And here it is below in my sketchbook before adding color in Procreate.
Not sure which I prefer. I couldn’t finish the drawing since I ate half of a peach and a banana for breakfast and then needed to refrigerate the rest.
Tag: Painter Digital Art
Sketched on paper, traced manually in Painter and then automatically in Illustrator, colored in Painter, converted to Photoshop and “saved for web”.
Click here to see larger.
This weeks Illustration Friday challenge is “Geeky.” The original definition of a geek is someone from a circus or carnival freak show who ate live animals such as mice, including biting the heads off live chickens. How the word Geek came to mean someone who is into computers and nerdy, I don’t know. I guess it’s the social outsider thing. So I just took it a step further and made it a freak show guy who eats computer mice and other computer parts. I made myself stop playing with this illustration so that I’d still have time to do some real painting today, so it’s not as clean as I’d like it to be.
I’m a bit of a computer geek myself, and have recently been studying color management theory and practice between devices and software programs. It’s really complicated. This time I was able to embed my monitor and color profile in Painter so that when I converted it to Photoshop they had fairly similar color.
Refrigerator Update
For someone who prides herself on being a techno-geek, I definitely don’t have it when comes to large appliances. It turns out that whole disaster with my fridge was caused by the dial in the freezer (which I didn’t even realized existed) being turned to OFF. I don’t know how it got turned off, but that’s all that was wrong. The skinny, weasel-faced jerk of a repairman tried to charge me $98 instead of the $65 I was quoted over the phone for a diagnosis, claiming he had to charge for his (5 minutes of “labor” too).
I told him the guy on the phone said there’d be an estimate before any labor was charged and he said, oh yeah, they always tell you that. But I have to charge for my time starting with when I walk in the door.” I called Sears back and the guy on the phone confirmed I was right so I asked him to talk to the repairman. They chatted for a bit, the repairman said “OK” and handed me the phone, which I hung up. He said, “No, you were supposed to talk to him–he was going to tell you to pay the $98 and take it up with Customer Service later.”
I thought for a moment and said, “I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you the $65 I was quoted and YOU take it up with Customer Service” and crossed my arms and stared him down. He realized there was no point arguing any further and gave me a “discount” back to the original quoted price and left. Sheesh! What a scam!
Here’s the original sketch on a decorative notepad.
Drawn with pencil, scanned, redrawn and digitally painted in Painter
Apparently I’m suffering from an artist’s form of writer’s block–instead of working with oils or acrylics like I planned to today, I procrastinated by making this crappy illustration instead. I’m feeling sad and annoyed with myself that I spent my painting time today drawing on the computer. At first it was fun. I had another idea for Illustration Friday’s challenge of “Twist” this week that I had quickly scribbled in a little notebook. I intended to only spend an hour on the computer with it.
Skip the next two paragraphs if you’re not interested in boring technical stuff of what went wrong.
When I experiment with digital art I always try to learn something new. So today I tried starting with colored “paper” in Painter. Unfortunately, I discovered to late that it would prevent me from working in my usual way: preserving the line drawing as the bottom layer and adding color using the digital airbrush on new layers using “Multiply” as the layer type. The paper color showed through so I ended up working directly on the main layer, which kept erasing the lines. The colors were icky. I redid the colors a bunch of times, then redrew all the lines. Then messed some more with the colors.
I knew it was a losing proposition but I’d already invested a couple hours trying to fix things. Finally it was good enough and I imported it into Photoshop and all the colors turned way too bright. I guess Painter didn’t use the monitor/system calibration I did yesterday. So then I had to tweak it in Photoshop, making things less intense. But when I used the “save for web” command in Photoshop the colors got all too bright again. So then I experimented some more in Photoshop and learned how to use the “Replace Color” command. I’d always wondered how it worked and it’s really cool. But I could have learned that reading the manual, not spending my precious Sunday fixing a stupid drawing.
I’ve been unfocused all week, having finished all my work in progress and needing to start some new paintings–always a difficult time for me if I don’t have a burning inspiration. Clearly I need to stay away from the computer for a while and get some paintings started so I have some in progress. The problem is I have several ideas and couldn’t decide which to start. So tomorrow I’m going to start three of them, as soon as I get up in the morning and then I’ll feel much happier, I’m sure. I’m going to make the most of my last 3 days of vacation!
Categories
Dreams…
All were drawn in pencil and then ink in my dream sketchbook, then scanned and digitally colored in Painter.
Click here to see enlarged.
(Above) Dreamt that my painting group turned into a dance group.
(Below) Click here to see enlarged. Dreamt I was standing in line to sign up for a race. A big sweaty bald guy without a shirt kept leaning on me and I told him to stop it. Once we started running I realized I could fly so I did, even though I knew it meant I wouldn’t get the race t-shirt. Flying is so much fun!
(Above) Click here to see larger. Dreamed I was visiting New York City with my dad and we were walking the streets stopping into jazz cafes and listening to music. I had my flashlight to light our path. I was so happy being in New York I started crying with joy and decided to move there. His wife Linda was there, dressed like Jackie O and neat and trim. Then I remembered how expensive it is to live in Manhattan and that my dad died many years ago. But it was still a happy dream.
If you look at the images enlarged, please tell me if they’re too big for your screen.
The Illustration Friday challenge “suit” really didn’t grab me until I remember it was my birthday this month…
(above) I scribbled the idea for this on a handy notepad with pencil at midnight while I was waiting for my neighbor’s party to end so I could get some sleep. Then I inked over the outline today and followed the steps below to get to the finished picture. The color in the picture above comes printed on the notepad.
Techie notes:
I outlined the sketch in ink and scanned into Photoshop, using Levels to erase the background (paper had designs on it) and improve the contrast. Then I opened it in Illustrator and used “Trace” command to get clean outlines. I imported that into Painter, doing some more drawing and then creating layers defined as “Multiply” to paint it without losing the outlines. I mostly used the digital airbrush. Then I opened it in Photoshop to use the handy “Save for Web” option (Phew!) It took about 2 hours total.
This is my first project on my new electric sit-stand desk/computer workstation. It was a massive project requiring lots of computer and furniture wrangling in my studio to get it all set up and functional and some really late hours. That’s why I haven’t posted the past few days. Tomorrow I’ll post some pics of my new desk and write about the project, my ridiculous goof-ups, the fixes and the complicated but very groovy computer setup that my friend Richard, tech consultant extraordinaire, helped me plan and assemble.
Dreamt I was at the movies with my blind husband (don’t have one) and another blind man and they were showing off by walking from side to side on the stage being tricky and funny.
Dreamt I created a company called “Subsidiary” that makes devices to make shoulders more comfortable while sleeping.
Dreamt Cody was a kid again and a funny old grandpa was in the kitchen showing him how to eat cereal from those little fold-open cereal boxes.
Dreamt my mom wanted to come live with me but I remembered I had a husband I had to ask first. Then I remembered I wasn’t married anymore but had a roommate (a former friend I don’t see anymore). I asked if she minded and she said she’d inherited a fortune and was going to be buying houses for 13 friends and I wasn’t one of them. Mom was sorting through papers in an envelope marked “Dec 06” that she’d found in her piles of junk stacked around her on her bed.
These are all drawn in ink in my sketchbook, then scanned and colored in Painter.
Categories
Dreams Illustrated
Dreamt I started a Japanese all-girl band as a way to promote a baseball team.
Dreamt I invented a combination yoga mat/lawn chair. In the same dream something was tickling me and it was big banner that said “Big Banner” tucked behind my pillow.
Dreamt there was an old lady who kept coming to my door every month trying to sell me food made from cabbage like coleslaw and kimchee. She always carried one worn out old brochure for the American Cancer Society, and the money she made from cabbage was supposedly donated to them. I was skeptical so I visited the ACS and was given a tour. (see next)
(immediately above) They had a room where they helped people quit smoking by letting them smoke one last cigarette. The woman showing me around sat on a weight bench while smoking a cigarette and suddenly fell asleep and fell on the floor. Later (above previous) all the employees were having a party and were all happily smoking marijuana.
Dreamt there was a horse pulling a cart with a horse in it and another horse behind that and they all turned out to be fraternity guys wearing horse suits.
***
The best part of remembering my dreams is discovering the goofy stuff my mind cooks up when I’m not looking.
Jana Bouc, Artist 
