paid for or used with permission, of course.  I find that more images provides more insight and I can do a better job with the details.

From looking at the three reference photos, I quickly realized that bald eagles are just like people.  Their features can be very different from one another, the colouring of their feathers, even the shape and texture of their beaks.  So between the three images, I had to make my own choices, based on what I liked and which features from all three would best contribute to the final painting.

One choice I made was to include warmer tones around the face, blending out to cooler colours around the edges and shadows.  As I said, white really isn’t white, so painting the feathers was about finding a balance between yellow and blue and the tones in between.  There’s even some magenta in there.  While another artist might not have chosen to make the blues so prominent, I really liked how those tones contributed to the overall mood of the image.  It felt right, so I went with it and while it still fits the look of my other Totems, it has a different light quality to it.

As for the expression, I don’t know where that comes from.  As I’ve said about many paintings before this one, the personality just seems to show up at some point during the painting process and I’m really pleased with this one.  Pardon my candor, but he just looks like an absolute bad-ass, and I love that.

On to the next one!

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Another Wacom Webinar

Wacom has invited me back for another webinar, coming up soon on Thursday, November 8th.  Click here or on the image to go to the registration page.  Best of all, it’s free!

When I was in Las Vegas in September for Photoshop World, Wacom invited me to give a demonstration at their booth on the Expo Floor.  Yesterday, they posted the session online in two parts.  While this one shows you more of me talking about painting, next week’s webinar will show my screen and you’ll be able to see the work up close and personal, just as I get to while I’m creating it.

Here are the videos from Vegas.  Enjoy!

PART 1

PART 2

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Forward Momentum

One of the best things about being a freelancer these days, whether it’s writing, photography, illustration or just being self-employed is that there is no shortage of information out there to help you.  Just twenty years ago, there was no such thing as Google.  The Internet didn’t begin to gain real traction with the public until the mid to late 90’s.  Before that, you had to go to the library.  That’s a building with books in it.

We enjoy almost instant connection today, but it used to be a lot more difficult to find information while learning a skill.  If you were lucky, you might find a professional artist with whom to apprentice, but what to do if you lived in a rural area and had limited resources?  Now, we have access to apps, books, trade magazines, DVDs, online courses, webinars, forums, and websites full of information, all from the comfort of our own homes.

The problem with access to all of that information is that it is far too much for any one person to take in.  You may have the resources to learn all you want to, but so do your competitors, so there’s no room for complacency.  Thirty years ago, for example, a newspaper would have an editorial cartoonist on staff and that’s how they’d make their living, drawing one cartoon a day (sometimes less) for that one publication, spending the whole day working on one image, and not having to worry about sales, marketing, printing, promotion or local, national, and international competition, certainly not to the extent one must do so, today.

Most daily newspapers have dismissed their cartoonists and are opting for more regional, national and international syndicated cartoons and paying significantly less than they used to.  We are all familiar with this trend in every industry, so lamenting the fact is a useless exercise.  Adaptation is the order of the day in every profession.

With all of that information available and so many options, it can be easy to become anxious about where to put your efforts.  Ask ten freelancers which sites, organizations, and advice you should follow, and you’ll get an infinite number of answers.   If you dig a little deeper, you’ll discover that each of those ten freelancers is following the advice of ten other people, and everybody is just winging it, hoping to get enough work to pay the mortgage.

Put simply, you have to try new things and then evaluate their worth on your own.  Then you have to consider that something that worked for you yesterday might not work for you tomorrow.  Your own instinct will be your best guide.

For example, I’ve been a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals since September of 2004.  That’s quite a long time these days.  In addition to all I’ve learned about Photoshop, I’ve made invaluable contacts in the industry, and have formed lasting relationships with many people, a number of whom I consider good friends.  The investment in that membership has been very good for my career.

In recent years my skills have reached a point where I’m now in need of more advanced training and when the air gets a little thin, it’s tough to find that in any organization that must cater to a wide variety of skill levels.  That, coupled with the fact that today, NAPP’s focus is almost exclusively on photography, it has become obvious that there isn’t much left there for me anymore.

The friendships and connections, I take those with me, but when my membership expires next month, I won’t be renewing it.  It was a tough decision, but I based it on the question, “Had I not been a member for the past eight years, would I  join the organization today?”

The answer was an easy No. It isn’t that NAPP doesn’t have value for photographers, because it clearly does.  But I’m not a photographer.

While I had a good run and it was time and money well spent, I’m looking for other learning opportunities.  That being said, there’s still a good chance I’ll return to Photoshop World in Las Vegas next year.  Connecting with others, networking and spending time with other industry professionals is invaluable, not to mention that I always have a good time.  My experience teaching at the Wacom booth in September was great and I hope to repeat it again next year.  But I’ll be there on the periphery, not as an attendee.

So the message here is that continuing education as a freelancer is crucial to developing and maintaining a thriving career, but it’s up to you to find your own teachers,  a task that will never end.  You must constantly adapt to an environment that is changing so much faster than most can keep up with.  When something is working for you, get as much from it as you can.  When it stops contributing to your momentum and success, you need to cut it loose.

For now, my own path to continued education is uncertain, but I’ll keep looking to online courses, webinars, trade magazines and I’ll follow the art of other creatives, those who inspire me to be a better artist.  They say when the student is ready, the teacher shows up, so I’m not worried.

While I’m waiting, I’ll just keep working.  Practice makes perfect and even though I’ll never get there, I’m still aiming for it.

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You, Me, Them and Online

 

With limited or no knowledge of your background, skills, training, experience or business, there will always be somebody else painting a black and white picture of what your path to success should look like.  Nowhere is that more evident than when it comes to your online presence.  Too many experts pontificating on the right way to do things (the way they’re doing it) and the wrong way to do things (any other method they don’t like).

The questions each of us should ask ourselves are simple.  What are you putting energy into that isn’t giving you anything back?  What are you spending time on that is or isn’t worth the effort?

I’m not an expert.  I just play one online.  Here are some of my own answers.

Website ads:  It took years for it to happen, but my website gets plenty of traffic these days.  Some people advocate selling ads on the site to give you more revenue.  Personally, I don’t like seeing them on another person’s site, so I don’t put them on mine.  If I had a physical storefront on a main street, I wouldn’t block up my own window and doorway with billboards for other businesses, even if they were paying me.

Blogging: I love watching the ‘you should blog/blogging is dead’ argument that pops up now and then.  My take on blogging is simple.  I enjoy writing, I do it well enough, and I find that keeping what amounts to an online diary of my work to be an enjoyable process.  It’s interesting to look back on thoughts and perspectives I had a few years ago and compare them to what I think today.

If I didn’t enjoy writing, however, I wouldn’t keep a blog, no matter what anybody said, because it wouldn’t sound genuine.

Social Media:  When I joined Facebook, the goal seemed to be to get as many friends as I could and that would tell people whether I was popular or not.  That got old really fast.  So I started a business page.  Then I had to get those people that were friends to ‘like’ my business page.  Get as many ‘likes’ as I could and that would tell people how popular my business was. This becomes an exercise in groveling.  I didn’t like it.

After Facebook, came Twitter, LinkedIn, and eventually Google+, because other people said that’s what I was supposed to do.

Here’s what I know now.

I’ve put the brakes on my personal page and focused my energy on only having my business page.  I’ll include links to it in posts, give away prints from time to time and promote it when appropriate, but I’m no longer holding my hat out, getting people to ‘like’ it out of guilt.  It stinks of desperation.  I want people to like my page only if they like my work.

My personal page still keeps me connected to other people and the pages and information I like, and allows me to comment on those, so there is still value in having a personal page.  Connections are very important and interaction on social media is a two way street.

But you have to control your own experience.  Everybody has that one person that posts ten cat videos in a row, or is constantly picking a fight or complaining, or turns every one of your posts into an opportunity to further their own agenda.  I hide those people from my feed, block them or unfriend them and I don’t feel bad about it.  With a limited amount of energy available to me in a day, I can’t afford for social media drama to sap any of it.

Facebook gives me the most return for the time invested.  The people who follow my work there are the ones with whom I interact the most.  I get regular work and referrals from both new and repeat customers.

LinkedIn hasn’t done much for me, but then again, I haven’t done much with it.  I can say the same thing for Google+.  It costs me very little time to post my cartoons, blog links and other business related happenings to Facebook, Twitter and Google+, so I continue to do that.  But despite how many followers I have on all three, Facebook gives me the most interaction and traffic (the numbers don’t lie), Twitter a distant second, and Google+ a very dismal third, even though if you look at my profile, it shows the most followers out of all three.  For me, Google+ is quantity, not quality.

Too many people are flailing about trying to be everything to everybody and following every bit of advice that’s offered them, even when it ends up being completely contradictory.  There is safety in numbers, which is why sheep and other animals will form a herd.   But, if safety were my biggest concern, I’d still be working for somebody else, and wouldn’t have left the herd in the first place.

So here’s one more bit of advice, which you are free to ignore.  Take a moment to look at your online presence with fresh eyes.  Take a breath.  Then ask yourself what’s working for you and what isn’t.  If something is paying off, helping your business grow and showing promise, then keep doing that.  For everything else, cut it loose, despite what ‘the experts’ are saying.  Adapt, move forward, and ignore the herd.

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The Hidden Power of Blend Modes in Adobe Photoshop

http://www.adobepress.com/ShowCover.asp?isbn=0321823761

While Adobe Photoshop can easily be called the most versatile imaging toolbox on the market, it is a monster piece of software and monsters are often frightening.  With so many features and often multiple methods of accomplishing similar tasks, it can be very intimidating for even the most experienced user.  Because of that, there is an abundance of training resources on the market, from large phone book manuals that try to tell you everything to books that dissect specific features in the software.

Trying to learn everything there is to know about Photoshop is an exercise in futility.  True there are a number of experts out there who know a lot more than the average person, but even the most educated and skilled of those professionals will agree that there is always something more to learn.

Even though my use of Photoshop is limited to what I do, which has very little to do with photos, I’m constantly looking for new ways to improve my painting skills and to streamline how I work.  Speed and efficiency applies to art as much as it does to technical operations, especially when you venture into the land of commercial art and deadlines.

I don’t recall when I started using blend modes in Photoshop, but I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t, so it has been awhile.  There isn’t a painting, editorial cartoon, or illustration that I do these days that hasn’t been touched by at least one blend mode during the process.  The four blend modes I use most in my work are Soft Light, Multiply, Screen, and Color.  In fact, I even have Actions set up in my Wacom Tablet Radial Menu for them.  If your eyes are starting to glaze over, don’t worry about it.  This happens to a lot of people when you start breaking down the building blocks of images in Photoshop.

The thing about blend modes is that the more you dig into them, the more uses you find for them.  Scott Valentine’s new book, “The Hidden Power of Blend Modes in Adobe Photoshop,”  from Adobe Press,  has answered a need that a lot of people likely didn’t realize they had.

With Photoshop evolving every 18 months or so, anybody who uses it has to keep learning and the information in Scott’s book is as current as you’re going to find.  But even if you don’t have the latest version of Photoshop (CS6), you’ll be able to apply the knowledge to previous versions, as blend modes have been around for awhile.

So what are blend modes?  It’s funny, but if you’d asked me that question before I read Scott’s book, you’d have been met with a long pause.  The truth is, I had a good idea of what blend modes are, I knew what they did and how to use them for my own work, but I really wouldn’t have given you an answer that would have left you satisfied.  Today, my answer would be this book.

Without going through chapter by chapter, I’ll simply say that Scott has done an excellent job of breaking down what blend modes are and how to use them.  He gives very technical information for those who want it, but he also offers explanations for those who don’t.

No matter how you use Photoshop, you’ll find a reason to try blend modes, but without real world examples from different disciplines, it would be easy to get lost in the information and you might fail to see the practical uses.  In this book, Scott has assembled Photoshop professionals from a number of digital creative mediums to show how they use blend modes in their own work.  In other training materials I’ve seen, you usually only get one professional’s perspective, opinion and methods.  While there is value in that, it’s great to see how many ways others use blend modes, because one artist may offer a technique that is of no use to you, but the next one could reveal the buried treasure you’ve been looking for.

In the interest of full disclosure, my own blend mode techniques are featured in this book.  I was happy to offer some of my tips for using blend modes in cartooning, painting and illustration, but even without my small contribution, I would have still bought this book.  I’ve been through it a couple of times and I’ve no doubt I’ll continue to reference it, because I learned a lot about a feature I already thought I knew.  Turns out I had just scratched the surface.

What this book does very well is reveal possibilities.  Rather than give you a step-by-step for one procedure or just give you tips and tricks, “The Hidden Power of Blend Modes in Adobe Photoshop” shows you solutions that can be applied to a number of problems, even if you don’t know what those are yet.

I’m not exaggerating when I say I’d be very disappointed if I was no longer able to use blend modes in my work.  It would take longer to do my work and painting light and shadow (which is what I primarily use them for) would feel less dynamic and more difficult.  I’m certain there are more uses for blend modes in my own work than I am currently using and I will be looking to this book to help me find them.

The tools for art and creativity are like anything else.  When you first begin to use them, you may feel awkward and it’ll take some time before you develop any finesse in your methods.  When it comes to developing that skill with Photoshop, I’d recommend giving blend modes a closer look.  Scott’s book is the best resource I’ve seen to help you do that.

To find out more and to purchase the book, follow this link to Adobe Press.

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Otter Totem

This is my latest painting, the Otter Totem.  Under normal circumstances, I’d publish this post on the same day that I finish the painting.  In this case, however, I was a little swamped with other deadlines and it kept moving down on the priority list.  But better late than never.

This Totem was done in about a week, which is the fastest I’ve ever painted one of these.  While I’m sure the hours spent were close to the same as prior Totems, I had a few very late nights and early mornings, largely due to the fact that this was being used in another deadline, a painting video for Wacom.  Despite the quick turnaround, I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out.  As I’ve said many times before, I don’t pre-plan the expressions and they’re often as much a surprise to me as they are to anybody else.  The personality just seems to ‘show up’ at some point during the painting and I just go with it.  In this instance, the personality was there very early on and I really loved the curiously goofy face that emerged as I spent more and more time on the details.

This was also my first painting on the new Wacom Cintiq24HD and the experience of painting on this display was very enjoyable.  While I’ve never had any complaints about the Intuos tablets for painting, I just felt a lot more connected to the brush strokes with my pen directly on the screen.  I’ve always enjoyed digital painting and never felt that I was missing any of the tools I needed to get my best work onto the canvas.  The Cintiq, however, gave me something I didn’t know I was missing and improved the experience.

As for that video for Wacom, it is part of something else that will be coming a little later on, but they posted it on their YouTube channel, which means I’m able to post it here as well.  If you haven’t seen it already, it shows a high speed time lapse of the Otter Totem, from start to finish.  The narrative is aimed at traditional artists who might be considering the digital medium, but haven’t yet taken the plunge.

Enjoy!

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My Wacom Cintiq 24HD Settings

For this second blog entry on the Wacom Cintiq 24HD (read the first one here), I wanted to show all of the different settings I’ve chosen for the Express Keys, Touch Ring and Radial Menu.  I’m very comfortable using these hardware features on the Intuos tablets, but had to change everything up for the Cintiq for two reasons.  The first is that there are more settings to choose from.  The second is that working directly on the screen changed how I do things.

These Photoshop settings are in no way being shared in order to tell you what you should do.  Feel free to borrow anything you see here, of course, but I would encourage you to experiment with the settings and find ones that work best for you.  There are so many possible configurations that you can almost program each of the Express Keys, Touch Rings, and Radial Menu for anything you want Photoshop to do.  The feature I like best is that you can even program different settings for every piece of software you have.

My buddy Jeff Foster is an Author, Producer and VFX Artist at Sound Visions Media.  My setting for brush size on the pen, which I’ll explain later, was his suggestion and it works very well.  Since I’m no longer using the Touch Ring for brush size, he also suggested that the Touch Ring can be used for any keystroke operation at all, so it’s important to think differently and creatively.  I still haven’t finished experimenting with my Touch Ring settings, so some of the ones I show here will likely change.

Because there are so many settings to explain, I’ll just get right to it.  Here are some photos that show you what the buttons I’ll be talking about look like on the actual hardware.  I got these images directly from the Wacom site, so if you want to know even more about the Cintiq 24HD than what I’ve shown here, just click on any of the images and you’ll be instantly transported to their website.  It’s like magic, don’t you know?

As you can see from the image at the beginning of this post and the ones above and below, there are five Express Keys and a Touch Ring, with three settings each, on either side of the display.  Additionally, there are three buttons above the display for features I’ll explain later.  On the top edge of the display, which you can’t see here, there are a series of buttons like you would find on any monitor, to adjust your display color, brightness and contrast settings.  Incidentally, I like to work with my monitor brightness a lot lower than most people.  I have my Contrast set to 50, my Brightness to 13, and my Backlight to 0 (Zero).  You might think that a little odd, but it works very well for me.  My monitors have always been set to low brightness and my eyes don’t get strained as easily from long hours in front of a display.

Let’s talk about those three little buttons at the top right above the display.  From left to right, there is one that has a lower case letter i, one that looks like a keyboard, and one that looks like a wrench.  The i is for information, and when you press that, you get the image that you see below.  It fills the display, regardless of the software you’re using, BUT the settings you see displayed will be the ones you have set for that particular piece of software, or the default settings.  What you see here are my settings for Photoshop.  This is a great feature because you might forget what you have a button set for and this will show you in real time.  We’ll zoom in on all of these in a minute.

The second button will bring up the on-screen keyboard, which is pretty self-explanatory.  Sometimes you just want to type in a layer name, or press a number, and you don’t want to have to go fishing for your actual keyboard, especially since it might be under your Cintiq.

Finally, there is the button with the wrench on it, which will bring up your Wacom Tablet Properties.  I just think this is very clever to include this as a hardware button because sometimes you just want to make a quick change to your settings, and you don’t want to leave your software or go searching for it in your menus.  Press the button, it will bring up the panel you see here, make your change, close it and go right back to work.

Now let’s take a closer look at how I have my Express Keys, Touch Rings and Radial Menu set up.  I won’t show you how to make these changes, because that will require a whole new post.  If you want some help, I recorded a couple of videos for the Intuos5 and those will show you how to change your settings, even on the Cintiq.  Here are a couple of links, one for the Express Keys and Touch Ring and another for the Radial Menu.

Let’s take a look at the Express Keys and Touch Ring Properties.  As you can see below, the three buttons for the Touch Ring are currently set to Zoom, Brush Size, and None.  Rather than use the default Zoom, however, I have mine set to Ctrl- and Ctrl+ (Cmd- and + on the Mac) shortcut for Zoom.  The reason is that will zoom in and out in increments that keeps my painting sharp and crisp.  Some of the other increments in between can make images a little blurred and I don’t like that.  So my zoom isn’t a smooth transition, it goes in steps.

Brush Size is self-explanatory, although I now have that on my pen, so I’ll be finding another use for this spot, I think.  The third one is normally set for Rotate, as in rotating the canvas, but I have it set to None simply because I was recently recording a video and didn’t want to accidentally zoom in while recording if my finger touched the ring, so I set this to none and left it there while I recorded.  Again, I’ll be finding another use for this one, too.

For the Express Keys on the left of the display, I have them set as follows:

1) Undo – Ctrl-Alt-Z. (Cmd-Option-Z on the Mac).  When I’m painting, I pretty much keep a finger on this most of the time and it allows multiple undos.

2) Color Picker – This is not a normal keyboard shortcut, so I had to create one, which is fairly easy to do in Photoshop.

3) Shift – a Modifier Key that will give many tools more options.

4) Ctrl – (Cmd) another modifier key.

5) Pan/Scroll – In Photoshop, this is the Hand Tool and it will allow you to move around the canvas.

On the right side of the display, the Touch Ring again is still set for the default settings.  I know I’ll find a use for it, I just have to get creative and even more efficient.

For the Express Keys, they’re set as follows:

1) Gamut Check – Ctrl-Y (Cmd Y).  I draw and paint in sRGB, but I’m always aware that my editorial cartoons are printed in CMYK and some of my paintings and illustrations may be printed that way as well.  My color picker is set so I can only choose colors that are ‘in gamut’, which means when converted to CMYK, they won’t shift.  But sometimes when I make a Levels or other Color adjustment, it will shift colors too far, so I’m always checking Gamut to make sure everything looks as it should.  Newspapers do not have universal color settings.  Some publications have downright hideous printing, so I try to find a happy medium to please everybody.  Yeah, I know…good luck with that.

2) Hide – Ctrl-H (Cmd-H) When I’m working with selections, this hides the little ‘marching ants’ that define a selection, because I hate looking at the moving dotted lines when I’m painting.

3) Radial Menu – This is Wacom’s way of giving you even more choices.  It’s an onscreen heads-up display that gives you an opportunity to program your own menus and submenus.  I’ll show you my Radial Menu settings in a minute.

4) Fit Screen – Ctrl-0 (Cmd-0) Zooming in and out of a painting or drawing, often I just want the image to reset to fit screen.

5) Display Toggle – I have multiple displays, my other one is above the Cintiq.  When I want to access the other display, I press this button and my pen can move the cursor to my other screen, which makes the top half of the Cintiq display work just like a traditional Wacom tablet.  It’s a great feature.

My Pen Settings are as follows:

Erase – This button is a waste for me and I can’t even think of a reason to use it for something else, either.  I’m sure other people do use it, but I never have.

The button on the pen is actually two buttons.  Originally, it’s set for a Left Mouse and Right Mouse configuration, but as mentioned previously, my friend Jeff gave me a reason to consider other options.  For the left Mouse Button, the one furthest from the tip, I have it set to the keystroke configuration you see in the image.  What this allows me to do, when I have the Brush selected in Photoshop, is change brush size very fluidly.  I press the button, move the pen left or right and I can see the brush size change on the screen.  This was one of those, “I wish I’d known this sooner!” moments, because I would have had my Intuos tablet set to this as well.

The Right Mouse button, the one closest to the tip, is set to Alt (Option on the Mac).  When I have the brush selected in Photoshop, this toggles the Eyedropper Tool for easy selection of color in a painting.  I use this constantly for better blending and color transitions in my work.  So now I can change brush size and select color quickly and easily right from the pen.  It’s a very enjoyable way to paint.

And finally, here are my Radial Menu settings.

When you press the Radial Menu button, you get the circle on the right, which is fully customizable.  If you wanted to, you could make every one of those pie pieces into a submenu.  I currently only have three.  When you click on each of those submenus, you get  the images on the left.  Each submenu can not only have a full selection of pie pieces, but those can be submenus as well.  I’m no math wizard, but that gives you a LOT of choices for custom configuration.

Obviously I don’t need to explain every one of them, but I’ll give you some thoughts on what some of the more unique ones do.

Blend Modes Submenu – I use four Photoshop Actions for Blend Modes all the time in my drawing and painting.  OK, that one that reads ‘Cartoon Websize’ is an Action for something else, but I had nowhere else to put it and I use it every day.  But the rest are for Blend Modes, I assure you.  If you don’t know about Blend Modes in Photoshop, my buddy Scott Valentine just wrote a great new book that explains them very well.  I’ll have a review of the book very soon, but if you want to check it out, here’s the link.  The Hidden Power of Blend Modes in Adobe Photoshop.

Flip Canvas – Often when I’m painting, I want to shift my perspective, so I’ll flip the image I’m working on horizontally.  You’d be surprised how helpful this can be, especially when it comes to likeness in portraits.  Sometimes I’ll just know that something doesn’t look right but I can’t put my finger on it.  By flipping the canvas, the problem will almost always become immediately apparent.  Your brain gets lazy and this will often give your perception a bit of a slap.

So there you have it.  These are my settings on the Cintiq 24HD…for now.  I fully expect to make little changes and tweaks as I get more used to the display, but these settings are working very well for me at present.  There really is no excuse for not being able to customize this display to work exactly the way you want it to.  Yes, it will take some time to get it perfect, but it’s worth it.  Wacom has not only provided hardware that will allow you to create the best drawing and painting experience possible, but the software takes it even further.

Don’t be afraid of making changes.  There is a default button in the Wacom Tablet Properties.  If you mess it up too much, you can always start again.  When you do get the settings you want, however, back them up!  I can’t stress this enough.  Computers aren’t perfect, software can conflict with other software, and stuff happens.  There is a Wacom Tablet Preferences Utility included with the software.  It will allow you to save and restore your preferences should the unthinkable happen.  Just as you should back up your images and files, you should also back up your preferences.

If you have any issues, Wacom’s technical support is very helpful.  And finally, if you just have any questions, I’m happy to help, too.  Thanks for stopping by and hopefully this helped you see some possibilities you might not have considered, whether you’re using Wacom’s Intuos tablets or their Cintiq displays.

 

 

 

 

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What I like best about the Wacom Cintiq 24HD

A couple of weeks ago, I finally got the new Wacom Cintiq 24HD Display.  There are two versions of this device, and people keep asking me if I got ‘the Touch,’ meaning the one that has touch features along with pen input.  The answer is ‘No,’ and the reason is because even though I like touch features on my iPad and phone, I don’t feel the need for it on my main display.  I know a lot of people want that, so it’s great that this display is available with and without the option.  Keep in mind, there is also a significant cost difference between the two.

I’ve had my eye on the new Cintiq since it was launched earlier this year.  Many of the new features that Wacom included finally pushed me over the edge to get one.  Rarely do I develop an infatuation for new and shiny tech.  I waited two months before I got my first-gen iPad, just to be sure it was going to be useful and not just a toy.  Having used it every day since, I wasn’t disappointed.  That being said, it’s two years old and I’ll only replace it for a newer version when it stops working well.  I’ve never owned an iPhone and can’t think of any piece of technology I would line up for.

Now you might be thinking, why am I talking about Apple stuff, I thought this was about Wacom.  The reason is that I want to be clear up front that I’m not a gadget person who gets something just because it’s new and trendy.  If it’s not useful, I’m not interested.  So with years under my belt with the Intuos line of tablets and being very pleased with those, why did I suddenly feel the need to get the high performance sports car of Wacom tablets?

I’ve never had a problem doing all of my detailed painted work on the Intuos tablets.  They’re solid, they work well, they last forever and they get the job done.  The size wasn’t an issue, working off the screen wasn’t an issue, resolution and pressure sensitivity worked well.  The simple answer is that it was time.  This is the top of the line professional tablet and I want my work to be the best it can be.  From all I’ve heard from colleagues and other reviewers, their endorsement of what this display does for their workflow and better use of their time was enough for me to feel I needed to make the jump.

I’ve had the Cintiq 24HD for almost two weeks now.  Normally I’d write a review for something new a lot sooner than this, but I’ve been swamped with work, which as a freelancer is not a bad thing at all.  The upside of waiting this long for the review is that I’ve used it a lot.  There is nothing that I do in my scope of work that I now haven’t done on the Cintiq.  Daily editorial cartoons, illustrations, writing, and a brand new Totem painting from start to finish, I’ve really put it through its paces, and I am incredibly impressed.

There is just too much to talk about to do this in one post, so I’ll be spreading it out over two or three.  For this one, I just wanted to talk about the features that impressed me most.  I’ve never been one to do those ‘let’s unpack it’ reviews.  There are plenty of those out there.  As for the technical specs, you can see all of that as well as videos and other images on Wacom’s website.  I just want to tell you how this will impact my own work and why I like the display so much.  I made note of things that made me raise my eyebrows over the last couple of weeks.  A few of these things even made me say, “oh cool!” out loud.  They are in no particular order of importance.

1)  With a dual monitor system, I used to have my Photoshop palettes on a separate monitor.  The Cintiq is so big and has so many Express Keys along with the Radial Menu, that I don’t need that anymore.  I can do everything on this big screen.  But I still like my second monitor, so I have it positioned above the Cintiq, and I can keep all of my other windows, browser, music player open on that display.  By pressing one of the Express keys to ‘Toggle Display’, I can temporarily jump to the other monitor, and the Cintiq becomes just like a traditional Wacom tablet.

LOVE the new monitor configuration for reference photos!  Just feels so natural to look up from my ‘drafting table’ to see the pics.

2) They put a USB port right on the display itself.  Might seem like a small thing, but I frequently take images with me or grab them from a USB key.  This is just convenient.

3)  Wacom put a Tablet Properties button on the device itself.  This is great because it gives you quick options to open the properties, make changes, then get back to work.  It’s important to experiment with the Tablet Properties and more than a few times, I found myself thinking, “I should be able to program an Express Key to (insert operation, tool selection, or toggle here.)  They made it easier to do that.  I’ll detail all of my new settings in another post.

4) Pulling the device down over the edge of your desk, means forcing yourself to avoid using your keyboard.  This is a good thing!

5)  More buttons!  I really like the fact that with Express Keys on both sides of the screen, plus two (count ‘em, TWO) touch rings, you get plenty of options on how to customize your Cintiq so it works perfectly for the way you work.  A word of caution, however.  Computers aren’t perfect and sometimes program conflicts or an accidental pressing of the Default button in the Wacom Tablet Properties can erase all of your settings, so be sure to backup your settings with the Wacom Tablet Preference Utility.  I learned that lesson the hard way last week.

6) The display was so easy to set up.  OK, I did have to wait for my wife to get home from work so she could help me bring it up two flights of stairs from the garage to my office.  It’s 63lbs out of the box, quite large, and awkward to carry.  I wasn’t about to risk any damage by trying to do it myself.  Once I got it on my desk (oh, it’s staying there, now), the instructions were simple and straightforward.  It was very much like setting up any new display.  I use the Eye-One Color Calibrator and it was just as simple to calibrate the Cintiq as it is for any other type of monitor.

7)  The Cintiq is just a joy to work on.  The base is so well designed that I can’t think of any way to improve upon it.  As shown in the images here, it locks in place when it’s fully upright, so it can be used like a standard display (a BIG standard display) or it can be used flat in the upright position.  As someone who sits all day long while I work, I have contemplated getting one of those very expensive adjustable desks that allows a person to work standing up once in awhile.  I no longer have to think about that, because the Cintiq lets me do that when I need a break from the chair.  I did that a number of times in the past couple of weeks and loved having the option.

8)  Word of caution.  This thing is BIG.  I have a great coffee cup that I got at Costco (three of them, actually) made by Contigo.  You can see it to the left of the display in the photos.  It seals completely and to take a drink, you have to press a button on the back to open it.  It’s great because it not only keeps coffee hot for well over an hour, but it if you drop the cup or knock it over, it doesn’t spill.  Because I start work very early in the morning and work in low light as often as possible, my office is usually near dark.  In the first week of using the Cintiq, I knocked over my coffee cup three times when I went to adjust the display with the handles on the sides.  It’s just so big!

And finally, it’s solid!  There is nothing about this display that feels cheaply made.  The enjoyment I’m having drawing and painting on the screen is difficult to explain.  Working on little hairs with the pen at the same point of contact as my brush strokes just feels so much more natural.I’ve often dealt with back pain off and on over the years, usually stress related from working hunched over too much.  As I said, I was so busy with deadlines that I’ve spent a LOT of time on this device.  One thing I noticed, a great surprise, is that I had no significant neck or back pain as a result.  Sure, tight shoulders and strain just from sitting so long and working, you’ll get that in any job when you’re working long hours, but nothing that didn’t go away with rest and nothing that I had to take an Advil for.

So, yes, I’m enjoying the Cintiq 24HD a great deal, and I’m sure I’ll continue to discover things that make me say, “Oh, cool,” and I’ll be sure to share them.  Next time, I’ll talk about having to change all of Express Key, Touch Ring and Radial Menu settings.  When you’re working directly on the screen, it’s a whole new ballgame.

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Another Photoshop World

Photo courtesy of Chuck Uebele.

This past week, I once again found myself in Las Vegas for Photoshop World.  Following last year’s event, I wrote that it was unlikely I would attend again as the classes no longer offered me any significant benefit and that it had become very much a conference about photography rather than one about Photoshop.  Since I still believe that, you might wonder why I returned, especially since I only attended a few classes.

I got to hang out with many friends from all over Canada and the U.S., a number of whom I’ve worked with on projects or have plans to in the coming year.  I rely on these folks for reference photos, business contacts, and often just critiques of my work and moral support throughout the year, so it was great seeing them.  There is a great benefit to spending time with likeminded creatives with whom you can connect.

One of those was my good friend Jeff Tamagini from Boston.  Jeff is an architect, 3D designer and photographer whose work I really admire in all three disciplines.  Jeff was a big part of the reason Vegas was fun last week.  In addition to his introducing me to the amazing food at Julian Serrano at Aria (my wife was very jealous of that one), it was just guys hanging out, attending parties, dinners, and laughing an awful lot.  But I hired Jeff as a photographer while we there, too.

I plan to have a new PhotoshopCAFE DVD coming out this Fall, this one on painting portraits of people.  To avoid having to worry about model releases and licensing issues, I’ll be using myself as the subject.  The other reason is that anybody hired to paint a portrait is unlikely to have a model as their subject.  By using myself, I get to talk about how to minimize flaws (I have those in abundance) and to paint your subject in the best possible light, working with what you have.  I even woke with a zit on my nose that day, so I set aside my ego and told Jeff not to correct it from the shot, so I could show how to prep your reference photo as well.  The sacrifices I make for my craft, I tell ya.

Since I really like Jeff’s work and he’s a friend who’s also not going to make me look bad, I trusted him for the gig.  The shoot didn’t take long; I got the light and scene I wanted, to see the images in real time, and as a bonus, I have a little anecdote to share to make the DVD a little more engaging.

The second reason for attending was networking.  It’s an overused buzz word these days, but it basically means building new and reinforcing existing relationships to the benefit of your professional interests.

I was able to spend time with people from different companies, some of whom I’ve met before, but also a few with whom I’ve had no prior connection, but now have opened doors and dialogue for opportunities in the coming year.  There’s no online substitute for being introduced to a department head over lunch, and then realizing you’ve segued into discussing potential projects you might work on together.  You’re also a lot more likely to find out inside information about a great many things while sharing a drink with somebody at a social event than you will over email or social media.

At one point this week, I participated in an on-camera interview for an Adobe promotional video.  They asked me to show my painted work on camera.  At the end of the shoot, one of the camera crew gave me his card and asked for mine; because he might have a project he wants to hire me for.  Who knows if anything will come of it, but you just don’t find yourself in those moments when you only exist to people online.  I also had the opportunity to participate in an informal forum discussion with Adobe designers to discuss expectations and share thoughts on future releases and possibilities, a process I enjoyed very much.

And finally, I was invited to demo for Wacom in their booth on the Expo Floor.  I will admit to being a little nervous about that, but I’m also a firm believer that if you don’t step out of your comfort zone on a regular basis, you stagnate, especially as a creative.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been able to build relationships with a few key people at Wacom and I count myself lucky.  Wes, Joe and Pam have been very supportive of my work, and have treated me very well.  The trip alone was worth my time just to spend some with them. While the demo didn’t go completely according to my plan, (does it ever?), apparently nobody noticed and many told me afterward that they enjoyed the presentation.

Once I got rolling, it really did feel quite natural.  As Joe from Wacom said to me in an email the week before, “It is 45 minutes of doing what you do so well.”

You see why I like these folks?

After giving it some thought, I’m not going to make a ruling on whether or not I’ll go to Photoshop World again, but I can honestly say that I won’t be there as a conference attendee.  Without any advanced classes on painting and illustration, there’s just nothing there that I can’t learn online.  I may be back, however, for the reasons I’ve mentioned here.  What made the conference worth attending were the conversations and experiences I had at the Expo, as well as the number of meetings, planned and otherwise, in which I participated.  Some of my friends have said they won’t be back next year, so that will factor into it as well, but for now, I’m just leaving my options open.

All in all, I enjoyed the week.  While it was technically a business trip, it was also a bit of a vacation from the office, too.  Sometimes, even that’s just reason enough to go.

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Brisby

A little while ago,  I just happened to see the reference photo for this one on a friend’s Facebook page and asked her if I could paint it.  I was thinking sometime in the Fall.  It was clear to me from the beginning that this was not going to be a Totem style rendering.  I just loved the winter scene that was captured here.   Brisby is a 14 year old Australian Shepherd/Red Heeler cross and the photo not only showed her senior years, but just spoke to me.  I’ve never met her, but there’s a gentle soul behind those eyes.  I especially liked the reflections of her people in her eyes and even though I briefly experimented with painting her eyes without those reflections, it didn’t take me long to realize they belonged in the painting.  I enjoyed working on this one a great deal and for most of the time, it just seemed to paint itself.

Coincidentally (yes, I know, there are none), Brisby belongs to a friend who works for Wacom.  When they recently invited me to demonstrate my painting techniques at their Photoshop World booth, I realized I’d only do a good job of it if I painted something especially for that demo.  Since I already had the reference, I figured this was as good a time as any to paint this image.  As it wouldn’t be possible for me to create a painting from scratch and complete it in a 45 minute presentation, I saved this painting at multiple stages from beginning to end.  With each stage, I’ll show how I paint and talk about what I’m thinking and looking for at that particular point of the process.

If you’re going to be at Photoshop World, stop by the Wacom booth at any time during the conference when the Expo is open, but if you’d like to learn more about my process and this painting in particular, I’ll be presenting on Thursday, September 6th, from 3:00-3:45.  I’ll be available following the presentation to answer questions as well.  See you there!