Bob Staake in Real Time
Thanks in part to YouTube, author and illustrator Bob Staake gives the world an inside look at how he goes about creating his one-of-a-kind illustrations. Believe it or not, Bob creates all of his digital work in Adobe Photoshop 3.0… with a mouse… all on one layer!
After you pick yourself up off the floor, watch the video above to see for yourself and when you’re done, visit PixFix to see the rest. And when you’re done with the videos, why not go back and read our 2006 interview with Bob here.
That makes me hate my life. Just goes to show it’s not the tool that makes the artist great. Young artists scrambling for the new Cintiq should watch this.
amazing.
Bob Staake is my single favorite illustrator alive and working today. What’s amazing with these videos is watching him pull these illustrations out of thin air, like they were already there waiting for him. It reminds me of the old fable about the sculptor who carves a horse out of marble simply by cutting away all the parts that don’t look like a horse. Amazing.
Wow. Makes me feel better about sticking with Painter 4.
Now if I could just pull the illustrations out of thin air like that….
I recall Bob Staake mentioning on Von Glitschka’s podcast interview that he switched to this new shaded geometric style when he discovered he could work super fast on the computer. His older stuff was way more editorial cartoon style.
I like how he creates his shapes out of overlapping oval marquees and the paint bucket.
Working like this, there’s no need to upgrade Photoshop! I wonder how old his Mac is?
That’s a great video. I love this blog and how it introduces me to such amazing artists. However, your title says Bab Staake in real time, but in fact, the video is time lapsed. He’d have to be amazing and have super speed to pull of that illo in that short a time.
^^
pull “off” that illo, of course.
Agree with George Coghill–it’s nice to see how he uses overlapping ovals.
The video is jaw-droppingly awesome. I can’t imagine when I’d get to the point where I trust my first instincts enough to work entirely in one layer.
As they say, there are many ways to skin a cat. As many, I thought his artwork was vector-based. This is simply amazing, and it goes to show that a talented artist can create great work, and be productive, no matter how outdated his tools might look. Why need a bloated new version if you can work so confidently with your trusted software?