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Digitizing with Photoshop: Step 1 - Scan

Lesson 2 from: Digitizing Hand-Drawn Art

Laura Victore, James Victore

Digitizing with Photoshop: Step 1 - Scan

Lesson 2 from: Digitizing Hand-Drawn Art

Laura Victore, James Victore

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Lesson Info

2. Digitizing with Photoshop: Step 1 - Scan

Lesson Info

Digitizing with Photoshop: Step 1 - Scan

The first step is we're gonna work with photo shop, and we're going to start with a scanner. Okay. You want to be in charge of that sucker? Sure. Now, let's see. What are we going to scan in? So okay. See, we're gonna work with, um, format That is very common to the kind of work that we dio, which is basically, um, James will draw out some hand written type caisson lettering. And then, um, we will scan it in, and we want to layer it on top of a either a photo, a photo or another piece of artwork. Okay, that we've already scanned in. So for that, we're going to start. See, we're gonna use have a job that we have been working on earlier in the year. Yeah. Which one of these do you want todo this 1st still more, Um, like one of these. So this is just, um, how I would start using tracing paper using a posca or a sharp, not a Sharpie paint pen. Uh, Sharpie paint pen on tracing paper. There's obviously two different weights here. I try not to be too picky and draw too many times, but I will...

draw this thing and hand it off to Laura and say, Can you make some magic with that? Make it look beautiful. So what Will dio is? We just opened up the scanner. Have a piece in here already. Make sure that out of the picture. And by the way, sometimes you need to scan your driver's license. Do a low resting to send off to get, like, passport papers or to whatever. Remember that you've left your driver's license on the scanner. Yes, that happens. You don't want to show up the airport that has happened to us. Okay, so we're scanning it in. But there's a little buddy and on some of your scanners, it will ask you what, resolution? Resolution? Usually, it'll ask you what resolution? You want to scan it in as, um, this job we're doing is safe for a magazine. Okay, so for it is for magazine, for a print magazine. Okay, so for print, there are different rules than for online. Um, resolution for print. We usually scan. Did in, um, pretty high rez because then on and that's what 600 dp I have 600 is usually safe if It's just black and white line work. It's I mean, I'm I usually kind of do overkill on do, like 1200 sometimes, yeah, yeah, but it's always greater. I mean, if you scan it at the high rez, it's great because you can always downsize later. You can't make it. Hi rez. After it's already lower for this particular job, you know the size. I just draw what's comfortable to me. I don't tryto don't try to use a pan and try to make it big letters unless I want released in little letters. So it means that means I generally draw a lot smaller than the magazine size. Which means if I scan this at 300 FBI and then blow it up, it's gonna be it's gonna look like crap. So yes,

Ratings and Reviews

Melville McLean
 

It is a mixed report. There should be a thumb neither up or down rating. James Victore is a talented, with a big, as in New York metropolitan area big, bold, self-promoting personality who presents a persona that defies conventions and hates rules. That is all fine although I have never worked with or met a designer who has his attitude towards fonts before. Let me warn others studying design that you might not like that attitude. But everything in his world sounds passionate, impulsive and experimental. I think it is a good thing to be introduced to someone who seeks out working outside the box and embracing the counter intuitive. In short he is an artist who relies on the exciting and chaotic flux of inspiration to happens to design for a living. His left, hand-drawn letters are an expression of that, making words into art. He says he primarily wants emotional responses and people to react like they would to poetry. If you are a little more familiar with New Yorkers and the business you will also recognize all of this as his pitch. It is entertaining. And this course is a performance. His wife Laura is his muse. But this approach will not suit a lot of students here. We are not potential customers hearing a pitch. We are here for educational reasons, mostly practical reasons although he is definitely an inspirational force. And IMO, there are limits to teaching when the instructor is incapable of taking a step back and being objective too. Moreover, he and his wife offer the least of any teachers on CreativeLive that I have seen in terms of sharing in-depth skills and knowledge. In fact, some members of this class knew more than they did and it was the class that answered many questions that the instructors did not know. Laura in particular who was using the software shared with us that she "is not a Photoshop professional." That is an understatement. It can be tedious watching their trial and error approach. Moreover, neither one could explain the difference or use between JPEG, PDF and PSD files. Yikes and double yikes! They send them out to clients in what sounded like an arbitrarily arrived decision. The class was surprised to also discover that neither knew the distinction between kerning and tracking. Worse is that questions like this, the most simple, fundamental ones seemed to catch them both off guard so they were not prepared with an answer--which astonished me. Furthermore, any discussion of resolution was incoherent. They knew bigger was better so they let others decide for them later. Right. Well maybe they can take a few classes here to learn all of these simple fundamentals before teaching their next class because this was unfair to those who turned in as well as those who bought the class. Incredibly, they were ill prepared to teach this course. The class was very loosely organized, often somewhat chaotic and disappointing a lot of the time. I read that James has taught for 30 years. It makes little sense to me. And not everyone will appreciate his novel approach which apparently has not been sufficient to give his wife what she needs to use, let alone teach Photoshop. If you are here to learn specifics to augment your skills and knowledge, this is probably not the best choice you can make. You might prefer Erica Gamet and Jason Hoppe for Illustrator and anyone else you can find on CreativeLive for Photoshop If you want to see two folks make numerous errors, rely upon heuristics, demonstrate they do not understand or seem to even have any curiosity about what is behind their technical decisions and yet still manage to pul off a a fine looking finished product in the end, then this is for you. You also might be inspired by their passion, enthusiasm and maverick approach seen here. What they share is their process, warts and all but they are creative dynamic duo. I liked them but accept that this is a different kind of course than you usually se here. It all depends upon what you are looking for.

michael mcquilkin
 

I love that you as a designer, use the no rules apply to you work. Also, I love the fact that you appreciate the art of screen printing you posters. The heart would work great as a distress overlay.

Student Work

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