Bert

Today I was hanging out at the lynda.com studios (working on my Illustrator CS5 One-on-One: Mastery course, if you must know). When I ran into that one artist who isn't afraid to make his own reality, even if it requires hand-drawing individual drops of bird poop and sacrificing three years of his life. By which I mean, Bert Monroy. Colleen was there, too---these days, she works for lynda.com. And, before anyone knew it, Bert was showing us the most recent version of his gigatron-by-teratron piece of bazillion-pixel imagery, "Times Square."

It's radically dazzling. Not to mention, huge. In a way that few things beyond a stretch-Ford F750 hauling 100+ freight cars might be deemed huge. (Seriously, it contains more pixels than there are galaxies in your head.) And it made me realize how very ashamed I am for not having shared the following info until now: By some random quirk of fate---perhaps because Bert is out of his mind!---this excellent man decided to include Colleen and I in his masterwork. Here's a miniature (not to mention, old) version of Bert's composition. With Colleen and I rendered in bright green. We're on the left. You can't miss us, because there's a giant Zapf Dingbats finger pointing in our direction.

I know many of you live in awe-and-wonder over the likes of Bert. (As well you should, I say.) Which is why I thought I'd post these charming sketches: Read more » 

Episode #141, "Smart Objects Are Pretty Smart," marks the third and final episode of Bert Monroy's Pixel Perfect in which I appear. (For now, anyway.) And this time, Bert lets me freeform. It's a little bit smart objects, a little Camera Raw, with some live type that inverts everything in back of it thrown in for good measure. Click the movie above to see what I mean. Read more » 

Oh, man, today is one of those days where I feel like my blog is going to eat me up and spit out the bones. Yesterday was Photoshop Top 40, tomorrow is Martini Hour, I have to finish up my biweekly newsletter. And then, just to make me whimper, the incomparable Bert Monroy invites me back to his weekly Revision3 podcast "Pixel Perfect." And when I say "whimper," I mean whimper with joy.

(Check out the podcast above. Note that it starts with an ad or two. Including one with a couple of dorks and a half-dressed lady, the last of whom never really makes sense in the context of the odd narrative. Oh well, gotta pay the rent. Be patient.) Read more » 

Photo-realist Bert Monroy is one of my closest friends in the industry. It isn't just that Bert is a regular, down-to-earth guy. Or that we've shared some great times in half a dozen different countries. But Bert was responsible for my entry into the Photoshop arena. Two decades ago--years before the two of us actually met--Bert unwittingly helped a 28-year-old me get my first copy of Photoshop. For free. What a guy!

(Check out the podcast above. Note that it starts with an ad or two. Be patient.) Read more »