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!