Happy New Year Tag Bloggers

Had a lot of personal situations that sucked. 

But things have got a lot better. 

I hope everyone in this group has a great 2016.

Especially Rick Schmitz, who will have a hard time having a better time than he seems to be having now.

I will continue to doodle and make some money doing stuff I want to do.

Making comics (manga) with Blender

Creating background imagery with Blender's Freestyle NPR renderer.

What a clever use of Blender. The technique is pretty seamless, too. It's not just a flat copy-paste technique...lot of thought put into the integration of the hand-drawn elements with the 3D models, gray-tone, etc. Looks very natural. If you didn't know in advance many elements were 3D models, you probably wouldn't notice.

Tuesday early- All Pencil Roughs for Ghost stories

Miscellaneous. I'm doing too much movie watching with the computer instead of working with the computer.

Watching the movie this Gif is from. We Were Strangers.

Brilliant commie symp flick by John Huston made in 1949.
About the very temporary revolt in 1933.

Jennifer Jones with the chopper. When I saw this gif 2 years ago I tried to figure out where it came from. Thought it might be Roger Corman. Now I know.

Drawing done in bits and pieces while I watched the final disc of True Detective. Enjoyed that little thriller.
Her neck is way too long. And her legs are ugly.
The legs probably ought to be lengthened about the exact amount the neck should be shortened.

Continuing the ghost stories. Going to try and finish all roughs by tomorrow.
Looking forward to the body of work I get out of this project.

6 new ones. 5 more to go.

ta-da! Roughs complete.
Now to paint like Picasso. Carelessly with gusto.

Ghost Story

Mashed up. Kinda fun to do.

It would be better to start with as finished a pencil as this one, but the next 29 will be more like the drive thru/clown example. Start rough and stay rough.

Teen Ellis as a Teddy Boy Rockabilly type.

They were first.
(note)
They apparently don't like hot linking.

Prepping

Today is painting-drawing day.

After I get an errand done.

Getting clear on my Kyle Brush presets.

Got a custom bunch. The repeats are just that. I need to edit those out.

Tuesday Digital doodling

Doodling. Tried to start with a toned canvas.

Adds nothing to it but the constraint is probably a good idea.

I was about to quit way early on this, every mark a disappointment. I realize I had the bow string straight from end to end instead of drawn to her ear. Then I thought to draw her fingers in release mode. I strated liking it a bit and did more touch up to than I was going to do. I may return to it tomorrow and see if I can Bruce Timm it.

WIP

300 DPI on my web bandwidth

Prepping it for photoshop I changed the hanging lamp.

I'll probably do the tone today

I will probably desert the pencil approach and do it entirely digital. The author wants this approach, by Stephen Gammell. So now my plan is to gang up some ref in a layer in photoshop and wing it on something painterly. I'll post an experiment tonight. I should take to it.

Krita...an exceptional FREE painting application

Krita is worth your consideration. It is a very impressive alternative to Photoshop, Painter, even Manga Studio and Toon Boom Animate (the animation tools are currently being tested in the most recent beta)



I haven't given up on Adobe's old workhorse, but I do actually prefer Krita for painting and drawing. I find it much more responsive and intuitive and I like the brushes more. Plus, it does multiple undos without the need of a clumsy history stack. The animation features are really good, too.

The bonus is that it is open source, multi-platform and freely available, although I would encourage anyone who likes the program to consider some kind of donation in order to keep the developers funded so they can continue to improve it.

New WIP- Fighter and Spellcaster glare at each other

I used Quentin Rampage Jackson's stare down with Mean Keith Jardine.

 

Color. 

Went back trying to bend it toward an oil-like look.

Needs a bolder approach than I'm using.

Just looks fuzzy now.

110 lb cardstock- bought a ream

It feels like drawing on vellum. The blackwing pencil feels awesome on the surface.

I have to get serious and whip out some real illustrations on this great surface.

 Straight out of the Kuratake brush.
Need to recharge my wash brush.
It's fighting me.

More of the same. Got to start on another EnWorld deal and thumbnails on 31 spot illustrations for a book.

Paint Me Waggin'

Doodles from recent-New- Joined Together thumbnails

I was watching a very bad pirate copy of Spectre when I did a couple of these. Can't wait to rent a proper copy of the movie on DVD.
Added- My recent Joined Together thumbnails. Deleted- notes about some blogspot glitchiness.

Today's Zoo Field trip Handout

Put together some handouts to help the young'ns with "process." After our last Zoo trip, I noticed most everybody took about the same amount of time on all their drawings. I asked them to try more variation, starting with quicksketches and eventually adding in a few renders.

Making those “process” sequences: 10 seconds on the sketch, then rush to the scanner–-5 minutes to scan, then pull the paper out, make three more lines, and scan it again….

I’m trying to force myself to show the students unpolished work, unexceptional work (all my own, of course). Easier to see the process when the drawing is missing real magic.

But these are kinda fun.

Posted for Ellis & Tom (doubt anyone else will be interested much): Here's the list of drawing requirements for the day. The Zoo opens at 10 AM, closes at 5. We worked all day, but only a few people managed to fulfill their full quota. Guess I'm the kinda Doctor who likes to over-prescribe.

Amazing Con Doodle-11 by 17

My table mate said that if my doodles filled a full 11 by 17 page, the result would be great. Good way to spend the day on a slow day. But not great. Just more doodles.

Roof Urchin- WIP

Google images sure speeds things up.

I couldn't get an expression I like. 

Searched 'kids yelling' didn't like those. 

Searched "happy kids yelling" 

Then I got something.

I got in a 'keep it simple stupid' mode that I think improved things.

Now color.
I may have to break a couple of things to fix some perspective issues.

Color. Now I can goof off at Amazing Con without worrying about something I should be doing.

Pushed the background back a bit and added textures depending on fore, mid, back- ground.
I'm on my way to Amazing Con. Just helping a guy hold down his table.
Do you have any questions for Rob Liefeld? I'll be hanging out with him.

A Recent Doodle From My Sketchbook

I'm posting this because I'm fascinated by how differently all of us sketch and doodle when trying to come up with ideas. How different all of our thought processes are.  I find I have to fill sketchbook after sketchbook with these stream of consciousness pages day after day in order to eventually move onto a finished drawing.  And I don't know why, really.  Why can't I just go directly to the finished piece?

Golden Age Daydream for Tom Moon

I was doodling and somehow this scene came out...it seemed like something that would make Tom Moon laugh. Therefore, I had to finish it.

My perspective is still so shaky...

A Golden Age tribute. It should be a cover (obviously!), and I'd imagined a typical DC blurb attached, something like, "Super Jimmy GOES INSANE?!?"

Tom Moon, you should color this for the benefit of our TAG family.