LadyJudgement

No No No, that would be a mistake I have enough guitar fantasies on the ukulele I can't play already... sadly my sweet acoustic from Tijuana did not make the trip to Canada. But that game will NOT enter these premises!!!

*I'm an artist, I'm an artist, not a rock star, no will not audition for Canadian Idol, get it together Bob, make them stop, make the voices stop...*

You two (Su & Dart) are gonna make me waste a lot of time, I can see that now... thank god there weren't geek girls when I went to school, I would never have graduated! Okay off to download a demo... muahahahahaa.

I believe the Dart is a goyle... though I could be wrong, isn't Hilory unisexual in British parts of the world? Btw I love the Stan Lee line drop!

Yeah I saw those, I played SC3, that was a great game, though I enjoyed Armada 2 more... I hear Legacy bites the big one! ... Don't think I've played Empires as War, is that like Universe at War, cause I love that game.

I may have to download a demo.

And OMG I opened up flash and had a ball for the last 30 minutes, a little getting use to as I have almost no clue what it can do, but I love the "inky" brush line, and the quick superfast flat color... I tried doing a radial gradient, but I think I will have to bone up on some reading before I can figure that out properly. It doesn't work like it does in Photoshop, which I was hoping... or may it does and I haven't realized how yet.

Yeah I think you people with your fancy wacoms *sniffle sniffle* just have an easier time drawing then I do in Photoshop, it's just not fun for me, though I have found some brushes I like, it's not the same as Illustrator. Which let me reiterate, I almost never use for vectors, or vectorish like... the most tweaking I do is copy a section and invert it to save redraw the same leg or arm or hand. But for the most part I stroke it with my brush... okay that sounded so wrong.

Anyway here's my 30 minute doodle of Plasma Stream again, go figure after drawing her yesterday, she was still in my data, uh memory log, uh brain...

Plasma Flash drawing

Thank you, now I have another program I must draw in, did I mention I have a slight digital addiction problem?

LJ

I tried Flash once, it was fun, had no clue what I was doing, but some friend had sent me the program, and I drew a little in it. I do remember enjoying it. The way you work is pretty much the way I work... I do a lot of corrections in Photoshop as a I color, so erase wherever I've overdrawn sharp edges, or hey that stroke is too long, and shouldn't have gone over her face.

Do you own Illustrator? Cause I could hook you up with some nice brushes... COME TO THE DARK SIDE! YOU DON'T KNOW THE POWER... ahem, uh nevermind... I see from your website, yer more of a trekkie, uh trekker? Whoops my bad...

Whoops my bad... well cool then. NOW if you can show me how to color like those Korean artists, well then I'll be your best friend!

I'm a chisler, I do a lot of short strokes, but with shapes I'm second nature with, I do the long ones. If I was drawing on paper, ick the grove marks would make you cringe... I "can" draw lightly, but for some odd reason only with fine point markers.

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Okie. Ultimately, it's down to what works for ya, so you can toss my advice on its ear if it's not what you're looking for. I've gotten better steadily by having people constantly opine on my work habits, so I just pay that help forward. As always, part of the whole thing is deciding what to adopt and what to toss, and I'm not going to feel bad if what I do isn't gonna work for you personally or anything.

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I'm sorry my intent wasn't to make you feel bad, I really do appreciate you offering the advice, but like most advice you take what works or feels comfortable with you as a whole. I love getting advice, so keep it coming, I learn a lot from the way people work, and I figure it's the same for others if not only a little, which is why I explained how I do my stuff.

Your purple layer effect was a great idea, I've been wanting to experiment with something like that. So again don't feel bad, it may just be me... I'm kind of abrasive or so I'm told, it's the New Yorker in me. I apologize if I've in anyway made you feel unappreciated, that was never my goal, just yapping, feel free to ignore me.

I really am not looking to simulate markers or watercolors... I like the look of comic rendering, airbrushing what have you. This style just evolved like I said out of desire to see my line drawing immediately colored. I am just calling watermarker, cause that's what it reminds me of...

As for using Illustrator the way I do, at first I would have agreed with you, I hate doing vector art, something the wife is insanely good at. As we speak she is downstairs doing gradient mesh oil drops to sell for a client, my head is spinning just thinking of all the dots/nodes she is tweaking.

But last January she showed me that I can alter the brush strokes, so that they don't highlight up after I place them down, nor will a new stroke erase a former one. All with two little clicks in some dumb dialog box I never knew about and she forgot existed, cause she doesn't work like I do. Anyway with that one correction I am able to draw in Illustrator like Photoshop, except Illustrator's tendency to "pesudo sharpen" the line, makes any kind of shakey line look perfect.

So I can get up close on a file that's only 500 pixels or zoom out to 2-3,000 and draw exactly the same way with no unintentional shakes. It does correct curves a little, but not enough to change your drawing style.

I've also made custom brushes to simulate ink brush feathering, zip a tone cross hatching, and hair strands. Huge time savers for the things I like to draw and or ink.

The I found out this guy who inks Iron Man, does the same thing, in fact he made some Jack Kirby power effect brushes that look just great for explosions, cosmic rays...

I have soooo much fun drawing in Illustrator compared to drawing in Photoshop (which I do once in a blue moon, I've even found a few brushes that are feasible to my dilema) that if I could color as easily in Illustrator as I can in Photoshop now, I would never use Photoshop again. Maybe someday they'll merge the two, and I won't have to keep swtiching.

As for Painter, I'm just dipping my beak, I've played with it a lot since version 9, but only in the last few months, have I enjoyed using it for that digital watercolor look. It's not the same of course as real watercolor which I pretty much only used for 10 years...

Here's my Indiana Jones watercolor from my college days... and two examples of the few times I have drawn in Photoshop, though this is more like painting for me: Naomi Watts and Madonna unfinished

Anyway, I think I will save up for my Intuos3, and look forward to all it's bells and whistles.

Edit: ah yes that Gnomon site, yeah I've seen those, they look great, the wife wants all the sculpture ones. I haven't seen ImagineFX magazine out here, and it's a little out of my budget as the content isn't primarily what I'm looking for... though I did download a free pdf on merging traditional pencils with digital coloring for comic work. That was cool... some of the other issues though weren't my cup of tea, well not at that price, so I fear it would be hit or miss with me. Though I am happy to lurk on their website.

The info I've read for the Intuos mentions a "removable tip pen", something NOT mentioned in any of the Graphire, or even their new line the Bamboo. The kit I found for replacing the tips are for the "grip pen" which seems standard with Intuos.

So I have a choice to buy a $70 grip pen and hope it works with my $70 tablet, or hold that money in escrow and wait till I hit the $300+ prices for the Intuos3 6 x 8, that I'd want.

The graphire4 pen I have now, has some pressure sensitivity, but it's 1/2 the levels the Intuos have... I'd love to test drive one, but our local electronics store has slim pickings. Oh well this just means I gotta start drawing more, and less yapping...

Oh and Su Lin - I work waaaay larger than 2,000 x 2,000, sometimes 3-4x that, and I still gets the shakes. Illustrator solves all that, and lets me edit the line, so I'm use to it. Thanks for the suggestion though...

Exactly! I love that about Illustrator, though I only alter lines when say I've drawn too far over another edge, I can just click the node, and make the line come back a fraction. As for recording a movie in PS, umm yer asking Say that one right?

Yes I would like a Intuos 6 x 11... but I have dual LCD monitors for the palette problem (19"wide, and 17" regular)... but now yer all making me crave the felts nibby... no wonder you guys draw in Photoshop, you have the ultra 1024 sensitivity, and non of the line shakes. I ink in Illustrator cause it's so fricking forgiving, and I can move lines around all day or thicken them with 2 clicks.

Wasn't one of youse gonna hook me up with their Photoshop sketching set up...

Ah k, then I'm gonna go ahead an order it... cool, can't wait...

yeah go for it...

Thanks for the links, I did some research of my own, but I have a question, can those nibs be used for any wacom pen, or does it have to be the ones that come with an Intuos board? Also are they easy to change? I found some kit that sells 15 nibs, a changer and some other things... but before I order it, I'd rather not have to buy a replacement pen for $70, which is more than my tablet is worth.

Nice, I'm extremely jealous... being a geezer, I've had to self teach myself all of this from day one. So Painter is still a great mystery to me, Photoshop less so, but yes the Plasma Stream piece was done in Illustrator CS2 entirely. Jtran suggested I get some felt nibs, but I only have the standard pen that came with my rinky dink Graphire 4... The felt nibs seem to be for the Intuos pens, but I could be wrong... I found some kit online and read about how to change the tips... but can those tips be used for any wacom pen?

One person suggested pulling on the old nib with tweezers and then pushing the new one in till it locks in place. I'd like to know if this is doable before I order them, I found a site in Canada that will be cheaper to buy from then mailing from the States.

On another note, I miss Life Drawing class, we had to do it the old fashion way with charcoal, newsprint, and those awkward chairs you place large wooded boards on for makeshift easels.

Anytime you wanna post some oil painting tool tips for Painter, I am all ears. I was thinking of buying this book:

The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book: Creative Techniques in Digital Painting

It seems a little more traditionally based, but can't hurt since I have done this kind of work in Photoshop, here's an old portrait I did of a friend's husband using a Rembrant painting for my palette:

Rembrandt Dave - the final's at the bottom of this thread, but the stages are in my first post.

LJ

You da man!

very cool, congrats and belated happy...

I've seen those pens online, but no never ordered one... can you recommend a site, sounds tempting, say for a stocking stuffer...

Sadly my wacom only has 512 levels of sensitivity... regardless though it only helps when I use a calligraphy brush, which helps some in the sizing of the line, but not so much in the intensity of the line. Thanks for the help though...

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Try this:
Under brushes, try turning on minimum diameter to about 25-35% so that you get some nice pressure sensitivity. I've also found a lot of fun out of playing with the shape dynamics on the brushes and angling them, it should give you some fun results with this kind of style.

The other thing you is set another layer on top of your flat colors (no, your color's aren't flat, I meant the first layer of color XD) to do a universal shadow in say, a rich purple then play with the opacity of the layer and layer types. You'll find a lot of ways to get the same look, but a lot faster

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As far as I know I can't set brush diameters in Illustrator, I can create or adjust the size from 100% on down, but this only serves to make the line proportionally smaller, as a drawing element. As a coloring element, there are 2 ways to use the color, either the sloppy way you see, hoping the brush ends inside your black line edges. or to mimic the shape of what you are coloring with the pen tool creating a closed shaped.

Something I hate to do in Illustrator, because coloring in closed shapes just seems alien to me. I can do it, but it's worse than flatting. Also the purple layer you describe adds a nice airy quality when the opacity of it is under 50%, but the reverse action of raising it to say 85% only creates too opaque a shape of color, that covers all the hard work you did before making this layer.

Forgive me for saying so, but I don't think you understand the program. I can do marker flat, and soft cell shading in Photoshop, as well as in Painter, though I'd prefer not to there.

Here's my TEST SHEET of these different looks:

The upper left is all Illustrator CS2, where the original line drawing was done in 5 minutes, then very minimal 50% opacity color is placed on a layer underneath the black line.

The upper right is Photoshop CS3, the linework is set to multiply, the colors are flatted, then the highlights and darks are rendered in. I also added your purple layer for effect...

The lower left is Painter X, the color is set above the linework, and I used digital watercolor layers, about 3 to increase the darkness of the same light colors, a pseudo light to dark approach. I also added a grey overtone layer, and used a glow and neon pen brush for the bright areas.

The last, lower right is an amalgamation of brushes in Painter X, trying to just go for a metallic feel.

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But here's the thing Photoshop takes the longest, the Watercolor Painter effect isnt bad, but much longer than just trying to make it look metallic in Painter. And while I know the Illustrator is very unfinished, I like the look and it's simplicity, and it was the fastest to do.

I purposefully put less color, yes I could have spent more time on it, but it would cease to look like that, and instead be muddy.

Um yeah I could but that would defeat the purpose of this... If I was using watercolors, I'd just stick to their traditional properties and full on paint everything with it. I WILL be offering that soon, probably after December. Look out for BAS Christmas gift!

Okay last I'll say on it, I made a folder gallery for them on my DA account. You can see the stages of evolution in this style, if any... okay look really close, okay hire a midget with a magnifying glass...

I was thinking though, what if I splapped the color on first, then drew black line over it... Someone wanna be my guinea pig? First one gets the worm, uh art worm.

LJ

Dare I ask if the City Scoop pays anything? Okay stop laughing...

Thanks for chiming in Doug, and hey feel free anytime, it's like finding a pearl in my soup! Okay well maybe not that gross. But I wouldn't know where to begin... Painter has always been an enigma to me, I only this year got it to work without stalling (more RAM) and finally got to a watercolor style with I enjoy.

The other thing is, I think I've forgotten how to draw with markers it's been so long. So any tutes or suggestions with that style would be a dream come true.

As for unfinished, yup, it's intentional... I think if I wanted finished for me that is, I wouldn't even attempt this style. But I appreciate those who enjoy what little charms it may offer. Eye of the beholder thing...

Thanks again for your input, btw how are we doing on those adoption papers, can I come home yet?

LJ