Quick warmups today as I didn't have anything set I needed to draw. The ferret is meant to be a friend of Digby's, the jay is a character from a show called, "The Regular Show." I don't know anything about the show but someone sort of asked me what my version of the character would be so I did this. Ink, Illustrator.

Finished beaver. ArtRage has a lot of potential and for my money, is a lot easier and more fun to paint with than PS. That being said, there's probably a lot it can't do. Don't know if that's going to matter to me. ArtRage seems to work more like I do with 'real' media. So yah. Here's a beaver.

That last page of Biography went over fairly well, which makes me feel good. I think the third in the series is the strongest of the four personally but I'll take what I can get. Since I was playing with ArtRage, I decided I should play around a bit more with it. I haven't used it that much in the past partially, I think because it really needs a Cintiq type tablet to be used properly (though I think tons of people don't have one and use it just fine). So I grabbed a random character from the files and just started painting away, the goal being to make it a lot more 3D than my usual work. This is only a WIP shot, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. This is a dirt cheap program (I think there's still a free, less featured version) but it's grown and gives what I think are pretty nice results. It has the most 'real media' feeling of any program I've yet used. This image is being made with mostly just the paint and palette knife tools. I'll likely finish it tomorrow.

Last one in this series. This time I used ArtRage, a program I've barely used before but which seems to be made to be used with the Yiynova. This is far more like actual painting than does PS. I thought about painting the background as well, and I was even erasing the lines that showed through but I like the suggestion of impermanence so I left them. After all, I am supposed to be going off to watch cartoons. The lie here is that I was already watching them in the background. Ah, well. The point of this series was to experiment with different media to make what is essentially the same image. The background doesn't change (much). So I learned something. And I do like the sense of motion between the four pages. Much better than the original idea of this being four panels.

Finished version of the drawing from last night. Sometimes I know exactly how I want to finish a piece and even what needs to be done to get it that way. This is usually dangerous if I can't finish it before bed as it means that I'll be thinking through those steps when I should be falling asleep. Last night was, thankfully not such a night. After some brief thought, off I went. Who wants to dream in PS layers and settings anyway? There will be one more in this series, though I'm not sure how I'll finish it yet. It's actually been rather fun using this series as a means of experimentation. Only the second one didn't use the Yiynova, too. This is a good thing.

Came home from work and drew this up for tomorrow's biography. Thought I'd post the plain drawing before I did the painting that will go with it and without the continued background. Crowquill and ink.

Same setup, different approach. I took some photos and was originally meaning to do this as a four panel page but yesterday's took too long to do. So now it's a short series. Biography's been on the back burner as I do other things. Until I can get my tax return and buy ISBNs, Tamino will wait just a little longer. Otherwise, I don't have pressing matters. So, this.

Not having a bad day, I just feel the need to try and create something every day. I can't tell if it's because I love to draw or I just need to prove to myself every day that I can draw, that I've learned something that I've made some kind of progress. One of the first things I do in the morning, after slathering peanut butter on bread and grabbing my diet Pepsi (yah, I know) is to sit down and see what art is being underlined on the web. This gets me going. It's rare that I don't see something that makes me want to draw. And so I do. I think some of it comes out overly maudlin, such as today's but I don't think that's a reason not to make it. Biography is meant to just reflect what's in my head for that particular day. Apparently, this was in there. Now it's out. I can move on to something else.

Took a little break from nearly everything and played with this today. I was painting it in PS and I might go back to it but something just made me reach for my old standby, AI. So here it is. A youth about to break his neck. Well, that's what some of them do, isn't it? Originally drew this upside down, but it looked too much like the last version of Smatt I posted. So I flipped it (which is a good way to make sure that the drawing's ok) and added the skatepark.

Another take with PS. I was looking through a book I have on Kunisada this morning and decided to give this style a try. Took one of his prints, changed the gesture from one of a samurai with raised sword and changed it to the fox stretching. Couldn't use the watercolor brushes, so used a nice, flat oil color one. Found a decent paper texture online which helps a lot. Could have done this in Illustrator I suppose, but it still would have had to come together in PS. And since I own the program, I might as well learn how to use it. Ink, PS.

Did another one today before work, this one by memory from when I used to take the bus to other work. Didn't sleep on the way so much as I did on the way home. Never missed my stop. Used to sleep on the subway, too. Never missed a stop there either. Learning a bit more about this process. I should be able to use the magic wand to select areas, just like I was using masking fluid and have less overmix. I kind of like the fact that it's a little messy, though.

Another morning warmup using the Yiynova and PS. Sadly, I paint better with PS than I do with actual watercolor. With paint, I tend to be too heavy handed. It's an easy thing to do with watercolor, especially if you're used to paint that can be, well, painted over. Keeping a big brush size also forces me to stay loose, which is a good thing. I could see doing a comic in this style. It actually takes less time to color this way than with Illustrator and has the advantage of having some depth. So, experimentation continues.

EDIT: Did another quick one.

Playing about a bit more with the Yiynova and PS. Inked this in my sketchbook as really, I can't get quite the same effect with the tablet as I do with a crowquill pen and ink. And there's something more satisfying about feeling that nib glide (and catch) along the paper. Having just downloaded a new set of brushes, I wanted to experiment with watercolor effects. I scanned some blank watercolor paper for texture and then just went to town in a layer underneath. Set the wc paper layer to multiply, brought down the opacity a bit and there you go. Tried to keep quick and loose. I think it has a kind of Richard Scarry feel, which would be something to develop I think. All in all, painting on the Yiynova is pretty satisfying. This application and the one below from the Biography comic (I made the red shapes organically on the Yiynova with the pencil tool) feel good. What this means is that the Yiynova won't take the place of lots of my tools, it just might be another one which is fine. It's the end result that matters.

It has been a long time. Was in a kind of low mood this morning. Drawing made me feel better. Now it's time to go food shopping.

More learning. I forgot that I came up with a kind of down and dirty process for PS painting a couple of years ago when I was trying to replicate the background style of old HB cartoons. Remembering that today, I put it into practice with the image above. With the prep done, that mouse head took me about 50 minutes to throw together. While I haven't done any extra layers for contrast or to throw contrasting colors into shadows to deepen them, I think it came out well enough. What I did to make this is to take a pencil sketch, bring it into Illustrator and define each separate element with a different colored shape. Then I export each shape onto its own layer in PS so I can select that shape and use it as a mask for the layer I'm actually painting in. Don't know if that makes sense but this is what the Illustrator image looks like that I make my selections from: I choose wild colors so it's easy to tell what each shape is. Obviously they have nothing to do with the final color choices. Once I've painted an area, I turn off the selection/mask and work on the edges, softening them a bit to keep things from being too sharp. That make any sense? It certainly makes things faster for me.

Finished this up this morning. Is it perfect? No, but it's an exercise so I don't want to spend too much time on it. I think that I'd add more contrast to the most shadowed parts and do a bit more with the transparency layer. The little I did really made some of the shadowed areas pop, such as in the hood, the ear and the neck. Also should probably think about a highlights layer on top. Live and learn.

Something in progress. I think that when all is said and done, the Yiynova will not take the place of brush and ink for me. I'm simply too practiced in it, too fast to make it worth my while to learn a whole new tool to do something I already know how to do. Replicating skills isn't a goal I should aim for, I don't think. However. Something I haven't worked on much is learning to paint in PS. I've done a piece here and there, but really the problem has always been that I had a tiny tablet and painting while not looking at my hand was weird and off-putting. So I grabbed a sketch and started painting over it today. It's a LOT easier doing it with the Yiynova than it was with the Graphire and this is where I think it will allow me to expand. And I should learn to do this. Gets me out of my usual flat thinking at the least.