The Watcher - 2nd Layer

Allowing the texture to direct many of my strokes, I've applied a second layer to The Watcher.

The Warded Man WIP

I've added more layers to Arlen, the main character from The Warded Man. In the next step. I will pull the shadowed face out of the dark background so the edge of the face isn't so lost. Need to paint the spear too.

Need To Move On

Well, I learned a lot doing this and I can mess with it until the cows come home (does anyone know where they've been??), but it's time to move on to other things. The plan was to print this out half-way and finish it with acrylic washes and colored pencils. Well, that would have worked except my new, Epson R1900 printer isn't working properly and I'm so tired of wasting paper and ink and minutes on the phone to the support (haha) center that I've been forced to finish it in Photoshop.

So, here is Lady of the Lake. She looks much too dark here on my blog. She's much more vibrant on my monitor in PS. Hell's bells. I quit. I'm am so ready to put a good ol' 2B pencil in my hand and feel the give and take of the graphite as it catches on a fresh sheet of Stonehenge paper. I'm craving some tactile, organic, finger-smudging sketching. Where's my kneaded eraser?

Desperation and Virtual Paint

I know...TWO post in one day. Don't faint. My Lady of the Lake IMC assignment is due on the first of September. About two weeks ago, I realized I wasn't going to make it since I've had a gaming job that had to be put on the top of my to do list. I have been buying FX Imagine magazine on and off, when a particular artist I like is featured. This magazine is published in the UK and comes with an instructional CD and lots and lots of instruction for the digital artist, plus a section for traditional artists as well. It's a pricey $15 at B&N but worth it. I've been trying some of the demos they have and slowly learning some things in PhotoShop, even though I don't have the super-duper CS3 version.

So when I realized traditional oil wasn't going to cut it for this painting in time, I decided to scan the ol' watery gal in and let loose with the Wacom tablet and my anemic knowledge of digital paint. I discovered that this takes time to build up layers and learn the different brushes, etc. I've basically been applying layers as I would with colored pencils, using either the Overlay and Softlight modes over my original sketch (which was fairly finished). I have most of the colors down in this post and now I have to go in and refine and clean up edges. Not sure I'll make it but it's been a real learning experience. I know anyone who knows their way around digital application will probably scoff at this attempt, but you got to start somewhere, right?