I'm trying to look for employment in the graphic design and illustration fields. I'm not great with CSS/HTML webdesign (you can probably tell from my site), and while I have some knowledge of vector work in Illustrator I don't know how to use flash.
I'm a little worried that the site design is a little too dark and focuses too much on fantasy illustration work, rather than on more employment-friendly commercial and advertisement work.
Do I have the skills to actually get employed with my current level of artwork? So far I haven't had much success in getting paid to do art or design. Any advice would be appreciated!
It is a little too dark to comfortably read the splash page.
Also, I hate splash pages. No one visits a site for its splash page, so it's nothing more than a barrier between the viewer and what you want them to see.
and the quality of work under your digital painting section is much lower than that you have listed under graphic design. so much lower that I wouldn't suggest having most of it on the site.
and, that AWE logo is totally fucking sweet.
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NakedZerglingA more apocalyptic post apocalypse Portland OregonRegistered Userregular
edited January 2010
Hey guys i'm having a problem and i'm wondering if you have faced it at all. I'm having real issues with symmetry. I'll draw a quick face and the horizontal flip it in PS to see the errors and it's REALLY slanted and bad. I've been spending hours trying again and again, and every time i swear it looks straight and even, but i'll flip it and it's GOD AWFUL. Could this be something with my vision, or is it just a matter of practice? It really takes the win out of my sails when i just draw a head shape, it looks correct to me but then i flip it...even without features, just the outline, and its all kinds of slanted. I'm getting pissed
I'm trying to look for employment in the graphic design and illustration fields. I'm not great with CSS/HTML webdesign (you can probably tell from my site), and while I have some knowledge of vector work in Illustrator I don't know how to use flash.
I'm a little worried that the site design is a little too dark and focuses too much on fantasy illustration work, rather than on more employment-friendly commercial and advertisement work.
Do I have the skills to actually get employed with my current level of artwork? So far I haven't had much success in getting paid to do art or design. Any advice would be appreciated!
I don't know if it's on purpose, but the content is in a tiny bar on the left, and nothing's drawing my eye over there. I land right in the middle and sit there wondering what to do. Content on the sides is typically miscellaneous stuff like links or ads, and users are going to expect the content to be around the center unless their eyes are told to go elsewhere.
Hey guys i'm having a problem and i'm wondering if you have faced it at all. I'm having real issues with symmetry. I'll draw a quick face and the horizontal flip it in PS to see the errors and it's REALLY slanted and bad. I've been spending hours trying again and again, and every time i swear it looks straight and even, but i'll flip it and it's GOD AWFUL. Could this be something with my vision, or is it just a matter of practice? It really takes the win out of my sails when i just draw a head shape, it looks correct to me but then i flip it...even without features, just the outline, and its all kinds of slanted. I'm getting pissed
If I recall reading correctly, one of the big name comic artists had a similar problem and would meticulously use a tracing table so that he could keep flipping his art back and forth while drawing it. I'm wanting to say it was Ditko.
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BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
I'm trying to look for employment in the graphic design and illustration fields. I'm not great with CSS/HTML webdesign (you can probably tell from my site), and while I have some knowledge of vector work in Illustrator I don't know how to use flash.
I'm a little worried that the site design is a little too dark and focuses too much on fantasy illustration work, rather than on more employment-friendly commercial and advertisement work.
Do I have the skills to actually get employed with my current level of artwork? So far I haven't had much success in getting paid to do art or design. Any advice would be appreciated!
I don't know if it's on purpose, but the content is in a tiny bar on the left, and nothing's drawing my eye over there. I land right in the middle and sit there wondering what to do. Content on the sides is typically miscellaneous stuff like links or ads, and users are going to expect the content to be around the center unless their eyes are told to go elsewhere.
Hmm, it's a nav bar and I'm definitely used to those being off to the side of the main content. Once you click on any of the thumbnails the image itself loads in the middle of the page.
I suppose if I used something like Lightbox I could place the thumbnails in the middle of the page, and then load images directly on top of it. Personally I've always found lightbox portfolios to be annoying to navigate, since it always feels like you're waiting for the lightbox script to display the next image.
It is a little too dark to comfortably read the splash page.
Also, I hate splash pages. No one visits a site for its splash page, so it's nothing more than a barrier between the viewer and what you want them to see.
and the quality of work under your digital painting section is much lower than that you have listed under graphic design. so much lower that I wouldn't suggest having most of it on the site.
and, that AWE logo is totally fucking sweet.
I've been debating about losing the splash page, I didn't think it felt too intrusive since it's a relatively fast-loading jpeg image and you only click through it once, but maybe I'll just fold that particular image into one of the gallery sections.
What would you say were the weakest/strongest digital painting pieces? I'd like to keep at least some of that work, but maybe just trimming it to 3 or so of the strongest pieces would be a good idea.
What you could do is have the content div hidden by default so the nav bar is in the middle, and then it snaps to the side when you reveal the content.
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BroloBroseidonLord of the BroceanRegistered Userregular
What you could do is have the content div hidden by default so the nav bar is in the middle, and then it snaps to the side when you reveal the content.
Haha, well you not noticing that is definitely a problem with my design, so it's probably a good idea to improve the site's readability/usability!
And yeah, I'll need to study a little more HTML to figure out how to move divs around, even doing basic markup is a challenge for me.
What you could do is have the content div hidden by default so the nav bar is in the middle, and then it snaps to the side when you reveal the content.
Haha, well you not noticing that is definitely a problem with my design, so it's probably a good idea to improve the site's readability/usability!
And yeah, I'll need to study a little more HTML to figure out how to move divs around, even doing basic markup is a challenge for me.
My divs, let me show you them. All of that is positioned automatically using the magic of CSS.
I just bought myself 3 (triple click!) Bamboo Fun tablets and literally am having tons of fun.
I want to create my own font now (seems simple enough right?) but it seems like the only programs that allow you to do this cost hundreds of dollars. It's something so simple and I can't wrap my mind around how it could cost so much. Is there a free solution somewhere that I'm missing?
If anyone wants to buy one of the extra tablets: eBay!
I'd rather sell it for price rather than going through the trouble of sending it back to the manufacturer and waiting for the refund to occur on the bill.
I'm really having a lot more fun than I expected with this, and best of all using the pen in lieu of the mouse really takes the strain off your wrist.
I want to commission a tattoo design. I think this is where I'm supposed to ask.
If you think you're up to the challenge let me know!
Having worked in a tattoo studio, my response to this question is always the same: the best person to design your tattoo, is the one who is going to be inking it into your skin.
I taught myself basic HTML and CSS from a "Visual Quickstart Guide" book. I only code in TextEdit (probably the Mac equivalent). I think it's a lot easier to go off of other people's code and learn from their examples, so finding a free template might not be a bad idea, especially if you modify it for your needs. You could learn a lot that way and then even come up with your own designs later.
I taught myself basic HTML and CSS from a "Visual Quickstart Guide" book. I only code in TextEdit (probably the Mac equivalent). I think it's a lot easier to go off of other people's code and learn from their examples, so finding a free template might not be a bad idea, especially if you modify it for your needs. You could learn a lot that way and then even come up with your own designs later.
It's my understanding that the quality of that series has plummeted. w3schools is always good for learning web stuff.
It's small. It was cheap. It was a way for me to see if I wanted to spend time doing digital drawings/paintings. Turns out I do!
I draw for fun, but I would like to draw on something better. The pressure sensitivity feels more like a light switch than a gradient and it doesn't seem to track very well in general.
If I bumped up my budget to, say, $75 to 100ish dollars would I be able to get something appreciatively better or would I bet stuck with the same general quality of tablet? I use GIMP on Windows 7, if it matters.
i am very interested in picking this up
but with an almost 200$ price tag, i want some reviews first.
edit: just found out that my old university's library has it on reserve. gonna go check it out, i'll tell you all what the verdict is if you're at all interested in scientific illustration.
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BuckwolfeStarts With Them, Ends With UsRegistered Userregular
edited January 2010
I do so love illustrated nature and science books. Especially the old ones. I've got a few that are outrageously beautiful. Especially Seba's "Cabinet of Natural Curiosities." But $200 is one whopper of a price tag, Beavs.
Too bad the pages available on Amazon's "Look Inside" are of zero help. Its practically just the cover, table on contents, and index pages.
Thanks for the suggestions on the Bamboo tablets; I will check them out.
On a somewhat related note, I've been using GIMP for years and had no idea that GIMP Paint Studio existed. It's a collection of brushes, palettes, and other tools that help gear GIMP more toward painting. Pretty neat stuff.
checked it out at the library
it is certainly a wealth of knowledge
a very technical approach to illustration though, so if you're not into that, don't bother with it
but if you're into doing highly realistic renderings and learning about good techniques, it's pretty applicable to all fields of illustrative work.
In my experience, you don't really get web design books that don't relate to coding in some way, unless you're talking about stuff on User Experience. A well designed site is required to be more than simply visually pleasing - it needs to be eloquently coded, cross-browser compatible, mobile-friendly, search engine optimised, etc etc.
I would say the web design books which deal with the more cosmetic side of things would be ones on Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
This is widely considered one of the best: Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design and certainly covers a lot of subject matter which you'd find in other non-web-specific design books.
Fun Fact: Some of my artwork is also in this book! 8-)
Yeah, that book might be what I'm looking for. Does it say things like, "your site should probably be x pixels wide, because 50% of all browsers are set to y resolution." That's the kind of stuff I need. I know the basics of HTML and CSS, I'm more concerned with the BEST ways to set it up, considering ease of use for both the users and possible coders.
Judging from the preview, it looks like what I need. Does it show how to set things up in Photoshop?
While it has a section on the web building process and refers to putting together mock sites in photoshop it doesn't really go into that side of things. It does have a huge amount of stuff on Grid Based design, which is pretty good.
It's a good read but it's sort of aimed at people who already build websites, so there's a lot of assumed knowledge. I don't think you're going to find a web design book which will deal much with photoshop!
As for the stats on browsers/resolution, you can probably find that stuff online. I'm rebuilding my own site at the moment and have chosen the resolution based on my Google Analytics stats.
I am totally new to Photoshop/digital work. Is there a way to change the resolution on an image I've already started working on? Or does that only apply to scanned images?
I got the print from a thrift store in Sacramento. I later saw the same image hanging on the wall of the hawaiian hotel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The David reference is pretty obvious here, but my google fu has failed me in finding anything else out about it.
Posts
www.japong.net
I'm trying to look for employment in the graphic design and illustration fields. I'm not great with CSS/HTML webdesign (you can probably tell from my site), and while I have some knowledge of vector work in Illustrator I don't know how to use flash.
I'm a little worried that the site design is a little too dark and focuses too much on fantasy illustration work, rather than on more employment-friendly commercial and advertisement work.
Do I have the skills to actually get employed with my current level of artwork? So far I haven't had much success in getting paid to do art or design. Any advice would be appreciated!
Also, I hate splash pages. No one visits a site for its splash page, so it's nothing more than a barrier between the viewer and what you want them to see.
and the quality of work under your digital painting section is much lower than that you have listed under graphic design. so much lower that I wouldn't suggest having most of it on the site.
and, that AWE logo is totally fucking sweet.
http://www.japong.net/HTML/main.html
I don't know if it's on purpose, but the content is in a tiny bar on the left, and nothing's drawing my eye over there. I land right in the middle and sit there wondering what to do. Content on the sides is typically miscellaneous stuff like links or ads, and users are going to expect the content to be around the center unless their eyes are told to go elsewhere.
If I recall reading correctly, one of the big name comic artists had a similar problem and would meticulously use a tracing table so that he could keep flipping his art back and forth while drawing it. I'm wanting to say it was Ditko.
Hmm, it's a nav bar and I'm definitely used to those being off to the side of the main content. Once you click on any of the thumbnails the image itself loads in the middle of the page.
I suppose if I used something like Lightbox I could place the thumbnails in the middle of the page, and then load images directly on top of it. Personally I've always found lightbox portfolios to be annoying to navigate, since it always feels like you're waiting for the lightbox script to display the next image.
I've been debating about losing the splash page, I didn't think it felt too intrusive since it's a relatively fast-loading jpeg image and you only click through it once, but maybe I'll just fold that particular image into one of the gallery sections.
What would you say were the weakest/strongest digital painting pieces? I'd like to keep at least some of that work, but maybe just trimming it to 3 or so of the strongest pieces would be a good idea.
What you could do is have the content div hidden by default so the nav bar is in the middle, and then it snaps to the side when you reveal the content.
Haha, well you not noticing that is definitely a problem with my design, so it's probably a good idea to improve the site's readability/usability!
And yeah, I'll need to study a little more HTML to figure out how to move divs around, even doing basic markup is a challenge for me.
My divs, let me show you them. All of that is positioned automatically using the magic of CSS.
I want to create my own font now (seems simple enough right?) but it seems like the only programs that allow you to do this cost hundreds of dollars. It's something so simple and I can't wrap my mind around how it could cost so much. Is there a free solution somewhere that I'm missing?
If anyone wants to buy one of the extra tablets: eBay!
I'd rather sell it for price rather than going through the trouble of sending it back to the manufacturer and waiting for the refund to occur on the bill.
I'm really having a lot more fun than I expected with this, and best of all using the pen in lieu of the mouse really takes the strain off your wrist.
If you think you're up to the challenge let me know!
Having worked in a tattoo studio, my response to this question is always the same: the best person to design your tattoo, is the one who is going to be inking it into your skin.
Any tips? I really don't know much CSS, but I want a clean, simple website.
Also, would it be a good idea to find a free template and base the work off that?
It's my understanding that the quality of that series has plummeted. w3schools is always good for learning web stuff.
So I have to go back to Uni for this!
Eugh....... O.k then.
As for simple tutorials, I would suggest: http://htmldog.com/ which I found pretty useful when I was relearning a bunch of stuff.
Also, we're all big boys and girls now, we should be using XHTML.
http://www.amazon.com/DigiPro-4x3-Inch-Graphics-Tablet-Cordless/dp/B000YLBE9G/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1264796145&sr=8-6
It's small. It was cheap. It was a way for me to see if I wanted to spend time doing digital drawings/paintings. Turns out I do!
I draw for fun, but I would like to draw on something better. The pressure sensitivity feels more like a light switch than a gradient and it doesn't seem to track very well in general.
If I bumped up my budget to, say, $75 to 100ish dollars would I be able to get something appreciatively better or would I bet stuck with the same general quality of tablet? I use GIMP on Windows 7, if it matters.
Robots Will Be Our Superiors (Blog)
http://michaelhermes.com
http://www.amazon.ca/Guild-Handbook-Scientific-Illustration/dp/0471360112/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264877841&sr=8-1
i am very interested in picking this up
but with an almost 200$ price tag, i want some reviews first.
edit: just found out that my old university's library has it on reserve. gonna go check it out, i'll tell you all what the verdict is if you're at all interested in scientific illustration.
Too bad the pages available on Amazon's "Look Inside" are of zero help. Its practically just the cover, table on contents, and index pages.
Steam handle: Buckwolfe
On a somewhat related note, I've been using GIMP for years and had no idea that GIMP Paint Studio existed. It's a collection of brushes, palettes, and other tools that help gear GIMP more toward painting. Pretty neat stuff.
Robots Will Be Our Superiors (Blog)
http://michaelhermes.com
it is certainly a wealth of knowledge
a very technical approach to illustration though, so if you're not into that, don't bother with it
but if you're into doing highly realistic renderings and learning about good techniques, it's pretty applicable to all fields of illustrative work.
I would say the web design books which deal with the more cosmetic side of things would be ones on Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
This is widely considered one of the best: Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design and certainly covers a lot of subject matter which you'd find in other non-web-specific design books.
Judging from the preview, it looks like what I need. Does it show how to set things up in Photoshop?
It's a good read but it's sort of aimed at people who already build websites, so there's a lot of assumed knowledge. I don't think you're going to find a web design book which will deal much with photoshop!
As for the stats on browsers/resolution, you can probably find that stuff online. I'm rebuilding my own site at the moment and have chosen the resolution based on my Google Analytics stats.
Do people still generally build sites in Photoshop and use that slice method? Or is that completely outdated?
durr
I got the print from a thrift store in Sacramento. I later saw the same image hanging on the wall of the hawaiian hotel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The David reference is pretty obvious here, but my google fu has failed me in finding anything else out about it.