brushes

dekeSpeak March 08, 2011

Submitted by LouBrz on 8 March 2011 - 2:49am.
This Is dekeOnline dekeSpeak The Newsletter of Things Deke: March 08, 2011

Hello friends,

As usual, Deke has been deep-diving. And as much as he enjoys exploring the shallow waters of the digital domain armed only with a digital snorkel, this time he's donning the electronic equivalent of scuba tanks to delve into the uncharted waters of 3D in Photoshop CS5 Extended. Facing a dearth of definitive information on those features, Deke is creating his own body of knowledge with some extraordinary demos, as well as a new course for lynda.com.

Photoshop CS5 has also been a watershed version for painting tools. This week's tip reveals hidden features of the "brush engine" in Photoshop that allows you to make extraordinary artwork from scratch.

Here's what's in store for this edition: Read more » 

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Martini Hour 099, In Which Colleen Hosts the Illustrator Summit Countdown Smackdown Lovefest

Submitted by colleen on 20 January 2011 - 12:15am.

As regular guests of the dekeLounge know, one of our favorite guests over the past two (almost) years has been that Illustrator Wizard known as Mordy Golding. So before we shut down this shindig, I wanted to get Mordy and Deke back in the same disco lighted room, line up a few shots, and have them run down their list of top features in Illustrator. I originally asked them each to think of ten: one guru followed the rules, the other went overboard, ignoring the rules by creating an extra long list. You'll have to listen to the show to guess which is which. Or maybe not. But listen to the show anyway because it's amusing and informative. 

Martini Hour 099: Illustrator CS5 Top 10 Features

So here's how the list breaks down: 2 gurus, 10 items each in a side-by-side countdown, and the result is the following 13 items. Makes as much sense as anything: Read more » 

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Conquering CS5’s Powerful New Bristle Brushes

Submitted by deke on 26 May 2010 - 12:15am.

Photoshop CS5’s boldest and most far-reaching innovations are its new painting tools. This upgrade adds the bristle brushes, which simulate real-world traditional art brushes, down to the quantity and stiffness of the hairs. It also adds the mixer brush, which lets you mix the foreground color with a base photograph as if the photo were rendered in wet oils.

In a recent Photoshop CS5 Top 5 video, I showed you how to combine these tools to transform a photo of Colleen (below) into a hand-brushed painting (below that), complete with textured brushstrokes.

Photoshop CS5 portrait

Photoshop CS5 portrait to painting

But in order to really grok things, I need to show you how the bristle brushes, which are demanding little devils, work. (You'll have to be a member of dekeOnline to view this article.) Read more » 

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Photoshop Top 40, Feature #31: The Brush Tool

Submitted by deke on 15 September 2009 - 12:15am.
Feature #31: The Brush Tool

If you know anything about Photoshop's brush tool, you know it paints smooth lines in the foreground color. You can control its behavior to the nth degree from the options bar and Brushes palette. And it responds to pressure-sensitive input.

Those attributes alone would earn it a place in the coveted Photoshop Top 40. The fact that it also excels as a masking tool merely cements the deal. Read more » 

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Illustrator CS3 1on1 box art
Amazon.com

Illustrator CS3 One-on-One

Entering its third decade, Adobe Illustrator CS3 remains the most popular and viable vector-drawing program for a simple reason: It’s the best. It offers powerful transformation and reshaping functions, excellent control over text and gradients, and the best color management and print controls in the business. But the learning curve is steep. From the moment you draw your first square, Illustrator demands your full and absolute attention. Enter Illustrator CS3 One-on-One, your crash course on everything there is to know about the program. Read more » 

List price: $149.95USD