Faux Cartooning in Photoshop
December 30, 2009
So I stumbled across a method in photoshop recently that in a few quick steps can make just about any image (provided it has enough detail and contrast) appear to be hand drawn. There are built-in filters that can approximate this effect, but I found this method produces better results and can be fine tuned a bit more. All you need to do is apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of at least 3 pixels (and up to 10 or so, I had good results at 4.5 on many historical images) to the image layer, then fade the filter effect (shift+ctrl+f) using the Darken or Darken Colors mode to dial back the blur. You can play with pixel radius of the blur and the opacity of the fade effect, as the best results seems to vary from picture to picture. I had great fun messing around with this on historical color images from Wikimedia Commons. Here’s couple examples of the historical variety, and one of my more successful modern ones.
Lifehacker Post
December 29, 2009
Lifehacker featured a piece that I created during my old job at the National Geographic Green Guide. I re-purposed some flash used for creating Nat Geo maps to put together a visual guide to beef certifications. Check it out on Lifehacker and the original on the Green Guide.
King Hippo
November 5, 2009
Yet Another Natural Type Graphic
August 4, 2009
My Little Planet
August 3, 2009
Convention Logo
May 14, 2009
More Photoshoppery
May 12, 2009
T-Shirt
February 11, 2009
This is an idea I’ve been toying with for a t-shirt. I think it works better as a shirt in the simple black on red, but I like the more colorful one as a standalone graphic. For those wondering about the spelling, it is how Ovechkin is spelled in Cyrillic (not to mention a nice play on Shepard Fairey’s Obey).

Plain Version

Colorized version
Sideshow Poster
February 4, 2009
Mythical Newsroom
February 4, 2009
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