Another drawing? after one whole day?
Last night was a late night of being supportive husband while the wife had to work late into the night, so I had some time to do another drawing. This is a more robust process piece. I am hedging on what I said just yesterday regarding the pencil tool in flash being "not really for me", and I will try to explain why:
1) As you can see, the sketch is a big mess. I didn't even bother with feet for the sketch part. This is much closer to how I usually sketch, and since I am not a proper comic artist who doesn't have to draw the same character the same way over and over, it's fine for now to leave huge areas completely undefined, to be made up by me later in the drawing. If I were to start using this guy as a character, I would probably have to rethink this step, at least until I have the character down to where I know him inside and out. This was done in flash.
2) Here you see my first inking attempt done in photoshop. It was here that I realized that I just don’t have the photoshop technique down to any comfortable level yet. My hand is not nearly steady enough. This would not be a big deal in flash, as I could push and pull to get it right, but I am discovering I need quite a bit more practice with it before I start busting it out and claiming it’s good.
3) So I bring it back into flash, inking it using the pencil tool. There are two reasons why I think this is going to work out well for me. The first is that I still really want the reproduction options that using vector art gives me (though this is sort of moot when I then color it in photoshop, but I’ll think about that later). The second is, I get truly, honestly sick of looking at my own style of artwork, especially when I know I’m sitting down to make something look like it belongs in a comic book, rather than a cartoon or illustration. I can improve my drawing ability, but I really can’t do much to escape the very way that I draw. This inking technique makes me look at my own artwork like someone else is doing it, which makes me want to keep doing it, which, when you are as lethargic about drawing for one’s self as I am, can only be a good thing for now, so I will continue to explore the style.
4) The colored piece. I used the same technique as the old man at the bottom of my last pic, but did not get the same results, so I think I just need to keep working at the coloring part of this and eventually the way I color best will work itself out. I am not displeased with this.