November 13, 2011
Diana and the Moon finished piece
Here’s the finished piece, what do you guys think? I dig it.
October 20, 2011
Art and Chrome ate my Homework
Well I had this long post written about storytelling and digital narcissism all typed out. I quoted H.P Lovecraft and talked about my favorite moments in Seattle. Then with one refresh the entire thing was gone. So while I have my tantrum under control I think I’ll post some more art from the last show. Stupid Google Chrome… I swear it was deep and philosophical… IT WAS!
September 28, 2011
New pictures Sept. 16-28th
Just go in my refills for my copics so I’ve been going crazy!
September 15, 2011
Rosy Halo /w Copic markers
Spent a little time doing some traditional work. I’m working on Copic brand paper for a change, which is new for me. The paper I was using was much thicker and thus prone to feathering and bleeding. Which is no bueno when you’re trying to stay in the lines. Overall I like the new paper! It’s smooth and has removed pretty much all of my marker bleeding problems, which is also good for conserving your marker pigments. I ordered my paper from The Drawing Board which was awesome. I got a 25% discount plus free shipping. Rad.
Here’s a little sketch I did on the same paper.
Working on show stuff now, exciting! Next show is October 14th, hope to see you there :3
June 10, 2011
PaintTool SAI – A quick review
I’ve used Photoshop for many years now. I still have my copy of 7.0, but I also use CS5. There have been moments when I look at another person’s drawing and think, “How the Hell do they get their lines so smooth?!” The answer for a lot of digital comic artists is PaintTool SAI. So I picked it up and gave it a whirl.
The first thing to remember is that PaintTool SAI is based purely in digital drawing rather than graphic design as a whole. So it lacks a lot of the graphical manipulation tools that Photoshop has. But if you’re just doing digital painting, odds are you’re not using a lot of those tools anyway. And PaintTool SAI is only $65.00.
Upon installing, the biggest difference is the size. The entire program only requires about 512 MB of free space. That’s smaller than a feature length movie. And it boots up immediately without having to load a ton of graphical options.
PaintTool SAI is popular with Japanese comic artists. One thing it’s really got going for it is line art. It has a stabilizer ability that slows down and smooths out the motion of your hand. It’s a little awkward at first, but I found it to be really helpful. Here’s an example I did today…
PaintTool SAI also has a lot of the coloring capabilities of Photoshop, as it is tailored much more specifically for digital art. You can save any color for later use on a swatch board, so things like skin tones, hair color, and clothing can remain totally consistent for picture to picture. There are many different styles of coloring and shading, one of my favorite being the watercolor function. It basically adds a texture to the layer, and gives it a painted look. Here’s the same line art painted with this layer…
On one hand, SAI definitely has Photoshop beat for the price point. On the other, you don’t get as many features as you would with Adobe. Overall I really like PaintTool SAI, I recommend it for those who do a lot of digital illustration. But I still find myself needing to transfer things into Photoshop for tweaking every once in a while. You can check out PaintTool SAI for a 30 day free trial here.
