151 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
151 lines
4.3 KiB
Plaintext
#[1]Main RSS Feed
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[2]Home
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The Garden (BUTTON)
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[3]Now
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[4]About
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(BUTTON)
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notes
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evergreen
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What App is That?
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A guide to the apps and tools I use to create illustrations
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* [5]How to Illustrate
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Planted about 3 years agoLast tended about 2 years ago
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(BUTTON) Back To Top
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"What app is that?"
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[6]
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I'm a Promiscuous Polytooler
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I use wide variety of different tools and apps for different kinds of
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visual creations. I'm not wedded to any one tool in particular – they
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all have their strengths and weaknesses. I'll use whatever fits the
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task at hand and move work between them liberally.
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Here's all the apps and hardware that might be involved in a particular
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creation...
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None of these are affiliate links - I'm just pointing you to official
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sites for more context
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[7]
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Workflows
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And here's a couple of my common workflows for different styles of
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illustrations and visuals...
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1. Illustrated notes
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Anything I make that has a painterly and loose hand-drawn feel was made
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in Procreate on the iPad or Photoshop on the Wacom Cintiq. Or probably
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a combination – it's easy to move files back and forth between the two
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and the tools they offer are very similar.
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Illustrations like these...
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Both of these applications allow you to draw in “raster” graphics,
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meaning you paint pixels onto a canvas. They require a decent level of
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hand-skills to make sure your lines aren't wobbly, although both
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applications have smoothing features to help with that.
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When I'm in Procreate I use a small selection of brushes I've gathered
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over the years. It's hard for me to remember where they're all from,
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and I've customised the majority of them to suit my personal prefs.
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Most of them were originally from Max Ulichney's brushes. I have the
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essentials set ($2), the painters set ($8), and the comics set ($15),
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and can vouch they're all great.
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I move these pieces to Photoshop if I want to work on a larger screen,
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or have accidentally enlarged the canvas to a 14000px wide sprawling
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set of sketches that Procreate can't open without crashing.
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2. Polished vector illustrations
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Illustrations that look more “polished” are made primarily in Adobe
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Illustrator, with a touch of Photoshop at the end for lighting effects
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and texture.
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Pieces like these...
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These illustrations are all vector-based, meaning we use mathematical
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curves to define their shapes, rather than painted pixels. Vectors are
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great for create hard, crisp edges and working with perfect geometric
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forms.
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While I love vectors for laying down the foundation shapes of these,
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I'll move them over the Photoshop once they're 90% done to adjust the
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colors, add more subtlety to the lighting and shadows, and chuck a bit
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of texture on the top so they feel more tangible.
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Want to share? (BUTTON) Tell Twitter About It
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3 Backlinks
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Why You Own an iPad and Still Can't Draw
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The failure of drawing materials without mediums and meat
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Questions I am often asked to answer
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The Best Illustration Books and Courses
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My favourite resources for learning to draw and developing your visual
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thinking skills
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Mentions around the web
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Tomiwa 😃
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Maggie Appleton - indieweb.social/@maggie
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2 Likes and Retweets
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Want to stay up to date?
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(BUTTON) Subscribe via RSS Feed
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© 2023 Maggie Appleton
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* [8]The Garden
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* [9]Essays
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* [10]About
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* [11]Notes
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* [12]Now
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* [13]Patterns
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* [14]Library
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* [15]Projects
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* [16]Colophon
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References
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Visible links:
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1. file:///rss.xml
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2. file:///
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3. file:///now
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4. file:///about
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5. file:///topics/how-to-illustrate
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6. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L71674-9587TMP.html#im-a-promiscuous-polytooler
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7. file:///var/folders/q9/qlz2w5251kzdfgn0np7z2s4c0000gn/T/L71674-9587TMP.html#workflows
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8. file:///garden
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9. file:///essays
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10. file:///about
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11. file:///notes
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12. file:///now
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13. file:///patterns
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14. file:///library
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15. file:///projects
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16. file:///colophon
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Hidden links:
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18. https://github.com/MaggieAppleton
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19. https://uk.linkedin.com/in/maggieappleton
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20. https://dribbble.com/mappleton
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21. https://twitter.com/Mappletons
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22. https://indieweb.social/@maggie
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