Monday 18 March 2013

What I Learnt From a Revamp...And a Great Book

If you've followed BoundingSquirrel for a while, and today's image post seems familiar, you'd be right. The first version of this image appeared in a previous post.

"Shoot for the Moon" inspiring sogan against a twilight sky and bright moon.

Trouble was, the original never felt quite "right", somehow. But I couldn't identify what was wrong. How could a simple picture and some text still not feel "right"?

Or at least, I couldn't identify what was wrong until I read the rather wonderful Digital Art Wonderland, by Angi  Sullins and Silas Toball. In case you're wondering, the answer to my problem was that I needed better, "authentication of text"...A.k.a playing around in much more detail with the composition and blending options of text within Photoshop. (Ever keen to put learning into action, I also applied these principles in the images in this post and this one.)

But whether you have this or any other digital art problem...or no problem at all, but you'd still like to drool at lovely images, this is a fabulous book.

Yes it's already been out for a year or so. (I think I heard about it before, but didn't feel ready for it as an absolute beginner).  But if you already know at least some of your way around Photoshop, I couldn't say enough good things about it. In any event, many of the techniques described seem reasonably, "evergreen," no matter how much Photoshop gets updated around them. And the encouragement in the text would inspire anyone with even an ounce of desire to create digital art, whatever the year happens to be.

A point to bear in mind

BTW, I bought the Kindle edition, but only because I can read it on a colour tablet. This book is crammed with colourful images, so if your e-reader is black and white, a hard copy really will be a good investment.

Finally, yes, the link to the book below  *is* an affiliate link, and if you decide to buy it that way, I will get a (tiny) percentage of the cover price. But if you enjoy creating digital art, get hold of this (in whatever way works for you). It's a lovely, and inspiring, read.