More scans

I have been drawing loads over the last couple weeks, I just haven't scanned them. I think I am almost there with the character designs. Lot o'bots.

Bamboo, white ink and sketching my spare time.

So first up I have invested in a WACOM Bamboo touch with the Manga Studio / Anime Studio pack. That said I drew this in Photoshop Elements 11, it is a bit wibbly wobbly but I have gotten better since. I haven't had much time with it but I like, a lot and it will be good fun when I start loading in pencil sketches and inking them, this was drawn freehand.

I don't know why but I felt the need to ink in white on black paper, so I bought some white ink. I used the Sakura Ink Gelly Roll for the fine lines (the coverage is very uneven) and Windsor and Newton White Caligraphy Ink (very clumpy) but you can ink over it in black which it lovely to neaten up things. I used my lovely Rotring Tikky pens to re-ink black over the white ink.

I have started a new job and it is fairly full but good, so on my lunch breaks, I have been making sure I sketch to keep up my "skills".

I have a bunch of different bots now, I think I'll put together a little story for them all to feature in soon.

 

That is all for now.

All Images Copyright Matthew C. Applegate ©2013

New pens, new curves and a new style.

OK first up, I have some new pens some ZIG MANGAKA in 0.1 and 0.5, lightfast, smudge proof is what they say on them and they are brilliant. The 0.1 is a little scratchy but 0.5 is brilliant especially with the French Curves / curved speed line ruler set as the ink dries super quick so doesn't smudge when tou move the ruler like a lot of pens. Sadly I couldn't get a hold of the MANGAKA in 0.2mm as it seems out of stock everywhere but I am sure I will as they are great pens to have.

 

The other type of pen I got a set of was the Uniball Eye Needle 0.7mm ball 0.5mm output which are lovely and feel great to hold complete unlike any other pen I have, dries slowly but are good for large areas of inking and are really smooth.

 

I also got his book, it is great it slows you down to look more in depth at the noir comic style. I really like the artist Shawn Martinbrough and this is a great walk through of the style, so it was well worth the purchase.

So with that I quickly and I mean quickly did some of my robots and noir-ised them, although I think they look pretty good for my first attempt, they do need a bit of work and ultimately I don't think I will use this style for the robots in their final form.

That is all for now, new pens soon I'm sure.

G-pens, ink and more bots.

I have spent some of the day playing with my new pens. I have the ZIG Kuretake G-Pen Nibs and the Saji-Pen Nibs. The G-pen is the all rounder with the Saji being the broad pen, but requires more pressure. I used the Windsor & Newton Black ink I already have on the paper test below, I will get some "Deleter" ink in the future and maybe some "Deleter" paper too.

1) Tesco Value Copier paper bleeds a little bit. 

2) Tesco Presentation Card bleeds very little, probably the best.

3) Boldmere High Quality Cartridge Paper bleeds really badly.

I am new to this, so I am not saying any of the papers are bad, they just might not be the best for this specific job. I am just trying them out so I can get the best results with what I have. I 'll try them again when I get new paper and new ink. All of them take ages to dry, probably as it is discharging more ink than a fibre-tip or brush, It seems the smoother the paper the better the results, hot pressed being best.

I am not sure if it is a method of inking I will ever use but it is always interesting to try out different methods.

Here are some more bots. The first one is clearly Manga-Mech inspired.

All images copyright Matthew C. Applegate.

Got Lots o'Bots

I have taken to sketching while waiting for the bus, while on the bus, waiting for a train, while on the train and every other moment I am just waiting around.

I have these "bots" and well I just keep drawing them and they just keep getting sillier.

I got my ZIG "Kuretake" G-Pens today and they are great, I didn't use them for these but I will blog about them soon.

All images copyright Matthew C. Applegate.

I Think, I Am Progressing

So here are some original illustrations of some bots, I might use them in a game, I might not, either way they were fun to draw and I believe they do highlight how far I have come in the last two months as an illustrator.

Here (below) is one very obviously Scottie Young inspired re-interpretation of a classic hero and, I also threw in a bit of Freddie Williams II see previous blog for video on how he draws Thor.

Below is a shot from Issue #3 of DOBU it hasn't been coloured or neatened up yet, but already I am pleased how the images are coming out better each time. DOBU #3 should be out in a week or so depending how much free time I have now I am starting a new job.

That is all for now, I can feel myself moving towards G-Pens soon, they look like great fun to try out.

Pens, check out my pens.

Yeah, I have been trying out new pens, exciting stuff I know, but if you don't you won't no what you are missing.

1) Uniball Eye Fine 0.7 really smooth in good for writing and drawing, covers areas of black really quickly and smoothly.

2) Berol Fine good for rough sketches doesn't seem to be consistent size. 

The Broad version of this is good for larger areas of black on the go and not very expensive, which is a good thing.

3) Berol Handwriting, it's, ok but I don't really do "handwriting", so I don't really know what I am looking for in a pen.

4) Rotring Tikky Graphic Pen I have these in 0.3, 0.5. 0.7 and they are amazing, I will do the smaller detail lines with the 0.3 and the edge lines with the 0.7. I will eventually get all the sizes of these pens.

5) Gelly Roll White pen it is really good for writing on black paper but bit of a let down when trying to draw over black ink (just ends up grey). I think I will try white acrylic paint in the future to do white over black ink for things like lightning and smoke.

6) Tesco "generic" mechanical pencils, great and super cheap. Don't draw too hard with them as they will snap the lead and you won't be able to erase them with the eraser provided. No sharpner so easy to use on the go.

See Below

7) A Muji 0.5mm for writing. I love Muji pens.

8) Uniball Eye Needle 0.3mm for inking, not for parallel lines thoughas it dries too slow and smudges.

9) Staedtler Pigment liner 0.3mm for inking, which is lovely super black.

10) Staedtler Triplus Fibretip Color (Black or Blue, they both come out black in the scanner).

Covers a large area fast when you can't use a brush.

11) Staedtler Noris School Pencil and the Staedtler Mars Plastic works well to remove pencil. These are the only non-mechanical pencils I ever use.

See Below

12) I have ben using Windsor & Newton black ink and it is lovely, I used it with both the Windsor & Newton Red Sable / Synthetic Sceptre Gold II Size 2 as well as a range of generic brushes I haven't really noticed a difference yet except the cheap ones loose their shape a lot quicker.

13) Staedtler Triplus Black, this is what I use for a lot of really fine lines it is a 0.3 but I would say it is a little smaller than that. The are great as they are widely available in singles and in black.

14) Is a Stabilo Touchscreen pen it works, not a precise at I would like but it does work allowing me to draw rough sketches on the iPad.

In Summary

I think in the future I will just stick to Rotring Tikky Graphic pens (yeah they are the most expensive pens out there) or the Staedtler Triplus and Fibretip (sadly I can't find the Fibretip in black separately), but they are both fantastic for illustration.

I also think I may also move more towards the digital (as everything I make is digital anyway) with a nice big WACOM tablet for drawing when I can save my pennies, who knows.