It's December and as of Wednesday I'm off on vacation for a few weeks. But fortunately we've got plenty of tutorials lined up from some very talented Photoshoppers, so you can look forward to plenty of holiday season Psdtuts+! In the meantime, here's a wrap of the best the Web had to offer in November...
Tutorial Wrap
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Vector Polishing Techniques
In what is easily the best tutorial of the month, Nick La of WebDesignerWall shows us some techniques to make your vector illustration work really rock.
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Water Spirit - Drawing Fire
Fire and flame effects are always cool, and this effect made using the Smudge Tool is no exception.
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The iMouse
Some tutorials have almost no practical application, but are fun to do anyway. The iMouse is one of those. The good thing is no matter how useful the end result, along the way you inevitably learn something new!
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Smooth Glass Type
I love text effects and awhile back we had a transparent text tutorial right here on Psdtuts+. Luxa.org has their own and it's a neat effect, definitely worth a visit.
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The Pen Tool Tutorial
The Pen Tool is one of those tools that a lot of new Photoshoppers struggle with initially (I know I did!). So this PhotoshopSupport overview is a great starting point if you're still getting to know it. And remember the pen is mightier than the ...
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Drawing the Human Eye
Ever wonder how people illustrate eyes in Photoshop? Wonder no more, because Jezebel is spelling it out for us. While you're there, check out some of the other awesome tutorials on offer (especially the pixel graphic ones!)
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Creating a Space Scene
If there's one thing Photoshop has been used for since the dawn of time, it's drawing space scenes. From planets to starfields, we've seen it all. In this tutorial Sunjo shows us how the best do it!
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Snowy Christmas Illustration
Yep it's December alright, and the holiday season is invading even our Photoshop workspaces. If you need to make Christmas cards or promotions, then you'll find this tutorial to put together a cartoony snow scene very handy.
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Creating a Smooth Web Interface Column
This is a simple but handy effect for designing Web sites and it's well explained.
(FREE!) Download Picks
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FONT: Mank Sans
In case you haven't realised from my monthly font choices, I really like slim, sans-serif typefaces and Mank Sans fits the bill nicely!
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STOCKPHOTOS: StockVault
In the last few years, access to good, quality photos has really been revolutionized. Between cheap stock sites and Flickr, all of a sudden anyone can get great images. StockVault offers tons of images for free and the quality is not too bad at all!
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BRUSH RESOURCE: VBrush
Judging by the fact that the homepage is last dated from 2004, I don't think VBrush is going to change very frequently. Fortunately, the site has some 160 brush sets for download, including some great grungy ones.
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CUSTOM SHAPES : Revolution Collection
Some cool Soviet-esque shapes for your Photoshop CS via DeviantArt and Hebedesign
Article Wrap
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The Secret to Getting a Lot of Web Design Work
Ok, so I wrote this one myself over at FreelanceSwitch, but what's wrong with a little shameless self-promotion :-)
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Tips for Presenting Your Work
Over on the Psdtuts+ Flickr group, there's been a little discussion on what to do when a client asks for bad changes. This article on ThinkVitamin has some good pointers on handling presentations.
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Is good design just a formula?
Ravi asks whether people are designing by numbers and whether that even works? A neat post that strictly speaking went up on Dec 1st, but who's counting!
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12 Invaluable Sites for Web Design and Inspiration
It's not the most innovative list around, but hey those really are 12 good sites to check out, so I thought it was worth including!
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7 Things to Avoid in Web Design
I always enjoy Thuiven's notepad entries, and I liked the fact that number 7 on this list is "Bad Content." As the writer notes "poor content = poor website." Ain't that the truth!
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