coyleart

A Shorpy Christmas

When you're in the mood for nostalgia, hop over to one of my favorite sites, shorpy.com. There just aren't enough hours to look through the thousands of amazing vintage photographs. Happy Holidays!

My latest illustration e-promo: Flight International Cover

If you received this promo today and it brought you here, Welcome!

I had the pleasure of working on this assignment recently for Flightglobal, for the cover of Flight International Magazine. The illustration strives to capture the meeting of Parisian culture and Aviation that occurs every other year when the Paris Air Show comes to Le Bourget Airport, just outside of Paris. This is the oldest and largest air show in the world, an aviation tradition that began in 1909.

Zooming ahead to the 21st century, you can also view the interactive version of the cover and magazine (Flash required) created by Kern Roderick-Jones of FMG that features animation of my mini Patrouille de France, the acrobatic jet team of the French Air Force.

One thing I relish as an illustrator is the opportunity to research an interesting subject like this and find the reference I need for all the details. When I lived in New York, I loved to visit the picture files at the New York Public Library, but I confess I love the convenience of a Google search even more.

Here's a quick shot of the print edition I snapped on my light table. I like to add finishing touches with pen and ink, but after my initial pencil thumbnails, I draw most of the art on the computer.

My Dad happens to be a librarian at the National Naval Air Museum in Pensacola FL, so I was happy to show him that his love for airplanes, and for modeling and drawing them, has rubbed off a bit on me. Here's my Dad going the extra mile to get the best shot of his rubber band powered Fokker biplane. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

You can see the Paris Air Show cover art and more of my work on my illustration portfolio website at www.coyleart.com.

 

Live Trace link

To make up for my lack of posts this month, I want to share a link to an Illustrator tutorial, that's not one of mine, but one I think you'll enjoy. We just wrapped up another great online Illustrator 2 class over at ReneePearson.com, where among other things, we learned about Live Trace. 

Follow the link to this tutorial by Corey Barker of Layers Magazine. He demonstrates using Live Trace, Effects and Blending Modes to make a vintage style illustration using photographs in Illustrator. For those who just finished my class, this is a great excuse to play with your new skills!

The Birka Jazz album cover archive

This online archive is an inspiring resource for graphic design, photography and illustration all rolled into one. I love jazz album covers, they always seem to be a sign of the times from the golden years of jazz history, exhibiting great photography and adventurous illustration. Check out the Birka Jazz Archive to see what I mean. Lots of designs from labels big and small with covers from noted illustrators David Stone Martin and Jim Flora; designers Saul Bass and photographers like Herman Leonard and W. Eugene Smith.

more drawing with the Times

Visit the series of drawing lessons now available every Friday at the NYTimes.com. I wrote about this in a post a few weeks ago. Since then, James McMullan has discussed ellipses and cross-hatching in his new Line By Line column. A refreshing pause for drawing amid the daily news.

getting back to the phantom skill

Visit this new column by illustrator James McMullan on The New York Times website. Each week (for 12 weeks) he will be taking us through a drawing class, a chance to get back to what he calls "the phantom skill," that universal pursuit of drawing (airplanes, rainbows and horses) that we all began in childhood and many have dropped somewhere along the way. Also, visit James McMullan's website, he's probably most well-known for his theatre posters. I'm excited to see what he has in store for us in his new column: inspiring readers to get back to their long-untapped artistic side.

adobe illustrator: stroke weight and brushstrokes

If you’re wondering about the relationship of brushstrokes in Illustrator to the stroke weight measurement you find in the Stroke Panel, I’ve created a graphic to illustrate the concept.

Changing the stroke weight (in the Stroke Panel) of a path you’ve created with the Brush Tool is like applying a multiplier to the brushstroke. By default, your stroke weight should be set to 1 pt. in the Stroke Panel and then any brush stroke you create will remain true to it’s original stroke size. 

Calligraphic brush tips are sized in terms of points. Double-click any Calligraphic brush tip in the Brushes Panel to see it’s options, including it’s stroke size. If you are using a 3 pt. tip and your stroke size is set to 1 point in the Stroke Panel, then your brushstroke will appear at it’s original size, 3 points. But if you set your stroke weight to 2 points in the Stroke Panel, you’ll be adding a multiplier of 2 to your brushstroke, leaving you with a 6 point stroke.

Changing the stroke weight in the Stroke Panel in Illustrator will give you the same results with Art brushes, Scatter brushes or Pattern brushes - you’ll be applying a multiplier to the brushstroke. Art, Scatter and Pattern brushes have sizes expressed in terms of the percentage of the original vector art used to create the brush.

Finally, in Adobe Illustrator CS 5 the new Bristle brush is available, it’s yet another vector-styled stroke that gets applied to a path as you “paint” with the brush tool. The width of a bristle brush is expressed in terms of millimeters and you can change it’s width by double clicking the brush in the Brushes Panel. Like the other brushes I’ve mentioned here, you can instantly double the size of the stroke by changing the stroke width to 2 in the stroke panel, triple it by changing the stroke width to 3, etc. 

Particularly with the bristle brush, but also with the other brushes, I think the best practice is to adjust the stroke size on the brush itself, not by adding a stroke panel adjustment to the brush. I say this in particular with the bristle brush, because it creates a lot of complex paths to begin with, which makes files larger and slower, and I might not want the added complexity. But at least understanding the relationship between Illustrator brushes and stroke panel sizing is important for knowing your options when using the brush tool.

photoshop brushes

Some fun I've been having in Tiffany Tillman's Photoshop BrushShop class on Renee Pearson.com. Tiffany showed us a brush tip technique that reminded me of an Andy Warhol blotted ink line illustration. Can't wait to combine my new Photoshop brush techniques with my Illustrator artwork.

layers in illustrator vs. photoshop

I get a lot of questions from Photoshop users who are learning Adobe Illustrator for the first time and are puzzled by the differences in how layers work in the two programs. Here's a way of looking at layers that might be helpful:

The layers panel looks very similar in both programs, and many of the functions and shortcuts you're familiar with are the same from Photoshop to Illustrator, but the basic purpose of the layers panel is fundamentally different from one program to the other.

In Illustrator, think of your artwork as being object-based, where in Photoshop your artwork is layers-based. In Illustrator, layers are optional; in Photoshop they are mandatory.

In Photoshop, the layers panel is the gatekeeper; you can't edit anything or select a component of your artwork without selecting a layer in the layers panel first. Want to create something new in PS? You probably need to start by creating a new layer. Want to apply an effect or transparency to part of your artwork in Photoshop? You apply it to a layer.

In Illustrator, you can apply effects directly to an object, path, or even to a whole layer. To create or edit art in Illustrator, you just click on the artboard. In fact, you could create whatever you like without ever using the layers panel. Layers are there if you need them, and are a great way to organize your illustration. I often start working on a file with no regard to layers (by default Illustrator gives you a single layer to start called "Layer 1") and then I "layer up" my art later in my process so it's organized in a way that makes my editing work easier.

Use Layers in Illustrator to organize your artwork into foreground, midground and background elements. Or isolate parts of your drawing and leave them undisturbed by locking their layers as you work on other objects. The most common way to deselect an object (or begin a new path with the pen tool) in Illustrator is to click anywhere else on the artboard. Locking and hiding layers as you work can help you find that space to click, so you can deselect without disturbing other parts of your work.

So these are some ideas to help Photoshop users orient themselves to the layers panel in Illustrator. We go a bit more in depth in my Illustrator online classes at ReneePearson.com and I'll likely add more information on Illustrator layers here in the future - so stay tuned!

aubrey beardsley

 I'm working on something decorative and ornate and I'm reminded of Aubrey Beardsley, one of my favorite illustrators. He was active in the late 1800's, a contemporary of Oscar Wilde's, whose books and plays Beardsley often illustrated. His work manages to be beautiful and flowing, strange and creepy all at the same time. Years ago, I scooped up a biography of Beardsley at the Strand and was excited to spend a little time in Aubrey Beardsley's world. He was enormously popular and controversial during his short career in London and he died so young - at the age of 25.

 I was just watching The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) on TCM and was reminded of Beardsley again (go watch the Curious Cat clip from the movie at the TCM link). The set design and art direction will inspire you and put you in the right stylistic frame of mind for looking at his illustrations, and there's even a copy of the Beardsley illustrated edition of Le Morte D' Arthur sitting on a pedestal in Dorian Gray's salon.

 I have my own copy, a slightly blurry reproduction, and it's one of my favorite resources for intricate vine work and borders, it's filled from cover to cover with Beardsley's art. I found Le Morte D' Arthur used at the Strand too when I was on my Beardsley kick. I went up to the top floor that day to look at the original editions of the Yellow Book, rare and out of reach of my budget, but with the wealth of Aubrey Beardsley's images available on the internet, we can all be inspired by the strange beauty of his work on a moment's whim.