Digital Art Process : Nadia Color

Continuing with the Digital Art Process Series of posts, here is the third and final state:

The Color Process. Part 1 and 2.

 

Done in Photoshop CS5. 

The only part that I didn't record was the flattening of the colors. This is where you just put a flat color or colors on the art just to have a base on where to start coloring. I'm not saying that this stage is a waste of time, it's just that for the sake of the video not being an hour long I cut this part out.

I hope this series has helped you in some sort of way. Please feel free to ask or comment anything. I will be looking forward to it.

Digital Art Process : Nadia Inks

Continuing with the Digital Art Process Series of posts, here is the second state:

The Inking Process. Part 1 and 2.

 

Also done in Manga Studio Ex 4. I must say that this was one of the first times I got to try this software and it is marvelous. It perfectly emulates the real thing with all its ups and almost none of its downs. Plus, the forever awesome Undo function, saves you lots of time and boosts your productivity.

Digital Art Process : Pencils

About a month ago I posted the general process I follow when I'm doing a commission. I also said that I record the whole process and I would post it. Here it is the first of three posts of the whole thing:

The drawing process.

This was done on Manga Studio Ex 4. My review of the software is still pending. For now I leave you with the video post. Hope it helps you.

Inspiration 101: Scott McDaniel

When you finally find that thing that you really like, it's natural that you search for better ways to do it so you can improve. In my case, while I was doing Sevenfold, at first it was exciting to get back on the drawing train, but soon I realized that it was taking me too much time to finish a single page, send it to the editor and continue with the next one. I was sleeping just few hours a day and I was having trouble meeting the deadlines. Illustration is always a race against the clock. You have to produce the best art you can within the time frame that you have, and that just means one thing: you need to be organized.

So I started to do some research on the interwebs, trying to find out how other people do it. I know that this is in a great part a labor of passion and love, which believe me I can honestly say that I have, but there had to be better ways to accomplish the task. That is when I stumbled uppon the web site of Scott McDaniel.

Boy did I hit the jackpot.

Scott is a comic book artist that works for DC comics as penciler for Batman, Detective Comics, Nightwing and The Great Ten. Needless to say he is uber talented.

And besides the fact that Scott is an awesome artist, he is a really really great guy. I haven't had the pleasure to meet him in person, but I've talked a couple of times with him through Facebook chat, and he is one of the nicest guys I've ever met. He believes in giving back to the art community, so he has a special area on his website dedicated to help aspiring artists to break into the comic book world where he describes the do's and dont's as well as what does one need to start in this business. It goes from the gear you need, tips for the artist, drawing exercises, the process of making a comic book page, cover and how to meet your deadlines keeping your schedule within reasonable times. In other words, it was exactly what i needed.

I cannot express how helpful Scott's website was to me at that time (it still is!). I learned a bunch of tricks that helped me speed up my drawing process, not sacrifying art quality or even time! One of the coolest things I learned was the use of the Light box (which I will explain how I built mine later). If you would be kind enough to pay him a visit and give him some love. I'm sure you will not regret it. Because probably, just as he says, you are here because you love comics and you love to draw.

You can find him on Facebook and on his website, scottmcdaniel.net

Once armed with better organizing techniques, I continue my journey to polish my process and search for more inspiring ways to produce better art.

Hands on: Digital Inking in Photoshop CS5

So the search continued.

After seeing the potential and how alive the artwork becomes, it became kind of an obsession to find more and more about this "digital inking" thing. it was imperative that I found out how to get better, and with that comes finding the best tool for the job.

After trying Sketchbook Pro for a while I became sort of comfortable using it. But one thing I haven't experimented on was the sizes of the art boards.  Sure it was fun to use a wide format for sketches but not for an american comic book page format. A comic book page is roughly 11 x 17 inches, although it may vary due to different processes depending on how you like to work (either digitally or traditional) this is the official size. And Sketchbook Pro just doesn't cut it.

Aside from that, I needed to learn, and fast because I was contacted by a client from Deviant Art (my first international commission by the way) to draw a 6 page horror story. I was very exited and had the pencils for the first two pages already finished, but I needed to ink them. I was planning on inking them traditionally, you know as a way of practicing for the real deal, but once again, time is the enemy.

I decided to just dive myself into doing it directly on Photoshop. Like everything else, you just have to go for it. After watching a couple of You Tube Tutorials and a few tricks of my own I managed to ink for the first time a comic book page that resembles the real thing. And to my surprise it wasn't so bad. Here a sample of the finished Page:

And as I said before, I'm very interested in doing video tutorials about all the things that I'm learning, so I can practice and pass on the knowledge to anyone that can benefit from it.

Therefore I give to you, my first digital Inking Video Tutorial :

I hope to get more kick ass as time passes, in the meantime we are just part of the process.