Book review
Title: Digital Art: A complete guide to making your own computer artworks’
Author: David Cousens
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing 2013
Blurb: “Today, digital art appears everywhere we go: in advertisements, on television and at the cinema. The skills needed to create it are increasingly in demand. Suitable for beginners and more experienced artists alike, this full-colour illustrated guide shows readers how to create their own digital art using major software packages, in particular Photoshop and Corel Painter.”
About the Author: David Cousens is an illustrator and author from the South West UK, and produces digital art for a range of companies including magazine and book publishers and broadcast media.
Web: www.coolsurface.com
‘Falling’ by David Cousens
Review
General: I bought this book from Amazon, where it had a 4/5 review. It cost £9.99 including prime delivery new or could be bought from third-party sellers from £0.01 plus delivery.
Why this book? I was looking for a book for beginners to digital art, which broke the process down into easy to understand steps. As a newbie to digital art, I found some books, websites and online video tutorials too fast-paced and full of jargon, which can be incredibly confusing given how complex and in-depth programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator can be. I wanted something simple and to the point, which gave me the foundation knowledge I needed to get started. As I also suffer from mental health disabilities including depression, which affects my ability to be able to read, focus on and understand the text, I needed something straightforward that could dip in and out of when able.
The book itself. This book comes in A4 paperback format and is clearly laid out with attractive graphics and text. It is easy to read and uses plain, simple language while avoiding jargon.
Content: The book goes through a selection of walkthroughs, step by step, to give the reader tips on how to create specific effects. This is extremely useful as it goes through the basics to get things started for those inexperienced with digital art, including explaining the differences between brushes, file types, colour formats, and programs. Each subject walkthrough gives step by step instructions to enable the reader to follow along and try it for themselves. The instructions are clear and easy to understand, with illustrations and screenshots to accompany it.
“The instructions are clear and easy to understand, with illustrations and screenshots…”
Using the book: After reading through the book, I attempted to go through the ‘Create line art from a photo’ walkthrough. Although I am familiar with basic tools and brushes on photoshop, I have always found doing more complex tasks or using multiple layers confusing. I was able to go through the instructions initially, but found that once it started to involve manipulating multiple layers that I started to get muddled, and was unable to achieve the exact results. However, I was able to use the instructions as a foundation for me to experiment and was able to achieve an attractive image in the style described in the book.
Original image (top) vs my end result
I later used this image as a background for a Spidergwen comic illustration.
Conclusion: I found this book especially useful in clarifying the use of certain brushes and tools, and ways of achieving certain effects, however, I don’t feel that it lives up to its ‘complete guide’ claim. Admittedly, this is an impossible feat, as, by their very nature, digital editing programs such as Photoshop are infinitely complex, so as a starting point for the absolute beginner digital artist, I feel that this book achieves the aim well and I will continue using it while I learn digital techniques, which attests to the quality of the content. More experienced artists may find the book disappointing, as it may not be challenging enough for them, but I would definitely recommend this book to students such as myself, or beginners looking to get a decent foundation in how to use Photoshop to create images.
I would really have liked to see a better overview of how layers work and interact, or more clarity in the instructions to this effect as it can be incredibly confusing otherwise. It was also a bonus to see the content written from the point of view of a Windows user (With appropriate instructions on how to translate it for Mac), as I use a Microsoft Surfacebook.
As for a star rating, I would agree with the existing Amazon rating of 4/5, as it provides a starting point for the beginner digital artist, though those who are experienced would be likely to find it too easy.
SarahGiles.Art 