lefteye vs. gerbick :: the first battle | take deux

I've noticed a trademark Gerbick style as well... it drives me nuts! I think it consists of:
sick photography(wether it's yours or not, you just have good taste and use of photography), lots of subtle detail in pretty much every stinking image(how do you manage do this seemingly so fast and effortlesslsy? Where do you get your textures?), simple and 'perfect' composition, good color.

Why does it drive me nuts? Cause it seems relatively simple, but I can't get half the results you do! I could try to follow the above 'formula' as best I can, and it won't look gerbick at all. Basically, your images just glow with fine quality... I hate you :p

Seriously though, I've always wondered, since you do seem to have such a 'trademark' style, when you go at an image(such as 'dragonfly.jpg' on GF.net) how do you approach it? Surely you can recognize some 'comfortable attack pattern' you use. I wanna know what it is! :)

PS - is that SimpleViewer(or some modified version) you're using for gerbick.com?

thanks flashlight... for some reason, I didn't see your comments until now.

To answer the question... yep. that's a slightly modified, ripped apart, and slightly redone SimpleViewer for Gerbick.com v1. v2... it'll be something a bit more custom. I was working on the whole thing actually from scratch, xml and dynamically loading jpgs, and then somebody showed me that. It was pretty much exactly what I was working on... so I just threw that together.

But in regards to my "trademark" style... I seriously have never noticed a pattern other than I tend to dirty up my images a bit too much for any mainstream appeal, I guess. But thanks for the kudos... only thing I actually could try to brag about would be my font choices... I just love fonts.

Attack pattern? None. I usually go into cruise control and the image just comes out in the end. I have one idea, and I do whatever it takes to get there. But the in-between stuff... it's almost like I'm not thinking when I do stuff. I'm thinking of making some brushes and self-styling some actions that emulate a lot of the things I do on repeat - it's been asked more than once to do just that - available a bit later perhaps.

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Originally Posted by gerbick

Attack pattern? None. I usually go into cruise control and the image just comes out in the end. I have one idea, and I do whatever it takes to get there. But the in-between stuff... it's almost like I'm not thinking when I do stuff. I'm thinking of making some brushes and self-styling some actions that emulate a lot of the things I do on repeat - it's been asked more than once to do just that - available a bit later perhaps.

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Brushes and actions would be cool, but frankly it's what you're thinking about when you're 'not thinking' that would be of most value to other artists who are trying to 'be the gerbick'. We all have the tools or the ability to download or make them. What the people want...nay, what they need...is the essence of what it is to be gerbick. An illuminating glimpse through the artistic eye that is gerbick's perception. The 'how' is important, but it is within the 'when, where and why' that we find the true mystery and magic. And it is there that you will find gerbick.

So my friend, if you want to truely give a gift that keeps on giving, then find a way to impart that. Look for the words that will convey the reasoning and the process behind your choices to dodge this, burn that or blend the other thing. What makes you choose one font over another? And what determines it's placement? These answers and more are what they are hungry for, and from the sound of things they're fairly hungry. :)

You're the man, gerbs. I love pretty much everything you do. I'm sure any insight you can provide would be well received by the grateful artistic masses. Keep up the awesome work, dude! :D :thumbsup:

I don't want to be a Gerbick. Only Gerbick should be a Gerbick :) I just have noticed that you don't seem to be capable of producing a low quality image. Even if it's 'not terribly creative' it still just rocks.

It does make sense that it would come from 'not thinking' though... you have how many years experience? If you remember using PS before it had layers, I gather that's quite a few. It must be your experience.... things come so naturally at this stage.

Trying to explain "when to dodge, when to blur, when to do this, when not to do that" might not be in your schedule... I was just curious if there was any simple answer... not really sure what answer I was expecting though. Guess I was just envying your natural talent aloud. :) Just don't get your head full man. ;)

But do understand you have alot of knowledge. Even if you don't think about it, you have to. Whenever you feel like sharing a gem or two(which I've seen you do) it is very well appreciated by all.

Here's a secret flashlight, I don't consider myself an artist. you guys in the arena inspire me. seriously... I just tinker with stuff. It took me years, and I mean almost two decades, to ever show anybody I could draw. I've been using Photoshop for almost 14 years now - since late '91/'92 and I don't consider what I do anything special. So I remember thinking in ways to handle blends before layers were introduced - version 3.04 was godsend.

Anyway, the Arena is my "therapy" to learn how to get over my fear of showing stuff to people. So a "big head" aint gonna happen...

I'll gladly share whatever you guys would like to know. Feel free to ask. But I have to blame the most anal retentive teacher in history to make me do things like make sure that things make sense in a layout... he was my photography teacher. Same for type. I just see an image, and I can pretty much tell what font would look nice in it. Came from just studying years upon years of older advertisements and seeing how they either contrast or complemented the layout. Had the most demanding teacher for typography... I called her Der Font Führerin... but she was awesome, in retrospect.

White space... something that RushVision has hit upon on the past - I just like to use the tension it creates when it's used right. And by tension, I mean... your eyes go where I want them to go. But I've so closely followed the previous generations of movie posters and print ads for the most impact.

I'll answer any questions... I just have to be made aware of what I did. A lot of the time, I'm not even aware I've done anything until somebody asks and I have to go back to the *.psd and look at my layers.

But thanks for the kind comments. Makes it easier to show stuff.

I had some time, so i figured i'd throw this up...

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/6039/standout5is.jpg

Nice volley. I like the texture in the background. Great contrasting color choice as well. Very FK friendly. :D

couldn't sleep... saw what lefteye did. had to respond.

http://gerbick.com/images/fish.jpg

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Originally Posted by Genesis F5

Nice volley. I like the texture in the background. Great contrasting color choice as well. Very FK friendly. :D

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I must be on FK too much. THat color is engrained in my head! I didn't even make the connection when i chose that color. With that FK orange, it doesn't stand out as much as it did when i was creating it. I'm not completly happy with it overall, especially the font choice.

Naw, imho... be very happy with the font choice. I didn't get a chance to state it before I posted... that was the one part that stuck out in my head. And I'm not sure if it was intentional, but it took me back to an 80's design... almost fitting since I was listening to Duran Duran the moment I saw it.

'twas a good change of pace. I countered by not going where I normally go for images.

Hehehe...yeah, that 80's design thing was kinda done intentionally. Your 'no face' guy really looks a bit like the Duran Duran video. And the more i look at it, it does kinda does have a 'Saved By The Bell' feel to it.

I love your image by the way. Just one question though...what's that thing on the top left hand corner on the blue circles? The 'reddish' thing?

paper airplane?

bingo. cardboard paper (reddish-orange) paper plane. I dropped the dashed line at the last second to show it's flight.

in reference to your first kite image

Gerbick you want a crit.?
hmmm. Honestly I like the image bunches, but one could argue that going from the realistic lower half of the image into the comic book/magazine look of the horizon on up, is a really bad play on the eyes. It wouldnt be as noticable if the real looking kite wasnt on top of the comic sky line. Also the G vs l is getting close to blending in to much in the shadow of the cloud. It also looks like you burned out or over saturated right up the center of the image.

There now you can totally shoot everything I said out of the water and i will go into deeper reclusion from the photoshop battling world for fear of your retalliation.

lol But I really did like this image...

aahhh my crit is late

So, it's been a couple months, but i thought what the hey, i've got some time, so i hope i haven't lost you yet gerbs.

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/7...evolley4de.jpg

I know gerbs is away and probably can't view attachments on his hiptop, but i'm getting lonely in here by myself. No comments in more than a week? :(

i like it!

Yup, me likey too.

Love the feel of the image, the tonal change between the light and dark areas of the sky and the sunbeams. Good work on the border too.

Crit... the fonts are both lovely but to me they are coming from different places and different times. For that reason and the fact that they have different and distorted baselines and are positioned unevenly I would have to say that they appear incoherent to me. I realise that there may be some intentional juxtapositioning but the two lines of text should maybe "talk" to each other a bit better?

Sorry but its always easier to find a fault - still a great image though!

thanks guys. NOw that you point that out onine, i completely understand what you mean.

I thought after i posted it, that i should have done the line "We're not in kansas..." in an almost 'banner/ribbon' textflow which would have balanced out the top of the image better.

It's a tricky one isn't it? A great image which is really improved further with the text you chose... its just where and how to set it. The banner/ribbon idea sounds cool :)