Monsters!

He has also enjoyed a fruitful career in illustration producing work for clients including the BBC, M&S, Sainsburys, McCann Erickson, Oddbins, Scholastics, Nestle, BT, Vodaphone and various children’s books for Macmillan.

Character Design

Cereal Killers & Capsized Crunch

Survive

Chris created the above piece for an exhibition of illustration work by Leeds Met BA (Hons) Graphic Arts and Design alumniwith the theme being ‘Survive’. Its stylised manner particularly interested us at Formatt Mag and we asked Chris how he went about making it…

At the moment I predominantly work on a Wacom Cintiq, so with this one I started off by sketching out a bunch of ideas and various compositions in Photoshop. I wanted a bold and simple concept, populated with some silly characters and I also wanted to use this piece as an excuse to experiment with some new techniques I’d been thinking about.

After settling on an idea I liked, I then sourced a photo for the background. I’d just been to New Zealand at the start of the year and that particular photo is one my girlfriend took out off the plane on the way back. It’s somewhere over the ocean between Auckland and Los Angeles.

I then laid out a variety of textures over the top of the photo layer and experimented with different levels of opacity and also changes the setting of each texture layer, again experimenting with things like Multiply, Colour Burn etc, until I had an effect that made the photo kind of look like a painting.

I built all the characters using mainly Paths, but every now and again using the paintbrush; like on the furry bodies of the Mine Monsters and the chains holding them down. I also used the airbrush for the lighting and shade to give them all some forms. I didn’t want them to look too flat. There are also some shadow and light layers that I created using paths and are put in place with the opacity turned down and the edges blurred slightly.

When it comes to the colours I very rarely do a colour sketch first. I probably should have done and I’d always advise other people to do that, but I just jumped straight into this one and played around with the colours as I was putting it all together.

I built the bubble using paths and then experimented with different effects to get the right bubble look. This was the bit that took the longest as I wanted something that looked kind of real but didn’t distract from the rest of the image. In all the photographic reference I found of real soap bubbles they had really intricate reflections and oily rainbow colours all over them. They looked kind of cool but they’d be too overpowering for what I needed, so I decided on a much simpler approach and tried to keep a limited palette, just white with a hint of blue. I then Copied and Pasted the section of the photographic BG behind the bubble and put a Warp effect on it. This was to create the illusion of the bubble distorting the environment behind it and it also helped to describe the spherical shape of the bubble. The other smaller bubbles are just copies of the main big bubble that I placed around until it looked right.

I then experimented with different colour masks, set at varying opacities etc, placing them over the whole image. This was done to help bring together some of the colours bearing in mind where you wanted to lead the viewers eye and what elements you wanted to push into the BG and make more subtle.

And that’s about it really. There was quite a lot of experimenting and trial and error with this one, but that’s where the fun comes from and you often get some really exciting and unexpected effects. As long as you have a good idea of where you’re going and what you hope to achieve with the image, then there’s no harm in playing around and enjoying it on the way there.

Discover more from Chris by viewing his portfolio and reading his blog.

Momoko

“I am intrigued by the wood-block artists of 17th Japan and pictures of the floating world. I adore the evanescent, impermanent, fleeting beauty and simplicity of this style.”

Kuniko

Born in Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1981, she left school with six GCSE’s (including Art and Design Technology). She went on to complete a National Diploma in Graphic Design then moved on to a BA degree in Graphic Design and Printing along with Computer Aided Art and Design. She graduated in 2002 and worked as a Graphic Designer creating logos, flyers and various media elements for local companies before moving on to freelance work, designing corporate identity for clients worldwide. Since then, her most prestigious design commissions include a themed stained glass window for a wine bar, a summer house ceiling painting and a large canvas print for a local establishment among others.

Mezumi

The image below, titled “Kichigai” (Crazy), is one of Denise’s masterpieces. She explains the technical process behind creating it beneath.

Kichigai

“My creative process for Kichigai (Crazy) began with a pencil drawing, (sketching allows me to visualize and imagine the completed work). The sketch was then scanned. Creating a new layer and using the bezier tool in Adobe Photoshop I tidied the image up, creating a line drawing. Using Layers I added detail to the eyes, nose and lips and added shading to the face and legs using the paintbrush along with the bezier tools stroke/fill option for the larger areas. The hair was created again with the bezier tool with paintbrush preset option, shape dynamics, set to fade. The highlights in her hair used the same method, this time with Brush preset option, smoothing, selected. The most difficult part of this piece was the strait jacket. The shape of the strait jacket was selected and shading added, then the flower pattern (created with bezier curves) were added using a new layer. Each of the straps on the strait jacket were created on a separate layer, each one selected with shading added. The same method was applied to the metal hoops. I always use between three and five colours for each piece as I try to integrate the age-old tradition of Japanese scroll painting with the contemporary aesthetics of manga.”

Rokurokubi

Samurai Geisha

Hikari

Sadako

Discover more from Denise by viewing her portfolio!

Axe Cop is an online comic written by a 5 year old and illustrated by his 29 year old brother. The comic follows the bizarre life of Axe Cop and his changing side kicks in their on going struggle to stop baddies from doing evil things.





Stripped down to the basics, it has everything a regular comic has; the heroes, the villains, the plot but the main difference is the sheer absurdity. Being so unashamedly over the top and nonsensical runs a risk of alienating readers, however retaining the familiar comic book format renders it appealing to a wide audience. Anything can happen in Axe Cop and this makes an exciting, intriguing read. The expert illustration gives credibility to the story and provides a solid grounding to reality. Axe Cop is an unpretentious, great time waster that is easy to dip in and out of for some entertainment.



Illustrations sourced from the Axe Cop website.

If channelling your own creativity fails, employing the mind of a 5 year old will do the trick.

David Hooper is a content producer for Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra. He has been at Radio 1 for ten years now. As part of his job, he makes Flash games and is responsible for much of the Flash content on Radio 1 websites. David also develops Flash applications on a freelance basis. Here’s what he had to say:

Creative Journey

I started off at Radio 1 Newsbeat in 2000 and soon after that I made my first Flash game, for the 2001 election. At the time there was a lot of fuss over William Hague’s admission that he drank 14 pints a day in his teenage years, so I was asked to make a William Hague drinking game. It’s long disappeared now, but I seem to remember it would involve using the mouse to pass him pint glasses full of alcohol, and when you gave him the 14th one, he’d fall over.

Because of BBC balance though I was then asked to hastily make games for the other two party leaders, so we had Tony Blair’s spin machine where you were a journalist who had to fire ‘questions’ at him whilst he span on a wheel. Then there was the Dress Charles Kennedy game where you’d drag and drop ridiculous clothes onto him to make him stand out more. There were many late nights working at home getting those ready for the transmission deadline.

Such games may seem frivilous but they were one way of getting our audience to have a bit of fun online and hopefully have a look at our other election content.

In 2005 I started working on The Chris Moyles Show and that provided a whole load of other opportunities to do Flash work. The newsreader Dominic Byrne, for example, created a truly dull video called ‘Dom’s Boring Video’ which became a YouTube sensation, getting over 600,000 views – so it made sense to make an equally boring game for it which Chris could talk about on air.

Creativity

Generally, I get a lot of creative freedom but I need to think about making games that are relevant to our young audience, that fit within the BBC’s usual standards and guidelines and work with the Radio 1 brand. Plus any server-side jiggery pokery such as high score tables generally isn’t possible in such short timescales.

Inspiration

Inspiration often comes from the need to solve problems – for example what is the best way to promote the huge amount of rich content on Radio 1 and 1Xtra? I created a Flash widget which sits on top of our homepages which can promote up to five features on the networks – it works from our RSS feeds and we call it the ‘swoosher’.

I enjoy the most working on projects that bring a bit of humour to what we do – Dom’s lawnmower game was one of those, but often there’s a need to make dry subjects a bit more interesting.

Turnaround

Often radio shows are planned days or even hours in advance, so I may not get much notice to make a Flash game. As a general rule we’re talking days to develop something rather than weeks. Plus I have other duties as part of my job too, so typically I’ll end up with three or so days to make a game like the Careers Generator. They’re not the most sophisticated things in the world as a result, but are just designed to be a bit of fun.

Projects

Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra’s campaigns are a vital part of what we do but at the same time we don’t want to come across as boring – so we try and inject some fun into them, and making a simple Flash game is often a good way to do it.

Sniffy The Drug Pug was one idea we had for a recent drugs campaign – you’re a trainee sniffer dog who has to find the hidden substances:

And the Big Dawg Tim Westwood is always inspiring – for example here I created a ridiculous careers suggestion generator where he works out your future from a bunch of surreal questions (all completely random of course).

Future of Flash

I’m not an expert on the future of Flash but I hope it’s good cos I don’t fancy learning anything new! Certainly it’s become a much, much more versatile tool than it was back in the days of Flash 5 when I was making the 2001 election games. Now we’ve got HTML 5 on the way which can do a lot of the things Flash can do including video it’ll be interesting to see how things develop – plus there’s still no Flash support on things like the iPhone and iPad.
Learning how to code for these platforms too, is definitely the way to go for Flash developers who want to be future proof.

Advice

The great thing about Flash is that it’s easy to learn if you have a bit of patience – there’s loads of help out there including video tutorials on the Flash website. If you have a bit of knowledge it’s amazing how many people there are out there who need Flash developers even to do quite simple stuff.

At first, you may need to work for free or just to build your portfolio. Once you’ve got stuff to show, you’re in a strong position.

Don’t make the mistake I’ve made time and time again of underestimating how long it’ll take to do things – I find getting the basic stuff working is quite fast. It’s the bells and whistles and nice design elements that take the longest.

Often I’ve made simple Flash projects the wrong way round – coding stuff so that it just works, and then designing around it, making it look as nice as possible in the remaining time. It’s not elegant but it may work for you if you’ve got days rather than weeks to make something.

Find a good tweening component and learn how to use it – it can save you loads of time. I use Tweenlite.

Never underestimate the power of sound in Flash games – they can really really lift something that’s a little bit mediocre. I wish I’d had time to add more sounds to some of the stuff I’ve done.

Its first project was realised in Leeds and can be experienced using Global Positioning enabled handheld devices. It uses mscape software developed by Hewlett-Packard, which packs up audio and media files with GPS into one platform. Therefore it provides the opportunity for location-based experiences, in our case music videos filmed on location, re-experienced in situ using a handheld device.

The goals of the project are to support emerging musicians and filmmakers to create the content of the album, to create an archive of local talent, and to encourage people to explore the city through music and narration.

To book a tour, and for more information, visit OurCityOurMusic.com.

Chi Lin - Copyright © SummerSound Photography (Tom Jackson)

The aim of his work is to create images that effectively capture the mood, emotion and atmosphere of a location or event. His online portfolio – http://www.summersound.co.uk – demonstrates a wide range of camera, lighting and digital imaging techniques and includes recent work from across the globe.

Buddha Bokeh - Copyright © SummerSound Photography (Tom Jackson)

Tom has contributed images to the following exhibitions:

• Strangely Familiar, 2008, Project Space Leeds gallery, Leeds
• Freedom 2008, 2008, Dray Walk Gallery, London
• Images of Change, 2009, Cambridge University, Cambridge
• April Fool, 2010, Art in Unusual Spaces, Leeds

Whitby Abbey - Copyright © SummerSound Photography (Tom Jackson)

In April 2010, he opened his first solo exhibition, Converging Light. This exhibition aimed to illustrate the aesthetic potentials of aperture and shutter speed and was displayed in three different venues around Leeds. He has been published in two issues of international arts magazine Platform58 and has been finalised in numerous high profile competitions.

Sunset over Causeway Bay - Copyright © SummerSound Photography (Tom Jackson)

Tom’s background is in graphic design and multimedia technologies. His father ran a graphic design company (until his retirement in 2009) and Tom started to produce commercial design work through this business from the age of 16. His family holidays in the Yorkshire Dales during his youth, fuelled Tom’s love of the great outdoors and greatly influenced his style as a photographer.

3 Face Reflection - Copyright © SummerSound Photography (Tom Jackson)

A highly successful career in design and interactive development followed Tom’s graduation from the University of Bradford in 1999 (with a BSc(Hons) degree in Electronic Imaging and Media Communications). Before joining Leeds Metropolitan University to pursue his passion for education, Tom managed large-scale design and interactive projects for companies such as BAE Systems, Ericsson and Kimberley Clark.

Falling Man - Copyright © SummerSound Photography (Tom Jackson)

In the future, Tom hopes to greatly develop his reputation as a photographic artist. He is currently exploring numerous creative applications of photographic and digital imaging techniques that he hopes will result in exciting new solo exhibitions in the near future.

Peacock - Copyright © SummerSound Photography (Tom Jackson)

Dark Motion - Copyright © SummerSound Photography (Tom Jackson)

The Pier - Copyright © SummerSound Photography (Tom Jackson)

The Countryside - Copyright © SummerSound Photography (Tom Jackson)

www.summersound.co.uk

Using her Canon 400D, her approach to photography is both innovative and commercial.

Her mouthwatering food photography is inspired – somehow capturing the essence of taste with her images.

“I want to be the Sartorialist of food, bringing to your attention the art of good cooking and the wonders of food photography.”

See more of Tanya’s Photography on her website.

Throughout this guide I cover a range of photography themes and tips aimed at really helping you enhance your photographic capability. You’ll see many photos illustrating and explaining the techniques, all of which I have personally taken from places around the world.

Some top tips to get you started with:

1: Snap away! Take loads of pics. You can always delete the bad ones later.
2: Don’t be afraid. Some people get intimidated taking photos of other people or things. People generally will let you know if they don’t like you taking pictures of them. If thats the case, stop, smile and apologise.
3: Think. Avoid the old ‘point-and-click’ method. You will have a much better success rate if you stop and think about taking your photo.
4: Fill the Frame. There is nothing worse than when you have a look at an photo that you have taken and you have lost all the beautiful detail that you saw originally. Aim to fill the frame with your subject and remember the best kind of zoom is to use your legs.
5: Have fun. Enjoy it and be creative!

The ‘Rule’ of Thirds

The ‘Rule of Thirds’ is the basis for well-balanced and interesting shots. I will say right up front however that rules are meant to be broken and ignoring this one doesn’t mean your images are necessarily unbalanced or uninteresting. However a wise person once told me that if you intend to break a rule you should always learn it first to make sure your breaking of it is all the more effective!

The basic principle of the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (horizontally and vertically) as in this grid:

The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines, your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to engage with it more naturally. Studies have shown that when viewing images, people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points automatically, rather than the center of the shot. Using this rule, works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than against it.

Breaking the rule can result in some striking shots – so once you’ve learnt it experiment with purposefully breaking it to see what you discover.

Lines

The lines that can be found in images are very powerful elements that, with a little practice, can add dynamic impact to a photograph. Lines can effect the mood of an image, as well as act as a powerful tool to lead a viewer into a photo or their eye towards a subject.

I am going to show you how you can use horizontal, vertical, diagonal and converging lines to enhance your photos.

Horizontal Lines

Horizontal lines can be used really effectively in your photos to help convey the message of stability or rest. Have a think about the most common horizontal things and you will find they normally stay still eg… Oceans, sleeping people and fallen trees.

Horizons are the most common horizontal line to be found in photographs and they often act as a dividing point in a photograph. Keep in mind that unbroken horizons can often lead to a photograph feeling somewhat static or dull and a good strategy is to use other shapes in the landscape you’re photograph to break things up and give a point of interest (mountains, trees, buildings etc).

Vertical Lines

Vertical lines have the ability to convey a variety of different moods in a photograph ranging from power and strength (think of skyscrapers) to growth (think of trees).

Keep in mind the Rule of Thirds when you have strong vertical lines in a photograph. Placing a line directly in the middle of a shot will effectively cut your image in half. This can be used with dramatic impact but also can leave your image looking segmented.

Diagonal Lines

Diagonal lines generally work well to draw the eye of an image’s viewer through the photograph. They create points of interest as they intersect with other lines and often give images depth by suggesting perspective.

Different studies have been done into how people view images and many of them say that a natural way into an image is by travelling left to right and so a diagonal line starting at the bottom left and moving to the top right of an image can be quite useful and natural.

Horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines that are repeated through out an image can create very effective patterns that can easily become the subject of a photograph themselves. A recently plowed field or the ridges on a sand dune might be good examples of this.

Converging Lines

Multiple lines that converge together (or come close to one another) can be a great technique to lead your viewers eye into a shot. Perhaps the classic example of converging lines are railway tracks.

Position yourself in the middle of two tracks (after taking a look at what might be coming from behind) and you’ll see the two tracks on either side of you appear to get closer and closer together as they go into the distance.

Take this shot and the natural reaction for those looking at the scene will be for them to follow the lines off into the distance. In a sense the two lines act like a funnel which directs the gaze of those entering them in a certain direction.
The same effect can be achieved with roads or pathways, converging fence lines, a set of stairs, power lines or virtually any other lines that run parallel into the distance or that actually converge at some point.

Framing

We often put the photos we take into frames as a way of displaying and drawing attention to our favorite photos – but there is another type of framing that you can do as you’re taking your shots that can be just as effective and does just the same thing!

Framing is the technique of drawing attention to the subject of your image by blocking other parts of the image with something in the scene.

Frames for photographs come in all shapes and sizes and can include shooting through overhanging branches, shooting through windows, using tunnels, arches or doorways – you can even use people (for example shooting over shoulders or between heads) etc.

Your frame doesn’t need to go completely around the edges of your image – it might just be on one or two edges of your shot in order to still achieve the same effect.

The benefits of framing pictures include:

1: Giving the photo context. Framing an outdoors scene with an archway, for example, can tell you something about the place you are at by the architecture. Including foliage in the foreground of a shot can convey a sense of being out in nature.

2: Giving images a sense of depth and layers. Putting something in the foreground adds an extra dimension to the shot.

3: Leading the eye towards your main focal point. Some also believe that a frame can not only draw the eye into a picture but that it keeps it there longer – giving a barrier between your subject and the outside of the shot.
Sometimes framing can just add clutter to a shot and make it feel cramped – but at other times it can be the difference between an ordinary shot and a stunning one.

My rule of thumb when considering framing is to ask the question: “Will this add to or take away from the image?”

Lastly, if you do use framing, you also need to consider whether you want your frame to be in focus or not. In some instances a nicely blurred frame will really add a sense of mood and depth to your shots (in this case use a large aperture if you have an SLR) but in other cases to have your frame in focus can help with adding context to the scene.

White Balance

White Balance is an aspect of photography well worth learning about as it has a real impact upon the shots you take. So for those of you who have been avoiding White Balance – let me introduce you to it.
At its simplest – the reason we adjust white balance is to get the colors in your images as accurate as possible.

Why would you need to get the color right in your shots?

You might have noticed when examining shots after taking them that at times images can come out with an orange, blue, yellow etc look to them – despite the fact that to the naked eye the scene looked quite normal. The reason for this is that images different sources of light have a different ‘color’ (or temperature) to them. Fluorescent lighting adds a bluish cast to photos whereas tungsten (incandescent/bulbs) lights add a yellowish tinge to photos.

The range in different temperatures ranges from the very cool light of blue sky through to the very warm light of a candle. So for cooler (blue or green) light you’ll tell the camera to warm things up and in warm light you’ll tell it to cool down.

Adjusting White Balance

Different digital cameras have different ways of adjusting white balance so ultimately you’ll need to get out your camera’s manual to work out the specifics of how to make changes. Having said this – many digital cameras have automatic and semi-automatic modes to help you make the adjustments. If you have a camera where you can adjust the white balance manually this is great. For the majority of cameras it involves pointing the camera at something that is true white (paper) and you will be able to adjust your colors accordingly from there.

Preset White Balance Settings

Here are some of the basic White Balance settings you’ll find on cameras:

Auto. The camera makes a best guess on a shot by shot basis. You’ll find it works in many situations but it’s worth venturing out of it for trickier lighting.

Fluorescent. This compensates for the ‘cool’ light of fluorescent light and will warm up your shots.

Tungsten. It is usually symbolised with a bulb and is for shooting indoors, especially under tungsten (incandescent) lighting (such as bulb lighting). It generally cools down the colors in photos.

Daylight/Sunny. Not all cameras have this setting because it sets things as fairly ‘normal’ white balance settings.

Cloudy. This setting generally warms things up a touch more than ‘daylight’ mode.

Who is Glennz?
He’s Glenn Jones, a graphic designer and illustrator from Auckland, New Zealand. ‘GLENN’ from ‘NZ’ = GLENNZ. That was his username on Threadless.com, which is where this all started. Because that’s the name alot of people associate his work with, it made sense to use.

How did Glennz Tees begin?
It started out as a hobby when Glenn began submitting T-shirt designs to Threadless.com. After a few years of success there, he decided it was time to focus on designing tees and teamed up with some friends to start this US based store. Glenn’s friends are the guys behind Despair and they help make Glennz Tees happen. They’ve got a lot of experience distributing their own stuff with the help of their sister company Amplifier, who handles shirt production, order fulfillment and customer service for GlennzTees which is all based in Austin, Texas.

Keep up to date with Glennz stuff:
Twitter: glennztees • Email Alert: Sign up • Blog RSS feed: subscribe • Glenn’s shirt design portfolio.