I just started using them and I love them for a lot of different purposes.

Here’s the link…

http://verucasalt82.deviantart.com/art/Hair-Strand-Brushes-85035633

Another set that looks cool. I haven’t used them yet but they sure look neat.

http://r2010.deviantart.com/art/conetix-78945110

They work really great and will save you a lot of time. It used to take hours lining the paper with dots to create energy patterns. But now with the Illustrator brush set you can do a whole page within seconds.

Here is the link to my devianArt page where you can download the brush set.

To use it in Illustrator go to WINDOW>OTHER BRUSH LIBRARIES and find the file on your computer.

To modify the brushes to your liking just open the file like a regular Illustrator file. They work in Illustrator 10 but may be able to be used for CS or CS2.

I hope you like it!

HERE IS THE FILE–
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/44610024/

Some people seemed pretty excited by the potential of drawing comics with this amazing program. I was just going to answer questions that popped up on a message board. But the threads turned into a discussion about the moderator and his dislike of me for being the “first” to draw comics in Illustrator and they were shut down.

Why the drama?

He went off the handle and attacked me for claiming to be first and a whole bunch of other things I never said. Then the people who wanted the info on drawing in Illustrator attacked him and pointed out where he was wrong. He shut down the message board threads before I had a chance to reply to the questions about Illustrator let alone his attacks against me. I won’t name the moderator *coff*coff*coffman*, but he was a real ass on that thread.

But without his jealous tirade I would not have had the desire to talk to the people about art without a moderator’s editorial censorship.

So that started the hamsters on the threadmill in my brain and I quickly came up with the idea of starting a website to discuss this stuff and let the conversations continue there if people wanted. and best of all the discussions would be unfiltered! Assholes need not apply.

Slowly I began putting up information on different aspects of what I was doing as I came up with them. Illcraft turned into a good size blog for the niche market of comic artists using Illustrator.

Not as huge a demand for this information as planting shrubbery or something, but at least some folks needed the info. And I love putting the info out there. I’ve spent a few years reading other peoples tutorials online about different aspects of web design, graphics, photoshop, and illustrator tuts that gave me a good working knowledge of this program. I thought I should “pay it forward” and do the same for others.

I’ve spent some time working for Antarctic Press doing the How To Draw Manga series and I love contributing to artists. I know how hard it was for me growing up trying to study art. teachers at our public schools had a religious bias agaisnt us studying anatomy. My teacher thought skulls were demonic and we were not allowed to draw them in class. That could have been because of all the Heavy Metal guys drawing Motley Crue flaming demon skulls but still! Anatomy is anatomy.

I could only afford one art book growing up and that was How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way .
I know how important it is to study art but it can be difficult at times to find good information. It was especially difficult growing up without the resources to learn what I needed. I spent time in the school library after school looking through black and white hard bound Batman comics by Neal Adams. That was a real benefit to me and it led me to study more of the masters of classic art.

So here I am in a position to give back and I feel I am limiting myself by just focusing on Illustrator. Now I want Illcraft to expand into more tutorials on drawing comics and good storytelling. There are a lot of books out there that do this just fine. hell if you go to the art section anymore there are hundreds of drawing comics books that will teach a lot of stuff. But looking through them the other day I noticed there was not near enough information about the things you really need to know about drawing comics.

I think I can help out there.

I’ve been working in comic studios for a decade and I’ve learned a lot. A lot of information and studio secrets that i think will really benefit the struggling artist.

So now I will focus the next few years working on a website that will give you a solid knowledge of comics and illustrating that you may not be able to get otherwise. By all means, if you are in a position to study at the kubert school or other graphic sequential classes then you owe it to yourself to take those courses.

But Illcraft.com will be a great chance to learn a lot of stuff without having to pay for courses or more books you don’t need.

I’m working on a new website for illcraft.com in my spare time with plans to launch it early 2007.

When I started thinking about what I want this website to be a number of ideas came to mind that I think will help out the artist. I think Illcraft does a great job of presenting ideas and tips for the artist to use Abobe Illustrator to make comics. But I want this site to be more than that.

Really, in 10 years will you still be drawing with Illustrator 10?

Will that program be as effective a few years from now?

If I am going to put a lot of time into tutorials would you get more out of tutorials for comics art or drawing in Illustrator?

I think you can benefit by both. I won’t stop doing Illustrator lessons. I can see myself still using this program in 5 years. But the drawing lessons can be used over a lifetime.

So Illcraft will be expanding and I am working towards that. It’s unfortunate at the moment that I can not share all of the new things I have learned until my new comics work ships.

But it won’t be much longer now. I hope you can stay with me until then. You won’t regret it!

I appreciate your patience.

The programmer who designed it used it for building train track plans. I downloaded it along with everything on his site. I didn’t think I would use it SO I made myself play around with it so I knew WHY I wouldn’t.

Well, that did not work out because after the first 10 lines my brilliant strategic mind told me to design building facades with it and them use the FREE TRANSFORM tool to shape the buildings into perspective.

The top picture is black and white is how the Iso plug-in drew straight lines at right angles wherever I laid them down.

The light blue is on a layer below my buildings and it’s used to block out the background. On the page I would color it white to blend with the page.

The darker blue color is on a layer below where I drew out the backsides of the buildings after I stretched them into perspective.

What a dream come true this is because I really love adding detailed realistic backgrounds but I hate making grids and then erasing them and all of that. Now I don’t have to.

Why is anyone using PAPER?! This plug-in is fantastic as well as everything on this site… http://rj-graffix.com/software/plugins.html#IsoLineTool
I also spent last weekend (my Birthday) downloading a ton of Plug-INs for Illustrator. One dream Plug-In allows me to quickly make speedlines and more. That Plug-in alone is worth all the money I spent on every single plug-in I bought.

I can’t wait to show you what I have been up to. I’m leaving notes on all my Iron Man pages so after the books come out I can show you waht I was doing…and so I can remember. LOL

I’ll get to that promised COMPUTER TERMINAL tutorial as soon as I can.

On Top is the STROKE palette all by itself. I usually keep the Stroke weight to .01 but I do change it when I need a thicker line.

Under that is the COLOR and TRANSPARENCY palettes. I find I need these a lot so I keep them out where I can get to them.

Next is LAYERS which I use a lot. Docked within that window are the ALIGN and PATHFINDER palettes. I don’t use these as much but I do want them out where I can get to them as fast as I can.

All of these palettes are docked next to each other on the left side of my screen. I keep the TOOLS menu on this side as well because it’s just a quick slide to the right side of the tablet and I can access all of the tools and menus in Illustrator that I need.

Notice in my TOOL BAR the little colored tools in the middle. These are Plug-Ins I got for Illustrator 10 a while back. Here is a link to the XTREAM plug-in page. http://www.cvalley.com/

I decided to delete the blog, which was just pictures of my art, and rededicate it to teaching everything I have learned by drawing comic books in Adobe Illustrator.

You can still find my artwork online at www.briandenham.com if you want to see my finished art. It’s a little more organized than ILLCRAFT was. It’s also easier for people looking for my art to find it there rather than hunting for this site.

In the last year I have been in contact with lots of artists, fans and curious students as to how I am drawing in Illustrator. I have posted on many different websites and message boards some of my more helpful tips. I think it would be a lot better for everyone to just point people to this site where I will post all of the tips and tricks I have come up with. That way everyone who wants the information can get ALL of it here, and I don’t have to keep answering the same questions on different message boards.

I think this will work a lot better. I’m excited about the change and getting a little more organized with my blogs.

• http://illcraft.com/ This blog will be used for instructing people on how I am using Adobe Illustrator to create comicbook art.
• www.briandenham.com My online portfolio. I’ll post all of my artwork here. Most of the art here is either all-ages or teen and up.

Hope to see you around…

~Brian Denham