Creative & What else is there

Hopefully you've been checking out the SketcheeBook podcast, but if not please do. I'm hoping to have people submit questions, answers, comments, disagreements and tips to share with the audience. The audience is growing at a suprisingly steady rate. If you haven't checked out the show, it is about keeping productive with your creative stuffs. Especially for busy and dedicated people. All kinds of different tips for illustrators, designers, hobbyists, etc.

I've been pretty busy myself doing the whole graphic design thing six days a week. The goal is to have a new section sketchee.com with my design portfolio and change up the setup for the illustration and painting portfolio a little bit with the highlights. Yeah, this site has a lot of work to get it to where it needs to be. But that's is the dynamic nature of the web, I try to keep it at least presentable.

My latest posts have been from Nakama.ca, which seems to have gone down. My guess is that they got too popular for the kind of server loads that they have to handle. But it's suprising when the site has just vanished so abruptly.

SketcheeBook, The Creativity Productivity Podcast

I quietly launched the SketcheeBook Podcast . I have the initial bugs ironed out at this point so I'm ready for your feedback. Currently I'm having two episodes up each week. The site's setup allows me to upload a cache that updates automatically. I've been recording episodes in advance and at least have episodes done for a few weeks. The first few episodes are the basics of the creative process and there will be more things covered as we go.

If you're an graphic artist, illustrator, designer or other creative hopefully you'll either be able to get something from it, contribute or both. Send me your creativity tips and I'll mention your name and link in the show. Or better yet, record it yourself and I can have your voice and plug in the show. E-mail sketcheebook-at-sketchee.com or add that e-mail address to Google Talk to send a voicemail. Let me know what you want to hear, what you don't and all of that.

Scribble Scribble

I've been playing around in my sketchbook. Having a really good time, just letting my mind go free, not being afraid. I think the headphonin and checkmate sketches were decent indications of what's going in there now. Just scribbling patterns and graphic and typographic elements, mixing it with portraiture and landscapes. I think maybe most of my works have been somewhat traditional and trying to keep that timeless classic feel. It's interesting trying to keep that classic sense and introduce the graphic arts. I'm a graphic designer, so I'm always going through the design mags and sites... It's really all coming together in new ways. Iunno if it'll stick or if it's just an exploration I'm betting something from the scribbling will come back into some piece or another at some point. Anyway, back to scribbling

Graphic Artists Guild Handbook

Here's a great book for all of you illustrators, designers and/or artists. Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines. The book is geared toward all visual arts professionals It has sample contracts and invoices for illustrators, designers, digital artwork, graphic design, etc. It has salary information and current industry rates as well. The prose deals with practical and legal advice for working as a professional in the graphic arts field. There's an interesting chapter with step by step processes on handeling an individual illustration/design job. Then we have detailed chapters on each of the specifics for print desginers, web/digital designers, illustrators, cartoonists, animators and surface design (textiles). It's really comprehensive and if you're working in this field, it's worth taking a look at. It's especially valuable if you've ever considered taking on freelance work—full time or in addition to current job.

Real World InDesign CS2

I've been reading Real World InDesign CS2 trying to expand my knowledge of Adobe's Creative Suiite. InDesign is pretty powerful in it's ability to handle layouts design. This book shows how to use the programs robust features to their fullest potential and tackle design problems you may encounter in the real world, as the title aptly suggests. The writing isn't dry at all, either. It's written pretty lightly and concisely with lots of diagrams that visually explain what they're talking about. You're often given a few options to do each task and while they don't push any one way on you, they'll give you tips.

Co-author David Blatner is also co-host of the InDesignSecrets Podcast which is a really fun way to learn more about the program's ins and outs. I also love and religiously watch TheInDesigner, a video podcast which has merged into InDesignSecrets.

If you missed my last two book recommendations, check out Design Basics and Artist’s & Graphic Designer’s Market.