Thanks to the Clip Studio Paint liquefy tool, I was able to enlarge Kitty’s eyes in just a few seconds.
In the right page, I added in the birds perched on Mr. Moai and on Dylan’s snout. Adding the birds was necessary for continuity. They first appear in page 25, then reappear in page 59. I’ll add the birds to page 61, also, showing them fluttering around Mr. Moai’s head as Kitty revives him from his 300-year sleep.
I’m going to find a place in the story for this image. The reader needs to know that the volcano demon’s rage is implacable and heartless. Overly dramatic? Oh, how can a fictitious volcano demon be overly dramatic? This beast has turned an entire island’s population, save for one boy, into stone statues.
The story needs a villain and the villain’s redemption, and that’s what it will get.
Today I had cataract surgery. The ophthalmologist removed the cloudy lens in my right lens and replaced it with an acrylic lens. I had been dreading this surgery for years. The thought of someone cutting my eye with a razor-sharp diamond scalpel was more than I could deal with.
Afraid as I was of surgery, I was also afraid of not being able to drive at night. Night driving had become a frightening ordeal .When you have a full blown cataract, the glare of oncoming headlines turns the darkness into a wall of white light, which is not fun when you’re driving on a two-lane highway.. I scoured youtube for cataract surgery videos. As my ignorance of cataracts diminished, I was able to schedule surgery for my eye.
Waves are hard to draw and paint, so I used the Clip Studio Paint Lasso File brush to scribble them in. Good enough? Maybe. Who knows! Perhaps I’ll find a better way to scribble them in tomorrow.
Today I ordered Bone, the 1300-page black and white version. I’ve been looking for a big comic series now that I’m almost finished watching GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka (on Prime) for the third time. I love that anime for it’s big heart and sometimes equally great stupidity.
By the way, that Bone link is an Amazon affiliate link. By now everyone knows that affiliate links help creators make a few pennies at no cost to you. I’ve never made a single penny from affiliate links. Perhaps it’s because I’m the only one reading this. So be it. I’m satisfied to be a legend in my own mind.
After struggling for days to ink this page using Clip Studio Paint’s bezier curves, I decided to revert to freehand inking. Learning on the job can lead to massive slowdowns, even coming to a complete halt, while climbing a steep learning curve. So, back to freehand inking it is. I’m still using CSP’s vector layers and I can still use the vector tools to correct to fix wayward lines, of which there are plenty.
My plan is to turn these make these pictures work together. The beach scene will all of the residents of Easter Island, the reanimated Moai the the little volcano demon, waving farewell to Dylan Dolphin, Betty Burro, and Jimmy Jay. Since these are two unique scenes, I’m going to extend the ocean (in the beach scene) to behind the jumping dolphin. I’ll have to correct some colors and lighting. I can sense that I’m going to complete this book in the next couple of months.
It’s a bittersweet feeling. I’m happy that I’m coming to the end, and I’m sad that it will be over. I’ve been working on this book for 17 months, far longer that dreamed it would take. There are so many ways it could have been better, if I had only had the skills to make it so. So it goes.
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.
Everyone has a baseline skill level for every endeavor. My base level for painting is represented in this storyboard cell showing the Moai family waving goodbye to Dylan Dolphin, Betty Burro, and Jimmy Jay.
Yes, this is where I start with every picture I draw. I’m starting from the level I achieved as a fourth grader at the age of nine. It’s funny how the basic skill level emerges when I’m in a hurry to get an idea down. The funny thing is, this simple image has enough information for me to reclaim my original idea for this scene. There are the foam-tipped waves lapping at their feet; The moai are no longer grey rock — they are colorful flesh and blood; Behind them is the sparse windblown beach grass, and in the background is Terevaka, the extinct volcano that is the highest point on the island.
I will work on this picture everyday, one inch at a time.
Did some basic flatting today. I’m not happy with Dylan Dolphin’s pudgy belly but otherwise, I’m pleased with this composition.
I used Clip Studio Paint Ex to create this vector sketch. One thing I haven’t figured out is how to simplify the lines. That is to say, I want to remove some of the nodes to create smoother lines. I read on the Internet that there’s a way to do this, but this technique seems to be a well-hidden secret.
Next up, I’ll flat this image and put in some shadows.
