In my spare time I enjoy creating. I dabble in photography, painting, drawing, multimedia, graphic design, computer art, flash animation, digital illustration and pretty much anything that I have time to play around with. It's actually my downfall. I just can't seem to focus on one thing long enough to become great. In another life I believe I was a true artist but today I struggle to find time and a dedicated direction. True to form, when I got the chance to check out the new "Designer Notebook" series from O'Reilly I jumped at the chance because hey, why not find another way to dabble in art right?

The first book of the three that caught my attention was "Illustrating with Photoshop". When I requested to review the book I wasn't quite sure what to expect but anytime I can see and learn what others are doing on the cutting edge I have to check it out.

O'Reilly describes the book as "a collection of visually stunning lessons designed to inspire and instruct illustrators, graphic designers, photographers, and all professionals who create images, whether still or animated.

As it turns out I was not completely blown away by the book but I was very inspired to say the least and that is what the book aims to accomplish. At about 95 pages the book is a slim, quick read and chock full of full color, step by step guidance on how each of nine digital illustrators built their creations from the ground up. The length of the book is the only complaint I could come up with but honestly I believe the designers of the book wanted this to be quick inspiration, not a textbook style study guide.

I found the book to be informative and educational, yet not too techie, geeky or in-depth to stunt the readers creativity. The design of the book was a little bit loose and informal but as a creative book aimed at creative people it works nicely to inspire. The design of the book alone is an exercise in creative page layout so graphic designers will find inspiration in this as a bonus!

As is the mission of the book to inspire, I found the book intriguing and decided to combine my love of comics and photography with a few of the techniques I discovered in the book and I created the quickie illustration you see below from existing photography. With the near future purchase of a new Wacom tablet and a 23 inch monitor I can see many, many hours of creativity awaiting me thanks to the inspiration I gained from this fun and informative read.

Check it out if you are a traditional illustrator or a wanna-be. The book is high quality, and for the money it is chock full of ideas, suggestions, how-tos and just plain ol' cool ideas.

Created by combining the photo background with two stock photography models.

For more information about my digital illustration and photography or technical processes used, shoot me an email.