How I do it! Part one! (Air Pirate)

So I know there is a lot of people that read my comic that know more about making comics then I do …. but there are a few folks out there that have no idea what so ever. so I’m going to walk you through a day of drawing for me. This is going to follow the path from sketchbook to your web browser.

This is drawing is of  “Sarah the Steampunk Polyamrous Air Pirate” (Some title huh)

This image .. She is PISSED OFF! She just discovered someone trying ….oh wait I’m not going to give that away! The drawing was done over a few days with my sketchbook. and a 4H hard pencil!

Drawing of Sarah

This is how it looks right after being scanned into iphoto.. The problem I have been having is that the paper is too big for my tiny scanner . so you notice that the center of the image is sharper then the edges. this is because I place my hand down on the center of the image so it can be properly scanned .. I’m looking to fix this problem later.

The image was Scanned in as full color and not gray scale. at 300 DPI. I choose to not use gray scale or B&W because of some issues with Iphoto only liking RGB color pallets.  I use Iphoto to keep my images organized till I can have a chance to edit them in GIMP

Once I have them in Iphoto I categorize the image so I can find it quickly later . Keyword and bookmarks are my best friend.

Sarah in Gimp

Here I start to remove the background caused by the light escaping because my scanner is too small for the size of paper I use. One the background is removed it will be easier to add any kind of background that I wish!

Once I have done that. I add Layers ..

• Jacket
• Clockwork Arm
• Hair
• Sarah skin
• Eye Patch
• Brass works
• Gun
• Bullwhip

The idea is that each object should have its own layer .. I like to make changes to those layers later on.

Next time I will show you what happens when I add color.

http://steampunkadventures.smackjeeves.com/

 

How to get past “Artist Block”

Artist block .. its that moment where your staring at a blank page .. art tool in hand and nothing comes to mind. You want to draw but you can’t …. Writers bitch about this all the time, but who says writers get to suffer alone. I have a few tips that might help get past that blank sheet of paper

• Keep notes and save it for later …  sometimes ideas flow like a river.  You have more ideas then time. or like me these ideas come to you when you cannot pick up a pencil and start drawing.  Like a meeting , Driving , having a long boring conversations.  I use a program called Evernote.  It allows me to make a note of these ideas when they strike (I just have to remember his is a resource)

• Draw something else.!! Instead of working on your current project .. draw your cat or try out a new drawing technique. Start a painting if you draw .. or draw something if you normally paint … perhaps a potters wheel has been sitting around waiting for attention. This noodling and keep your skills sharp while your ideas are dull.
• See what someone else has done. I love Deviant art for this. The website is filled with creative people. It is very hard to not get inspired. for you comic book artists out there perhaps this is the excuse to go get that latest graphic novel by your favorite artist.
• Watch/Read movies/books on similar topics. I’m currently reading the “Lost World”
• Sex …. This is one place where the married folk have an advantage (And if you don’t find being married an advantage perhaps its time to talk about how you can improve your relationship… I am one of the lucky ones) . I always seem to be more creative afterward.
• Talk to someone about the topic. If your ideas are running dry perhaps someone else can provide that creative spark.
• Blog about what your doing …. see
• Walk away !  you might be trying too hard .. I find that this is very powerful for me. Most of the time I go for a walk to the local mall.. People watching will often trigger an idea.
• Side projects .. you know that idea you had .. that one you did not start because you were in the middle of this project! Well devote some time to start it, but remember to come back to finish this project!

I would love to get some feedback on these ideas or if you have a good way to get past your artist block!

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Why you should draw LARGE!

I remember sitting in a park with a sketchbook, I was about 10 years old and I was having lunch with my Godmother. I remember showing her a drawing that only fit on the corner of a page. “That is very good … Draw it larger … always draw large”. As a kid it never made any sense to me. It always seemed that drawing small was easier. working on this comic I have started to see what she was talking about .

I carry a sketchbook everywhere … I mean everywhere . its not uncommon to see me with not only one pencil in my hand and one in each ear. Here is the problem with that .. as convenient as a sketchbook is I tend to draw small. When drawing small you limit your self to a certain size, you limit how you can draw and the amount of detail you add to your image. where if you draw large not only are you not bound by those limits but you can also “Shrink” your image down if you need it smaller … Making something larger and keeping the same quality is not always possible .

This all came to my attention when I went to scan in some images of Alex. I had drawn several versions of Alex’s face on a single page. The idea was to practice expressions and if I liked any of them I would add them to my database of sketches of Alex .. so I could quickly add it to a background and POW I have a post to keep the storyline going. (does that make me lazy … YES IT DOES … but that is a different Blog post )

Example of a Small drawing of Alex.

Notice that the bottom image (Drawn on an A3 sheet of paper that took up most of the page) looks much better then the image above it (drawn on a corner of a 8×11 inch sketchbook) I blew up the top image and reduced the bottom. See what I mean.

So this is what I have done .. My sketchbook is now a A3 size. Not as convenient to carry around however it is a good conversation starter on the train. It does make scanning an issue due to the size of my scanner but that is something that I can work with.

So yesterday my daughter brought me a drawing (by the way she is getting very good at this).. I told her “Wow that is awesome .. you are getting better .. now draw it larger … Always Draw Large.”

Thanks Connie !

 

 

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