Online Tutorials
Adobe Live from Munich
Creating promotional assets for the promotion of a new book, using Adobe Fresco and Express
Still deep in promotion for my recently-published book collaboration - a collection of illustrated short horror stories for kids - I used this session to demonstrate the creation of social posts and a little animation.
In this session I include:
- taking an existing vector illustration made in Fresco and animating to to make a shareable GIF
- hand-lettering a horror-esque shoutline in Fresco using gnarly brushes
- using illustrations from the book with the lettering I made to put together an Instagram post in Express
Adobe Live with Sarah Coleman: Christmas Wrapping Paper
Mid-century inspired brushwork giftwrap - done digitally
Inspired by my own brush pen illustrations and the fantastic mid-century explosion of bold design and colour in textiles and paper goods, I make a repeat pattern entirely in Photoshop.
In this session I include:
- drawing with Kyle Webster's brushes, to simulate my 'IRL' pens
- research into specific design eras
- layering up
- repeat patters 'the long-hand way'
Adobe Live Book Club with Sarah Coleman: Historic Eras
Only If You Dare - 1963-style!
In Part II of the Historical Eras series, I created a cover for a book I've done in real life - but I went back in time to be inspired by the textiles, wallpapers and book designs of the early 60s!
In this session I include:
- drawing with Kyle Webster's brushes, to simulate my 'IRL' pens
- research into specific book design eras
- layering up
- using Adobe Stock to create paper backgrounds
See the finished cover
Adobe Live Book Club with Sarah Coleman: Historic Eras
DRACULA!
Looking at historic styles and periods in book design, I create a cover for Bram Stoker's Dracula which pays homage to the ornate, beautiful cloth and leather-bound editions of the late 1800s and early 1900s.
In this session I include:
- drawing with the symmetry tool
- simulating a 6mm parallel ink pen
- gothic lettering from scratch
- deploying Adobe Stock and Adobe Fonts
- historic and geographical inspirations
- making marbled endpapers, 100% digitally!
See the finished cover
Adobe Masterclass with Sarah Coleman
FAN ART! 'Dark': The Novel
In a 'Brush'-centric special I created this bit of fan art: the book of the Netflix series Dark.
In this session I include:
- setting up a template for a real book cover
- drawing with the symmetry tool
- time-lapses of ink creation
- integrating organic hand-made elements
- using layer styles to create atmosphere
- making and tweaking bespoke brushes
and their settings
- synthesising analogue fountain
and other pens with digital brushes
See the finished cover
Adobe Live Book Club x Sarah Coleman
Creating a book cover in an hour - from scratch, using ink elements and Photoshop, chosen by last week’s audience.
In this session I integrate:
- using layer styles to create textures
- adding scruffy hand-lettering via vectorisation
- using Kyle Webster’s brushes
- using the content-aware tool
- Enjoy the session!
‘A Scanner Darkly’ by Philip K. Dick
See the finished cover
Adobe Live Book Club x Sarah Coleman
The Fall of the House of Usher’ by Edgar Allen Poe
Each session starts with a look at previous versions of the cover, and for this one there are many. In this session I do the front and the back of this cover, suggested by last week’s audience
This session includes:
- choosing and using licenced Adobe Stock
- layers tyles and textures
- using the mirror drawing tool to create
a symmetrical image
- making my own brushes from original art
- layer discipline and modifying brushes
See the finished cover
Adobe Live Book Club x Sarah Coleman
‘The Institute’ by Stephen King
Creating a book cover in an hour - from scratch! The first of four the sessions saw me create a book cover from scratch using sketches, ink elements and Photoshop.
In this session I include:
- setting up a template for a real book cover
- a brief look into my workflow
- time-lapses of ink creation
- integrating organic hand-made elements
- using layer styles to create atmosphere
See the finished cover
‘The Omen’ (novelisation of the film)
Adobe Live Book Club x Sarah Coleman
This was never actually a book - it was a film first, which was novelised later, and thus had no real ‘cover’ precedent. I wanted to get away from the cliches that have gathered around ‘The Omen’
In this one I demonstrate the creation of a very organic woodcut-inspired look: Along the way I look at:
- Kyle’s pencil, fountain pen and chalk brushes
- creating brushes from a Photoshop sketch
- why I ‘colour in’ rather than ‘fill’
- ‘dialing down’ on the sophistication
- and we discuss the real identity of the Antichrist!
See the finished cover