Gotta pay more attention to landscapes and backgrounds. Also practicing with the “Pen Tool.”

These are simple, but done with different techniques and programs. Up above is purely digital, drawn and painted in Photoshop.

The guy below was drawn in Adobe Illustrator according to a pencil sketch, then coloured in Photoshop. I’m happy with the ink lines I’m able to create, and they’re fast to do, too.

This strange woman was painted in black wash on paper, then coloured in Photoshop. Nifty! I want to be able to blend the colours more.

Still, all things considered, they look good to me, and my pics will continue to get only better.

I’m still adventuring in colouring sketches, and hence, cartoons. Difficult to figure out what’s too much, because I like the original drawing, done in roller pen in the sketchbook, just fine. But these flat colours with subtle gradations are all right. I also have to work on my colour sense, to let things blend into each other, and advance and recede as I like them. Much of it’s a question of confidence. I’ll play other little tricks as I gain it. Nice, as I’ve been saying, to have another skill.

More cartoon colouring. I’ve noted that few people are visiting the blog on Sunday, so I can post today in relative obscurity.

This took me a bit of time, but taught me a lot about digital painting, and making clean lines in illustrator and photoshop. It started life as one of my silly little sketches, so it’s not a real kind of airplane. I’m experimenting with different lines to see which ones are the prettiest and fastest to create. I think hand-drawn ones win in the end, but I’m more comfortable with the digital ones now.

Yes, she’s in a bikini, but she’s got a personality, so I don’t think she’s just being an object. This is another drawing, in real ink this time, which I coloured with the computer.

I’m pretty happy with this beauty, and am slowly figuring out brushes in photoshop. Hard to set the ones I like. This took a lot of time, but then again so did the acrylic pictures I used to paint on matte board when I was in High school. Still have one of those.

Thanks to this site here, I’ve taken baby steps in digital painting. Not easy for me! Had to learn about brushes, mixing colours, transparency, layers, and flow. I recommend the lessons here to give you a hint of how to proceed. I still haven’t been able to cobble together a decent palette, but will work on it today.

Strangely enough, This wasn’t done on my big computer with the spiffy Intuous 4 tablet, but on my little computer, with the old Bamboo stylus. I’ve now seen that tool retailing for $34. It seemed less intimidating, and I’m easily intimidated. Still, this is a start, and it’s fine to get into a new medium.

I should have blogged more, but I’m still playing with my Wacom Pen. well, here’s this.

This feels slightly less demented than most of my offerings, but I’m probably kidding myself. All the same, I feel more control of my medium and the effects it creates, and also my drawing. Hooray!