Author Archives: Will Terry

an Oily Start with a Photo(shop) Finish Digital

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Started an oil painting and finished with photoshop

 

Start you piece traditionally to get a painterly look.

One of the problems with digital painting for a lot of artists is that it’s often hard to get the subtleties and happy accidents that traditional mediums provide.

One of the problems with painting in traditional mediums – like oils for instance is the lack of control or the tedious nature of finishing details – not to mention the fact that you can’t undo, adjust color, or zoom in.

This technique is probably not for Gallery art but. . .

Of course the solution won’t work for gallery painters or people who enjoy having originals but I had fun painting on this little oil painting in Photoshop. Originally I painted it on a Gessoed board in a few hours in my University painting class but never got around to finishing it. So yesterday I thought – why not scan it and spend an hour in Photoshop?

This is the original oil painting that I never had time to finish

Unfinished oil by Will Terry

Note see the flat strokes I made in the oil painting and the gesso texture.

close up, unfinished oil of jumping Fox

 I used one stock photoshop brush – the flat blunt (bristle tilt).

close up, jumping fox, finished in Photoshop

and here is the same oil painting with the digital strokes added in.

close up, of the grass in jumping fox painting.
My process is far from perfect. I don’t do this sort of thing every day but it can give you an idea of what is possible if you wanted to start your paintings in oil and finish them digitally.

The Teacher In Me

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App makers

The teacher in me is excited to teach the student in you.

The teacher in me wants you to find out what you can do.

The teacher in me knows what it’s like to have dreams come true and wants yours to come true too.

 

The teacher in me is afraid you won’t do what you need to do – but the teacher in me is still rooting for you.

The teacher in me lives through your triumphs.

The teacher in me knows you will fail again and again but prays you won’t quit.

 

The teacher in me can’t wait to see the teacher in you.

The teacher in me wants to be taught by the teacher in you.

 

Classes begin for me again today at UVU and I love it!

When I’m not teaching at FolioAcademy you can find me at UVU. I get so much out of teaching. Last semester in my children’s book class I gave my students the option to work on story apps. A hand full went in that direction and it was really fun to see what they came up with. We didn’t have time to work on their stories since it is an illustration class so they lack some of the polish that taking a children’s writing class would provide – but they learned by doing and are that much further along.

 

Here are a few of the apps they created last semester…

but one is missing :( Alicia VanNoy Call had her (TOTALLY AMAZING) app rejected by Apple twice because it didn’t have enough animation/interactivity. They wanted her to publish it as an iBook but she doesn’t want to do that for various reasons – so it’s in limbo at the moment.

I will really miss this group of kids – we really had a lot of fun!

Kitty Wants by Ginny Tilby (pink sweater)

 

 

Ricky the Fortune Cookie by Jared Salmond (second goof from the right)

 

 

Jumping Jackie by Kari & Von Brimhall

Jumping Jackie is from my long time college friends Kari & Von Brimhall – They did an amazing job animating their app using Talespring.com …if you want to see what’s possible at Talespring you should check out their app! I love their enthusiasim for creating ebooks and story apps. Kari is a homeschooler who’s kids are flying the coop and doing very well at college and now she and Von are living out their dreams creating for the pure love of it. They are one step ahead of me in that they already created a website to showcase their titles called instant sunshine.

The Secret To Your Success as an Artist

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How’s that for a title? Like I have the answers for Your Success as an Artist, right?

crappy piece make over in Photoshop

I often run into budding artists either in person or online that ask me what I think they can do find success as an artist. Aside from portfolio advice, going to school or getting tutored, blogging, sending out promos, making awesome art & products, etc (all of which are super important) here’s what I think the most important thing is:
Drum roll….

Be committed to your success as an artist for life.

Some plan on writing and/or illustrating a book but if it doesn’t get published they’ll move on and find something else to do. Some plan to apply for studio jobs but fall back on something else if it doesn’t pan out. Just the other day someone told me they were going to try making a story app to see if it will sell. I think this is the wrong attitude. What if it doesn’t sell? Does that mean you didn’t learn something valuable for your next one?…and the one after that?

One thing I’ve come to realize is that the truly successful artists have been and continue to be – committed for life. It’s all they want to do. It’s all they live for. It’s what they do. It’s who they are. If they have a set back they accept it as part of the journey. I dare you to show me a successful artist that doesn’t have his/her fair share of bumps and bruises. I can’t count the number of time I’ve had to lick my wounds – but they scab up over time and those scars become great stories later on.

Stan Lee – creator of Spider Man said, “Mine is the longest overnight success story of all time!”…he was committed even when his comics were being canceled by his publisher – he stuck it out…what if he had quit? Think of all the super hero movies he’s responsible for…

crappy piece made better

The piece above was a pretty crappy demo in class but I love working on art so much I came home and played with it in Photoshop for two hours. I love art and I’ll be making it for the rest of my life.

NEW TUTORIAL! Learn how to use Photoshop

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I just finished a new video tutorial so you can Learn how to use Photoshop – a basic video series on how to get started in Photoshop.

We have been receiving requests over the past year to offer a video that would help the person who has never used Photoshop get started.

This tutorial is a focused on helping the student learn how to use Photoshop for painting in my Digital Painting in Photoshop tutorials Parts 1 & 2.

Instead of being a general beginner course I leave out all the photo editing specific tools and methods. You will learn how to use photoshop basic tools, settings, windows, and the controls that I use to make a painting in Photoshop.  I do share my Wacom tablet settings and opinions as well.  If you’re familiar with Photoshop you won’t need this video but will probably be fine jumping into parts 1 & 2 of Digital Painting in Photoshop.If you know anyone who has wanted to move from traditional mediums like acrylic, watercolor, colored pencil, etc – this video might be just the thing to get them started.

how to use Photoshop for beginners

Check out a sample here.

If any of you have already purchased my Digital Painting in Photoshop parts 1 or 2 and would like this beginner course please just leave a comment below – make sure you leave your email address associated with your http://folioacademy.com/ account so I can look you up – and I’ll GIFT you this new tutorial for free! So you may want to purchase one or both of these Photoshop part 1 & Part 2 first, then get this FREE!One more thing – I do not paint in this new video but I do explain how to get around in photoshop in the most basic ways – and how to use many of the tools. Check it out at Folio Academy.

Professional Illustrator & Fine Artist, Greg Newbold

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We’re proud to introduce Professional Illustrator, Fine Artist, Greg Newbold to Folio Academy.

Greg began his career as an illustrator back in 1992. His developed his style using mostly acrylics and in that time has worked for some really impressive clients: Simon & Schuster, Random House, Heinz Foods, Harper Collins, Smuckers, Pilgrim’s Pride, Kleenex, Boy’s Life Magazine and Sony Pictures. He has also illustrated several children’s books, including The Barnyard Night Before Christmas (Random House 2007), The Touch of the Master’s Hand (Stellar Books 2007) and companion books Winter Lullaby and Spring Song (Gulliver Books/Harcourt 1998; 2001).

Greg has received many illustration honors from The Society of Illustrators (NY), Communication Arts, The American Institute of Graphic Arts, Graphis, The Los Angeles Society of Illustrators, Spectrum and others. In addition Greg also works on commission with his gallery work which is found in many private collections.

Greg lives with his family in Salt Lake City Utah and enjoys gardening, camping, and fishing in Utah’s back country.

In Greg’s Video series, Conquer Your Acrylic Demons, he shows many of his secrets in acrylic painting and shows you why you shouldn’t hate acrylics “the demons”. Many artists dislike acrylics because they behave so differently from oils. Through a step by step process Greg demonstrates the unique qualities that acrylics offer.

To watch a sample video of Greg’s course click here.

Folio Academy is finally here!!!

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I’m so proud and excited to announce our new creation – Folio Academy – online art lessons for everyone. You can check it out here. http://folioacademy.com

Back in October I was driving home from a long day teaching at UVU here in Utah and I heard a woman being interviewed by Dave Ramsey on the radio. I can’t tell you her name or the name of her book because I was talking back skeptically and sarcastically. The woman was saying that EVERYONE has something they do in their spare time or professional life that they could use to earn extra income. I was thinking, “I’m an illustrator and a teacher…what else could I possibly have time for??!!!” It bugged me for about a week when a thought popped into my head – I teach…why not teach to the video camera and then sell the videos on my website???…I love teaching and video editing has been a little hobbie – so I did.

And then I heard the voices – “this is a waste of time”…”who do you think you are anyway?”…”you could be watching Flintstones re-runs.” But I silenced the voices and forged ahead. In between a book project and some text book covers I grabbed 10 days where I basically didn’t sleep. At the end of that torture session I emerged gleaming with my finished product: “How To Illustrate Children’s Books“. I was so proud. It was a labor of love indeed. I should probably back up a bit – I was lucky in that I have a programmer living with me – my brother in law – and he assured me that he was up to the task of programming my website so that we could sell streaming videos. He would take care of the tech end and I would take care of making the videos.

Because I had to jump right back into illustrator mode I was only able to spend one day marketing my little video series. I contacted a few illustration bloggers like Angela Matteson – Angelato and children’s book blogs like Mark Mitchell’s How To Be A Children’s Book Illustrator and invited them to do a blog post and give-a-way of my video series. They accepted as did about 4 other bloggers and from there I started selling my videos. Every now and then someone who purchased my videos liked them enough to do a blog post on them like Paula Pertile who used the photoshop concepts I put in my videos to achieve an unbelievable digital version of her colored pencil drawings. I know I’m leaving a lot of wonderful people out but there are too many to mention…but Sue from Moab has been a great supporter!

Fast forward through a few more video series and I started getting asked by fellow artists about how my videos were selling and if I thought it was worth doing. Of course I told them I did but the problem most artists have is the programming side of selling videos from their own site. I put my head together with a few artist friends and together we decided to make a site available to artists of every kind. One of my illustrator friends said, “Can you imagine what it would have been like to have a resource like this when we were going to school?”

Artist Greg Newbold setting up for his video shoot

So our goal is to find the best artists from around the world and see what they have to teach. We’ve partnered with several local video studios like Amber Media Pro and Provo Creative and are inviting artists to come into the studio for a day and do their thang in front of the cameras. Of course not every artist can get to us so we’ll also offer their videos if they can produce them themselves. We’re of course small now but we plan to release one new video series per week. Over time there’s no telling where this will go.

So, woman on the radio talking about monetizing your hobbie whoever you are – thank you! – and my apologies for doubting you.