I need to get a t-shirt printed up and I was wondering how large my image has to be for printing. The image will take up most of the torso of the shirt.
Giga Gopher on
My friend's band - Go on, have a listen
Oh it's such a nice day, I think I'll go out the window! Whoa!
Aside from the Gnomon DVD's and the like, are there any free tutorials (written or video) on the web that are good for learning how to rig? I might even consider books, as long as they're not stupid expensive, and have good reviews and such.
I need to get a t-shirt printed up and I was wondering how large my image has to be for printing. The image will take up most of the torso of the shirt.
I guess you'll have to talk to your printer, but I once was told by a screen printer that anything larger than 8"x10" will be considerably more expensive.
I need to get a t-shirt printed up and I was wondering how large my image has to be for printing. The image will take up most of the torso of the shirt.
You should assume at least 150dpi (home screenprinting kits usually have 120dpi screens, but professionals are usually higher than that in my experience), and then just have a look at a t-shirt and measure it out.
Of course, as someone else has noted, most printers will have guidelines for you on their site.
So, I want to do a web comic. (ZOMG! EVERYBODY RUN!!!) No, I do not want to get rich and famous off it. I want to do it as a means to make myself committed to drawing on a regular basis - something I need oh so badly.
Now, as evidenced in a previous thread, I am not that hot of a writer. However, I am not going to let this stop me. What would you suggest? Should I find somebody who can do the writing for me and go at this as a team effort? Or should I start learning to write and go at this solo? Any ideas where I can look for some writers?
I would suggest writing for yourself, but don't be concerned with making a joke or a story or anything. I also wouldn't restrict yourself to the three-panel layout, you'll do better to start getting some practice down in sequential storytelling. The journal-style comics that have been showing up here recently have been great practice for the creators, even if the subject matter's not necessarily that interesting for other readers at times.
If you really are more concerned about self-improvement than readership, I think this'll be the best route.
Alright, I have to get back to drawing. For about a year or two I totally ignored my desire, I've wasted alot of time. Basically I'm alright at drawing from reference, but without it I am pretty terrible. I feel kind of discouraged, but people don't get the ability to draw freehand from natural talent do they? (Oh god, they probably do, haha.) I need to learn human anatomy and the drawing of shapes in general, whats a good place to start? A book in particular I should buy? Just start drawing? I've always had the idea to become a concept artist, but I'm feeling bleh about it. I better hurry up and start doing stuff eh?
I'm totally rambling on. Sorry, thanks.
EDIT: PS, you guys here are incredibly talented. It's hard to get my courage up and post stuff here.
Alright, I have to get back to drawing. For about a year or two I totally ignored my desire, I've wasted alot of time. Basically I'm alright at drawing from reference, but without it I am pretty terrible. I feel kind of discouraged, but people don't get the ability to draw freehand from natural talent do they? (Oh god, they probably do, haha.) I need to learn human anatomy and the drawing of shapes in general, whats a good place to start? A book in particular I should buy? Just start drawing? I've always had the idea to become a concept artist, but I'm feeling bleh about it. I better hurry up and start doing stuff eh?
I'm totally rambling on. Sorry, thanks.
EDIT: PS, you guys here are incredibly talented. It's hard to get my courage up and post stuff here.
No one gets the ability to draw from natural talent, any more than we get the ability to do any skilled behavior by talent. We get it by practice, always.
Outliers has an excellent discussion of this, which in sum is that people become experts by spending about 10,000 hours doing the skill. When they looked to a musical academy, they didn't find a SINGLE person who deviated from the simple rule that skill came with tons and tons of practice. They didn't find a single 'natural'.
When people look to people we classically call naturals, e.g. Bach, we realize that their early work - when they were children, etc. - was actually rather mediocre and derivative and that their great work came later, right around that 10,000 mark.
If you want to draw, draw. There's nothing you're missing or lacking that can hold you back. Practice and work is everything.
When I use the word "talent", I use it to mean when somebody can pick something up faster than the average person. I don't believe it's inherent...but I absolutely believe that there are people that will have learned much less at 10,000 hrs. than the average person, as well as others (the "talented" group, I guess you could say) who've picked up more skill than average within that 10,000 hr. period.
It's partially practice, absolutely...but I think it's even more learning to "absorb" and retain visual information that really sets people apart. I think that's what you're talking about, donhonk, as far as "freehand" drawing, without reference. I still feel pretty tied to reference for a lot of things, but I definitely have more knowledge about how to draw certain things than I did, say, 10 years ago...things that I no longer need [much] reference for, if any (if it's simple enough). Some of that I did without much practice...but I spent a lot of time noticing things, and making little mental notes. I don't always remember these notes, but every now and then I notice something where I have a breakthrough in my artistic way of thinking, or in my "visual dictionary" in my head...or I'll notice something over and over again....and then it sticks with me as a result of the repetition.
Don't worry about posting here - we're not as harsh as everybody makes us out to be (if you're nice and understand that every critique isn't a personal attack, and that indeed some mistakes cannot be tossed off as "style" or "choice". :P )
But if I have any suggestion for you, it's to observe first, and practice to keep your observations fresh in your head until they're fully "absorbed". Do not just draw randomly and think that because you're "practicing", you are improving. I see people draw the same stuff and have the exact same mistakes year after year after year of drawing. These are the people that practice and do not improve very much. If you're able to observe and retain information, you will go leagues farther in your skill, in a much shorter amount of time.
When I use the word "talent", I use it to mean when somebody can pick something up faster than the average person. I don't believe it's inherent...but I absolutely believe that there are people that will have learned much less at 10,000 hrs. than the average person, as well as others (the "talented" group, I guess you could say) who've picked up more skill than average within that 10,000 hr. period.
What you're talking about though isn't talent, but rather character: the dedication to the subject. Different people pay different amounts of attention to what they're doing, which means different people learn to different degrees simply because they're focusing in different ways on their material. If you practice drawing without thinking hard about what mistakes you're making, why you're making them, how you could improve them, etc. then you're not really practicing.
That's the difference you're seeing: the dedication in the person.
Most of us, at least at some points in our lives, need people to help us remain dedicated (parents or teachers to force us to critique our own work, etc.) but that's how we build our characters, right?
"They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspiration or ability, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application. At the core of every true talent there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized. Thus talent is a species of vigor." - Eric Hoffer
Shiz, you have any links to any of your art online? Each time you post, I'm curious to see some of it, and haven't noticed any in the AC.
Not really.. I'm waiting to have a good handful of pieces that I feel show the direction I'm heading in with my work.. For the last year or so I've been working more on process and application than anything.. I'm only now achieving the kind of results I want with what I've been studying.. still have to figure things out, but I'm much much closer to where I want to go.. that said, heres a study I did.. like maybe 2-3 months ago.. zorn palette study.. unfortunately a photo won't capture color for shit.. cause there's quite a bit of color in there. I'm happy to say though the piece I'm working on now shows a bit more progress technique wise and makes this painting look terrible..
Hey, So i'm just getting into drawing and making comics and stuff and was wondering where i should begin. I have been drawing for awhile but only as a hobby or something i do once in awhile. I've also been having a bunch of comic ideas and after using my friends tablet i really want to make one. I want my comic to be the style of gabe and tycho's or the Ctrl-Alt-Dlt style but i need elp learning to draw that way so any tips would be appreciated.
Hey, So i'm just getting into drawing and making comics and stuff and was wondering where i should begin. I have been drawing for awhile but only as a hobby or something i do once in awhile. I've also been having a bunch of comic ideas and after using my friends tablet i really want to make one. I want my comic to be the style of gabe and tycho's or the Ctrl-Alt-Dlt style but i need elp learning to draw that way so any tips would be appreciated.
Well, you can be more specific? If you want to directly imitate their style, then do that. Practice re-creating their work, isolating their style for given features, etc.
However, as most of us will say: it's great to imitate others in the process of learning, but you should look for your own style.
"They who lack talent expect things to happen without effort. They ascribe failure to a lack of inspiration or ability, or to misfortune, rather than to insufficient application. At the core of every true talent there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience something worthwhile will be realized. Thus talent is a species of vigor." - Eric Hoffer
Shiz, you have any links to any of your art online? Each time you post, I'm curious to see some of it, and haven't noticed any in the AC.
Not really.. I'm waiting to have a good handful of pieces that I feel show the direction I'm heading in with my work.. For the last year or so I've been working more on process and application than anything.. I'm only now achieving the kind of results I want with what I've been studying.. still have to figure things out, but I'm much much closer to where I want to go.. that said, heres a study I did.. like maybe 2-3 months ago.. zorn palette study.. unfortunately a photo won't capture color for shit.. cause there's quite a bit of color in there. I'm happy to say though the piece I'm working on now shows a bit more progress technique wise and makes this painting look terrible..
So I've started work on painting something in Photoshop, but I have kind of hit a wall I think. I was wondering what some of you do to build up colors and shades and what not when painting in Photoshop. Do you work in a single layer for the whole thing? Do you use Dodge or Burn tools? Or do you just pick colors out and just put them in as you see fit?
I feel like maybe I'd need to watch some one do a realistic rendering in photoshop in order to see what I'm missing here.
Shiz, you have any links to any of your art online? Each time you post, I'm curious to see some of it, and haven't noticed any in the AC.
Not really.. I'm waiting to have a good handful of pieces that I feel show the direction I'm heading in with my work.. For the last year or so I've been working more on process and application than anything.. I'm only now achieving the kind of results I want with what I've been studying.. still have to figure things out, but I'm much much closer to where I want to go.. that said, heres a study I did.. like maybe 2-3 months ago.. zorn palette study.. unfortunately a photo won't capture color for shit.. cause there's quite a bit of color in there. I'm happy to say though the piece I'm working on now shows a bit more progress technique wise and makes this painting look terrible..
man that's really nice no matter how terrible you think it is
Thanks. I hope that didn't come across as like false humility. I making some strides in my painting right now so each new one I do I'm improving... Which is a nice place to be at right now. I'm getting more and more comfortable with the process I'm using.
speaking of indesign. I've got it and really need to get a jump start using it, and would like to avoid using shitty tutorials.
Can anyone suggest good, efficient tutorials? I'd hate to pick up bad habits from a shitty tut.
I don't know of any good tutorials, but I'd suggest buying a book if you're serious about the program. I was flipping through some of them at the book store the other day, and there's quite a bit of information on the program available. Many parts of InDesign you'll learn about when you realize you need them, like creating a list with bullets and tables and so forth. So since I don't know of any tutorials off the top of my head, here are a few hints:
Construct your documents to the finished size. Make a business card on a 3.5" x 2" document, don't place it on a 8.5" x 11" document.
Use .psd and .ai files when you can. If you start with a jpeg from a stock photo Web site, that's fine. But if you say create a vector image in Illustrator, use .ai instead of .eps.
Use exact coordinates for your pieces, don't just eyeball stuff.
Well your best bet is probably just to look for specific artists you like. However, this site has some good artists and they sell prints.
Donato also sells very high quality prints. Also, if you can get to the San Diego Comicon he is always there with a ton of prints to sell. He usually has a 'portfolio' that he sells for around $50 or so, and it normally has about 8 prints in it.
You may not be interested in those artists in particular....but I used some of my favorites as examples. Its better to find the artist and then the prints rather than the other way around I suspect.
The number one thing I get asked about my own work is how to produce halftones.
When producing halftones for work that has to be colour seperated and screenprinted, the process is a little different (for instance, certain screen angles will "clash" with the mesh of your printing screen and end up looking weird) but what you've posted is the gist of it!
Hello artists corner! I've been looking through this part of the forum for awhile but never posted anything. I'd rate myself as a beginner artist and would like to try harder to improve. I saw beginner as in I can look at something and more or less copy it, i'm terrible with color, am pretty new at shading and so on. I got a wacom tablet and a few art programs, so I decided to pick up a few art books and start somewhere.
Anyway, what I wanted some advice on is pencil/brush control. Any tips on developping better control of my strokes or what kind of grip would be good? I feel as though I've picked up alot of bad habits, and I think that relearning everything from square one is best pretty much. I'm pretty commited to this and will post a art thread once I feel it's good enough to crit on.
Thanks in advance for anything to put me on the right path. I will be checking through all the tutorials in the opening thread after I post this. Cheers.
StokedUp on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Gamertag(SSF4/MW2)StokedAidzzzSC2 ID Stoked.655 Uploaded SC2 Replays
I want to send a word document to another computer to be printed, however the word document I'm sending uses a typeface which the other computer does not have*. If I were to save the document as a PDF, would I be able to keep that typeface on the document so it may be printed?
*There's no way I can install the font on the second computer.
Posts
Oh it's such a nice day, I think I'll go out the window! Whoa!
Aside from the Gnomon DVD's and the like, are there any free tutorials (written or video) on the web that are good for learning how to rig? I might even consider books, as long as they're not stupid expensive, and have good reviews and such.
I guess you'll have to talk to your printer, but I once was told by a screen printer that anything larger than 8"x10" will be considerably more expensive.
You should assume at least 150dpi (home screenprinting kits usually have 120dpi screens, but professionals are usually higher than that in my experience), and then just have a look at a t-shirt and measure it out.
Of course, as someone else has noted, most printers will have guidelines for you on their site.
Now, as evidenced in a previous thread, I am not that hot of a writer. However, I am not going to let this stop me. What would you suggest? Should I find somebody who can do the writing for me and go at this as a team effort? Or should I start learning to write and go at this solo? Any ideas where I can look for some writers?
Thanks all in advance.
If you really are more concerned about self-improvement than readership, I think this'll be the best route.
I'm totally rambling on. Sorry, thanks.
EDIT: PS, you guys here are incredibly talented. It's hard to get my courage up and post stuff here.
No one gets the ability to draw from natural talent, any more than we get the ability to do any skilled behavior by talent. We get it by practice, always.
Outliers has an excellent discussion of this, which in sum is that people become experts by spending about 10,000 hours doing the skill. When they looked to a musical academy, they didn't find a SINGLE person who deviated from the simple rule that skill came with tons and tons of practice. They didn't find a single 'natural'.
When people look to people we classically call naturals, e.g. Bach, we realize that their early work - when they were children, etc. - was actually rather mediocre and derivative and that their great work came later, right around that 10,000 mark.
If you want to draw, draw. There's nothing you're missing or lacking that can hold you back. Practice and work is everything.
It's partially practice, absolutely...but I think it's even more learning to "absorb" and retain visual information that really sets people apart. I think that's what you're talking about, donhonk, as far as "freehand" drawing, without reference. I still feel pretty tied to reference for a lot of things, but I definitely have more knowledge about how to draw certain things than I did, say, 10 years ago...things that I no longer need [much] reference for, if any (if it's simple enough). Some of that I did without much practice...but I spent a lot of time noticing things, and making little mental notes. I don't always remember these notes, but every now and then I notice something where I have a breakthrough in my artistic way of thinking, or in my "visual dictionary" in my head...or I'll notice something over and over again....and then it sticks with me as a result of the repetition.
Don't worry about posting here - we're not as harsh as everybody makes us out to be (if you're nice and understand that every critique isn't a personal attack, and that indeed some mistakes cannot be tossed off as "style" or "choice". :P )
But if I have any suggestion for you, it's to observe first, and practice to keep your observations fresh in your head until they're fully "absorbed". Do not just draw randomly and think that because you're "practicing", you are improving. I see people draw the same stuff and have the exact same mistakes year after year after year of drawing. These are the people that practice and do not improve very much. If you're able to observe and retain information, you will go leagues farther in your skill, in a much shorter amount of time.
That's the difference you're seeing: the dedication in the person.
Most of us, at least at some points in our lives, need people to help us remain dedicated (parents or teachers to force us to critique our own work, etc.) but that's how we build our characters, right?
Not really.. I'm waiting to have a good handful of pieces that I feel show the direction I'm heading in with my work.. For the last year or so I've been working more on process and application than anything.. I'm only now achieving the kind of results I want with what I've been studying.. still have to figure things out, but I'm much much closer to where I want to go.. that said, heres a study I did.. like maybe 2-3 months ago.. zorn palette study.. unfortunately a photo won't capture color for shit.. cause there's quite a bit of color in there. I'm happy to say though the piece I'm working on now shows a bit more progress technique wise and makes this painting look terrible..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/3629224675/
Well, you can be more specific? If you want to directly imitate their style, then do that. Practice re-creating their work, isolating their style for given features, etc.
However, as most of us will say: it's great to imitate others in the process of learning, but you should look for your own style.
This is great.
I remember hearing a very similar quote which was a bit more comical...I really wish I could remember it. It's going to drive me crazy for days.
Is there a way to use photos or images as a bullet in Adobe InDesign CS3?
Can anyone suggest good, efficient tutorials? I'd hate to pick up bad habits from a shitty tut.
Basically, how to not look like a chump when you have no access to a colour copier.
man that's really nice no matter how terrible you think it is
I feel like maybe I'd need to watch some one do a realistic rendering in photoshop in order to see what I'm missing here.
I don't know of any good tutorials, but I'd suggest buying a book if you're serious about the program. I was flipping through some of them at the book store the other day, and there's quite a bit of information on the program available. Many parts of InDesign you'll learn about when you realize you need them, like creating a list with bullets and tables and so forth. So since I don't know of any tutorials off the top of my head, here are a few hints:
Construct your documents to the finished size. Make a business card on a 3.5" x 2" document, don't place it on a 8.5" x 11" document.
Use .psd and .ai files when you can. If you start with a jpeg from a stock photo Web site, that's fine. But if you say create a vector image in Illustrator, use .ai instead of .eps.
Use exact coordinates for your pieces, don't just eyeball stuff.
Use paragraph and character styles.
Get rid of swatches you're not using.
Talk to your printer beforehand.
Do any of you guys know of a better place than deviantart to shop for art? Most of the 'fantasy' art on DA looks like it belongs on somebody's fridge.
Etsy.com
Donato also sells very high quality prints. Also, if you can get to the San Diego Comicon he is always there with a ton of prints to sell. He usually has a 'portfolio' that he sells for around $50 or so, and it normally has about 8 prints in it.
You can find John Harris prints here.
You may not be interested in those artists in particular....but I used some of my favorites as examples. Its better to find the artist and then the prints rather than the other way around I suspect.
Read up on grid based design & layout - a well composed structure will definitely look 'non-sucky'.
I wish I could get to conventions. Stupid dead end job. Stupid midwest...
Then all my problems would be solved.
The number one thing I get asked about my own work is how to produce halftones.
When producing halftones for work that has to be colour seperated and screenprinted, the process is a little different (for instance, certain screen angles will "clash" with the mesh of your printing screen and end up looking weird) but what you've posted is the gist of it!
Anyway, what I wanted some advice on is pencil/brush control. Any tips on developping better control of my strokes or what kind of grip would be good? I feel as though I've picked up alot of bad habits, and I think that relearning everything from square one is best pretty much. I'm pretty commited to this and will post a art thread once I feel it's good enough to crit on.
Thanks in advance for anything to put me on the right path. I will be checking through all the tutorials in the opening thread after I post this. Cheers.
Gamertag(SSF4/MW2)StokedAidzzzSC2 ID Stoked.655
Uploaded SC2 Replays
*There's no way I can install the font on the second computer.