Annabeth Process

This was initially a marker practice drawring gone really, really well.

Since I've drawn my first set of the Scarf Series I've noticed that my marker work is really lacking something. As of late I've been looking at a lot of marker tutorials to see what I could find. I noticed the work that used a lot more color looked more attractive than using just a base color and different shades of the base.

So I sketched up a bust of Annabeth from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series because she's one of my faves. I sketched it in my Strathmore sketchbook and scanned it in. The sketch itself is only about 5 1/2 inches long so it's pretty tiny.

I inked the sketch with a .03 black Micron and a .01 black Micron for the finer details. I waited for the ink to dry, then erased my lines. I scanned in the image again. I cleaned up the sketch a tad in Photoshop using this tutorial which has been insanely helpful! I decided that the sketch was a little too small for me to work with for practice, so instead of coloring the original I decided to print out a copy. I had recently gotten some Matte paper to print off some of my work and stick it in my portfolio so I tried that first. Yeah, don't use Matte paper. The colors did not blend well at all. I didn't really want to print it on regular printer paper because the markers bleed quite a bit. I decided to rip out a piece of my Aquabee Manga paper (which is recommended for Copics ^^) and stick that in the printer. Though it took a really long time for the ink to dry, it worked really, really well.

I switched up my method a bit with coloring. I had read in a random tutorial (I'm sorry, I don't have the link) that if you don't leave a little bit of white left on the skin your image will look flat and boring. Instead of coloring the base color over the entire face like I usually do, I started by just shading in the shadows with the base color (Copic: skin white) and moved in from there. Fortunately you can't really tell, but the printer ink smeared a little bit. It actually worked well and gave the skin a little bit darker tone for some of the shadows. After I finished with the base color, I layered with a darker shade. From there I used a darker layer for the really dark shadows. I decided to use a lighter shade of purple for the really deep shades. After I finished I used the base color again to blend the color a bit better.

Her hair was just plain fun. I first laid down a really light yellow base (it was either Prisma: deco yellow or blondewood) and I went from there. Her hair has so many colors in it. There's goldenrod, light blue, lilac, sienna brown, deco pink, and even some fuchsia! Again, to blend the colors I used a lighter yellow. I felt so happy using so many colors that I would have never thought to use in hair and having it turn out so well! I got lucky!

Speaking of luck, I was lucky enough to find this amazing colorless blender tutorial. Let me tell you, it actually works. I used it for her eyes. I first took a light grey and applied the colorless blender ink to it, making a nice soft gradient. I used a few more greys just for some depth, and I used my darkest gray as the outline and the little dab in the middle. I would have never guessed that that was how you used a colorless blender and I'm so glad I found the tutorial! I think I would have benefited more if I added a little bit more depth in the eyes, but I ran out of greys ^^.

The shirt has a base layer of yellow orange. Like her hair, there's a ton of colors in here too. I used the colorless blender some with her shirt and it worked out really nice.

After her shirt I moved on to her lips. I actually used a Photoshop tutorial as reference for them. My scanner definitely took away some of the color, but it still looks nice scanned in. Deco pink was used the most for the lips. Sienna brown and lilac were the deepest shades. Blush pink and pink are in there as well. I blended the colors with the deco pink base color.

The accents were the most fun. I used the colorless blender on the deco pink and added blush along her cheeks, chin, and nose to give her a little bit more feminine color. Then I took my wonderful white gel pen and applied shine to her lips and eyes. I used dots for her cheeks, nose, and if you can see, her upper ear. I decided to highlight her jawline and add a few dabs to her eyelids/lashes. Instead of the normal squiggle hairshine I apply with the white gel pen, I used strokes as highlights. I admit, I got the idea from using highlights in Photoshop. I'm actually a strong believer that using what you learn in Photoshop can be applied to your traditional work as well. You just don't have the handy dandy "undo" button ^^.

From start to finish, this piece took me about 3 hours. I'm pretty sure that's the longest I've ever spent on a traditional piece of work. I really think it paid off quite a bit! Expect to see more traditional work like this from me! :]

You can see just the finished piece here!

Materials

I don't have any sketches to post today, nor do I really have a whole lot to talk about. So today I'm going to talk about the materials I use for my traditional art and why I use/recommend them!

Firstly, now that I've moved to Pennsylvania I get all my art supplies from Blick Art Materials in Allentown, PA. They are cheap and they have a lot of everything. It's fantastic. If you don't have a retail store near you, I recommend their online store. Their prices are often cheaper than their retail stores and a lot cheaper than their catalog. You have to pay for shipping, though. So if you have a retail store near you, I suggest you check it out! If not, go online! Their supplies are ENDLESS. And their prices are great! :]

Just so you know, I'm rather picky when it comes to my supplies.

Paper:
+ My sketchbooks have to be spiral bound. Lately I've been using Strathmore Sketch premium recycled sketchbooks. I've also tried their Drawing sketchbooks. Both of them are good for pencil/other dry media.
+ I also use Strathmore Bristol vellum. It's fantastic for marker/colored pencil. The marker doesn't bleed through to the other side and the paper itself is thicker so it stays straight. When I did a set of 5 commissions for Devin's Mom, I mangafied her niece and nephews and all the pictures went in frames. I used Bristol for the strength and smoothness.
+ Another paper that Devin turned me on to is Aquabee Manga Paper. It's specifically for manga artists and it's recommended with Copic markers. I have to say it's the best paper I've ever markered on. The color was ridiculously smooth and it didn't bleed over the inking lines. This picture here was done on said paper. What really impressed me about this paper, though, is that it left hardly any residue from the initial sketch after inking. When I erased the pencil lines you literally couldn't tell there were pencil lines ever there. I highly recommend this paper if you use Copic markers, or any markers in general.
+ I have also used regular printer paper, ect. the aforementioned supplies are what I prefer.

Pencils/Pens/Erasers:
+ I only use mechanical pencils. I've tried using different grades of pencils for sketching/drawing/shading/ect. but I just can't do it. I haven't tried in quite awhile...so it might be something I'll have to try again. Just to see how I feel about it now. I use either Bic #2 0.5mm or Bic #2 .07mm mechanical pencils.

+ For inking I use Sakura Micron pens. For me, they are the best. Then again, they're all I've used other than Sharpie. I would like to try Prismacolor and Copic liners just to see how they handle. I've tried Faber Castell once or twice and I'm not a huge fan. The Micron sizes I usually use range from .05 to .3. I also have .5, .8, and a brush pen. All which have never let me down when I've used them :]. The different sizes are good for different things. .05 is great for insanely tiny details. I find that just a .05 line won't scan in very well. .1 is also good for a lot of detail, as is .2. I enjoy .3 a lot because it's perfect for me. The line is thick enough to scan in well and it's not thick enough to look super chunky. .5 is okay, but a little thick. It's hard to distinguish line weight. .8 is very, very thick. Unless you want an extremely chunky line, I recommend something smaller. The brush tip is interesting. It's thick, but because of it, line weight is transferred with every stroke. Anya was inked with a Micron brush pen. Depending on what YOU want from the pen will decipher what thickness you use. MAKE SURE YOU LET YOUR INK DRY BEFORE ERASING YOUR SKETCHLINES. THE INK WILL SMEAR IF STILL WET.
+ Gellyroll white gel pens are what I use for finer details in the eyes and some highlights. I definitely recommend having one of these around! I've tried other white gel pens and none of them seem to work as well as the Gellyroll brand for me.
+ I've also tried a Sakura Permapaque opaque pigment marker as seen in the Anya picture again. I liked it and I thought it was a good investment, I just need to practice with it a bit more. I believe it's a good tool to have!
+ I've tried a ton of erasers. Depending on what you want from the eraser will help you choose which one to use for what project. For charcoal and pastel, I recommend having a kneaded eraser around. What I use for my artwork is a Staedtler Mars plastic eraser. They are wonderful for getting rid of sketchlines after inking. I've also tried clicky erasers which were pretty good as well. Staedtler is cheap and good quality. I bought one for each student on the first day of class when I taught a How To Draw Anime/Manga class.

Colored Pencils:
+ Ever since I had to use Prismacolor Premier pencils in my high school senior art class I haven't used anything else. Prismacolor is a wonderful company which offers a good quality product. Their prices might seem a little high, but it's worth it once you've tried the pencil. Premier's have a softer lead which makes blending smooth and easy along with a gorgeous, brilliant color. I will recommend these pencils to anyone and everyone.
+ Prismacolor also offers Verithin pencils. I've tried them too. The color definitely isn't as brilliant or smooth. The lead is harder so they look more like a Crayola pencil. Not my cup of tea.
+ Please, please, please invest in a colorless blender! The lead is soft like the Premier which makes it smooth. The possibilities are literally endless with this tool depending on how much pressure you use and where you use it (the harder you press continuously, the glossier the area gets). This drawing here you can see the difference between the characters, who have had the blending treatment, and the border, which has not. See what a polished look the blender gives? It's amazing! I also bought one of these for each of my students when I taught my How To Draw Anime/Manga II class (coloring).

Markers:
+ Prismacolor markers were the first kind of marker I tried artistically (besides Crayola). It took a lot of getting used to, but they did the job. And they did it well. Prisma's WILL bleed if you don't control them correctly. If the paper is too saturated, watch out. Each marker is double ended with a broad and a fine side. The fine side is easy to get caught up using. Unfortunately, the alcohol based ink dries really fast, so there is a possibility for unhappy layer lines. I recommend practicing with the broad side and learn how to maneuver it so it can get in the hard to reach places. Trust me. It's possible :]. It just takes practice. I love Prismacolor markers. They're bold, they dry fast (which can sometimes be a disadvantage when coloring large areas), and they come in all sorts of colors. Again, the price is sort of high, but the quality is pretty good. One of the only downsides is the fine and broad tip do not eliminate the same amount of ink...so there is a possibility with a slight saturation difference in color. It's just something you have to get used to and play around with in order to use it to your advantage! I would gladly recommend this product to anyone.
+ Blick Markers. I just recently tried a few out! They're good! Nice and smooth with a few of the same issues as the Prisma. They're not as expensive, but just as good. They don't have as much as a color variety but it's definitely the same quality.
+ Copics. Ahh, Copics. My marker of choice. Like Prismacolor, they are an alcohol based marker. Unlike the Prismacolor, though, they dry less quickly there are no unhappy layer lines if used correctly. Most Copics are also double edged. You can get them ovular, with a broad side and a brush tip side, or square, with a broad side and a fine side. There are also very large one sided markers that are available for large areas. Also unlike Prismacolor and other alcohol based markers, each end of the marker eliminates the same amount of ink so there is absolutely no saturation difference between ends. Some people say the shape of the marker is awkward and hard to get used to. I luckily didn't have that problem :]. The colors are brilliant and even. And there are a variety of colors available! Each color will always, always be the same. Where as some Prismacolor markers will slightly change their color over time. Copics are also refillable! So you don't have to buy a brand new marker in order to keep artworking! The major downside to this product is it's price. Copics are ridiculously expensive. You get a fantastic product though. If you are serious about your work and are willing to spend a pretty penny I definitely recommend this product! It's so worth it if you know you'll use them!
+ All of these markers have a bit of an odor. It's something you get used to fairly fast.

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These are the products that I use the most and have the most knowledge about. These are my opinions that I've gathered based on my experiences with these products. I encourage you to try different products to feel out what's good for you!!!

I hope this helped and feel free to drop a line if you have any questions/comments! I have it set up so anyone can leave a comment~try to add your name, though, so I know who I'm talking to! :]

Until next time,
~Mandy

P.S.: Whoa. that was a whole lot longer than I expected it to be! O_O

testing testing

My wonderful bf, Devin, bought the upgrade to his Manga Studio so I could have Manga Studio 4.0. Oh man, it is 100% amazing. When using any of the tools it automatically steadies the line...which makes a crisp and clean well-weighted line. Now, I have a tablet so it makes it easier to get different line weights but this works with a mouse, too.

There are pre-toned brushes too...all of which blew my mind away. Seriously, this makes everything SO much easier, especially if you're starting a manga/comic book/web comic. I know me + backgrounds don't always go well together and this program eases my mind about backgrounds! (at least simple, random background)

Here's my quick practice picture of Chase:

The image itself was super huge so I had to save it as a Photoshop file (.psd) and resize it in Photoshop. Saving was a little bit of an issue for me. Devin had to help (he has a tad bit of experience with the program. Tonight was the first time I ever touched it!) Instead of normal Save As I had to Export the image file in pixels which allowed me to change the format. Then when I got it into Photoshop it was as a bitmap...so I had to change it to grayscale (Image -> Mode -> Grayscale) before I could resize it correctly without distorting the pixels.

All in all, Manga Studio 4.0 gets an A+ from me so expect more from it! :]

Other than that my mind has been racing with artwork ideas. Firstly, I had Bad Romance by Lady Gaga playing in my car on the way home...unfortunately, the image that came tom my mind was my geeky gamer character Nolan dancing in sequined boxers trying to grind up on Oserin, who looks as if she might kill him (but then again, when does she not?). Sikris might walk in...that I am undecided. If he does he's going to walk back out and then burst out laughing, I know that much. Haha.

Another idea I had was drawing lots of Shady. You see, I want to learn some yoga so I had the idea that I would draw Shady in each position that I learn! It could be fun :]

I'm also debating on giving a few characters a makeover. Chase has looked the same for the last four years. I might change it up a tad...just to see what he looks like. I don't have to keep the changes, but it might be fun to do. Os is still a relatively new character still but I was thinking about giving her a cute little pixie haircut instead of her longish short hair. We'll see. I might makeover some other chars too :]

The Scarf Series is going to get going sometime in the near future. The finished pieces will be posted on dA. Would you like to see progress shots as I go?

Okay, I've rambled enough for tonight! Until later!

Finished piece.

Okay. I'm rather impressed with myself. For the contest I had to incorporate honey, almonds, a color that "makes you hungry" and a Valentine's theme. The girl is in honey and she's supposed to represent the almond. But if you didn't catch that with all the brown about her, she's actually holding an almond. ANd there's a hidden almond on her Converse where the star usually is.

This took me...a really long time. From sketch to finish it probably took me around 5-7 hours. My original idea was to have her floating in a jar of honey. I tried it and it looked kind of stupid (and really, really big) so I cropped it down. She's still floating in a jar of honey, you just can't see the jar!

Like I said in my dA artist comments, I'm dedicating this to my friend Andrea because she suggested a tutorial to me about an airbrush tool. And then I saw this tutorial which I kind of skimmed though. I really just messed with the brush area before I started coloring and went from there.

Her nose is probably my favorite part. I think it's adorable. Her lips were difficult to place correctly, but I think they came out nice. It's a really pretty pop of pinkish purple against the golds/browns of the rest of the piece.

I know you're not supposed to use the smudge tool...but I do. I abuse it so badly. But it makes my work look so nice! I think the smudge tool give the exact amount of softness it needs.

The linelessness around the whole figure isn't as hard as it looks (to me). I use the sketch as guidance but after the base color and first coat of shade is down I usually hide it. Okay, the lack of lines on the hands was a little hard for me, but everywhere else was okay. Especially her hair. I think it looks really nice.

I think that's it. Questions, comments, and/or feedback is ALWAYS welcome! NOW, I'm off to bed. I'm shaking from tiredness. Have a good night, guys!

contest wip

I thought this looked awesome...so I had to share it with you. It's the WIP to a contest piece I'm doing. Which is...due tomorrow. Hahaha!

This might be the only update today because I'm sure the majority of tonight is going to be spent working on this!!! :] Wish me luck!

style exercise

Today I did a style exercise I found on deviantART. The template is found here. I used my character Summer, but I intend to do this again with a few other characters. I found this a really good way to get to know your character just a little bit better than you did before you completed the exercise...

Green: Summer in my usual style.
Purple: the style of my good friend Jackie. She's known as Lawliet-Cross-Rue on dA. She has this amazing knack for hair...which I most definitely did not capture well. And those are puffy sleeves if you couldn't tell! Haha.
Pink: shouju style. Relatively easy for me. I tried to accentuate her eyes and the sparkly background.
Orange: Disney. Ugh. Disney is definitely not my favorite style...it was interesting to draw it though. The lips were the most difficult part for me. As was the face shape itself. I think her little nose is pretty cute, though.
Blue: realism. HA! I surprised myself. I whipped this out in about 10 minutes. For the most part I believe it's mostly proportional and her hair came out decently well. If I had about 5 hours I might be able to make it look a lot more realistic. Like I said, I surprised myself.
Gold: Pokemon. This one is my favorite. I just want to squish her here!
Red: My good friend Phen's style. It didn't come out as epic as I thought it would. Haha. It's hard to proportion the eyes out like she does!!! I think if I would have kept both of the eyes similar to the smaller one it would have turned out better. Oh well. This is why we practice. All in all I had a good time with this and I do believe it's a good way to practice with your character!

That's all for tonight, kids! Goodnight!

Well hello everyone! It's about time I get this blog rolling, huh?
Today is the Chinese New Year so I figured today was as good as any to actually write an introduction since, as you might know, it's the beginning of the Year of the Tiger. And that's my year. I intend to make this the best year I've ever had.

Artwork is a very important part of me. It really makes me who I am. Now, I don't think my work is terrible, but there is so much room for improvement. With this blog I intend to track my practice and we'll see how it improves my finished work!

I also hope I will find some fellow artists or even any followers with this blog. I'd like to know what people want to see. Or if you're an artist, what your methods are. How do you practice? I'm curious and open minded and I'm willing to try new things! :]

My primary art page is my deviantART page where I am the Converse Wearing Jedi At this blog, though, you will find things that I do not intend to post on dA. Sketches, studies, doodles, ect. That's the kind of stuff you'll find here! And if you think I'm interesting enough and you have a livejournal account you can visit my livejournal which is my personal journal. It's friends only, so leave a comment if you want to see ^^.

I want to say a quick thank you to Motion City Soundtrack for supplying the lyrics which inspired the url. Haha.

That's it for now. I will post something tomorrow too. This was just introductory.
Have a good evening!

~Mandy

Plan On Seeing These Things Here:

• studies
• sketches
• WIPs
  
• rough comics
• practice drawings
• ect.