I watch the Canadiens skate through their warmups in grand, wonderful loops. The same as always. They fire those low slap shots at their goaltender. They stride and glide. Around and around. Familiar and awful. Beautiful and lethal. Isn't that Jacques Plante, the old Snake, in the net? No, couldn't be. He passed away a couple of years ago. Must be Ken Dryden, tall and correct, the Ivy League man. No, he's a lawyer now in Toronto. Must be the Gumper, Gump Worsley. No, must be Steve Penney. No, must be Patrick Roy. No, must be . . . must be . . . spring again.
- Leigh Montville, "No Gain Just Pain," Sports Illustrated, April 25th 1988
HELLO could you tell me PRETTY PLEASE how did you make the halftone colored effect on your latest gr63 poster? tysm!
Of course!! I love talking about my graphics!!
I learned how to create the halftone effect from a guide I cannot find right now but my steps are as follows. heads up that I work in photoshop so everything is photoshop specific I fear.
Under the cut since there is a ton of images here o7
For the halftone effect
Import image of my choice and convert it to a smart object. This guide should theoretically work without a smart object with clipping and/or layer masks but smart objects look better + they keep my workspace more organized
In the smart object I create a new layer with a solid fill of #808080, convert it for smart filters (Filter > Convert for Smart Filters) and also set it to Hard Mix in the layer blending modes menu
Open the smart filters menu for the layer (Filter > Filter Gallery) and I create two layers, first Halftone Pattern with the following settings and on top of it Torn Edges with the following settings
You can fiddle with these obviously but I have never changed these since I started using this for my halftone effect
4. Now your image probably looks like this, really wonky and bright
To fix it I create a new adjustment layer, usually Levels but I have used Curves before as well and fiddle with it until I like it. Dont be afraid to use multiple and just mask it! For example here Tadejs jersey is white but the background is black so to keep the texture I masked the jersey and adjusted it separately.
Final effect vs adjustments to keep the background texture vs adjustments to keep the jersey texture. By combining the latter two I achieved what I wanted
If I want my image in grayscale I also add a Black & White adjustment layer in between my initial image and the Levels layer, though for the effect I achieved with the George graphic we dont want that.
Gradient colors
First of all I make all my multicolored graphics using gradient maps. I am not particularly knowledgeable so my apologies but I cannot even try to begin explaining gradient maps.
So for a multi colored effect I create a gradient map once I have an image that I am satisfied with and adjust it until it looks good. Important that the color fully on your right on the gradient map is the color you want to have in the background which in my case is the beige I use everywhere.
After that I save my smart object as I would usually do (Ctrl + S) and exit to the main graphic and ideally, it should look the same in your graphic as the smart object looked.
Unfortunately I cannot help with color choices/color theory for the actual gradient map since I barely understand what is going on myself lmao. Fwiw personally I think Synth (@/jamesvowles) is awesome with colors and how they work together in his paintings so maybe he could be of any help o7
Solid colors
This is for cases like this, where all my colors are solid flat, no matter how many colors
This is where the Black & White adjustment layer mentioned comes into play. For when I do solid colors only, even with multiple like in this graphic, I create a new color layer on top of all my other layers, fill it with the color of choice, and set the blending mode to screen. no idea why screen works, someone smarter with blending modes would probably be able to explain though.
For different colors I just mask out the areas I want the color to appear in.
Final step is to combine all my layers into a folder and under that folder I create a new solid color layer with the background color of my choice, in my case beige, and set the folder blending mode to darken. Once again, I have no idea how it works but it does and that what counts to me haha, someone smarter with blending modes would be able to explain most likely.
On a final note, do experiment!! Oftentimes I like getting to the point of where I would have usually used a gradient map (so no B&W layer) and then see what I can do with blending modes! Thats how I ended up with this image of Primož, its just a yellow color fill layer set to Hue blending mode
Hopefully everything makes sense, feel free to ask more if you are confused or want to know more about any part of my graphics <3
Oh you asked the person who spends their free time on adobe fonts an opinion on fonts... fun!
First of all, Calibri my beloved body font. Gonna focus on only heading fonts here but I needed to mention it
Acier BAT - she is everything, she is the moment, there is a reason for why she is my go to header font because she is so versatile, no matter the style or combination she is perfect
Thank you Adobe Fonts for your service
2. ITC Avant Garde Gothic - did you know that the bold version of this font was used in the title of the movie Senna? Yeah that's how I originally found it cause I love the slanted A. Simple so it can be bent and is still easy to read, especially awesome in all caps
Thank you Adobe Fonts for your service
3. Sisters - I don't get to use her as often cause there is just too much going on with it but one of these days I will make a graphic where I can use it. Bonus shoutout to Gill Sans Nova Deco here because she is so similar but slightly less busy
Thank you Adobe Fonts for your service
4. Rig Solid - a font that has a drop shadow version built in? Say no more. Wonderful for poster design, I need to use it more often for that. Has been slightly overshadowed by Acier BAT I fear
Thank you Adobe Fonts for your service
5. Neonoir - still lowkey on a hunt for a good handwriting font but so far she is the least finnicky and best I could find. So many handwritten fonts suffer from not lining up properly but I don't need to adjust the kerning here so she's automatically wonderful... mostly
Thank you Adobe Fonts for your service
Quick fire round of faves that have been with me for a long time aka since pre adobe days and did not make the list: MADE Soulmaze, Cinzel, Sue Ellen Francisco, Adobe Caslon Pro, and probably more I am forgetting. Some of these are on Google Fonts, some of these have existed on my ancient laptop when I used to make wattpad covers, some are both
Honorable mention to Gill Sans Nova for quite literally fulfilling every idea under the sun. It's just too versatile and that's why I didn't mention it
