World-renowned French artists share their exciting and innovative digital creations in Illustrations with Photoshop: A Designer's Notebook, a first-time English translation of the cutting-edge French work. The images in this book will energize image professionals, graphic artists, photographers, computer graphics designers--all creators of images, whether still or animated--and will forever change the way you see and perform your design work. Photoshop is best known among photographers as a photographic image manipulation tool; it is used largely for retouching and photomontage. But Photoshop is also a powerful and highly sophisticated tool for creating quality digital drawings and artwork. Artists, like the ones showcased within, use it to realize their unique vision through illustration. In this lavish, full-color collection, nine French graphic artists--well-known professionals from a vibrant culture with a reputation for taking creative risks and producing incomparable graphics and art--are turned loose with Photoshop. Ranging from advertising to children's book illustration, science fiction to settings for graphic novels and role-playing games, their groundbreaking creations will inspire you to see your industry anew, appreciate graphic design from a changed perspective, and revitalize your work. Representing the very finest of French creation in the world of graphic design and digital imaging, this notebook leads you into the heart of each author's artistic approach, guiding you through the inception and making of nine unparalleled works of art that spring from widely varying sources of inspiration. But you'll come away with more than ideas and inspiration--you'll find detailed, step-by-step information on making Photoshop do anything and everything you want to accomplish your ideal digital illustration. Unlike any other available, this visually stunning book will give you the creative license and technical know-how you need to create one-of-a-kind digital illustrations with Photoshop that are limited only by your imagination.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 9 Ratings

A winner for Right Brain Artists - 2005-05-30
Reviewer Rating:
Take nine world class French digital artists, add Photoshop, a dash of good writing and a heady helping of creativity and you have "Illustrations with Photoshop". As a digital artist, I was intrigued by the title though suspicious. I was an Illustrator devotee but found limitations when it came to colorization. Photoshop is the means to unbelievable eye-poppin' illustrations. I've found most how-to design books to be bland, dry, deserts of left brain techno-babble. I was surprised to discover a full-color right brain revival of design and effect. The book itself is well designed and flows well over the glossy pages with artist notes and lots of pleasing images devoid of stark techno-structure. There is enough variety of art styles represented that it will appeal to most creatively inclined readers.

The contributors span the horizon of artistic endeavors. Video game designers, graphic novel artists, illustrators and a bona fide painter reveal artistic, inspirational photoshop insights elevating 2D illustrations to stunning art. Each artist selected one of their works and walked through their project from concept to completion. Included in the commentaries were not only the technical methods but the artistic motivation for each enhancement. The instructions are clear and very clever. They unveiled many of the mysterious and dubious filters and pallets that were once drop down menu baggage. The other bonus was the eye candy images and layout that illuminated each process and why they chose that direction. This was obviously a book by artists for artists that will fire the imagination and creative possibilities for our own art. It has some fantastic pointers but is not likely to be worth the price for the family photo retoucher who just wants to take the stain out of Aunt Mary's blouse. For the zealots of digital design and effects, it is an appetizing oasis and a must have for your library. Bravo to O'Reilly Books for an impressive winner.

Peek Over The Shoulder Of World-Class Artists - 2005-05-31
Reviewer Rating:
If you are a traditional artist considering incorporating your computer into your artistic repertoire, this book is a great starting point. Even if you have already discovered how helpful your computer is for creating artwork, you will find the techniques in this book will extend your digital skills. Although Adobe Photoshop is widely considered the industry standard in professional image editing and photo retouching software, this book is about using Photoshop as an art medium. In this book, part of the O'Reilly Designer's Notebook series, you will learn from and be inspired by nine world-class French artists who used Photoshop to create the featured artwork.

As you progress through the book, you will look over the shoulder of these artists as they discuss how they incorporated Photoshop into their artistic approach. The accompanying full color images show the progression of each artwork from start to finish. This is not a step-by-step instructional manual; instead the artists talk about how and why they used the Photoshop software to achieve certain results. After scanning in a pencil sketch or creating the beginning sketch with the digital pen and tablet, these artists used the layers feature in Photoshop to a great extent. By working with each element of the design on a separate layer, they found they where less limited artistically - nothing done digitally is irreversible.

The book doesn't concentrate on just one style of art. The nine artists chosen to be showcased in this book represent a wide range from childrens' book illustrator to video game artist. Bengal is a graphic novel designer and artist. Hippolyte, Joel Legars and Marguerite Sauvage are illustrators. Nicolas Bouvier is a video game artist and art director. Benjamin Carre is a book illustrator and game designer. Judith Darmont is a painter. Nicolas Fructus is a graphic novel artist. Antonie Quaresma is a layout artist, computer graphics designer and colorist. The book was originally published in French and was translated by William Rodarmor.

A great addition to any artist and Photoshop users collection. - 2005-08-13
Reviewer Rating:
If like me you don't know anyone personally who happens to be a great artist and expert Photoshop user at the same time then you'll find a friend in this book. I've learned a few tips and it's great to know I've got them from such accomplished talent.

My only criticism of this book is that it is just not long enough. I'd have loved it to include a much larger spectrum of artists contributions thus divulging a great many more secrets that readers could make use of. A follow up title would be greatly welcome.

Ok, but there are better books. - 2007-12-26
Reviewer Rating:
This book has some interesting examples of illustration using Photoshop, however it is a little out of date (CS2 and before). I would probably not buy it if I had it to do over again.

Best of the Series - 2007-03-28
Reviewer Rating:
At the end of a long day of conference seminars, it is nice if they have a seminar that is more fun and informative rather than the heavy learning types. This book reminds me of that. A great read, but more from an intrest point of view. I didn't find too much to learn from here, but found with intrest, the techniques intriquing. It's refreshing to see how others go about using Photoshop to achieve an effect that I would have used a totally different approach on.

The subject matter and layouts are beautiful and well laid out, detailing the work of five great artists. Each section evokes the emotion of the work and guides you through the thought process to achieve the end point.

Great library read or a gift for that designer in your life. Priced a little high, but fits in the gift budget.

4.5/5

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