Artblogging 1: First Lessons in Tabletting
Well, as cockeyed_art begins, and I actually start to attempt to use the new tablet, I want to kind-of record some of my thoughts as I work through each piece. Mostly because I suck, but also to keep a record of things that I need to work on each week.
I'm putting it here because I put my writing rambles here too, and brokenprism is mostly for the actual work rather than the rambles. Those of you with no interest in art or drawing or its process, move along! Those of you who do draw and want to possibly just ramble about technique with me, especially on a tablet, you're welcome to go ahead and read my awesome tl;dr. These entries will come as I try new things, and will be under the tag of "artblogging".
- - -
On Me
First of all, I should probably state for the record that I am pretty much completely self-taught when it comes to art. I'm not a total idiot, no; I was very interested in art when I was younger, and studied it in school and on my own with teach-yourself books and the like, so I do have some background and foundation. But by "some" I really mean "stuff from high school" and since I'm now 25 and a completely-un-art-related chemical engineer that should tell you what kind of background I'm really talking about.
(Which of course makes me nervous to be entering the ring with rosencrantz and katmillia, who both studied art for college degrees, but, hey, whatever. XD I'm not a professional writer either, and I post that stuff too, don't I?)
I mean, I was a photography minor, so I studied things like light/shadow and composition, so - again, not a complete art-related idiot, but photography and sketching don't have a lot in common, either. XD
Anyway. I started drawing on the computer because I wanted to learn to draw anime-style, basically. OK, DON'T YELL AT ME. I know anime style is totally overdone, and everybody in FF fandom draws anime style, and OMG HOW COULD YOU? But basically, I LIKE anime-style art. I love manga. I think a lot of it is really pretty, and I like the style of drawing those types of faces and bodies, and I really like the style of hair. I always have. Maybe this is comparable to a love of, I don't know, meaningless pornfic? BECAUSE I LIKE ANIME/MANGA-STYLE ART, KTHX. HA HA.
I'd honed my (realism) skills in high school by drawing figures from magazines - practicing shading faces, drawing bodies and poses, etc. And I'll say I was pretty good at it for someone with no training whatsoever (keep in mind I was working from a reference, so I'm not going to say I was a super awesome artist, but I was decently good). So when I started trying to teach myself anime-style, I started (a) drawing from references, trying to imitate (um, hi, Sailor Moon!) and (b) reading online tutorials on how to draw in particular styles.
I got... well, pretty respectable, for only being self-taught. The things I posted online are from before about 2002-2003 and are pretty sub-par (so please do me a favor and do not go through that old folder of art; it is online to teach me specifically what NOT to do any more). However, I've got a folder of sketches - mostly original characters and stuff - that have turned out pretty well, honestly. I'm proud of that stuff. I just stopped posting things online when I started moving around (2003 - onwards; it is hard to post when your scanner is in a box; see below XD) and never really picked it back up.
Somewhere in here I picked up a pretty sub-par tablet. It worked decently, but it was never really capable of doing everything I asked it to. However, it was a big help for colouring, and eventually I decided that I wanted to learn to draw completely on the tablet.
There were a couple projects to spur this - mostly online comics, until I realized how bad I was at art and how correspondingly bad I was at sticking to projects. So I failed. XD
OKAY, THIS IS ENOUGH BACKGROUND, OH MY GOD.
Basic goals, LOL
My goals here are pretty simple. I don't necessarily want to be able to draw realistic-style; I can draw realism if I have a reference, and what interests me more is developing a comic-like style of my own that's realistic enough to not look weird, but enough of my own style to be cool. This draws on both anime/manga-type style, and typical comic-style stuff (see: RPGWorld, Megatokyo, etc etc for people who have developed fun styles).
My eventual goal is to make an online webcomic/manga out of Seven Beacons. OK, there, I said it.
In the meantime, however, I just want to hone my skills to the point where I can draw decent pictures of characters I like. That's my real goal. They'll be anime-like, and they'll probably be plain and bland, but that's pretty much where I want to go with this right now.
On Technique, and my Tablet Skills
So normally, when I draw, I begin with some light pencil sketches that are full of guidelines. Guidelines, guidelines, happy little guidelines. I start with a pose, or a general idea, or something like that, and then sketch in everything. I've got guidelines that I'm used to to help me with the face, and I've got little tricks to help me with proportioning the body to the head, and usually stuff turns out relatively okay.
I usually start with an exaggerated stick-figure in whatever pose I'm looking for, usually proportioned (using GUIDELINES XD) and hopefully posed semi-acceptably. I then move on to the face, because if I can't get the face close to right, right away, I abandon the picture. The face is pretty much everything to me - it's the center of the pic, and the most important thing, and if it doesn't come out right, I can't go back and edit it later because I fail. The picture revolves around the face, for me. So the face comes first.
Then I sketch in the body, lightly, so I've got a reference for adding clothing. I tend for long and skinny in the body, because I have a more comic/anime-like style overall, but I try to stay realistic (and, more importantly, proportioned!). I then add the clothes/outfit/whatever, and voila, I've got a sketch. Sometimes it takes a couple tries, but usually I come out with something likeable.
Here's the first problem. When I'm doing this on paper, freehand, I can do it with my guidelines and sketches and everything. When I try to do this completely on the computer, 100% tablet, my guidelines fail.
I am doing the same things, really, but the guidelines do not work. I'll draw my circles and oblongs to make the face, and then I go to draw the horizontal and vertical anchor-lines I usually use -- and they don't come out in the right place. I can't get them to line up right. I'm just drawing lines on top of other lines. And because I'm so dependent on my guidelines in my art, this means tablet-based art just comes out wrong.
Same with my body-references. I mean, you can totally see it here (Rosa, FFIV, PG) -- the head/neck are too big for the body. And yet, that was what my reference-lines told me to draw. Granted, I am not an expert artist, but on paper, I am much better than that!
Somehow, working completely on the tablet messes up my perspective somehow. I'm not sure why, but the guideline method I'm used to using doesn't seem to translate over from tablet to computer screen. Things that I do on paper that WORK -- I cannot do them on the tablet. Does anyone else have this problem?
The outline itself came out alright, I guess; better than (a) my old tablet, and (b) mouse-tracing. I still wish I'd had a better shape to outline. I can't draw details on the computer like I do free-hand, either, so outfits come out looking horribly bland rather than full of quirky Amano-like stuff like FF characters should have.
Granted, I am sure I need more practice, for one. My previous tablet-only project, an ill-fated webcomic based on Resonance, another of my original stories, was drawn in a big-head, small-body style -- and so I am probably channeling some of that from, y'know, 4 years ago. So that's also part of it - I'm used to doing things on a tablet that, well, I didn't want to do in this particular picture.
So I think one thing I need more practice on is getting the things I see in my head to show up on the computer screen when I draw them on the tablet. I don't know WHY they don't line up right, but they never seem to. I just don't have the control with the tablet that I do free-hand, I guess. I mean, that's an inherent fact that comes with tablet work. So: practice.
At the same time, I need to dig out my scanner finally, so that Enkida and Katy do not give up on my craptastic art skills!
TEAL DEER
So, in conclusion, and in retrospect, I should've spent my time digging out my scanner and made the picture in the way I'm used to -- hand-sketch, scan, trace and color on the computer -- rather than spending hours drawing and re-drawing and finally realizing things were not going to turn out like I wanted them to and "compromising" on a final picture.
I know there are proportion problems in the picture, huge ones; but the way I was going, they were not resolving themselves. I realize the point of cockeyed_art is just to get A PICTURE out every week, which is why I went forward with this one. It's a good example of the flaws in my all-tablet work, and so it's a good starting point for me to improve things. I'll never get better with the tablet unless I keep at it, really!
People who draw with tablets - do you just sketch and sketch until something looks right? Or do you use tons of guidelines in Photoshop to help you shape an image?
I'm putting it here because I put my writing rambles here too, and brokenprism is mostly for the actual work rather than the rambles. Those of you with no interest in art or drawing or its process, move along! Those of you who do draw and want to possibly just ramble about technique with me, especially on a tablet, you're welcome to go ahead and read my awesome tl;dr. These entries will come as I try new things, and will be under the tag of "artblogging".
- - -
On Me
First of all, I should probably state for the record that I am pretty much completely self-taught when it comes to art. I'm not a total idiot, no; I was very interested in art when I was younger, and studied it in school and on my own with teach-yourself books and the like, so I do have some background and foundation. But by "some" I really mean "stuff from high school" and since I'm now 25 and a completely-un-art-related chemical engineer that should tell you what kind of background I'm really talking about.
(Which of course makes me nervous to be entering the ring with rosencrantz and katmillia, who both studied art for college degrees, but, hey, whatever. XD I'm not a professional writer either, and I post that stuff too, don't I?)
I mean, I was a photography minor, so I studied things like light/shadow and composition, so - again, not a complete art-related idiot, but photography and sketching don't have a lot in common, either. XD
Anyway. I started drawing on the computer because I wanted to learn to draw anime-style, basically. OK, DON'T YELL AT ME. I know anime style is totally overdone, and everybody in FF fandom draws anime style, and OMG HOW COULD YOU? But basically, I LIKE anime-style art. I love manga. I think a lot of it is really pretty, and I like the style of drawing those types of faces and bodies, and I really like the style of hair. I always have. Maybe this is comparable to a love of, I don't know, meaningless pornfic? BECAUSE I LIKE ANIME/MANGA-STYLE ART, KTHX. HA HA.
I'd honed my (realism) skills in high school by drawing figures from magazines - practicing shading faces, drawing bodies and poses, etc. And I'll say I was pretty good at it for someone with no training whatsoever (keep in mind I was working from a reference, so I'm not going to say I was a super awesome artist, but I was decently good). So when I started trying to teach myself anime-style, I started (a) drawing from references, trying to imitate (um, hi, Sailor Moon!) and (b) reading online tutorials on how to draw in particular styles.
I got... well, pretty respectable, for only being self-taught. The things I posted online are from before about 2002-2003 and are pretty sub-par (so please do me a favor and do not go through that old folder of art; it is online to teach me specifically what NOT to do any more). However, I've got a folder of sketches - mostly original characters and stuff - that have turned out pretty well, honestly. I'm proud of that stuff. I just stopped posting things online when I started moving around (2003 - onwards; it is hard to post when your scanner is in a box; see below XD) and never really picked it back up.
Somewhere in here I picked up a pretty sub-par tablet. It worked decently, but it was never really capable of doing everything I asked it to. However, it was a big help for colouring, and eventually I decided that I wanted to learn to draw completely on the tablet.
There were a couple projects to spur this - mostly online comics, until I realized how bad I was at art and how correspondingly bad I was at sticking to projects. So I failed. XD
OKAY, THIS IS ENOUGH BACKGROUND, OH MY GOD.
Basic goals, LOL
My goals here are pretty simple. I don't necessarily want to be able to draw realistic-style; I can draw realism if I have a reference, and what interests me more is developing a comic-like style of my own that's realistic enough to not look weird, but enough of my own style to be cool. This draws on both anime/manga-type style, and typical comic-style stuff (see: RPGWorld, Megatokyo, etc etc for people who have developed fun styles).
My eventual goal is to make an online webcomic/manga out of Seven Beacons. OK, there, I said it.
In the meantime, however, I just want to hone my skills to the point where I can draw decent pictures of characters I like. That's my real goal. They'll be anime-like, and they'll probably be plain and bland, but that's pretty much where I want to go with this right now.
On Technique, and my Tablet Skills
So normally, when I draw, I begin with some light pencil sketches that are full of guidelines. Guidelines, guidelines, happy little guidelines. I start with a pose, or a general idea, or something like that, and then sketch in everything. I've got guidelines that I'm used to to help me with the face, and I've got little tricks to help me with proportioning the body to the head, and usually stuff turns out relatively okay.
I usually start with an exaggerated stick-figure in whatever pose I'm looking for, usually proportioned (using GUIDELINES XD) and hopefully posed semi-acceptably. I then move on to the face, because if I can't get the face close to right, right away, I abandon the picture. The face is pretty much everything to me - it's the center of the pic, and the most important thing, and if it doesn't come out right, I can't go back and edit it later because I fail. The picture revolves around the face, for me. So the face comes first.
Then I sketch in the body, lightly, so I've got a reference for adding clothing. I tend for long and skinny in the body, because I have a more comic/anime-like style overall, but I try to stay realistic (and, more importantly, proportioned!). I then add the clothes/outfit/whatever, and voila, I've got a sketch. Sometimes it takes a couple tries, but usually I come out with something likeable.
Here's the first problem. When I'm doing this on paper, freehand, I can do it with my guidelines and sketches and everything. When I try to do this completely on the computer, 100% tablet, my guidelines fail.
I am doing the same things, really, but the guidelines do not work. I'll draw my circles and oblongs to make the face, and then I go to draw the horizontal and vertical anchor-lines I usually use -- and they don't come out in the right place. I can't get them to line up right. I'm just drawing lines on top of other lines. And because I'm so dependent on my guidelines in my art, this means tablet-based art just comes out wrong.
Same with my body-references. I mean, you can totally see it here (Rosa, FFIV, PG) -- the head/neck are too big for the body. And yet, that was what my reference-lines told me to draw. Granted, I am not an expert artist, but on paper, I am much better than that!
Somehow, working completely on the tablet messes up my perspective somehow. I'm not sure why, but the guideline method I'm used to using doesn't seem to translate over from tablet to computer screen. Things that I do on paper that WORK -- I cannot do them on the tablet. Does anyone else have this problem?
The outline itself came out alright, I guess; better than (a) my old tablet, and (b) mouse-tracing. I still wish I'd had a better shape to outline. I can't draw details on the computer like I do free-hand, either, so outfits come out looking horribly bland rather than full of quirky Amano-like stuff like FF characters should have.
Granted, I am sure I need more practice, for one. My previous tablet-only project, an ill-fated webcomic based on Resonance, another of my original stories, was drawn in a big-head, small-body style -- and so I am probably channeling some of that from, y'know, 4 years ago. So that's also part of it - I'm used to doing things on a tablet that, well, I didn't want to do in this particular picture.
So I think one thing I need more practice on is getting the things I see in my head to show up on the computer screen when I draw them on the tablet. I don't know WHY they don't line up right, but they never seem to. I just don't have the control with the tablet that I do free-hand, I guess. I mean, that's an inherent fact that comes with tablet work. So: practice.
At the same time, I need to dig out my scanner finally, so that Enkida and Katy do not give up on my craptastic art skills!
TEAL DEER
So, in conclusion, and in retrospect, I should've spent my time digging out my scanner and made the picture in the way I'm used to -- hand-sketch, scan, trace and color on the computer -- rather than spending hours drawing and re-drawing and finally realizing things were not going to turn out like I wanted them to and "compromising" on a final picture.
I know there are proportion problems in the picture, huge ones; but the way I was going, they were not resolving themselves. I realize the point of cockeyed_art is just to get A PICTURE out every week, which is why I went forward with this one. It's a good example of the flaws in my all-tablet work, and so it's a good starting point for me to improve things. I'll never get better with the tablet unless I keep at it, really!
People who draw with tablets - do you just sketch and sketch until something looks right? Or do you use tons of guidelines in Photoshop to help you shape an image?