Linework in the key of A:

Animation

• Celebrating the family’s big screen premiere, Harper’s Bazaar feautres a great spread of Simpsons Couture.  “Marge lets down her hair for Versace. Lisa gives up her pearls for Alber Elbaz. Homer dresses as Karl Lagerfeld. Selma & Patty in Viktor & Rolf.” [Via]
• Illustrator Techniques demonstrates how to use the app to imitate A Scanner Darkly.  They also interview lead animator Sterling Allen. [Via Thorsten Wulff]

Avian

• Famed for his Modernist bird illustrations, Charley Harper passed away on June 10th.  Like many people, I suspect, I’d seen and enjoyed his work without knowing his name.  Drawn features a set of links celebrating his life and work.
• Calgary-based Joy Ang has crafted some lovely lovebirds.  I also dig her umbrellas, and her Zodiac cubes would go well with Amanda Visell’s blocky Ephunt toy. [Via]
• I’ve mentioned it previously, but Mario Cavalli’s Compaq bird animation always makes me smile.

Automotive

• For the Audi A5, UK-based designers GT have created A Rhythm of Lines–a site that lets you create abstract car-related artwork (kinda; I find it a little obscure). [Via]
• Car Design News is hosting a series of tutorials on car rendering, heavily using Photoshop. [Via]

Assorted

• “I can’t tell if you’re hot from those MySpace photos…”  Get postcards for the modern age from SomeECards.
• Famous artists sketch their creations while blindfolded.  I enjoy the crazy faux-Cubist results. [Via]
• Amy Dresser’s got a neat little illustration portfolio.
• I find these suicide prevention posters totally brilliant.
• Vecteezy is a sharing site for free vector artwork. Fa sheezy. [Via]

Amazing

• Yukio Miyamoto is a master Illustrator artist, producing insanely detailed, photorealistic artwork.  Fellow artist Kevin Hulsey (himself a total badass) hosts a number of Yukio’s pieces.
• Elsewhere in Japan, farmers make huge rice paddy renderings of famous artwork.  Arigato! [Via]

• "HWJR": How Would Jesus Roll? One man’s sacrilege is another’s act of devotion, as displayed through these illustrated Jesus rims. [Via]
• File under "How [Not] to Win Friends and Influence Pagans": folks in England are displeased by the giant chalk Homer illustration. [Via]
• The I Am Bored blog has amassed a great collection of CD hole art.  (I wonder whether CD art will someday be a collector’s item, as album art has become.) [Via] On a related note, a certain pharmaceutical has gotten a similar notion. (I suppose the pagans would approve.)
• Mentos pioneers gumvertising, creating images out of the iconic little freshmakers. They have a site for creating your own images by drawing with gum, but it seems to be down at the moment.
• The "Zebra memorial crossing" is meant to memorialize pedestrians who’ve been struck by cars, thereby making the streets safer.  Seemingly obvious irony: it appears to distract pedestrians at exactly the moment they’re in harm’s way.
• I enjoy the work of Russian illustrator Gordei.  Not speaking Russian makes things that much more mysterious & intriguing. [Via]
• Washroom iconography: Useful. Washroom iconography + wiseass labels: way better. [Via]

Something about the Star Wars franchise continues to inspire all kinds of creativity:

• Ryan Church has created amazing concept art for Star Wars Episodes II & III.  Corel profiles Ryan on their Painter site, and on his site he discusses some details of how he uses Painter and Photoshop together.
• On Wicked Crispy Jeff Vector creates ridiculously cute versions of famous characters (among other things).  Dig that Jabba! [Via]
• If those are up your alley, check out Matt Dawson’s simian droids.
• ILM artist Matt Busch has created a print & video series of Star Wars drawing tips for kids. [Via]
• CNET features a collection of pimped Darth helmets.  (How about this face welcoming newcomers to the NY harbor?) On a related note, how about a Vader-head hot air balloon? [Via Ellis Vener]
• Okay, I’m cheating a little with this inclusion, but I marvel that someone can make an entire blog devoted to bad Spock drawings (which should be “Sloppy, as if a chimp with metal hooks for hands dipped them in ink”). [Via]  I wonder whether laser-etched Spock matzoh qualifies.

• Dilbert creator Scott Adams has posted descriptions & photos of how he draws Dilbert in Photoshop via a Cintiq monitor. [Via]
• Oogmerk Opticians show how overconceptualized eye furniture can make anyone look like a hipster.  (Too bad one of the "after" images isn’t labeled "Adobe UI Designer." ;-))
• Through Christopher Koelle’s blog I found Justin Gerard, who has created a heck of a portfolio featuring Samurai Hamsters and more.
• In Holland a coke-addled driver created some impromptu land art (illustration of a sort) while trying to evade police. [Via Reen Bodo]  Elsewhere fruit flies make their own weird illustrations when exposed to cocaine. [Via]
• I love the illustrations on these White Stripes limited-edition USB thumb drives, featuring Jack, Meg, or both. [Via]
• The Strange Maps blog features and interesting map of the US, with states labeled according to countries with similar gross domestic products. [Via]  And on a related note–and back on the Lego tip–kids are creating a massive Lego map of the US.
• Iconfactory offers a beautiful set of Dia de lost Muertos icons. [Via]

• Dilbert creator Scott Adams has posted descriptions & photos of how he draws Dilbert in Photoshop via a Cintiq monitor. [Via]
• Oogmerk Opticians show how overconceptualized eye furniture can make anyone look like a hipster.  (Too bad one of the "after" images isn’t labeled "Adobe UI Designer." ;-))
• Through Christopher Koelle’s blog I found Justin Gerard, who has created a heck of a portfolio featuring Samurai Hamsters and more.
• In Holland a coke-addled driver created some impromptu land art (illustration of a sort) while trying to evade police. [Via Reen Bodo]  Elsewhere fruit flies make their own weird illustrations when exposed to cocaine. [Via]
• I love the illustrations on these White Stripes limited-edition USB thumb drives, featuring Jack, Meg, or both. [Via]
• The Strange Maps blog features and interesting map of the US, with states labeled according to countries with similar gross domestic products. [Via]  And on a related note–and back on the Lego tip–kids are creating a massive Lego map of the US.
• Iconfactory offers a beautiful set of Dia de lost Muertos icons. [Via]

• "Machine gunner turned author" Colby Buzzell has recorded his Iraq war experiences on his blog and elsewhere.  He’s now teamed up with illustrator Christopher Koelle and animators The Law of the Few to produce Men in Black–four and a half gripping minutes of storytelling. [Via]
• Christopher shares his thoughts & the Photoshop techniques behind the work on his blog.
• In a related vein, Canadian trooper Richard Johnson’s Kandahar Journal offers an illustrated, soldier’s-eye-view from Afghanistan. [Via]

Side note: I type this from the Denver airport, where I find myself holed up (thanks, lightning).  After showing a CNN ad saying "Get the Facts. Not Fear," CNN Headline News just featured a segment titled–I kid you not–"Watch for underwater terrorists."  I shall, uh, get right on that.  (Apparently Atlanta is where irony goes to die.)

From the Dept. of the Brilliantly Simple:

• Viva dry erase: Slate shows a great new set UPS ads and talks about how they came to be.
• Comedy Central’s new illustrated campaign is a model of efficiency–and it’s more than a little edgy in spots. [Via]
• Can you make an ad campaign from clip art?  Yes, if you’re making dirty little stories for 42 Below Vodka.

And elsewhere:

• Speaking of stock illustrations, Gene Gable features the great clip art (oxymoron? not this time) of Lew Hymers.
• Alberto Seveso has a really fresh take on the genre of vector-illustrated women.  More images are on Flickr, and you can buy prints on his site. [Via]
• Tech Vector offers a clean design, good choons, great A2Detail. [Via]
• Pablo Bernasconi makes cool collage portraits.  The site navigation is a little wonky, but I think it’s worth the effort. [Via]
• Fiodor Sumkin is back with more letter-rich goodness.  His site’s frameset design makes it hard to link to specific bits, but I especially like the "Moscow-80" work.
• Here’s a collection of Photoshop-powered fantastical houses [Via]. Reminds me of this defiant dude–no Photoshop involved.

Finally, it’s a little tangential, but I spotted a nice shout-out for CS3 on illustration blog Drawn: "You’ve probably already heard all the buzz about it being the biggest upgrade ever, bla bla bla. Well, this time the buzz is true… I predict our industry (I mean anything graphically creative) is about to undergo a huge jump in look, feel, efficiency, and impact because of this." Thanks, guys! [Via Joe Ault]

After a long and storied career, Adobe (neé Altsys, Aldus, and Macromedia) FreeHand has reached the end of its development road. The application has not been revised since Macromedia released MX nearly four years ago, after which the company removed FreeHand from the Studio product line.  Adobe has created an FAQ (PDF) that explains the details of the decision not to rev FreeHand, talks about Illustrator CS3 features added to make FreeHand users more comfortable, and more.  [Note: The official product pages aren’t all updated yet; hence my posting this info on the blog.] Here are the highlights:

Adobe and FreeHand
Adobe does not plan to develop and deliver any new feature-based releases of FreeHand, or to deliver patches or updates for new operating systems or hardware. Adobe will, however, continue to sell FreeHand MX, and will offer technical and customer support according to our support policies.

FreeHand Upgrade Path
A special upgrade to Illustrator CS3 is available to all registered owners of FreeHand for $199 U.S. This upgrade is available worldwide through the Adobe Store and through the Channel. There is no direct FreeHand to Creative Suite 3 upgrade, but FreeHand owners who also own Adobe or Macromedia products that are eligible for upgrade to the Suite can use that path to move to the Suite.

Support for Customers Making the Move
A number of materials are available at no cost to help customers make the move from FreeHand to Illustrator. All of these materials can be found on the Switch to Illustrator pages on Adobe.com and on the Illustrator Design Center.

FreeHand to Illustrator Migration Guide—available as a PDF and in printed form.
Targeted to designers and illustrators, this four-color manual provides a graphical comparison of the FreeHand and Illustrator workspaces, along with differences in terminology, features, and functions between the two applications.

Migrating from FreeHand to Illustrator: A technical resource—PDF format
Designed for production managers, IT managers and designers, this technical resource provides the best ways to move legacy FreeHand content into Illustrator, handle different file formats, outputting files, and other information.

Migrating from FreeHand to Illustrator with Mordy Golding—(video training)
Video training produced by lynda.com. The CS3 update to this series is completed and will be available shortly.

A couple of weeks ago, Robert Scoble (former Microsoft blogfatha) visited the Adobe San Jose office.  We spent just under an hour talking about Photoshop, and you can catch the broadcast here (also available fullscreen).  Our chat touches on engineer/pilot Thomas Knoll’s frugal Midwestern ways; HDR imaging; Eyes Wide Shut incantations; raw Smart Objects; the redemption of Brightness/Contrast; and more*.

Robert also spoke recently with lots of other Adobe folks, including Phil "the Phillustrator" Guindi**, talking about what’s new in AICS3.  Here’s a full rundown of recent sessions:

Adobe Premiere CS3 49 minutes.

Adobe Flash/Flex architecture overview 30 minutes.
Adobe Flex goes open source 25 minutes.
Adobe Flash CS3 overview 55 minutes.
Adobe Apollo overview 43 minutes.
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 34 minutes.
Adobe Connect overview 29 minutes.
Adobe Acrobat 8.0 19 minutes.

*And it includes, of course, my weird lip-smacking mannerisms; yeesh.  Yeah, and you thought it was hard just to listen to oneself recorded…
**Naming credit goes to our friend Bryan Hughes. I persist in calling Phil’s new little son “Phillustrator Elements.”

A couple of weeks ago, Robert Scoble (former Microsoft blogfatha) visited the Adobe San Jose office.  We spent just under an hour talking about Photoshop, and you can catch the broadcast here (also available fullscreen).  Our chat touches on engineer/pilot Thomas Knoll’s frugal Midwestern ways; HDR imaging; Eyes Wide Shut incantations; raw Smart Objects; the redemption of Brightness/Contrast; and more*.

Robert also spoke recently with lots of other Adobe folks, including Phil "the Phillustrator" Guindi**, talking about what’s new in AICS3.  Here’s a full rundown of recent sessions:

Adobe Premiere CS3 49 minutes.

Adobe Flash/Flex architecture overview 30 minutes.
Adobe Flex goes open source 25 minutes.
Adobe Flash CS3 overview 55 minutes.
Adobe Apollo overview 43 minutes.
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 34 minutes.
Adobe Connect overview 29 minutes.
Adobe Acrobat 8.0 19 minutes.

*And it includes, of course, my weird lip-smacking mannerisms; yeesh.  Yeah, and you thought it was hard just to listen to oneself recorded…
**Naming credit goes to our friend Bryan Hughes. I persist in calling Phil’s new little son “Phillustrator Elements.”

• It’s tax time in the US, and illustrator Christoph Niemann created an elegant commentary for the cover of the New Yorker.  Elsewhere, his "Empires of Evil" flags (lighter-hearted than the name would suggest) are inspired, and he certainly has a new take on, er, dental hygiene. [Via]
• Dust artist (yes, dust) Scott Wade has produced some amazing images for Mitsubishi’s new ad campaign. (For more dustiness, see previous.)
• I can dig illustrator Tara McPherson’s muted palettes. [Via Geoff Scott]
• On the other end of the chromatic spectrum, Nathan Fox punches up retro-fueled imagery.
• Our pals at the Chopping Block have launched Chop Shop, a spot to sell all manner of groovy swag (gotta love the 10-Year Plan).  I delight in the great spit and polish (try rolling over the little characters in the header, for instance)–excellent A2Detail.
• Everyone’s favorite alcoholic raven/alt newspaper survivor, Drinky Crow, is getting his own show. [Via]
• And lastly, Digital Newsflash offers an interesting moniker for a certain CS3 branding image: "Creep-o the Clown." Heh–yeah, that does induce a little coulrophobia, no?

• It’s tax time in the US, and illustrator Christoph Niemann created an elegant commentary for the cover of the New Yorker.  Elsewhere, his "Empires of Evil" flags (lighter-hearted than the name would suggest) are inspired, and he certainly has a new take on, er, dental hygiene. [Via]
• Dust artist (yes, dust) Scott Wade has produced some amazing images for Mitsubishi’s new ad campaign. (For more dustiness, see previous.)
• I can dig illustrator Tara McPherson’s muted palettes. [Via Geoff Scott]
• On the other end of the chromatic spectrum, Nathan Fox punches up retro-fueled imagery.
• Our pals at the Chopping Block have launched Chop Shop, a spot to sell all manner of groovy swag (gotta love the 10-Year Plan).  I delight in the great spit and polish (try rolling over the little characters in the header, for instance)–excellent A2Detail.
• Everyone’s favorite alcoholic raven/alt newspaper survivor, Drinky Crow, is getting his own show. [Via]
• And lastly, Digital Newsflash offers an interesting moniker for a certain CS3 branding image: "Creep-o the Clown." Heh–yeah, that does induce a little coulrophobia, no?

//na// Illustrated bits worth sharing:

• Alberto+Cerriteño makes all kinds of great little characters. [Via]
• Dan Stiles creates super-cool poster art,  He’s got a real Saul Bass thing going on for the Scissor Sisters. Love this little Sigur Ros piece, too. [Via GQ]
• The hugely talented Todd Slater works in the same vein.   Check out the Design & Framings tabs of his site for more good stuff, including some righteousnss for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. [Via GQ]
• Andrew Lin passes along the Photoshop-crafted posters of Tychomusic.
• Mary Sprague draws 6-foot chickens.  (Wasn’t “MC Six Ft. Chicken” a band or something…?) [Via]  Makes me think a bit of those Cowscapes mentioned previously.

//na// Illustrated bits worth sharing:

• Alberto+Cerriteño makes all kinds of great little characters. [Via]
• Dan Stiles creates super-cool poster art,  He’s got a real Saul Bass thing going on for the Scissor Sisters. Love this little Sigur Ros piece, too. [Via GQ]
• The hugely talented Todd Slater works in the same vein.   Check out the Design & Framings tabs of his site for more good stuff, including some righteousnss for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. [Via GQ]
• Andrew Lin passes along the Photoshop-crafted posters of Tychomusic.
• Mary Sprague draws 6-foot chickens.  (Wasn’t “MC Six Ft. Chicken” a band or something…?) [Via]  Makes me think a bit of those Cowscapes mentioned previously.

"Oh my–it’s like Illustrator and Flash have run off and gotten married," says Mordy Golding in the latest episode of his Real World Illustrator video podcast.  Mordy, formerly a PM on the Illustrator team, hits not only the big-ticket items, but also the little things that sometimes matter most.  I only wish Mordy had spent more time on the rad Live Color feature in AICS3–but he promises to delve deeper into it in a future episode.  (It’s one of those features that makes Photoshop and the other apps jealous, so we’ll have to try to steal it in the future. ;-))

From the podcast I learned a little detail that I think is quite cool: the new Flash Text panel (screenshot) lets you designate text to be used in Flash as static or dynamic.  You can even designate the URL from which the text is fed.  And, as I’ve mentioned previously, Illustrator now lets you name & edit symbols just as you do in Flash, and symbols, instance names, gradients, etc. are preserved when you copy and paste from Illustrator to Flash.  Niiice.

• Artist Cali Rezo creates some beautiful, photorealistic paintings in Photoshop, as well as more stylized pieces.  She shares some behind-the-scenes snapshots, as well as a step-by-step animation of a piece coming together. [Via]
• I Met The Walrus is an Jerry Levitan’s story of how, as a 14-year-old in 1969, he snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room & recorded an interview.  The trailer (or is it the whole film?) features some great illustrated animation.  (More on the story is here.) [Via]
• Make your car resemble those in "Cars" by following this tutorial.  Appropriately, a Pontiac Aztek gets a goofy, gap-toothed grin & actually looks better as a result. [Via]
• Weirdly, I encountered the same topic on Autoblog just the next day.  They’ve posted some great examples, and now their collection of images is growing.

For more automotive rendering bits, see previous.

• Artist Cali Rezo creates some beautiful, photorealistic paintings in Photoshop, as well as more stylized pieces.  She shares some behind-the-scenes snapshots, as well as a step-by-step animation of a piece coming together. [Via]
• I Met The Walrus is an Jerry Levitan’s story of how, as a 14-year-old in 1969, he snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room & recorded an interview.  The trailer (or is it the whole film?) features some great illustrated animation.  (More on the story is here.) [Via]
• Make your car resemble those in "Cars" by following this tutorial.  Appropriately, a Pontiac Aztek gets a goofy, gap-toothed grin & actually looks better as a result. [Via]
• Weirdly, I encountered the same topic on Autoblog just the next day.  They’ve posted some great examples, and now their collection of images is growing.

For more automotive rendering bits, see previous.

Created by Kristofer Strom of Ljudbilden & Piloten, the video for Swedish band Minilogue’s "Hitchhiker’s Choice" is the antithesis of high-tech, CGI-laden graphics we’re accustomed to seeing–and I love it. [Via].  The work reminds me of Mario Cavalli’s marvellous Compaq "Bird" ad from several years back.  (Working on the Compaq site at the time, I always scratched my head that the company’s UK office could be so adventurous while the folks in Texas always sought to play it safe.)  Kristofer has also created Pen on Paper, a free-flowing montage drawn on one long, continuous strip of paper (as seen in this video).

• As kid I loved Wacky Packages, the little 70’s-era goofs on popular brands of the times.  Now the crew at Worth1000.com grabs that baton, mashing up classics with commerce in these Fine Art Ads. [Via]
• Along somewhat similar lines, Kasper Hauser’s Sky Maul is a pretty darn funny compendium of "Happy Crap You Can Buy from a Plane." [Via]
• I love this take on Escher as a child–hilarious and kind of heartbreaking all at once.  ("Don’t let the bastards grind you down…")
• Elsewhere the site features good critter-hacking: Evolution Gone Wild, and some rather excellent Cybernetic Animals.
• It’s deeply, deeply nasty–to the point where I didn’t scroll too far–but the "That’s Not Turkey!" gallery may make you grateful for what you didn’t eat on Thanksgiving.
• Oh, and if that’s not quite disturbing enough, how about a meat chess board, or meat body suit? Rare is the new black, I’m told.

My fellow Photoshop PM Ashley Still interacts with customers using Photoshop in vertical markets (engineering, healthcare, etc.) and has turned up some good resources on using the app in automotive, industrial, and clothing design:

• CarBody.com pulls together a wealth of tutorials covering automotive design in Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Along those lines, here’s a concept rendering tutorial on deviantART.
• AECbytes talks about how to enhance CAD files by using Photoshop layer styles.
• Scott Onstott covers some similar territory in his video training series.
• Footwear designer Michael DiTullo has posted a detailed tutorial on rendering footwear designs in Illustrator and Photoshop–from rough sketch to realistic visualization. [Via]
• See also previous related posts.

On a slightly related note, Michael Halbert is one talented motherscratcher, offering a wealth of tutorials (including good videos) on achieving a traditional scratchboard look. [Via].  He’s also featured in the Adobe.com Print Gallery.

• I’m a fan of both Constructivism & retro-ironic propaganda (think Chinese military ballet), so I dig seeing this collection of Soviet Photomontages 1917-1953.  See also Soviet carpet propaganda. (Doesn’t it seem a little weird to encourage walking all over your icons?). [Via]
• Think your colleagues are zombies?  ZombiePortraits.com will illustrate your point for just $85. [Via]
• Talk about mudflaps, my rickshaw’s got ’em…  Okay, I have no truck, much less a rickshaw, but if I did I’d be tempted to pimp it with beautifully illustrated Bollywood mudflaps. [Via]
• Flags of our Clients shows what happens when you’re too attentive to feedback on your illustrations–in this case, flags of the world.
• Computer Arts discusses the digital illustration revolution. Memorable quote (from 1992): "John Warwicker, Creative Director of design collective Tomato, said without even a trace of irony: ‘I can envisage a time when we’ll all need our own individual Macs.’" [Via]
• Illustration Friday has an interview with illustrator Anita Kunz, showing some of her great images.
• Alberto Cerriteño does straight-up gorgeous work. [Via]
• Creating optical illusions in a room is one thing, but can you make your room look like a cartoon? [Via]
• I haven’t tried Akvis Sketch, but the new version of this Photoshop plug-in promises to convert your images to sketches quickly and easily. [Via]
• Gene Gable has posted a collection of lovely vintage map art in his CreativePro.com column.  (Sadly, nowhere be monsters.)

• I’m a fan of both Constructivism & retro-ironic propaganda (think Chinese military ballet), so I dig seeing this collection of Soviet Photomontages 1917-1953.  See also Soviet carpet propaganda. (Doesn’t it seem a little weird to encourage walking all over your icons?). [Via]
• Think your colleagues are zombies?  ZombiePortraits.com will illustrate your point for just $85. [Via]
• Talk about mudflaps, my rickshaw’s got ’em…  Okay, I have no truck, much less a rickshaw, but if I did I’d be tempted to pimp it with beautifully illustrated Bollywood mudflaps. [Via]
• Flags of our Clients shows what happens when you’re too attentive to feedback on your illustrations–in this case, flags of the world.
• Computer Arts discusses the digital illustration revolution. Memorable quote (from 1992): "John Warwicker, Creative Director of design collective Tomato, said without even a trace of irony: ‘I can envisage a time when we’ll all need our own individual Macs.’" [Via]
• Illustration Friday has an interview with illustrator Anita Kunz, showing some of her great images.
• Alberto Cerriteño does straight-up gorgeous work. [Via]
• Creating optical illusions in a room is one thing, but can you make your room look like a cartoon? [Via]
• I haven’t tried Akvis Sketch, but the new version of this Photoshop plug-in promises to convert your images to sketches quickly and easily. [Via]
• Gene Gable has posted a collection of lovely vintage map art in his CreativePro.com column.  (Sadly, nowhere be monsters.)

Okay, I know that 11-year-old mallrats & their feckless Hot Topic enablers have all but stomped the life out of skull imagery, but dammit, there are some good bits left:

• I Want Your Skull pulls together "Art, design, toys. All things skeletal." [Via]
• The site turned me on to Brian Morris’s excellent skull-heavy artwork.  He shares more work through his blog.
• Marc Ecko’s Better Off Dead watch = fun, morbid bling.  My wife is all over it. I’m sure it would go well with this skull disco ball.
• "You call yourself a Misfits fan?"  Mr. Facial Skull-Tat does, and no one will question him.  The first commenter captures my sentiments exactly. [Via]
• A woman gets sketched from the bones up here. [Via Reen Bodo]
• I stumbled across a gallery of Cameron Stewart’s incredible–and intense–artwork from The Other Side, the Vietnam war story he created with Jason Aaron.
• Charles Anderson’s Mysterio Collection offers stock art done in the style of Mexican horror pulp.  Viva pelo peligroso. [Via]
• [Update: These handsome skull cufflinks will set you back a cool $225.]
• Growing up, I delighted my parents for several years by covering my bedroom door with skateboarding stickers–always heavy on the skull imagery.  Powell Peralta’s Bones Brigade and Jim Phillips’s Santa Cruz art were among my faves.  Along those lines, I got a kick out of this tribute to Jim’s iconic screaming hand.
• Speaking of skating, DX Interactive has posted The A-Z of Skateboard Tricks, a Flash-based gallery of 3D-rendered moves. [Via]

[See also previous skullduggery]

Okay, I know that 11-year-old mallrats & their feckless Hot Topic enablers have all but stomped the life out of skull imagery, but dammit, there are some good bits left:

• I Want Your Skull pulls together "Art, design, toys. All things skeletal." [Via]
• The site turned me on to Brian Morris’s excellent skull-heavy artwork.  He shares more work through his blog.
• Marc Ecko’s Better Off Dead watch = fun, morbid bling.  My wife is all over it. I’m sure it would go well with this skull disco ball.
• "You call yourself a Misfits fan?"  Mr. Facial Skull-Tat does, and no one will question him.  The first commenter captures my sentiments exactly. [Via]
• A woman gets sketched from the bones up here. [Via Reen Bodo]
• I stumbled across a gallery of Cameron Stewart’s incredible–and intense–artwork from The Other Side, the Vietnam war story he created with Jason Aaron.
• Charles Anderson’s Mysterio Collection offers stock art done in the style of Mexican horror pulp.  Viva pelo peligroso. [Via]
• [Update: These handsome skull cufflinks will set you back a cool $225.]
• Growing up, I delighted my parents for several years by covering my bedroom door with skateboarding stickers–always heavy on the skull imagery.  Powell Peralta’s Bones Brigade and Jim Phillips’s Santa Cruz art were among my faves.  Along those lines, I got a kick out of this tribute to Jim’s iconic screaming hand.
• Speaking of skating, DX Interactive has posted The A-Z of Skateboard Tricks, a Flash-based gallery of 3D-rendered moves. [Via]

[See also previous skullduggery]

A fistful of illustration goodness:

• Who says people today are noncommittal?  Make your graphic design geekery permanent with a Pantone tattoo.  It’s part of Reset Design’s invitation to designers to rethink the function of body art.  Here’s the gallery of submissions to date. [Via]
• Maira Kalman (creator of the much-loved "New Yorkistan" New Yorker cover, among many other things) now has her own illustration blog on the NYT.  Dig that crazy Nietzsche action.
• The iconography of the classic Photoshop toolbar now decorates this Insanely Great Pixel Tools t-shirt.
• Moleskinerie is a Flickr pool of art sketched in Moleskine notebooks [Via]
• Paper is evil.  Timesheets are especially abhorrent. These images prove it.

A fistful of illustration goodness:

• Who says people today are noncommittal?  Make your graphic design geekery permanent with a Pantone tattoo.  It’s part of Reset Design’s invitation to designers to rethink the function of body art.  Here’s the gallery of submissions to date. [Via]
• Maira Kalman (creator of the much-loved "New Yorkistan" New Yorker cover, among many other things) now has her own illustration blog on the NYT.  Dig that crazy Nietzsche action.
• The iconography of the classic Photoshop toolbar now decorates this Insanely Great Pixel Tools t-shirt.
• Moleskinerie is a Flickr pool of art sketched in Moleskine notebooks [Via]
• Paper is evil.  Timesheets are especially abhorrent. These images prove it.

Illustrator and Photoshop have been quietly growing tighter, and you may have discovered that it’s possible to export a very editable PSD file from Illustrator (preserving nested layers, masks, editable text along a path, etc.).  But what about going the other way–turning a layered PSD into a layered Illustrator composition?  It’s easy to do, though not at first glance.

Background: The compositing model (i.e. the layer blending modes & options) used by Illustrator, InDesign, and Acrobat is different than the one used by Photoshop. Therefore some blending options in Photoshop (for example, complex "Blend If" settings) can’t be replicated in Illustrator. As a result, when you place a PSD file into Illustrator, the blending is isolated.  That is, the PSD is treated as things a little world unto itself, and the blending modes within it don’t interact with anything else in the Illustrator document.  Objects like drop shadows (set to Multiply mode) only multiply against other things inside the PSD.

But here’s the trick: if you place the PSD and embed it in your Illustrator file (by unchecking the Link option in the import dialog), you can tell Illustrator to convert each layer into a separate Illustrator object. In that case the blending options should come through largely intact. Even things like text & vector layers (including text on a path & text in a shape) will be converted to the native Illustrator versions.

This is quite powerful but, ah, shall we say, non-obvious.  I don’t have a perfect solution in mind for making this capability more discoverable, but we’ll give it some thought.

Illustrator and Photoshop have been quietly growing tighter, and you may have discovered that it’s possible to export a very editable PSD file from Illustrator (preserving nested layers, masks, editable text along a path, etc.).  But what about going the other way–turning a layered PSD into a layered Illustrator composition?  It’s easy to do, though not at first glance.

Background: The compositing model (i.e. the layer blending modes & options) used by Illustrator, InDesign, and Acrobat is different than the one used by Photoshop. Therefore some blending options in Photoshop (for example, complex "Blend If" settings) can’t be replicated in Illustrator. As a result, when you place a PSD file into Illustrator, the blending is isolated.  That is, the PSD is treated as things a little world unto itself, and the blending modes within it don’t interact with anything else in the Illustrator document.  Objects like drop shadows (set to Multiply mode) only multiply against other things inside the PSD.

But here’s the trick: if you place the PSD and embed it in your Illustrator file (by unchecking the Link option in the import dialog), you can tell Illustrator to convert each layer into a separate Illustrator object. In that case the blending options should come through largely intact. Even things like text & vector layers (including text on a path & text in a shape) will be converted to the native Illustrator versions.

This is quite powerful but, ah, shall we say, non-obvious.  I don’t have a perfect solution in mind for making this capability more discoverable, but we’ll give it some thought.

Master digital painter Bert Monroy (he of 15,000-layer PSD fame) is featured in the inaugural episode of Pixel Perfect, a new show on Revision3. Bert shows how to create “lightning, sparkles, and a mystical vortex the same way professional effects and movie matte artists do.” [Via]

David Pogue in the NY Times recently posted links to a number of great examples of pixel art:

• I Love Pixel has created an enormous seafront community.
• Supertotto says “Make Pixels Not War” and blows up some Photoshop 1.0 icons to (mini-)museum size.
• Pixel Joint is a community site for pixel artists & hosts a wealth of links to tutorials, artists, and more.
• And, as always, there’s the excellent crew at eboy, who’ve recently created portraits of the Google guys.

Elsewhere, DSicons.com is devoted to pimping Mario Karts on Nintendo DS’s & will design artwork on commission. [Via] And meanwhile citizens of Taiwan are protesting their government through this virtual sit-in.
Slightly related: I love the line art in Röyksopp’s “Remind Me” video, and though it’s not pixel art, I like Adam Simpson’s bleak little isometric city. And posted previously, here’s how to draw a pixel portrait tutorial.

In case you don’t know ’em, the guys at Iconfactory have been making some top-notch pixel art for more than 10 years. (I seem to remember using their stuff back in the System 7 days to get that ultra-mod “Copland” look.) Anyway, they’ve been migrating from FreeHand to Illustrator & posted their Top 5 Adobe Illustrator CS Pet Peeves, plus the provocatively titled follow-on “Et tu, Adobe?”. It’s all good feedback, if a little frustrating (only because we’re always needling one another about these things already).
So, a bit of good news: Illustrator PM Phil Guindi dropped these guys a note to let them know of some welcome changes coming down the pike, prompting Gedeon Maheux to write, “Phil, all we can say is…wow! We had our finger’s crossed that someone at Adobe would see our post so your email has made our day, and probably our year. :-)” Nice! It sounds like we’ve kicked off what should be a very fruitful dialog with these talented artists.
The other key point here, I think, is that what Gedeon & co. want isn’t more features per se; it’s functionality that simply works better. This is true across the board: no one says, “Oh, Photoshop? Yeah, I’d buy that, but there just isn’t enough stuff in there…” Rather, people mainly want things to work more smoothly, to just flow. I’m happy to report that the Illustrator team has a whole bunch of spit & polish tasks on their list, and I’m keeping a list of “Brain-dead things we fixed in Photoshop CS3”–now somewhere around 20 items. And that’s the goal: saving the world, one non-slapped forehead at a time. 😉

The folks behind Photoshop World & Layers magazine have just launched Illustrator Techniques, a newsletter & Web site aimed at Illustrator users of all stripes. The site is sharing some sample tutorials (here’s one on 3D in Illustrator) and hosts a user forum as well as a gallery of user work (nice ‘Vettes). The team, which includes editor/author of Illustrator CS2 Killer Tips Dave Cross & his co-author Matt Kloskowski, plans to publish 8 times annually. Much success, guys!

Like Japanese-style character design? You’ll be among kindred spirits at Mojizu, a site devoted to creating, sharing, and discussing little creations (“Mojis”). Members send their Mojis into battle, and the most popular ones make their way into merchandise & are up for various prizes. (Oh, and Illustrator being involved, there are of course more pinups involved.) [Via Phil “The Phillustrator” Guindi, Illustrator PM]

Heh–no real attributions to the artist(s) are provided, but these animal mash-ups are quite well done. Sadly enough, no one created a liger (which apparently does exist) or a manticore. Gosh!
[Update: Jeff Tranberry points out the weirdo “carcass art” of MART: the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists. Much unwholesome madness is in their gallery. If someday I want to get my beloved cat posthumously placed onto a hang glider, or into a Kung Fu pose, etc. I’ll know where to turn.
MART in turn links to Beast Blender, a Flash-based tool for banging out custom critters. (Hey, I think I did a portrait of one of my high school teachers.)]

• What is it with Illustrator artists and scantily clad pinups? Paul Bush creates amazingly realistic portraits of women. To give others guidance, he goes into some depth in his gradient mesh tutorial. Pretty cool to see that the work really is all vector. Wayne Forrest works a similar vein, as does Halim Ghodbane. And at Deviant Art you can see Ussa Methawittayakul’s portrait come together step by step. [Via]
  Of course, maybe all these vector women in Illustrator shouldn’t come as a surprise: as this history of Illustrator demonstrates, Venus is the OVB: Original Vector Babe. [Via]

• Belgian illustrator Geert De Clercq does terrific technical renderings in vectors, as well as organic images using more traditional materials. Veerle Pieters offers a brief interview and samples of Geert’s work on her site.

Auto enthusiast/Photoshop hoss Peter Smith has gone photochopping-crazy, pimping more than 200 cars on his Digimods site. In addition to the creations (e.g. a lowrider ice cream truck), he offers a a wealth of simple, effective tutorials (complete with charming Brit-speak about modding your car’s boot, bonnet, windscreen, etc.). [Via]
[Note: No broccoli was chopped in the posting of this entry.]

Now, here’s the flipside to the relentless pursuit of aesthetic perfection: take one pristine Victorian home, apply generous dodging & burning, and you’ll get something fit for Norman Bates’ mom. Sébastien Gaucher offers a nice little set of tutorials on his site, along with other examples of his work. (The sad thing for Bay Area residents is to realize that even the mauled “after” versions of each house would still set you back a few million bucks around here…)

HDR, 3D, plenoptic cameras… who needs all that high-fi chaos when there’s the simplicity of le cinema de clip art? [Via] Of course, I still think it’s got nothing on the (incredibly) profane genius of My New Fighting Technique Is Unstoppable^* (speaking of giant pixels…).
See? Clip art is your pal! Now, fire up some fatty drop shadows & bevels, and get busy mixing 384 typefaces per page; you’ll be a pro in no time! Related: Woman Has Perfect Clip Art For Party Invitation.
^* [Note: Chock full of bad words. Really. Just in case that’s not your bag.]

If pimping your ride is passé, how about pimping your PowerBook? Cognitive scientist Dan Kurtz laser-etched a Magritte painting onto his machine. Wicked. (Here’s another image of it, plus the original Magritte.) If you’re feeling adventurous (and laser-equipped), see the how-to overview. (You could also go after your machine with a metal drill bit.)
Bringing this a tad closer to home, Adobe’s resident creative whirlwind Russell Brown had a ball laser-etching wood at the recent ADIM Conference (check out these examples). In fact, he’ll be doing an etching class here on Monday and will have his laser in tow. Hmm, I’ve got 17″ of aluminum just itching for etching, and I’m partial to flames…
On a similar etch-stuff-on-weird-surfaces, CBS is promoting its fall lineup by scrawling ads on millions of eggs [Via NPR]. Evidently Chicago-area company EggFusion (“Promoting freshness with every impression!!”) is doing the honors. Every bite a delight, no doubt.
And lastly, illustrator George Vlosich is a terror on the Etch-a-Sketch, lavishing dozens of hours on each creation. [Via]

If pimping your ride is passé, how about pimping your PowerBook? Cognitive scientist Dan Kurtz laser-etched a Magritte painting onto his machine. Wicked. (Here’s another image of it, plus the original Magritte.) If you’re feeling adventurous (and laser-equipped), see the how-to overview. (You could also go after your machine with a metal drill bit.)
Bringing this a tad closer to home, Adobe’s resident creative whirlwind Russell Brown had a ball laser-etching wood at the recent ADIM Conference (check out these examples). In fact, he’ll be doing an etching class here on Monday and will have his laser in tow. Hmm, I’ve got 17″ of aluminum just itching for etching, and I’m partial to flames…
On a similar etch-stuff-on-weird-surfaces, CBS is promoting its fall lineup by scrawling ads on millions of eggs [Via NPR]. Evidently Chicago-area company EggFusion (“Promoting freshness with every impression!!”) is doing the honors. Every bite a delight, no doubt.
And lastly, illustrator George Vlosich is a terror on the Etch-a-Sketch, lavishing dozens of hours on each creation. [Via]