• https://youtu.be/r_7AqqxiPUw

    I’ve been using Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator and Flash as Adobe products or their predecessors, for over a quarter of a century.

    That’s a long time to get acclimated to something, which makes it really difficult to stop using them and change to something else.

    Adobe know this and have you locked in on an annual agreement, paid monthly, that I think of as the Adobe Tax.

    There is an alternative, the Affinity suite of Photo, Publisher and Designer – https://affinity.serif.com/ – which sells for a one time price equal to three months of Adobe.

    What is so galling about Adobe is that you have to pay for all their products whether you use them or not. I can’t understand how this is quite legal!

    The truly difficult thing is changing all those micro habits and ways of using photoshop  and inDesign that are now ingrained. It’s like coming off drugs! 

    I have a few months before my Adobe annual contract comes to an end in which to kick the habit, learn the new software habits and bring my archive of inDesign titles up to date and transferred to publisher.

    I also want to do this because I can’t, in all conscience, recommend that newbie illustrators and self-publishers should sign up for a year of Adobe and go through that massive learning curve for what may turn out to be a passing phase in their lives. It’s an expensive way to find out!

    for more drawing and publishing videos  ??

  • Wally appeared in the UK in 1989. He soon travelled to the USA and changed his name to Waldo. As he became more popular he acquired new names in new countries and his looks began to change.

    Children love to look for hidden things and get a buzz when they find them. 

    Waldo marches across full page spreads that are filled with tiny people doing the most amazing things. Your job is to find him! Not easy. Wadell  gave Wally a red striped t-shirt, which sets him apart from all the other characters, but you will often find people and objects with red stripes to confuse you – and there are just so many other people on each page – up to 500! – for Wally to just disappear amongst them.

    But the thing that made Waldo or Wally a superstar was the fact that he is an instantly recognisable character.

    Over the years, with all that walking, Wally/Waldo has lost a bit of weight. As the franchise has grown, his design has been refined into a simple image that can be recreated anywhere and be instantly recognised. Basically, he never changes so there is no doubt who it is in the picture.

    Get Where’s Wally? From Amazon UK

    And get Where’s Waldo?

    (Affiliate links – I get a small commission but you do not pay extra)

    Where’s Wally is owned by the Entertainments Right Group. Images are used under fair use rules for purposes of educating the next generation of illustrators.

    Subscribe to the channel on YouTube for lots more drawing and illustration videos ??

  • I talk to ravens. There, I admit it. We have ravens in the forest up the road where we frequently walk. When I hear them I call back to them.

    Often they come to investigate me. Over the years I’ve come to believe that they know it’s me and recognise me.

    My studio is under their flightpath from the Forest across to Wales. They call out as they pass by. I’m so attuned to their calls. (Ravens have a large vocabulary of sounds, unlike the other corvids.)

    I leap out of the studio and call back to them. Sometimes they circle round to fly over me but the more exciting response is their aerobatics.

    Sometimes, often in bright, sunny weather, they will swoop and dive and, best of all, do victory rolls, completely spinning round in the air. This is so obviously done for fun and amusement. It lifts my heart when they do it. I know, in that moment, that we are communicating just for the hell of it!

    Here’s an old video of walking in the Forest and talking to ravens.