Getting there!

Based on an image of Reynard The Fox, although I completely messed the hands and book up. I like how the colours came out though! Watercolours are certainly becoming easier to tame!

Well, here’s a post all about me (and not about art, even though I’ve been doing some pretty cool paintings recently – isn’t it always gutting when the cheapest paints and paper give you the best results and you only find out after you spent mega-bucks on the “best quality” materials?). It’s Hallowe’en! How about that? Well, I’m going to make some toffee apples tonight with a friend and then we’re going to walk out to the Auld Kirk in Alloway, setting for the infamous poem “Tam ‘o Shanter”. It’s even stayed dry! Someone is smiling down on me today!

I take snuff, and also smoke the shisha occasionally (some of the tobacco-free molasses are actually quite nice, I’m fond of the rose one), but today I finally bought a pipe (and yes Mammy, I know you read this so I’m taking the cowards way out and telling you over the veil of the internet although I assure you that I have still never smoked a cigarette in my life, and I’ve never smoked anything you can’t buy in a tobacconists so you can phone me and go “meh meh meh” if you want but hey, there’s a lot worse things I could be doing, and I’m a good girl, I am!). So far, I’ve managed to avoid “tongue bite”, although I inhaled the smoke for a moment earlier and it was just… Urgh. Horrid! I think it’s because I was trying to inhale it the same way I do with a shisha, which is always a much cooler smoke (again, it’s lovely with rose water or water mixed with orange juice in it) and I can inhale for longer than I can with a pipe. The pipe is a bit of a harsher smoke too, but for all I actually smoke the shisha or take snuff (which isn’t really that often, as setting up the shisha for a smoke takes a while and a bowl of tobacco can last me a long time) it’s probably going to be more of a hobby or pastime to me than something I’m going to do every single day. Being a lady, I don’t particularly want to parade about the streets of my town with a pipe hanging from my lips anyway. It’s too orangy for crows. It’s just for me and my dog. There’s something about the scent of pipe tobacco which is just so… Nice!

I’m going to the Berlin Tattoo Convention in December! Really excited about it. I want to pick up some art books while I’m there. I go to Berlin every December (for some reason, I don’t know why – it’s just become an annual “thing” that I do) but I always seem to miss the tattoo convention by a day or two. This year I made sure that I would be there to attend at least one day. I’m also wanting to shop around for an artist for my right sleeve. I like all of my tattoos to be done by different artists and I’d love to plan some trips to the continent to get a full piece done. I’m also working on a full back piece for myself (which obviously I can’t tattoo on myself, as I’ve yet to do that – I’m perfectly happy tattooing other people but lawdy, there’s no way on this sweet earth I’m ever going to take my machines to myself, “right of passage” or not) so I’m swaying over “should I get my sleeve done first or get my back started?”. Too many choices!

It’s so dark so early now. My poor bunnies don’t like it…

I’m not really updating DA anymore, so here’s a little snippet of what Ive been doing lately:

Having fun experimenting with watercolours, I haven’t used them properly for years!

IT’S ON MAH FINGAH.

Almost stood on it when I was out a walk at the weekend!  Was away on one of the islands and I went out a walk down the beach to go seal watching (because there’s nothing more breath taking than watching the glorious creations that are seals hauling their torpid bodies aloft rocks so they can scratch themselves and wave at passersby) when I did a double take at seeing this little guy hidden in the leaves.

Anyway, I thought I’d make this a seperate post to keep the marker review all out on its own. And also, while I’m actually sharing thoughts I’d like to update here a bit more often with, well, stuff. That probably isn’t very interesting but I should at least make the effort to make this place look lived in, no?

Anyway, I bought a new computer! Finally! I’m not loving Vista, but I’ll be getting the Windows 7 upgrade on it. It’s just beeyootiful to be able to turn on my new laptop without it dying within three seconds (or halfway through drawing something amazing in Manga Studio that I could never possibly recreate just before I do a save…) . Still transferring work from my old one though, and I seriously need to clear my desk so I can actually sit at while working (what a novel idea).

Here’s a quick doodly-comic that I did a couple of weeks ago. I should actually shed a tear at this point, for it t’was the very last thing I ever did on my faithful old machine…

What the hell has happened to my style?! The effort I used to put into every single frame, the sweat, blood and tears?! Oh well. I prefer this sketchy look anyway! Means I can get away with drawing boogly eyes (not that that is a real artistic term, but you understand…).

Okay, here it is! Finally, my review of Tria markers by Letraset. Remember this ain’t a be-all-end-all, it’s just my own personal opinions and my experience of using them so far:

Shonen 24 Set

The set I ordered contains 24 “carefully selected” pens aimed at creating shonen-style manga art. I actually wanted to use them for creating flash, so I chose them due to the vibrancy of the colours (the others seems paler in comparison, and I like nice bright colours in flash). I touched on the lack of certain colours yesterday, but I’ll go into it in detail further down.

Delivery and first experience

Service from Letraset was good as always. I ordered my pens (along with some paper, nibs and a replacement fineliner as I had binned the last one and wanted to see if working with Tria as opposed to Pro made any difference), they arrived promptly on Tuesday via 1st Class post (Letraset even included a money off voucher for my next purchase).

I ripped them free of the box and immediately started doing colour swatches on my A4 Daler Rowney bleedproof pad. For the first few moments I thought “Wow! The colour is really bright!” but then when I went to blend some pink and red, I discovered that there was a complete lack of suitable pen for this purpose.

“Why didn’t you buy the blender?” I hear you shout, along with “Well, you chose that set and you seen the colour swatches before you bought it, it’s your fault!”

Okay, so maybe part of it is my fault, but the fact remains that the 24 pen sets are packaged as “all you need to create blah blah blah”, whether it’s the fashion set or one of the “manga comic art” ones. They most certainly do not contain all you need. The shonen set lacks grey (instead of giving me four very similar blues, they could have supplied one less and replaced it with a darker, petrol blue or a grey suitable for blending). I don’t really see why I should buy the blender seperately if you can’t use the pens how you want it without it. Again, instead of giving me so many of the brown/grey shades, give me a blender! Or give me a ligher yellow or green I can overlay with!

Okay, so still is mostly my own fault, but still. C’mon. You can’t just grab the set and create fantastic looking artwork with it as it does not contain the right balance of colours as far as I’m concerned. And I thought I was being smart getting the most vibrant looking set!

More experiences

I put the fact that I don’t have a blender (I have my ProMarker one, but it don’t work so well neither it do) or suitable overlay colours aside and though “Right, no matter! I’ll just have to make flash with shit loads of blue and brown in them”. So I started doing some rough pencil and ink sketches on the Letraset bleedproof marker pad I got the other day in town. I decided to give the fineliner one more try, seeing as I was using Letraset paper, Letraset markers and nothing could possibly go wrong.

How wrong was I. And this was after at least one minute of drying time (I also don’t like the bleed you get out of the fineliner):

Letraset claim (and I quote) “They provide smooth, accurate performance and can be used for outlining and detailing your marker work without bleeding into the marker”. Yeah, they might not “bleed” in the normal sense of the word, but they smudge everywhere as soon as they come into contact with one of the markers and completely ruin your artwork.

I think what’s annoying me the most about Tria is that now that I’m working with them, I’m noticing practically no difference whatsoever between them and the much lower priced ProMarkers.

Compare:

The one on the left is Pro, the one on the right, Tria. Now, is it just me or is there really not much of a difference between the two? So little in fact, that I’m getting quite angry that I spent so much on a set of markers which are really exactly the same as the cheap ones I’ve had for months. Right, there’s a bit of a difference, but is it worth the price gap? I think that’s the pivotal point of this review: that I don’t feel there is a markable (heh, see what I did there?) difference between the two pens to warrant the cost.

Woteva

As I’ve already mentioned, this is my own experience of using the pens, but I would seriously consider buying the cheaper ProMarkers to start with if you are new to markers. I really don’t think I’ll be using them much again, which is disappointing if nothing else, especially with all the hype around them. Digital colouring wears a bit thin after a while (plus, it’s so clean and I like to get my hands dirty!).

Nope. The Letraset fineliner is still a piece of shit. Dries fast? Doesn’t bleed with markers? Bullshit. And it’s not me, because I have two different Letraset bleedproof pads (thick and thin gsm) and that stupid pen is still smearing all over my linework. The Staedtler fineliners that I have been using for as long as I can remember are much, much better in comparison at holding their form when the marker is passed over the top. I’m also not impressed with the “range” of skin tones supplied wiht the shonen set of Tria’s i.e. one that is very, very orange. There is no real pink colour, and the grey’s aren’t grey at all. They’re obviously brown when you see them on the marker paper.

Just like me to notice what’s wrong with them and I’ve only had them the sum total of six hours… I’ll do a proper write up about my experience with them when I have the time (I’m off to the Isle of Skye next week to sit in a tent and speak Gaelic and my bunnies are back and forth at the vets just now so they need nursing and pineapple).

Got to love the 270gsm cartridge paper from Letraset though… It’s so thick…

I know I said that markers and I didn’t really have a fantastic future, but I just went and bought some Tria Markers D: (sad face because they were expensive). Been playing with the Promarkers again the past few days and they’re just not doing as I want them to, so here’s hoping that the Tria’s will fulfil my desires! By the way, if you want to head over to the Sweatdrop Forums and check out their offer with Letraset, you might be in for a pleasent surprise but you’d better be fast as it ends in August!

Nothing much is new here. Between work, running about studying tattooing, walking and sleeping I’ve not had much time for anything other than sketches recently. Man, I blame the almost perfect summer weather. How dare the sun shine so perfectly…

I’m working on a couple sets of flash:

Human skulls are so very unsymmertical D:

Both sets will be skulls/skeletons. One of them is a Día de los Muertos sheet (because there is nothing more amazing than a skull wearing a hat) and the other is in the style of the above photo. I hope to get them finished some time in the next couple of weeks (of course, I then have to reproduce the line art, colour the copies, reproduce the copies and then get them laminated/coated).

On to other news!

In June, Kadri and I will be walking the Southern Upland Way. It’s a 212 mile walk from the west coast of Scotland to the east. We’ll be camping for most of it (although we’ve planned for at least one stop at a hostel so we can, y’know, “rinse our smalls”) and carrying our packs the entire way. Kadri is walking in aid of her work, Cats Protection, who have been badly affected by the credit crunch. Anyone wishing to donate to her efforts, please check out this entry for more details (by donating via Kadri, you will be helping the individual branch that she works for although any donations to the main charity are still appreciated).

This is (hopefully) going to teach you how to scan in your picture and give it a cell-shade look in Photoshop. I’ll be using Photoshop version 6 in this – the principles explained should work in any version from 5 onwards (I don’t really colour any other way than this, so I don’t need a newer version). You can also use the tips given here for colouring even if you’ve digitally inked your picture. You should also be able to follow this without the use of a graphics tablet.

To use this tutorial, click on the thumbnails to see the full size images.

Step One: Pencilling and Inking

I sketch using coloured lead. The beauty of it is that you do not need to erase your pencil lines after you ink. Sometimes, depending on the paper and ink you use, the eraser can damage your ink or crease your paper. With blue lead, you don’t need to worry about any of that! Coloured lead can be bought from any good art store. Bag yourself a cheap mechanical pencil (the one I use cost me 50p), fit it with coloured lead and away you go!

Be as rough as you like with the sketching. I can’t tell you how to draw, but I find drawing lots and lots of lines helps – don’t treat the first line you draw as the final (that’s why you have a “pencil stage” to begin with). Once you are happy with your pencil drawing, start inking over it. I ink using a 0.05 Staedtler pigment pen, though it’s always better for you to try out different ones until you find one you like.

Step Two: Scanning

The scanner set up

Open Photoshop. Go to File > Import > *insert your scanner name here*. When your scanner window pops up (ignore the fact that mine is in German – I lost the English installation disk), press “preview” (your scanner window will probably look different from mine and in this case, where is says “Vorschau” it means “Preview”). Select your image. Now, make sure that the dpi (dots per inch) is set to a minimum of 600. Then hit scan and wait for your image to upload into Photoshop!

Step Three: Cleaning the Scan

Your image before cleaning

When your image opens in Photoshop it will be huge, but don’t panic! That just means your lines will look cleaner, especially if you decide to print your art once you’re finished. For now though, we have to get rid of the blue sketch lines!

Using the Threshold feature.

First, zoom in until you are viewing your picture at about 50%. Then go to Image > Adjust > Threshold. Make sure “Preview” is selected. The lines will suddenly look pixellated and pretty awful, but don’t be put off! Play about with the arrow on the line, the more to the right the thicker your lines will look, the more to the left, the thinner they will be. When you’re happy, hit “OK”. What you want is clean, pixellated lines.

After you have put your image through the threshold, select the Pencil Tool (if you can’t find it, hold in the Paintbrush Tool and a little pop-out will appear with a pencil symbol in it). Now, you have to go around the full image tidying it up. Sometimes, if you leaned a little heavy with the blue lead pencil lines, it will leave little rough looking areas (that show up as solid black pixels in places where you did not ink). Simply use the eraser tool set on pencil to get rid of them! To set the eraser to pencil, simply go to the drop-down box on the top task bar when you have the eraser tool selected.

Cleaning up your lineart

Another problem that may occur when you’re looking at your scan is that some parts of the lineart are “broken”. You won’t be able to colour your picutre properly if you have open sections in your lineart, so just go to the pencil tool (hold in the paintbrush tool until the pencil pops out and you can select it) and change it to a nice thin width. Then, draw in the missing areas (it might take a while to do if you don’t have a graphics tablet, but it’s essential).

When you’re happy with your lineart, it’s time to go to the next stage.

Stage Four: Setting Up Layers and Block Colouring

Layer Set Up

Select the magic wand tool. Make sure all three options for it on the task bar are unchecked and then hit a piece of your lineart. Your lineart should be selected within the “marching ants”. Press crtl+x and this will cut your lineart. Then press ctrl+v and it will paste it onto a new layer. Right click this new layer in the layers window and name it “lineart”. Then, select your original background layer. Go to the swatches window and pick out a colour that will not appear in your finished image (in this case, a delicious bile-green was chosen) and fill the background (press crtl+backspace and it will automatically flood-fill your selected layer with the colour you’ve set to the background pallete).

Since this is such a basic image, there isn’t a lot to this section. Just go to your swatches and pick out a nice skin tone. Make a new layer beneath the lineart (press ctrl+shift+n to make a new layer) and call it “block colour”. Use the paintbucket to fill the areas you want (make sure “Contigous” and “All Layers” are selected). With some pictures, your skin colour will flood into the eyes. Just use the eraser to get rid of any spills. Also, sometimes you might find that part of the lineart within your character’s main outline is not closed. Just go the pencil tool and fill it in as you go along.

Stage Five: Creating A Mask

The Mask Layer

Now, here comes the nifty part (and the reason we had to have “closed” lineart)! Go back to your “lineart” layer and with the magic wand still selected, now check the box at the top that says “Contigous”. This will select the area outside what we want to colour. If you then press ctrl+shift+i then it will select the entire area inside your figure. When you have done this, make a new layer and call it “mask01″ or whatever you want. This is the layer that your mask is going to sit on. To make the mask, simply go to your layer window and drag the new layer down below your lineart. Then, press the symbol next to the “f” on the bottom of the layer window (highlighted). There! Your mask has been created! So, if you go to the mask layer and lets say you select bright pink, the colour can only ever go to the edge of your line art.

Stage Six: Shading

Shading On The Mask

Go to your swatches and pick a crazy colour that’s again, not going to be in your finished image. It should be a colour that you can easily see against your block colour (you can turn your block colour off, but I prefer to work with it on, especially when I’m colouring a character that has a lot of clothing). In this case, I’ve used a shocking pink. Now, with your colour chosen and your mask layer selected, start to shade your character! There really isn’t a right or wrong way to do it. Try to think about where the source of light is coming from. You can select areas with the lasso tool, the pen tool or just with the pencil. I like to chop and change between them all, depending on what part of the picture I’m trying to colour.

When you are happy with the shading, set your mask layer to “multiply” (drop-down on the layer window). When it’s on multiply, press ctrl+u to get the Hue/Saturation options to pop-up. Now, just play around with the arrows until you find a setting you like then press “OK” and you’re done!

Stage Six: Finishing and Tips

The Finished Thing

I’ve added another mask layer with more shading on it and a seperate normal layer with highlights. It’s up to you what you want to do once you’ve completed this basic colouring stage.

Having good lineart from the start makes the whole process a lot quicker and easier, as it cuts down on the time you have to spend fixing your art once you’ve scanned it in.

I hope you’ve found this tutorial easy to understand and use. If there are any problems with it, please leave a comment below and I’ll (at some point) get round to fixing it.