Cat Demo

Today's painting demo was less for actual painting technique and more for a discussion on brush size, document size in relation to final output, and view percentage. The big cat and the small cat were rendered at basically the same view percentage, until finishing details demanded a closer look. In keeping the same view percentage throughout an illustration, all elements will have a unified appearance. It will also keep from overworking small details.

Click to enlarge

Looking Back

I recorded this rendering in Quicktime for digital class tomorrow and made a little movie in Adobe's imovie.

-edited to 45 min.

It Was the Thickness of the Lines

If you compare the head in the oval to the one in the square, you can see that I fixed a lot of the line width inconsistencies. The top of the head where the hair highlight is and the collar needed the biggest fixes. Its important to establish the line width early and make it same all around. It lends to the believability of the world you are trying to create, and helps with the overall harmony of the picture.

Since Chewy was the only one to take a guess, I added the shoulders in her honor.

Making Paths Takes Time

Original Watercolor - The starting point.

There has been a lot of discussion this quarter (every quarter actually) about how long it takes to make paths in Illustrator. Of course, I tell them they will speed up with practice; they don't realize how much they will speed up if given enough time. Since we are in a learning environment, I strongly encourage them not to Live Trace anything. If you don't know Adobe Illustrator, Live Trace is an option that will trace your drawing, or photo, in as many colors as you want depending on the settings. This can look nice, but it will not help you learn the pen tool. Live Trace has other benefits too, but I will focus on path creation for now.

This quarter, I opened up a painting I did earlier that was dependent on line. I started by showing them Live Trace, which they knew already, and then made custom paths to compare the two methods.

Live Trace

Live Trace detail

The above images, Live Trace and Live Trace detail, show the automated version. I agree that it has a nice quality, but to me, it looks a little sloppy. Here, I'm leaving the editing up to the judgement of the computer. Even if I wanted a lot of detail, I would prefer to do it myself. I think I would just leave it as a watercolor if I wanted this look. Its kind of between worlds right now.

Paths I made based off the original.

Here, I used the watercolor as a starting point and changed some of it to suit the qualities of vector art. I'm not trying to recreate the feel of the watercolor. I want it to look sharp, clean, and machine made. Because thats what it is. I don't tell anyone they have to be an expert in Illustrator unless they want to go down that road professionally. What I tell them is that they need to be exposed to it, just like pen and ink, or some other media, to see if they like it. Who knows they might learn to love it. I did.

Hey, there is a major flaw to this version. What do you think it is?

Prelude to Paths

I'm using the head on this fellow to show some different ways of making line art into vectors. Another post on this later.

Competition

The first week of classes went well. I used this illustration in one of the digital classes to talk about making paths. More to the point: shape making and what to stay away from.

Not sure how this post will look. I'm trying out BlogPress to get images up. My iPhone saved me a lot of time yesterday since I don't have regular computer Internet access yet. I'm not convinced I need it... More on that later.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Digital Mixed Media Demo: Rodeo Girl

I took a lot of photos of this girl at the rodeo in Texas so I thought I would use one of the shots for todays demo. This was a little over an hour of digital painting but I will end up putting in much more for the final. I used the same technique as with the witch book.

Method in PS

I did a few PS demos this week; really quick ones. There was also a character that was rendered slick and shinny, but like a lot of quick demos, I didn't save it. These are about 20 min. or so and they are just for talking about brushes, set up and so forth. Keep in mind they are for those who have an idea of what they want to do but have only been working digitally for a year or two (or less!). Some of them have gotten pretty good and have grown a lot in the last couple years. Im excited for them.

Demo Result

Good turn out for today's Photoshop demo.

click image to enlarge

Digital Mixed Media Demo Tomorrow

This is the base for tomorrows demo in Digital 2. Its from the sculpture shots I took at the Getty.

Enhanced Silhouette - or - Draw, Redraw, Repeat

click to enlarge
Tomorrow starts the winter quarter and with it Digital Illustration One and Two. I start with a silhouette project to re familiarize everyone with making paths and to continue thinking about the importance of recognizable shapes within a composition. Digital Two stresses raster painting but we still start with paths because they are good to know if they ever need them. We put One and Two together and so I alternate demos between AI and PS every other week.

I took a lot of statue photos at the Getty and did this quick sketch from my photo. I drew it out and used tissues to refine, tracing my drawings one after another.

This head is for a technique example, not a silhouette example.

Today's Demo

Today's Digital One demo dealt with creative lighting on a relatively simple illustration. This is useful in logo development and character rendering. It was sparked by my current freelance where I was rendering Mickey Mouse this past weekend. I stressed creating interior volume that wasn't necessarily described by the line art. Look here to see the original watercolor.

Down stairs Bob Dorsey gave a great acrylic demo. Lots of good energy today.

Demo

I ended up doing the left hand in one class and the right in another class, then switching gears to question and answer for AI.  More has been done for the larger composition where it will take on more of the flavor of the green tiger in prior posts.  The sweater has turned pinkish.

Digital Mixed Media: Demo Tomorrow

The spring quarter starts today.  Tomorrow, after class overview and discussion, were going to talk about one strategy of mixing traditional and digital. I did this buffalo for demonstration which I will pull apart by PS layers and look at the build up.  I prefer to demo like this.  Its like the cooking shows that do everything up to the baking and then bring out the fully baked dish that took 2 hours in the oven (this took longer).  I will also repaint some sections and talk about brushes, layers, channels and paths where they pertain to this project (mostly layers).  This way, a lot of the boring stuff is cut out and we can concentrate on method.  I do not require people to work this way.  Its just a suggestion.  We will look at other ideas as the quarter progresses.

Demo Tomorrow at RIT

I'm doing a PS technique demo tomorrow afternoon that is a great translation from traditional to digital rendering.  Something we would do in mixed media next quarter.  For this one, we will start with a scanned in pencil sketch as opposed to all digital.  These are really fun.

Airbrush Demo

We had gone over one technique in Photoshop earlier this quarter and wanted to go over another.  Today we talked about an airbrush approach.  This technique is pretty smooth and shinny.  It can stay that way or be a base for texture, either way, its just one style of many.  Use it as a jumping off point or explore it as is.  Its a way I worked for years and I really like it.  If I want, or the client wants, texture, I use a different technique and having more than one can be an asset in our field.

Keeping with the season, I did a Halloween scene.  When I was young, a good friend taught me the song "Pray for the dead and the dead will pray for you" and we sang it while going by graveyards (when we weren't holding our breath).  The top one is from the sketchbook, and the bottom has the airbrush element.  This mixing will be discussed further in Digital Mixed Media at RIT, if any of you are taking it......

C/O 2

RIT Demo:

We have moved from Illustrator to Photoshop in Digital Illustration One.  This week we talked about setting up the document and reviewed some tools.  Most of the class is just getting into digital.  There are a lot of techniques you can do in the program so you need to find the one that is best for you weather its rough and painterly or smooth airbrush.  A good way to start is to approach it the same way you would traditionally.  Its not such a big jump.

Next quarter, and from here on in, Digital One will be all Illustrator and Digital Two will be all Photoshop; lots of focus.  This quarter we have had more demos and tool review.  We will continue to add throughout the year.

Final Finch

Heres how the finch ended up after I ran paths on it.  I ended up making some changes to the pattern, making them bigger and dropping the smaller shapes.