Photoshop & Illustrator Tips: Terrific CS5 Features and Tools

Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS5 have added some major VERY useful commands and tools to the software. For instance, Photoshop has new commands that will do a much better job of extracting images (including hair and fur) from art than the methods described in "Photoshop Tip: Four Methods to Extract Images / Icons from Scanned Art." And Illustrator has a perspective drawing command and a variable stroke tool that gives illustrations some very interesting effects. View the excellent videos listed below by Adobe software expert Terry White for demonstrations of these and many more commands to save time in extracting, altering, and creating images for patterns & backgrounds for art collections.

• "Compositing and Selecting Hair in Photoshop CS5"
[getting rid of backgrounds by using refined edge command with edge detection & smart radius commands]

• "Adobe Photoshop CS5 - My Top 5 Favorite Features"
[cropping images, using healing brush with content aware, using puppet warp to change and bend position of images, getting rid of color and grainy noise in photos]. Note: HDR that is referred to in the video means high dynamic range photography. Hint: I used the puppet wrap tool to bend a straight candy cane into the star shape as shown at the top of this article. After bending the shape with puppet wrap, the result was not perfect (a little jagged in places) but it was easily cleaned up with the eraser and smug tools.  The cane was shaded after it was bent and cleaned up.

• "10 Random Photoshop CS5 Tips"
[using mini bridge in PS to drag files into PS without having to open the files, removing the parallax distortion in photographed or scanned art, using crop tool to add a border around images, using the spot healing tool with content aware to fill areas of removed images, combining several layers without losing the original layers, etc.]

• "Adobe Illustrato CS5 - My top 5 Favorite Features"
[using the perspective drawing feature, the variable stroke tool, the shape builder tool, constrain drawing inside objects, and bristle brush painting technology to simulate pixel painting]

• "Using the New Width Tool in Illustrator CS5"

The above videos demonstrate only a few of the new commands and tools in Photoshop CS5 and Illustrator CS5. Videos demonstrating other new commands and tools in CS5 are available on Adobe.com, youtube.com, and Lynda.com.

I welcome any comments or suggestions. Please write them in the comment section below.

Art Licensing Tip: Branding the Art & Artist by Marketing with Videos

Many branding experts believe that it is just as important for customers to get to know the person behind the brand (i.e. artist) as it is to recognize the product (i.e. art). That is why photos of artists like Thomas Kinkade, Mary Engelbreit, Marjolein Bastin, and many others appear on marketing materials and sometimes on products such as greeting cards. An excellent way to market and thus brand not only the art but the artist is by creating videos and placing them onto the popular online video site youtube.com.

Videos can be slide shows, a presentation of art, a demonstration by the artist, an interview of the artist, or a combination of all. For instance, view the video "The Magic of Flowers in Watercolour - With Janet Whittle" showcasing her as she paints, a slide show of the "Art of Donald Vann," and a painting demonstration on "Heavy Impasto Palette Knife Acrylic Painting Demo" by artist Gary Garrett.

Creating videos is simple. Many digital cameras, laptop computers, and cell phones are capable of making videos so that purchasing a video camera is no longer necessary. And, easy to use software such a iMovie, that comes with the Apple operating system, can be used to edit and spiffy-up the video with background music, voice overs, and title pages. The videos listed in the previous paragraph have probably been enhanced in iMovie or similar software.

Another way to gain brand recognition is to be interviewed by TV and e-show hosts as was metal sculpture artist Karen Rossi. View a series of 10 videos "Karen Rossi on Full Bloom Part 1" to see the entire broadcast. Or be showcased in presentations by manufacturers as was artist Paul Brent by "Tile Factory on Christmas in July Program with Paul Brent." Or even have art showcased on QVC as did artist Brenda Pinnick. Other examples of artists using videos to continually gain recognition of themselves and their art is a "Tour of Susan Winget's Art Studio" and "KETC / Living St. Louis / Mary Englebreit." Also, check out Tara Reeds "What's Your Art Licensing Story?" project, to see over 25 videos on how different artists started licensing their art and also to find out how to be included in the project.

Editorial: Not only are videos an excellent way to brand an artist but also a way to leave lasting memories of them. View a TV segment video on "30 minutes Bay Area" of the artist "Laurel Burch Story" who suffered from degenerative brittle bone disease and died in 2007. Also view an interview of artist Cheri Blum (died in 2003) by retailer Pier 1 Imports. Both of these artists were extremely successful in licensing their work and still being licensed. Perhaps in the video "The Legacy of Laurel Burch" expresses best that an artist needs to have a drive to continually create, should live life to the fullest, and never give up.

If you have any comments about this article, please write them in the below comment section.

License Art by Marketing at Trade Shows

Art needs to be seen by manufacturers in order to get licensing contracts. The more frequently the art directors (ADs) of the manufactures see the artists work via marketing and publicity of all kinds, on products, and exhibiting at trade shows the better the chance it will be licensed. And one of the best methods in gaining visibility is to exhibit at trade shows that have an art licensing section. There is nothing that beats interacting personally with ADs to create interest in the art, find out what themes are needed, and how they wish to receive future submissions. Read "Art Licensing Trade Shows" for information about the different trade shows that have art licensing sections.

Exhibiting at a show costs many thousand of dollars ($5,000 to over $10,000 depending on the show) for booth fee, hotel, airfare, booth display materials, and marketing materials. So before committing to exhibiting at a show, evaluate your art. Is it REALLY ready to be exhibited? Below are some questions that should be asked before exhibiting.