Chore day and sketches
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Sketch
Vectorizing
A blast from the past
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1-3-2020
A marker sketch from 2020, back when I was drawing on actual paper with pen and ink, and markers. I didn’t think much of this picture in 2020, but now I like it a lot. Whenever I like an old picture, I think, “I should have stuck with the style and gotten really good at it. I would have a style!” Instead I jump from one style to another. I’m fickle and easily distracted. What a mess!
To make time for working on my book, I’ve stopped studying Spanish, and Swedish, and Finnish, and Japanese. I need that study time for my big project — my book. Instead of studying in the morning, I now work on my book for an hour. I miss learning all of those crazy languages, but my time is short, and art is long.
Drawing a cuter dolphin
/Cuter means rounder, chubbier, big friendly smile, and big, bright eyes looking right at you, brothers and sisters!
The line work is all vector using Clip Studio Paint’s efficient vector tools. They don’t have all of the features of Illustrator or Affinity Designer, but they’re perfect for doing comix.
I still have to do the shadows and highlights and background.
The vector experience, day 29
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Today’s inch of progress was to move each the characters to a separate layer. To do that I had to learn how to select more than one object at a time. It was a deep and murky dive into the Youtube miasma of Clip Studio Paint Videos (I almost wrote “Clip Studio Pain”). The problem was solved with a video named CLIP STUDIO PAINT useful features : Drawing with vectors. Thank you, Internet.
I’m finding that CSP vectors are rather limited, but they’re probably good enough for anything I’m capable of drawing at this time.
More Vector Drawing (tracing)
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Another day, another inch. Nothing clever or deep to say. Just learning and trying to get to the point where my brain doesn’t hurt when I use the pen tool.
Bezier Success
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Today I managed to trace over my fan-art painting of Lum Invader from Urusei Yatsura with Affinity Designer. I could just as well have used Clip Studio Paint or Illustrator, but I’m determined to use Affinity Designer. I feel that, hopefully, with lots of practice, I’ll be able to work faster and draw my characters more consistently. I’m a dreamer.
Learning how to use the Clip Studio Paint bezier curve tool
/I spent an hour trying to get this guy’s hands looking right, and didn’t succeed. Working with Bezier curves is a challenge, but I figure if I keep hammering away at it, I will prevail. To quote myself, “If they can do it, I can do it.” Of course, I know that I can’t sing like Pavarotti or dance like Baryshnikov. But just maybe I can learn to trace over my drawings using the pen tool if I practice every day.
Page 64, with sketchy background and Kitty Kat riding high
/The volcano demon, also known as a magical tabby cat, is celebrating her victory. There’s a lot going on in this picture and I’m still learning how to use bezier curves. It’s fun and I plan to practice hard and get good at using the pen tool. When I say good, I really mean okay, competent.
Jimmy Jay Drawn with vectors in Clip Studio Paint
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This my first vector drawing. I had many before before I could complete this simple drawing. I’ve been practicing using the vector pen tool with Illustrator and Affinity Design, and now with Clip Studio Paint EX. CSP’s bezier curves have some useful features that I haven’t seen in Illustrator of Affinity Design. Jeez! That statement doesn’t mean anything. I know almost nothing about those two programs, I may be insanely wrong.
When I’m learning something new, I really have to push myself to keep going. It’s all too easy for me to say, “Bezier curves are stupid and I’m so talented I don’t need”, and then quit. That’s the way I operated for most of my life. I got enthusiastic, tried and little, and gave up with things got tough. I’m glad I got over that kind of thinking. Even though it took me 50 years, it’s never to late get out of the ditch and get back on track.
Trying Clip Studio Paint's bezier curves
/When I first started using Clip Studio Paint years ago, I tried the bezier curves a bit, became baffled, and quit learning about them. Today I tried them again. My opinion is in the formative stage. I can see that bezier curves would be great for all of those things that should have precise curves. Time will tell if I have the patience to do the work to become comfortable with vectors.
