This program gives me wood.

Little bit of direct drawing in Sketchbook Pro before bed...

Throw out your ink.

...and your brushes. Don't buy another pen nib.

Okay, maybe that's going a tad far, but daaaaamn -- just figured out how to make big, meaty custom brushes in Sketchbook Pro. It is ON now.

Skethbook Pro -- work install

Nabbed my coworker's Cintiq (bwahahaha!), installed Sketchbook Pro and puttered until all the settings were right. Marker tool is swank, too. Tomorrow it's GO TIME.

Comic Con 2008 / Sketchbook Pro

Home from Comic Con! So many great friends, so much sweet shwag!

Highlights of the trip included meeting Pixar's veteran monster maker Derek Thompson, Rob Schrab (creator of Scud : The Disposable Assassin), Jim Woodring (creator of Jim, Frank and countless surrealities), Paul Chadwick (creator of Concrete), formidable tech-head Clement Sauve, the heavily costumed Miss Monster, and too many more to mention! To add to the whirlwind of awesomeness, my employer Vigil Games had Darksiders demoing at the THQ booth to anyone bold enough to try their hand at it.

But *sigh* that's all over now. Back to art! The Creaturebox dudes, who were as cool in person as the art they were showing, turned me onto Sketchbook Pro, arguably the best program for creating bold, expressive line digitally. I effed with the trial version a little before going to bed tonight and was sufficiently wowed by its level of control and inky crispness. I'll definitely be buying the full version.



Oh, and Wendy posted some pics from the con.

Bots on the brain...

Here's my doodles from this past week's sketch night comped up to look a bit nicer. Yes, I saw Iron Man. Yes, I saw Wall-E. Got bots on the brain!

Whisper -- page 3

Another page, another tactic. I know I should really be trying to make this thing consistent, but I can't help it. Last page took waaaay too long, so I was forced to try a different method : blow up scritchy thumbnail and paint straight over that. The failing here was that there wasn't enough information in the layout to turn it into a successful painting. Could work into it more, but since the damage was done at the beginning, no further rendering will salvage it.

Sorry Aaron : your story has inadvertently become my comic creation guinea pig. Maybe by page 12 or so I'll have it down.

Whisper -- Avaskanda

Blotted down some quick 'n' dirty ideas for an upcoming character in the comic I'm doing with Aaron. It's our take on a Garuda, holding a trishula.



#1 is my favorite.

Babelab - Grace

Here's my rather exaggerated take on a female modelsheet, which I can now dress /tweak, paper doll style, should I ever be so inclined.

This was done ditially, start to finish. The 3DSK references helped me get some of the anatomy more correct than I normally would, but I then made heavy use of the warp tool to blow out certain...er...areas.

I thought about making her bald -- a true base body -- but she looked weird. Bouffants are way hotter.

Thanks to the masterful Kieran Yanner for showing me the value of the jagged smudge tool for painterly effects!