Overall, some good advice. Nothing earthshattering, but well-founded noetheless.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

The content breakdown didn't work well for me. The first 3? pages are about setting a realistic art budget and finding art, which is what I was after. What's there is useful; I just wish there was a bit more.

The remainder of the 12 pages is about taking a black and white image and colouring it yourself using Photoshop: very handy if that's what you want to do, but dead pages if you don't.

The initial advice is probably worth $5 anyway, given the source, especially if you're new to art. But it's worth being aware of how the content divides up before you buy.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Good basic advice.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not much of it.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

I was wondering what this series was going to be like and was quite surprised once I finally read it. I was worried that being a short pdf it would not contain enough info to make the price worth it but Phil managed to put enough valuable info into it.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Helped me set understand my art budget better and feel better about buying art.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not much.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

The second issue of the ePublishing 101 series, written by industry stalwart Philip Reed, succintly covers setting art budgets. The first page of the 12 page PDF provides his rule of thumb. The rest of the document outlines specific examples of the rule being applied to several Ronin Arts products along with a few URLs of places where artwork can be acquired. Pages 5 through 12 are the real bonus in this product. Philip outlines the process he uses to color black and white artwork he has purchased for his products. The directions are specifically for Photoshop so users unfamiliar with Photoshop or users of other graphics programs might have difficulty following along.

Overall, the product meets its goal and is a good source for aspiring companies.

The only suggestion I'd make for the series is to publish a release schedule of topics for upcoming issues if possible.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The graphics tutorial is the best part of this product.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The author repeats himself in the product and the price is may be seen as high, especially when compared to the amount of material gained from Minion Games' ePublishing guides.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

A good addition to the series, considering the series is still starting out. I learned nothing new, but for starting publishers, this PDF contains somethings that are simply essential to know, and although you can figure most of it out yourself in the end, reading this will definitely save you some money.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Excellent value for money, good tutorials at the end.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing much.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

While this article has its faults, for the price, it's really a must have for people who are new to obtaining art for their games. This article includes information on how much to pay for art and links where you can find clip art, stock art, and artists. It also includes an interesting tutorial on coloring black and white art to save money over colored art. One of the recommended sources for artists features a dead weblink (or at least it looked quite dead when I checked it). The tutorial teaches you a couple of great tricks, but really should have had at least one page on using digital masks and another page on adding textures to images instead of just painting them in continuous blocks of colors. Those faults aside, I think anyone who has a project that needs art, but doesn't have an art editor on staff to manage this stuff should read this article. Easily worth $5.00. I've already recommended people to check this out on my own website and on the Board Game Designer's Forum, so clearly I think a lot of this article. I haven't checked out the other article in the series yet, but if it is as good, then the series itself is worth checking out.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Great art tutorial.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Needed about two more pages of other techniques in the colorizing black and white art section (even if this raised the price) and one of the web links listed in the book was dead.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

A lot of good advice in here for Art Budgets. The tutorial for coloring is good as well. Worth the price.

<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Figuring out your Art Budget.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing to dislike. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This is an excellent article even without the two tutorials at the back. I have been publishing books in the print industry for about four years and the points Mr. Reed talks to in this article is as applicable to print as it is to PDF. I strongly advise this piece for veterans as well as novices.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Clear concise advice, excellent tutorials on coloring<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Price is high for page count but well worth it for content.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>