Final art for Snow White via Manga Studio

29. September 2010 · 5 comments · Categories: Finished, Illustration, Thoughts · Tags: , , , , , , ,
copyright 2010 Wendy Martin

final art with text laid in

I finished up the last few details yesterday. Then I imported the image into Photoshop to make it print ready.

I am very pleased with the ease of which I learned the basics in Manga Studio EX. Most of the tutorials I was able to access on the web were either too basic or not detailed enough. I am still hunting for some that fill my needs. The majority of the videos utilize true Manga style art, and the process I use for layering in color is not typical for most of those artists.

My next attempt will be with the vector tools, which, from my investigations, seem to only be good for line work. Further digging will be needed.

Sadly, the colors were VERY off when I printed the image out in CMYK mode. Either my monitor is in desperate need of calibration or my printer is horribly out of whack. The other option could be the program but since the colors look very different from the printed image in all programs, I have to go with one of the first two.

I laid in the text and crop marks in Illustrator because I find that program has the crispest lettering when output. This will be used as a new promo postcard slated for the October mailing. What do you think?

Almost there – Manga Studio EX

27. September 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Illustration, Thoughts · Tags: , , , , ,

copyright 2010 Wendy MartinI spent most of my work day dealing with other people’s project, so I was only able to get a few hours in on this.

Today, I added dimension to the house and base color to the stone walkway.

As you can see there is only a few more places that need attention, mainly the basket of apples and some bits of the old lady’s clothing.

I did find the patterns available in the program to be mostly unsuitable for my needs as they are more geared to manga cartoons. I have to investigate to see if there is a way to create one’s own patters similar to the way it can be done in Photoshop or Illustrator.

Most of my learning curve at this point is in find where tools are and how to get them to do what I want. From that point of view this program is very easy to learn to use (at least for someone familiar with other graphics programs.) I find the adjustments section of the program to be clunky and slow, but since my poor old dinosaur has only half the recommended RAM available, I will have to wait to see if the cluckiness is due to the low memory. Upgrading to a new MAC is somewhere in the distant future since the only reason I need to upgrade is to keep up with the new versions of software.

My MAC may be a collector’s item, but my husband found a true old computer while cleaning out the deceased uncle’s house. An old Commodore circa 1984 still in the original box. Now that’s OLD! (In computer years anyway.)

Entering the homestretch – MangaStudio EX

24. September 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Illustration, Thoughts · Tags: , , , , , , ,
copyright 2010 Wendy Martin

Almost done!

While I was waiting for the disaster that was my afternoon to happen, I had a few hours to work on my Snow White piece.

I lightened up the background and replaced the skirt color and texture. The flat color for the stone house is laid in and I made a little garden of flowers along the base of the house to break up the wide expanse of tan.

The texture in both the sweater and the skirt are default pattern brushes. So are the flowers.

Tomorrow, I plan on detailing the skirt, adding color and depth to the house and working on the slate walking stones. If I have time, I will finish the basket and apples as well. I have decided to lay in the text in Illustrator so I can get this puppy out the door.

All in all, I am pretty pleased with the capabilities of MangaStudio EX in the raster format. My next trail image will be done in the vector format as soon as I figure out how to find the tools. ;)

A hint of green: Snow White MS-EX progress

21. September 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Illustration, Thoughts · Tags: , , , , ,

Laying skin tones and central apple

I got laid low by a nasty cold. The cold has mostly dissipated except for a hacking cough. While annoying, it seems to be the tail end of the illness. I have to stop painting whenever I cough so I don’t mess up what I’m working on.

I have been laying color in Manga Studio EX. The Snow White inking received some more doctoring yesterday because the maid’s face appeared to be squashed. Getting the features and expression to be the wide-eyed, young innocent I wanted took most of my session yesterday. Today I started laying in the skin tones and the color for the apple.

I have almost completely forsaken the stylus in favor of the mouse at this point. My drawing hand still aches if I use it for work on the computer, even with the brace. This morning my thumb was so stiff I couldn’t even hold my toothbrush. I have better control on the computer with the mouse, so I will just continue on with that instead of trying to learn how to use the stylus at risk of injuring my dominant hand again.

The Snow White illustration is completely done in raster format. The neat thing about Manga Studio EX is I can choose to work in either raster or vector formats. I am really enjoying the ‘painting’ sessions in raster. It seems to me that my color style is consistent with that of my traditional watercolor technique. I am using the default color palette of the program right now, but I think I will create my own palette with the color combination of my physical paints and see if that translates as well. MS-EX does give me the option of ‘mixing’ my own colors. In addition, the tool controls allow me to choose a lot of different brush widths.

I will finish this illustration as a raster drawing and then switch over to the vector tools with my next illustration. I wonder how similar the tools will be to those in Adobe Illustrator, the program that has been my go to for digital illustration for years? I am hopeful the learning curve will not be as great as the initial switch was from Photoshop.

One thing I do have to add. I am taking just as long to ‘paint’ an illustration in MS-EX as I would be on paper. The only dramatic differences are there is no drying time (which I use a hair dryer to speed up on paper) and my ‘brush’ doesn’t run out of paint. I still get just as growly about having to take a call or answer the door, but at least using this tool for washes doesn’t mean a ruined painting if I have to stop in the middle of the wash. The undo command fixes splotchy washes in the blink of an eye. I like that.

Laying in background color – Manga Studio EX

08. September 2010 · Comments Off · Categories: Illustration, Thoughts · Tags: , , ,

Snow White's face fixed, final inking done. Starting with background color.

I made some minor fixes to Snow White’s face and cleaned up the line work on the house today.

After compressing all the inking layers into one, I removed any white so the layer was transparent. Then I fiddled around until I found the buttons needed to change the layers from black and white to color.

This took far longer than I like, as a long time Photoshop and Illustrator user, I have come to expect things to be in certain places and to act in certain ways.

I don’t know why I am not finding Manga Studio’s interface less intuitive for me, but the time spent learning where all the tools are and how to make them function the way I want is taking a major portion of my ‘drawing’ time.

I feel good with the amount of progress I made today. I hope I will have time to get back to the illustration before next week, but because of my schedule for the next several days it seems unlikely. I hope the time away from the program doesn’t slow me down again.

All-in-all, I am quite pleased with the program’s capabilities once I figure them out, but a good tutorial would be something I would appreciate. The tutorials I have been able to find are either too generic or assume the viewer is already familiar with the tool pallets. I would love some lessons on how and where all the tools are and how to make them work. I guess I’ll have to do it the old fashioned way. By trail and error.

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