A Faster Way to Color Illustrations

I found a great time-saver for coloring my illustration work, and I thought other illustrators could benefit from it as well, in case they have similar processes… I hope this is helpful!

The way I used to color my illustrations was this:

• Scan sketches
• Redraw linework in Photoshop on a layer above the sketch
• Create new layer for colors beneath my linework layer
• Use marquee tool to block in areas (within black lines) and fill with appropriate color

This method gave nice results, but I’ve always been in search of a way to make the process faster. Finally I’ve discovered it! I found these 2 Photoshop plugins by BPelt, which you can download for free here.

Now here’s my new, faster process:

• Draw my linework above my sketch layer like I’ve already said.
• Duplicate linework layer
• Create new layer and flood with white, and place it underneath the duplicate of the linework layer.
  Combine the duplicate linework layer and the flat white layer (Command or CTRL-E)
• Turn off Sketch layer
• Select the combination linework/white layer, and apply THRESHOLD (under Image>Adjustments>Threshold). This removes the anti-aliasing on that particular layer.
• Apply the FILTER>BPelt>Multifill (that you’ve already downloaded and installed)
• Apply the FILTER>BPelt>Flatten
• Turn on the original Linework layer again
• Apply the correct colors to the large areas of the multi-colored layer using the Magic Wand tool.

SO MUCH FASTER! It’s… it’s… INCONCEIVABLE!

Clean linework layer merged with white layer

After the BPelt FLATTEN filter has been applied

Now I lock the flat color layer, create a new layer for shading, choose each area and find a darker hue, and brush it in using soft brushes (with the color selected from the Color layer to mask out unwanted shading, like using an airbrush).

What would you do?

As an illustrator and as a Christian I’ve been presented with a couple different projects, one of which I turned down, and another that I’m still wondering about.

Would you take on a project that you knew represented false teachings? Even if it wasn’t overt but still might further the client’s organization? I wouldn’t redesign Planned Parenthood’s logo, or design a new site or tract for the LDS church necessarily, but what if it’s not that obvious? Maybe it’s no different…

I’m not designing a porn site, but is there a difference? I have a feeling of what I should do, but what about you? I’m looking for advice please.

Working for free?!?

“There is no pay but If you are looking to build your portfolio, this is a great opportunity for you.”

Do you know how insulting this line is to someone who makes their living as a graphic artist? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read it lately. And people have no problem saying it too… like they’re doing the artist a favor by “building their portfolio”.

“Excuse me, Mr. Architect. I’d like you to design my house. There’s no money in it for you, but for the hundreds of hours you devote to my project, you’ll have a nice picture to show people what you can do.”

I wonder if that’d work in a restaurant. “I’m sorry, I’m not going to pay you for this steak, but it’s a great opportunity FOR YOU to get some good word of mouth advertising…”

Do you see how insulting that is? Would you do your job for free when you’ve got bills to pay and mouths to feed? I wouldn’t.

C’mon people, stop devaluing our industry.

Play BALL!!!!!

Baseball season always means a load of pro-bono work done around my house, for my kids’ teams. Here’s a look at some of the pieces my wife and I put together as gifts for the team:

I designed baseball cards at the last minute as my wife was artfully cropping and color correcting team photos.

I also put together a video for the kids each year… I video tape the games with our DV camcorder, import my footage into iTunes and delete all the strikeouts and not-so-good stuff (my wife says this makes our team look unbeatable) and then pick some rockin’ music to accompany the highlights. We burn DVDs, create labels and wraps (I used to work for a DVD producer) and they turn out looking pretty slick!

Jennifer keeps score “as a hobby” usually, and this year she’s compiled the kids’ stats.

Here’s the back cover:

Here’s the highlight video:

Marlins 09 Season Highlights from Rob Christianson on Vimeo.

Whew. It’s a lot of work. And now I think I just found out that the girls’ team end-of-season party is this weekend! There goes my Saturday! (and prob a bit of the week too).   But it’s so fun. Like Jennifer says, “I love watching my kids play baseball!”

Illustration Friday: Adapt?

Free Portfolio Services for Freelancers

Every freelancer in today’s marketplace, whether they be a designer or an illustrator, should have their own Web site and domain name to house their portfolio. Sending a few JPGs along with a URL as work samples goes a long, long way with potential clients and job prospects – especially now that most companies use forms rather than email to solicit job inquiries. You usually can’t send large e-mail attachments, or risk exceeding the filesize limit and having your job inquiry bounce back. That’s the beauty of just typing out a URL, especially if that URL is your name or the name of your design business.

But aside from your own Web site, it’s becoming more and more simple for designers to show their work on multiple portfolio service web sites, and paid services aside, it’s like the old saying goes, “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?” (Granted, this is a BIT more tasteful usage of that seedy coloquialism, but you catch my drift.)

“Why, Rob, would I spend the time uploading my work samples to some website that will give me a strange URL when I already have a nice site that looks like I want it to look?” Well, dear reader, I’m glad you asked!

1. SEARCH, SEARCH, SEARCH – If I Google for “cartoon character design”, what are the odds that I’ll find your own portfolio website, that may or may not be optimized for search engines, let alone have a high organic Google ranking? Pretty slim. But if you have your work on five more sites, suddenly instead of 1 in 10, you could show up in 6 of my top 10 search results.
2. COMMUNITY – Most if not all free portfolio services have at least some semblance of social networking built into the site. Discussion groups, the ability to comment or rank someone’s work, and the ability to add other creatives to your network of friends are all valuable features that will help you connect with more clients.
3. VISIBLITY - I’ve heard some people say “I’ll never be able to connect with all the people you are friends with, but I can connect with you. Then you can reach others, and they can reach still more people that you will never meet, and so on and so on.” The same goes with the Internet. One visitor may arrive at your personal website, while another may land on a free portfolio/profile you have out there, and a third may find yet another example of your work somewhere else. But if they can all contact you in the end, you have 3 job leads rather than only 1. I don’t know any freelancer who doesn’t want people to find and look at their work, so why not make it easier for potential clients to find you?

Now that I’ve made my points, let’s look at a few sites that offer free portfolio services. Here are four popular sites that I use, and the pros and cons of each:

Coroflot.com – I’ve used Coroflot the longest of any of these four. It’s part of the Core77 network, and these guys know their audience.

PROS: Clean and elegant interface. No limit on amount of portfolio pieces. Focused job postings.

CONS: Odd URL (It’s very hard to tell a client this website’s name over the phone.) Selecting 3 highlighted work samples is a complicated process, and you cannot adjust thumbnail cropping very easily.

(You can see my Coroflot.com profile here, if interested: www.coroflot.com/rob_c)

Flickr.com – Flickr is THE choice of online photography buffs, and it’s rapidly becoming a viable outlet for other visual artists such as designers and illustrators.

PROS: VERY HIGH search ranking (Place your work here and you’re pretty much assured a higher page rank in Google). Large community and lively discussion groups. Ability to share images with groups. Free account still allows large numbers of portfolio pieces to be uploaded.

CONS: Flickr’s free accounts give you a long, complicated URL – difficult for telling a client over the phone. Free accounts are also limited to 3 “sets”, so sort wisely. Each set can hold a large amount of work though. FlickrMail (the site’s internal messaging service) is tied to Yahoo!, and since Flickr is owned by Yahoo!, you’ll need to set up a Yahoo! account if you don’t have one already. Also, sorting the order of your presented pieces is unstandard and complicated.

(You can see my profile here, if interested: www.flickr.com/photos/robswork/)

Behance.net – This website, by nature, is by invitation only. I’ve sought inclusion here for a while, and finally I’m in! Let me know if you want in and I’ll invite you if possible.

PROS: Since this site is invitation only, the quality of work here is of a higher caliber than what you’d find in Flickr (on average). Great profile features (multiple URLs, focused tags and relevant bio information. Large capacity for work samples. Powerful networking features (called “circles”).

CONS: Invitation only, so to join you need to be invited by an existing member. Very lengthy upload process for work.

(You can see my profile here, if interested: www.behance.net/RobTheDesigner)

Krop.com – I just discovered Krop.com yesterday, and so far I’m very impressed.

PROS: Large name for easy visiblity for potential clients. Easy to upload work quickly. Great company blog that highlights members. High-quality job postings. Ability to adjust crops on your uploaded work for thumbnail views

CONS: After uploading work, you may need to take some time to redo crops for thumbnail views. Also takes time to rearrange order of presented pieces.

(You can see my profile here, if interested: www.krop.com/robthedesigner/)

All in all, I would be hestiant to recommend one service over the other, and there really is no reason why a designer or illustrator should not take advantage of each of these four services. Like I said earlier, the more places your work can be seen, the higher the chance of potential clients knocking on your virtual door. There are a few more online portfolio sites that I use, which you might be interested in checking out. Take a look at CreativeShake (formerly Portfolios.com), DesignRelated, and Veer Ideas.

I hope this helps you get your visibility up and your phone ringing. Happy freelancing!

Children’s Illustrators: Guy Francis

Take a look at Guy Francis – he was the illustrator of one of my latest finds at the library, “Mrs. Mc Bloom, CLEAN UP Your Classroom!”, written by Kelly DiPucchio. The thing that grabs me about Guy’s illustrations in this book is just the amount of STUFF he packs into each illustration. I’ve been a sucker for details ever since I was in first grade and used to get all the Richard Scarry books I could from the library. I loved studying all the little things going on in each picture, and I see that in Francis’ work too.

I also love the characters he draws – they’re whimsical, funny, yet still look like real kids – hard to explain… it reminds me of the old PC game, Willy Beamish. The characters look similar – cartoon, yet realistic as well. My drawings tend to be the same, so I probably gravitate to his work in that aspect as well.

Having kids in elementary school myself (well, one now) I have seen first hand how cluttered a teacher’s classroom can get – which is the premise of the book. My favorite illustration in the book shows the classroom being cleaned out for a rummage sale, and you can see the sedimentary layers of earth beneath, which contain a dinosaur skeleton, pipes, bots, a time capsule and, my favorite, Davy Jones’ locker. HA!

Guy, if you read this, great job. I loved every square inch of this book. I’ll be looking for more of your work in the future.

This book is definately an inspiration to me while I create Penelope Pilot – and I just noticed it’s overdue. Sorry kids, I’ll bring this back to the library very soon. My teacher always said I share well with others.

Educational Children’s Books and Review: Illustrator John Skewes

The thing that I really like about this Penelope Pilot book that I’m working on, is that not only is it a great little story with a fun character, it’s that the book actually teaches about aviation as kids read it. They’ll learn common terms like turbine and epaulets (those stripey things pilots wear on their shoulders) and many more. It has been a learning process for me as well!

Another great book I grabbed from the library recently that does this well is “Larry Gets Lost in Seattle”, a cute story about a dog who gets separated from his boy on a trip to Seattle. The story then uses sidenotes to teach about landmarks around our town, such as the Pike Place Market, Safeco Field, and (how cool is this) the Fremont Troll and “Waiting for the Interurban” statues. Plus, the illustrations are extremely cool in a retro, fun and kid-friendly style. Everything about this book makes me wish I didn’t have to return it to the library.

So check out “Larry Gets Lost in Seattle” by John Skewes, as well as keep an eye out for Penelope Pilot by Lynda Meeks and yours truly!

Applying to Apple

So I sent an application to work at a new branch of the Apple Store opening in Tacoma Mall. They had an opening for a “Creative”. They said it’s the perfect part time job for a freelancer, which if I’m gonna work for a large corporation, it might as well be the one I put stickers for on all my coffee mugs and vehicles.

Not sure what I’d do – maybe show people how to make cool stuff with iMovie, iDVD, etc. I’ve made some awesome videos of my boy’s baseball teams. I was gonna show one, but apparently it’s gone. Maybe later.

RSS feeds and Craigslist gigs

There’s a new article at FreelanceSwitch.com called “10 Simple Steps to Landing More Gigs”

In regards to tip #7, THIS is a brilliant idea for freelance illustrators, or whatever freelance jobs you want to look for, since these days we aren’t limited by location thanks to the Internet.Do a search of various cities, under Gigs and your search term (in my case, Illustrator). Then collect the results’ RSS feeds in Google Reader for a hand-delivered stream of potential jobs! I can’t believe I never thought of this before.

Great job FSW… Here’s the LINK!