drawing meta: my latest drawing, step-by-step

[ratcreature]

In my previous post a couple of commenters said that they find commentary on the process for art and fic interesting, and don't mind the creator expressing their "these things suck in my work" lists as part of that as long as that isn't all they talk about

Comments

[iamza]

No real comments, except to say this is a fantastic post. I really like that you've shown a step by step guide for how you came up the final image. I've often wondered about coloured images, and how artists go about getting the shading and colours and textures right. It's interesting for me to see how at least one person does it.

[ratcreature]

I'm glad to hear you find this interesting! If you're interested in really detailed computer coloring how-tos, there's lots of tutorials from different fanartist who explain their processes and what tools and steps exactly they use, like these:
http://community.livejournal.com/cathydraws/12412.html
http://community.livejournal.com/acciopencil/8935.html
http://sherant.livejournal.com/63721.html
http://gnatkip.livejournal.com/24549.html
http://red-eft.livejournal.com/89379.html

[retsuko]

Wow. I had no idea this much work went into it! Thanks for writing such a cool post on your process. You know what's sad? I have that VS catalogue--once you get on that mailing list, you never get off it.

I forgot to mention this earlier--I really do like the picture! Especially all the Harlequin romance novels and the different candle sticks. :-D

[ratcreature]

Thank you, I'm glad to hear you like it. :) I have actually no clue about VS, I don't think that store chain exists here.

And yeah, it took rather long for the final look (that's part of my frustration I'm sure. *g*) Before trying it myself I used to think that computer coloring would make things quicker, and I suspect it may if you do it professionally, do lots of similar things repeatedly like when coloring a comic, and maybe have macros for certain proceses, and maybe a library for textures on hand or whatever, but for a single drawing it's not really quicker than doing it with water color or colored pencils, though being able to erase and redo things is certainly nice. I mean, the main reason why I like coloring with the computer in particular when I actually have detailed pencils, not just something like here, is that I'm always afraid to "ruin" the drawing when I color the lineart, and the computer eliminates that fear.

[sholio]

Interesting step-by-step! I really love seeing how other artists' and writers' process works.

I'm also really afraid of just making areas boldly dark, which I actually like in inking of others who add character, mood, etc. that way and get a more balanced composition out of it, and I read tutorials and chapters in books about inking, but somehow I can never quite bring myself to just make an area black. I have no idea why, I'm just timid that way, maybe I don't want to obscure things I had drawn, maybe it seems somehow drastic, I don't know, I try working on my issues, but without success so far, so my lightening always looks really wimpy and has neither proper realism nor does it work as a more abstract composition/mood thing.I really hear you on this; I'm the same way, and I think it's something that a lot of artists have trouble with. The *only* thing that works for me is to plan the blacks at the same time that I do the basic penciling, and block off large black areas at that point. Trying to add them after-the-fact -- nuh-uh,

[ratcreature]

Hmm, maybe I should try that some time. It's just so ridiculous, that I'd have to kind of "trick" myself into it, you know? It shouldn't be his hard to do when you want to have some distinct lighting and know that some actually black shadows will make the inks look better.

[sholio]

I don't know ... I'd say it's not ridiculous at all, if you think of the shadows and gray values/lighting as being distinct parts of the scene, just as much as the shapes of the actual subject matter. There's a reason why painters do a value study before they start a painting, after all. It's *hard* to add something at a later stage it wasn't planned in the beginning.

Like I said earlier, lighting is definitely one of my "artistic things to work on". Maybe I'll bump it up the to-do queue ... it might be fun to do some pieces of art that are designed to work on my dealing with light and shade.