digital

Mar 15, 2013

Kobo Mini Drawing

Will digital character, Draw, kobo, type

I now have a Kobo Mini. At 5 inchs it’s small, but it does the trick. I downloaded free epub files for it at first. But now I’ve uploaded a collection of epub files that I had sitting on my laptop. I now want to send wordpress/rss to epub and sync via calibre.

Drew the text/images from the milkshake container. Experienting with text. Larger brushes and the ability to change the opacity would be wonderful. Character with a line behind him. Maybe the start of a landscape.

The format for this Kobo file is 600 x 682. At least this is larger than the ipod touch… just feel restricted by the lack of brush options.

Mar 10, 2013

Regina Spektor and Characters on the wall

Will digital character, GIMP, paint, portrait, regina spektor

Some portrait painting during my time in Wainui. These were used as demos to show Michelle how I digitally painted.

Here we go:
regina-line Since I only have the laptop currently I used one monitor for this. The reference was placed on the left side and I worked in the line on the right.

Regina Spektor. I was explaining to Michele about how I don’t use the smudge tool. I decided to show her the tool and this is the result. We compared the smudged to the non-smudged. She liked the smudged version better. Personally I like the non smudge. Being about to see the brush strokes and use them as part of creating the form.

Color. Showed how I use a limited amount of colors but a range of tones of each color. New color for the shirt.
wainuippl-line

Reference for this were photos on the shelf. I drew the characters, the frame around them, and the mantel piece they sit on. Turned it into a landscape work with the clouds in the back and scaling of the photos.

Black and white. Focused very little but instead just gave the impression. In the background I defined the land. The characters are lighter than usual. Black frame septrates them from the landscape scene. On the left is square tiles. I like these for the ground. Above this a character is erupting from the land.

Color. I said in a recent post I wanted to use more browns in my work. Here I’ve done this with the land. Experimenting with the saturation levels of the brown – interesting grays appearing on the right hand center. For the water I used the green – exploring a range of brushes. I like the center area green – it has a flow to it that works. Building up those tones is helping.

That’s all for today.

Feb 13, 2013

Color painting of Kiki’s Delivery Service

Will digital anime, color, fan art, impression, kiki, ocean, sea, witch

Break from RedditGetsDrawn works for something a little different - Kiki’s Delivery Service. I watched this film in 2011. It’s rather perfect. If you haven’t seen it yet, please check it out.

This is a painting I did from a screenshot from the film: tuesday-kiki-ref

My mother has a Black Cat. I like how the reference photo also includes a black cat. I treated this reference the same as how I’ve been handling the RedditGetsDrawn works – red line, tone, and since I did it on the previous post – color. This is the view that I’ve been working with from RedditGetsDrawn so familiar setting for me.

Here’s the painting -

Line. I captured the figure. I changed the scene in the distance to a spiky, rugged land, rather than the city scape in the reference. I’ve been using this pattern in all my recent backgrounds. Coming into the foreground from the distance are lines that could be used for a water effect.

Tone applied. I used the same tone on the skin and the bird – the lightest area of the painting. Mid and slightly darker for the water area. Mid and darker than water for the sky. The land was very dark – but not as dark as the cat! It is a black cat after all so has to be the darkest! Other elements have been removed since the reference such as the birds (only the one bird).

This is the color layer only. I’m using two or three different tones for each color. In the past I’ve just done a quick wash of color over the tone layer. I’ll like to explore color further and experiment with a larger range of tones per color.This is a good start. I’ve used these colors all before, except for the blue in the dress. I had to create a new blue for it – I like to keep my colors quite restricted so was nervous! It helps the figure stand out against other areas in the painting.

Included this image which is a mix of the tone and color layer. Feels finished over the color layer which is missing the black. There are areas of the color layer that is missing color – such as the cat and broom. For future paintings like this I’ll use a color – best to fill in as much areas as possible. I do like some I’ve been giving the tonal paintings though! I’m going to leave this post with a quote from Vincent Van Gogh:

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

Feb 12, 2013

President of RedditGetsDrawn

Will digital color, GIMP, president, redditgetsdrawn

Just a short one today. I think It’s better that I keep with these short blog posts rather than large 10+ paintings that just overwhelm me when typing and I end up giving up on the typing and just publishing it.

So yesterday was a slow down in the painting I did 4 paintings in total but had problems with the computer and had the computer crash on me. Shame really, as I was happy with a few.

But one worked out OK, no video due to going over the 2000mb cap (added color and got distracted . Anyway, enjoy -

Reference photo. Reddit user Volume_Beat submitted this photo. Read the comments for it here. I noticed this photo straight away when scrolling through the photos – I had to paint it. It’s an interesting pose (hand and expression), background is unique (I’ve never seen another presidential photo like this. And multi figures!! The lighting is OK, I can get three different types of tone from his face which is better than most that have the one washed out tone. TUESAY-PRES-LINE (Large) Line. Added the president figure in first before working on the environment and second figure. For this work I changed some settings within GIMP – experimenting with the angle and aspect ratio of the brush – something I’ve never touched before. It doesn’t effect the line but the next stage…

Tone. I’m using my usual brush but have it rotating around depending on velcoticy. It’s made me want to explore the Paint Dynamics editor further. In the past I’ve used it only for pressure size and opactiy pressure. Plenty of other settings I need to experiment with as well.
Color. It’s been over a month since I’ve used color in my work so great to get back into it. Focusing on the black and white tone has taught me to increase my range of tones in the work. Moving back into color I’ll look into using a range of tones of colors rather than just the washes of color over the work. It allows the color work to stand out further.

Feb 11, 2013

Friday RedditGetsDrawn

Will digital figure, GIMP, portrait, redditgetsdrawn, video

Currently taking a break from the painting and watching a few videos on youtube. Attempting to write this blog post as well, though it’s slow and I’m not that motivated for it. Talking about my frustrations about writing it may help me write it. Currently I’m watching:

Spent the day yesterday on RedditGetsDrawn drawing as many photos. I aimed for twenty, but fell short. I’ve also watched a bunch of
Here are the works:

Married Couple on boatI choose to draw this as the photo was clear, there is an interesting background. The navy outfit cat tattoo were also bonuses.

Line. The two figures in the center of the page. I’ve generally kept the same angle on all of these RedditGetsDrawn works. For the background I’ve kept it general the same with the trees being more spiky than the reference photo, I like these quick graffiti type movements. On the girls I made sure to include the cat tattoo. Mum should get a tattoo of her Black Cat.

Tone. Looking at this now I realized that I’ve left out the boats – I’ve included boat in other works and they are quick to create – just a dark horozontil flick. I made a clear contrast between the figures.

Woman on beach

Sorry, can’t find the

Woman on a baloney

Why did I choose to paint this? Well for a start it’s a full figure, the photo is not blurry. It could do with stronger tones, but at least it’s not washed out. The balcony in the background gives me a base to work from.
FRIDAY-WOMAN-LINE (Large) Woman on a baloney. I took some design liberty with this
Tone added. I love the background I created in this. I haven’t worked with tiled floors before, it’s a cool effect. Certainly extended the scene from what was happening in the reference photo. This couple just got married and are out on a boat. This is the line

friday-cosplaygirl-line (Large) e friday-brosis-line (Large)

Feb 8, 2013

Reddit Gets Painted – Levin collection

Will digital figure, paint, reddit, redditgetsdrawn, video

More paintings from reference on Reddit. It’s been a busy few days with these.

These girls are having fun on a beach scene. I partially like the left post, the leg on the side is difference makes for an interesting shape of the figure.

Tone added. Dark highlights in the hair, shorts, and land in the distance. The white eyes look demon like.

And the video:‘

Alright, onto the. next:

As GIMP was crashing I hit print scene in order to capture what I had done. I then reopened this image and just traced over it quickly. I keep my paintings under 20mins and the majority of that time is tone so losing a few lines is never a big problem.

The line is finished. This is one of my favorite line works I have done recently. Comparing it to the developed tonal version – the linework has far more happening.

Tone. Her top is my favorite area. The water in the background is somewhat interesting as well. I’m not sure how I feel about her skin tones. There is something about it that’s not working.

The video:

The request for this next one was a Left for Dead character. So zombies. I generally don’t take notice of these requests but just paint what I see. I want to createa world for the character though

Line applied. I struggled a with the head angle, as you can see the line work for it is a mess. I just drew the face twice, I could of rubbed out areas but I’ve been taught to use the eraser for effects only and not for fixing mistakes. I’m going over it with tone anyway. In the reference photo she has a dog in the background, I moved this dog to her shoulder. Kind of like a pirate and parrot. But Zombie Hunter and Dog.

Tone. Background could have more in it? Maybe dark spikes poking out. Used elements from the reference in this – such as the clock, and tiled panels on the floor.

Five people in this. Having lots of people is generally helpful as it can help with measuring one another. In the reference they \were on a boat so I kept true to that with creating land in the distance and water drifting into the foreground.

Tone. I’m especially happy with the tone of the clothes on the left sitting figure, that mid gray and dark works together well. Instead of making the far left figure clothing white it may have been better to go with a darker tone – give some balance to the piece.

And onto the Steampunk wedding:

Fantastic reference photo to work from. I especially enjoyed the clothing. The scenery around the figures was helpful, but sadly I lost the majority of the detail during the drawing and painting process. I’m still happy with this work.
friday.steampunk-tone (Large) And tone. As you can see one of the only areas of the environment that was kept was the pillars, the rest has been transformed into a lake and land in the distance.

And the video:

Thanks for visiting. Till next time.

Feb 6, 2013

Horse

Will digital horse

Ok. So I’m back home now. That means I have my desktop computer and able to record my digital paintings without problems. During my time at my Mothers I didn’t bother with recording. Now that I’m back I’ll get back into it. Keeping an archieve of my paintings in video format is special for me.

Anyway, last night when I got back I managed to get a painting done, I continued my RedditGetsDrawn marathon, though I have been painting from other sources (uploading pencil drawings!).

Here’s the work from last night: Reference used. Scrolling through the photos posted on RedditGetsDrawn I’m always on the lookout for full figure works. Not only did this photo include two people in full view, but they were riding horses! I don’t think I’ve draw/painted anyone on a horse before – I had to paint it! There is also a basic background but not a huge amount to work from. Guess I’ll be making a few things up!

Line. I had fun especially with drawing in the horses. Just something so different. I’ve been painting chickens recently so working on horses would be helpful in increasing my visual library. For the background I’ve made some basic shapes and lines, A forest in the back with a river running into the foreground.

And tone. Again, very happy with the horses. The right horse is working well – strong but understandable contrast. For the background I went with darker tones. I didn’t use lights in the background, that’s all very dark. Maybe some highlights would of helped?

Finally, here’s the video:

Feb 4, 2013

Girl in front of office building

Will digital GIMP, grayscale, portrait, redditgetsdrawn, Tone

More redditgetsdrawn works. This time I’ll talk about the works more because that last post I did with them was just lazy. ADVENTURE-17-LINE (Large) Not fulll body here, but from the chest upwards. Hats are always a fun extra, bit like glasses. Just gives me something more to work with – and makes it different from the rest.

Office buildings stack in the background. Black creeps build their way around the building. The girl smiles at the camera. Not knowing the changes in the back.

Feb 4, 2013

mask

Will digital color, GIMP, grayscale, line, redditgetsdrawn

So I just did a dump of photos. I would of written more but my browser was going extremely slow and I just wanted to get something published.

Anyway, I’m still at my Mothers home, and this is a painting I did before I left to Hamilton: In the reference the guy in the mask was standing in front of a farm like setting. I always go for reference on RedditGets drawn that has an interesting background, it just gives a setting to put the characters into. If there is no background I like to make something up.

I loved drawing the gas mask. It reminds me of something out of Fallout or Metro. Anyway, Onto the tone. Tone. Again, making the character darker than the background. Helps in the contrast between the two subjects. For the background I did a scribble effect for the objects in the very back

Interesting to see color after spending so much time lately working without it. It’s done me good though, and I’m excited for the next time I start using color again in my works. I think my tones have really improved by giving this focused look into tonal studies.

Lastly, something I haven’t been doing when away – a video:

Feb 3, 2013

RedditGetsDrawn – Mums office

Will digital

I have left Hamilton and currently at my Mothers home for several days. I haven’t done any digital painting since the weekend (nice to have a break for it now and then) – but got the tablet out last night.

Here are all the

works I’ve done so far during my time at Mums. I was hoping to hit 20 before the end of the day… see how I get on though as we are going to the market.

Here’s a dump of digital paintings I did from RedditGetsDrawn:

The reference for this involved a fake moustage stuck on this girls face. I made the moustage more realistive. She now no longer looks like a female.
Tone added. Completely different effect Character is transformed. The mo could do with more tones. Background is ok but I feel other works have more happening in background.

US Army. These are great to draw – real people. Many kids were standing around this man. Gun was especially fun to draw. My work needs more guns!

Tone added. Kids transformed in tone – black silihote. I normally do this for my

Always great to paint multiply people. This onces no different. I especially loved the hair on the man.

Tone. More time has gone into the guy with his shirt complete, the girl looks unfinished. I should of covered her top with a dark. In the background I have some basic shapes happening. Interesting perspective happening with this. I struggled with the scale of her arms – but I’m happy with the portrait. I like the idea of breaking up the areas of tone during the line process. It makes it easy when coming into the tone process, and I don’t need to refer back so much. The line should be capturing detail with the tone being the 2nd defense in making sure everything is correct.