After long time of hesitation, I finally decided to buy a Wacom Cintiq!!!

For those who don’t know much about it, the Wacom Cintiq is a monitor on which you can paint directly on the screen, sensitive to 1024 pressure levels, just like Intuos tablets. It’s the dream of an illustrator, the material dreams are made of!!!

Have a look to the Wacom Cintiq in action, isn’t it wonderful?

(If you’re a beginner and you don’t really know what a pen tablet is, what it is for, or if you will find it profitable, I advise you to read the “Manual to choose your first pen tablet”)

The applicants: Wacom Cintiq 21UX and 12WX

The 20WSX version doesn’t seem to be available in Europe.

First, we have the Wacom Cintiq 21UX, a 21 inches monitor and 1024 pressure levels, with reclining stand and rotative axis. Its price in European shops is about 2500€ (about 4000US$) while in the shops of the United States it’s 2000US$.

The second option is the Wacom Cintiq 12wx, a pen tablet with integrated screen and 12 inches display, with 1024 pressure levels. Its price is 1153€ (about 2000US$) for Europeans, and 1000 US$ for the United States.

Now you may be wondering: Why to buy it in Europe, when you can do it at half its price in the United States? Simple: You’d lose the whole manufacturer warranty, besides of the cost of the shipping. If you’re a freelance and have an Intracomunitary NIF (a mere formalism), you can get it VAT free in Pixmania-Pro, and then you’d have it for 2068€. Moreover, you can reduce the income tax on 20%, so the total price would be around 1650€ for the 21UX and 790€ for the 12WX.

My choice: Cintiq 21UX

Cool picture, but forget about using it in that position, it weighs 10 kg. (22,05 pounds)

• The Cintiq 21WX is very comfortable when it comes to draw, it’s much easier to coordinate eye and hand. Besides it’s huge, which eases the stroke.
• The 12WX is a choice between the 21UX and traditional tablets, not very comfortable for drawing because of its small size, and quite more expensive than Intuos ones. It’s true that it’s more portable, but for that I already have my old Intuos 3, for just a bit more than 200€.

Assembling

My working area. Did you expect thousands of toys and comics? I’m a businessman

In less than 20 minutes I already had my Cintiq assembled and ready, it’s super-easy to install. I have it connected to my old monitor, so my working space is doubled. It’s like having a double-wide Windows desktop.
It’s a really good detail that the outlets are both in European and American version. Furthermore, it has adaptors for DVI-I, DVI-D and VGA connections.

Ergonomics

It was one of my main worries when I was going to buy it… Where will I place this doohickey? There must be a place on your desk for the mouse (in my case my Wacom Intuos 3) and the keyboard, in addition to my old monitor (a 24 inches CRT).

Up: Working position, down: Navigation position.

So I have two positions: working, with the tablet in front of me and mouse and keyboard on both sides, and navigation, with the keyboard in front of me and the mouse on one side.
Surprisingly everything matches without any problem: Thanks to the Express Keys (programmable lateral keys), the need of using the keyboard is lesser, which makes the work more comfortable.

The Wacom Cintiq is assembled on a reclining and rotative stand, which it’s great when it comes to draw. You can rotate the monitor, just like it was a piece of paper, and to incline it, like it was a drawing table.

The Cintiq display surface is excellent, it has a very natural touch when it comes to draw, which is something to be grateful for.

Efficiency

Generally, the Wacom Cintiq allows more precise works than pen tablets; the eye-hand coordination and the fact that you can rotate the screen let your hand make more natural movements. The number of times I use CTRL+Z has been decreased in 30-50%.

For jobs like painting it’s not very different from mi Wacom Intuos, though the efficiency is better. For drawing jobs, the efficiency is much higher. The more precise the job is, more different I find it from traditional pen tablets.

Screen

It doesn’t match the consistency of the old CRT monitors, but to my surprise the image quality is quite good. I calibrated it in just a few minutes, the colours are quite good and it offers a generous angle of sight. It has a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels, which is more than enough.

To cut a long story short, it’s a decent TFT active matrix LCD, and remember that you can use it together with your CRT monitor, this way any colour problem is solved.

Disadvantages

• The screen you lean on releases heat, if you live in a warm place, you already have your sauna at home for this summer.
• Due to the heat and the friction, sensitive hands may suffer a bit. Then you’ll have to buy a SmudgeGuard.
• Because of its big size, you have to be athletic to reach the corners without getting tired, specially if you’re used to small tablets.
• When you work with the stand in horizontal position, the Light from the ceiling reflects on the screen, even though the Cintiq mat surface is quite good. So, you have to choose between working in the dark or putting the lights on the floor.
• On its horizontal position the Cintiq is about 10 cm (3,94 inches) above the desk, so you may need a higher seat.
• While navigating through the pallets on the left in Photoshop, I usually touch the Touch Strip (zoom) by accident, which is quite bothering, although left-handed people will find it good. This problem can be solved by deactivating the Express Keys.
• There’s a small distance between the screen and the monitor surface, at first it can be bothering but it’s not a big problem. Besides, in the software there’s an application to calibrate that difference.
• It’s a bit heavy (10,2kg), so you can’t use it out of your desk (in opposition to 12WX model).

CONCLUSION

It’s still too soon to make a conclusion, but I have to say I’m very happy with my Cintiq. If you can afford it, the Wacom Cintiq is a wonderful device, it’s beautiful, efficient, well designed, and the most important thing: It will increase your productivity and comfort when it comes to work. You will probably need some time of accommodation, specially if you have been working with traditional tablets for a long lime, like me.

Thanks a lot to Anita for translating this article from spanish to english, please give her some love for spending some of her time with no other intention than help you

You have a lot of talent, quality designs saved in your hard disk, you are good, nice and cheap, but you do not have clients. Something is going wrong. It is time to rethink your marketing strategy. Here I leave you some suggestions for your first professional portfolio.

First of all, you have to publish your website. For this, have a look to the tutorial How to publish your first website

Homepage

60-70% of my visitors leave SOSFactory before 30 seconds, so one have to be direct. Inside your contents be sure you have a link to your portfolio and another link to your contact site.

Don´t use the typical welcome pages or the kind of pages which offers the option between Flash or Html. They suppose an big mistake….. Its all about SPEED!!

Website navigation system

When you are beginning, it´s nearly miraculous that your clients visit your website, low budget clients, who have already visited a large number of pages before. Don´t complicate them things.
 
When you become more popular you can allow the luxury of being creative, now you need a functional place:

• The best is the typical horizontal navigation bar, situated on the top right of the logo.
• Don´t use to many categories in your navigation bar; only the essentials to sale your product.
• Design the space for making it possible that the client get in the important sites with as few clicks as possible.

I would use something like this: Introduction-Portfolio-FAQ-Contact. According your growth you can add pages where you describe your philosophy, your services…

Portfolio navigation system

If you follow on the statistic section of your website, you will see that in every link list, the most visitated are the first ones.

That`s why you should give priority to those you want to sale:

• If you want to sale logos, put them at the first place.
• Put the areas where you have more quality at the beginning, so you will preserve the visitors attention.
• Place the cheapest services at the first place. If you have a modest portfolio, I would start with logos and banners, selling websites will be more difficult.
• Beware about uncertain categories in your portfolio, better put “logos” than “corporate identity”

Don´t put too many categories, no more than five. For example: logos-icons-banners-webdesign.

The concent

At the beginning, you have a small number of works to expose, use your imagination. Display works you have done just for fun, those you have made for your friends, parents, imaginated clients… All´s fair to show what you are able to do.

When you get orders substitute the work designs with less quality, select your samples getting the viewpoint of your client. A good form to see which designs is easy to market, just ask the client for the design of your portfolio which most he likes.

If you really don´t have anything to show, stop reading and back to the work.

Specialists or generalists?

There are two trends, some people think that it is better to going with one design style or to specialize in one work, the others say that is better to be versatile.

I think freelance designers should be very good in some areas and decent in all the areas we are able to. If you are good designing mascots, work in your logotypes, maybe you sell some only because of your brilliant mascots.

In terms of style, we are freelance, we do not need a lot of clients, we look for a type of client, the one who asks us to do what we know and like to do…I would post for those you prefer to do.

Caution! We have to be realists, at the beginning the important thing is to work, it doesn´t care in what field.

Do we sale packages or do we give quote per order?

When you are breaking in this business, the clients do not abound, that is the reason why sailing your services in packages is very good. It´s like if you go to a shopping center for a particular product but finally you simply buy things because you see them or why they are cheap.

We have a small amount of clients, so we try they buy different products, offer them different services grouped in packages (for example: logos-banners-webdesign).

Do we put the prices or not?

My recommendation is that you put the prices but in extended intervals, so you leave a marge to negociate. When you have a good customer base  you can take them down, although there is a big dispute over this.

Advantages for put the prices:

- You are cheap, for a lot of clients this is an added value.
- It´s a form to break with clients who do not interess you. You are one single person and you have to do a lot of things.

Disadventages for put the prices:

- You have less margen to negociate.
- You can also loose clients with high budget (but do not worry, those clients will come later).
- You are cheap, so you seem to be cheap, they consider you less valuable.

Testimonials , yes or not?

If you are beginning, it is recommended to have a site with testimonials of previous clients, in my opinion it gives the impression of “cheap”… that is what we are. Over the time better use clients lists.

Flash? no, THANKS

As simpler your website, the better it is, don´t do with Flash what you can do with Html, you will save loading time and bandwidth, problems with the Flash Player, search engines will rank your better….do not bore the visitor with interminable animations. Use the Flash with moderation.

The use of Flah for the whole Web is recommended in the case you want to sale websites done with Flash.

The language

English is a must. Translate you website in all the languages you want to, but in english is essential. If your english is not so good, hire someone to translate for you, if your portfolio is small and your texts have little updates, it will not cost so much.

Here you can read more about the requisites to start freelancing

The message

Do not use an elaborated language to make it sound more professional, use a simple, direct but effective language, do not put texts to decorate, but to communicate. There is nothing worse than reading elaborated phrases with no sense.

Here I leave you a link to a very good article about how to write for web

With or without blog?

A blog improves your professional image, if you offer quality content you will become an authority in this area and also maximize the social side of your business. The problem is that a quality blog needs lot of time.

My recommendation is that you focuse on your portfolio, when you have a strong portfolio then a blog doesnt hurt. What I recommend to you is to have it in different places, so nothing can disstract the client.

Promotion, promotion and promotion

If you do not promote yourself, you dont exist. Once you have your portfolio do not stop promoving, here I leave you a post to How to get clients being a freelance designer

Sean Hodge editor of PSDTUTS contacted me through the tutorial I did for Smashing Magazine (he is regular writer there too) to interview me. I hope you like it

Click the image to read the interview

It is well known, that with Windows Xp it is not possible to preview the files PSD. This is bothering because the icon does not allow you to distinguish between one file and the others.

Long time ago, I posted some registry files (the famous Psicon.dll) modificated to preview the Photoshop and Illustrator files. With the Photoshop it seemed that it works; but with the Illustrator it did not go with all Windows and Illustrator versions, I could not find out the problem.

With Supericon V3 you can preview the thumbnails of your PSD, Al, EPS and also TIF files. It is a small self installing utility, which works great.

CAUTION: this utility modifies the registry of your operative system. In my case everything works correctly, but I do not assume the responsibility of any problems. My antivirus did not find any spy programms or virus. Use it under your own  responsibility.

COMPATIBILITY: it is checked up for Windows XP, I do not know if it works with Windows Vista. I have not switching yet…. If someone can comment his own experiences it would be very helpful.
 
THANKS: thanks to Big Lupin for using the comments and let me get this utility and thanks to Renoir for the utility.

The translations are for this blog, just take a look to the website, as you can see I need just average english (no misspellings), coloquial language nothing too advanced.

I would like to write a post once per week, so if you have time, want to earn some bucks and you can translate from spanish to english please send me a note, if you have other skills like drawing, coloring or designing it would be great.

Cheers.
Sergio

Searching in my old CDs and Hard Drives, i found some mascot designs. I made this ones to practice when i started designing; i never sold them… so here they are in case anyone wants to use them .

I will add more designs time to time, whenever a order from SOSFactory fails, I will upload the design for free download.

Conditions (please read):

1. You can’t modify, redistribute, or resell the designs.
2. This designs are copyright of SOSFactory. They are for personal use, not comercial.
3. You can’t use them in websites with illegal content (for example: piracy).
4. If you use it in your website you must add a link to SOSFactory.
5. If you decide to use it, i would appreciate if you put it in the comments.
6. If you want us to add more free mascot designs, just donate 1€ or US$ through Paypal to sosnewbie@hotmail.com. 0US$ received up to date

Instructions:

1. Just click on mascot image and your download will begin.
2. It’s a Photoshop file, compressed with Winzip, you just have to decompress it and you are done.

MC: another mascot design I did by order from SOSFactory, I did everything that the client asked me, lot of corrections and skechts but when it was finished he said the character was not what he was looking for. I warned him to pay me the remaining payment but he didnt, so he lost all rights on this design.

I personally think this design is technically as good as usual but no too acttitude, but its what the client asked me… so… his fault, not mine.

Powermellon: is a mascot design I did for a guy named Danny Mendoza, he is supossed to be art director from Dmbrand.com, Im waiting for the remaining payment around 3 months and 1 month sending him warnings… and no luck. So here is another free mascot design for the SOSNewbie readers, courtesy of Danny Mendoza from dmbrand.com. Hopefully I got 50% of the payment, upfront

Freeway´s Child : here is my first Photoshop design. I spent months experimenting with Photoshop, i had no idea of what i was doing and i still didn’t have a Wacom tablet so i did everything with my mouse. The design is original, but i think the color could be a lot better.

Mago: this one was my first mascot design a little bit more professional, look how much the color improved when i bought the Wacom tablet, i started playing with layer modes to get some lighting effects.

Delphy: I made this one for a job where they offered me a moon to do a free design and then they don’t contact you. First lesson learnt… payment in advance.

Tyler:I really like this design, the color schemes are almost the same i use now, and the character looks nice.

I hope you like the designs, i have a couple more i will be adding little by little; if you want to help to maintain this section you just have to donate 1€ or US$ through Paypal to sosnewbie@hotmail.com.

I have recieved many comments about this topic, even recieved emails blaming me of degrading the design industry… “your work is great, WHY ARE YOUR SERVICES SO CHEAP?”

But, do i really charge that cheap?
I earn about a 400-500% of the salary of an employed graphic designer in any company of my city, and i also work when, how and in what i want to.

If my services are cheap… what happens with this employees? The design companies get a lot of money, but that’s not disloyal since it’s the client who pays it.

Who says i’m cheap?
Usually rich countries companies, that have a partial vision of the business, they don’t take in to account why i am “so cheap”:

• When they see the quality and quantity of my portfolio they think that SOSFactory is a studio, but no, i’m freelance, this way i have minimum expenses, and that’s why my hour-price ratio is pretty good.
• I live in Spain, the life level is lower than in in the USA. So with a smaller salary, i’m really very well paid… but if i lived in the Philipines? I’d be millionaire.
• They don’t think in the work path. I have a business plan, i started charging 50US$ per logo, 3 years later they were 300-500US$… in 3 years they’ll be 1000US$.
• Because i do my best in every order, and i know that quality sells by itself, without the need to invest even a cent in publicity.

How much should i charge?
They always refer me to the designers ethic code, the one that tells you what you have to do in every moment… But what happens if i don’t have many clients but i have bills to pay?, Will the code author come to pay them?

Codes are fine, they help to understand the profession… but only you can price your work.

Why i don’t charge more?
No soy buddhist… or fool, i’d love to charge more, if i don’t do it it’s because i don’t have clients that pay that much. I’ve always said it, my work is worth as much as my capacity to sell it.

I think long term, every time i have stable clients that exceed my work capacity, i rise the prices. If like me, you star without any economin resources, you have no option but to work cheap… but always giving the best of you… the good ones rise, the bad ones will always be cheap.

The educator mith?
When you say you’re cheap because you have no clients, the answer is always the same… you have to educate the client, explain the importance of the design, that good designs cost money… that things are obvious for them in any other profession.

And i say… if every time a client offered me a pittance to design i invested 10 minutes explaining all that, i’d luckily work 1 hour a day.

No sir!!!, i’m a designer, not a teacher, the ones that don’t appreciate my work aren’t welcome. Lucky me, i’ve been working hard for various years and i can allow me to do that, but when you’re staring many time you have to do it.

Who degrades this profession?

• Those companies that subcontract me, they charge 600-800US$ for every character desgin, of which i take 300US$… and thankful, because unfortunately the seller is more important than the product itself.
• Those “american” companies that the only american thing they have is the name, that subcontract companies in the Philipines, with 40 people in a 40m room to whom they pay a miserable ammount while they get a lot of money.
• The “fast food” of design, those mega-companies where what matters is quantity and not quality, where there’s no passion for design, and what matters is filling their pockets making garbage.
• Those websites dedicated to design contests, those websites where designers bid for projects in horrible conditions, where we reduce our prices as much as we can and more to get the job while the site gets the bigger part of the pie.
• The design “schools”, where what matters is getting the maximum possible ammount of people in a classroom (as long as they pay the fees), to later on give them a “designer” degree and find out that they have been wasting their time and money, since all a designer needs in passion for his work, the rest is on the internet… and free!!!
• Mediocre designers, the ones that are designers because they have to do something in their lives.
• The defeated ones, those who dedicate to complain about how bad are our works valued instead of working to find solutions.

But wait!! i’m not blaming these of anything, i simply think that in this business there’s space for everybody… it’s out fault, designers of vocation, if we were brave enough and mount our own business, leaving the mediators behind, we’d all earn more… the client would pay a reasonable price and would get a good product, and the designer would have a dignified and profitable job.

—————————-

CONCLUSION (only if you are passionate and are prepared to give everything of you)

Abandon the mediators as soon as possible, mount your own business, work hard and cheap if you need to… every time you have more work than you can do (during a reasonable time) rise your prices, if you’re good you’ll rise in a short time, and then you’ll start enjoying this profession.

Until then they’ll tell you that you’re cheap, you don’t valorate yourself, that you degrade the profession, but you’ll laugh on the inside… because you know it’s only a matter of time until you get the possition you deserve.

Hello Newbies!! You already noticed SOSNewbie is not updated latelly, the main reason is because my workload (Im sleeping 5h per day one week ago) but there is another one… I was working the most complex tutorial about mascot and logo design I never did, I spent lot of time doing this tutorial like guest writer for Smashingmagazine.

Here is a sneak peak:

I did a step by step tutorial to show how I usually draw my character designs

And another capture of how I color my mascot designs

Here is the outcome

You can see the whole tutorial here: Drunken Monkey Photoshop Tutorial in Smashingmagazine, by SOSNewbie

I hope you like it!!!
Sergio

This article is dedicated to the Newbies, we’ll see what is a graphics tablet, what are they for and how to choose the tablet that fit your needs.

What is a graphics tablet?

It’s a device used mainly to paint with a computer, but it’s also useful to draw, photo retouching or even to design. Imagine that instead of a mouse you use a pencil in a tablet that perceives movement; the big advantage is that it has sensitivity to pressure, the more you press, the thicker the trace will be.

What can i do with a graphics tablet? Is it worth it to buy one?

It’s basically the same thing as using a mouse, the difference is that for some tasks it’s a lot more comfortable:

• To paint: it’s essential.
• For photo retouch: it’s a good help.
• To draw: it helps, but requires practice.
• To design: it wont be very helpful. I normally use the mouse (included in the pack).
• To browse: if you have extra cash…

With which software can i use them?

With any software for image editing slightly professional, for both: vectorial or bitmap: Photoshop, Painter, Illustrator, Flash…

Is it difficult to learn how to use a graphics tablet? Are they comfortable?

The most difficult part is to coordinate your hand with what you see, since when you paint you look at the screen, not the tablet. But it’s just a matter of hours, they’re very comfortables and the pencil is very light since it doesn’t use bateries.

I remember that when i bought my first tablet i felt very dissapointed, luckily it was just the first impression; at the next day i was thinking on what i could do with my Wacom, a week later it was essential for me. Today i’d pay 100 times its value.

What trademark should i choose to buy a graphics tablet?

Without a doubt, a Wacom. It’s by far the best. There are pretty cheap models, they work by resonance (no batteries), without any wires between the pencil and tablet, some of them even completely wireless, they work on PC and Mac, they’re light, nice, and well designed and in many sizes… don’t even look at the rest of the trademarks. If you don’t have money, less beers and save some cash.

What size should i choose?

My advice is to go for the smaller ones, for two reasons: they’re cheaper and more comfortable. If you’re an expert user of any editing program (ie: Photoshop) appart from the mouse you’ll use the keyboard shortcuts, if you have a tablet in A2 size it’ll be pretty difficult to also have the keyboard near your hand.

I have an Intuos3 A6 (the smaller one of the higher rank) and i wouldn’t change it for a bigger one… if you want to make a good investment, do it in one of the higher rank tablets instead of a bigger one.

How much do i have to spend?

There are 4 groups, obviously as they become more expensive, the better they are. If you want it for digital painting get at least a Graphire (512 preassure levels), and if you can afford it go for the Intuos (1024 preassure levels).

• Amateur: from 40€ you have the Bamboo and Volito. If you aren’t sure and want to try.
• Intermediate: from 150€ you have the Graphire. If you want to start, they’re semiprofessional.
• Professional: from 240€ you have the Intuos. The best investment for the ones that know how to use them.
• And for the ones that have extra money, from 1200-3000€ you have the Cintiq: this ones aren’t tablets, they’re monitors where you paint directly, these are great… my dream!!!

The prices are aproximate, if you want more information visit Wacom’s website.

Is sensitivity important?

Sensitivity for me is the main technic requisite at the time of choosing the model, the results will be the same with both (if you hurry me even with the mouse), it’s more a matter of comfort.

As i said at the beggining, the pencil is preassure sensitive, which means the more you press the thicker will be the trace. The lower rank tablets have 512 preassure levels, and from the Intuos they have 1024 levels.

What problems do Wacoms have?

More than problems, they have a few useless functions:

1. The have some keys (Express Keys) you can set as shortcuts, although they’re not very useful, i prefer having the keyboard in my left hand and the tablet in the right one.
2. They also come with a transparent paper, i guess it’s used to trace a drawing… but it’s not very practical, since it’s impossible to look at the drawing and the screen at the same time. Also with use it breaks and ends up being uncomfortable.
3. The pencil has an eraser on top of it (useless because it’s very big, i prefer to use photoshop’s eraser).
4. If you have a small tablet it’s a bit uncomfortable using the mouse since it only works in the active area of the tablet.
5. There are many accesories: airbrushes, pens, markers… but they’re expensive almost useless; if you use Photoshop you only need the pencil that comes with the tablet.
6. With Photoshop sometimes i have problems, it doesn’t recognize the preassure and i have to restart the program many times. I guess it can happen due to my Operating System, the software or the tablet.
7. The pencil is very delicate and expensive, so if you break it, start saving.

2007, a year full of emotions in the professional and personal. I didn’t have much luck in the first part of the year, i lost a client that guaranteed me about 6.000US$ per month; and also one of my designers abandoned me… luckily, in the 6 remaining months i recovered my clients and even exceeded the ammount, and i discovered that i’m good enough in my work to depend on someone. If you want to know how i did it, here’s my year summary!

JANUARY: if you want to survive, be independent

Part of the job i did for Funrise in the last 2 years.

2007 started badly, i lost my best client (Funrise) due to adjustments in the staff and changes in the company policy my contact was fired, my main source of income since the last 2 years dissapeared in just 1 day. I was living in Germany, renting, paying a mortage in Spain and with almost no income… with this rythm of life i needed an income of about 6000US$/month, a tough month.

Month lesson: never depend on just 1 source of income. Even if it’s a good job, abundant and well paid, don’t leave behind the rest of the clients… think in long term.

FEBRUARY: the best attack is a good attack

Design for the launch of POG’s (Discs for the latins)

After regreting for a while, i started again, thanks to the work i did for Funrise i have a very complete portfolio, so i decided to attack instead of waiting for the clients to come.

Measures i took:

1. I started to redesign SOSFactory, oriented more to businesses than small users.
2. I worked on corporative material to send by mail to my target companies.
3. I started this blog to assure income by publicity; a plan B for the future.
4. I kept doing the rest of promotion tasks i usually do.
5. I sent emails to old clients to say hello and be seen.
6. Crossed my fingers…

Month lesson: when things are wrong, stay cold, analize the problem, look for solutions and follow them… after that keep working and hope for the best.

MARCH: if there’s no work outside, work inside

At the right, the new logo and mascot of SOSFactory (under development)

The good (or bad) of being a designer is that you always have work to do in your own corporative material: the portfolio, card, the blog… while clients came i dedicated to this tasks:

1. I made a complete update of SOSFactory’s portfolio, i got rid of old works and replaced them with with other of better quality.
2. I wrote some articles and tutorials to promote SOSNewbie and i uploaded them to directories and other webs about tutorials. The monthly income of the blog is about 90US$.
3. Revised a bit of CSS, i started learning PHP and studied in depth the way Wordpress works.
4. I practiced my drawing and searched for new drawers in case i needed them in the future.

Month lesson: if there’s no work, work on your marketing tools.

APRIL: the value of a withrawal on time

Mi girlfriend and I, this month was tough in the personal.

MAY: proximity with the client

Mi friend Chris, a client from Canada whit whom i worked since long ago traveled to Spain for an urgent order. It’s the first time i work face to face with a client, and surprisingly everything was really easy and relaxing, there was even time for fun. I found out i work for people, not for email addresses.

Being freelance and working through the internet has many advantages but it also has it’s negative side, it’s cold and solitary, that’s why it’s important to talk with the client once in a while, even through messenger.

Month lesson: never forget the human factor of your work.

JUNE: search for team mates

He was good huh? what a pity

I had a very good designer in his job, very very good… but also very problematic. He was with me since long ago and helped me grow, the problem was that he demanded commitment at the time to collect, but not at the time of assuming responsibilities.

After many concessions from me, mainly for fear to lose that extra quality, he told me he found something else… he abandoned me. That month was very stresing since i had to work for two.

Month lesson: Bad companies wont stop being a bad company no matter what you do. Look for alternatives and stay alert.

JULY: talent is overestimated

The new designs of SOSFactory, did someone doubt that the quality would decrease?

When the worst happened, i found two designers with the right attitude. Also surprisingly, my quality in that area was getting better more than i thought. Now the 3 of us make the work relaxed, in a more creative way and with the same technic quality… i work more, but i’m happier.

Month lesson: talent is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.

AUGUST: hunting the first client

This was the first design for a professional

In 2007 i discovered a new very profitable market, professional blogger; a blog is a very powerfull marketing tool because of it’s immediacy. Once the order is finished, it’s not hard to convince the blogger to make you some publicity, if the blog has a good audience, other bloggers will see you.

I started designing for Bloggingtips, which attracted other bloggers like Theprizeblog, Tylercruz, Bcmblog, John Cow… and some more.

Month lesson: if you want to introduce yourself into the market, get your first order and try to be seen in the sector. After that it’ll be a lot easier.

SEPTEMBER: take care of the client that takes care of you

Header design for John Cow and it’s Halloween and Christmas versions

The header i designed for Johncow attracted several clients, and to compensate this promotion i designed the Halloween and Christmas versions for free. Which kept attracting more clients; among others Tylercruz, which also gave me more clients.

For the first time since i started this business, i am the one who chooses the clients, not the other way round.

Month lesson: when the publicity that a client makes you attracts more clients, compensate him so he keeps doing it.

OCTOBER: while more expensive you are, the better you are

3 years ago i charged 50US$ for a logo, now i charge 500US$

As i have a lot more work than what i can make, i can afford the luxury of rising the prices, extend the delivery dates, choose the orders… i realized that while better conditions i demand to my clients, they treat me better.

Month lesson: appreciate yourself if you want your clients to do the same.

NOVEMBER: not all is up to you

Designs i made for Inxile-Entertainment, a strange case

I can’t give much information, let’s say that a web of my network, the one i barely work in (paradoxes of life), because of factors totally away from my will, it transformed into an authentic phenomenon, producing about 1300US$/month due to publicity.

Month lesson: in every business extern and uncotrollable factors have influence.

December: the next time will be better

To the right, the new version of SOSFactory

This blog is my second important website after SOSFactory. After a year of intermittent work, the traffic is of about 1300 visits every day, with peaks up to 4000 visits per day, a lot more audience than SOSFactory in the same development stage.

Month lesson: make everything as best as possible, then keep on going, the next time will be better.

This post is just to say I wish you a Mery Xmas and a Happy New Year!

Personally I hope next year will be as good as this one in terms of business, but much better in the personal side. I would apologize for not updating the site as much as I would like, latelly I was working to take some spare time on Xmas but I have some tutorials ready to publish as soon as I get back from Berlin.

And lastly, I really would like to thank you for such a warm welcome, this blog already have more than 1300 visits/day!!!

Happy Xmas!!!
Sergio

If you’ve been following this blog, you should know how important it is to have an online portfolio if you want to live from your art. While you don’t have a website you simply don’t exist, and of course, people who don’t exist work very little.

In this post i’ll explain what you have to do to have your first website online. I wont talk about web design, for that there are thousands of tutorials and books.

Here you have the complete post index, if you want to skip some parts just click in the topic of your interest:

1. Choose a domain name
2. Hire web hosting
3. Check if your domain is available
4. Register your domain name
5. Point your domain name servers to your hosting account
6. Upload your website files to your server

1.- Choose a domain name

A domain is a name used to redirect Internet users to your website. For example, my domain is www.sosnewbie.com. It seems obvious, but finding a good domain name is a very important step and for that we need to ask this questions:

• Who is our audience?
• What’s our website’s objective?
• I want short ot large term results?
• What’s the vision and mission of mi website?

It’d be ideal to create a list of possible names, since many of them wont be available. Here you have a few recommendations:

Names easy to remember Short names are easier to remember and to write, although there are also long names easy to remember like dividebycero.com or whatsgoingoninyouhome.com

Related to your activity… or not. There are two sides, the ones that consider that your domain name should be related to your activity (ie: webdesign.com) and the ones that think you should create a brand (ie: sosfactory.com). In the first case you’ll have an advantage at the time of google ranking for the words design and web, but there are two problems: normally these domains are hard to find and since they are so generic it’s difficult to put them personality.

If you want to create a portfolio where the quantity is more important than the quality, and what you need is many clients of low budget, probably webdesign.com would be the best choice. I’d go for the second option, the creation of an independent brand, it’s much better in a long term.

Local vs International sales. If you plan on selling your designs in your city you can use something like madridwebdesign.com which will give you almost instantly rank one in Google for searches like “madrid web design”. As i said, this depends on your sales strategy. I personally prefer selling internationally since there are many potencial clients.

Extensions. It’s best if you use .com although i wouldn’t be bad to register also the .net and your country extension (.es in Spain).

Careful with special characters. For example the letter Ñ if you’re spanish, or the letter ß if you’re german. If you decide for a local market there’s no problem, but if you want to sell you design internationally, you’re automaticaly discarded.

Careful with the numbers, hyphens, abbreviations. Careful with numbers, when you say it orally it might lead to confusions (ie: adsl4u.com , adslfouryou.com or adslforyou.com or adslfouru.com…). Don’t use hyphens or abbreviatures.

Careful with pronunciation. If you plan to have international clients research how your domain sounds at least in english, and if there are similar words that can be a problem.

Careful with coincidences. Inverstigate the market, you can’t use a name for your business that another company is using already which makes the same activities that you do. They can sue you, and even take your domain.

Register all the possibilities related with your domain. This can be more expensive but it’s a lot better in a long term, you try to register your domain and all the possible variations that someone can write by mistake (ie: google.com, gogle.com, gooogle.com, gugle.com…).

2.- Hire web hosting

Web hosting is the physical place where your website is, every time someone visits your website, a server (a computer) will be in charge to show it. So imagine how important is to hire the services of a good hosting company.

If you look around the Internet, you’ll be crazy when you see the ammount of offers out there, thousands of companies fighting to sell their product. I have my websites netword hosted in Downtownhost.com and i love it, if you’re not very experienced, the most important at the time of hiring a good hosting is finding a company with a great customer service. If your website starts from zero, the cheapest hosting plan (5-8 US$ per year) will do for a while.

Don’t even think of going with mega-hosting-companies where you have to go through 4 different departments for anything. Also don’t use free hostings, they normally have lots of ads, are slow and barely professional.

If you decide to hire web hosting in Downtownhost.com
but you’re not an expert at english don’t worry, Jorge, the owner, also
speaks spanish and very kindly will help you through messenger.

Hiring your hosting isn’t too much of a mistery; you only need Paypal or a credit card and follow the instructions. At the end of the process you should recieve an email with your username and password to enter the control panel, and your name servers, we’ll see what they’re for later.

PS: Before hiring investigate in google about the company. You don’t want to end up with companies like HostingLMI o Fenixer that for a marital fight he left 4.000 clients for months (i was one of them) without tech service and without possibilities of recovering their domains… with sues, minors in the middle, ex-convicts… a spectacle worthy of a soap opera.

3.- Check if your domain is available

Ok, we’ve already hired our hosting and we have a list of possible domain names for our online portfolio, now we have to see which domains of that list are available. For that there are thousands of tools if you want to check if your domain is available… If it is, run to register it.

4.- Register your domain name

To register your domain there are two ways, one is to do it through your hosting company (not recommended, if you want to know why, read below) or through domain registering companies, i use Godaddy, if you don’t know english search for a domain registrar in your language in Google.

Registering a .com domain is about 10 US$ per year, the best is to buy it for several years, that way it’s cheaper… it also looks like Google takes that into account when ranking your website.

Registering a domain isn’t that complicated, you only need Paypal or a credit card and follow the indications. If everything goes well, you should recieve an email with your username and password to enter the administration panel of your domain (don’t confuse it with your hosting control panel, they’re different things).

***VERY IMPORTANT!!! many web hosting companies offer a free domain when hiring their services. Never use this domain for your business, Why?:

1. Generally they don’t let you access to the control panel of the domain, so for anything you have to go through the customer care service of the company… which can be annoying in some cases.
2. If it happens that you want to change the company because you’re not happy with their service, you’ll only have problems when trying to recover your domain name (ie: changing the name servers to your new hosting company).

You should take into account that registering a .com domain is only a few dollars, what is really expensive is the work that you’ll invest in it’s promotion. So it’s better to be the owner of your domain.

5.- Point the domain name servers to your hosting account

We already have a registered domain and a hosting account, next we have to tell the domain to point to our hosting account. This way, every time someone writes on the internet our domain name, they’ll see what we have in our server.

First we need to know the name servers of our hosting; generally they come in the confirmation email when you hire the service, they should be two, a primary and a secondary, something like ns1.domainname.com and ns2.domainname.com. If you have any doubts, you should contact your hosting company (that’s why the customer service is so important) and ask them directly.

Now we have to go to our domain’s control panel, depending on the registrar it may vary, what you have to do is looks how to change the domain name servers by default, y change them with yours ns1.domainname.com and ns2.domainname.com.

If everything went well, your domain should be pointing to your hosting account, now you have to upload your website to the server.

6.- Upload your website files to your server

To upload your files to the server you can do it via the Cpanel of your hosting account or better, you can upload them via a FTP client, which is a software.

There are hundreds of free and paid FTP softwares, i recommend you not to start with complicated programs at first. I use a very simple one called FlashFXP, which is paid.

To connect to your server you’ll need some information that should appear in the email they sent you:

• IP Address: address of your website. Something like: 209.62.60.132 or you can also put your domain name.
• Username.
• Password.

After you put all this data you should be able to connect to the server. If you take a look, it’s like browsing through your hard drive, you have to go to the folder /public_html/ and there’s where you have to upload your website files.

It’s very important that the main page of your site is called index.html.

And that’s it, i’ve tried to explain in the best possible way and as detailed as i can, if you have any problem or doubt write a comment and i’ll try to explain it to you

Sometimes Im really amazed on how the luck (good or bad) become so important in life. Linerider project was the weirdest project I never worked on from SOSFactory. Go ahead if you want to know more about this designs.

Some months ago I was contacted my the webmaster of Linerider.com, he hired me to do lot of design work: website, Vbulletin forum, linerider logo, illustration for the header of the website and 1 mascot design with 2 poses… all a month of work.

This designs was never used because of legal issues between my client and Inxile-entertainment (the company marketing the Linerider game). Looks like my client was sued and lost the domain because of copyright laws.

Hopefully I got paid in full, but I had a client sued and lot of cool designs non published… a shame!! I was a bit worried because of this copyright infringement since I did the designs.

Some days later Inxile-entertainment contacted me, they explained me the issue with the previous owner of the linerider domain, and they really liked our designs so I worked like intermediary to got a deal, they would buy the rights on the designs property of my client and I would do corrections on the mascot for free.

This is the original Linerider mascot

Later Inxile-entertainment asked me to add a nose to the character.

Obviously I was very interested in working for such a cool and famous game (it will be on DS and Wii soon ), and… who knows, maybe in the future we could design more stuff for them. In other hand my client recovered some of the money he spent so It was a win-win-win situation.

Later Inxile hired me to designed 2 characters more, a girlfriend for Bosch and a bad boy (I dont know his name yet).

Here is the rest of designs we did for the older domain owner: Linerider website, Linerider forum, Linerider 2 , Linerider mascot and logo design. For now all the web design work is non used, but at least our mascot design will be alive.

So this is the real story of linerider mascot design… weird, eh?

Everybody know that Windows use a default icon for AI files (Illustrator file format), it is really disturbing when you have a lot of Illustrator files because you cant choice the one you like just looking at the thumbnails.

With this small file you will have customized thumbnail views of your Illustrator files. Remenber I already posted the same for Photoshop files here: Psicon to see thumbnails of Photoshop files

Instrucctions to install :

1. Download Aiicon from HERE and unzip it with Winzip.
2. Put the file Aiicon.dll in the folder (create it if it doesnt appear):
   ‘C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Shell’.
3. Double click on the other file into the zip: aiicon.dll.reg and accept.
4. Then inside of any Windows folder just activate the thumbnail views.

PS: Registry Editing is a black art. Use this unders your responsability.

We’ve started a new section, every month i’ll write a post about companies or freelances that have a high quality standard. Only the best of the best, divine inspiration

To inaugurate this section i’ve chosen TheSkinsFactory, a company from the USA that i’ve been following for a while. They stand out mainly in user inteface for softwares like Nero, Windows Media and lots of gadgets for companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, Panasonic, MSN, HP, Disney, Warner Bros, Sony, EA… and a lot more.

Their designs are authentic wonders, they have an impressive detail level and are of a very good taste. If you need inspiration at the time of designing objects with volume either in 2D or 3D, TheSkinsFactory is perfect, their bevels, textures, composition, color… simply perfect.

It’s founder and CEO is Jeff Schader, and having in mind it’s possition it’s a relatively accessible person. Some times i’ve been in touch with him through Deviantart and at least he answers.

If you visit his portfolio pay attention to some cases studies, they have very interesting stuff where you can get an idea of the way he works.

Here you have an advance of what you’ll find in his portfolio, quality and quantity.

Enjoy!!!!!!

Creativity: "… capacity to create, produce new and valuable things, it’s the capacity of a brain to get to new conclusions and solve problems in an original way."

I’ve seen this topic from the point of view of a designer in thousands of blogs, but almost always they forget something, the psicological point of view. As you may know, appart from designer i’m licensed in Psicology, so i’ll talk about both points of view: the designer’s and psicologist.

Are you creative?

Take a look at the psicological profile of creative people.

Cognitive characteristics:

• Refined perception.
• Intuitive capacity.
• Imagination.
• Critic capacity.
• Intelectual curiosity.

Affective characteristics:

• Grace and freedom.
• Enthusiasm.
• Depth.
• Tenacity.

Freedom? Interesting, huh? According to this, the best design, the most creative, would come from freelance artists, since we have a free life, creative, original, contrary to the norm… and that at the end should be seen in our work.

But, does it surprise you to see that there are personality factors such as tenacity, critic capacity, intelectual curiosity…? Those are factors that implicate concious effort, so we can train them, which is the base for the next point.

Break the mith

If you follow this blog, you should know that i don’t believe in talent, talent is a plus, the difference between noticeable and exceptional. I believe more in tenacity and preparation, if talent is something innate and i don’t have it… why should i worry?, let’s better worry in getting the best version of ourselves, in the worst of the cases we’ll get to noticeable, which is a big achievement.

That’s why we have to end with the mith of the muses, divine inspiration, innate talent or spontaneous ideas. Creativity, as any other side of life, can be trained, success depends on preparation.

Believe in you

Who believes in itself is certain that it’s mission will succeed and knows how to focus productively in learning. When they make mistakes they consider it as a chance to improve, not to abandon.

If you want to become a good designer, try not to make the same mistakes you already did, be confident that as the time passes you’ll get better. Our goal is not to be the best, but to be a little better each time.

Study the rules… and after that break them

Creativity is not other thing than breaking the rules, but to be able to do it, you need to know them. That’s why it’s important to study the classics… if you’re a writer, painter, or designer. Example: if you want to be a good abstract painter study first realism.

Designers take this point to the process of design, the first thing we do is study the client (know his rules) to later force them, stretch them, break them… when we do it right, we get a great design.

Movement is demonstrated moving

I don’t know even one designer that before starting working knows exactly what it’ll create. The first thing to do logically is to know the client, elaborate information, asimilate it, and then… rest, disconnect, relax, good ideas appear when you’re doing something else.

When you come back to your desk, always, always, always, start doodling in a paper (or Photoshop). The idea is to face the white canvas relaxed, that way you disconnect your rational brain and activate less consious areas, where ideas aren’t managed by logic; ideas will start to unify, taking form.

If you can do this in some place or with someone that makes you feel good, a lot better.

Against creative block

After it comes, it has a difficult solution, just try to relax, walk, read a magazine, go out with friends… it’s better to lose 2 hours this way than losing the entire day in front of the canvas.

It’s better to prevent it, just organize your life so work isn’t a nightmare.

1. Don’t pick last-minute orders, or too much work.
2. Don’t work for people that doesn’t agree with your way of understanding design.
3. Plan work so you can have leisure time.
4. Make some short break every 1 or 2 hours.
5. Start your day with routine tasks to warm up, later, before you get tired, change to creative tasks.
6. Try to have varied orders: logos, websites, illustrations…
7. Take a nap every once in a while, the best ideas come up when you’re in that state between sleepy and awake.

Unfortunately it’s not easy to make this in the real practice of a designer. I guess that managing stress is another quality of a agood designer.

Feed your mind

A lot of people think i’m crazy when they see me playing a videogame and ask “You don’t work today?”… and i answer… “Can’t you see i’m working?”

We have to cultivate our visual culture, it’s part of our job, so from now on playing games, reading comics, going to the movies, visiting exhibitions or theme parks… that’s working. Everything that surrounds you can inspire your next design.

Don’t unattend your body

If you’re a designer, some of your biggest problems will be sedentarism, lumbalgia and the back pains will go with you your entire life, i guess i don’t even have to say that’s impossible to be creative when your back hurts.

That’s why i recommend you to make some time to play some sport, go to the gym, practice your favorite sport… try to be fit.

Same with the diet, eat varied, lots of fruits and vegetables. If you’re obese try to lose a little weight (i got up to 96 kilograms!!! now i weight 80kg).

To be creative you need to be happy, and this happens when you’re well phisically.

Technics to promote creativity

This technics normally need some training, and if possible, the presense of an expert to help you out, if it’s in group it’s better.

Here you have a website very complete about technics to promote creativity. Even if you don’t practice all of them, i suggest you to take a look, i’ll surely give you some good ideas.

Enjoy your work !!

It’s fundamental to implicate emotionaly with the design, like it, love your work, enjoy, take the order to your territory, make it a life style. If you don’t learn how to be creative in your personal life, the chances of being a creative designer are very few.

At the end everything is summed up in this, be happy with what you do, if you enjoy doing something, you’ll keep doing it.

Everybody know that Windows use a default icon for PSD files, it is really disturbing when you have a lot of Photoshop files because you cant choice the one you like just looking at the thumbnails.

With this small file you will have customized thumbnail views of your Photoshop files.

Instrucctions to install :

1. Download Psicon from HERE and unzip it with Winzip.
2. Put the file psicon.dll in the folder (create it if it doesnt appear):
   ‘C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Shell’.
3. Double click on the other file into the zip: Photoshop_thumbnail.reg and accept.
4. Then inside of any Windows folder just activate the thumbnail views.

PS: Registry Editing is a black art. Use this unders your responsability.

www.twistedmonkeystudios.com

Ingredients:

1. Paper and pencil.
2. Scaner.
3. Photoshop.
4. Illustrator.
5. Silhouette (plugin for Illustrator).
6. Basic concepts of Photoshop and Illustrator.
7. A lot of patience.
8. Optional: Digitalizer tablet.

Briefing

The first thing to do is know our client. That’s why we have a tool called Briefing, which is a serie of key questions to know the company and it’s needs. We can do it in a more or less formal way.

In this case we’re going to design a character for a horro movies producer; they wanted a monkey as the mascot, but the tipic nice monkey. We thought in the idea of making it’s clothes a straight jacket and to have a knife with blood… a lot of blood. It had to look nice, but intriguing at the same time.

Traditional drawing and Photoshop retouches

I always advice to start any design the traditional way, with paper and pencil, specially if it’s an illustration. As good as your Wacom tablet may be, it’ll never be as accurate as the normal pencil.

Traditional drawing. The image at the left is my pencil drawing, i start to sketch with a red pencil, and when i’m happy with the results i remark the lines with a graphite pencil. As you can see, is more a sketch than a finished drawing, unfortunately my line quality isn’t as good as comics professionals, but you don’t have to worry because that’s why we have the computer. The important thing is to have the concepts well assimilated, and to apply them to the character we want to design.

Traditional drawing at the left, photoshop retouches at the right.

Photoshop Retouches. When i get something decent as a start point, i scan it from Photoshop and start to move things, play with the face expressions, the pose… until i get something i like (right image)

Take a look at how the character changes during the process, when you don’t have very clear what you want to do it’s better to start with anything and then retouch until you get what you’re looking for… don’t get sad if you can’t do it from the first attempt, it’s the most common thing to happen.

Evolution of the personality of our character

Cleaning and inking in Photoshop

Cleaning. I already have the base for the character, now with my digitalizer tablet i start to clean the sketch from Photoshop, asigning different line weights (explanation down).

Cleaning with digitalizer tablet at the right, inking with photoshop at the
left

Inking. The next step is to ink our character (right image), the first thing say is that it’s very important to use high resolution (5000×5000 pixels) for several reasons:

1. It’s more comfortable.
2. If later we reduce the design, the smaller mistakes wont be noticed.
3. If the work is the same, let’s do it big, that way we can also print.
4. When vectorizing it we’ll get more accurate lines.

We have 3 types of lines (take a look to the final inking a bit down):

1. Contour: those are the bigger lines.
2. Area delimitators: example. the inferior limit of the jacket, medium thickness.
3. Intern lines: the line that marks the cheek, those are the most thin ones.
4. Transition lines: they start as the contour and then get in the design. We make it thick and then thiner as it gets in, as the line in the chin.

What we shouldn’t do:

1. Make shadows with lines: we’ll just make the design dirty.
2. Extremely thick lines and without thickness variation.
3. Intern lines too long: this lines are to mark volume, you have to make them in a subtle way, it’s just a guide for when you color.
4. Straight lines: if you take a look, all the lines are slightly curved.
5. Small areas: try that your volumes are as big as possible, otherwise at the time to color you wont have space and it’ll stay flat.

Final inking, it’s very important to modulate the lines correctly.

To get this final inking we have various options:

1. If you’re a drawing professional the best thing to do is use your pencil lines, then simply clean them in Photoshop.
   VIDEOTUTORIAL: Photoshop digital inking 1
2. If like me, your handdraw lines are not too good, we ink the sketch with Photoshop’s vector tools.
   VIDEOTUTORIAL:Photoshop digital inking 2, if you’re not familiarized with the pen tool you should better take a loot at this tutorial about Photoshop basic digital drawing.

Vectorizing with Silhouette from Illustrator

The first thing you need is the plug-in Silhouette for Illustrator, you can download Silhouette here after that decompress it with Winzip and put the file "SilhouettePlugIn.aip" in the plugins folder of Illustrator. Once inside the program you only need to make the silhouette palette visible (Window > Show Shilouette tool settings).

Then save your design from Photoshop to TIFF format (without transparency) and open it in Illustrator.

Then download the VIDEOTUTORIAL where i explain how to vectorize with Silhouette. Here you have a screenshot of the parameters i use:

Now that we have out design vectorized we can edit it until the lines are perfect. I normally add a contour from Illustrator to give a sensation of balance to the design.

*** Note: when you add a contour with Photoshop it rounds the borders, it doesn’t respect the angle details while Illustrator does. Depending on the sensation you want to give to your design you can use one or the other.

*** Note 2: i guess you’ll ask why i have used Photoshop to ink with bitmaps to vectorize it later?, Isn’t it better to use Illustrator directly? it’s a personal choice, these are my reasons:

1. For me Photoshop is more comfortable and quick, Illustrator dessperates me.
2. If you have a digitalizer tablet when using bitmaps you can paint or erase lines by hand, which saves you a lot of time.

Asigning plain colors, gradient and volumes

Plain colors. Now we have our vectorial inking, if you take a look the options of Silhouette are chosen to give us a black silhouette, and a bunch of white pieces on top. Now we only have to fill each white area with the color we want, i usually use medium tones, not too dark or too light. Here’s the color palette i’ve used.

Plain colors

Adding gradients. We have to create gradients of at least two differentiable colors, one dark and one light, but not extremely far away because we’ll later add lights and shades. For now don’t pay too much attention to the gradient direction, we’re just choosing the color tones, later we’ll orientate them to give coherence to the ilumination.

Gradient colors

Cutting the areas. As you have seen the gradient areas are too ample to get good illumination effects. So we have to cut this big areas into smaller volumes /take a look to the image down).

Later we retouch the gradient colors to try to get a coherent illumination, there’s a basic rule very important: next to a dark color there’s always a light color.

I’ve prepared a small VIDEOTUTORIAL to show how it’s done, download it here.

Gradient colors with the areas cut in smaller volumes

Adding shadows and lights

Shadows. We’ll create a layer and put it in Multiply mode, that way we have all the shadow vectors grouped. IMPORTANT: if you make the shadows in normal mode you’ll have to adjust the vectors a lot so you don’t cover the black lines, that’s why we use the Multiply mode, This mode makes transparent on top of the black color.

We simply pick a similar color (sometimes i also use gradient colors) to the one of the background and we make small vectors to mark the areas in the shadows.

Animation so you appreciate the shadows.

Lights. In this case is not essential to use different layer modes, although you can always use the Screen mode to get lighter tones. Observe the animation down here, first i make a soft illumination and later i add some strong light retouches reinforce the contours.

Finales Retouches

Now we only need to add blood in industrial cuantities. For that i used the free Gomedia vectors (if you use them put a link back to their site, you have to be thankful) The blood is added in a layer on top of all the others but down of the roght eye, in Multiply mode.

www.twistedmonkeystudios.com

Observe that in the post i link to other tutorials or artices that cover the different phases of the process, although i know that in suck a complex tutorial i might have forgotten a thousand things to explain, if you have any doubt just comment it, i’ll try to answer as soon as i can and i’ll add it to the tutorial.

A couple of days ago our friend Andreu, SOSNewbie reader, sent me an email with a serie of questions; it’s not the first time that that someone asks them, so i thought in writing this post.

1.- Do i need a degree to work as a designer?

The answer is… depends… on what you want to do, where you want to do it, and how. I think there are several situations:

You want to work as a freelance: the degree will be useless, if someone hires you it’ll be because of your portfolio.

You want to work in a good publicity agency: if it’s a small or good agency, the person in charge of the staff selection will be some expert in design, it’ll mainly look to your portfolio, and maybe some kind of degree too.

You want to be the coffee boy: the person in charge of the staff selection will be an administrative that will revise hundreds of files, it wont look at your portfolio; it’ll only see if you have the degree or not. Unfortunately, the mayority of the work in Spain or South America is like this, looks like in the USA or UK its different (any comments about it are wellcome).

We should also differenciate if you’re going to dedicate to a technic or artistic area. If you want to be a programmer, the degree will probably have more importance than if you want to apply to be an illustrator… there’s no degree to measure art.

2.- Do i need to go to a school or an academy to learn how to design?

The answer is No!. I’m pretty much against private design academies; the mayority if not all are more worried to take your money than to offer a quality program or that you find a job. And i have experience in this matter. It’s better to have an official degree.

But if you really want to invest in a good way your money, hire someone with experience in the area you like to give you particular classes, it’ll be a lot cheaper, more personalized and intensive. You can also buy some good books, although today everything can be reached for free, thanks to the Internet.

My theory is that if you feel passion for what you do, you don’t need nothing else than to observe and a lot of practice. The mayority of quality artists that i know are self-taught… i guss that if you reach your goal, is because you have a lot of interest, that at the end is what matters.

3.- Is there a lot of work for designers? Is it well paid?

There’s plenty of work, the problem is that in Spain and South America (at least) the work of a graphic designer is underestimated, so work conditions are terrible.

There’s a lot of work in low quality design agencies, where appart from designing, you also are in charge of the phone, making photocopies and walking the dog.

If you really want to make money and enjoy your work, the best option is to be a freelance. Without giving any data i can tell you that if you’re good and you know how to move you can earn more than any engineer or medic… if you’re bad or you don’t know how to move, you’ll starve.

Another option is to go to England, Germany, United States…

4.- Should i specialize or know how to do everything?

This is another of the classic questions, Is it better to be good in a few areas or be bad in all of them?

Let’s return to what we said before, it depends… :

If you want to be Freelance it’d be idea to be good in one or two areas, and be at least decent in all you can. I consider myself good designing characters, but many clients also order me logos and also their websites.

If you want to work for a quality agency it’s better to specialize, if it’s a good agency they’ll probably have different departments with very specialized people in each area.

If you want to be the coffee boy then you have to know how to sketch, design logos, draw, design websites, animate, use 3D programs and program in 3 different languages… all this in a creative way and for 600€ per month. Obviously it’s impossible to know all that.

5.- Do i need to learn how to draw to design?

The answer is Yes, if you want to mark the difference you need to know how to draw. There’s no need to have the level of a comics cartoonist, but you need to know how to draw with grace.

Drawing is the base of everything.

6.- What if i don’t have any talent?

If you don’t have talent you’ll have to compensate it with work.

A lot of people when they see my designs say “You are very talented!!”, which gets on my nerves. So then i start to explain that it’s not a gift that fell from the sky, it’s mostly practice, so if i added all the hours i spent in my life doodling anybody would do it with a similar quality…. the difference is that while others listen to some music or go party, i invest that time drawing. Well, actually i’m just trying to justify my terrible ear for music

I prefer a thousand times a regular drawer that works than a lazy talented one. The regular wont be outstanding but it’ll be noticed, while the lazy talented one wont get anywhere… if you want to be outstanding you need to combine talent and work.

7.- But how do i get clients?

My friend… just work. Practice a lot, be seen in every site you can. Create a portfolio online. Visit regulary SOSNEWBIE… and keep practicing.

With time they’ll come… but don’t stop practicing.

Well, here i bring you another of my essentials, Silhouette is an Illustrator plugin to vectorize bitmaps.

1. It’s free (you only have to wait a countdown of 5 seconds)
2. Quick to download and install
3. It supports several languages
4. It has Manuals
5. It works with almost any Illustrator version
6. It works for PC and MAC
7. AND IT’S VERY EASY TO USE

You can download Silhouette here, after that decompress it with Winzip and put the file "SilhouettePlugIn.aip" in the plugins folder of Illustrator. Then, inside the program, you only have to make visible the Silhouette palette (Window > Show Shilouette tool settings).

It works like a charm to vectorize drawings, i use it to vectorize the lines drawed by hand in paper, after you ink the drawing and you clean it a bit with Photoshop, it’s ready to be vectorized. To vectorize images in color i’m afraid it’s more complicated.

I’ve prepared a VIDEOTUTORIAL by popular request, where i explain how to vectorize with Silhouette. Here you have a screenshot of the parameters i use: