This blog is about painting and drawing. I post links to resources, tutorials, graphics software and interesting artist bloggers.


Friday

Photoshop Mega list from Fossfor's laboratory


Tutorials:
http://psd.tutsplus.com/category/tutorials/
http://www.emagzin.com/featured/photoshop-101-beginning-photoshop/
http://www.edesignerz.net/tutorials/photoshop
http://speckyboy.com/2010/02/22/a-round-up-of-50-fresh-photoshop-tutorials-and-techniques/
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/
http://www.psdvault.com/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/tag/photoshop/
http://www.tipsquirrel.com/
http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/
http://www.tutorial9.net/category/photoshop/
http://tinyurl.com/33vpmjz
http://machoarts.com/17-best-photoshop-cs5-video-tutorials


Brushes:

http://www.brushking.eu/
http://dzineblog.com/2008/10/45-sites-to-download-photoshop-brushes.html
http://www.blendfu.com/
http://www.noupe.com/freebie/ultimate-collection-of-photoshop-brushes-actions-and-styles.html
http://josweb.co.uk/blog/2010/10/latest-free-high-res-photoshop-brushes-collection/
http://acrisdesign.com/2010/11/750-free-watercolor-photoshop-brushes/
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tools/brushes.html
http://www.photoshopbrushes.com/
http://www.brushdirectory.com/


Patterns:
http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/resources/photoshop-patterns/
http://www.brushdirectory.com/patterns/

Shapes:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/12/11/the-ultimate-collection-of-photoshop-custom-shapes/

Gigantic list of tips from users:
http://blogs.adobe.com/photoshopdotcom/2010/10/photoshop-tips-from-photoshop-fans.html


An enormous list of Photoshop sites:
http://www.noupe.com/photoshop/the-ultimate-photoshop-toolbox.html


Or if you hate Photoshop and think it costs the earth try one of these instead!

Friday

Fosslab is on a break: follow me on Twitter

This blog is on an extended holiday. I seem to get a lot more feedback from Twitter where I post links on the same lines as here. There is so much useful info to be found there!

You can follow me as fossfor66 at http://twitter.com/fossfor66
My latest series of tweets is #coolartblogs
Hope to meet you all and get tweeting about art...


Wednesday

Silhouettes and Tangents

These two articles talk about a couple of important things to remember when you are designing characters or setting up enviroments and scenes.

Silhouettes:
'The reason silhouette value is important is because it's a great aid to "foolproofing" the clarity in your drawings - it helps make sure that everyone can tell exactly what your character is doing at all times.' This article is from a series titled ' a Kick in the head' on Mark Kennedy's wonderful blog Temple of the seven Golden Camels which is about drawing, storyboarding and animation.

Tangents:
'If silhouette is desirable, tangents are not. Tangents occur when lines or shapes begin to collide hap-hazardly, usually right on the contours they are describing.' Will Finn is a colleague of Mark's and writes about tangents and why to avoid them in this article on the Small Room. This is something most pro artists do instinctively but sometimes it gets overlooked.

Monday

Mark McDonnell's sketchbook

This video is related to my last post on watching people work: Mark McDonnell has a nice Youtube channel with videos of him sketching. I like this one where he shows one of his sketchbooks, with great animals and characters.



He says this sketchbook is a Cachet, earthbound recycled sketchbook , ISBN # 1-56152-416-6, and it's great paper that can take a bit of punishment with wet media. He draws with Prismacolor markers and pencils. The black is a Gelly-Roll pen.