Profile: Bret Taylor

Madbadcat’s Note: By his own admission, Brett Taylor is largely self-taught. I would tend to argue that,  as artists, we are all "largely self-taught", exploring new territory each time we approach a subject. His passion for painting may come from finding TEXTURE as a new addition to his visual vocabulary. Chek out the texture on this closeup of one of his paintings.

Read more

LAYERS: The Complete Guide To Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature

When I pick up a book to read it I have an almost overwhelming desire to know something about the person writing the book before I even flip the pages of that book.  I want a connection between that person and myself in order to justify committing myself to their momentary care. I look first at book forwards or introductions or at least the author’s brief inside the front cover.  This is true whether the book is a work of fiction or a technical manual.  Without this beginning I have a hard time relating myself to the author; I have this need to know something about them.

Some almost 50 years ago when I was a beginning college student I always avoided classes taught by "staff" or "to be announced" if there was an option, and when there was a name listed for a course I got out my college catalogue and looked up the faculty member teaching the course and tried to find out as much about them as possible before I committed myself and my hard-earned tuition money to their care.
Read more

Creating a Web Comic with Comic Life

First, this article assumes you have content (even if it is only in your head) and ready to tackle the technical aspects of web comic creation.  In short, many artists still work traditionally by scanning their pencils and/or inked drawings and digitally coloring them in Photoshop.  However just as many create their work digitally either in Photoshop, Illustrator, or various 3D software programs.  The main rule for web comics is it needs to be developed quickly, in order to meet those daily, bi-weekly or weekly deadlines.  Which leads us to Comic Life Deluxe. Read more