Creative Photoshop CS4: Digital Illustration and Art Techniques |  | Author: Derek Lea
Publisher: Focal Press
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
Buy New: $24.97
as of 7/31/2010 10:11 CDT details
You Save: $14.98 (37%)
New (32) Used (17) from $24.97
Seller: sbd-
Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 14992
Media: Paperback
Pages: 424
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 7.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 024052134X
Dewey Decimal Number: 006
EAN: 9780240521343
ASIN: 024052134X
Publication Date: April 7, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780240521343 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
If you are a digital artist, illustrator, cartoonist, graphic artist, designer, or serious hobbyist looking for new and interesting ways to use Photoshop, this is the book for you! You already know how to use Photoshop as an image editing tool; now, challenge yourself and discover the more artistic aspects of the program with one of the world's best teachers by your side.
In addition to four brand new chapters on real world projects, this new edition of award-winning digital artist Derek Lea's bestselling Creative Photoshop contains several brand new features such as "What you'll learn in this chapter" summaries, so you can quickly find projects using the specific tools you'd like to focus on, and supplementary information at the end of each chapter, containing useful resources and additional gallery images to provide further study and inspiration. As you work through Derek's fantastic artistic methods, be sure to visit www.creativephotoshopthebook.com for more information, including the project files for each chapter, available for download for you to work with, a reader forum, and more.
*Stunning images from award winning digital artist Derek Lea inspire you to push your own creativity further than you even thought possible
*Compatible with previous versions of Photoshop
*Explore Photoshop from an entirely unique perspective as you learn how to create graffiti, antique effects, stencil art, and so much more
*Fully updated throughout for CS4, plus four brand new chapters on real world projects that combine traditional art methods with Photoshop to create tactile images
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 37
 Unusual--but excellent July 4, 2009
tachi1 (Miami, FL United States)
35 out of 35 found this review helpful
This is a project-based book for fairly experienced Photoshop users. It is not general Photoshop information or instruction for the uninitiated. It also seems to be geared to a niche category of designers, not the more conventional art, advertising, or photography market to which I belong. What follows are my subjective interpretations of the book's content.
The good points:
* Clearly explained thought process and workflow supported by equally clear and logical screen shots of Photoshop dialogs and, particularly, detailed layer stacks (so necessary to understand the sequence and the logic).
* The author is a more than a merely competent artist. His original art (sketches, cartoons, line drawings, photographs) are the basis for the projects in the book.
* The author knows how to teach. Not every artist or technically-skilled author knows how to put himself in the place of a reader with less knowledge or abilities and explain the how's and why's of the process.
* Originality in the use of Photoshop for unusual purposes. While you might, personally, not share his artistic vision, the projects do open your imagination to ideas you might not have otherwise considered and which can be made applicable to your own taste and interpretations. Excellent as a launching pad for your own brand of originality.
* Web downloads for the project materials, etc. It helps to do things his way first using the exact same illustrations shown in the book before going off in your own tangent with your own materials.
* Excellent organization. Each chapter/project begins with a synopsis explaining the project, what he hopes to achieve, how he will proceed, and the purpose of the exercise. I wish other Photoshop books would do this.
* Although a certain proficiency in Photoshop is assumed and probably required (i.e. knowledge of paths, pixel and vector masks, layers, selections, etc.) an experienced user can follow the text and screenshots to complete all the project steps.
* Excellent index and general organization.
* Excellent marginal notations: practical, on-point, clear, and just plain interesting.
* Probably the most original Photoshop book I've ever come across.
The not so good:
* I don't particularly care for his type of art (based on the genre of graffiti, tattoo, aliens, eyeballs, etc.). This is a problem because it is the art that sets the mood and 90% of the book is art I cannot relate to. Once I got past this, of course, I realized the actual techniques can be successfully adapted to any other graphic elements, but I wish there had been greater variety in the presentation.
* Our approaches to photography are polar opposites. He takes a photograph of a generic, middle-age woman and adds about 20-years worth of lines and wrinkles; sagging skin and chins; bags under the eyes and, possibly, a couple of terminal illnesses. I would take the same photo and try to make her skin smoother, her eyes brighter, and try to take 5-10 years off and an equal number of pounds. (Of course, what he does is so much more difficult than what I do that I might be displaying my jealousy here). Seriously, I did find this chapter extremely interesting and keep coming back to examine again how he did things. I don't plan to use it myself (unless I get really mad at someone!) but as an exercise in reverse engineering it is priceless.
* You have to keep in mind that this is not, strictly-speaking, a "Photoshop" book. Photoshop serves as a supplement to or support for the original art created in another medium (hand-drawn then digitized art, or art created digitally in Illustrator or some other vector drawing program). You either have to have access to or be able to create the art, then bring it into Photoshop and go on from there. (There are two exceptions, in which the projects are based on photographs.)
* Plain Photoshop is used for most projects, but for the 3-D project, Photoshop CS4 Extended is required.
Give this a try - you'll like it July 11, 2009
David Field (Merrimac, MA USA)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
When I taught Photoshop I told students it was the "Swiss Army Knife" of applications - lots of different users, who knew their part of the program very well but had no idea how to work the rest of the commands.
There are people who make their photographs look better, scan operators and professional photographers, people who remove unwanted boyfriends and husbands from pictures of happy occasions, and those that can take a cracked picture taken over fifty years ago and make it look like it was taken yesterday. I taught all these methods, but there was the equivalent of a locked door between us and those people who created artwork without using any pre-existing photographs or drawings.
That door has now been pretty much kicked open with Derek Lea's Creative Photoshop books where he reveals step-by-step instructions for making his own pictures. Lea's artwork is often unsettling (like the Woman/Octopus on the cover), but if you ignore that you'll find the whole book full of techniques that it's hard to find anywhere else.
I'd rather have a book that shows you how to make illustrations that are current, rather than someone giving you baby steps by showing you general principles. We may never have Lea's visions, but working through this book will give you a huge amount of techniques.
This book claims to be for Intermediate to Advanced digital artists, rather than just Photoshop users. For most, it may look intimidating, but just about every step is in there, and if you're the sort of person who knows the basics of Photoshop's features, you can work your way through. Lea helps by adding advice on problems you might have, and it's obvious he's given deep thought on how people become digital artists.
This book is published by Focal Press, who have a knack of bringing out books that show you unusual ways of using programs. I'm a fan of Martin Evening's books on Photoshop for photographers, and in Lea's book you get the same feeling that you're looking over the shoulder of a master of the game.
So, if you're a Photoshop user that is willing to spend time on facets that you've probably not looked at before, this could be the book for you. I'm sure you'll never look at Photoshop the same way again.
Great Book To Transition From Photographer To Creative Artist July 11, 2009
Yo' Vinny (Houston, TX USA)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Most of my background in Photoshop was previously around photography and editing for photographic effect. You know, the typical color, sharpness, crop, dodge and burn type of activities. As I started doing more photography and more Photoshop I found out that I was getting pretty comfortable with Photoshop as a tool, but wanted a book to help me start taking the next step. That step being adding creative elements of design into the photography. This books shows how to make that step and it's content is directed towards the moderate to advanced Photoshop user. It really open up techniques like shape layers, illustrations (without Adobe Illustrator!), various art effects, brush and sketching effect (more purposely controlled and applied than filters with masks). It also has introductory chapeters into 3D (with CS4) and surreal effects to take you to the true next level of creativism.
I'm a good photographer, but still a beginner in creative design and have found this book a good way to learn the tools and as an engine to introduce some creative ideas to apply. I highly recommend the book if you also a photographer looking to bridge into creative design and art development.
Best toolbox for learning Creative use of Photoshop July 7, 2009
Sam I Am (San Rafael, CA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Written in an easy to follow "workshop" style manual, Creative Photoshop C24 gives you the tools to understand the "whys and hows" of photoshop to get it to perform like the creative tool that it is without excessive technical jargon. Some photoshop books provide inspirational images without explaination and other photoshop books provide lengthy technical explainations without inspirational images. This book is the right mix of technique and inspiration.
A solid five stars.
Just What I Was Looking For August 10, 2009
Daron M. Wojnowski (Aurora, IL)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I studied graphic design when Photoshop first appeared on the Mac. As most Photoshop users know, it can be a very overwhelming program to learn. There weren't many guides available to help an aspiring Illustrator like me. I later returned to study Design and was fortunate to have a professor who knew enough about Illustration and Photoshop to teach me the basics. Still, most guides offered cookie cutter projects and fake looking effects. Other books showed the potential of Photoshop with beautiful illustrations, but offered little information on how they accomplished the final results. I wanted a book to show me how to take my sketches and turn them into pieces of digital artwork in a clear and concise manner. Derek Lea's book is just what I was looking for. I can tell that Derek was an artist that truly learned how to harness Photoshop's power and use it to his benefit. I was intimidated by the computer and stayed away from it for years, but now I treat it as a different tool to accomplish my artistic goals. I feel that most users can take the advice from each project and apply it to their own work. Derek doesn't want his readers to draw or paint like him, but to learn and create their own projects by getting comfortable in the world of Photoshop. The book is set up in a nonlinear way, so you can jump from project to project. You will have to be somewhat familiar with Photoshop to navigate through the projects though. I can't speak highly enough of all the useful information in this book. You will be a better digital artist after completing the projects in this book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 37
|
|
|
