October-November of last year, I got a graphics tablet for my birthday; a lovely Wacom Bamboo tablet. And since then I’ve been learning to use it, going through several tutorials, then finding my own way. It’s actually got me loving doing drawing and and making me want to draw and create. (Warning image heavy post after the cut!)

I started by revisiting my last finished pieces. I first took my “Meave” piece and re-worked it on the computer. Here’s the where I finished last time.

I then created a line drawing using the tablet and add base colours. Then added shadows and finally some finished touches.

Along the way, I adjust and moved some of the crows, changed her lips and played around with lots of other little details.

This is the finished image:

It comes out quite well I think.

I then went to exploring another image, this time “Matthew”:

I followed a slightly different process here, though the end result is very similar.

And the end result:

I think it works quite well but I also learned that I have a lot to figure out, a lot to learn. The important thing is, I want to learn. So taking what I did with these two images I incorporated them into my current drawing, another character based one, which I’m calling “Anthony”. This time however I did a lot of changes at the line stage, to get the shape and image right.

I changed the leg, details on the face, modified and moved the head, shrunk the body, lengthened the arms but I think it comes together in the end.

Even during this piece I experimented with different ways to shade and colour, coming to dislike the technique I had been using. The mask was done in a much more organic fashion than the figure.

Previously I had been ignoring the pressure sensitive feature of the device, relying on layers to give depth and light to the shadows. This is how the tutorials teach you. But with the mask I fully embraced the feature and much prefer it.

Now I plan to change tack and trying doing something completely different  with tool so watch this space for more!

Related Posts:

• I’m back two weeks already? My my my…
• Dead Desktop PC = More Drawings
• Inking some Graphic Art
• My first RPG map
• Final renderings and access to an A3 scanner!

This is what three weeks looks like

Two weeks on and I’m still lacking much motivation. Things are getting up to speed though, shortly my daughter will be going back to school signifying the end of the summer and the routine will dramatically change again and in work, all our customers have returned from their holidays and have started dumping crap on us again. And it’s taken me two weeks to just sit down to write this post. Shouldn’t really take that much, but energy and focus have been lacking. I guess the dull weather since getting home has putting on a drain, especially when we had such lovely weather on holidays.

(More pics and drawings after the break)

He was so tired, he just fell asleep outside

When I was on holidays, despite only get one true sleep-in (as in I wasn’t woken by the kids at 7am, my wife and myself took turns getting up to take care of the weeks) and despite the weather not being gorgeous all the time, I was rather productive. I wrote three new short stories. They are currently sitting on my laptop awaiting editing, but it was fun to just write and they are rather short. I will eventually get them up online, if you care to read them. I also spent a huge amount of time working on my Lost Heroes RPG: Book of the Gods. In total I wrote 27,288 words (is that a lot?), all for my own pleasure. I’m still chugging away at Book of the Gods, but my rate of progress has severely slowed (writing this post means I’m not working on it). But it’s moving forward at least.

The weather before we left: foggy, cold and raining!

The holiday was great in general. It was nice weather most of the time, expect for one memorable storm that started suddenly with thunder and lightning in the middle of the day. Then hailstones the size of large marbles and ten minutes later, it’s over.  An hour later, the sun has dried everything.

There was some family crisis, my poor wife hurt her back and shes still have some serious problems with it now, over two weeks later. It’s slowly getting better, but I won’t get into it. Besides that it was just good to get away.

The weather in France

I also got to do some drawing and painting, some of it came out quite nice, but I certainly didn’t produce as much output as I have done in previous years. One of the quirks of the place we go is that there is no television, no Internet connection and we don’t even bother to turn on the radio. It’s absolute great to disconnect. I did try to “tweet” a little while away but it seems I forgot that a text message is longer than 140 so I ended up with loads of messages that cut out right in the middle! Anyway, I left behind any of the work I did create so I all I have of the stuff I did are these photos:

I’m not too fond of the watercolour though. I never finished it, becoming frustrated by the mixing of the colours (I couldn’t produce enough consistent colours). I didn’t get the chance to do another though. The great thing though about where we go is that its full of inspiring things! Books and posters from the Napoleon era, this antique box of gaming stuff, these old boilers in every room or this great big tower at the front of the house:

But holidays can’t last forever I guess. And now I’m back in the real world. Go me!

Related Posts:

• Going on holidays tomorrow!
• Inking some Graphic Art
• My first thoughts on using charcoal
• Final renderings and access to an A3 scanner!
• New Lost Heroes Image: Renegade Chosen Matthew

Satyr Colourtest #1

So I’ve been playing with some new techniques and some new equipment. The above image is the first colour image I’ve done in a while and it was coloured very quick. I used a “lightbox” to trace the original pencil sketch (which you can see below), then used a selection of toned coptic markers to give it shadow and depth. And finally, using gimp’s hand-drawn selection and “colorify” I was able to colour it in less than 30 minutes. I’m not sure I’m going to continue the image first, it was more for a test of techniques and equipment but I certainly like it. There are lots of little computer tricks I could have applied and I really didn’t go into depth in my choice of colours.

Satyr (original) in Pencil

Satyr done in Tone with Coptic Markers

I bought a really cheap lightbox, it says it’s A4 but it barely handles a full page. However a big proper one costs 50 euros or more, depending on brand, so I’d rather try a cheap one first to see if I’d use it before investing in a decent one. It’s just a bright light under a white perspex box and it allows me to place the original drawing on top and using the light I can trace it onto another page. I use to scan the image in and then print it out, which was laborious and time-consuming. This method I allows me to play with the original image while I copy it, improving and enhancing it. It also allows me more freedom when I sketch, I don’t have to worry about getting rid of the construction lines (which can be actually helpful for tracing).

Satyr done in Ink/Brush

Satyr done in Ink/Pen

I also bought a new set of watercolour paints and plan to try them next. I did have a set of watercolours, but I haven’t used them in years and they had all dried. When I was much younger, watercolours were my particular favourite type of paint though I never really mastered them. I also played with pens versus brushes. You can see the pen work versus brush on the same Satyr. My wife likes the brush one, but I feel I have a lot to master with the brush, but I think long term it’ll produce much better effects. I did try a bigger image:

Paris Cityscape in Ink/Brush

In the thumbnail version it looks okay, but I’m not particularly happy with the end result. I should have gone for deeper blacks and less tried to capture tone with shading. I think the original pencil version is better but doesn’t translate to computer well.

Related Posts:

• Some new art work: Meave and Dead Eyes
• I’m back two weeks already? My my my…
• Final renderings and access to an A3 scanner!
• New Lost Heroes Image: Renegade Chosen Matthew
• Playing with the Lost Heroes RPG: “Book of Gods” Cover