Howdy gang!

So I just got my hands on a Wacom Intuos3 tablet and, while I'm still pretty much a Photoshop newbie, I'm going to start tinkering with digitally drawing. I'll be starting from the ground up and haven't really done much drawing at all in recent years, so don't go expecting anything too amazing just yet. But if nothing else you'll be able to see how I progress...so there's that.

A lot of the early stuff is going to be me tracing over my own pencil drawings while I get used to the pen and tablet, very much different than using a mouse. But it will be good practice for inking when I start drawing D&D comics right? Right??

Here's my first test with the Photoshop pen tool, which a lot of digital comic artists use when inking rather than freehanding the lines.

This image is a trace of one of the concept art pictures that Scott Kurtz did for his Table Titans character Val Bronzebottom.

I threw the picture up on twitter and Scott actually favorited and retweeted it, so it cant be that bad right?

I plan on coming back to this picture and doing it without the tracing again at some point and see how I've improved.

You're just stockpiling art world connections aren't you? David Willis might have responded to a forum comment I made once, so I got that over you, at least, maybe.

Oh yeah? What all connections do I have?

David Willis? Wow thats pretty cool! I'll have another picture uploaded soon...I've been spending most of my effort on setting up tools and learning techniques rather than actually art-ing. But now I have some nifty pen-tool macros established.

I have no experience with using photoshop but this looks sweet, it has a really calligraphy-ish look to it.

And inked version of VoidElemental's planeswalker Colonel Xandors which can be found in his post HERE.

Another trace job while I get better at using the pen tool:





R.I.P. Robin Williams


Original Image

That is some reckless use of dynamite right there. Be careful what message you're sending to children BH.

Theres an unattended, lit, bomb at the top of every page ...

Goblin Tokens!

I just started learning Adobe Illustrator, which is frustrating considering that there are quite a few differences from Photoshop, but I figured I'd give vector art a whirl.

My bugbear is not coming out anywhere near as good as my goblins.

they're cute

Nuh uh, they're fierce!!

I like the one with the bandana infinitely more than the other two, and I don't know why...

bc he doesn't want us to recognize him but like goblins are pretty interchangeable to most people and the fact that he's wearing a bandana actually makes him stand out, silly goblin!

He thinks it makes him look cool. The other goblins think he's strange and try to avoid talking to him too much.

Awesome keep at it! It takes awhile to get used to the differences of vector and raster, but they both have their uses. I'm a graphic designer so if you ever need tips give me a shout!

When I first started doing my character sheet I was considering creating a little avatar. I may still do once I get work out of the way, you'd never tell with all my posts here

The main thing thats bugging me is the things that I used commonly in Photoshop but cant in Illustrator. Simply things like 'Cropping' for example.

Being unable to select the outline of a layer and delete it from another layer in a few easy clicks and all sort of other things are begging to make things rougher too. Bah

Cropping the whole artboard you mean?

As for the next bit, try using the Pathfinder tool. Again, it takes getting used to what exactly it does, but if you select two (or more) objects (make sure they are expanded and not in groups) you can have them interact - merge, cut out etc.

What I like most about vector is if you use the pen or pencil tool to create a shape you can then use the Smooth tool (flyout tab in pencil) to smooth that line. Again, takes getting used to put you can adjust the parameters if you double click the tool icon in the toolbar.

Another thing is getting used to shortcuts. You end up saving so much time!