Mindbender:

Kind of a nice feel drawing with your finger actually. If I ever become really serious about digital art I guess I'll have to:

1. Buy Photoshop (or whatever program "everyone" uses when that day comes...)

2. Buy a tablet

At the moment I'll just have to do with Paint.NET and ArtRage starter ed. (feel like upgrading though - would be nice to be able to work in layers on AR as well)  

If you want to work in layers you could always try the excellent photoshop like (and importantly, open source)Gimp. It was on the IFX (issue 41's) cover disk or you can download it free from the web. Opacity, layers,etc all at your fingertips now yum yum. 

Mindbender:

About my elf - since I have begun painting it I will add shoulders as well during the coloring process (finally realized how to set opacity for a color with Paint.NET - yay! :-)). Alex is right that the eyes aren't correct - but I don't know if I have the patience to correct that. Main goal with the "Elf male" project is getting practice when it comes to coloring a face. 

Today the sketch will be a simple - but fun to draw - comic character that I learned from Loomis' book "Fun with the pencil" that I began reading yesterday.

I'm not really pleased with it - especially the eyes don't seem to "connect" with the rest of the face. But I don't feel like working any more with it. I'll leave it as the simple, unshaded sketch it is:

(Actually looking at it again I realize the right ear would need to be redrawn, but...will have to do for now...)

Software: ArtRage

No ref.

if you do try Gimp you can duplicate the layer, lasso,copy and move the eyes to a lower and more natural position that you might be happier with. Good luck

Thanks for your kind advice. Haven't tried GIMP yet. Paint.NET has all the features I've needed so far. Problem is I prefer sketching and painting in ArtRage and don't feel like exporting image to PdN just to improve a simple "sketch of the day".

Thanks for suggestion though - will check it out when i get the time (have the IFX #41 disc) :-)

 

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"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Picasso

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Continuing my current focus on faces, I have also tried changing the features to make other characters than humans. Today I drew an orc-like character. No shading since it's "just" a sketch.

Software: Paint.NET

No ref.

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As a practice in drawing humans (probably what I find hardest atm) I drew this sketch of a cliché barbarian facing some kind of creature in some kind of traditional dungeon setting. Not quite pleased with proportions, might keep working on it later - right now I'm too eager to keep painting my elf portrait...

Software: ArtRage 2,5

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Thought I'd add a speed painting for a change. Tried playing around with all the ArtRage features and ended up with this one:

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Kept working on my spearman sketch:

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Back to posemaniac drills - 30s gesture drawings:

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Now SOMETHING is starting to happen with my drawing...

Just couldn't resist trying in ArtRage doing what I just did with pencil and paper - Using Vilppu's first gesture drawing exercise to draw one of the characters from Botticelli's famous "Primavera". This mousepad makes it impossible to keep one continuous don't-lift-the-pencil-like motion and it's hard to feel how long a line will be - but still it gives some sort of idea of this new kind of practice I've just begun with (gesture drawing from master works). Todays Primavera-quiz: Which of the characters did I have as a model?

(Drawing time: Somewhere from one to a couple of minutes) 

EDIT: Realized I've had some strange pencil setting while drawing this one (and the previous) - that's why it looks so extremely artificial. Well, that's also a part of the learning progress, learning how to use the software. I was so excited when I drew and posted this one, since those figure drawing exercises were making me draw in a different style for the first time. Hope my future digitally drawn images will look more like "real" sketching .

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"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Picasso

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Hiya Mindbender, thx for comment on my SB - I like to think I am improving everyday - improvement for me seems to have a correlation with trying new things, I usually get to a certain point with any given medium and my work begins to stagnate. But recently I am loving marker/pen/recycled paper combo - think I'll stick with that for a while!

 

I think it's great what you're doing here - I can't really comment on these gestures, tbh it looks like they were done with a mouse or finger mouse thing... I can't give any tips for using this method because you don't have any control over pressure so you just get one massive bunch of lines, kinda hard to decipher :-) Oh and I wouldn't swap your finger mouse with a real mouse because that would probably be worse! I would save pennies for the cheapest tablet on the market would be an idea if you're serious about digital art.

 

Anyways - I looked at your plan of action and it looks good - imo Vilppu is THE guy to teach gestures, mine improved a lot after I watched his gesture video, and now I have some of his books.

 

Keep it up! 

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Hey Mindbender!Nice username btw.

Your ideas and passion for art is great,and your artwork comes very often which is good,and you have some good art here,but I think it would be better,to maybe practice traditionally first,might be easier?than using a mouse and such,unless you dont have a scanner?

Keep going tho m8!

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Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one. ~Stella Adler

Hi and thx for comments

Alex: I agree, I had activated some pencil setting that made it look even more artificial - now the lines at least should look more "sketchy". Obviously the pressure will be same though, and being quck gesture exercises I won't mark any lines more than others - it's capturing the motion, the overall gesture that's important at this stage. Haven't even considered buying a real tablet yet - but just out of curiousity: How much does one cost?

Glad you liked my plan and I'll definitely try to keep up the Vilppu work.

Grenich: Thx for the compliment on the name and glad you like my art interest. I actually do all of my PRACTICE with traditional pencil on paper. I just sketch digitally for the daily sketch thread and as a foundation for my image work. No scanner - and so far too lazy to use dig cam-transfer to comp-upload. Will do that when I have drawn something traditionally that I REALLY wanna show you guys.

Latest sketch (random poses from posemanics - no time limit, but probably took a couple of mins/pose):  

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I think the cheapest is a Wacom Bamboo One for about £20-£25 though there are other brands - I don't know much about that tablet or if it has pressure

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Hi again. To be honest I thought those tablets - even the simplest ones - would be much more expensive (I suppose the more advanced ones are). Could imagine paying up to around 120 £ for a tablet even without getting TOO serious about digital art. Just read about the ergonomical advantages using tablet instead of mouse as well. It's my birthday in May and I think I know something that will be added to that future wishlist...

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"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Picasso

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A tablet is indeed a great help in digital drawing/sketching - They feel strange in the beginning but that will soon pass with some practise. I used to struggle with a mouse until 2 years ago and my opinion is that one can´t really sketch with a mouse.

I used to draw the sketch with pencil and paper and scan it into the PC for further work with a painting software.

It seems that pads gets more expensive with their size, my Wacom 3 ( A4 - size ) costed me around 4000 kronor, it´s very good but it sometimes feels a bit TO big for my scribblings - I think one would get away with smaller ones too.

Did some checking out on the web and found 2 rather cheap, small tablets:

The Trust.

 And the mentioned Wacom Bamboo

I can´t really answer for how good these are.

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raimo

Thanks for taking time to help me with this . Will dive deeper into the "tablet jungle" as May approaches.

Back to basics - gesture drawings of just heads from posemaniacs: 

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"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Picasso

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