A brief Photoshop Coloring tutorial

Okay, since my running survey is pointing me towards art lets do a super quick Digital Painting tutorial. I should preface by saying in no way am I the authority on digital painting, if you do desire more in depth tutorials I highly recommend Linda Bergkvist's Site. Also I'm going to use Photoshop for this tutorial, primarily for my sanity, however there are loads of alternatives some of which are even free. Gimp Dogwaffle OpenCanvas

1.Get you a good sketch of what your going to be painting, it doesn't have to be super detailed just enough to outline where the forms you would like to paint are. Then scan this guy into your computer, for those of you without the luxury of a scanner a digital camera works as well but requires some more cleanup afterwards.


2.Remove as much white as you can with color selection or curves. Then set that layer as Darken, over a gradient of what ever lighting scheme you would like. Let's keep it simple and use a super neutral gradient to tone our canvas.


3.Now we can start adding in base colors, I tend to use pretty hard blobby brushes for this step but as my Painting Proff once told me everyone paints differently. Now during this step you should keep in mind that there is no wet to wet blending in digital like real paint unless you are using Corel Painter so be mindful of where you will be either burning or dodgeing later to add light and shadow, or manual adding new colors afterwards.

4.Now it starting to look like something anyways lol. At this point it feels alien to its surroundings though. Lets attach this Hoplite to its ground and establish some depth at the same time. Using a big soft brush lay in some shadows with a warm dark color.

5. Now go through with your clean up and detailing tools. Burn, dodge, smudge, add some detail splash colors think about your light source and you should be on your way to a Digital Painting. I realize that this seems like a difficult step but its also the most personal. This is where style in a painting is determined so stick with your Digital Canvas until it looks complete to you.


And in true cooking form fashion we are done far before anyone feels we should be. Keep voting on the side and I'll talk about what ever gets the most votes. I hope you enjoyed this super quick digital painting tutorial if you have any questions or comments feel free to email or comment on the post and we'll see you again tomorrow.

Bards on CD

Fun stuff today. Really fun. We are going to talk about Sonoma Wire Works new free trial of riffworks that is fully functional. They call it Riffworks T4. I can not describe to you how much fun this little piece of software is. If you have a soundcard worth its salt, T4 should let you record directly into a "riff" based multi-track system. Add in a drumtrack that granted is simplistic but fairly versatile, and then you have all of the realtime effects. Amp modeling, Phase shifting, compression, multi-tap delay, graphic EQ, wah pedal, did I mention this all free?? So here is the obligatory link T4. Do yourself a favor if you want to sketch down some quick song ideas before they get away T4 seems to me to be a great little ninja music sketchpad. You'll be amazed how quickly three simple riffs can be organized into follow track for more serious recording or just getting the ideas in song format. I've read it will integrate with Cubase but haven't seen it first hand. It also has a very odd interface homage to an old Amiga program called Perfect Sound so for those twelve of us out there who still say "You can have my Amiga's from my cold dead hands" its fun. If you get something great and want to share it with the world feel free to email me, I would love to link to it so readers can hear what T4 does.

Free Office Alternative

Today I want to talk about something that has come up a lot where I work. Microsoft in all their capitalist glory have decided to utilize a very nasty trick to first get people addicted to Microsoft Office and then cut them off from files they have created using it. The trick in question is when you purchase a new PC it comes with a wonderful 60day trial of Office, of course the 60day marker is in tiny print so most salesmen breeze right by the fact that after 60days Microsoft will rear its ugly head(like Vladimir over Alaska) and demand at least $160. Why do we as a mobilized computing populace not rise up against such tyranny?? Simple most of us think that we have to be extorted for at least $160 extra each and every time we need office on a different PC. i say that it is time we overthrow the tyrannical dictator known as Microsoft and I say the first step is to stop using Microsoft Office. There are a multitude of alternatives out there for what office does but I am going to focus on one that is free. That's right free, and I will go so far as to say it is a better office suite than Microsoft Office. Most digital bard's already know about Open Office, but those of you who still haven't heard the gospel consider yourself notified. Not only does Open Office have a great streamlined document writer, it also has a far superior spreadsheet, a presentation software, a great database maker, and a really handy structured drawing program. Here is the kicker the new one even allows for XML code, so even you hold over IT guys can be free of Microsoft. Nothing could be quite so Bardly as a free piece of software to record your thoughts, ambitions, and even give you a way to make a vector based logo all for free.

The Bard

In medieval Europe Bard's were jack of all trades creatives. Today the concept of being a jack of all trades has taken on a bad connotation for some reason. In this world of obnoxiously specialized individuals I think its time bard's came back in a big way. From painting to poetry to music to programming, help me to bring some rash diversity to our highly specialized lives.