andrew_buckle

Just setup an auction page for my comics (selling a few of them, amazing how they build up over the years). Comics including Marvel, Gold Key, DC and other publishers

uk.ebid.net/stores/Comics1938-US-UK-Manga-European-comics

Andrew

Still enjoying Desperate Romantics on BBC 2, the series is nearly over already. Did purchase the book (the series is based on a book called Desperate Romantics). OK, the series hasn't really matched the events but it definitely has been worth watching

Dollhouse has also just finished here in the UK with the 10 year afterwards special.. excellent excellent excellent. I love that series. I can't wait for season 2 to begin. It took a while to get into but by the end, a TV masterpiece (better than Buffy? perhaps.. but the cast is still not there in comparison with Firefly)

Just released 10 new fonts packs on graphicxtras.com... taken a while to do but enjoyed creating them. Will be adding a lot more fonts packs (all include eps and ai designs as well) on the site over the next few months

Latest sets released on the graphicxtras site are goth themed designs. Really enjoyed creating this set of designs.. in some ways would have liked to explore even more areas of goth design, perhaps I will in a second volume. Sets include Photoshop CS3 shapes, CS4 etc goth designs + a set of designs stored in a font / eps / ai format files (for use in many other applications such as Paint Shop Pro)

Really enjoyed the 'Desperate Romantics' (BBC 2 Tuesday night), well, the first episode.. but I am certain the remaining 5 will be fine. Certainly not following much historical accuracy but it is a great drama...  Just treated myself to the book of the same name, and I will pick up a few more PRB books perhaps tomorrow at the local library. Must also get to see the Waterhouse exhibition at the Royal Academy before it finishes in September.

Andrew

Gone through all my 64 packs of fonts designs and now include the same designs in EPS + AI in all of them, also updated all the reports and documents to include a lot more galleries and displays in all of them and much more

Been going through all the web pages (which is slower than actually updating the packs) so all reference the eps and AI designs included.

Now got to update some of the scrapbooking site details with the same information, probably take even longer

I really wish I had started out with this approach: TTF + EPS + AI all in one, perhaps even including the CSH custom shapes... would have made it all a whole lot easier and trimmed the graphicxtras site down a lot, also would have given me more time to work on many other shapes and designs instead of duplication of the same things... ho hum.

Fontlab has been the key product in the whole setup.. well, along with Illustrator and the creation of the designs. Fontlab allows the export of AI and EPS format files. They can be used in a whole heap of applications. perhaps I should look into some additional tools to create perhaps WMF and SWF and PDF additional versions as well, but that is for another time perhaps

Sometimes I just get carried away with creating shapes and other designs, I forget some of the other types of sets on my site. This time around been working on the patterns for use in Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro (as well as in Xara, Photo-Paint and many other graphics applications). Released two sets: corners and letters designs, both with 100 designs. The latter also contains 856 eps designs... Really must release a lot more pattern sets, really enjoyed creating the letters set (the corner set was created a while back as a contribution set for Digiscrapwarehouse)

Reading Mina (The Dracula Story continues) by Marie Kiraly... also re-watching the old 70s BBC production of Dracula (starring Susan Penhaligon and Judi Bowker etc)

Still haven't picked up a copy of the Giant Size Fantastic Four Adventures 1 .. hope i can find a copy. Has a new story by one of my favourite artists, Colleen Coover. Probably end up getting a copy on ebay?? 

Been busy working on flower / wavy / ornamental designs today. A nice set of designs, look great. Really must create some more similar designs.


As ever, re-looking at my graphicxtras website pondering why no one can ever find the licensing details (it is on every page at the top in fairly clear view.. but heck, I never look at webpages either!) Also, whether I should go for a menu across the top of the site again instead of the side.. does it confuse?? Playing around with the Xara MenuMaker tool, really quite a nice tool and also creates a fairly light menu (in comparison with the 50K or so javascript ones I have tried before). Probably go with the menumaker but I'll probably change my mind again


Hoped to pick up a copy of Fantastic Four Giant-size Adventures 1 today (has some art by the excellent artist, Colleen Coover). Sadly the shop didn't have a copy.. not surprised (should have ordered a copy!). Guess I will have to pick up a copy up in London, hopefully it will still be around for a few weeks.


Enjoying the Heart of Juliet Jones (Stan Drake) at the moment, wasn't sure I was going to like it but a really wonderful book. Hard to find here in the UK but certainly worth looking out for (I got my copy in Putney at the excellent '30th Century Comics' shop

Something I haven't done for a while: adding bundle pages to the graphicxtras.com site. Added a selection of them to include all the brushes packs, all the gradients packs, all the swatches etc for each section. Still got a few more to do but I am getting there

One of my favourite artists (Dave McKean) has just had a selection of stamps released by Royal Mail here in the UK. Yippee. Must get down to the post office and purchase the set.

Also been adding a few more brushes packs to the graphicxtras site. Not sure why I forget to add a brushes pack related to the custom shapes, fonts etc.. but I do. Hopefully I'll be adding more in the future. The brushes also seem to be some of the more popular items on the site so I really shouldn't neglect creating sets.

Been busy at work on some arrows designs. Just released the custom shapes and fonts versions of the arrows sets, next going to work on similar Illustrator symbols and probably a fireworks set. Really would like to create a lot of variant sets but I must admit, have loads of problems transferring the designs from app to app. Amazing how many of the apps just fail to copy the gradient or points information. Probably just me though or something in the preferences that I have failed to set.

Spent most of the afternoon looking at the superb black n white drawings in Tim Sale 'Black and White' book. Love the Superman for all seasons as well as Daredevil: Yellow and Spider-Man:Blue. Particularly fond of When in Rome as well. Still haven't purchased Hulk:Gray, missed that first time around so hopefully with the upcoming release I will be able to get a copy of that.

Looking forward to 'Miss America: Marvel 70th anniversary' comic, hopefully that will be out this week. I am assuming a Miss America reprint will be included, been way too few of those over the years (one, according to the GCD). Was hoping for a Miss America Marvel Masterworks, can't see that happening so the Miss America 70th will have to do!  Hope I can find a copy, the 70th issues have been hard to find around here.

Finally got to see the new Star Trek film. Not a masterpiece but a very enjoyable film. Uhura, Spock etc were great; poor old Simon Pegg as Scotty had little to do, and I was waiting for most of the film for him to turn up. Now to look forward to Star Trek 2, I guess.

Hot day finally here in the UK, seems to have taken ages and ages for a decent warm day. Instead of sizzling in the sun, just working on some new shapes for my contribution to Digiscrapwarehouse. At the moment it will be a set of mottled custom shapes, might change my mind on that one. Still,  I love playing with the pen tools in Fontlab.

Had a request for some letter designs A B C D etc that kind of thing. Decided to create some sets for Photoshop, Illustrator, etc as well as a font set along those lines. Took a while to get going but created quite a few designs in the end (856 or so): antique, distressed, grunge, rough, painted etc. Will be creating some graphics packs next week related to those letters.

Got a copy of 'Children of the Atom', an X-Men graphic novel with stories of their early years. Saw a copy in Lille, so purchased a copy here only to find it is slightly different. Ho hum, looks like I will have to go and purchase the French copy as well. An expensive business purchasing comics.

www.colleencoover.net/ - excellent website of a superb artist. If you get near a comic store, check out her wonderful work in X-Men First Class as well as the more recent 'Spider-Man: Spider-Woman Digest'.

Just come back from a quick holiday in Lille, France. Had a wonderful time in Lille, eating way too many pistachio macaroons and other goodies. Purchased a few excellent BD comics and a lovely old (and tatty) history of comics (in French), 500 pages of delightful storytelling inc. Superman, Little Nemo, Juliet Jones, Phantom, Jodelle, Fantastic Four, Pogo, Adam Strange, French comics etc. I love finding old books like that in secondhand book markets (if only it was as easy here in the UK, used to be but not now). Definitely will be going back to Lille at some time, great place.

Since getting back, been spending some time updating the graphicxtras site. Had a few questions about a set of letter / alphabet designs, so decided to create a set of them over the weekend. Just released two packs: custom shapes and fonts sets. 856 or so designs. Really must create a few more of those, it was a fun set to create.

Added a few more tutorials to youtube (custom shapes, PDFs etc) www.youtube.com/graphicxtras. Getting more and more familiar with SnagIt application, also added a selection of stamps to highlight things in my videos. Yippee, yet another possible set of things to create for the site. Hopefully the videos will be of some help, showing how to use the various items on my site. I always assume when I create the PDFs etc that it is obvious what to do with the designs and tools, I know from the e-mails I get that is not the case. Still there are zillions of things in Photoshop that still baffle me and I would never try and give the impression that I am an expert, I am not.

Mad Men finale was sublime, just pure magic TV. I love that show. Of course now, I can't wait for Mad Men season 3. If only all TV was as good. Now Mad Men has finished there is little on the TV until... no Battlestar Galactica, no.. no wonder I am listening to the radio more and more. BBC 4 didn't mention anything about Mad Men season 3, really hope they will be showing it??

Decided to work on some very brief YouTube videos. First attempt was a quick Photoshop gradients video, all done by highly sophisticated screenshots. Well, not that great but it was a tryout. Just downloaded SnagIt to improve on the screenshots and add highlights, arrows, text etc just to give a little more information along the way. Not familiar with all the features in Snagit but so far I have found it a really good application. Definitely will be thinking about purchasing after the trial. Also will be adding some additional stamps for SnagIt on my site as I think quite a few of the designs would be fairly useful for screenshots etc (not intending any series of designs though)

Just added a new screenshot based tutorial on custom shapes in Photoshop combined with the shapes designs from pack 80 'People2'.

A camcorder might be a better approach than screenshots, something for next month.

The reason for the youtube videos being the amount of questions I get about how to install the shapes, use the shapes etc. I guess a lot of people have no problems with the stuff but a lot of people are still fairly unfamiliar with all the resources. I still get an awful lot of questions about how to use the PDF designs on my site and that really baffles. Still, will be adding a couple of tutorials on those over the next few weeks as well

Finale of season 2 Mad Men tonight on BBC HD. The best thing on TV at the moment, enjoyed all of season 2. Mad Men season 2 DVD is a must purchase for me. Of course, might even get around to watching the season 1 DVD set!

Working on a new set of Photoshop gradients. This time around it is a set of themed transparency sets. I love Photoshop gradients and transparencies. Probably not the most popular sets on the graphicxtras site, but I love them. Working only on small sets of gradients this time and only with a bargain price attached

Haven't looked at my gradient scripts for ages and ages so all the javascript is all pretty gibberish, taking a little time to see what I can change and what generates a whole stream of javascript errors. Really would help myself if I put some actual notes to my coding (after years of moaning about other's lack of coding comments I am doing exactly the same thing)

The gradients look good, well the six or seven sets already created. They are all created in Photoshop CS2 format but luckily this seems to be the same format as Photoshop 6 etc. so that doesn't limit their usefulness. All in GRD format, so can be loaded into Photoshop via file > open command. Really easy. 

The gradients can be used over and over and over in countless ways. Not really that much info about them on the web though and not that many sets available compared with custom shapes and photoshop brushes

Did enjoy seeing Romeo and Juliet at the Globe.

Ellie Kendrick (Juliet) was good, not that Juliet is exactly the greatest role of all time as there is really little to do. Adetomiwa Edun was fine as Romeo. Very enjoyable couple of hours. It is a slight play (compared to many of his other plays, and at times fairly crude depending on interpretation), and at times it seems Rosaline seems to have more mentions than either Juliet or Romeo. Perhaps the play should have been about Rosaline or Juliet's parents, would have made a little more sense.

The end with Friar Lawrence re-telling virtually the entire story was very long drawn out, and made me wonder if Shakespeare wrote it, perhaps it was added later? That bit at the end has always baffled me.

Love seeing plays at the Globe, really wish I could get up to town and see more of them. My feet were in agony, standing for two and a half hours, really must get a seat next time

Creating and selling Illustrator pattern swatches, gradient swatches, styles, symbols, brushes etc is fun but once they are out there, where do they go? Where do you install the items so Illustrator will access them and you can start to play with the various tools and create your own designs. With each version and OS the location for the files seems to change. Perhaps it is just me, perhaps they have always been in the same locations?

The Illustrator presets can still be placed, I hope, in the presets folder (swatches, brushes, etc) but now, with all the increased security and permissions etc on the PC and MAC, as soon as you try and place them in the application's main folders you will be asked for permission (ok, you should be asked for permission, I am certain some people just use their admin account etc or turn off all the security or something). Well, if you don't, and you don't want to be pestered for the admin account (I can just about remember my passwords of about 40 or so characters long but I forget occasionally), you can always place them in your user account area.

Took a bit of research and who knows, perhaps I am still wrong on the location (noticed quite a few places where the text seems to offer different locations and I couldn't get the files to work).  On Vista and with Illustrator CS4, place the preset files in the AppData section of your user account, in the roaming \ adobe \ adobe illustrator CS4 settings \ en_US \ swatches (notice, presets has vanished) or graphic styles or brushes etc. Of course, this depends on your language, I have to use en_GB instead of en_US 

On OS X for Illustrator CS4, you have to place the presets in the <user> section (again) : library : applicationsupport : adobe : adobe Illustrator CS4 : en_US : swatches (or graphic styles etc)

Not sure why there is a difference on the mac and PC to the adobe Illustrator CS4 bit, why have settings in one and not the other?? anyway, hopefully all cleared up. For now anyway but I am certain Windows 7 has a different structure yet again.

Personally, I just use the browser found in the various panels such as swatches (on the right of the panel) and then search for the file, generally doesn't take too long to find the file. Don't like adding all the files to my various presets folders, just makes the menus longer and longer.

Just updated the web pages accordingly, I know it won't be the final bit of the story, someone will come along and say I have got it all wrong and it is in a totally different location or something. Just better get back to creating some more designs, so much easier.

What to do next?? Probably a set of Illustrator swatches, Even then, what type of swatches? Patterns are always popular, though personally I prefer the Illustrator gradient swatches. Got a selection of X designs that would work well as pattern swatches, already pre-tiled so little to do short of adding a little creative flourish here and there on the designs before saving them.

Also been updating the swatches page, along with all the other pages on my site graphicxtras.com. Not sure when I ever stop re-doing the page, I doubt if I will ever be totally happy with the look of the page(s). Haven't released any Illustrator swatches for a while, been distracted with more Photoshop stuff such as the plug-in updates