Category Archives: Digital Paint

Dragon Comics 15

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Some comics are just darker than others.

Some comics are just darker than others.

A storyline of sorts is coming into play here; this is going somewhere, other than to a place where every punchline is either Snake insulting Dragon or Dragon killing the snake (not that that will never happen, because it’s still funny to me, but there ought to be some degree of meaning what equates to verbal slapstick.

Cat is working well; she basically looks the same cat every time. I’m starting to get a feel for her, unlike Rabbit, who still doesn’t look right in any drawing. It occurred to me last night, as I was falling asleep, that this in, in part, because I am drawing her mouth all wrong. Rabbit will be cuter the next time she appears.

Dragon Comics 12

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Yes, I spent an hour of my life drawing snake sushi.

Yes, I spent an hour of my life drawing snake sushi.

Even if you don’t like the comic or deride my sense of perspective in panel 4, you have to admit I drew some cute little dragon hands. The santoku knife and the package of organic seaweed are also pleasing.

It’s all about silencing the critic.

Dragon Comics 11

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White dudes: so oppressed, so voiceless.

White dudes: so oppressed, so voiceless.

Every night is basically a Man talking party in certain company. 

All I really have to say about this comic is that I had a lot of fun drawing hands this week. Friday’s comic has some even more amusingly drawn hands. The Man looked it over and informed me that Dragon is using the wrong finger in panel 3, but I guess that says more about his worldview than my ability to draw hands. It’s funny, because in a lot of circles the ability to draw hands is sort of considered the benchmark. I think hands are only medium-hard; it’s faces that cause me the most grief. 

What I’m not entirely satisfied with is the placement of the word balloons in this comic. That’s another important skill in creating a visual narrative, and it’s not always obvious how to line them up so they’re read in order. I’ve actually read quite a bit on this, and I get that it’s part skill and part art. And if you think it doesn’t matter, you should read this hilarious takedown of inexplicable newspaper comic Mark Trail in Cracked. Actually, the whole article is hilarious. But actually, people have written much more serious pieces about word balloon placement. And it’s even more important in a bigger format, because then you also have to think about panel placement. Simply placing 9 or 12 equal-sized boxes in a grid over and over gets boring. The best artists can create a magical flow of images that sweeps the reader along from action to action in a visual way that somehow reflects the action, but done incorrectly, this method can just confuse the reader.

I’m fair from having to worry about that. But it is interesting to consider how the chosen format affects the storytelling. I’ve already got a little story planned out that examines this, but first, Dragon has a few things to say about art, friendship, truth, and beauty. Stick around!

My Nephew Goes Wading

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The week after our wedding, we hiked to Sabino Dam with the family that remained in town. It’s kind of a long walk for little kids, but I promised them they’d like it when we got there, and they did. It’s only a very small amount of water spilling over, at least most of the year, but it forms a lovely wading pool, and there are even little patches of white sand here and there among the rocks, so you can pretend it’s actually the beach.

My nephlings were delighted. The baby went pantsless, the middle child rolled his cuffs all the way up and walked carefully, but the big one just jumped in wearing jeans. To me, that would have been very unpleasant (and walking back in wet jeans? Ug!) but he was deliriously happy up until they told him it was time to leave. I love the attitude captured in this drawing. He is so enraptured, and he is so uninterested in anything besides his own joy.

noah

It’s a rough little image, but I guess he’s a rough little guy.

I like learning about the interplay of light and shadow, as well as the anatomy I pick up as I go. Wonder what other people think of this. Does it need more detail or does this picture tell the whole story?

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Lisa and Robyn Got Married

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Friday night we were out with some friends, dinner and karaoke (in case you’re wondering, I *rocked* “Only the Good Die Young.” The entire bar was into it), and then headed back to another couple’s house to chill out. I brought the Wacom tablet because sometimes I just feel like messing with it all day. (I almost skipped karaoke to go draw.) Demonstrating to my friend, I said, “Hey, I’ll paint a picture of you.” The first image I came up with of her was one my husband took on her wedding day a few months back.

“You’re really going to paint that?” she asked.

“Sure, why not?”

The “why not” would probably have been because she was wearing a birdcage veil, and her wife a necklace made of 10 thousand tiny beads. Those would have been reasons not to paint that particular image anyway, because those things were not easy to draw. But I was committed. And it took 3 days. And I did this.

So in love <3

So in love ❤ I had a WAY better background and Photoshop crashed as I was saving it! Tried to recreate but it’s so late and it’s not going well. 

I had fabulous plans for a background, but every time I attempted to execute it looked awful. I’m not 100% satisfied, but I’m not entirely certain how to make the pixels do what I want them to do here, so I’m sticking with this reminiscent-of-the-’80s design for now. The great thing about digital paint is that you can always come back. I can easily put the background in the trash and try a new one.

Eilat, Coral Reef Nature Reserve, August 1999

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Under the sea, under the sea...it's the Red Sea, in case you were wondering.

Under the sea, under the sea…it’s the Red Sea, in case you were wondering.

I was living on kibbutz in the south of Israel, and a guy that I liked took me to Eilat to go snorkeling. He had bought a waterproof disposable camera and he was determined to get his money’s worth. The results were unspectacular. The reef was crowded. I was sexually harassed in French while standing in line (my French was not sufficient to defend myself, but the guy I was with was a native speaker, and when he came back and saw what was happening, he cheerfully chased my offender off and stood a little bit taller afterward: “I called him ‘tu’ and he answered me with ‘vous,’ he said, a little bit dreamily, as he was a small guy and not used to coming out on top in those situations). The reef was, sadly, dead. No one else seemed to notice, but I’d seen enough nature documentaries to know a dead reef when I saw one. There were fish, but hardly any living corals and no anemones, sea stars, urchins, or any of the fine little creatures you expect around a reef. 

My friend wasn’t confident in his ability to take good pictures, so he gave me the camera, and I did my utmost, but the only really interesting shot on the roll was the last one I took underwater, as we were about to get out. Approaching the steps, we saw hundreds of these beautiful striped blue fish swimming around the legs of the people who were about to get in. It was a magical moment.

As for this drawing, I have mixed feelings about it. If I had another 10 hours to mess around with it, it would probably be as interesting as the original. The perspective is OK, but the light was crazy hard to work with, and capturing the light on the water nearly impossible. I managed to get something there by lining the brushstrokes up, but overall it’s too dark and heavy to really give the appearance of water on a sunny day. However, just completing the exercise taught me a lot, and analyzing the piece now helps me learn even more. I could definitely revisit this at a later date and smooth all the light and shadows out, even if the ripples and bubbles in the water are kind of hopeless from this perspective. 

The thing is, I tried to commit to this blog for the purpose of seeing things through. Otherwise, I’d probably just chuck this image, give it up as too hard and feel like I hadn’t done anything creative today. I might tell myself I’d finish it later and probably not follow through. Promising myself to post something new every day gives me the freedom to suck. I don’t think this picture sucks, per se. It’s just that my skill doesn’t match my vision, and I’m impatient, and learning new things feels new and unusual still after spending almost 30 years obsessively focusing on learning one skill.

So I guess this picture isn’t completely done, but it’s after midnight, so up it goes. 

 

Painting with Thick Pixels

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Quite a few digital artists whose work I admire post drawings in this sort of hasty style, comprised of thick brushstrokes, almost a modern kind of impressionism. At the Grand Canyon, I couldn’t help but think it might be easier to render all those strata of rock using a technique like this, but even with all the shortcuts I took, the Grand Canyon is not an easy thing to capture. 

Sorry I couldn't do you justice, majestic view. You're kind of close to being something like what I meant to draw.

Sorry I couldn’t do you justice, majestic view. You’re kind of close to being something like what I meant to draw.

I worked on this one for about three hours or so, then realized it was after midnight and I needed to upload it regardless, then realized that at some point in the process, I had completely ruined the bottom part of the sky, which I had been pretty pleased with to start. So then I tried to draw over it and fix it. Needless to say, the results were not as good. Ah, well.

Overall, it’s not a bad drawing. The Grand Canyon just has so many colors. Not to mention all the layers. And rocks. And trees. Perhaps I will attempt this technique with a less complicated image.