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Art Tips For Programmers?
An anonymous reader writes "Recently I've found myself in a bit of a bind with artwork. My programming contracts have been rather small, barely enough to pay myself let alone an artist. The art needs aren't intensive, mostly icons or sprites depending on the project. Despite owning a few key apps (Photoshop, LightWave, Maya) my art production output is rather poor. Are there any other developers who have learned to be self-sufficient? Are there any resources available to educate me on the finer points of making graphics that look professional?" One resource for the less-artistic among us is the collection of free SVG clip art at freedesktop.org, though it won't give advice for creating new art. What are some others?
On place to look for art and helpfull artists is Deviantart
-- If you actually say LOL instead of laughing, maybe it's time to go outside! --
Sounds like you have all the right tools, but are lacking the finer points of graphic design. Might be worthwhile to take evening classes on computer design. I've personally found these to be helpful.
I highly reccommend inkscape, which is pretty good for creating svg art, even for those who are not very artistic. It make drawing really easy.
Also, try openclipart.org, where there is a lot of public domain licened content you can use.
Buy one of the icon collections at StockIcons.com for only $350usd. They can be used royalty-free for any personal or commercial projects.
Personally, I find any tutorial online a very weak foundation to build on. They teach you specific tricks but nothing about being 'artistic'.
Better would be for you to play around with the different tools. Experiment and keep the results, they might come in handy. And it's best not to start on the computer. Do a hand drawing of what you have in mind.
I heard this quote from my prof. once:
"Laborers work with their hands,
Crasftmen work with their brain,
Artists work with their heart."
m2c
When working on graphics just let your creative juices flow. If what you wanted isn't the result, perhaps what came out is better? When I am working on graphics for a program or website I come up with a basic idea for where I want to go, and just play around and experiement. It doesn't take as long as it seems like it would, and some great creative products result. With Photoshop the best way to really get a feel for it is to have a bit of fun. Experiement, see what comes out. If you can't seem to be creative go look at a free tutorial online, many can both educate and inspire you.
WASTE - The Secure P2P
Outsource it to India *duck*
(Seriously, their time is cheaper than yours, unless you get sub-min. wage.)
Table-ized A.I.
All the money in the world doesn't buy you personal artistic talent. Leave it to someone who has it. You could give my grandma a copy of Eclipse, VS.NET, EditPlus and vi and she'd still suck as a coder.
I'm Rick James with mod points biatch!
Just as in programming, or any other field, amateurs create amateurish output. There is a tendency among technical people to devalue the skills of non-technical people (and the other way 'round as well). This is a mistake. People with training in anything are going to produce better product than people without training.
Invest in a professional. You'll be surprised how cheaply (sadly) good graphic artists will work.
If that doesn't prove to you the utter lack of graphics skill in the Open Source community, I don't know what would convince you. Coming here asking for help from Open Source "artists" is like going to a Sci-fi convention asking for tips on literature: you'll get a lot of input, but it will be mostly useless.
If you want to have professional icons, hire a professional. There are people that do this for a living. They studied and practiced and now are eking out a living doing it. Same as how you studied and practiced and are now making a nice living writing code. Let those people do their job, and concentrate on your job. The product will be better if you let everyone stick to their area of expertise.
A great untapped resource: college students. If you know folks in college, or there is a local college with a decent art program, contact their career advisor (or anyone at the art school) and let them know that you've got work that needs to be done.
Generally, you'll find one or two students who have the budding (or more developed) skills and know-how, and who will be more than grateful for the opportunity to earn a little extra cash or, more importantly, who will work for free in exchange for being able to use a "real world" project or two in their portfolio.
Not only are you "giving back" to the community, but you get what you need for cheap/free.
Two words of caution though. First, don't be a condescending ass. A lot of non-artistic, business-types tend to think of art students as starving-scum-of-the-earth, and they end up coming across as assholes who don't get the best they could. Second, realize that college students aren't always 100% reliable (were you?), and budget for that time-wise).
Ack!
All the Wacom models work reasonably happily with Linux+X and the relevant drivers at http://linuxwacom.sf.net/ - wacom is not at all linux-hostile.
Using a tablet means you can draw like an adult on your computer (directly on the screen if you spring for a Wacom Cintiq...).
I used to think a mouse was okay for GIMP and Blender use. It's not. It _utterly sucks_ . I got myself a tablet on a whim and now I can draw as well on my computer as on paper (okay I'm not brilliant at drawing on paper, but like most people I've ever seen, I'm far better on paper or a tablet than drawing with a mouse!)
Actually, that's interesting. It's like the chicken and the egg problem. Graphic tools can only become profitable if enough people use them (PHotoshop being an almost de facto standard in the graphics world). However, the learning curve for these programs are so high and they are so expensive that it seems hardly likely for them to start off.
It's kind of like Microsoft's penetration due to software piracy..
In any case, we aren't discussing tools, but computer art. Tools don't make the artist. Practice, patience and passion do, as some famous person once said.
How ridiculous would it sound to hear a designer say: "You know, I've got some really nice icons, but I just am not that good at the code thing. Anyone know where I can get some quick tips to slap some code on this icon?" If anyone could program, everyone would. If anyone could design graphics well, everyone would.
... then you can afford to commision a graphic designer ;)
One resource that has been invaluable to my company is http://glyfx.com/. They make icons, splash screens, etc. It costs money, but it is not that expensive and you can use them for all your projects after just one purchase. The icons are also high color and very modern, give them a shot.
Free Art Test. Are you an artist? Find out Free. Premiere Home Study Program. aff.
--that's all i got from google's sponsored link.
IWARS.
People, in general, disappoint me. Politicians even more so.
As someone who makes my living as a digital artist, it's really just a matter of practice, practice, and more practice. Anyone who can write their name can potentially draw a good picture, but it takes time to train your eye and your muscles to accomplish that. Chuck Jones once said everyone has 100,000 bad drawing inside of them, so it's best to get the bad ones out of the way early. It's kind of the same for digital art.
If you don't have the time to practice, I'd say spend a few bucks get some good looking clip art. The stuff you buy at Fry's and Office Depot pretty much sucks, but there are some collections out there that look pretty darn good.
Yep. You heard it.
Write your applications such that the artwork can be easily added/updated later. Make it clear that artwork is NOT your forte, and that you'll structure your application to allow this later improvement without requiring (much of) your assistance. Make sure it works OK, and doesn't look TOO bad.
If anybody asks about looks, point to the contract. Also, maintain a good relationship with a good graphic artist, and don't forget to recommend him/her.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Sorry, programers suck at art and artist suck at programing.
Ever wonder why OSS interfaces are so ugly and hard to use? Because there's no such thing as an open source artist. Best off you hire someone to do a good job instead of trying to half-ass it yourself.
For the love of god, please don't use photoshop lens flare effects! Unless of course you're going for a retro look.
If the product allows, there's a certain quasi-postmodern charm in "programmer art", if it is cohesive as a whole. Stick figures and such. It has to be completely confident in its kitchiness, though... amateurish art that is supposed to look professional is awful.
If it's for an office-esque app, though, the highly "modern professionalist" users would likely cringe in self-righteous disgust at such a suggestion.
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
Wait, you don't have enough money to hire an artist, but you have enough money for Photoshop, Lightwave AND Maya? These packages cost... oh... a couple GRAND together? Hell, just PS (not studio) is $300-400.
If the other suggestions given here are still beyond what you can realise, here's one no-cost solution that can work in a pinch (depending on the requirements of your application, of course):
1. Use Google images, a scanner, or any similar appropriate source to get stuff that looks as much like what you want as possible.
2. Open that image in GIMP, add a new layer over it and trace the outline of that image.
3. Delete the original layer (which you have no right to appropriate), and colorise the new layer with all your knowledge of gradiants, textures, etc. that you can muster. (Read up on what the GIMP has to offer in this department if necessary.)
This works especially well when you're developing for mobile applications or other situations where the loss of fine artistic ability is not likely to be noticed. If your needs go beyond this, however, it will not be adequate and many of the other suggestions presented here are far more appropriate.
The poster's comment about having the "right tools" (PS, Lightwave, etc.) exemplifies most programmer's and the general publics incorrect view on computer graphics and technology and art. IT'S JUST ANOTHER PAINTBRUSH.
All too many people think that if you have the right "digital tools" amazing Pixar quality art will pop-out. Its simply not true. The primary reason that pixar is so unbelievable is not because John Lasseter and co. are incredible programmers but because they are amazing artists that understand how to use their paintbrush-the computer-to the fullest extent.
Some posts have mentioned taking evening classes and such. That's a good idea, but all too many of them are stuck in the rut of teaching you how to do different tricks on a particular piece of software.
As a programmer who has dabbled in art my suggestion is to try and forget your programmer self. Don't look at Lightwave and see all its cool features, its extensibility, effects, etc. Approach the project just like you would if someone were to hand you a paintbrush and say paint a picture or a camera and say make a movie. In other words, understand the medium you are working with, but don't get engrossed in it. It's still just art.
I've done a few (as in as I can count the total jobs I've done on my left hand) projects for programmers who couldn't design their way out of a wet paper bag. Problem is that not too many programmers have approached me with work, so it remains a hobby for me. It's been my experience that programmers simply don't want to deal with giving even small parts of their projects to others, quite likely out of fear that someone will shanghai their hard work. It's a legitimate concern, sure, but most graphic designers/artists aren't looking to burgle your code...
If you're having trouble with with your graphics, then by all means give the job to someone else. Please. There are plenty of folks who speak the same language you do who will do the work you need on the cheap.
I'm a professional designer with much experience with web sites. I've also worked on many other projects including a familiar theme for Enlightenment back when Enlightenment was popular.
I've seen a lot of sites designed by developers and I can tell you what to do - listen to what I say and you'll be better than 90% of the sites on the net: keep it simple.
This works on so many levels it's ridiculous. The most well designed sites with the most expensive designers do this as a matter of course. It's not only refreshingly easy on the eyes it's also good business.
Don't try to be gabocorp or razorfish - those guys already have the look-at-me-look-at-me-look-at-me market saturated. Most paying clients want something more professional. Stick to what you do well - developing, hopefully - and it'll get the recognition it deserves with a design that lets your real work shine through.
Pick a nice color scheme, stay away from comic sans and courier and you're halfway there. Leave the graphics for photos and logos, use color sparingly, and limit yourself to as few different colors and fonts as possible.
If you're really interested you could pick up a few design or mac magazines - really! even if you don't use a mac - just to get an idea of what clean & simple design is like.
Yeah, Art Students are a great way to get what you need on the cheap. I should know. Several of my friends - myself included- got fucked over right out of the gate because we believed what the contractor told us- that it would be "a good portfolio-building experience."
So's sitting in my bedroom jacking off into the GIMP, thank you.
"Portfolio Building Experience" means it pays a pittance if you're lucky, and you can totally forget about having any rights to your work. Oh, and PBEs are typically long hours with shit pay and no benefits. My first field experience was one of these- a contract job to do some multimedia work. After the dust settled, my hourly for the project was somewhere around eighty cents.
You get what you pay for- if you get into the habit of taking advantage of art students, don't be surprised if the talent pool suddenly dries up on you.
You must first be an artist, before you are a digital artist. Learn the fundamentals of the work you're trying to accomplish, if your area is in logo design, research effective logos, get a sketchbook, and jot down any ideas that come to mind. Don't be afraid to venture from the digital realm, that's where the magic happens. Let yourself design on paper, and create and articulate in the computer. (I've spent the past year at art school overcoming that very concept) good luck with your passions
One thing I've consistently noticed about programmers is that they have no grasp of color theory. Witness the countless ridiculously low-contrast Blackbox themes. Hell, look at Windows XP's primary color-filled default theme.
In general, get to know the basics. Just looking cool doesn't make something usable, and the best art brings together prettiness and usability.
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1. Stock photos. A good picture is worth a 1000 design elements. Start scavenging for stock photos NOW. A good place to start is here: http://sxc.hu/.
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2. Avoid excessive effects and filters when not needed. Nothing ruins a good design like trying to emboss everything or making it 3D.
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3. Keep it clean and simple. Think Apple.
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4. Learn from the experts. Visit places like http://www.deviantart.com/ You can even post designs and get peer reviews. Also, http://http//www.alistapart.com will help.
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5. Use and abuse CSS. The separation of design elements from everything else will help immensely. You will be amazed by this site: http://www.csszengarden.com/ Change the themes and be amazed by the power of CSS!!!
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6. Buy graphic design books, preferably those with collections of commercial art made by different designers. Get inspired
;-)
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7. Get a digital camera and take lots and lots of pictures of the world around you. Current examples of designs and logos and ads will help.
I hope that helps!Cheers,
Adolfo
[Doing my best Mako impression:]
"Once upon a time, when the WWW was whipping across the business landscape like a cold wind from the North, nobody in business had a clue how to wrangle it. Was it an IT thing? A Marketing thing? A New Business thing? It was a Time of Chaos, and still-moist script-jockies were christened "Web Masters" and given the imprimatur, "Um, do your thing. And here's a six figure salary, cuz we haven't a clue what 'your thing' is. Oh, and make it look 'cool,' cuz we heard it's supposed to look 'cool.'"
And they did their thing.
And it looked dreadful.
Happily, business recovered, bean counters and Marketing Directors finally found something upon which they could agree, and color-blind code-jockeys were partnered with art-types so the WWW could outgrow its purple-orange acne-encrusted adolescence and mature into pseudo-suave 'white-is-the-new-black' twenty-something hipsterism."
Bottom line: I'd rather teach an artist how to code (and have done so), then let a coder try to "do art." But if you want it to look remotely professional, you prolly need at least two heads involved.
Well, what advice would you give an artist who had to do all their own programming? You'd tell them to keep everything simple, don't get too ambitious, don't try fancy architectures or get hung up on optimization.
The same thing is true of you: keep it simple. Go for clarity, not ethereal beauty. Pick a font and stick to it. Pick one very, very simple color scheme and stick to it. Eliminate anything that is unnecessary, especially anything "decorative."
And don't be discouraged... Oddly enough, if you focus on simplicity and consistency and forget about beauty, you may have the best chance of creating something people call beautiful!
This is a wonderful style guide to building icons meant for Windows XP, and the techniques are good for icons of all sorts. You can figure out how to build good looking icons out of simple design elements.
Edwards based her book on the results of experiments performed by Roger Sperry of Caltech. Sperry's experiments used people whose brains had been severed in the middle to treat severe epilepsy. By studying how these "split-brain" patients reacted to stimuli sent via the sense organs to one side of the brain or the other, Sperry was able to deduce that our artistic ability is centered in the right hemisphere of the brain, while our logical and verbal ability comes from the left.
Most slashdotters are heavily left-brained people. But artists are right brained people. To create artwork for your software, you have to learn to think with your right hemisphere.
Edwards says in her book that anyone who can learn to think in what she calls "R-Mode" can learn to draw. The earlier lessons in her book focus on stimulating that sort of thought while quieting the interference from the left hemisphere.
She teaches drawing with pencil and paper, but once you've completed the exercises in her book I'm sure you will have a much easier time using computer graphics applications.
The right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for more than just visual art. At the same time as I learned to draw from Drawing on the Right I taught myself to play the piano. In 1994 I borrowed some recording equipment from a friend and recorded my album Geometric Visions, which you can download in MP3 format. (Ogg as soon as I get off my lazy arse and encode it.)
Request your free CD of my piano music.
Many people have pointed out that getting college students to do the work on the cheap is the best route for you. It really is. Here is how you go about doing it if you do not know any graphic design or fine art students. Make a flier, explaing that you need a designer to make icons for your project.
Make some copied of this flier and post them in the grpahic and art departments of the local college. You will probably get quite a few calls and ask to see some wrok they have done. The one that appears the most responsable and has the work you would think you want is the one you choose.
You probably won't have to pay over $100.00 to $200.00, depending on the scope of the work. If it's just icons you need, $50.00 may be fine. Let them know they can use this work for their portfolios and use you as a reference in the future.
It benefits everyone. You get cheap design labor and they get beer money/positive references.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
As a digital artist, it's nice to see the tables turned. I'm used to being shat on and talked over by UNIX admins and coders who just assume I know vi, or emacs, or where network interfaces are on bsd or various linux distros, et ceteras.
And the programmers are looking for art tips? Nice.
My advice : If you can't do it yourself, make a deal with someone who can. It doesn't even have to involve money. Could be barter or whatever.
Just remember that an artists time is just as valuable as yours, if not more so- and artists are typically subjected to the harrowing horrors of Art Direction. "Make it smaller! Make it rounder! Can I have it in cornflower blue? It's too complicated! It's not complicated enough! It's not what I want but I know fuckall about how to communicate my vision to you so I'm just going to keep requesting changes until you resign from the project and tell all of your art friends I'm an asshole!" and so forth.
I do video and admin work for a living, and I share my work area with a designer who gets pushed around and shat on daily. I love working for myself, but from what I've seen, having someone else in charge of my visual output is a special kind of hell- which is why I don't do contract work.
Know exactly what you want and be prepared to produce several "along these lines" or "kind of like this, only..." examples to illustrate your point. Give the contractor too much free reign and you're likely to get some whacked out thing that bears no resemblance to what you want- wasting their time and yours in the process.
The absolute best art learning book I've ever seen is "[url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/ -/0874774241/qid=1100569243/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/10 2-9640388-0042521?v=glance&s=books&n=507846]Drawin g on the Right Side of the Brain[/url]" by [url=http://www.drawright.com/]Dr. Betty Edwards[/url]. It teaches "how to see" instead of "how to draw"... rather, instead of saying "see this? draw it. keep going, eventually you'll figure it out. Maybe"; it teaches you how to start seeing the same way artists see (which is ultimately what allows people to draw well).
I highly reccomend it. The before and after images are just asounding -- in just 5 days Dr. Edwards' students show simply AMAZING progress.
jimmac has a nice site on this very topic
Much more to it that you probably guessed.
This guy basically claims three things:
1. He owns Photoshop, LightWave, and Maya. A cursory look at pricing reveals that buying those programs would cost about $3200 total (assuming he buys Maya Complete and not Maya Unlimited).
2. He only needs some icons or sprites.
3. He can't pay an artist to make those things.
I haven't priced custom artwork latetly, but assuming it's -anything- like custom software, I have a damned hard time believing he can't get what he needs for much, much less than $3200. I think it's much more likely that he is using illegal copies of those programs, in which case I think he needs to get out of the commercial software business if he's not willing to respect the copyright of other programmers. In any case, if he's willing to infringe software copyright, he might as well just copy some artwork, too.
Sorry for the harsh language, but this guy is either an idiot not to have done the math or a crook for copying software illegally.
The quickest way I know to get those professional looking anti-aliased images using a cheap icon editor is to design the icon at 512x512 and then scale the image down to 64x64.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
The Iconfactory offers royalty-free icons and design services. You may want to look into them. They have some nice-looking stuff.
asking for a tutorial on how to be a professional graphic artist is like asking for a quick guide on how to program high quality, bug free commercial software. it can take years of practice and learning. you eventually find what's right, or what works for your needs. there are countless tutorials online that will teach you little tricks on how to achieve various visual effects with photoshop. you simply need to find a way to apply them in a way that suits you. people don't spend four or more years in college for a BFA or design degree for nothing.
Get a camera and shoot stuff like what you see here.
Or give up with the art and get a job here.
I've had graphic designer friends come to me for minor-incident tech support or other small software-related tasks, because they don't have the money or budget to get a full-time software partner. The same problem occurrs with smaller developers. budgetary restraints in software projects simply eliminate the ability to hire a graphic artist for minor work.
In a perfect world, only graphic designers would design graphics and only software developers would develop software. As it is today, some people have to do a little of everything to get by. Some of their required tasks they're trained in, and in others they're not. I'm sure you can design the most beautiful icon ever seen by mankind, but if you can't do it for $100 or less, then you're not going to get many requests from programmers working alone.
click-clack, front and back. I'm not moving this car otherwise.
If you are trying to create icons with those tools, you have a basic misunderstanding of the medium.
Photoshopping is for editing, well, photos. It's fine also as a finishing tool for icons that are already made.
Maya is used for making 3D models, which is almost always overkill for an icon. (I've never used Lightwave, but I recall it being a 3D app as well).
What you need is a vector graphics editor. I would have to recommend Adobe Illustrator myself, although Inkscape is coming along quite well (and is free, so start there if you just want to see what I'm talking about). As for Macromedia Freehand, it seems to be a good program. However, I've always found it awkward (many will disagree) and at the school where I work it has incredibly many printing errors, so I can't really say.
And, beyond all that (as others have said) the key problem is most likely that you are an amatuer, not a professional. So, take an art course. Just go to a local college and sign up for a 2D design course of some sort.
Funny you should mention Tigert, who does use the Gimp.
I know a lot of artists for free/open source software projects use non-free programs like AI or 3DS, but not all.
Different people are used to different tools, and I primarily use Sodipodi, with a couple of extra programs on the side (most notably the Gimp).
Wait 5-10 years before using the free art tools? That's crazy talk. They're usable enough to do great art now. (You know that Susan Kare, one of my favourite artists, did a lot of her most beautiful work using only MacPaint or Windows Paintbrush?)
"Open Source Web Design is a community of designers and site owners sharing free web design templates as well as web design information. Helping to make the internet a prettier place!"
To hire all the people that need to be involved. Writing, programming, and iconagraphy are three different skills, and have really no overlap. Writers, do indeed write better. Programmers do indeed program better, and artists do indeed art better.
It sounds as if the guy that writes your proposals and specs the jobs (who is that in the mirror?) could use a lesson in resource requirements.
"If you pay an artist $200 for a couple of simple graphics, you'll save yourself tons of time, and your project will come out much, much better. So reduce the number of graphics you need, and get the best ones you can."
Great Advice and absolutely true, HOWEVER, for the "DIY" types, i would add:
1. AVOID THE HIGH-LEARNING CURVE TOOSLS, SUCH AS:
A. Photoshop
B. Dreamweaver
C. Flash
D. ALL THE 3D Products; Lightwave, Maya, 3dFX
i'm a programmer/developer, and i've been using some of the above for years in high end web design, and find that if i don't use them for a few months, i have to relearn big chunks of the program, sometimes ending up with a 3:1 ratio between learning and designing.
2. USE THE MORE "AUTOMATED DESIGN PRODUCTS, SUCH AS;
A. Ulead PaintShop Pro -- http://www.jasc.com/products/?
B. Macromedia Fireworks
C. Adobe Photoshop Elements
D. Cool Button Tool -- http://www.buttontool.com/
E. Cool FX Menu Tool -- http://www.buttontool.com/
These programs are substantially cheaper $$$$ to buy then the "Biggies", and are designed to take some of the load off some of the design choices that can drive even highly skilled designers (Choices such as; opacity, blends, masks and moires)....
STEAL, uh, i mean "homage" any image (OBEY ALL PERTINENT COPYRIGHT RULES, AND DON'T "HOMAGE" FROM MAJOR SITES THAT ARE KNOWN TO EMPLOY LOTS OF LAWYERS!!!!!!!!!)
you can be a good citizen and ask, or you can homage them and alter them enough to make them "yours"
3. LEARN HOW TO FIND HELP FROM PROS: there are a # of websites designed to provide such help, for example http://creativepro.com/ is used by pretty much every designer i've worked with or known. everyone of the major software provider has both developer programs and tutorials and community BBs, forums, etc..
some companies such as Adobe and Macromedia really push these developer forums and you can frequently get better/faster/smarter solutions from these forums, than from the companies' Tech Support programs!!!
4. SELECT A "LOOK AND FEEL"; from a product/service/??? similar to what your product/service/??? and use that to extract GENERAL guidelines about how to present your design. Chances are these folk have paid good monety to learn lessons about to sell your similar product/service/??? -- go to school on them, BUT DON'T copy their design (Lawsuit City), extract their approach and see how you can apply it to your particular project...
Good Luck!
Ten quid, she's so easy to blind. And not a word is spoken...
Try Sitepoint. is a very good web design site. At first there were only technical articles, but they added an art column, and now they got their art and design newsletter.
Here's the article: Good designers copy, great designers steal. Two thumbs up for that one. They even give you examples of how to do it right.
Might wanna try.
I use sodipodi. It's actual a decent and quite capable tool. Tigert uses (or has) GIMP, but when he started it was much much less capable than it is today. Think about that.
Larry Ewing, the designer of the Linux pengiun, used GIMP 0.54, which is about where Sodipodi is compared to something like Adobe Illustrator today.
GIMP 0.54 and pengiun
Sodipodi complements GIMP *greatly*. It's a joy to use both together, since GIMP vector tools aren't that useful for actual drawing purposes and can be tedious.
Dijkstra Considered Dead
How? By not being artistic. If you find that you can't seem to get the right look, try a minimalist approach.
Need a color? Try 100 random colors
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
1. Colors, Colors, Colors: Understand Colors and what works and what Doesn't Red Green Blue for Displays Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black for printing. Red and Green make Yellow and Magenta and Yellow make Red. Warm Colors are Red and Yellow, Cool Colors are Cyan and Blue. Black Gray and Whites are Neutral. Green, Magenta are in the middle of Warm and Cool. Avoid mixing inverse colors except for Black and White. (A way to find the inverse color is to use a graphic program and take a negative image of it)
2. Don't Go Crazy: Often for a programmer who starts dabbling with Art they like to go crazy and put as much artwork as possible. Look at companies known to have good interfaces like Mac OS there are plenty of graphics very pretty but they keep it under control.
3. Try to use as many of the standard widgets for your platform. Depending who your platform target audience is, try to make your graphics fit their OS Platform. If you are programming for apple stick to the gray stripes or the brushed metal look (Stripes are easier). In Windows stick to the Blues, Grays, Whites, If XP add some orange in the mix.
4. Animate for a reason. Animations in a program should help the user follow the flow of the information (Such as a box that needed to get bigger or some extra text inserted) Dont animate for the sake of animation.
5. Anti Aliasing goes a long way: Make your graphics big then shrink it with anti aliasing turned on. It makes it look like it is not from MS Paint.
6. A little rounding or making it a little edgier sometimes is all it is needed to make the customer feel that they have a good product. Just take a shape control and give it a curve of 15 make it White with a Black border and put it underneath a group of widgets and they will think it looks super cool.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I have spent the last 7 years as a painter/graphic artist/art director in NYC and twice a day I have to reply to a non-creative (Account, Copy, Admin etc.) about "why cant I make art look good too". Webster: Art: 1. skill acquired by experience, study, or observation 2. a branch of learning. That doesnt mean you cant do it - you can - but its hard work. You never "get there", but you can certainly get better. Its a continuous process and you will probably feel vaguely uncomfortable for a very long time. Just keep trying to learn and improve. Only a pretentious bastard believes everything they do is a holy nugget (it never is) and you do not want to be one of those. Find and hang out with the kind of people who do what you want to do and learn from them... Take basic drawing and design classes... Most of all, PAY ATTENTION to what you like and learn from it. On the other hand, if its a big professional deal ($$$) and you need the help - hire an artist. We all want to learn and grow but sometimes you need to call in a professional. PIXAR has specialized division of labor - why not you?
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." ~The Honorable Daniel Patrick Moynihan
... you could always spend a lifetime multi-classing, but don't go complaining to the DM when you discover that divided XP means you make only half the progress in each of your classes. Who cares how many hit-dice you have if HR is only looking at your class-skills!
I've found Wings 3D to be an easy jump for a programmer to make into 3D modelling, if that's a form of "art" you're after as well. The texturing modes are a breeze also.
Mutant Freaks of Nature: "Frighteningly Addictive"
[just published this past August]
ISBN:1585422193
ISBN: 067163514X
ISBN: 0874774241
I also purchased the following at Linuxworkd NY this year and found it a good read that would be germane to your needs:
- The Art of Interactive Design
Once you have an idea of what you need to illustrate, you should be able to use any application (I recomend using the same Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) standard used at Open Clip Art because:by Chris Crawford
ISBN: 1886411840
- Edges;
- Spaces;
- and Relationships;
(Read Drawing on the Right Side of the Brian)Relationships (yes there is some crossover);
Lights and Shadows
Gestalt
As a designer I have exactly the opposite problem. I have a strong foundation in (and teach) graphic design however my programming abilities are limited at best. Essentially I can install and configure scripts but that's about the limit of my abilities.
Since I own and operate a tiny web design studio (on a shoestring budget) this often leaves me in a bind when it comes to development projects. I can't afford to keep a full time PHP programmer on staff so I'm forced to sub things out on a project per project basis. Even though this work method is prone to failure (my experience has been that development projects are rarely, if ever delivered on time) I know well enough that programming isn't something you can just 'pick up' by reading a book. Like any other trade it requires training, dedication and at least a little bit of skill.
In my opinion this is the major problem with developers who "design" web sites. They marginalize the actual design of the site as if it's an afterthought (eg. who needs a designer, I have animating clip art!). The truth is, a successful site is a marriage of good design and solid programming. And until you realize that, and accept it, you're belittling all the work involved in either trade.
DigiSquid Design.
One hat I wear is that of a designer. I probably spend about 1 - 2 months out of the year doing artwork for Web sites and applications. I have provided the design work for hundreds (if not thousands) of Web sites and programs in one way or another, as you will see below...
Steal your ideas, mine have been ripped off more times than I can keep track of and I assure you no one is ever going to be able to do anything about it.
I see it all the time, some slick looking site based on another designer's ideas, and it hurts bad when it is my own work getting stolen. I have had companies provide me with other people's conceptual sketches (in some cases, sketches from friends of mine that I already know have not been paid for) and ask if I can do the same thing cheaper. I have had people ask me how I pulled off some neat trick in Flash, gone to their email domain and seen my work being copied frame for frame. I have found watermarks in content I made showing up in other people's sites and been told no visual idea belongs to anyone. Originality stopped being a virtue in 1997, why even try?
You should steal whatever artistic concepts you think you need, cutting and pasting screenshots into Photoshop should be sufficent for any purpose. Intellectual property is a joke unless you have an army of lawyers, and it still costs too much for most companies to come after you unless you are costing them big bucks. Consider buying a scanner so you can steal ideas from magazines and newspapers as well - ESPN the Magazine is a great source of content to lift and maybe it will keep my stuff safe.
Just put 'Artisitic Genius' on your business card and tell people you are Picasso's evil twin. Go spawn children and steal... uh... 'study' their crayon drawings for use in your work. Carry Silly Putty to lift tattoo outlines directly from people's skin and pass them off as your own. Spend all your time at hotels and pay for your meals by signing them off to other people's rooms. Give up technology and just start mugging people, same thing. Phish.
If anyone ever calls you on stealing artwork, refuse to acknowledge the 'similarities', tell them to bite you and claim they stole YOUR ideas. If they still bug you, find out their phone number and threaten their families in the middle of the night. It works.
M
If you're not an artist you're not an artist and you aren't going to crank out beautiful work regardless of how well you learn any software package.
Here are my tips...
1. Keep designs simple.
2. Keep designs consistent.
3. Don't mix serif and sans-serif fonts. (Debian.org is a great example of what not to do... All the titles are sans-serif and all the text is serif. Download a copy of the page and edit the CSS file to use Verdana for the body text and look at how much better it makes it look.)
4. Don't do things for the sake of doing them, make sure any layout decisions have some reason behind them.
5. Find an artist and barter services if you can't afford to hire them.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
You can go to school for 4 years, as I did, if you want to learn how to draw, paint, and design. But you would do yourself more good if you just take the time to understand the basics. Pickup a design fundamentals book that covers things like the "Golden Section", repitition, framing, etc. The other great thing to learn is the use of color, and color combinations. http://www.pantone.com is a good place to start. You could also pick up a book about color. Other than the basics like these, you would have to spend a lot of time and energy learning and practicing how to draw, that I don't think you are looking to do. Oh. And don't design your website with programmer blue!
Only on slashdot will you find a comment titled "have you no decency" that includes the phrase "jacking off into the gimp".
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
>> #3- Look at other designs, and borrow, borrow,
>> borrow. Very few people actually create something
>> original. Just about everything has been done
>> before, so just borrow away.
>
> STEAL, uh, i mean "homage" any image (OBEY ALL
> PERTINENT COPYRIGHT RULES, AND DON'T "HOMAGE" FROM
> MAJOR SITES THAT ARE KNOWN TO EMPLOY LOTS OF
> LAWYERS!!!!!!!!!)
This kind of attitude really pisses me off (not to mention that it's really, really stupid to suggest "borrowing" or to "homage"). Stealing art is basically the same as stealing code. You must _ALWAYS_ ask for permission. As an artist I can assure you that if I found your companies using my artwork and passing it on as your own then you might be facing a lawsuit. I would hate to resort to legal actions but if you steal my stuff, and haven't been licensed to use it (e.g. artistic license), you'd better be prepared for a bare-knuckle fight.
I'm telling you this for your own good. Just because it's there doesn't mean you can take it and use it as you see fit because you see, like code, it does belong to someone unless explicitly stated to be public domain. After all, like parent stated -- art is subject to Copyright laws.
If you asked me for permission and acknowledged me as the artist, however, I would probably be more than happy to accomodate you and grant you permission to use it. It's a matter of pride - please keep that in mind.
Thanks alot, now I feel dirty for having to spell this out in such a impolite fashion.
- Go to the thrift store and buy an action figure you like. Something posable helps to have options.
- Find a hill you like. Nuff said.
- Point your camera at the hill on a tripod. If you have some way to take a picture without touching it, great.
- Place the figure about 18 to 25 inches away from the camera so that it appears on top of the hill in a natural way.
- Take a shot with the figure in place and another shot without. Keep the camera as still as possible.
- Go home and open the two images in Photoshop.
- Select the image with the figure and press CTRL-A to select all. Now CTRL-C to copy (just being thorough). Select the other image and paste (CTRL-C).
- Now play. You should have the images in layers one on top of the other. Try fiddling with the opacity, or add a filter or cutout the figure and re-position it. Don't be afrait to try anything - especially blurs! Let people fill in their own detail. Worry about what the image is instead of how detailed it is.
(Yes, I know this is a classic special effects method. It works well for an example.)Some great Photoshop tutorials (and Maya and others too) can be found in Computer Arts Magazine. The tutorials are step by step with great examples to learn from. It's a little pricey here in the US, but worth it for a beginer.
As to how to make an icon rather than an animated GIF or a JPEG or something else, just look up the spec. Google for "Photoshop icon tutorial" or or "Photoshop animated GIF tutorial". Think of the different file specs as... well, specs. Photoshop can edit pretty much any image type you'll need.
I tend to do a lot of self contained work (Art, Music, Programming) so I can attest: Anyone can do it themselves.
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
Do pencil sketches. Scan. Edit and colorize in photoshop. It's the best way I've found. The pencil is still the best tool for what it's good for, and photoshop is the best tool I've found for what it's good for.
James Lipton?
Who knew we had greatness in our midst?
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
This may be redundant, but did anyone suggest trying to learn Povray? It's not that hard to learn, and with it, you can create some amazing images very easily, even if you are terrible at art.
However, it's a rendering program, so perhaps using it for icons and sprites is an overkill.
I'm a programmer but having worked in the game industry for many years I grew to know a lot about game art, both on paper (concept sketches and paintings) and on the computer.
First, it's a skill that can be learned like any other. Sure, some people have a natural talent, and others don't (like me). There are also people who are natural programmers, and they will always be the best at it; but anyone can learn to program if they really want to.
I've ended up doing tons of stand-in art for games, and a lot of it ended up going into the final game, because it was Good Enough. Usually it was character animations and interface elements, basically the easy stuff, but still - it goes to show you that there isn't as much of a line between the artistically talented and someone who can just learn to work the tools.
Here's a few random tips from my many years of hanging around with really talented artists as well as my own tinkering:
Tools - I'm pleased to say that the OSS art tools you can get today for photo art and 3D are as good as or better than their commercial counterparts for many tasks. I've used Photoshop, Maya, 3D Studio Max (and the original 3D Studio, for that matter), and Lightwave in the course of my career, but I find that the Gimp (for 2D) and Blender (for 3D) are today better, or at least as good as, most of the commercial offerings. One thing about this may be that both of these programs are geared more towards programmers-become-artists than pure artists, which may be why I find them more intuative and powerful.
Color - Color is a huge element. Crappy shapes with a good color scheme actually look pretty good; nice shapes with a crappy color scheme always look bad. Typically you want to combine complimentary colors - purple and gold, for example - in a way that is pleasing to the eye. It can be tricky to get this right, but one trick you can do is use the color wheel in Gimp. Find the first color you are going to use, and then go to the exact opposite side - that's your complimentary color. Note that a muted color (tan, for example) should fill more, proportionately, of the image than its bright complimentary color (red, for example). When in doubt, go look at a nice-looking website and steal their colorscheme.
Compositing - You can do a LOT by compositing photographs and other existing graphic elements. For example I made the header image for this website by compositing shots I had taken in New Oreans, plus a couple photos from images.google.com eg, Stonehenge in the lower left corner). Using the Gimp's color adjustment tools, scale, resize, rotate, and opacity, you can collage together a bunch of unrelated images and end up with something that looks pretty cool.
Learn Blender - A great way to make a final image is to create a central element in 3D, and then paste it into an image and edit it up with the Gimp. That's how I did the graphics for this site, for example. Blender is surprisingly easy to learn; this excellent tutorial will have you up and running in no time. I was creating elements usable for compositing in my 2D images in a matter of hours after I started learning it. (Of course, I have a lot of experience using other modelers, so it may take a complete 3D novice longer.)
Last of all, I will suggest the tried-and-true method for self-teaching yourself almost anything: duplicate! Go find a piece of art that you think is attractive. Study it closely. Pick it apart. Now try to create your own version of the same thing using whatever tools you are trying to learn. The process of taking apart someone else's image will teach you a lot about the elements that experienced creators use.
As for training to become "self sufficient". I'm both a developer and an interactive / graphic designer. Visual communication skills are not something you can simply pick-up. Those of us who are legitimate graphic and interactive designers have spent a LOT of time at universities learning how to solve problems using graphic arts, typography, engineering, psychological research, sociological research, etc etc.
;)
I don't mean to sound condescending (seriously), but most professional graphic or interactive designers have worked their ass off in order to get where they are. That typically means 60+ hour school weeks in a decent undergraduate program, and or even more grueling training in a graduate program.
Unfortunately, many in the development field think designers are talented "artists" who can make things pretty. We're not. We're problem solvers who should be helping users to interact with (your) software or multimedia. Moreover, this interaction should be both incredibly functional and emotionally immersive (ie: iPod).
(this is the part where Slashdot folks respond with "I taught myself and now I'm the head blah bitty blah designer for Company X"... don't listen to those people. Unless they're named David Carson, they probably suck. Worse yet -- they, and or their boss, probably don't realize that they suck.)
Now... what they hell am I getting at? Well, you could start learning visual communication skills in order to become "self sufficient." However, you're interface design work won't be very good unless you take the time to get some real training..... Or, you could hire a graphic or interactive designer.
Graphic and or interactive designers can be quite pricey. $35 to $200 per hour. Nevertheless, if you take advantage designers or grad students who are willing to do quality work for cheep (or free), you could be in good shape. Many designers will work for peanuts if you offer them some creative freedom and have a project they would love to include in their portfolio . Sometimes having a cool piece in your portfolio is worth much more then a paycheck.
If I were you, I would check with your local AIGA chapters ( http://www.aiga.com/ ) or graduate design programs. Look for a talented fresh designer who needs to build up his or her portfolio. Try to get them to do some pro bono work
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Don't pay for anything until you've spent an afternoon browsing through DaFont -- 4000 free fonts, many of which are worth having.
Also (and don't laugh!) get any old copy of CORELDRAW, even if the program is for another platform; it's ten years old and will be cheap as dirt. But, it has over a thousand perfectly usable typefaces in TrueType format.
I'm by no means a professional typographer, just someone with 8+ years of programming and, before that, 8+ years of graphic design, with a strong amateur interest in typography. So I appreciate real fonts, like you'd pay $400 apeice for from a professional font foundry, or the value of a whole spectrum of historically important type families. However, there is enough in these two font sources for almost anyone to get by on the cheap, as I presently do.
Taking some time (a few hours) to pick a nice sans-serif font (think Arial) for headlines and a complementary serif (think Times) for body text, can very quickly improve any project. By complementary I mean having similar letterforms. Look at the shape of the 'a', 'Q', and 'J' and especially the top of the 't', as well as the overall 'colour' (the density of the text) on the page.
One combination from the COREL CD that I'm doing a lot of work with at the moment is Context Condensed for headlines, together with Atlantix for body type. But experiemnt for yourself.
I'm a developer myself, and often in need of icons. I find microangelo studio (http://www.microangelo.us/) very easy to use. It's also not very expensive (somewhere around 40 bucks for a license) and there's a free trial available.
If you say you can barely get by with your assignments and don't need to produce high quality artwork, why have you bought expensive licenses for Photoshop ($500-600), LightWave ($1600) and Maya ($2000)???
You should have just picked up some free or cheap products instead since your not going to use the expensive features anyway, that way you could get along easily and perhaps invest in something you'll actually use.
I'm assuming you're not making money by using cracked versions of said software, naturally.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
"art is subject to Copyright laws."
Absolutely and the parent's implication that it is ok to heist it is entirely wrong.
"does belong to someone unless explicitly stated to be public domain"
It's this part of your statement that is wrong and this line of thinking must be corrected wherever seen. It's particularly important to correct (even anally so) someone who creates copyrighted works and has this wrong view. When any man creates a work subject to copyright, that work is owned by mankind, not by the man who made it (although the man owns the physical object, that isn't what is subject to copyright)!
Copyright is the OWNER ie mankind (or the nation on it's behalf) granting you temporary and limited controls by contract for a limited term. It's a way of saying thankyou. You own the copyright, not the material which is copyrighted.
Your pride you may be entitled to, but it becomes arrogance to think to own the miracle of man's imagination, even the piece of it you bear through life. Human history shows in thousands upon thousands of documented instances that NO idea is unique. You can think something first, but even if you never tell a soul there will plenty of others who form the same thought.
...go to someplace like Deviantart.com and seek out artists often willing to do it for you, and in may cases for free?
Any tips? --I already have my own nun-chucks and expensive cross trainers.
-FL
Having studied and practiced art professionally for 8 years I can say that, just like programming, the essence of making art boils down to about 10 to 20 rules. Yet grasping these rules to the full extend and improving your skills to actually apply these rules usefully is long hard work. A basic tip I'd give is to copy the artists you consider best. The rest follows the usual pure and simple rule:
There is no secret. Work your ass off.
And, btw, no amount of powertools will bend that rule. Just as is it is with programming.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Okay, you want to make art: icons, and such. First, let me point out that I have found no graphics program to be as good or as quick as Deskpaint for the old,old macintoshes, by ZedCor. I think there also used to be a PC version of that program.
... just in case. Don't throw those files away, later, either, or the standardization notes. Archive 'em. You'll perhaps want them later.
.bmp file, and let your own homebuilt program average sets of 4 colors. At this point, details that looked "not so good" will look better, even great.
However, you probably can't get a copy of that program any more. So the next best bet is to get a copy of FuturePaint (freeware--do a web search) for Macs. But if you can't do that, get something that is reasonably quick, that can import and export different file types, that can scale graphics and change the number of colors gracefully, and that has some basic drawing tools.
(Sorry, Linux folks, GIMP just doesn't cut it. Nor do the K apps, which are slow and crash too much.)
Also, save your work using different file names at every step of the way. It isn't worth the time if you mess something up. Indeed, when I'm doing outlining, I like to save my work several times during that process
Okay... now, step by step:
(1) find the dot size (like, 150 dots by 150 dots) of your desired icon. Quadruple that (600 x 600). Note that you'll have to do this whole process 4 times or so, if you have 4 different resolutions for a single icon. Don't skimp, or some of these will look lousy.
(2) Scan in a picture (a good hand drawing, or something from a magazine) of what you want. If what you want is not available, you can actually arrange picture pieces in a collage, and scan that in. I've done this to avoid copyright problems -- I can be sure that my work doesn't even look like the originals I used, because I cut a leg and turned it, cut an arm and turned that... you get the idea. Anyhow, scan it in so that it appropriately fills your quadruple-size area (600x600, above).
(3) Lighten the whole picture so that it uses only the 5/16 lightest colors. Now this will be your background.
(4) Select 2-3 standardized line sizes: for example, 5 pixels wide for outlines, 2 pixels wide for internal detail lines. Don't forget to multiply by 4, because we're working at 4 times the resolution (20, and 8).
(5) Now, using the line tool on black, draw all those lines with your sketch tool. Outline what you see, and make detail appropriately.
(6). Now print out what you have, then convert all light grays to white. Do that either by changing the color curves, or by using flood fill judiciously (which I prefer).
(6) Now, pick your colors. Again, standardize. (when I say standardize, I mean write the standards down on paper, and stick to them). Using lines of the selected colors, isolate patches and then flood fill them.
(7) You should now have an icon that is 4 times the size/resolution of what you want. Select it, and shrink it down to a quarter size. Your program should be able to handle merging (averaging) colors. If it can't, then save as a 256 color
(8) If appropriate, convert to 256 colors, 16 grays, or whatever.
(8) Retouch as necessary (probably won't be necessary).
Just as a note, I have found that I like my flood fill colors to always be in the lightest 16th of the palatte, whereas I like my lines to always be black. This makes the icon easy to see and identify.
Now... all that said... you seem to be having trouble making ends meet. Let me suggest a business website for you:
http://www.tinaja.com/
The guy also has an $8 book which is invaluable:
___The incredible secret money machine II____
To the extent which I was able to follow his advice, it created a good business for me (~17000-$30000 a year).
That said, the level of justice in our country is crashing
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
Maya personal lerning edition is free (as in beer). It looses the plugin capabilities that made Maya an industry standard, and watermarks images, but in terms of seeing if you can pump out useful work with it, that's not an issue (same interface, and most of the same capabilities as full grown Maya).
I seriously expect that the submitter is talking about Maya PLE, rather than any of the proper versions of Maya in the byline, for more or less the same reasons as the parent - it's too much money otherwise.
Photoshop is prehaps not too surprising, given that it is often (not completely corretly) considerd _the_ 2D raster packege [0].
Lightwave is still somewhat anomolus, however.
[0] Photo's and photorealistic style images it's great for. Icon design, other, simpler packages might be better.
I must admit I've never even seen Photoshop, it's much too expensive for me to even consider.
Second hand copies of out-of-date versions are much easier to get hold of. I find Photoshop 5 does pretty much everything I need. You can find copies on eBay for next to nothing.
It's not just about masking artistic deficiencies. Sometimes the clean minimalistic look is actually the best.
The dot-com era was filled with clueless PHBs who thought that the user wants an artistic experience. Every single site had to have some horrible colour scheme (e.g., cyan on bright blue, or orange on light orange are actual colour schemes I was asked to implement.) It had to have gradients, 1 MB of animations per page, impossible to read funky fonts, and graphics _everywhere_.
Turns out that most users _don't_ want an experience. They want a simple an intuitive program that just works, or an easy to use and navigate site.
I.e., my advice to anyone would be:
1. Usability and clean layout before funky graphics. Remember that you're making a professional program, not a work of art. The purpose of that interface is functionality, _not_ expressing yourself or evoking feelings.
This is the main reason why graphics artists are bad web site designers, unless you get them to also learn proper web design. GUI design is a completely different skill from graphics design, and for that matter from programming. (Witness the many excellently programmed OSS programs, that nevertheless have an utter crap UI.)
2. Keep it simple. For a back button, a simple left-pointing arrow will suffice. For file operations, a 3.5" floppy icon works wonders.
Basically, if all you need is an icon, do _not_ try to paint the whole Book of The Dead, with the Pharaoh being led into the underworld and judged. You're making an icon, not a fresco.
3. Keep the learning curve low. If the users have already been educated that symbol X means operation Y, use that. E.g., everyone was already broken in that a left pointing arrow means "back", so use it for that and only for that. Don't try to teach them new tricks just for your program.
This may seem like a rehash of 2, but really has more to do with 1. It's all about usability. Steep learning curves are bad. Reusing the user's existing skills is good.
4. Keep it simple.
4.a. You have precious few pixels in an icon or button, so complex images tend to end up with details that are 1-2 pixels tall or wide. The images must be easy to recognize without squinting to see the details. To that end, for example, a stilized telephone symbol will actually work better than a 3D-rendered anti-aliased phone that's been shrunk to 32x32 pixels.
4.b. Remember that the role of icons, again, are to allow the user to quickly locate common actions on a toolbar. Again, functionality before artistic expression. They are _not_ there to evoke feelings or express yourself.
So simple and clear is good in that aspect too. An arrow or a magnifying glass are things that aren't just easy to draw, they're also very easy to recognize and visually locate.
Etc.
So basically what I'd argue is that often keeping it simple, abstract and clean is actually the _right_ way, and making it overly artistic is the _wrong_ way. Not being an artist or creative can actually be an advantage.
Yes, you can't take a programmer and expect him to be able to paint the sixtine chapel. But here's the fun part: you want an UI, _not_ the sixtine chapel. Someone who tries to make a sixtine chapel out of the UI is actually the _wrong_ person for the job.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
I think getting a basic feel for colors and their significance as well as thought that goes into graphic design would help to create decent amateur art. Another quick and fun way is to buy a digital camera and go crazy with the photography! Your knowledge of perspective, beautiful vs. ugly colors, and a lot of stuff will increase dramatically. I had the Canon A70 and then A75 - both quite reputable 3 MP cameras that had quite a few features to play around with.
This sig donated to Pater. Long live
I know folks who do abuse Gimp's or Photoshop's filters and effects, that's another good point. But using a rastor program itself is not the problem and in a lot of cases is a perfectly good solution.
Use your graphics programs as tools, not factories. Art doesn't come out of a machine, it comes out of you.
Sure-
Most importantly, find a WORKING artist. Not someone who just considers themselves an artist. Every jackass hipster living in downtown Sacramento thinks they are an 'artist'. That somehow explains the piercings, stupid spiked hair, crappy clothes, crummy apartment, and dead-end job. "Oh he/she isn't a loser, they are an ARTIST". Bullshit- they are a loser with a weak excuse.
Find one who is actually working. So therefore, don't hang out at clubs/bars/restaurants after about 10:00 on a weeknight, or 12:00 on the weekend. People with jobs actually need their sleep. And if they are WORKING at said club/bar/restaurant, then they are probably a WAITRESS, not an artist.
So, now that you have cut out 95% of the 'art community' where do we go from there?
Well, someone with a degree is a good starting point. They were serious enough about art that they spent 4+ years studying- rathing than just relying on the fact that "I've always liked to draw".
Next- when you meet up with this young and educated hottie, ask her pertinant questions like "what kind of computer do you use". The best, is if they use a Mac, but don't really know a damn thing about it. Remember, you're looking for an artist, not a computer geek.
So- where do these chicks hang out? (Hopefully not above their waistband).
Cities like San Francisco and Seattle have big 'designers' conferences of some sort. That is a potential. But then again, they are going to be too overwhelmed to really meet a guy.
Do what I did- hang out in your company's art department. (You KNOW they have a job) Even if you get 'in' just by lifting heavy boxes, etc. it gives you a reason to stand around. Now, start asking them out to lunch, calling them on the phone (see...they aren't wasting their work time, because it is 'business related') and generally start running into them as much as possible.
After they get over the fact that a total dork likes them, they'll start to see the advantages of the computer geek. For one, he is EMPLOYED, unlike all of her stupid hipster friends who hang out at clubs every night. For another, he doesn't look ridiculous. The guys who looked cool when she was 20, and in school, are starting to be embarrassing. And, the computer geek probably has a car, unlike her loser friends.
So there you have it- how to meet an artist.
No reason to lie.
homage is when you steal from someone who is dead,
influence is when you steal from someone who is alive,
plagiarism is when you steal from ME!
-- it's ridiculous how many people misspell ridiculous... (damn, damn, damn...)