Editorial
Issue 44 – droopy drawers, all the fours, open two doors, magnum! (Nope, I haven’t gone crazy - although that is debatable these days; I just wondered what the bingo number calling nickname for 44 was. [Big grin]) OK, so 44 issues of 2DArtist since we started in 2006 … how time flies! Thank you everyone who has supported us all these years, and welcome to those who are just joining us – we hope you enjoy the ride!
What’s in store this sunny August then? (Yep, we actually have some sun – I kid thee not!) First of all, let’s discuss tutorials, as I know that’s what most of you are here for. We have two new tutorial artists with us this month actually: Alex Broeckel, who you’ll have seen in our Gallery recently, and Bruno Werneck who featured in an artist interview in the 2DArtist October 2007 issue have both joined the author panel. So let’s start at the beginning to find out what we’re up to:
Alex Broeckel brings us his interpretation of a painting created with the help of Google SketchUp as a base image to give some perspective guides and compositional help to his image creation process – speeding things up nicely. We gave our artists free reign over subject matter with these paintover tutorials, so you should see some interesting paintings emerge over the next few months! Click to p.64 to find out how Alex went about his Google SketchUp-to-Photoshop workflow. Interestingly, Alex uses a completely different approach to last month’s artist, so we’re keen to see how next month’s tutorial unfolds – looks to be a promising series!
Bruno Werneck joins us in the discussion of visual brainstorming for character designs on p.82. Inspired by a road trip through the mountains, Bruno talks us through and shows us how to go about some successful brainstorming to get the best out of your character concepts. The idea behind this series is that industry artists teach us some professional tips to creating better character designs. Stick with us for next month’s exploration of speed painting and concept design with Darren Yeow.
We also have Carlos Cabrera back with us in top form in part one of our brand new tutorial series on creating custom brushes. This time around we’re giving artists specific topics that are suited to their strengths, so we’ve asked Carlos to teach us how to create custom brushes for rock and stone textures. Check out p.76 for custom brush creation tips, as well as a whole set of free brushes just for our readers, created for you by Carlos! He’s also painted the stunning image that you’ll see on this month’s cover using his new brush creations. Superb!
Nykolai Aleksander is also back with us again, bringing us part two of our beginner’s guide to digital painting in Photoshop. We’re still talking technical right now, in preparation for the painting that is due to come, and Nykolai has been working night and day on these tutorials for you, teaching us all she knows. So Wacoms at the ready and thinking caps on – pop on over to p.92 to follow on from where we left off last month.
Well, there’s not enough room left to tell you everything else that’s great about this issue, so I’ll let you discover for yourselves ... Be sure to check out our interview with Carlos Cabrera on p.6 – absolutely stunning artwork there, Carlos is a real pleasure to work with and chat to! We peek inside Darren Yeow’s sketchbook on p.22 to satisfy our ever increasing nosiness and intrigue, and Roy Stein brings us an insightful “making of” on p.106 talking us through the workflow used to paint recent image, A New Bride. A really great issue, if I do say so myself! And on my final note, we are waving farewell to the Stylized Challenge this month, so check out p.44 for the final chapter, with six making of articles from the last two months’ winners.
Thank you for checking out this latest issue. Enjoy and come back for more next month! Ed. |
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