I Salute You 2015 - Highlights from the show

Salute 2015

A show dedicated to all things to do with war-miniatures, scenery and fantasy, I felt that I needed to pay a visit to this show. I have been to this exhibition twice to scope out any chances of networking with like-minded companies to pitch my freelance illustration and design portfolio to. The show had a great vibe - even from the off you could sense the eagerness of uber enthusasts just waiting to get into the hall and see what the show had to offer.

If you collect or paint models this show is a must and it was only £10 with an advanced ticket. Back in my day when I used to paint I would have cried with joy at coming to this show! Space marines and army men galore, I have attached some images from the show for 2015.

And hats off the the awesome painters (I could have never been that good) at the show and thanks to the SouthLondon Warlords.
http://www.salute.co.uk/

If you like this at glimpse, then you should go next year!

Quick Techniques For Reducing Banding / Posterization in Photoshop - BRUSH STROKES

Posterization – Rough Techniques For Reducing Banding!

Notice the subtle rings around the soft brush?

What is it?

If like me you work as illustrator/designer, I’m sure you will have run into the dreaded banding aka Posterization If so, I will go into detail shortly. Please note; this is told from an illustration and design bias.

Illustration in Photoshop has been a blessing for me. Edit, undo, save as, copy, paste, re-colour artwork the list goes on. This issue comes when working with radial and linear gradients and tones of black and grey. Working with a lot of black and orange as part of the colour palette, I have had to figure out ways for dealing with or working around banding. For example, when I’m rendering characters like Rufus the rat, he has grey body with even darker creases in the body, getting the shading and highlights to blend hasn't always been easy - banding has been a big issue. As it stands, I’m still uncertain as to how to get a completely smooth finish when rendering by work with a grey and black tones. I can offer some methods for reducing this so called ‘banding’ effect and the bane of drawing Rufus. 

For additional information this has been written based on the specs of the my iMac - OSX, but this issue has proven to effective on a TFT Screen using windows 7 and older versions of PS.

My Setup 1 : New Document ‘I like RGB’

From the off I have tested this on Photoshop CS5 and CC with similar results from version to version. 64 bit – 32 bit RGB to CMYK I’m not entirely sure if this has an influence aside from whether you are working with 8 bit, 16 bit and 32 bit; the later offering marginally tighter rings and hues. For this example I have worked with A 300 DPI document, in RGB using 8 bit (this can be changed later) also with the colour profile listed below on an iMac. This is by no means a significant contribution to the final out come but maybe worth noting. 

‘tangent alert’
 Using RGB in the early stages is my preferred method, not everybody’s. Isn’t this madness? You won’t see genuine colours of your artwork! Well unless, your screen is calibrated exactly and your using pantones, guaranteeing what you see on the screen to print can be tricky anyway. Besides, I work across both mediums of screen and print. 

Method 2 :  Ultimate Trick - Brush & Noise

I’m assuming that you are running into this issue whilst using a soft edged brush tool in Photoshop, based on that, I would advise turning the 'noise' on under the brush panel (as shown - press F5 bring this window up) this helps in the blending of steps with greys as shown below. As far as I can tell, based on my work, this improved the overall smoothness and graduation of the tones from light to dark regardless of bit mode or any other. You can also dabble with the filters if you are using large radials (That would be a different article). 
As you can see below, the black brush at the top has rings (banding) and the one below has far fewer the brush used on the lowest part of the blob has noise switched on. The speckled effect will be less obvious once you take your artwork to print.

See how the rings blend together of the lower part of the blob?

Method 3 : Big to small, playing with scale

Another trick for tightening this banding is by shrinking/scaling down your completed artwork. When you have applied the 'noise' and finished the process you can physically shrink the image to hide some of the messier details - an illusion essentially. 


This is a method that I have used not only to disguise banding when digitally painting but also to give the appearance of tighter line work and detail.



Step 1 piece of art = 100%
Step 2 scale art to = 75%

So when you print the document some so the details and blemishes are hidden away from the naked eye. This approach can also hide some of the rings in banding with added element of noise!

Conclusion
You will see the benefits for this when you come to printing your work, especially if you are working with shades of grey.

To summarise - Add noise to your brush mode.

Hope this helps!

This method was used when illustrating/digitally painting Rufus the Rat for Satzuma LTD

Tweet

BUTTROCK! - (Bumrock) photo from Talland Bay near Polperro in Cornwall

ButtRock

Bottoms Up

Well this a blast from the past. I figured that this bit of fun should grace the internet! lets call it a 10 year anniversary for good measure. 

This photo was taken around the time of the carefree days prior to uni and PCAD - simple times as you can tell. This piece of photography came about by chance, I remember looking at the rounded stones and thinking... (not a lot) well probably went something like this.

"Mate, go between those rocks stick your arses in the air!... left a bit, right! Good!' Click!

And now you have it a, a sea of apparent arses carved from natural landscape in one monochrome photo. I was most likely hoping for reactions such as:

'Oh my word!' China sets flung everywhere
'Oh my days! Doily all askew and monocles popping out left right and centre! 

Well it was fun. Photo taken near Polperro at Talland Bay. - Models Ritchie Crane and Darrell Butler. - Prints were available.

JD - Jolly Hockey Sticks!

copy right JD ODELL

Low cost, easy to edit email template with graphics - COPPERPLATE

Here is a new Beta service that I've introduced to 2013... Selling email templates. With this easy to edit template (called The Copperplate) it is a simple article by article newsletter, which is a great solution for that tight or ongoing deadlines. The graphics are included with the HTML in multiple formats - its ready to use. The actual email template itself, once unzipped and saved to your computer, can be edited and treated anyway that you please - copyright free. The graphics can be altered, moved or completely replaced at your discretion.

Features and Benefits
- Available with added graphics in AI. PSD. PNG and jpeg format, Save time and money on design.
- Commented HTML code for ease of use.
- Inline CSS styling
- Tried and tested formatting for getting multiple Calls To Action.
- All work is copyright free. You can use the graphics on other projects!
- Filter Friendly, the email has been designed and coded taking into account accessibility and whether it is visible in outlook, hotmail... etc - Avoid spam blocking
- The format has been tried and tested.
- This solution is cost effective and saves time

The zipped email pack is available for £3.99 via safe secure Paypal service

 

Should you run into any problems or require bespoke email design services please follow this link

Character Sketches From Train Journey To Work - Random faces, Wimbledom Imp

Wimbledon characters and random sketches

Do you ever find one random sketch leads to another..? These are some faces that I have taken from my sketch book en-route to work in the London rush hour. The man sitting on the bench is based on an actual person I've seen sat outside Wimbledon Centre Court with his stomach hanging from under his shirt, smiling to the world - he reminded me of a happy gnome! Apparently, completely oblivious to the fact that all was hanging for the world to see in broad daylight, it was a spectacle to behold and slightly strange.
put it away! (Yet, I felt the need to draw this!)

Thanks,

Mechanical Pencil, HB

Faces Sketch - Mechanical pencil from morning travel sketchbook

Random Sketches From Journey to work

Here is another random set of sketches/ doodles from my morning sketch book.

Jolly women! monstrous ugliness, people, sleep... and... well - stuff!

If you would like me to draw something for you please get in touch, I'm available for commission.

Randomness is welcome

Thanks,

http://jdillustration.jimmsdesign.co.uk/

Making a QR code - Modern Retail Solutions and Marketing : QR code generation

QR Codes

As we all know smartphones are becoming ever more common place and a lot of the western population are “plugged in” 24/7 (I won’t lie, it took me ages to come away from the good old 3320 onto my HTC).

Anyway, if you are not using QR codes in your print-marketing campaigns get on board now. QR codes are a great way of displaying or even up selling existing products. With a quick scan of a QR code from your phone, the prospective customer can be redirected to your website, video or even display a message, more details below!

For Satzuma, we have been applying QR codes to our newest packaging. The customer(s) – talking from and end user perspective, would look over the product, answering their own questions and forming their own analogies of the product inside before making that decision on whether to purchase the product. But with a QR code this gives the packaging that additional level of information. The customer can scan the QR code, be directed the webpage with the video or text information and find out how the product works, giving that extra layer or information regarding your product that would otherwise be lost to chance… lets face it - print technology, as it stands can’t project a video of the product in action in front of the consumer.

Example: in other words a customer has picked up the product, looked over the information on the back of the packaging and they are still confused. Or not – they can scan the QR code located in an easy to find location and watch the product in action, answering any unanswered questions and perhaps showing extra benefits that they would have not been otherwise considered – there’s a perk!

QR code is a great way of bridging that gap between print and digital media.

QR code scanner FREE resource – click link to make your own QR code!
http://qrcode.kaywa.com/


Other tips with QR codes
A handy trick if you are stuck for space. If you have too many black squares in a small space on your QR code, a QR code reader will have difficulty scanning – fact! (would recommend 2cm min)
A handy way of getting around this little problem is by copying your link into the URL shortnener first and then copying your shortened URL into QR code resource (here) you will now have a less crowded, less blurry QR code for your print.

Link shorteners

https://bitly.com/


http://tinyurl.com/

QR Scepticism – Am I a true believer?
I have written this article singing the praises of the humble little QR code but how effective is it really...?
We see them everywhere in the city but I am yet to see its full effectiveness as an actual marketing solution, I rarely see anyone scanning QR codes. I know don’t tend to bother unless I know I’m going to get a big benefit from it – time will tell and analytics will show.

Thank you for reading.