09 Feb 2024
I started Booooooom in 2008 as a way to share art that was inspiring me that I felt deserved more recognition. I was freelancing as a graphic designer during the day and began blogging at night for fun. Around this time I was selected to be one of 100 artists to design a shoe for Converse for their 100th year anniversary. The thing was, the shoes were only supposed to be part of a traveling art show and not something anyone could actually buy. So when they sent me the samples of my finished shoe, I remember holding them and feeling like I had to make something more happen. Long story short, I leaked photos of the shoes and was able to generate enough buzz that Converse decided to make them a worldwide release. This was essentially my first big break and it made me realise the power of blogging.
Boooooooom back in December 2008 featuring Job Wouters whose work is still incredible 16 years later.
Distinct aesthetic, consistency, breadth of work.
Case in point – TGTS user Max Loeffler as featured on Booooooom
I try not to approach curation this way. I don’t want to avoid something simply because it is trendy or popular. I try to judge each thing on its own. Having said that, I have little interest in AI art generated by people who either don’t know or don’t care that the results aren’t quite there. I’m not against using AI to make work, I’m against using AI to make lazy, unfinished, uninspired work.
Boooooooom spotlight artist and TGTS user Muhammad Fatchurofi aka @rooovie
I think so, but it’s hard for me to articulate exactly what it is. If you scroll through the art or illustration categories of our site maybe you can get a sense for it but when I’m looking at work I start by asking myself: Does it have punctum? Is there something in the image which pierces or hooks me?
I WANT BOOOOOOOM TO BE A PLACE WHERE VISITORS CAN DISCOVER WORK THEY’VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE—ART THAT SURPRISES THEM.
OG Booooooom member and TGTS user Luis Mendo.
It feels like the complete opposite now, not specifically the art scene, but our relationship to the internet. I used to spend a lot of time exploring random websites—actively hunting around to find things, and feeling excited whenever I’d come across an area of the internet I’d never seen before. It felt like going deep into the woods to find a few mushrooms. It was quieter. Nowadays, algorithms run the show. Most of what you see is based on things you already like or engage with the most. Content is continuously flung at your face from every angle, so finding “new” things is a different kind of work. It can feel more like filtering—playing defense rather than offense. Holding your hands up in front of your face and squinting your eyes and trying to only look at the few things worth looking at. You can still hunt around for interesting websites but there are just way less of them because everyone is trapped on social.
I want Booooooom to be a place where visitors can discover work they’ve never seen before—art that surprises them.
I THINK MY FAVOURITE THING ABOUT BOOOOOOOM IS THE EXCUSE AND OPPORTUNITY TO CONNECT WITH PEOPLE WHOSE WORK I LOVE. IT GIVES ME A REASON TO EMAIL SOMEONE AND JUST SAY I THINK WHAT YOU’RE MAKING IS REALLY COOL.
When I interviewed The Daniels and Kirsten Lepore last year at a festival in Hawai’i, they were all so thankful for the support of their earliest projects. That’s the cool thing about championing people’s work when they are super early in their career—they remember it later on.
Dan Scheinert said when they put together the initial visual reference for Everything Everywhere All At Once they pulled a lot of the images from Booooooom. I loved hearing that. I think my favourite thing about Booooooom is the excuse and opportunity to connect with people whose work I love. It gives me a reason to email someone and just say I think what you’re making is really cool.The unexpected joy for me is having become friends with many of them over the years.
TGTS user and Booooooom feature artist Karlotta Freier.
WHEN THEY PUT TOGETHER THE INITIAL VISUAL REFERENCE FOR EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE THEY PULLED A LOT OF THE IMAGES FROM BOOOOOOOM. I LOVED HEARING THAT.
For finding your voice: When you’re learning, emulating other people’s styles is a big part of figuring out your own style. It’s tempting to always be trying new methods or looking at new artists for inspiration. If you’re struggling to find your style, I would challenge you to look less and make more. Make a whole series of work in one style. Ask others for feedback, and ask specifically about what’s working and what isn’t. Try to make a few more pieces with the feedback in mind. Ideally, you get more feedback and repeat this process again. If someone tells you something specific isn’t working this should excite you (rather than deter you) because they are giving you a clear next step on your path to improving.
IF YOU’RE STRUGGLING TO FIND YOUR STYLE, I WOULD CHALLENGE YOU TO LOOK LESS AND MAKE MORE... WHATEVER YOUR GOALS ARE I CAN PROMISE YOU THE STRONGER YOUR WORK IS, THE LESS WORK IT WILL TAKE TO GROW YOUR PROFILE.
For growing your profile: I would think less about trying to get random followers and more about what will actually help you achieve your goals. Do you want to have a solo show one day? Are you trying to get bigger illustration clients? You do not need more followers for either of those things. Maybe beefing up your CV could be more fruitful. Perhaps being published in a book, winning a respected award, or participating in a group show are things you want to be able to add to your resume. Maybe you don’t want 100 new followers, you just want a NYT art director to follow you back. Whatever your goals are I can promise you the stronger your work is, the less work it will take to grow your profile. I wouldn’t focus on the growth until after you’ve found your voice.
One of our members, Jim Chen-Hsiang Hu, submitted his work to Tomorrow’s Talent Vol 3 and we put him on the cover. His work is incredible and he currently has 390 followers. Take that for what it’s worth.
If you’re a fine artist or illustrator this may interest you! We have an open call to submit to Tomorrow’s Talent Vol 4 on right now (closing very soon). Our acclaimed book series has become our most popular release. Each volume showcases a selection of artists and illustrators that we featured on our site over the course of the previous year, alongside all of our favourite submissions to the open call. The result is an exciting mix of work we spent a year thinking about and work we’d never seen before.
Volume 3 was our biggest yet, over 200 pages, and featured more than 70 artists and illustrators. You can take a peek at it here.
HAVING AN ARCHIVE OF MORE THAN 15 YEARS WORTH OF WORK HAS RESULTED IN A LOT OF AGENCIES, GALLERIES, AND BRANDS AROUND THE WORLD REACHING OUT TO US TO FIND TALENT.
Joining our membership allows artists and illustrators to publish their work directly to our website via our submission platform. These submissions are automatically public and we go through them regularly to select work to turn into articles, as well as features on our Instagram and weekly newsletters. Members also get unlimited submissions to all of our open calls, like our Tomorrow’s Talent books I mentioned above.
Independent publishing is not easy but the membership has allowed us to keep Booooooom running, and we’ll do it for as long as we can. Having an archive of more than 15 years worth of work has resulted in a lot of agencies, galleries, and brands around the world reaching out to us to find talent.
We love recommending our members for jobs and have introduced many to galleries like Thinkspace in Los Angeles. Hanna Lee Joshi is someone who comes to mind, she was in a group show we curated for Thinkspace and was invited to have a solo show there shortly after.
My favourite success story is a woman from Istanbul named, Eylül Aslan. After we featured her, she wrote to say that a guy in Berlin reached out to her about a competition sponsored by Mercedes-Benz. She entered and ended up winning the competition. Then a year later she happened to visit Berlin and contacted the guy to have a drink. They started dating and eventually got married! It was the best email I ever got. I wish I could promise this same result to everyone.
I love Hoi Chan’s work.
Booooooom spotlight artist Hoi Chan
I was honestly just trying to come up with something ridiculous so it would be memorable. Then the idea for the logo just popped into my mind. It had to be 7 o’s so that Booooooom could be written as a 3x3 square. I tried to give it more meaning after the fact, too. In the early days, each o was a different colour and represented a separate category on the site.
I had many people tell me it was a bad name because no one would ever type it into their web browser properly. I think it worked out.
TGTS user Nicole Rifkin as featured on Boooooooom.
Become a Booooooom member here.
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THE RUSTY NIB INKING BRUSHES
✓ Watery Brush No 8 - Smooth
✓ Smooth Natural Nib
✓ Thick & Greasy / Flat Greaser
✓ Flat Dry Grainy / Flat Dry Wide
✓ Dynamic Watercolor Wash
(Note: brush names may vary between apps).
BEAT TONES HALFTONE BRUSHES
✓ Halftone 1A Med Dot
✓ Halftone 1D Med Dot
PROCREATE
If you love to sketch and have a basic knowledge of Procreate, this one’s for you. You can follow along in any other desktop or iPad-based app as well. All of the brushes mentioned are available for Procreate, Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, and Affinity.
Sometimes I’ll scribble something down on paper traditionally, then take a photo with my iPad and open it in Procreate. Other times I’ll just start doodling ideas straight in Procreate on a starting layer, using different colored lines as I go to make changes and help define the different characters or elements of the composition.
Once things start to click, I’ll drop down the opacity of my first rough layer and start refining and polishing things up on a new layer. I’ll do this two or three times until I have all my lines cleaned up and everything’s looking pretty tight.
Don't get too precious here. Remember it's a sketch, not a finished artwork.
For example - I find that choking up on the pencil, and holding it closer to the tip works best for small curves and tight shapes, while turning the canvas as needed so that I’m drawing with the natural curve of my hand.
Easing off on the pencil, and holding it further down the barrel will help create a larger curve while still maintaining some control but not as much.
For longer sweeping lines, I’ll try to keep my forearm and wrist as stiff as possible and draw with my shoulder (picture the arm pivoting on the shoulder like a giant compass).
Combining different strokes and marks in different ways can create of an endless amount of textures and patterns. Experimenting with combinations and techniques is one of the best ways to find your creative voice and develop your own unique style.
Here's a few different line styles and texture techniques that I like to use in my work.
It's also a great idea to explore the different types of brushes at your disposal. Brush packs like The Rusty Nib have a huge variety of brush styles so a little time spent getting to know them by doodling on a canvas, expands your repertoire and makes it easier to find the right combination of brushes when you're on a tight deadline.
Personally I like to use a wide variety of line weights when I’m inking. Using the heavier lines to show shadow or make forms pop out, and the thinner, more delicate lines for details, shading, feathering, and that kind of stuff.
I rely on my pencil pressure to draw different stroke weights, rather than constantly changing my brush size, much like I would with a traditional brush.
This speeds up my inking and helps create consistency, especially when using textured or distressed brushes.
Sometimes though, it's more effective to ink thicker lines with multiple strokes, rather than trying to rely on heavier, harder to control pen pressure to achieve the same line weight.
In the (slightly exaggerated) example below, the left eyelid is inked with heavy pen pressure in an attempt to create a thick line in a single stroke. It's quick, but the result is a little clunky, and the ink texture doesn't sit well next to the lighter strokes beside it.
On the right, I've used light pressure and multiple strokes which gives a much more refined result which more closely replicates traditional inking techniques.
Developing a knack for making a range of line weights with one brush size takes time, practice and decent brushes. You can also adjust Procreate's pressure curve to suit your style so don't be afraid to let the tech do some of the heavy lifting.
For whatever reason these two just feel the most like a traditional sable brush, and a nice flexible nib / brush pen to me. And just like with traditional tools, the way you move these brushes, and the amount of pressure you apply will create different marks and line weights.
I always ink my drawing on several different layers. This allows me to fix mistakes quickly, and also makes life SO much easier when it comes time to color. I’ll draw the foreground characters on the top layer, the characters behind those on another layer, and the background broken up into one or two layers under those (depending on how complicated the drawing is).
You might choose to ink each character on separate layers, or even separate individual features of each character (eg body, clothing, hair). The point is, layers are your friend, especially when you're starting out and want maximum editability.
Over-using QuickShape can often rob a drawing of some of the human error that might give it a little more soul. So I try my best to make as many of the lines as I can myself (even if they’re a little shaken), only falling back on Procreate’s helping hand when I really need it.
Again there’s no wrong or right way to do it, and there’s also nothing wrong with relying on Procreate’s help if you’re not getting the lines and shapes you want on your own.
I usually try to think of where important shadows might fall, and also where I can add blacks to help make characters or elements stand out more. Sometimes squinting your eyes and looking at the page can help show where you may want to add some more blacks to balance things out.
This is also the stage where I like to play around more with some of the grittier textured brushes that The Rusty Nib set has to offer.
ONE OF THE BEST THINGS ABOUT WORKING DIGITALLY, IS THAT YOU CAN PLAY AROUND WITH YOUR SHADOWS AND BLACKS TO SEE WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU.
When doing this in Procreate, I’ll usually go through and fill a few areas with solid shades of grey first (this is often referred to as "flatting"). Then I using the greys to make a selection and create layer masks on one or two different layers where I’m going to add screen tones.
Using the Beat Tones halftone brushes, I’ll start trying out different halftones, keeping the dot scale consistent throughout and trying to find a nice balance of shades that creates contrast and helps define the characters in my composition.
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✓ Rusty Nib 4 (The Rusty Nib)
✓ Noisy Nib (The Rusty Nib)
✓ Dead Sharp-Eye (Monomania)
✓ Pin Liner 0.1 - Medium Fill (Stipple Studio)
✓ Procreate
We'll be using some Procreate tools that are more complicated than the basics, but if you have spent some time in Procreate and can draw shapes, use brushes and started to dabble in animation you should be good.
I'm really liking my sketch here. I can see a few opportunities to animate parts of the illustration without over-committing myself.
My plan is to animate a flower petal falling onto the umbrella, whilst the fire on the matchbox flickers. I'll also have the opportunity to animate my shadows and textures.
Now it's time to flesh out my sketch with final linework and color. It's really important to keep your illustration organized so there's no clutter once we start animating.
• Separate any shapes and elements that will move onto their own layers.
• Name your layers and use them efficiently.
• Create a manageable color palette and stick to it.
• Minimize difficult-to-recreate shapes, masks, effects, gradients and textures.
• Keep layer groups organised
Animation can get out of hand in hundreds of different ways. Layers, effects, colors, shapes, textures, labels, groups, timing & pacing; these things can so easily become hard to track, lost in translation, unorganized, and destroy your will to continue.
DISORGANIZED FILES AND LAYERS WILL BITE YOU IN THE ASS LATER - TRUST ME!
The rough pass is an essential step in any good animation. “Key poses” refers to distilling down your animation/action to its most influential points, drawing those only, and ignoring the rest of the frames.
This exercise allows us to ignore the nitty gritty details for now, and start to really visualize the animation as a whole.
In the video above, you can see how something that might be 20 drawings, can be simplified down to 3 simple poses, which lay the foundation for the rest of the animation. Each new frame added duplicates the previous frame, allowing me to quickly erase and replace sections of the illustration to pose.
Once you feel like your “Key Poses” are fleshed out enough to properly represent the action in your animation, it's time to move on to “inbetweens”.
Inbetweens refer to the drawings that will live between our key poses. These frames will fill in the gaps in our animation, and smooth out the action considerably.
These 12 pillars build the foundation of all animation. These reference reality and distill those real-life principles into achievable techniques you can use to make your animations lively and interesting.
Onion skins act as a reference, allowing you see which frame is behind and which frame in front of your current drawing. This helps us draw our current frame with accurate shape and volume, relative to our previous frames whilst avoiding unwanted popping and glitches in our animation.
Now that the ‘inbetweens’ have been added to the animation, you can really start to understand the exact action and movement in the sequence. The blockiness and ‘guessing’ is removed and replaced with a nice flow, as we have literally drawn each frame ‘inbetween’ our main key poses.
You can add as many or as few inbetween frames as you would like to. From here now we can start adding color and details, more commonly known as “Clean Up”.
If all goes well, the cleanup should be up to the same quality and attention to detail as the original illustration.
I use a merged or flattened copy of my final illustration as a ref throughout the clean-up process (set to REF or BG in the timeline so it doesn't interrupt the sequence).
Sometimes our REF works best behind or in front of your clean-up layers on a low opacity. Other times it's helpful to turn the opacity back up, scale it down, and drag it to a corner of your canvas (like shown below). Depending on which portion you are working on at the time.
From here, it's the same process for each additional frame in our ROUGH pass animation!
THIS PROCESS CAN BE TEDIOUS AND REPETITIVE SO IT HELPS TO TAKE MULTIPLE PASSES THROUGH EACH FRAME, TACKLING A DIFFERENT PROCESS EACH TIME
This both speeds up the process overall (you don't have to swap out brushes colors and textures between each frame) and also helps prevent you from completely losing your mind. 🧠
Make sure to playback your animation frequently along the way, to ensure detail and consistency are being met throughout. You may notice more jitter or popping than you hoped, this is a result of varying volumes in your shapes from frame to frame. This is difficult! Repetition is the key to becoming faster and more accurate in this process.
One of Procreate's pitfalls is that it can only handle so many layers and the layer limit is dependent on your iPad's processing power and RAM (check here). The size of your canvas can drastically impact this limit as well.
WORKAROUND: once you finish frames entirely, you can begin to merge layers down, or combine layers (don't group). This helps keep the number of layers within each group (or frame) limited, and allows us to continue on our clean-up path.
⚠️ EXERCISE CAUTION: combining layers should not be taken lightly, we must first be very sure our “frame” or outermost group is finished editing. If you're on a merging layers mission to free up space in your clean-up process, make sure you keep your latest “Frame” (or group) intact with all layers so that when you duplicate to continue to clean up, you have all available layers to edit.
I used the “Pin Liner 0.1 - Medium Fill” Brush from True Grit's Stipple Studio pack to add a nice speckle texture on the top layer of each frame group.
You can see that the texture “dances” or “jitters” throughout the animation. This is a style choice and is simply created by shifting the position, size, or general volume/shape of the blue speckle layer Per-Frame.
Once you are happy with your animation, export to your preferred setting and show the world. I use Mp4s for Instagram and gifs for my website. Procreate handles both these exports well. You can also export as a PSD if needed, this can be helpful as well depending on your goals.
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Featuring over 150 versatile vector brushes, Bézier Buddy is your ultimate vector inking pal. Watch the tutorial below and say goodbye to janky linework with a huge-ass selection of realistic stroke styles, tablet-optimized pressure settings and no-stretch infinity pens.
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Jonathan is a professional image maker from Hamburg, Germany, exploring the beauty of clear lines and smooth animation. His work is informed by moving images, graphic design and comics. Raised by lego bricks and vinyl dinosaurs, Jonathan could not hold a pencil right as a kid and claims he still can't (hey, whatever gets the job done). Currently studying for a Masters Degree, Jonathan continues to expand his graphic vocabulary and journey of visual discovery through drawing.
Featured True Grit Tools: Beat Tones | Debaser | Stipple Studio | Infinite Pulp
Born and raised in Chile, María's illustrations are a masterclass in contemporary illustration, filled with a playful cast of antrhopomorphic animals, saturated color palettes, subtle nostalgia and wry humor to create visuals that are one part logic, two parts fever-dream.
Currently working for clients such as the New York times, The Atlantic, Texas Monthly, Penguin Random House, The Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post among others, María's work has been featured by It's nice that, WeTransfer and Colossal. in 2022 María was a winner of One Club's Young Guns and a judge of Latin American Design Awards 2023.
Featured True Grit Tools: Beat Tones | Stipple Studio
Simon Bailly's distinctly French style combines crisp, clean-cut linework with subtle textural embellishments to distill often complex concepts and narratives into simple and beautiful images. Starting his career illustrating for French newspapers Libération and Le 1, Bailly's current clients include the New York Times, Outside Magazine, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, Kiblind, BETC and Hermés.
Featured True Grit Tools: Beat Tones | Infinite Pulp | Lithotone
Tag your posts with #truegrittexturesupply on Instagram or TikTok. We check our feed daily and feature our favorite artists a few times a week.
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Caroline is a digital artist, designer, and cool mom who specializes in merchandise design with a vintage feel. She's been known to quip that she's made True Grit her “entire personality” as a result of using at least one TGTS tool in almost everything she makes.
Featured Tools:
Rusty Nib | Lithotone | Debaser | Stipple Studio | Infinite Pulp | Kraftone
Berlin based illustrator Kati Szilagyi works both with analogue and digital elements as she uses classical drawing or analogue cutouts and adds the final touches and colors digitally.
Among her clients are national and international magazines, agencies and brands, such as The New Yorker, Bloomberg Businessweek, The New York Times, Google, It’s Nice That, Dropbox, Hermès Paris, The Hoxton and many more.
Featured Tools:
Chromagraph | Monomania | Grain Shader | Lithotone
Lennart Menkhaus is a German artist, author and illustrator with a BA in Illustration who brings warmth and tactility to his surrealist landscapes with a touch of surf, skate and tattoo-culture flair. Commercially, Lennart has worked with a wide variety of clients in the music, festivals, fashion and publishing industries.
Featured Tools:
Chromagraph | KolorMarc | Grain Shader | Rusty Nib
Tag your posts with #truegrittexturesupply on Instagram or TikTok. We check our feed daily and feature our favorite artists a few times a week.
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Nicole is an award winning illustrator with a BFA from Pratt and an MFA from SVA. Her work has been seen in the New Yorker, the New York Times, some show posters, and many other publications, online and in print.
Featured Tools:
Bene Rohlmann is an illustrator based in Berlin, whose work is inspired by foreign cultures, vintage label and packaging design, folk art, cartoons and much more. He has worked for clients such as Apple, Disney, Facebook, Google, Wizards of the Coast, Burton and The New Yorker.
Featured Tools:
KraftTone | Beat Tones | Debaser | Atomica
Travis Pietsch is a designer and illustrator living in Orlando, FL. He’s known for his illustrative and hand-crafted style of branding and design.
Featured Tools:
Monomania | Atomica | Infinite Pulp
Instagram | Website
Tag your posts with #truegrittexturesupply on Instagram or TikTok. We check our feed daily and feature our favorite artists a few times a week.
✓ Lithotone
✓ Kolormarc
✓ Rusty Nib
✓ Stipple Studio
✓ Procreate
If you love to sketch and have a basic knowledge of Procreate, this one’s for you. You can follow along in any other desktop or iPad-based app as well. All of the brushes mentioned are available for Procreate, Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, and Affinity.
One of my favorite ways to push through a creative block is to take a moment to look up from my blank canvas and mindfully explore my surroundings. This can be something as simple as a traffic light, a house in my local neighborhood, books in a window, or random people on the metro.
When we pay attention to our surroundings, we can find inspiration in even the most mundane things. By nurturing our observation skills, we start seeing the world in a new light and noticing details we might have overlooked before. This way of "seeing" eventually becomes second nature, and we start to notice things we might previously have overlooked, such as the way light falls across a table or shadows dance across a wall.
I REALLY LOVE THIS KIND OF OBSERVATION-BASED DRAWING PRACTICE AS IT REMOVES THE STRESS OF FINDING THE PERFECT CONCEPT, ALLOWING ME TO FOCUS ON EXPLORING DIFFERENT TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES WHILST DEVELOPING MUSCLE MEMORY AND EVOLVING MY STYLE.
*Great for practice but never reference copyrighted images in commercial work.
I’M GOING TO KEEP IT SIMPLE AND START WITH A LITTLE CORNER OF MY LIVING ROOM. I HAVE THIS GREAT LAVA LAMP THAT I WANT TO USE AS INSPIRATION TO DRAW SOME NICE LIGHTING EFFECTS.
I usually start with a rough freehand sketch in Procreate. This is where I simplify my composition down to the basic elements from my reference photo and get a feel for how they work together. Here, the lava lamp and bookshelf loosely adhere to the rule of thirds to draw the eye in, so I think that’s working pretty well.
Because I want the lighting to be a big feature of the finished illustration, I do a quick lighting test with one of the GrainBuilder brushes from the Grain Shader pack, but you can use any soft airbrush-style brush since it’s just a rough sketch. I really just want to get a sense of how the lighting in the scene will feel with this step.
When drawing interiors or architecture, I like to lean on Procreate’s perspective grid feature to help my composition look just right. So, I’m going to import my reference image and use it as a rough guide to set the grid.
See the process in the video below. PS. If you’re using another app that doesn’t have perspective tools built in, Hej Stylus is a great alternative that works with most desktop design apps.
With my perspective grid turned on, it’s time to make a tighter sketch with more detail and smoother linework. I’m using the Micro Nib from The Rusty Nib pack.
Notice how I’m not tracing my original reference image? This ensures my finished illustration develops in a more organic way. Whilst tracing can be helpful, I find it stunts the creative process and make the finished work feel more stiff.
Now that I have a tighter sketch, I start my color blocking. I reduce the opacity of my tight sketch, then turn off the perspective grid as I want my color blocking to feel a bit looser and less rigid.
I’m using the Smooth Fine Tip pen from the KolorMarc brush pack, cleaning up my linework as I go using the eraser tool. The KolorMarc brushes have a subtle paper texture built in, which gives the illustration a more analog aesthetic. You’ll notice in the video how I’m not perfectly staying inside the linework of my tight sketch, helping my artwork feel more organic and hand drawn.
I start with a new layer above the existing color blocking and I shade in a soft glow around my lava lamp using the Grain Builder brush from the Grain Shader pack. I like how this brush builds up the grainy texture, allowing me to increase the glow of the light gradually.
With that done, I also change my background color to something much darker so I have more of an after-dark feel that emphasizes the glow of the lava lamp.
Now take a third pass on my linework at 100% opacity, further refining and adding more details. This time I’m using the Micro Nib from the Rusty Nib pack.
I also continue color blocking and adjust my background color to a deep copper color to create more warmth in the scene as the lava lamp's orange glow is bleeding into the ambient light.
I want to create a little more depth to the illustration, so I’m going to use a selection of brushes from the Lithotone pattern brush pack to add subtle details to objects such as the bookshelf and sofa.
I’ve made a couple of adjustments to my lava lamp glow and background colors so now all that’s left to do is add some highlights to the lamp and a grainy vignette to help emphasize the lighting effects.
Featured music: All Too Soon by Pastis
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00:07 – Getting Started
01:15 – Inking
01:53 – Coloring Techniques
06:49 – Banded Fills & Effects
08:10 – Pro Tips
Music: Willow Trees by Guustaav
Rachelle Baker is a multi-disciplinary artist from Detroit, MI with a background in Relief Printing, Illustration, Comic Art, and Music. She is inspired by Shoujo manga, anime and comics bad girls, stoic women dancing in the backgrounds of late 90’s/early 2000’s R&B videos, and the sound cats make when they’re yawning.
Featured Tools:
Rusty Nib | Beat Tones | Distress Press | Monomania | Lithotone
Instagram | Website
Morgan Sorenson who also goes by See Machine creates work that touches on themes of the human condition, more specifically those of struggle, sadness, pain & death. The work acts to embrace our tortured nature as humans. To both celebrate and relate to it.
Featured Tools:
Grain Shaders | Distress Press | Stipple Studio | Vector Savior | Hardwear
Luis Mendo is Based in Tokyo, Japan. After working as a creative director for 20 years in Europe, Luis moved to Japan and changed his career to drawing. His illustrations can be found on sites, magazines and advertising, but also in art galleries and clothing.
✓ Essentials Collection Texture Packs
✓ Adobe Illustrator
✓ Procreate for rough sketches
We'll be using some illustrator tools that are more complicated than the basics, but if you have spent some time in illustrator and can draw shapes, use masks, and have some experience with shape builder, you should be good.
Although most of our work is done on the computer, we almost always start with sketches on paper. We made a couple of thumbnails of the initial design – a collection of vases and urn-like shapes arranged like a museum display.
We’re liking that top right one, so we create a color rough in Procreate (see below). We clean up the layout and use some horizontal and vertical lines to indicate where we might have some textures once we bring it to illustrator.
At this stage we also like to do some rough color blocking to get a sense of how we might extend our color palette by simulating overprint.
To do this, we add 3 new layers in Procreate, each with the layer blend mode set to multiply, then paint in the areas using blue/pink/yellow. You can see above how the multiply blend combines the the blue, pink and yellow layers to create new colors where they overlap. Now that's we've got a good idea of how things will look, we’re ready to get vectorized in Illustrator!
We bring our rough into Illustrator and start building out outline shapes and forms with the shape tools and pen tool. We use a combination of the Pathfinder (Window > Pathfinder) and the Shape Builder tool (Shift+M) to merge and combine basic shapes into more elaborate forms.
Once we have our b+w forms all drawn out we start coloring our shapes. The blue/pink/yellow palette we used in the original sketch multiplies well and looks great so we're sticking with that.
Now it's time to separate out elements of the same color into their own layers.
Now that the basic layers and colors are laid out, it's time to add pizzaz with textures.
We start by locating the Essentials Collection textures on our hard drive, select a few of our favorites and tag them for easy reference.
We then place our selected images onto the artboard by going to File > Place (CMD + SHIFT +P).
The great thing about using bitmap .tif files is that Illustrator ignores the white background so they can be used with transparency. This also means that you can change the color of the texture within illustrator, just like any vector object, all without grinding your machine to a halt with memory sucking vector textures.
Editors note: learn more about the advantages of using bitmap tiff textures here.
Here's a quick video showing the process of importing a texture, changing its color and masking it into an object using keyboard shortcuts for extra speed.
We're going to create a rippled shading effect on one of the vases like this...
We do this by duplicating one of our Gritty Vignette textures and masking it into smaller objects (with no fill or stroke) within the outer shape. Sounds complicated right? Watch below and see.
Notice how we're duplicating the texture and placing it on the left and right side of each shape rather than simply scaling it to fit? This is because we want to keep the texture the same size for consistency as smaller textures would look squished and suggest the scale of the vase is a bit off.
Now that we have our magenta layer all textured up, we'll move on to the cyan and yellow layers. We always try to choose a variety of textures that work well together without being too same-y or contrasty.
Here's how it's looks with each color isolated and combined.
Inevitably we always end up experimenting with different textures so luckily Illustrator makes it super easy to swap out a texture using the Linked File button or Links Panel (Window > Links).
Need to make a color adjustment? We're big fans of using the replace color tool in the Properties Panel to quickly change every instance of a color in the vector and bitmap objects (Window > Properties > Quick Actions > Recolor). See how it's done below.
Once the textures are applied to our color layers, we're going to add some final touches with a border and an overlay color to add-warmth and simulate off-white paper.
Featured music: All Too Soon by Pastis
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KraftTone includes 5 high-resolution templates in classic comic book format 3969 x 6073px @300ppi in RGB color mode.
Your paper textures use effects that work in RGB mode only. We recommend completing your artwork first before flattening (Image > Flatten) and converting to CMYK (Image > Mode > CMYK). This avoids any unexpected color shifts and paper texture glitches.
You can easily control the intensity of the paper textures by adjusting the layer opacity of the Texture and Highlight layers as shown below.
All brushes are preset to auto-select the Brush tool and their corresponding CMYK color swatch (CC2019+) so there's no messing around selecting tools and colors each time you change brushes.
Get to know your brushes in the video below.
The brushes are preset with a texture scale of 100% but you can easily adjust the scale in the texture tab of the Brush Settings panel (Window > Brush Settings).
Mismatching brush scales will cause undesirable results so always double check that your texture scale is identical on all brushes used to create a color formula.
Each time you re-select a brush, the texture scale will reset to the default. If you're coloring a large artwork and will be using a lot of different brushes, you can save time by making copy of your brushes with the texture pre-scaled to your preferred size.
To save a copy of a brush, adjust the texture scale in the Brush Settings panel then press the Create New Brush [+] button at the bottom of the Brushes panel and save the brush with a new name.
Be sure to check Include Tool Settings and Include Color before saving.
That's a lot of colors so before you dive in, be sure to watch the video below to familiarize yourself with translating the formulas into brush combinations when coloring your work.
The KraftTone Solid Swatches Palette includes a solid version of every KraftTone formula with matching color codes so you can quickly mockup and experiment before rendering your final artwork with your dot and line brushes.
Working with layer masks, we'll create Non-Destructive Destruction™ (you read that right) that leaves your original color layers in tact. Plus you'll learn to add stains, create registration errors and ink absorbtion effects for that little somethin' extra.
Once you move the Cyan, Magenta, Yellow or Black color layers to simulate a registration error, your brush textures will no longer align with the color you've already laid down. If there's a chance you may want to make changes or add colors later, consider duplicating your Color layer group before creating registration errors. Future you will be grateful!
Watch the video below to see how.
There's a couple of key points to consider when screenprinting artwork created with the KraftTone Color System.
CMYK prints work best when using translucent ink. This usually involves adding an extender base to your standard Plastisol inks but as always, consult your friendly local print-shop for their advice and expertise.
If you're looking to replicate the vintage aesthetic created by your KraftTone paper textures, be sure to spend the time to source a good off-white paper stock with visible fibres for maximum effect.
Our recommendation? You really can't beat Dur-O-Tone Newsprint White from French Paper Co.
Music: Psychopath by Blood Red Sun
Anthony Carranza is a Los Angeles based illustrator and co-founder of Shape Comics. Heavily inspired by the warmth and retro-kitsch of mid-century comics, Anthony's work pull inspiration from classic westerns and atomic age science fiction.
Featured Tools:
Rusty Nib | Beat Tones | KraftTone
Sophy Hollington is an artist and illustrator currently based in Brighton, UK. Much of Sophy's work begins with the detailed and lengthy process of lino-cutting. Drawing on themes ranging from meteoric folklore to alchemical symbolism, Sophy's work seeks to wrangle the most arcane notions in order to make them vibrant and tangible.
Featured Tools:
Grain Shaders | Distress Press | Stipple Studio
Self-described as a spaceshiplover, wormholetraveler and illustrator, Samira Ingold, AKA @__ra.in__ is a Bern, Switzerland based artist whose work evokes a sense of nostagia for a psychedelic sci-fi future that never was but may still come to be.
Featured Tools:
Rusty Nib | Kraftone | Grain Shaders | Debaser | Stipple Studio | Chromagraph | Infinite Pulp 01 & 02 | Monomania
Tag your posts with #truegrittexturesupply on Instagram or TikTok. We check our feed daily and feature our favorite artists a few times a week.
We've put together a short tutorial to show you how it's done, starting with the basics of using dot and line brushes, right through to creating halftone gradients with the pressure sensitive shader brushes.
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Tiffany Chin is a Toronto based illustrator who specializes in poster artwork, editorial illustration, and all things strange.
Inspired by psychedelic posters, classic rock, vintage advertisements, and lowbrow art, she strives to step beyond the boundaries of convention to create visually jarring imagery.
Featured Tools:
Rusty Nib | Beat Tones | Kraftone | Lithotone | Distress Press | Dead Subtle | Fast Grit
Chris Lyons is a Connecticut based artist specializing in all things retro, skeleton, and eggs. Off the clock I enjoy a number of different activities, some of which include: Drinking too much coffee in a single sitting, playing tiny instruments, ping pong, and watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy on repeat.
Featured Tools:
Rusty Nib | Infinite Pulp | Beat Tones
Instagram | Website
I think of my work as a unique intersection of collage and illustration, using my compositions as a “cabinet of curiosities”, a place to arrange and collage the many icons, symbols, objects, and phrases I see and “collect” out in the world on a daily basis.
Featured Tools:
Lithotone | Infinite Pulp
Instagram | Website
Tag your posts with #truegrittexturesupply on Instagram or TikTok. We check our feed daily and feature our favorite artists a few times a week.
In the video below we'll guide your through setting up your file, running the actions, and how to fine-tune your results to perfectly compliment your artwork. Plus you'll learn how to use the automated actions to generate instant results.
Each precision brush group comes with matching sparse, medium and densely spaced versions ready to brush on dozens (even hundreds) of authentically random dots in a single stroke. You can also tap them on with your pen one dot at a time for ultra-precise placement and fine tuning.
Note: we're using the sketchbook texture .psd included with the Stipple Studio brush pack to give our artwork a nice analogue feel.
Example artwork by @kindred_studio
Photoshop is very good at randomizing dot placement but if you notice any obvious repetition (especially in the densely spaced brushes) try using a circular brush motion or lift your pen and reposition between strokes.
Creating super-smooth stipple gradients take a little practice. Although your brushes are built for speed, relying solely on sweeping brushstrokes may result in small gaps and overlapping dots at the edge of your gradients, making your shading look rushed and uneven.
For smoother gradients, rapidly build your shading using the brushes built-in efficiencies, then take a few extra seconds to tap out strategically placed single dots at the outer edges or to fill any obvious gaps in the gradient.
These brushes are perfect for creating super fast stipple blends or edge details with short transitions from light to dark. Because they naturally scatter dots on your canvas they are best used in areas of your artwork not confined by tight spaces or the need for exact dot placement.
Example artwork by @_jakeforeman
Used in conjunction with layer masks these brushes are equally useful for fast concepting or for creating large gradient blends, outer glows and drop shadows where speed takes precedence over precision.
Example artwork by @_jakeforeman
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When I first started drawing in procreate it was nerve wracking. I was trying to kill two birds with one stone, learning new software with a new medium (iPad pro and Apple Pencil) and starting drawing again after a 20+ year hiatus. I had 25 years as a graphic designer and vector artist but drawing had come to a full stop after a failed year taking illustration in school.
“DRAWING HAD BECOME SCARY TO ME AND PUTTING PENCIL TO PAPER FILLED ME WITH AN EXISTENTIAL DREAD OF FAILURE AND SELF LOATHING.”
I had to relearn how to approach drawing like a child, having fun and trying to put any or all ideas down on the page without fear of lack of skill or nuance. I decided the best way was to draw everyday and post on Instagram, which was also a source of much anxiety as I was struggling to find an audience and my art was not inspiring the reaction I was hoping for.
“I DECIDED THE BEST WAY WAS TO DRAW EVERYDAY AND POST ON INSTAGRAM”
It was a struggle at first, I hated my drawings and my ideas were forced and to be honest…I just wasn’t having fun. BUT the tools were there…procreate after an initial learning period, is such a joy to use and I had just purchased a set of tools that promised to give my art the look of the old comics I loved so much… True Grit’s Debaser Lo-Fi Comic Coloring Kit.
Gradually I started to lose the inhibitions and just draw the shit that popped into my head and started to get better at drawing too. Debaser covered up the flaws and even made some of them seem intentional. Along the way I had developed my own creative formula that kept things very personal to me and was an endless well of stupid ideas for me to draw.
We all have favorite films, tv shows, books, artists and more that give us joy. Favorite t-shirts with obscure sayings our parents bought us when we were kids, weird signs we see while at a flea market, etc, etc.
Coming up with an idea looks something like this… first I come up with something stupid to draw, it may be a character from a favorite movie or just a specific thing like if Robert Crumb drew an armadillo wearing a cowboy hat ( seriously… you can just get a weird category map and combine them together … famous artist+random animal+random action or accessory+famous quote from a movie… voila ART!).
Then I come up with a phrase that aligns (or doesn’t) and either typeset it in illustrator or draw it myself.
✓ Debaser for Procreate
✓ Infinite Pulp
✓ The Rusty Nib for Procreate
✓ Hardwear
✓ Procreate
✓ Adobe Illustrator
✓ iPad Pro
I'll be giving pointers on some of the technical stuff but if you know how to use the basic functions of Procreate and Illustrator you'll be able to follow along.
For this particular drawing my thought process was something like this…
I work small… like 2048x2048 pix small, since most of my work starts as an Instagram post (and the fact that I don’t have unlimited space on my iPad). This gives me enough flexibility with size/ number of layers / speed of working and allows me to keep a ton of my art on my device so I can find them easily.
I usually start with a paper texture from Infinite Pulp, Debaser or KraftTone just to get a feel for how my artwork looks with it right from the start.
Generally my focal point is the central character but I do dabble with other elements early on as well. I sometimes make quick thumbnails but very often my finished piece is worlds apart from the original so I just use them to start thinking of all the elements that need to be included.
For this illustration, I wanted the pose and face pretty well locked-in before even thinking about type. Once I solidify the layout, I add rough lettering by drawing a solid shape that fills the space and carving out the words and letters super organically.
I jump into inking quite early because I‘m impatient and want to work out shading and line quality in the ink phase. I usually use 3 ink comps before I start tightening up and work on final inks.
My all time favorite brush is the Mr Legit Brush (legacy) from The Rusty Nib set. I have no idea why the old version of this brush is my favorite but it really is so smooth to draw and gritty in texture. I’m also really digging the inkers from the KraftTone set. They’re super crisp with easy taper control.
As you can see in the video below, my inking really develops over the course of 3 comps as I add detail and experiment. The lesson here is that you don’t need to get it right on the first pass. There’s plenty of time to refine the details along the way.
I’m going to show you how I color my work using Debaser which I use on almost all of my work give it a nice vintage comic aesthetic.
As I mentioned earlier, discovering Debaser was a real turning point for my process, giving my work a nice vintage comic aesthetic with plenty of room to add my own flavor.
The Debaser kit uses a library of pre-mixed color halftone textures that can be imported into your artwork and used to fill your illustration using layer masks. You can do this using a brush to “paint” the textures in or (my favorite) using a reference layer and color drop. If you haven’t used reference layers before let me tell you… it’s a game changer.
Because I like to think ahead, I created a simplified version of my line art during the inking process… just the outlines with no fills or fine shading details.
I set this layer as a reference layer (see above) then place my Debaser colors into my canvas and create an inverted layer mask.
Finally all I need to do is drag and drop white into the mask using Color Drop and it will honor the boundaries of the reference layer.
Sounds complicated but check out how easy this process is in the video below.
At this point I’m feeling the heavy dark background is a little bit much and I want Wolfie to really pop. It’s a good thing I like to keep my layers in check because now I can use the background layer as a clipping mask and fill it with one of my Debaser colors to fade it back a little.
Now to get this drawing into vector format. Why vector you may ask? I personally like the flexibility vector brings with simple flat color and the ability to change colors quickly and rescale without the size limitations of raster formats (jpg, png, psd etc).
A lot of my artwork from Instagram ends up as a T-shirt on my Threadless store. Sometimes I’ll make modifications from the social media file, whether that be layout shifts or simplification of art work to better suit a t-shirt print (paper texture effects don’t translate well to garment printing).
To start the vectoring process I output both the simple line layer and the more complex black line art layer as tif files, airdropping them to my computer.
Once on the computer I create a new Ai file and place both images on separate layers. Then I use a heavily modified live trace on both layers made easier if using the settings given in the Hardwear Vector Distressing Kit. Illustrators default settings are far too simple and the maxed out version is too complex, but the Hardwear settings are just right. I uncheck ignore white because I want the white areas of my artwork to be vectorized as well so I can fill them with color later.
(There are (paid) alternatives to livetrace too the best being Vector Magic which outputs a superior clean vector file with zero of the shifting that is always an issue with livetrace.)
Now it comes down to picking colors. I use global swatches (when creating a new swatch make sure global color is ticked) to simplify swapping out colors later on. Generally I keep it between 3-4 colors to keep costs low and retain a more graphic look. Delete the black from the traced simplified layer and use it to block in color. Once you get the color portioning done it’s super easy to duplicate the artboard and try multiple color combos By either choosing new colors or recoloring using the edit/color color wheel.
I’m keeping this graphic fairly clean, but if you wish to add further texture in Illustrator, the graphic styles and speckle brushes included in the Hardwear kit truly do a great job. The opportunities are endless.
So there we go… art prepared for screen and apparel, served up in 2 separate formats.
I really hope you learned something new and thanks for following along!
Featured music: Blue Hills by Yellowbase
Subtitles: Deutsch, Français, English, Español, Português (Brasil), Русский, 中文 (简体), 日本語.
Tutorial by Andrew Fairclough / @kindred_studio
Music credit: Compadre by Tigerblood Jewel
]]>As a master of pre-digital comic aesthetics and the talent behind of our KraftTone visuals, Johnny is the real deal when it comes to replicating vintage comic color digitally. If you tuned in, asked a question or sent a virtual high five, we salute you, but in case you missed it, enjoy the complete session and Q&A below.
Q: Do the Affinity and Procreate versions work the same as Photoshop?
A: In Affinity, the process is identical. In Procreate, the only difference is that the color swatches are not embedded in the brushes so you have to select your brush then select the corresponding C, M, Y or K color swatch before applying it to your canvas. Check out the Affinity and Procreate process here.
Q: Can you change the scale of the halftone patterns?
A: Absolutely. It's very easy to do and we include easy-to-follow instructions in the included user guides and video tutorials.
Q: How do you figure out which colors to use?
A: In the video Johnny's freestyling it, but the kit comes with a quick-reference formula guide which details the combination of brushes used to create all 374 colors in the system. We've also included a set of solid swatches which can be used to pre-visualize your colors before rendering them in the finished halftone color formulas.
Q: What's the purpose of the Pressure Tint brushes?
A: The Pressure tints are perfect for creating gradients or a bit of variation in your color, especially in large areas like backgrounds and sky. They're also great for replicating some of the plate pressure inconsistencies that would occur in pre-digital comics.
Q: Can you combine the line brushes with the dot brushes to create a color formula?
A: For sure. As long as the brush scale is set to the same %, you can use them interchangably. Infact, dot/line combinations were a common feature of golden age comics.
Q: How did pre-digital colorists traditionally use line tints?
A: Line tints have their origin in Lithographic printing in the late 1800's but were less common than dots until the late 1930's. As the Benday dot-based color system grew in popularity in the early 1900's, "cheated" lines were often used as workarounds to solve press issues or create colors and gradient effects that couldn't be created with dots alone.
Colorists would "fake" lines by repeating their dot sheets manually with slight adjustments so that the dots blended to form a composite line.
Eventually, color-system manufacturers developed line-screen tints to cater to the changing needs of professional colorists and publishers.
For the most comprehensive history of pre-digital comic printing you'll ever read, check out Legion Of Andy's detailed 9 part comic history series.
Q: What's the best way to apply the ink effects brushes.
A: In the interest of demonstrating quickly, Johnny is applying the effects brushes in white directly onto the color layers. On important artworks, we recommend using layer masks to create your ink effects to ensure that your original layers remain in tact ready to be screen-printed or edited as needed. We cover this process in detail in the included video tutorials.
Q: What's the difference between KraftTone and Debaser?
A: This comes up a lot so we've covered it in a detailed comparison article on our support site.
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✓ Sample Sketchers – free!
✓ Grain Shader Brushes
✓ Infinite Pulp Paper Textures
✓ Distress Press Brushes
✓ Procreate
✓ Adobe Photoshop
I'll be breezing through some of the technical stuff but if you've got a handle on the basic functions of Procreate and Photoshop you'll do great!
Although music and nature are my biggest inspirations, I get many ideas from many other random things in my daily life. So whenever something pops up in my head, I always try to put them in a rough sketch in Procreate.
I make one centered visual with the key message and let the other components come naturally. I develop the sub-objects or background during the sketching or even while coloring.
I used the 'Sketchbook Pencil HB’ brush from the True Grit free Sampler. I'm not too precious with my sketches and it’s always quick, simple, and easy to use.
The first thing I do after the sketch is placing the big geometric shapes into my canvas. I always start my process with the big, bold shapes and finish with the small details and textures.
To speed things up, I've saved a collection of pre-made geometric shapes that I frequently use to my Photos app so I can quickly import them into my Procreate canvases as needed.
To import a shape, tap Actions > Add > Insert a photo. Your Photos app will pop up. Scroll through your folders to find the shapes you've saved to your iPad.
Next up, I start drawing my organic shapes, in this instance, the human silhouette that forms the central figure in my composition. My work is very geometric so even when drawing organic forms, I often use Procreate's Symmetry Guide. Watch the video below to see it in action.
Clipping masks are an essential tool in Procreate and Photoshop and all other design programs. It allows you to set visible boundaries of the graphic and hide some portion of the image. I like to use this tool to make shapes overlaid with different colors.
To apply a clipping mask, move the shape you want to clip above the shape you want to constrain it to. Tap on the top shape layer in the layers panel and select Clipping Mask.
Once I’ve finished making all the objects in solid shapes, it’s time to give them life!
I'm using the standard airbrushes included with Procreate to add the large background gradients and True Grit's Grain Shader brushes for smaller details that I want to have more texture.
When I add gradients, shading, and textures, erasers are as crucial as brushes are. Using the Grain Shader brushes as textured erasers can help adjust density and depth or can make it smoother or rough. You'll see in the video below how I also use my brush opacity to soften the edges of my gradients and shading too.
To constrain the gradient to the shape, make sure the layer you're drawing on is directly above the shape layer in the layers panel then tap the layer and select Clipping Mask.
Using a regular eraser can make sharp-edges, so I often use this technique when I need to draw something very soft but with a defined shape like clouds, smoke, or a reflection on a mirrored surface.
Once I've drawn in the texture with the Grain Shader brush I choose a smooth edged brush (like Monoline) to erase one edge. To make a perfect line, I hold my pencil in place at the end of a stroke and it snaps into a straight line. You can learn more about using Quick Shapes feature here.
I really like using brushes and tools to create effects that they weren't necessarily intended to create. True Grit's Distress Press brushes are designed for adding distressing texture your artwork, but I regularly use the #3-Distress-Speckle-Sparse brush to create my galactic backgrounds, saving time, and automatically creating all the irregular shapes/sizes of stars.
One realistic detailed object can change the whole vibe of the artwork. It can enhance the quality of the artwork and create a surreal atmosphere in contrast with the other flat objects and colors.
I combine the standard pen brushes and airbrushes from the Procreate app, with the TGTS Grain Shader brushes to create a realistic but graphic aesthetic.
When I work on a small object with details, I go through the same steps as I start the artwork: I start from a big solid shape and work on the next smaller one and the next smaller one… until I make a dot for a highlight.
I always feel like I'm creating real light in this step once I start adding the brightest colors to the artwork to create an outer glow. Again, I use my Grain Shader brushes to make subtle gradients so that the light looks bright and beautiful.
Before the final step I add in some last lights and details. It isn’t always the same as I expect from the sketch stage, so I play around with some decorative objects, add more gradients or borders, or even change colors.
Procreate can be a little finicky for really detailed work so I export my canvas as a PSD so I can edit all the layers in Photoshop. I then open the file in Photoshop on my laptop where it's easier to make a few last minute adjustments, re-arrange layers, edit clipping masks that I couldn’t deal with in Procreate, and add type if needed.
The Infinite Pulp series is my favorite for instantly creating realistic paper textures in my work. I love the warmth and ‘visual’ crispness they bring.
To add the paper texture, open an Infinite Pulp template file and duplicate the Texture group into your artwork (see video). Make sure the texture group is the top layer. You can also use Infinite Pulp in Procreate but I like to do it at the end in Photoshop when I'm making all of my final edits.
The paper textures are designed to fade your artwork colors a little so I usually adjust the highlight opacity to find the perfect combination of pulp texture and vivid colors.
We’re done! It’s time to enjoy the beautiful piece you made. Sometimes I look at my final work several times to check if it gives me the right energy level that I intended at the start. Once I feel alright, it means it’s ready to be released!
Thank you so much for following along with me. I hope you could find motivation and inspiration from this tutorial!
Featured music: If Love Feels Like A Fever by Particle House
We caught up with one half of SF based director duo BOREDOM to chat about animating in Procreate, shooting in an old Star Wars studio and their latest music video for No Vacation.
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Patrick drawing animation frame number 187. Photograph by Joshua Michael Diaz
BOREDOM is the creative moniker for the collaborative film work of Luke Lasley and myself, Patrick Sean Gibson.
We both work creative jobs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Luke works as a First Assistant Camera in the film industry and is a young legend in the game. I, myself, have been working as an Illustrator / Graphic Designer for the last 11 years and I operate a small, independent studio, about a football field away from the San Francisco Bay.
Together we’ve done work for clients ranging from Live Nation, Peroni, SFMOMA, and LinkedIn to musicians like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Metallica, Leon Bridges, Toryo y Moi, and Haim.
In 2017, Luke and I decided to combine our joint love of filmmaking and design into the two-headed beast that became BOREDOM and it’s been a fantastically-fulfilling nightmare ever since!
30 second animated sequence from BOREDOMS latest video for No Vacation.
Well, officially, I got into making music videos in 2015 when my friends in the band Hot Flash Heat Wave asked me if I would direct a music video for “Gutter Girl”, the breakout single off their first LP. I asked Luke to shoot the music video, he was down, so we made a “fun-in-the-sun”, sort of California inspired boy band music video that was shot on Super 8mm film. This was the first time either of us had “officially” made something for a band. Basically, that video was the primordial ooze that eventually evolved into the partnership of BOREDOM.
"I WAS MAKING EXPERIMENTAL FILMS AND SKATE VIDEOS WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL AND ALSO LATER WHEN I WAS IN ART SCHOOL."
But, unofficially, I was making experimental films and skate videos when I was in high school and also later when I was in art school. Making films has always been an interest of mine, but has always sort of been on the side. Fun-fact, the first piece of film I ever made was a fan video of Andrew Reynolds skateboarding. I remixed an old skate part of his (411VM, Issue #22) that I downloaded off of Kazaa. The part originally had no music set to it, only the sounds of him skating, so it was perfect to work with. I cut it to Biggie’s verse in the track “Notorious Thugs”. I was 13. Can’t beat that, people!
Producer Luke & Director Patrick, those BOREDOM boys doing what they do best. Photograph by Emmett Bright
BTS photographs by Nat Lee
There isn’t necessarily a deeply conceptual reason as to why we’ve utilized animation in conjunction with live action footage, it’s sort of just naturally evolved into becoming a unique aspect of our work that has helped set us apart from the crowd. It started as me just wanting to learn about animation and wanting to try my first stab at it and it’s grown into becoming a BOREDOM staple.
But that being said, the ethos behind BOREDOM is to always push our own limits and go outside of our comfort zone and do things a little differently each time we take on a project. So in that notion, I don’t think every future video we make will have animation, it’s just been a common thread within the last three music videos we’ve made.
But that said, it’s been a wild ride working with animation and I’m proud of the work. Outside of our BOREDOM projects, I’m actually super excited to bring animation into my own personal practice and offer it to my clients as well. I’m still really new to the medium and am thirsty for more.
Yeah, the first one we made was for their hit song “Yam Yam”, which we shot at 32Ten Studios in San Rafael and was produced by Little Moving Pictures. That was an amazing set to work on. 32Ten Studios is an old Industrial Light & Magic building where they shot a lot of Star Wars and Indiana Jones practical effects. So the same cyclorama wall we shot the Yam Yam video on is the same cyclorama wall where they shot Luke & Leia riding speeder bikes in Return of The Jedi. So rad! I love it there.
But yeah, through the Yam Yam music video project we got to know No Vacation really well and they sort of went from being our clients to becoming our friends. That evolution of our relationship made the Days music video working process really seamless to navigate.
I sort of tend to look at these music videos like design projects and assess not only what the band wants out of it, but also what I want out of it too and I reverse engineer from there. I usually think about the mediums I want to play with before I think about the concept itself (in this video we used 10 different mediums ranging from UHD Video, VHS, and Super 8mm film to Xerox & hand drawn animation and a 35mm Lomokino).
After the mediums are decided upon, I then take on the conceptualization stage with a fan-like mentality and ask myself: How can I best translate this song into a visual? Transforming music into a defined visual is such an abstract process and there’s sort of no right or wrong way to do it. But I’ve found that there’s always an educated perspective to create from and you need to rely heavily on that perspective, as well as your creative intuition.
"TRANSFORMING MUSIC INTO A DEFINED VISUAL IS SUCH AN ABSTRACT PROCESS AND THERE’S SORT OF NO RIGHT OR WRONG WAY TO DO IT."
For Days, because I really wanted to push the differing amount of mediums we used to capture the band, that decision influenced my idea to break the video into these completely distinct and aesthetic-heavy sections to better organize the mediums into place. I then defined the “world” of each section and by doing so it told me what the look and feel of the worlds should be and what mediums needed to be utilized to match those feelings.
In my opinion, this process is very similar to how a designer thinks in the branding process. So having that work experience helps a lot. That said, at some point I decided that I wanted to work with each of the band members individually and spotlight them into singular sections.
At the end, I brought them all back together for a 90’s inspired, live performance jam sesh. We shot the performance in an abandoned warehouse because I was infatuated with mimicking the feeling of this warehouse set I saw in an old Primus music video. I wanted to invoke that 90’s nostalgia we all long for. Luke and our location scout found the perfect warehouse and I’m just so, so glad it worked out!
They’re pretty amazing to work with honestly. They gave me free-reign to make what I want to make and are usually pretty onboard with the vast majority of my ideas. I think they just realize how dedicated we get on these projects and it stokes them out and keeps them feeling confident knowing that their music is in extremely good hands.
Pre-production sketches & notes.
"THE MAJOR DIFFERENCE FOR THE DAYS ANIMATION IS THAT I CHANGED MY OVERALL WORKING PROCESS FROM WORKING ON PAPER TO WORKING ON AN IPAD."
Well the major difference for the Days animation is that I changed my overall working process from working on paper to working on an iPad. I drew everything in Procreate and did some minor work in Photoshop.
But even though it was all done digitally, I found that when it comes to working in animation I sort of eventually drift into the same working headspace no matter what medium I’m using to create with. The headspace of animating with watercolor paint on Yam Yam, to the headspace of working with pens and markers in our second video we made for Hot Flash Heat Wave, “Raindrop”, it all just feels the same to me. I don’t think I would have expected that if you asked me before.
Patrick in his San Francisco art studio. Photograph by Joshua Michael Diaz
Photographs by Joshua Michael Diaz.
Of course, here’s the run down… It all starts with the idea, of which I’ll usually end up drawing as a very rough sketch in storyboard format. I then run it by the Director of Photography, the multi-talented Joseph R. Barrett. Together, we would make sure we had all we needed to get the shot.
Once we captured the image, the highly-skilled and wizardly Editor of “Days”, Anders Ericsson, would import the clip into Adobe Premiere. From there he would convert the clip from it’s native frame rate of 24 frames per second into a clip that plays at 8 frames a second. This would be the frame rate at which the animation plays for this project, meaning every second of screentime there are 8 separate drawings being shown in sequential order on screen.
He would then make some color grading adjustments to translate the colored footage into black and white with a good amount of contrast, sharpening, and adjusted levels to make the image I draw very clear looking and in focus. These images then get labeled, imported in Photoshop and exported as a layered PSD file to be used as references for each frame.
I then import the PSD into Procreate on the iPad. Now I’ve got all my drawing reference photographs in Procreate and it’s just a matter of time for me to take the time and draw every frame. I usually set the reference image around 80% opacity and sort of half trace it and half implement some expressive brush strokes.
Split screen showing the a single exported frame mid-illustration in Procreate.
When I finish all the drawings for a clip, the Procreate file gets exported as PSD file and I would hop on my laptop, reverse the layer order in Photoshop and export all the frames into an organized and labeled folder for Anders He would then take that folder, import it all into Premiere, add on top the paper textures (supplied by TGTS!) and sequence all the animated frames in a linear format.
Then it’s all about just moving the clip around and finding the place in the timeline of where it should live and how it how it will interact with other animated clips. Wow, that was a mouthful and apologies to those who I put to sleep.
The finished clip after exporting and sequencing in Adobe Premiere
The Push Pin Pen, Bold Engraver Single, Copier Pen, and Fat Grungy were all in heavy rotation. I also used some from brushes from Stipple Studio, like the Sharpie Sparse Fill brush. The effects I used were Distress Press and Halftone Zine Machine on the title card screen designs. Lots of True Grit love on this project!
I also used the new Infinite Pulp paper texture templates to add a little bit of analogue texture to the animation sequence.
A symphony of True Grit brushes at work.
Plus some Infinite Pulp paper textures for added analogue depth.
"I CAN WORK A LOT QUICKER AND THERE’S THIS HUGE ELEMENT OF IMMEDIATE GRATIFICATION."
Well the obvious benefits include saving money on art supplies, not having to constantly clean up my art studio, I can work a lot quicker and there’s this huge element of immediate gratification. The ability to instantly play back the frames you just animated and make quick revisions is priceless. Another huge plus was eliminating the frame scanning process and the motion capture based frame alignment process that Luke and I developed. That saved a lot of time.
The downside of working digitally is probably my eyes. My poor, poor eyeballs… Staring at an iPad for copious amounts of time is pretty harsh and probably isn’t doing me any favors.
In terms of what held me back from working digitally, if I’m being honest, it was my own ego. It may sound dumb or naive, but I used to think that if it wasn’t made on paper, or that if something physical or tactile wasn’t left behind after creating your artwork, than it wasn’t “real art” and it didn’t have a soul, so-to-speak.But thinking about that mindset now, it’s just feels toxic and I find it to be a conceptually flawed and close-minded perspective. At some point, very unexpectedly, my thoughts on the matter just naturally shifted and I completely changed the way I was looking at what is art and what isn’t.
Now, I think that formulating the decision to work digitally does not define the legitimacy or value of what you’re working on, but rather it’s just a question of if you want to use that device as your tool to create with. The tool should never define the work, the visuals should! Plus, working on an iPad is extremely empowering. You have access to a far greater number of creative possibilities and resources right at your fingertips, all in a compact device. You can synthesize anything. That’s sort of revolutionary if you think about it.
But that being said, all of this digital hype I’m spitting, this doesn’t mean I no longer will work on paper and make physical things. Not at all. I just no longer see a value difference between the two facets of creation (i.e. digital vs physical).
"I THINK THAT FORMULATING THE DECISION TO WORK DIGITALLY DOES NOT DEFINE THE LEGITIMACY OR VALUE OF WHAT YOU’RE WORKING ON, BUT RATHER IT’S JUST A QUESTION OF IF YOU WANT TO USE THAT DEVICE AS YOUR TOOL TO CREATE WITH. THE TOOL SHOULD NEVER DEFINE THE WORK, THE VISUALS SHOULD!"
If I’m being truly honest, I have no idea how I stay motivated in the animation process. Sometimes I feel a bit like Rocky Balboa and I’m just getting the shit beat out of me — like my ideas aren’t working, the quantity of frames I need to make keep increasing, etc. — but for whatever reason I just hang in there and battle through it to the end.
I think I just have so much to prove and the fact that I feel like an underdog in my career keeps me motivated to show people what I’m capable of. Straight up. I sometimes feel like I’m a low-key creative psychopath that loves producing artwork so damn much to a point that it’s unhealthy. That’s that underdog mentality. Can’t stop, won’t stop.
But that said, the harm doesn’t usually outweigh the stoke! No matter the art making process — animation, design, filmmaking, whatever — I find the creative mindset to be devilishly rewarding and addicting and tons of fun. It fulfills me beyond words. I guess you could say it keeps me coming back for more, like the addict I am.
Photograph by Joseph R. Barrett
Photographs by Tom Simington
I’m a huge fan of Lope Serrano, one-half of the director duo “CANADA”, and the music video they directed for Tame Impala’s “The Less I Know The Better” is a BOREDOM favorite. Besides that, my friend Max Winston is a stop motion animator and he directed / animated this bonkers ass music video for The Manx’s big slapper “Hateful Goo”. That video rules! I also really like this video that Colin Read directed for Danny Brown’s “3 Tearz”. The Pharcyde’s music video for “Drop”, directed by Spike Jonze, is music video gold. But my personal and absolute favorite music video of all time is Justice’s video for “Stress” directed by Romain Gavras. It’s raw perfection, true anarchy, and is a mind-blowing masterpiece.
This is going to go on forever, so apologies in advance for sounding like a dumb celebrity at an award show, but sometimes you just have to be that person…
I want to give a huge shout out and thank you to all the homies in No Vacation (Sab Mai, Nat Lee, and Harrison W. Spencer) for trusting my vision, and being such open minded people to collaborate with. I want to thank my BOREDOM partner in crime, Luke Lasley, for taking on the role of Producer on this project and making a lot of my unrealistic wishes for this video become realities. I also want to give enormous shout outs to some key crew members who took on exceptionally big roles for this project: Joseph R. Barrett (Director of Photography), Bailey Stumpfl (Wardrobe Stylist), Keri Shewmaker (Production Designer), and Anders Ericsson (Editor). The amount of work, talent, and original vision they each brought to this music video was awe-inspiring. That said, everyone who worked on this video was so damn clutch! Literally, absolutely everyone was a creative beast. So I’d just like to give my biggest of thanks to all of the crew. I am beyond grateful for each and every one of you. Lastly, I want to thank my dude Jeremy Summer at Little Moving Pictures, all of the crew at Little Giant Lighting and Grip, the color crew at Ntropic, and my loving family and supportive fwiendz. You know who you be! Oh and for real, shout outs Andrew at True Grit for making the most killer brushes around.
Phoenix-based type designer Scott Biersack takes us behind the scenes to reveal the craft, collaboration and attention to detail involved in the making of our first typeface release.
]]>I early 2018, I drew a custom blackletter-inspired logotype for myself to utilize on my portfolio site. I continued drawing and documenting the process of other logotypes for clients to see the variety of styles I am capable of. This blackletter stencil logotype became an instant favorite from the collection and there it lived on my site.
Later on, in April of 2018, Andrew at True Grit Texture Supply reached out about developing an exclusive "True Grit" typeface. Needless to say, I took this project on in an instant and after a few discussions we settled on taking my original youbringfire logotype and building it out into a complete typeface.
Looking back, this typeface actually began in 2015 while I was undergoing the Extended Type@Cooper program where we explored humanist forms while drawing with a parallel pen. I began drawing large forms with a Copic Wide marker to create a typeface named Ganon Broad. That process eventually helped guide the overall look and feel of Malice Stencil.
The finished state of “Ganon Broad” in 2015
The wavy nature of the vertical stems was the one characteristic I kept as I continued onward revising this type. The process followed the typical motion of forming serifs when calligraphing, so this felt very natural and created an interesting effect. That undulating motion sure was a pain with certain glyphs, but I'll get into that later. The goal of Malice was to create something very true to the pen/brush and the motions of my (left-handed) calligraphy.
"I BEGAN DRAWING LARGE FORMS WITH A COPIC WIDE MARKER. THAT TOOL HELPED GUIDE THE OVERALL LOOK AND FEEL OF MALICE STENCIL".
Since I have a hard time iterating digitally, nearly every project I start begins on a piece of paper. Most of the time, that consists of quick and rough sketches to get the idea out of my head into something more tangible. It's a quick method of exploring what's working well and what may cause problems down the line. The early process of Malice Stencil was mostly calligraphed with a Zig calligraphy marker because of the nature of the forms and how quickly I could iterate in my tiny sketchbook.
Some initial sketches on paper but plenty of further editing needed in vector land.
As I continued drawing, I learned how each letterform needed to be slightly tweaked in order to look and function properly. Like many things in type design, what I discovered is the exact same stencil pieces could not be copied / pasted throughout. The stencil pieces appear quite similar when not concentrating on them, but most characters are unique to themselves and their construction.
Each glyph needed subtle edits to nail down the correct letterform width. This, in turn, helped the letterforms posture feel more upright and created a subtle nod to how the same personality occurs within calligraphy.
Notice the slight difference in curved strokes compared to the control character, "o" in the comparison below.
Thankfully, the deadline for this typeface was not urgent and got pushed which allowed me time to take a step back from this project. I didn't touch Malice for a good month or two at one point. This break was crucial to help improve the overall design as I began to notice things I didn't before.
Pushing onward, I reached many points where certain characters or decisions left me stuck. When I noticed myself getting frustrated, I knew it was time to reach out for help. Friends like James Edmondson, Andy Clymer and many others across social media provided thoughtful feedback to remove my roadblocks and present a new perspective.
With that said, let's talk about (some) of the darn problems I encountered! Nearly all of the capital letterforms gave me grief. Most importantly, the E, F and T drove me nuts. Those forms constantly felt out of place and disrupted the overall texture. Early on, I felt they weren't stencil-y enough, and had evolved into something very forced. The day I solved those characters was a glorious day.
Here's the process of the foul beasts (E, F & T) up until final release.
Of course, the process of the M and N sure gave me hell. I wanted to approach those caps with a little more thought rather than repurposing the lowercase "m" and "n" that is seen in some blackletter families.
I hit pause on Malice Stencil for a few weeks as I took a little type design sabbatical in Paris over the summer. That little break really helped clear my head for things to come. The one major design flaw I noticed was the entry strokes among many lowercase forms were too sharp and also too light in weight. This posed a decent amount of reworking since it occurred across so many characters. It's something so minuscule but obviously makes all the difference when you see the before and after. Pay attention to those entry strokes in the below image.
Another optical flaw I was noticed across many glyphs was a strange tilting/rotating effect. You can see that happening in the "p" below. So many characters were either falling forward or leaning backward...I never noticed this up until I returned from Paris! I'm glad I caught it early on because yet again, those slight edits make all the difference in the end.
Entry stroke edits were needed for many of the lowercase characters.
You bet your sweet booty Malice is a dark name! For those of you that know me, I certainly have an obsession with darker imagery — skeletons, flames, occult stuff, you know, the usual. During the typeface production, I constantly jammed one of my favorite bands, Bad Omens. Well, their song Malice inspired the lineup of fun "evil" emojis, inspired in part by a friends halloween pumpkin carvings. While I had a lengthy list of other potential names, this inspiration combo culminated in the perfect name.
A collection of homies carved Malice emojis into pumpkins.
P.S. the stencil emojis were also drawn initially on paper with the same Zig Calligraphy marker to help them feel more cohesive with the typeface.
As with every True Grit release, Malice needed a textured companion. I contemplated the easiest way to get this done effectively and efficiently without duplicating an insane amount of tedious production work.
Easy right? I knew some kind of custom python script could potentially save me time...the issue was, I have very, very little knowledge or experience in this realm still.
The exported gridded SVG file containing every glyph needing to be textured.
An email was sent off to Python wizz Andy Clymer requesting a cost estimate to write such a time-saving script. Andy was excited by the idea and generously lent his time to create an entire functioning extension for Robofont.
This beautiful extension allows a user to export the entire glyph set gridded out as a large SVG file, ready for processing in Adobe Illustrator.
So, with the Robofont extension installed, the gridded SVG was exported then sent off to the team at True Grit to begin the texturing process.
Most textured and distressed fonts on the market look "good from afar but far from good". The process used to distress is often rushed and based on Adobe Illustrator's default live trace settings or free "vectorizing" plugins. The resulting fonts look passable at small sizes but on close inspection, the characters are a mess of sharp anchor junctions and straight paths.
What's the point of a textured font that you can't enlarge enough to show off it's distressed detail? We wanted to ensure that Malice Rough would hold-up well under the scrutiny of extra-large typesetting and even wide format printing. The catch was how to avoid hand-drawing hundreds of thousands of distress relief shapes to achieve such high standards.
"WHAT'S THE POINT OF A TEXTURED FONT THAT YOU CAN'T ENLARGE ENOUGH TO SHOW OFF IT'S DISTRESSED DETAIL?"
To solve this, Andrew and Sarah at True Grit developed a custom process for distressing each character individually using a combination of analog print samples and live-trace presets designed to recreate an aesthetic somewhere between vintage letterpress and low-fi photocopying.
The grid size was a little too small to allow for such a large amount of detail so each character was numerically scaled, then processed multiple times to pick the best distressing result. To finish, each chosen character was reduced (again, numerically for accuracy), and placed back into the SVG grid in the exact same location as the original.
Malice Clean vs Malice Rough (after some minor manual node pushing).
With the distressing complete within Illustrator and saved into the same grid as the original export, I utilized Andy's extension to import the new "distressed" style back into Robofont while maintaining the same spacing and positioning! Voilà! Behold the miracle of Python Script. Chefs kiss!
While I still had to complete minor clean-up work (textured typefaces sure have a ton of anchor points), Andy's extension saved me an immense amount of production work. And that, kids, is the importance of learning code. Highly recommend.
I'll try to keep this brief! A massive thank you to Matthew Smith for helping with additional production work on this. He's the reason everything functions so nicely — especially those beautiful emojis. Can't thank that dude enough. Thanks to Andrew and Sarah at True Grit for production assistance, pushing me into unknown territory, and having faith in me and what I can deliver. Thanks to the many folks that tested Malice out before the official launch. Your thoughts and feedback helped immensely.
Scott Biersack is a Phoenix-based designer specializing in custom lettering, logotypes and type design
Photoshop Vs Procreate:
I'll be using Photoshop for most of the tutorial but I've added tips and links for performing similar tasks in Procreate where necessary.
I'll be giving pointers on some of the technical stuff but if you know how to use the basic functions of Photoshop (or even Procreate) you'll be able to follow along.
I start by sketching my composition roughly on an iPad Pro using Procreate.
Performing this step digitally allows me to move around different elements in the illustration in order to find the right composition. I can also quickly test a few shading options so I have a picture in my mind where I might add texture and halftones later.
I'm going to ink my artwork analog-style in a Moleskine Sketchbook so I need to transfer my digital sketch to my physical sketchbook first.
It might seem weird to start with a digital sketch and then replicate it in a sketchbook but I really enjoy the process of inking my work on paper. So when I have time, I crank some music, pace myself, and enjoy the process. As a bonus, I have a tonne of Moleskine sketchbooks filled with inked drawings to look back on. Old habits die hard.
I print out my sketch from Procreate, tape it down on a lightbox, and trace the sketch directly onto my sketchbook. I don't stress too much about the details in these steps. I just want to capture the basic shapes with a pencil. The final details will be made in the next step when we start inking.
Tip:
If you don't have a printer or a lightbox, you can use your iPad as a lightbox instead (hint: turn up the brightness).
If I'm on a tighter deadline or don't feel like drawing with markers, I'll skip this step completely and go straight to inking my work in Procreate (or Photoshop) using The Rusty Nib inking brushes. If you're following along yourself and prefer inking your work digitally, you can skip this step too.
Now it's time for some ink. In this step, I use disposable Uni Pin brand fine-liners and brush pens. As I mentioned above, I often do this step digitally in Procreate or Photoshop instead.
Before you start inking it is recommended to erase the pencil a little bit. Leave just enough for you to see the composition. If you erase the pencil after inking it will erase some of your ink and you'll make a real mess. I always lay an extra sheet of paper under my wrist to avoid any smudges made by the wet ink.
Use your pens to ink in the pencil sketch and add in all the missing details. Sounds simple right? Jokes aside, drawing and inking takes time and practice, so keep at it and enjoy the journey.
You can see my process in the video below.
Finish the illustration using a white gel pen to make highlights and little details like stars.
Now I switch back to my digital tools.
Scan the illustration at 600 dpi in grayscale mode then open it in Photoshop.
This is what the raw scan looks like. As you can see, the blacks are pretty washed out so we'll fix that in the next step.
Use Photoshop's Levels settings to adjust the contrast of your linework. Go to Image > Adjustments > Levels and adjust the shadow, mid-tone, and highlight sliders as shown below. You want the black linework to be dark and consistent, and the whites to be nice and bright.
If you're using Procraete, you can make a similar adjustment using the Curves setting. In Procrate, Go to Adjustments > Curves.
Insight: I like to leave some pencil marks on my scan to retain some of the analog aesthetic, but you can erase these and make any other touchups before adjusting your levels.
Once you have finished making corrections it's time to start working with textures to give some form to the main elements of the illustration (in this case, the cat and the skull). This helps create depth and a sense of perspective in the illustration.
I'm using a Beat Tones shader brush (Grainy Dot - 45º / Med). These brushes are great for creating halftone shading as they get darker as you press harder on the screen with your pen.
For this illustration, I chose 5 colors and one extra color for the background. The choice for the background color is the key for a good illustration as it gives the tone of the composition.
Create a new layer then use the lasso or magic wand tool to select each area you want to color in. Once you have your selection use the paint bucket tool to fill it with color.
In Procreate you can do this using the Reference Layer feature and ColorDrop.
Repeat this step for every color, making sure each color is on its own layer.
Insight: I often find inspiration observing the color palettes used by other artists in different areas such as animation, movies, music videos etc. Once I have a rough color palette blocked in, I'll use the Hue/Saturation settings to tweak the colors until they're perfect. In Photoshop go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation or in Procreate go to Adjustments > Hue, Saturation, Brightness).
Note: These layers will just be used to make selections in the next stage and will not be visible in the final artwork (except for the background layer).
Next, I use my Beat Tones and Lithotone brushes to really bring the artwork to life. For maximum texture, I combine 3 different brushes to create each color, kind of like the old printing techniques used in vintage comic books, but in a completely custom way.
To start, fill the entire background with a warm yellow color using the Beat Tones (Clean SM/45º/70%) brush and set the layer blend mode to Multiply. This helps to add a warm tone to the entire image.
Use the color block layer (created in Step 6) to make a selection – Cmd+click the layer thumbnail (Mac) or Ctrl+click (Win).
Then use the eyedropper tool to set your foreground color to match the original color block. (here's how to use the eyedropper in Procreate)
Hide the color block layer, then use the Beat Tones brush (Clean SM / 60º / 90%) to fill the selection on a new layer.
The second layer of Beat Tones (Clean SM / 45º / 50%) goes over the previous one, but this time we set the layer blend mode to Multiply and change the colors (the background does not receive a second layer of texture this time).
It's important to use a Beat Tones brush with a different dot angle (45°) so that the halftone patterns don't create ugly moire patterns.
Create a third layer and set the layer blend mode to Multiply also. Then use the Lithotone Pointillism brush (Medium SM) to fill the selection with a different color again.
Repeat this process for each color. When you're done, each color formula will be made of 3 different layers. You can see in the gif below how the layers build to create my textured color formulas. There's a lot of layers so I color-code my layers to ensure they are easy to find.
Now we're going to mask out some sections of the textured color layers to add some highlights.
On a new layer, I use a Rusty Nib brush to create white highlights on the outer edges of the main objects.
Use the highlights layer you just created to make a selection – Cmd+click (Mac) or Ctrl+click (Win) on the layer – then click the 'Add a mask' button in the layer palette to add a layer mask to each of the color layers.
Editors note: you could also group all of your color layers into a single layer group, then add the mask to just the layer group folder to save repeating this step for each color layer. Here's how to select, mask and group layers in Procreate.
This trick softens the black lines so that we can see a little bit of the yellow background, giving the artwork an aged look. It's not technically how a registration error looks but it gives the linework a nice hazy aesthetic which I really like.
Duplicate your ink layer. Fill the first one with a dark blue. Set the blend mode to multiply and change the opacity to 80%.
Duplicate your ink layer again then fill the linework with a dark red. Set the blend mode to multiply and change the opacity to 75%. Slightly move this layer out of registration using the move tool .
If we zoom in you can see it's very subtle but small touches like this make a difference to the finished work.
Finally, it is time to give to the illustration some age using my Beat Tones and Distress Press brushes.
On a new layer paint in some Beat Tones using the Shader Vertical Line - MED brush.
On another new layer paint in some Distress Press texture using the Natural #8 MED brush. Then create one more layer and paint in a slightly different texture using the Natural #3 MED brush.
Now try using my tips, tricks and techniques as a launchpad to create your own custom color palettes and find your own unique style and aesthetic. The possibilities are endless so your only limit is how afar you want to explore.
In this tutorial, I’ll be showing you the process I use to take an illustration from brief to execution. We'll experiment with brushes and textures and I'll share a few insights, tips and tricks along the way.
✓ Rusty Nib Brushes
✓ Stipple Studio Brushes
✓ Gritty Vignettes Tiff Textures
✓ Adobe Photoshop
✓ Wacom Cintiq
I'll be breezing through some of the technical stuff but if you've got a handle on the basic functions of Photoshop, Procreate or Affinity Photo you'll do great!
Even though this is an internal project for fun, we still like to start by setting ourselves an informal brief. Just because there's no client in the traditional sense, doesn't mean you shouldn't spell out what you're hoping to achieve. You can't get to where you're going if you don't know where you're starting from!
Here at Lincoln, we love the outdoors and work regularly with clients in the skate, snow, mountain and action sports worlds. So, after having a chat with the team at True Grit we decided to create a fictitious Lincoln Design Outdoor Gear Guide featuring our unofficial studio mascot, BigFoot.
I put together a quick visual brief with references and notes to help guide the project. I want the finished piece to be a nod to the past with a distinct Lincoln Design feel.
Now that we have a plan, it's time start sketching. This is one of the most important parts of the process.
Here, we have a well balanced sketch with a grill smoking away in the foreground whilst our BigFoot character takes it easy with a beverage by the lake, waiting for the fish to bite. The composition draws the eye into the foreground whilst leaving some space at the top of the page for our typography.
Sketching digitally on a pure white background can feel a little soullesss sometimes, so even at this early stage, using a paper texture template from the Stipple Studio pack to help the process feel a little more organic and get me into the right headspace.
Tip: Don’t rush through the sketch as it’s a critical stage of the project. Put some thought into it, but don’t worry abut it being 100% perfect. The composition is the most important part of this stage.
Turn down the opacity on the sketch layer and create a new layer to start inking your line art.
Here, we’re working with a brush that compliments the background texture. In this case, I'm using the Crusty Brush Pen from The Rusty Nib pack.
I treated it as if I were using an old “crusty” sharpie marker. And just like a real marker, I don't change the size of the brush, keeping it to 20px throughout. The variations in the line values are a result of the pressure applied to my tablet.
You'll notice in the video that I regularly rotate my canvas so that I can make strokes at an angle that feels best ergonomically. Think of it like rotating your paper when you're working with analogue materials.
Tip: Optimize your stroke angles by rotating your canvas and stick to a single brush size, making use of your pen-pressure to vary the width of your strokes.
“All line art should to be black”… says who?
Black is the absence of light... it’s not a color. Apply this principle to you art, even if it’s digital. Okay, so maybe I did use black for some of the line art. But we’re also exploring different colors to define lines.
Compare the two examples below. One screenshot shows all line art in black. Notice the lack of depth and creativity in application. While I don't necessarily hate the heavy black line art style, I want to create some separation between the various elements in my linework.
As you can see the green reeds and beige smoke lines help define these elements more clearly against the more dominant grill and yeti.
Here’s how it’s looking so far:
Next up it's time to add color fills. Notice how intentionally filled the colors loosely on the the hog, beer cans and grill. Those imperfections give the artwork a more hand-made quality. We tend to gravitate toward these characteristics in art, as they are easier to relate to. As opposed to perfect vector art which wouldn't quite capture the more traditional aesthetic we are trying to capture.
Now that my line art and color-fills are complete, I want to add some stipple shading to bring additional dimension to my work.
I'm switching between the Round Precision and Pressure Scatter brushes from the Stipple Studio pack to create a detailed "spray-style" stipple effect, working quickly without getting too carried away with exact dot placement.
Notice how I've broken up the heavy shadow under the yeti's chair with a hint of grass and added some extra dimension to the hogs head on the grill.
Notice how some areas in the piece don’t have line art at all. That’s on purpose.
We’re going to be placing our Logotype at the top of the composition so we don’t want any heavy line art creating legibility issues.
Think about ways you can use the negative space to establish surfaces and edges. This technique work best if applied to less important elements such as the background and helps create a sense of distance in the sky and mountains.
We’re nearly done now and it’s looking really solid!
What do you think? Should we add some extra texture over the entire piece to give it more depth? Remember, we’re trying to capture a time period with this illustration, not just a cool drawing.
To do this I’m going to drop in a couple of textures from the Mixed Grit and Gritty Vignettes packs. I simply copy and paste them, then change the layer blend mode to Overlay with the opacity set to about 30%.
It’s a subtle effect but it helps to draw the eye to the center of the composition. As a bonus it gives the finished artwork a nice vintage patina.
Before I add the logotype, I’m going to take a little step back and see where I can clean things up a bit or improve the composition. The biggest thing I’m noticing is that the trees in the background don’t recede into the distance quite the way I’d like. This will make it difficult for my logotype to pop.
So, I’m going to hide the tree stipple stipple layers and lighten their fill color by reducing their layer transparency. This helps create a more distant perspective by simulating the density of the atmosphere when observing objects in the distance.
I’ve also removed some of the detailed stipple at the shoreline to help blend the water into the foreground and bring the main subject into focus.
Finally, I’m adding the Lincoln Design logotype and masking part of it behind the clouds to further emphasize the perspective and create a sense of subtle movement in the background. You can almost see the clouds drifting apart to reveal the logotype.
Our Outdoor Gear Guide cover is complete. Thanks so much for following along and if you'd like to find out more about the kind of work we do here at Lincoln Design, check out our work and socials below.
Featured music: Blühmen by Ondolut
✓ The basics of animation in Photoshop
✓ Creating jittery lettering
✓ Morphing lettering
✓ How to loop an animation
✓ The use of texture in animation
✓ Distress Press for Photoshop
✓ Stipple Studio for Photoshop
✓ Adobe Photoshop
Regular Photoshop users will have no problem following along but you can also use the same principles, brushes, and textures in Procreate.
Before we get started, you'll need a phrase to work with. I chose "hunker down with me." Once you have the phrase, sketch out the design. Consider what will be the most fun to animate. I came up with two options:
This sketch includes script lettering and a drop shadow with swirls around the lettering. Let’s break down the possibilities of how it could be animated.
This sketch has retro style block lettering in the shape of a heart. Let’s break down the possibilities of how it could be animated.
I’m choosing concept #2 because I like the surprise of having the lettering burst into hearts.
Once I've decided on my concept, I find it helpful to sketch out a rough storyboard so I have a good idea of how I'm going to animate the sequence:
Before we can start animating, we need ink our main lettering artwork as it forms the basis for the rest of the animation.
Here's a quick timelapse video showing my process where I trace my rough sketch as a reference and ink it ready for animation.
Using a textured or rough brush can be really useful in animation as they create small variations that help bring your animation to life.
I’m using the Bleedy Liner brush from the TGTS Stipple Studio pack. I like the inky style and it gives the line a really beautiful texture. I want this animation to look like a distressed print.
Make sure you put each element that you will animate on a separate layer.
In this case, I've used a separate layer for the background, the lettering, the pink heart, and the hearts edge-highlight.
I want my lettering to look like I screen printed it and animated it IRL. Adding texture will also give us another element to animate, adding extra life and movement to the finished sequence.
I'm using my Distress Press Brushes to take care of all the texturing in my animation.
I selected the Small Sparse Speckle brush then increased the scale of the texture to 45% in the brush settings (Window > Brush Settings).
On a new layer, I use the brush to fill the texture over the entire illustration in the same color as the heart.
Because the heart is a different color, we need to repeat these steps again on a new layer, in a contrasting off-white color.
We want the texture to only appear over the heart, so we first need to clip the texture layer to the heart. To do this, hover your pointer on the divider between the two layers then hold down Option (Mac) or Alt (Win) and click. The clipped layer will now have a down-arrow icon next to it, indicating that it is clipped to the layer below.
Once you've done that, simply add some texture with a Distress Press brush. Be sure to choose a different brush or scale the texture slightly so that it's not identical to the background texture.
See how it's done in the gif below.
I want the lettering to have a jittery effect. To do that, I traced over the lettering two more times on new layers so that each layer is slightly different. It’s important to have at least 3 drawings to create jittery lettering so that the jitter has an organic move to it. Remember to name and number your layers as you go!
A good way to think about frame animation is that each frame is a snapshot of the layers that are visible in the layers palette. By changing the layers that are visible in a sequence of frames, we can create movement in our artwork.
Set up your workspace so it’s ready to create animations. Go to Window > Timeline.
In the timeline panel, select the Create Frame Animation button in the middle of the timeline (if it's not already the default, use the drop down arrow to select it).
By default, the first frame will probably be set to display for 0 Seconds. Change this to between 0.1 to 0.5 to start (you can always adjust the frame rate later).
Select the first frame and make sure only one of the lettering layers are turned on. Then click the Duplicate Selected Frames button to add a new frame.
Now select the second frame, turn off lettering layer 1, and turn on the lettering layer 2. Repeat for the third frame then press the play button to test.
Your jittery lettering should look something like this. You can duplicate these three frames a few times so that they repeat to make the sequence longer.
I find it easiest to start by drawing a pattern of hearts that loosely fills the shape of the lettering (see below). This way I have a destination frame that I can reference when morphing my lettering.
Now I use my layer opacity to reference the lettering layer and the new hearts layers (just like when I referenced my sketch) and draw more layers in between so that my lettering morphs into the hearts.
Remember to create a new frame on the timeline for each morphing layer, just like we did for the jittering letters.
Some of these layers will look weird in isolation but you want to transition as smoothly as possible. It might take about 10 or so frames and a bit of trial-and-error to get right.
You can see in the gif below how each layer changes slightly starting at frame 10 until the lettering has completely morphed into my heart pattern in frame 18.
Next, referencing the hearts layer again, I draw the hearts bigger and more dispersed so that they look like they are bursting away from the lettering. Repeat this (on a new layer and frame each time!) until all the hearts are out of view.
I find animations to be more effective when they have a fluid loop. To bring the lettering back to frame 1, I’m going to have the lettering reemerge from the heart.
I create this effect by drawing several layers starting with thin broken text and building back up to the original style lettering. Each layer is assigned to a new frame on the timeline just like we did before.
Once the frames are all ready, I press play to test how the animation works. Adjust any kinks in the animation. I set the timing on the frames to 0.13 seconds but you can adjust it using the dropdown arrow in the bottom right corner of each frame.
Now that we have a nice looping sequence of our lettering, it's time to start animating that texture.
To begin, we need to create additional texture layers to animate.
To make sure each version of the texture is different I cut each texture layer down the middle, then flip and rotate each half. Now the speckles don't overlap or look too similar.
Alternatively, you can also use a selection of different brushes or even use the same brush with the texture scale adjusted to 3 different sizes. The important thing is that each layer should be different enough so that the textures don't look cloned or repeated.
Do this until you have at least 3 unique texture layers that each cover the whole illustration.
Finally, repeat the process with your Heart Texture layers as well.
Instead of creating new frames on the timeline for the texture layers, you want to apply the layers to the frames we have already created.
Select the very first frame and turn on the Background Texture Layer 1 and Heart Texture layer 1.
Select frame 2, turn off the first two texture layers and turn on the second two texture layers. Repeat again on Frame 3 with the third texture layers.
Now do this for each frame, cycling through the 3 versions of the textures until you get all the way to the end of the timeline.
Here's the finished sequence.
Frame animation is such a fun and simple way to bring life to your static illustrations and lettering. Give it a try yourself starting with a 3 to 5 frame loop with just a few moving layers, then work your way up to longer, more elaborate sequences like this one.
Find more of her work or take one of her classes here.
Featured music by Jon Ehrens
Featured artist: @cmpt_rules
A huge round of applause to the entrants and finalists. The Quarantee collection will be released later in the year with profits from the collection to be donated to frontline charities around the globe.
With over 3347 designers and artists getting involved the caliber of submissions was super high and it was great to see so many True Grit Texture Supply users, followers and friends who submitted entries, including a number of the finalists shown below.
In this tutorial, I'm going to show you my process for making a band poster from start to finish using a mix of analog and digital techniques. I'll show you some practical stuff plus talk about finding inspiration along with a few insights into my approach to art-making.
I'll be breezing through some of the technical stuff but if you've got a handle on the basic functions of Photoshop and Illustrator you'll do great!
Let's get into it. No idle chit-chat.
The poster we’re going to be making in this tutorial is for one of my favorite bands right now, Tongue Party. They are a punk band out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Super heavy and a great soundtrack for making art or destroying capitalism.
Start by listing the date and location of a show and the band’s name. This bit is kind of boring but you want to make sure you have all the information and spelling correct from the beginning. It's also good to know what copy you're working with because typography is fun.
This part is more fun. Dig in a bit and listen to the band’s music. Maybe read a lyric or two but don't think too hard here. Reference other flyers and art that you like. It's all about getting in the mood, not about any specific idea generation. Just chill and enjoy absorbing art. You don’t have to have it all figured out yet. Art is easy.
I’m a big fan of Sister Corita Kent and her theory that it’s more interesting to create things by accident because you end up building new ideas and connections that you couldn’t have thought of. Her approach inspires me to let things happen as they will. As a result, I've found that my poster work really benefits from not planning imagery and ideas out in advance.
Now that we’ve gotten in the mood and we are really feeling the vibe of the band, we can move forward and start collecting junk. And when I say junk, I mean junk.
Dig through old magazines, newspapers or clip art books for images, textures or anything that feels interesting and you could see fitting in with this band and this poster you are going to make. Don’t overthink. Seriously. Just take photos, make scribbles, crumple, tear, rip, and scan it all into your fancy computer.
Tip: It’s always good to have a box full of scraps ready to go at a moment’s notice, or a shelf full of old magazines. I spend a good amount of free time collecting junk or taking photos of weird things I see. This way, when a project comes up, I have a bountiful harvest of weird images to play with right away, which speeds up the whole process — it's important when you are as impatient and twitchy as me.
"THIS IS ART, NOT SCIENCE! KEEP IT LOOSE, WE’LL TIGHTEN THE BOLTS DOWN LATER".
There are lots of right answers, not just one. I’m always surprised at the weird junk I end up using in the final poster. Sometimes the images I use are interesting specifically because they DON’T make any logical sense with the band or music. Other times the imagery makes perfect sense and that’s okay too.
Play around with different images and things you cut out. Try putting monster heads and skulls on innocent looking things. It’s really fun and really easy to get into. Just play around and see what happens. If something excites you for any reason, tape it together see if it works.
Insight: By combining the hand and building (in the image above), it changes the context of both things and a little story starts to happen, and most importantly, it looks cool! Remember, I’m not thinking too linear here or trying on purpose to build some super clever concept. Worrying about making work that is always the most clever is just a thing insecure narcissists have to do to convince themselves they are smart or important. If something is meant to be clever, it will be.
"YOU CAN'T FORCE IT. OUR JOB AS ARTISTS IS JUST TO BE PRESENT AND READY FOR WHEN THE INTERESTING BITS PRESENT THEMSELVES, CLEVER OR NOT".
Let’s set all that great imagery aside for a second and get us some letters. Typically a poster has a band name, a date, a location, maybe a few other bands, maybe some sort of weird cryptic message to freak out the normies.
It is my firm belief that typography need not sit at perfect horizontal angles, have perfectly smooth edges, or adhere to any so called rules of kerning or leading we learn in design school. It’s not that those rules are wrong, it’s just wrong to call them rules because that implies that there is a right and a wrong way to work with type. There isn’t. Furthermore, we shouldn’t let our typographic tendencies be defined by the things a computer does to them by default when we first type our words on the screen.
Grab a few choice fonts, print them out, and then find ways to mess them up. Try crumpling, tearing, or scanning them improperly. Come up with some crazy sorts of letters with an existing font, or by drawing your own with a broom and bucket of paint. There is no such thing as a “right” or “wrong” font for any given project.
"THROW AWAY THE RULES AND GET WEIRD"
One of my favorite tricks is scrambling my type on a photocopier or scanner. Don't limit yourself to just this though, there are almost limitless ways to mess stuff up so let your freak flag fly.
Once you've made a whole mess of crazy fonts and illustrations, select your favorites to use going forward. We're going to be using these elements to create a digital layout in Adobe Illustrator so we want to make them easy to work with first.
Scan each graphic element separately at 1200ppi in grayscale mode. If you don't have a scanner, try taking a photo of each element in decent light instead.
In Photoshop, go to Image > Mode > Bitmap . Then choose 50% threshold from the Method dropdown.
If you're getting too little contrast in the resulting image (or not enough), try adjusting your Levels first (Image > Adjustments > Levels).
Finally, crop your images using the Crop Tool and save as a .tiff file.
Saving your graphic elements in this format means when you place them in Illustrator, the white background will automatically be ignored and only the black artwork will appear. This makes it easier to layer elements and re-color them. Plus you get that sweet photocopied aesthetic as a bonus.
Insight: Wondering why I'm prepping my artwork at 1200ppi?
More on that here.
Our graphic elements are prepped and all the ingredients are here! Mise en place! Now we’re going pull up our graphic designer pants and put on our stylish thick-rimmed glasses because we’re going digital for a bit.
A computer is a tool, nothing more, nothing less. So, let’s use this tool for something it’s really useful for — LAYOUT!
I find I can save a lot of time and headache by getting my layout and hierarchy nearly finished digitally. It’s so easy to move type and images around and change their size in Illustrator.
Create a new poster-sized document in Illustrator and import all of your .tiff image files (File > Place).
Then experiment with different type and image combos and layouts until you find a composition you are really happy with. This will be the foundation of your poster.
As you can see, I messed around with about 3476 versions before I settled on the one I like. No big deal though 'cos this is quick and easy to do in Illustrator and that's why we're here.
Here’s where you add additional typography and any other fun details the band might feel are important like the venue, show time, ticket info and all that kind of stuff.
It’s really easy in Illustrator to move things around, resize them quickly and find a hierarchy you really like.
"THIS IS THE PART OF MY PROCESS THAT IS EITHER A VERY SMART TRICK OR JUST SOMETHING THAT MAKES ME TOTALLY INSANE BUT INDULGE ME, I BEG OF YOU!"
Even though we pretty much have a final composition and the poster looks nearly complete, we’re going to print it out, chop it up, and rebuild it analog nearly exactly the way it already was.
It sort of feels like faking it a bit here, but I love all the extra cut/paste textures I can bring in to the final image by doing this. How dirty or clean you want to make this is totally up to you.
Print out each element of your composition and cut them out. If you like, you can also print the full composition in yellow to use as a guide (see below).
Hint: Sometimes I really crumple and wipe dirt and ink on these, and sometimes I build them as cleanly as possible and add just a tiny sprinkling of added texture that you can hardly even notice.
Once you've reconstructed your poster, scan it back in ready to add color and more texture.
Back to the computer!
We’ve scanned our poster back in and we have a Photoshop file to mess with.
Our poster is pretty rad already, and if we want to — or if we’re just super lazy that day — we could leave it black and white. Seriously, black and white flyers are rad too. But in this case, let’s say we’ve got a second cup of coffee on hand, and we’ve got a hankerin' for some color. To the swatches panel we go!
On a new layer, start coloring in between the lines. You can do this using the Magic Wand or Lasso tools to make selections, then fill with the Paint Bucket tool . Or, if you're a Wacom kinda' gal, use a brush to paint your colors in manually, adding some brush stroke flair at the same time.
Don't forget to add a new layer for each element so that you can easily experiment with different colors. There are endless options but in this case we're just going to stick to two colors.
"THIS IS WHERE ALL OF OUR TRUE GRIT TEXTURE SUPPLY TOOLS REALLY GET A CHANCE TO SHINE."
Pat yourself on the back. Your poster is looking so rad, you can’t even wait to send this thing out to the band or post it on your Instagram. But hold on to your horses, let’s get this baby tuned up just right and then we’ll really blow people’s doors off.
Dropping in a nice photocopy texture, or adding some extra depth with some halftone brushes is the sort of thing that will take your poster from “dope” to “super-ultra-holy-shit how did you make that you’re a friggen genius" sorta dope.
To begin, I'm selecting the main letterforms with the magic wand tool .
Then on a new layer, I'm using the TGTS Fast Grit brushes to add some grain inside the letterforms. If you're feeling really smart, you might even convert your selection to a layer mask by clicking the Layer Mask button in the Layers Palette. This way you can experiment without needing to reselect over and over.
I usually experiment with a few different brushes first and then pick my favorite – in this case, Grainy brush #3 .
I'm using my TGTS Beat Tones Halftone Brushes to add depth and form to the smoke portion of the illustration.
I'm layering the matching 15% and 45% tone brushes from the Dot 1 brush group.
I want to enhance the photocopied aesthetic of my poster so I'm going to drop in a couple of TGTS Nasty Copy tiff textures.
Just open a Nasty Copy tiff texture, select all (or just the section you want to use) then copy and paste into the poster file and set the layer blend mode to Multiply.
In this case, I've used sections of Photocopy-001 & Photocopy-010
Don't overthink this too much. We want to keep it wabi-sabi. If you get fussy with it and edit too much, the result will look overworked rather than an accidental blemish caused by using a burnt-out photocopier from 1992.
Since this flyer is going to be mostly seen on social media or as a digital print, I've added a Butchers Paper texture overlay from the TGTS Atomica Print Effects Kit.
This gives it a little bit more of an analog feel when viewed on-screen or printed on cheap coated stock from the local digital printer.
Here’s the final poster, ready to command the attention of every fellow weirdo who passes by.
A declaration of stubborn punk independence on full display stapled ruthlessly on each and every light pole and boarded window across town, ready to be gazed upon in all it’s gritty, messy, kludgey glory!
Now you can sit back and admire your handiwork, go skateboarding or hang out with your pals knowing you've already made some magic today!
Find more of his work and "Kludge Poetry" experiments here.