Creative Photoshop CS4: Digital Illustration and Art Techniques

If you are a digital artist, illustrator, cartoonist, graphic artist, designer, or serious hobbyist looking for new and interesting ways to use Photoshop, this is the book for you! You already know how to use Photoshop as an image editing tool; now, challenge yourself and discover the more artistic aspects of the program with one of the world's best teachers by your side.

In addition to four brand new chapters on real world projects, this new edition of award-winning digital artist Derek Lea's bestselling Creative Photoshop contains several brand new features such as `What you'll learn in this chapter` summaries, so you can quickly find projects using the specific tools you'd like to focus on, and supplementary information at the end of each chapter, containing useful resources and additional gallery images to provide further study and inspiration. As you work through Derek's fantastic artistic methods, be sure to visit www.creativephotoshopthebook.com for more information, including the project files for each chapter, available for download for you to work with, a reader forum, and more.

*Stunning images from award winning digital artist Derek Lea inspire you to push your own creativity further than you even thought possible
*Compatible with previous versions of Photoshop
*Explore Photoshop from an entirely unique perspective as you learn how to create graffiti, antique effects, stencil art, and so much more
*Fully updated throughout for CS4, plus four brand new chapters on real world projects that combine traditional art methods with Photoshop to create tactile images

User review
Excellent product, but not for beginners
First I should state that my knowledge is slightly above that of beginner. I would comfortably say that I am an intermediate user of CS4.

This product was very well laid out and easy to use, but it was also for more advanced-intermediate users to advanced users. It's safe to say that this sufficiently pushed the bounds of what I was comfortable with when using CS4.

The tutorials were easy to follow and different from what I had been doing before, but I definitely see how the application was relevant to learning more techniques.

And there were a lot of new techniques that one can benefit from. In the initial stages, the instructions almost appear as overwhelming and just a bit intimidating. At this point the average user would go two ways - Either `Forward because if I could figure this out I can figure out anything` or the alternative `Forget it, this is too advanced.` mentality.

That separation from the average user is probably what places this into the higher level status. There are uber geeks out there that will contend that this is beginner stuff, but only in that same way they share disdain for all people not exactly like them. In truth this book should be taken for exactly what it is - A good book for more advanced users of CS4 who are trying to add additional skills onto a solid skill set that they already own and have ample experience with.

If your life's work is digital imaging, then this is probably under your scale. If you just installed CS4 on your computer for the first time ever perhaps you might need a beginner's book to step you though a few paces first. But if you need a nice middle-of-the-road guide to get you though rough patch just after you stop calling yourself a beginner, this will be a good challenge for you and you should enjoy it.

Warning - If you've just bought your first copy of Photoshop - then you might get better use out of this book as a leg stand for the dining room table,,. until you up your skills anyway.

The materials that you need for the lessons are down loadable, which is better than feeding CDs in the drive. The lessons themselves are arranged in a step-by-step sequence that allow the users to take everything one level at a time.
With enough patience and desire (and talent can't hurt) this baby should be able to help you get to exactly where you want to be - or pretty darn close.


I give it five stars for being a great product even though it pretty much started to lose me about half-way through.

User review
First Rate Digital Illustration
Derek Lea's Creative Photoshop CS4 works on a number of levels: It would make a fine coffee table book as the author's work is often stunning and covers an extremely broad range of contemporary digital illustration - from photo-realistic manipulations to comic-style animations, simulations of traditional silkscreen, `low-tech` thermal printing and even a digital take on photocopier art.

I'll confess I'm more a fan of these sorts of books than a fellow artist and the choice of purchasing usually comes down to how I respond to the author's work. I definitely have my preferences among the pieces and techniques represented here, but anyone seriously interested in the possibilities of Photoshop beyond removing the red-eye from that shot of the dog your wife just has to have should spend serious time with Creative Photoshop CS4.

Lea's work covers genres I didn't know existed. I was especially impressed by his use of Photoshop, not as a closed-end system, but as what amounts to an interim image processor of externally manipulated surfaces imported into the program to serve as bases or layers of digital works. I knew about `copier and fax machine art` decades ago, but this is a league apart.

The book is presented as a somewhat non-linear series of tutorials of the kind you might find in those higher-end ($13.00+) imported computer graphics magazines I love to thumb through. In lieu of an accompanying disk, the author has made `starter files` for each of the tutorials available on the companion website. These are absolutely essential if you intend to work through the exercises.

Although the author states upfront it's not necessary to be a Photoshop expert or even advanced user to enjoy the tutorials, my beginner-level knowledge was sorely taxed and I found it a little disheartening to be constantly sidetracked trying to find or use a tool. I don't fault the author at all for my lack of skill, but be advised that, if you're going to attempt to do the exercises, you best spend some time familiarizing yourself with the basics of the software.

Lea also recommends if you're serious about digital painting to invest in a tablet and stylus rather than trying to use a mouse. He admits though, and I agree, there's a lot you can accomplish here with just the mouse if you're patient and a tablet shouldn't be considered absolutely essential, at least for non-pros.

The one reason I chose to give the book four stars probably has little to do with the author and more with the layout editor. There is so much verbal information packed into every step of each tutorial that, likely out of necessity to keep the book within approved limits, the font in the `how to` blocks is far too small and the text too densely presented - at least for my middle-aged eyes. Using the book at a computer requires such extreme focus shifting between images, screen and tiny text it becomes hard to escape `L-mode` and get into a creative flow, so to speak.

A lot of the verbiage could have been painlessly trimmed by a good tech editor, leaving room for some blessed white space.

The book concludes with an interesting challenge: readers are invited to reproduce as best they can the author's cover image of a woman's face morphed medusa-style using the underside tentacles of an octopus. It's much more interesting to see than to read my description!



User review
This book has a lot of good information but not that I could use often
This book has some very good techniques in it however; I used Photoshop for very different reasons. The author has focused on special effects rather han what I thought the book would address which was using Photoshop to enhance photographs. I enjoyed the book and there are certainly some freatures that I can use. The book is for a specific audience and I am not a good fit for that demagraphic.

User review
Not just a PS cheatbook--an EASY to follow textbook too!

Okay, so it took me a lonnng time to work my way through this book. I love Photoshop cheat books that I can flip through and A: get ideas, and B: figure out how to do really cool effects.

Well, this book works like a cheat book, but if you follow along, it actually teaches you skills that you can use in all sorts of ways to create just about anything you want in PS. Make no mistake. This is not a word-driven textbook. There are examples and illustrations of every step-by-step project you can choose to do, and ALL of the projects will come out looking cool AND teach you along the way cool shortcuts to making bland photos and art into AMAZING photos and art.

I am the world's most distrusting critic of `how to books.` The reason I created `The Easiest Way to _____-EVER!!` series is that I was so frustrated with poorly written textbooks and self-study books for morons and lunatics. So I like to think I know a GOOD BOOK when I see one. You will not be disappointed with this book, as long as you have some basic PS knowledge and experience. This is NOT a book for a first time PS user. It's over 400 pages of well articulated processes to make your art look great, or how to create great art from your imagination. I really like this book and think you will too. Be sure to flip through the `Look Inside` and get a feel for how cool this book really is. As always, thanks for reading.


User review
Adobe photoshop CS4
Over the years there have been many fine books written about Photoshop detailing the

technical tools available in this powerful image editing program. There have also been books

with impressive images that the authors have created using the various versions of this versatile

world standard software. In Derek Lea's latest book Creative Photoshop CS4, we have a

publication that will certainly be an enormous benefit for photographers, digital artists,

designers and anyone interested in pursuing their artistic abilities to the maximum. Mr. Lea

illustrates each independent chapter with beautiful and creative images taking the reader from

beginning point to the carefully detailed step-by-step procedures that were employed to

reach the final result. It is Mr. Lea's sometimes intricate but always artistically relevant image

creating procedures that offer such beneficial information for the reader. In short, this is a

clearly written and illustrated book which should be considered required reading for anyone

working in or interested in digital art - it will inspire your imagination and artistic creativity.
Sincerely,
Ron Wilson