It's late and I'm tired, so I drew this completely freehand - in inks, with no pre-sketch - on my TODO clipboard, took a photo with my phone, and then downloaded it to my drawing workstation and spent a few minutes playing with comic coloring in Photoshop. Eh, it's a sketch.
Depicted is, surprisingly enough for people who know me, not my Prius. At least, not yet.
Still, drawing something every day.
-the Centaur
Posts published in “Sketchworks”
tl;dr: sometimes the solution to a bad drawing is to practice on something else
Finally, the completed page. Frankly, meh.
I could have done a lot more work on it to clean it up, add some pop, fill in some more cloud layers, etc., etc., but diving into the fiddly bits on this particular composition would not fix the deficiencies in the core drawing or in my abilities to realize it.
The solution, I think, is not to overwork a single piece of artwork trying to compensate for its deficiencies, but to instead identify those deficiencies, to practice to eliminate them on different drawings, and then to return to the original subject matter with a wholly new concept and composition.
In this case, the deficiencies - oh, I don't know where to start. My poor hand drawings, my lack of details about body anatomy, my poor inking skills, my lack of strategies to overcome my slight RSI tremor, my poor page layout, my lack of knowledge about digital coloring techniques, or my need for strategies to overcome my moderate color blindness? But identifying even a few of them starts me on the road.
Note fixing these issues requires a comprehensive approach: some involve practice, like drawing hands or working on inking. Others require research (and practice): learning more anatomy or digital coloring. Others require actual strategies: if I want to clean up my inking line, I need to focus on ways that do not irritate my RSI or trigger the slight wobbly tremor, and if I want to deal with my color blindness, I need both more knowledge of color theory and a plan to deal with it. But now I have GPS directions.
Time to get started. And at some point, when I've traveled around the country of comics and returned to the start with a better set of tools, perhaps I'll draw another Batman cover. Or a Green Lantern page.
Or ... maybe ... a comic of my own design. Not that I have one in mind or anything.
Till then, drawing every day.
-the Centaur
It's late and I'm tired. ZZzzzz.... cthulhu ftaghn ... zzzz....
Drawing every day until the stars are right again.
-the Centaur
My cousin helped unload those books too. I am so pleased he is not dead after the entertainment center I'm trying to get rid of nearly fell on him! The bleeding will stop soon, I'm sure, but I don't know whose femur this is lying around ... not good ...
Pictured: a plush Tachikoma atop my wife's artwork Petrified Coral, in my partially-assembled library. If you have to explain a drawing, how good is it anyway?
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Oy, this guy again. Not a finished drawing: these are "flats", used in digital coloring to isolate different elements of the image for further processing, hence the false colors used to make sure each element can be selected by color - I'm not that colorblind! Hopefully I'll finish up the color composite tomorrow.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Try #4 at the drawing behind this page, using the improved layout from #3. In addition to that trick, I increased the size of the page by 50% so I was effectively drawing at 300dpi, and zoomed in to work on the details, using all three previous drawings composited in increasingly ghostly transparency like an ersatz lightbox. Darker outlines were used for Batman and Zombie Wayne.
Altogether, I like how this one came out better. Hopefully, if there are no more disasters with the water or the power or yearly planning, I can color this one tomorrow #dontjinxitfrancis so you can stop seeing this and we can move on to something else.
Drawing every day.
- the Centaur
As it says on the tin: it's late and I'm tired. Based on the Monkey Selfie Copyright Dispute. Seven layers in Photoshop (not counting blank background), five of them still active, including oh I'm too tired to type, here they are:
I go zzz now.
-the Centaur
tl;dr: if the flaw is in the bones of the art, you must change its skeleton, not its clothing
Today's drawing is a revised layout for the "Batman 80's style cover" page. While the previous page had more refined inks, Batman's body posture was a bit off, and the Dreamweaver's hands were floating about like he was Rayman. While I could have finished those inks, when I got to coloring the disembodied Dreamweaver would have posed a problem, and the misproportioned Batman would have just looked bad, no matter how much effort I put into the inks or coloring.
I've seen a lot of people spend a lot of effort trying to fix things with finesse or technique when the problems actually lie in the layout. If the flaw is in the bones of the art, you need to change its skeleton, not its clothing. And one of the freedoms that working in Photoshop on the Wacom Cintiq is that you can take a problematic layer, reduce its opacity to 25%, slap a new layer over it with its compositing set to darken, and --- BAM --- you have an instant lightbox to help you sketch a new one.
When Jim Lee got started, reputedly he spent a lot of time drawing from photo reference to help build up his skills. I'm no Batman, but nevertheless, I spent some time tonight taking reference photos of myself clutching my chest and a throw-blanket, trying to perfect Batman's cape-grab, and other references of me villainously spidering my fingers, trying to imitate this "Dreamweaver" chap.
The result is a layout which, at first glance, looks a lot like the old one. Everything is where it was, more or less. But Dreamweaver's hands are now attached to his body, his helmet makes sense, and Batman's arms and cape now interact in a more realistic way. And his fingers aren't rigid as boards, so it actually looks a bit like he's clutching his heart.
No amount of refining the original drawing in place would have fixed these issues: Batman's arm was too long and bent, his fingers were in the wrong place, and the Dreamweaver's thumbs were actually out of their sockets - never mind the missing arms and shoulders. Finesse and technique only take you so far: at some point you may have to stop and rethink your layout to make real progress.
One step backward, two steps forward. Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Roughs in Photoshop. Some of the limits of the original composition are becoming clearer here - like, what are the hands of our villain attached to? Has he no shoulders? Is he secretly Rayman?
Enough for now. Still, drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Rough sketch for a cover design a la Batman covers of the late 80's.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Day 11's drawing, colorized. Lots I would fix in the underlying drawing; many techniques of digital coloring I wished I had learned. But enough of that. Tired, going to bed now.
Still ... Drawing. Every. Day.
-the Centaur
Hello, Porsche, my old friend; time to draw you again.
Getting more comfortable with the Cintiq + Photoshop + Humanscale combo. But only had time for the inks today. Colors maybe tomorrow, or perhaps another drawing.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Cinnamon is tired and so am I. No-regrets quick cartooning with a heavy ink pen - a Faber-Castell "Pitt Artist Pen bullet nib 1.5", according to the label. It came in a box. (I filled a cup of pens after an emergency run for art supplies and literally just picked this pen at near random tonight).
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
A sketch of a National Geographic magazine cover that reminded me of the vampire Lady Nyissa from Dakota Frost, Skindancer.
Yeah, I'm not liking the broad lines of these colored pencils or the roughness of the texture I can get out of this charcoal pen, especially compared to my preferred comfort zone of pencils-then-ink for line art then Photoshop for color. And you can even see a bit of the previous page, where I'd been sketching the logo to the old space furry comic Dalgoda. Ugh!
But, as my wife and I were talking ... you have to put pen to paper in order to improve. So ... sigh ... lots more work to be done improving will require lots more work that, um, sucks.
Still ... Drawing. Every. Day.
-the Centaur
Not so successful experiments with light pencils on black paper. A consultation with my wife suggests Conté crayons or oil pastels as an alternative, but really, I think I prefer the brown paper of my other experiments as providing the best midtones. Even Photoshop couldn't salvage this one:
The original came out pretty grainy ... these pencils just won't cut it on black paper.
Still, drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Bit of a rush job, as I want to turn in early tonight (and still leave a little time for Editing Every Day). Forehead a bit too high, could have used another rough sketch.
Still, drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Tony Francis at Meteor Crater. Sure was windy that day. Oddly, this is one of the best pictures I have taken of my dad.
Guess I enjoyed spending time with him more than taking photos!
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Ran out of time unpacking and organizing my library, so no digital sketch today. All I had time to do was a hand sketch of Uncle Boo, which I took on in hopes that I'd do better than the digital one (or at least figure out where I went wrong). Other than imagining connections instead of seeing and drawing them, the number one thing I walked away with was, man, I need to find and unpack my art supplies.
Though the resemblance to my dad is more striking in a drawing ...
Perhaps I've found my next drawing subject ...
Still, drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Uncle Boo, after his picture in his obituary.
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
Bit off more than I could chew this time, attempting to do full coloring layers. Had to give up about a third of the way through because it is way past bedtime, even for me. Not happy with the sketch or the result, didn't really get to flesh this one out the way I wanted to.
Still, drawing every day.
-the Centaur