Today I am starting the second to last page of my book. And that feels good. I have to keep reminding myself that I still have to iron out the writing, draw the covers and inserts, and fix whatever mistakes in panels that I feel are unworthy of publishing. But still, it's very exciting. Since I don't post very often though, I will share a few anecdotes about art instead, and not rehash my entire previous post about milestones.
A New Brush For Eric
One of my precious tech pens (my smallest and most precious actually) recently broke on me and I learned a few lessons.
One. When your tech pens clog, do not become frustrated with them and resort to violence, even if they already may be permanently destroyed. If you destroy them, you will never know.
Two. Tech pens are the most expensive drawing implements money can buy. There is a chance that you could find even more expensive brushes made from the hairs of moogle pom-poms, but I wouldn't know where to buy them. ( I hear it takes one hundred moogles poms to make a single brush.) So given that, brushes (even the best) are cheaper, not being discontinued anytime soon, and do not need to be attained from Europe via e-bay.
Three. Brushes are hard to use. They require focus and concentration, but they can produce lovely effects. I first decided to make the switch to avoid having to purchase another tiny tech pen that would only break. However, I have decided I would like to fully integrate brushwork into my style so that I can use a brush for those fine details, which tech pens are too costly to afford, as well as for more organic forms. Ideally I would like to transition to using brushes entirely for my figures and natural subjects and tech pens for manufactured materials such as buildings, and machines, as well as for textures. Stippling is almost impossible with a brush, and quite pointless when you have tech pens.
Work takes time.
Did you know that when you are working forty hours a week, you cannot be drawing during those same hours? Somehow I had forgotten this. Now that I am again gainfully employed (yay!) I am remembering how much time that a job consumes. If you have somehow forgotten how much time a full time job takes, I will take it upon myself to remind you.
It takes a lot of time.
About forty hours a week actually! They call it full time because it is full and not part. The result of this has been that I am now again struggling forward on my book at a working man's pace, and not flying along at three pages a week, as I managed to do for one glorious week of my unemployment (the one week when I was not actively looking for work).
Words on Pages. A Perspective Lesson!
I Do not normally trace images into my comic. I feel that doing so clashes with the flow of images that are otherwise run through the filters of your mind and hands. The only big exception that I make with any kind of regularity is text. Creating text fonts, and calligraphy are two massive undertakings in and of themselves, and are also disjunct skills from illustration in many ways. I resort to tracing text into panels at times because it allows me to preserve the identity of a specific font while giving me the control to micromanage the font to suit my needs exactly.
I recently had an instance in my comic where I wanted to have a label attached to a file that was laying flat on a desk in perspective. To do this properly I would have to trace the letters. But how to put them into perspective? I first designed the stamped seal in Illustrator, then printed the stamp out so I could lay the piece of paper flat on my desk and take a photo of it from the appropriate height. I then brought the image into Photoshop and reduced it to black and white and shrank it to the size of the file in my drawing. I then printed out the picture of the text, now in perspective, and placed it under my drawing where I used a light-box to trace it into the panel.
And you know what? It looks great.
Well that's all for now. If I don't get down to work I won't ever get done. And I won't have anything to write about in the future.
Till next time friends! Ciao.
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6 comments:
I'm kind of having that similar problem of feeling like I lack time all the time. I work between thirty and forty hours a week myself, but that's not really a good excuse for me, because I don't have family and friends to distract me during my free time.
Nope, just those German boys. Heh heh, sorry.
Eric, I swear that someday you're going to put pictures on your blog about drawing. I just know it.
I was gonna knock you for your use of the word "disjunct", since "disjoint" is probably the word of which you were thinking. Then it turns out that not only is "disjunct" a word, but it's meaning is quite close to "disjoint" anyway. So, good call, I guess.
Anyways, yeah, art! I know nothing about it!
Cous I swear to you that one day, there will be pitures and this space will be so much more interesting. I just haven't yet taken the time to learn how to add said pictures. But they are coming. Trust me. I'm a man of my word.
Hey Eric, I'm not sure you remember me, I went to Ave with Kate. I noticed you mentioned lightboxes several times in your posts. I'm trying to find a decent one that isn't really expensive since I'm not planning on going into full-time drawing soon. Are there any you'd recommend?
Lightboxes, unfortunately are not terribly cheap. I can't quote the price of my own since it was a gift, but you can also find them out there at garage sales (where I got my second, larger, lightbox) or on e-bay. If price it really prohibitive you can always make your own to suit your own custom needs, since all they really are is a light bulb under some glass. Let me spend five minutes doing some looking...
Ah there we are! Amazon tells me that mine is about forty bucks. As far as art supplies are concerned, that isn't too bad (I spend more on a single tech pen). No. No I have spoken too soon. A slightly smaller version of my light box is forty bucks. My light box is apparently about ninety dollars. A simple search for "light box" on amazon will provide you with more choices than you could ever want.
Sorry about my delayed response and hasty reply. Life is busy right now and I'm feeling a little manic. Still, it's exciting to think that my blogging has reached someone I don't see every day. The wonders of the internet abound.
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