Book Review - Commercial Photoshop with Bert Monroy

Great for Illustrators

Bert Monroy is a commerical illustrator with 30+ years of experience in the business and co-authored the very first book on Photoshop. Needless to say, the technical content of this book is unquestionable and quite educational. While many of the techniques in the book can be applied in other areas, a prospective buyer should be aware that the book is completely targeted toward illustration work. One of the techniques that Bert is famous for is creating photo-realistic images by painting them entirely in Photoshop with very few stock photography elements. Whether this is good or bad depends on what you're looking for, but don't buy the book thinking it's going to teach you how to retouch your family photos. One of Bert's many other books would be better suited for the later.

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Book Review - Photoshop Secrets of the Pros: 20 Top Artists and Designers Face Off by Mark Clarkson

Illustration Inspiration

Photoshop tennis anyone? In Photoshop Secrets twenty designers face off in ten different matches, two designers to a match. One designer starts an image through a combination of photo clips and Photoshop actions then passes it to another designer for the next "volley". Each match has ten volleys and produces ten completely unique images. These are images that fit the digital illustration genre. If you're looking for photo-realistic techniques, check out one of Bert Monroy's books. How much you'll learn about Photoshop techniques certainly depends on your current knowledge level, but based on what I found this book will give you a few interesting things to try and, even more, a good bit of inspiration if you're interested in doing some professional illustration.

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