First Sketches

So after well over a week, yesterday I finally was up to installing and using my Wacom Cintiq for the first time. Over the last week I have been ill and stuck in bed and it was driving me around the bend that after so many years of waiting to get a Wacom Cintiq tablet I could not use it. But yesterday I finally felt up to setting it up and all I can say is OMG I am so impressed. Such a difference in quality and usability compared to my old Wacom Graphire 3.

After an hour or so to install (this included all the minor tweaks of setting express keys and generally getting my head around using two monitors instead of one), I finally did a couple of sketches just to test my new graphics tablet. Straight out of the box, the Cintiq was instantly ready to use in Photoshop. Manga Studio however was a bit more fiddly since for some reason the express keys (in their default mode) would not allow me to zoom in and out using the scroll strip and the pan express key was very jittery. I managed to fix the zoom issue by removing it from Auto Zoom and just setting the button to just Zoom (although then there was no control over the speed it zoomed in). Also (simply because of how Manga Studio is) using Manga Studio over two screens is not as fluid as for example Photoshop is. But, even with these minor issues I am still very impressed.

Below are 2 sketches I did. Left one is in Photoshop (which I know is really sketchy) and right is in Manga Studio.

New Graphics Tablet. A dream come true

After months of going....."hmm I think my old Wacom Graphire 3 is on it's last legs after 7 years+ years of service.  Maybe it is time to get a new graphics tablet.  I don't want to be left without a graphics tablet since how will I carry on regularly updating my yaoi manga and being able to do commissions for people?"  Hence I started to research what graphics tablets were available to upgrade to. 

Since my previous Wacom tablet had been so reliable (never needing once to have a part replaced or mended) I was instantly drawn to getting another Wacom graphics tablet.  The two options which Wacom offers (which would fulfil my artistic needs) are:

1. Wacom Intuos 4
2. Wacom Cintiq 12WX

When I first found out about the Wacom Cintiq model about 5 years ago, I instantly wanted one, simply because it was so revolutionary.  Here was a graphics tablet where you could draw straight onto the screen!  It was just like how you would draw onto a piece of paper.  Gone would be the age old problem of never being too sure where your cursor was or the unnatural drawing experience of drawing something while looking somewhere else.  The only problem was the price.  It was and still is SO EXPENSIVE!  Hence because at that time my Wacom Graphire 3 was still working perfectly fine, I put off getting a new graphics tablet.  I hoped that one day (years later) the price of the Wacom Cintiq would have dropped significantly.  5 years later, and yes, the price of the Wacom Cintiq had dropped but it still is very expensive when you compare it to the other graphics tablets which are available.  Currently it is about 3 times the price of a similar sized Wacom Intuos 4 :S.  

No matter how much I wanted the Wacom Cintiq, I was realistic and went that "it is just a dream".  I cannot justify spending that much money on one when there are other graphics tablets from Wacom which are more reasonably priced.

I then started to look seriously into getting the Wacom Intuos 4.  I had found out about all its product features which my old Wacom Graphire 3 did not have.  I had see the promo videos showing you around the tablet.  I had even done some shopping around to find the best price for the Intuos 4.  Cheapest I found was on Amazon.  

Everything was going well until I started to read the reviews from people who had bought the Wacom Intuos 4.   Yes there were several reviews which gave the Wacom Intuos 4 excellent reviews, but there was one review which really stood out.  The reviewer had given the graphics tablet 1 star out of 5.  This person had commented on how their graphics tablet the nibs wore out quickly (in a matter of HOURS!) causing damage to the surface of the tablet.  This automatically made me think OMG this does not sound good!  The reviewer also commented on how there was a thread of the Wacom support forum which had 64 pages of people complaining about this one issue (the thread is now on 71 pages) See http://forum.wacom.eu/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1438.  Not being a person who will just take one person's word for something, I read pages upon pages of that thread and all the bad experiences people had had with the Wacom Intuos 4 in relation to nib wear rate.

After reading that forum thread and seeing Wacom's responses of how to "modify" your graphics tablet by sticking a sheet of paper onto of it to help reduce wear (as opposed to Wacom actually doing something to fix the problem), it made me go right off purchasing a Wacom Intuos 4.  If I was going to be spending a large portion of money on a new graphics tablet I wanted something reliable, not something where I have to replace bits every couple of hours.  Nor did I want something where the official solution to fixing the problem is to do a Blue Peter jobbie of sticky back plastic and paper!

I was therefore back to the drawing board (lol at pun).  Out of the two options available to me the Cintiq 12WX was too expensive and the Intuos 4 was unreliable.  When I looked into reviews for the Cintiq 12WX the only major downside which kept cropping up was the price.  All other problems I did not consider to be a big issue or were not applicable to me.  i.e. one issue is that the right hand side heats up more than the left.  Hence if you are right handed this can be a problem if you are using it for several hours in one go.  But, since I am left handed this isn't a problem for me ^_^.

Hence I came to the conclusion, the only option was to get the Wacom Cintiq (irrespective to the price).  Due to this I spoke nicely to my parents and as a joint Birthday and Christmas present (plus with me also putting money towards it as well), I could get a Wacom Cintiq!!!!!!!  My dream come true.  5 years of waiting was finally at an end.

Today was a momentous day since the new graphics tablet was delivered.  Tomorrow I am planning to install it and test it out.  Tonight will be spent reading the weighty user manual.  :S at the first couple of pages being don't do this or that with the tablet.  But eeeee I am so excited at finally getting a new tablet after so long, and at it being the Wacom Cintiq!

I hope the next update of Noctivagus: Wandering by Night will be on schedule  (i.e. Monday 20th December).  If it is a bit late though, it is because I am still trying to figure out how to use my new graphics tablet.  >_<

Body Language Secrets

Recently I watched the “How to get what you want” episode 3 “Winning” of the series “Body Language Secrets” on Sky. When I was watching the episode I kept thinking how relevant and useful some of their tips were for me in relation to doing well as an artist and making Noctivagus: Wandering by Night successful.

First tip was to have small but achievable goals towards the larger ambition. As soon as I heard this I thought, “yes I agree. This does work”. The reason I say this was before I started version 2 of my yaoi manga I set out about coming up with small little goals to achieve as I went along. Once each one is complete there is a sense of achievement (as opposed to letting the enormity of the task at hand become too much to mentally deal with).

The second tip (which I have recently put into practise) is to think positively and to visualise a task being completed and successful. If you visualised it being successful it was more likely to succeed. Hence when I was in work the other day (and it was a quiet period of the shift), I was visualising what the next page was going to look like and I have to say it really did help. It helped me to break down what images would be good on the page and even over the next few pages. Even better was the fact I could work on my manga in this way without actually being infront of my computer!

Below is a quick rough sketch I did from what I had previously visualised while at work. Here is hoping for some more quiet shifts where I can sit there visualising my manga ^_^.

"Bush Push"

The next page of Noctivagus: Wandering by Night involves Raghnall being pushed (as you can see from the sketch shown on 29/11/10 blog post). As I am drawing this page all I can think of is “Bush Push” from Harry Hill's TV Burp. For those who have not see Harry Hill's TV Burp or missed the “Bush Push” moment here is a clip on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdTBQTZ_qAg Needless to say laughing at the thought of “Bush Push” has made drawing this page quiet comical.

Page 21 is coming along. I still need to fix the “possessed first panel”. Hopefully it will be completed by Monday evening / early hours of Tuesday evening.