It was a big day in Southern Oregon. I had my yearly checkup and I was pronounced healthy. Also, the plumbers replaced the pipesfrom our house to the city’s main line. The house was built in the 50’s, when Orangeburg pipe was commonly used. It has a life span of about 50 years — ours lasted 70. The replacement pipe is PVC, which will last up to 150 years. Long enough, I say.
To complete page 3, I enhanced the colors, added a walrus, and painted the circus tents in the distance.
For page 60 I used a simple G-pen to replace the fuzzy pencil ink. I like the pencil-look, but I believe that I’m more likely to maintain a consistent style by sticking with simple ink lines.
My strategy is now to replace my “painterly” pages with simple line drawings. As for coloring, I’m using the bucket tool to lay down the base color, then using multiply and lighten layers to apply the shadows and highlights.
These odd-sized pages have been combined into a two-page spread
Over the 18 months I’ve been working on this book, I’ve used several painting programs besides Clip Studio Paint — Krita, Photoshop, Procreate, and Rebelle. What I didn’t think about when I used those programs was getting the page size right. It didn’t occur to me that Clip Studio Paint EX can only combine pages into two-page spreads unless the pages are exactly the same size and resolution.
I’ve accumulated twenty pages with the wrong dimensions or resolution. Some pages were A4 size and 350 dpi, when they should have been 11.40x9.00 inches at 300 dpi. I spent the day changing nonconforming pages to exactly 11.40x 9.00 inches.at 300 dpi.
Some of the pages, like the example above couldn't be scaled without loosing content. I had to resize those files by scaling them up or down, resulting is some blank areas at the top and bottom. I first scaled the image to 11.40 inches wide, then changed the canvas size to 11.40x9.00 inches.
I’ll have to rework all of the pages that were imported at the wrong size. I could have avoided that extra work if I had been diligent about adhering to the project page size set in the StoryIP) -> Page Manager.
It’s been another live and learn day.
Momma’s right arm is a work in progress
I’ve decided that the Ringmaster and the Clown really don’t need to be in the birthday cake scene. They’re out. Instead I’m going to show Momma Burro serving two pieces of cake. The challenge is to draw her right arm carrying the cake high, at chin level. I looked for reference pictures of waiters and waitresses carrying food, but I couldn’t find pictures taken from the angle I need. Tomorrow I’m going to photograph myself in the pose I want.
Lots of work to do here.
Yesterday’s post was my 1,000th on this site. Everything here is a re-posted to https://doukat.tumblr.com.
This picture in half of a two-page spread.The two pages have about 100 layers between them. By the time I finish tossing unnecessary layers, there will be about a dozen layers.
My job is to make this picture make dramatic sense. Jimmy and Betty are pledging best friends forever while the ringmaster, the clown, and Betty’s mother look on. The clown is looking at the cake, and the ringmaster has got his eye on the suspicious clown. Betty’s mother is about to intrude on a special moment.
To make the table more interesting, I’m going to add a deck of cards and some poker chips.
The ringmaster and the clown are going to be watching the kids eat birthday cake. This picture will be less complex than the circus tent page. I’m drawing these guys large. They’ll be reduced in size for the final picture. The other characters are Jimmy Jay, Betty Burro, Mother Burro, and the crocodile kids.
The ringmaster is now a penguin instead of a man
I think I’m finally finished with this page. The big change, for today, is that I replaced the man with an animal. Introducing a human being into the book would be a bad decision.
At the moment I’m waiting eagerly for my Leica IIF to make its way from Belgrade, Serbia, to Southern Oregon. This camera was created sometime between 1951 and 1956. I’ve bought vintage cameras before and I’ve had good luck, most of the time. The only dud was a Polaroid camera converted to use Fuji Instax film. The camera itself was fine, but Fuji stopped making the film.
I’m looking forward to having a Leica again. I sold my Leica M3 out of necessity in 1988. It didn’t occur to me that thirty-years later I would regret selling it. Going 30 years before regretting a decision is okay by me — I regret most of my bad decisions immediately.
More characters, more colors, more composition. I’ll finish this on Monday, This has been one of the most challenging pages — so many characters, a complex background, and the difficult composition! But fun to do, all the same.
What’s to say? I’m sketching in the audience, bringing in some figures who appeared in the first pages.
