If you ever read MAD magazine as a kid, you know Al Jaffee. He creates the amazing fold-ins on the inside of the back cover, the pictures (and captions) that magically transform once the image is folded in thirds. If you’ve never experienced the fun of one of Mr. Jaffee’s fold-ins in person, now you’re in luck.
Category Archives: Illustrating
A Few Freelancing Tips
For all the readers out there who either 1) are working in the field as writers or illustrators, or 2) aspire to do so some day, here are a few helpful links aimed at the professional side of things.
17 Tips for Freelancers:
http://megillustrations.typepad.com/…
Chris Garret: “My Top 5 Biggest Freelancing Mistakes”:
http://freelancefolder.com/my-top-5…
How to disarm 10 difficult client observations/requests:
How to Draw a Head
The Academy of Art University has posted an online class on drawing the human head. It covers different expressions, proportions, shading, etc. in a straightforward, easy-to-follow way. There’s even a nice interactive section at the end where you can dial up different expressions on the model and fade back and forth between the sketches and the actual photo.
Writer’s and Illustrator’s Block
I had a little bit of an epiphany today – nothing big, but helpful nonetheless. I’ve had Merlin Mann’s article on “Hacking Your Way Out of Writer’s Block” in my favorites for a long time, and I’ve been meaning to post a link. Merlin runs a great site called 43 Folders dedicated to making your work more efficient and getting things done.
Name That Color
This little tool is surprisingly addictive. You can dial up a color on the big color wheel, and it tells you what it’s called. Ship Cove, Baltic Sea, Milk Punch – they’re all in there. Alternately, you can select a color by name and see what it looks like. The list was compiled from a number of a number of sources, including color-name dictionaries and Crayola.
SmudgeGuard
I first saw the SmudgeGuard mentioned on the internet a few months ago and thought I’d give it a try. The price was right, and I was getting really sick of using a paper mask to keep from smudging my drawings as I worked. (The fact that I’m left-handed only made things worse.)
Now, having used the SmudgeGuard for a number of projects, I can say that I really like it. It’s well made, comfortable, comes in both left and right-hand versions, and does a great job of keeping my drawings clean. Plus, I look super-cool when I wear it. Recommended!
Drawing Little Orphan Annie
Ted Slampyak, illustrator of the Little Orphan Annie comic strip has posted a great tutorial on how he organizes, prepares, and draws each daily installment. It’s full of great tips (he made a font of his own handwriting to speed things up) and strategies (make the word balloons first, then build the drawing around them). The only thing he doesn’t cover is how to draw pupils in eyeballs.
Kuler
As an illustrator, color is one of the things I struggle with most. (Also, proportion, composition, coming up with good ideas, and keeping the ink off my clothes.) Adobe has recently put together a site called Kuler, and it’s purpose is to help people come up with pleasing color palettes.
Beautiful Dorena
One of my rules in Pen and Link is that all software recommendations should be for both Windows and Mac. For Beautiful Dorena, I’m going to make an exception. This free, Mac-only painting program is so laugh-out-loud weird that I have to give it a mention.