Sketch A Day 204

Somehow, the feathers on her hat goes well with the Gypsy-inspired cloak and robe. I think this will be her look. Early on I decided to have the character in a motherly body, not the slim, model type, to have some bounce and feel to it. Besides, humor and magic go hand in hand.

Now the real work is about to begin . . . 

Sketch A Day 005

I'm expecting my load at work to suddenly fill up now that the Impeachment Trial is done with. So I might as well post this one.

Although I'm not too keen on publishing this one. Still smacks of being a noob.

Somehow, I have this feeling that I'm doing things wrong, too eager to to do things. Any suggestions? I'm open to any ideas you may have. I think I can still improve from here, but I don't want to scratch a few layers on the PSD file just yet.

Sketch A Day 004

Now, I know what it feels like for digital artists. My brush choices are often wrong. My skill in drawing is the only thing that's keeping this work in progress from going south. Four days into this and I am beginning to understand brush selection, though looking at this, I have lots to learn. At first, I thought I'd do the paper & pencil thing and just trace over the sketch, but that is a cop out. No, I think I mayhave to explore more of the options.

I have always been disappointed with the way I do my eyes. Often, I try to keep the lines minimal. But working with brush is something else. Best part about this is, I'm still learning. Not too shabby for an old man.

Sketch A Day 002

This drawing with a tablet is kind of funny, in a way. Not like the way we do in-betweens during my TOEI Animation days, where we used Wacom PL500s. That was an awesome experience, being a guinea pig for the development of Pencilman, a software specially made for 2D animation needs. But that was a long time ago. This time I'm learning to do things digitally. I still draw like an animator does - sketching on paper with a pencil with a lightbox underneath. And then after having been satisfied with the final sketch for about 5 revisions, only then will I be able to break out a fresh sheet and finalize the lines, depending on what I had in mind at the time.

But this time, my Flex WSeries is proving to be quite handy. But it's a different thing drawing on a separate  surface and the outcome is on the monitor. So far, I have been using the normal brushes on Photoshop, 5pt with the fill and opacity set at 75%, blend mode at multiply,with a dimension of 600px by 800px.

Unlike pencil and paper, the strokes are controlled. Draw too fast and the lines get all slow and your progress will be in slow mo. So far, I think this will have a good ending. I'm running on instinct here. Sort of playing by ear. I have to discard old habits with drawing and try to keep up with the hardware.