Wow, my muscles are still terribly sore but at least my neck muscles aren't as sore as yesterday. It was horrible, as in terribly uncomfortable, trying to sleep with my neck, upper arm, and thigh muscles hurting!
In other ramblings, I finally got myself to work on the Fight in the Distance concept. I can't seem to get a finished look on it but I think it's because I went with the values first route. I remember reading on someone's blog that that concept artist usually doesn't use values on environment concept art. I figure the reason might be toggling the black and white feature in Photoshop would help figure out if the values still read while using color to paint in the concept.
Even after color balancing and adjusting the saturation, it doesn't look very finished so I think I need to try the method with not painting in the values. I'm going to have to look back at the videos I saw with digital painting environments and seeing how some artists go about with their process.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Sketching out new cover for chapter 1 of comic
Since the silhouette method didn't give me a result I liked or could use, I went back to sketching, outlining and re-outlining for thinner lines. I've decided to paint in the hair though, so that's a work in progress.
Should I be calling the comic a graphic novel instead?
/edit 7:03 pm EST
I completed the cover.
Tried the silhouette method...didn't like what I got from experiment
So I tried the method of painting the silhouette first and then refining, but I didn't like how the form was shaped. I don't know if it's because of the design or just how it looked after I tried blending in values. I might just want to go back to sketching and outline the final form instead.
Ahhhhhhh, sore muscles!
So yesterday a friend of mine held their family's annual summer party-get together. It was great seeing friends again, especially since I probably wouldn't be able to see them again until next summer. (I'll be on the other side of the U.S once the summer is over.)
At the party, I definitely was a lot more active than I have been during the rest of the summer. Last year was home run ball (or kick ball... I don't recall the difference). This year, I threw Frisbee with two friends, 'Squeaky' and Shannon, badminton with those same two friends and Chinese Yo-Yo-ed with 'Squeaky'. I ended up going pretty all out, though tennis styled on my end against my friend (Squeaky) who played badminton. It was interesting since neither of us has played our respective sport since high school; she's a year younger than me. Right about now, my muscles are feeling it haha. It probably didn't help that many of us were crouching near a campfire for most of the night when it became too dark haha.
And, now it's almost 2pm. I really need to draw stuff now or I won't really finish anything today.
At the party, I definitely was a lot more active than I have been during the rest of the summer. Last year was home run ball (or kick ball... I don't recall the difference). This year, I threw Frisbee with two friends, 'Squeaky' and Shannon, badminton with those same two friends and Chinese Yo-Yo-ed with 'Squeaky'. I ended up going pretty all out, though tennis styled on my end against my friend (Squeaky) who played badminton. It was interesting since neither of us has played our respective sport since high school; she's a year younger than me. Right about now, my muscles are feeling it haha. It probably didn't help that many of us were crouching near a campfire for most of the night when it became too dark haha.
And, now it's almost 2pm. I really need to draw stuff now or I won't really finish anything today.
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Spreadsheets and more spreadsheets...and brainstorming?
Changing that font thing is annoying; I wonder how the default looks though.
...
Might as well test it. Oh it's actually not that bad; this means I can just start typing without having to remind myself about the font style.
I usually start my day with checking deviantART daily deviations to check out what sort of tutorials might have made the DD. Today there was a tutorial on planning novels (I've linked it for any of those who want to give it a read) and there were two things I took away from it. One is to write down all ideas, because it's very likely you'll forget them. Luckily for me, I've been able to remember the more major scenes of my story and the rest of the earlier events have been 'documented' through my attempts at comic-ing (that's probably not a word) during middle school and early high school. There's at least 6 books!! Though they're all different sizes since I literally took notebooks from school that I couldn't fill, ripped out the notes and used those pages as the comic book while stapling a hand drawn cover for them. Definitely not anything presentable, both on the exterior and interior.
The second thing I took away was making a spreadsheet of *all* your characters. To paraphrase, even the cab driver should get documented!
Anyways, I plan on roughly setting up an excel spreadsheet and perhaps the character relationships in a notebook.
...
Might as well test it. Oh it's actually not that bad; this means I can just start typing without having to remind myself about the font style.
I usually start my day with checking deviantART daily deviations to check out what sort of tutorials might have made the DD. Today there was a tutorial on planning novels (I've linked it for any of those who want to give it a read) and there were two things I took away from it. One is to write down all ideas, because it's very likely you'll forget them. Luckily for me, I've been able to remember the more major scenes of my story and the rest of the earlier events have been 'documented' through my attempts at comic-ing (that's probably not a word) during middle school and early high school. There's at least 6 books!! Though they're all different sizes since I literally took notebooks from school that I couldn't fill, ripped out the notes and used those pages as the comic book while stapling a hand drawn cover for them. Definitely not anything presentable, both on the exterior and interior.
The second thing I took away was making a spreadsheet of *all* your characters. To paraphrase, even the cab driver should get documented!
Anyways, I plan on roughly setting up an excel spreadsheet and perhaps the character relationships in a notebook.
Page 8 of comic completed.
Posting something art related rather than organization posts. Finally, haha.
Really wish there was a way to change the default font here, so I don't have to keep reminding myself to change the font every post.
Anyways, I was finally able to get something done on Photoshop after having spent 2 or so days exporting blogs onto this blog and organizing everything as well.
I wish I had more time in the day to do more but all I could get done for now was coloring in page 8 of my comic.
My plan for tomorrow, as in when I wake up, is to try a certain method for digital painting. I've been watching FZD videos the past week and want to try the silhouette method. I don't know how well it'll turn out for humanoid characters but it'll still be worth trying it out!
If the result turns out well enough, I'll use it for creating a cover for chapter 1. As I said before, the first version looks... bland and doesn't really seem like it should be a cover. I actually don't know what it could be used for, if anything. If I'm remembering correctly, I didn't put enough thought into it when I painted it. That or I just had no idea yet. I know for future chapter covers, I plan on featuring an original character of the story for each.
Really wish there was a way to change the default font here, so I don't have to keep reminding myself to change the font every post.
Anyways, I was finally able to get something done on Photoshop after having spent 2 or so days exporting blogs onto this blog and organizing everything as well.
I wish I had more time in the day to do more but all I could get done for now was coloring in page 8 of my comic.
My plan for tomorrow, as in when I wake up, is to try a certain method for digital painting. I've been watching FZD videos the past week and want to try the silhouette method. I don't know how well it'll turn out for humanoid characters but it'll still be worth trying it out!
If the result turns out well enough, I'll use it for creating a cover for chapter 1. As I said before, the first version looks... bland and doesn't really seem like it should be a cover. I actually don't know what it could be used for, if anything. If I'm remembering correctly, I didn't put enough thought into it when I painted it. That or I just had no idea yet. I know for future chapter covers, I plan on featuring an original character of the story for each.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Update
I've updated all the blogs posts in terms of labels, literally cutting the number of labels down to half or more than half. It was a bit lengthy in terms of the number of hours I had to use up. Now I just need to fix my portfolio posts and I'll be set to get some drawing or painting in today!
Portfolio blog is up and mostly done!
I finally found a good template for portfolio use, now I just need to separate the images into their own posts so the tiles are actually tiles rather than large columns!
I'll leave that for when I wake up later today though...
Along with going through all my older posts and fixing the labels. That'll be a few hours of tediousness.
I'll leave that for when I wake up later today though...
Along with going through all my older posts and fixing the labels. That'll be a few hours of tediousness.
Finally! Moved all blog posts into one blog!
I've finally moved everything , from first art blog on Blogger, from Wordpress (the .com one ) and from Weebly, onto this blog!
It took a while but thank goodness for having archive navigations on these blogs otherwise I would still be clicking to earlier Weebly blog posts!
On a similar but not so similar note, it looks like the Blogger app can't save or post any blog posts so that's pretty lame. It looks like, until /if they fix the app, I'll have to resort to my Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook page.
It took a while but thank goodness for having archive navigations on these blogs otherwise I would still be clicking to earlier Weebly blog posts!
On a similar but not so similar note, it looks like the Blogger app can't save or post any blog posts so that's pretty lame. It looks like, until /if they fix the app, I'll have to resort to my Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook page.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Fight in the Distance - different coloring; plans for when I wake up. Also Instagram?
1:00 AM EST
This would be the second time this week I completely lost track of what time it was and ended up finding out that it was 1 AM. Coincidental? Maybe.
Anyways, I digress. After spending two days (not 24 hours straight) on matching the previous 6 pages of my comic with page 7's style, and finally catching up earlier today, I was able to finally work on coloring 'Fight in the Distance' concept. It took a while for me to get the right blending mode since "Normal" didn't look right even with opacity adjustments. The final decisions were a color wash layer (low saturation color under a multiply layer I believe) and a soft light layer with continuous buildup with a 6-15% opacity brush.
Tomorrow's plans, as in when I wake up later today, will consist of coloring page 8, which I've already paneled and lined earlier this week, sketching up a new cover page for chapter 1. Hopefully I don't sleep in too late tomorrow and can finish those two tasks before the evening rolls in so I can switch to working on the 'Fight in the Distance' concept.
I may or may not start up recording my progress again. I think for the most part I can't record brainstorming since that'd be boring for viewers, maybe. I need to try creating a character without line art/sketching with lines. Once I know I'm comfortable with a certain method, I'll record stuff then. I know I can do that for environment paintings, at the very least in gray scale (values).
In other news, I finally decided to get Instagram and plan on using it to take reference photo shots. It might be a while before I get any photos taken though.
This would be the second time this week I completely lost track of what time it was and ended up finding out that it was 1 AM. Coincidental? Maybe.
Anyways, I digress. After spending two days (not 24 hours straight) on matching the previous 6 pages of my comic with page 7's style, and finally catching up earlier today, I was able to finally work on coloring 'Fight in the Distance' concept. It took a while for me to get the right blending mode since "Normal" didn't look right even with opacity adjustments. The final decisions were a color wash layer (low saturation color under a multiply layer I believe) and a soft light layer with continuous buildup with a 6-15% opacity brush.
Tomorrow's plans, as in when I wake up later today, will consist of coloring page 8, which I've already paneled and lined earlier this week, sketching up a new cover page for chapter 1. Hopefully I don't sleep in too late tomorrow and can finish those two tasks before the evening rolls in so I can switch to working on the 'Fight in the Distance' concept.
I may or may not start up recording my progress again. I think for the most part I can't record brainstorming since that'd be boring for viewers, maybe. I need to try creating a character without line art/sketching with lines. Once I know I'm comfortable with a certain method, I'll record stuff then. I know I can do that for environment paintings, at the very least in gray scale (values).
In other news, I finally decided to get Instagram and plan on using it to take reference photo shots. It might be a while before I get any photos taken though.
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