Joined: Jan 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 2,330 Location: New Hope, MN Karma: 93
Art Talk: Issue 10 « Thread Started on Aug 30, 2010, 5:24pm »
Last issue we had a very entertaining and informative thread about the art people were submitting, both in-process and finished, and we talked a lot about techniques used in the different illustrations.
So, to start it off for this issue, I'm posting, not my own drawing, but the first drawing anyone's ever done of something I've written! jasons stepped up and took a crack at: The Mantipede!
So, Jason, first off, AWESOME. Maybe I'm biased, but this is pretty much exactly how I pictured them. The composition of the picture is particularly strong.
Joined: May 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 111 Karma: 18
Re: Art Talk: Issue 10 « Reply #3 on Aug 30, 2010, 9:26pm »
Thanks, fellas. Cal: Absolutely! Kesher: I used my trusty cheap-o synthetic fiber #0 brush and Higgins ink for all the lines and filled in the big shadows in the foreground with marker. The areas where there seems to be gradation in the black are all evidence that I should have let my ink evaporate a bit before using. I'll fiddle with the contrast in photoshop to achieve a more consistant black. Also, thanks for posting this for me. I'll figure out how to post images one of these days...
Joined: Jan 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 2,330 Location: New Hope, MN Karma: 93
Re: Art Talk: Issue 10 « Reply #4 on Aug 30, 2010, 10:23pm »
Ah, that's what gives the lines their quality---cool.
As for posting pictures, at least the quick way I do it, is to upload the picture to my photobucket account, copy the "image" link it provides for you, and simply paste it into my post.
I've been doing strictly pencil stuff for the last few issues, but I think I'm itching to bust out the ink...
kelvingreen Level 5 Thaumaturgist member is offline
Joined: Nov 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 312 Location: Brighton, UK Karma: 14
Re: Art Talk: Issue 10 « Reply #5 on Aug 31, 2010, 2:01am »
Wowsers! That's really good, and the pose and composition are very much in the Mighty Marvel Manner. Brilliant stuff.
Here's my stab at what a Sepulcrow might look like:
Inked with a combination of cheap markers for the thick lines and large areas of black, and fancy graphic pens for everything else. I have brushes and India ink, but I'm terrible with both.
I scan in black and white, so I never have any problems with varying shades of black, and of late, I've been using a blue pencil for the layout stage, as it doesn't show up in the scan. It doesn't erase very easily, but I've found that my sketching has become more controlled as a result, and it does lead to less processing at the scanning stage too. After years of scorning the technique, I am now a full convert to blue-lining, and I've been raiding my art boxes for blue pencils!
« Last Edit: Aug 31, 2010, 2:05am by kelvingreen »
Re: Art Talk: Issue 10 « Reply #6 on Aug 31, 2010, 7:47am »
I second scanning the image as black & white - the blacks come out solid black, and the whites come out solid white.
I prefer to sketch stuff in very lightly with a regular ol' pencil, ink, and then erase the pencils with a kneaded eraser. The catch is, you have to pencil with a really light touch, and erasing with the kneaded eraser can make the ink look a bit faded. It is fine for scanning into B&W, but you might want to touch up the ink a little after erasing so the original drawing looks sharper.
If precise placement is really important, I'll do a sketch on another sheet of paper. Once I get the drawing right, I trace it with a sheet of tracing paper. Then I shade the backside of the tracing paper, which allows me to transfer the drawing to the final paper/canvas.
As a general rule, I try not to do any erasing until after the ink is done. The more you erase, the more it tears up the paper, and the more it "roughs up" the image.
The areas where there seems to be gradation in the black are all evidence that I should have let my ink evaporate a bit before using. I'll fiddle with the contrast in photoshop to achieve a more consistant black.
For what it's worth, I'd leave it as it is. The lighter brush strokes give a feeling of texture, which is only appropriate for a surface made up of hundreds of writhing arthropods.
It really is a great piece. Cover-worthy, I'd say. I'd love to see it in colour, with some Tales From the Crypt-style lettering at the top.
« Last Edit: Aug 31, 2010, 12:54pm by kelvingreen »
Here's my stab at what a Sepulcrow might look like:
Luvverly! I hadn't considered making it a close-up, but it works quite nicely.
As for the whole scanning and image handling discussion, I must admit to being rather lazy: usually, I simply sketch the drawing with an ordinary HB pencil (0.7 mm mechanical is my current tool of choice), then inking with whatever pen I have at hand. I rarely bother with erasing, unless the penciling has been particularly thick, since it all gets cleaned up digitally, anyway.
There's a lot of good suggestion in this thread, though. I might experiment with blue pencils, to see if it will work as well for me as it does for KG - oh, and by the way, kelvin: would you be amenable towards seeing a drawing of a singing sword?
Luvverly! I hadn't considered making it a close-up, but it works quite nicely.
Thanks! I had one other idea, which was a wider shot, an homage to that bit in The Thing when the head sprouts legs and runs off, but it took the focus off the Sepulcrow a bit, so I went back to my original idea and made it big.
Joined: May 2010 Gender: Male Posts: 111 Karma: 18
Re: Art Talk: Issue 10 « Reply #12 on Sept 1, 2010, 2:48pm »
DM: Yeah, a bunch of undead and something weird standing on one of the skeletons... Player 1: HUH? What is it? DM: (brandishing pic of sepulcrow) THIS! Player 1: What the...?! Player 2: You've got to be %$&*ing kidding me! That scene from The Thing has got to be one of the most outrageously over-the-top awesome in cinema history.
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Luvverly! I hadn't considered making it a close-up, but it works quite nicely.
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