Sunday, April 1, 2012

communities and jams


Drawing "just for fun" has many advantages outside of the immediate satisfaction one gets from messing about with crayons.

Online communities are a fantastic way of building friendships and getting exposed to new things (techniques, a new online music site - whatever).  

Third Rail Design Lab (R3) is one of the good ones with artists at all levels discussing comics, film, music and art (among other things) in addition to hosting a weekly jam open to everybody.

This was recently done for one of the jams . . . I'll continue to post these weekly sketches here.






Thumbnail is Col-Erase blue pencil drawn in a sketchbook 
(during "Big Bang Theory").  

FInish is the scanned thumbnail inked and shaded in Photoshop on a Cintiq.




3 comments:

  1. Holy cow, John, I had no idea you've been doing digital inking with the Cintiq.
    We need to talk shop on that. My Gladiatrix comic pages were the first time I did full digital lines (ie no pencil, no scanned ink) and I still struggle with how to gain the steady line: zoom in and you smooth the line but can't see the work, zoom out to complete a stroke and get the wiggle.
    It was something I wanted to ask Vlad more about before he passed.
    t

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    Replies
    1. Absolutely Thom - Gladiatrix came out really great. Loved the pages and was excited to read you had done them digitally from the ground up.

      The "zoom in @ 100% to get a true line" has been a true pain in the neck for years. Unfortunately it's a necessary evil in Photoshop. I love having an eye or finger nail completely fill my field of vision when working on a 300dpi file . . . not.

      I -believe- there's a solution in Manga Studio. The "G Nib" and other pens are unbelievebly smooth and offer fantastic line weight variation. One can also work out the linework in vector - I think.

      I've literally just cracked open the program but it looks promising. Look up "Scribbles with Jonathan" or Jonathan Rector on Youtube:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQugwShv_9E&feature=g-all-u

      He's got several vids out on his transfer over from Photoshop to Manga Studio.

      Would love to talk shop about this - See what you're up to with your own digi-inks - and will send some personal explorations with M Studio over the next week or so . . ..

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