The painting on the left is my original image. On the right I’ve applied two correction laygers: hue, brightness, and saturation, and contrast. The image on the right looks dreary because there are no highlight. I’ll add them tomorrow.
Today was chore day (laundry, vacuuming), with a bit of time for practicing using vector tools in Clip Studio Paint. I’m going to keep practicing until I get it.
As for the picture, it’s what’s called a work in progress. In fact, all of my pictures are works in progress.
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.
With this picture I realize I’m banging my head against the limit of my composition skills. My characters are static and I don’t know what to do with their hands. I’m going to do some research and then redraw this picture.
This is the kind of problem that makes me feel like I don’t know dick about drawing from imagination. I dive into a drawing thinking I know what I’m doing and end up concluding that I always start with a good reference. I’m impatient, and that impatience makes me a slow learner.
Clip Studio Paint EX has a colorization tool. You draw the line art, then set a color layer beneath it and paint “hints” of color. When you push the colorize button, Clip Studio Paint pushes the line art and color hints to the Cloud, processes them and sends back the colored image. Unfortunately, the AI doesn’t really do a good job if there are any details in the picture. It seems to work okay with simple geometric shapes.
I’d say that this “tool” isn’t worth using at this time, unless you like to fiddle around trying to transform a clod into a diamond.
Krita has a similar tool and it seems to work. At least David Revoy can make it work. Check out his Youtube video about the Krita colorize mask.
I’m using page 61 to practicing painting. I’ve repainted this page half a dozen times. I’m working on reducing the number of strokes I make. The main strategy is to use the largest brush possible and not to use lines. This strategy is in conflict with my original plan to do simple line work (clair ligne) like Moebius. Oh well. What can I say? I’m a beginner. I’ve got to stretch my wings, take in every pretty flower, dip my toe into every pond, and see if the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence.
I’m working on learning to paint, digital painting, that is. I’ve been looking at my Moai reference for over a year. The more I paint it, the more frustrated I feel. Right now, my frustration that I use too many brushstrokes.
I’ve tried many painting apps in my haphazard quest to learn how to paint — Painter, Photoshop, Procreate, Art Studio Pro, Krita, Clip Studio Paint, Rebelle, and on and on and on. I know the my slow progress is my fault, not the fault of any software program. First, my knowledge of the skull is civilian level. Even though I have a skill, I’m not clear on how to draw it or paint it. But my ignorance of anatomy doesn’t deter me — I just keep on drawing the same 3/4 head day after day, with one program after another and they all look the same. Today I used Artrage Vitae to paint my daily skull. I like Artrage a lot. If feels like what I imagine real oil painting feels like.
While I was typing this post I made dozens of typos. I’m going to work on improving my typing. I timed myself yesterday. I type 35 words a minute, If I could remove the errors, I’d be able to type about 45 wpm. It looks like my typing is about 25% errors. Yikes!
The reborn pages 60 and 61
With pages 59 and 60 irretrievable, I’m starting over. Losing the pages was a real bummer. I went into a funk for a couple of days. I wanted nothing to do with painting or drawing. The thought of abandoning the book occurred more than once. Then I got over it. As I came to my senses, I removed the emotion from the equation. I realized I could simply paint the pages again. The original pages had flaws; perhaps the do-overs would be better. Or perhaps they would have worse flaws. In the end, it doesn’t matter — I just have to get this book completed by doing the best that I can with the time I have.
Today’s chores were doing the vacuuming and cooking next week’s food. I made some chocolate chip cookies from chickpeas (they were disappointing) and a big pot of chili (not disappointing). Tomorrow I’ll be making some vegan burgers. A vegan burger is really just another way of saying bean patty.
My copy of Rey Busto’s anatomy book arrived today. It’s awesome. Rey Bustos is the best teacher of anatomy I’ve come across. You can check out his book on Amazon by clicking here.
