Artistic Style - have I finally got one?

Why is an artistic style so hard to find? As can be seen as you read my yaoi manga, my style towards how I draw characters seems to change after each couple of pages.

Part of this is because:

• I have never been able to find a style that I like.
• What I want to achieve I don't know how to do within Manga Studio

Hence as I try and battle with these two points I keep coming up with new style creations (some looking better than others lol).

After becoming an active member on Deviant Art I found a tutorial which explained how to alter line widths to show where light and shadow was within a picture. Although I knew varied line width within an image was important within manga work I had never really understood how it worked. Hence that tutorial was a light bulb moment for me. I suddenly realised what I needed to try to do within my work and suddenly taddah I had a style which a. looked good and b. I was finally able to replicate. 

So when looking how to get an artistic style, practise and try a lot of different things and one day await the light bulb moment when you can finally say.... "This is it!"

Here is a snap shot how my style has changed over the last chapter within my manga (from page 4 on the left through to page 27 on the right).

Graphic tablet's highs and lows

Well after having my Wacom Cintiq graphics tablet for a while I have had several ups and downs with it.

First with the negatives.

Like I read on many reviews before I got the Wacom Cintiq, the display at the bottom of the screen gives off a lot of heat. So much so it can become a bit uncomfortable to use after several hours. Although in the reviews I found it said it was a problem with right handed people, I am left handed and find it is still an issue for me. I found that a way to solve the heat problem was simply to turn the screen off for say 10-15 minutes. Go have a drink, relax, come back and it was not such a problem. Hence in some weird way this problem could actually be a positive, since it will force me to take eye breaks from the screen (which I have a tendancy at the moment not to do).

Second problem 2 of the pixels on the display do not display correctly. One is always a lighter colour than the pixels around it and the other pixel goes bright red (if it is supposed to be black). The red pixel issue is the worst one since a. it is in my line of vision and b. because I work a lot in black and white (because of my manga pages) it means it is really off putting to see a bright red dot where it should be black. After consulting my user manual and the Wacom online forum I found out that this problem is not covered by the warranty and as Wacom states “Production techniques cannot guarantee an absolutely perfect display, and some panels may exhibit a certain number of pixels that show an incorrect colour”. Hence I faced the option of return it (since I was within the returns period) or just carry on and deal with that issue. I chose to keep the graphics tablet since well the positives far out way the negatives.

Now for the positives

Firstly OMG how easier it has made it to perfect lines (which before would just drive me nuts trying to get right with the old conventional graphics tablets). Now all I do is zoom in, place pen in the exact spot I want to fix, move pen and taddah done onto next issue. I know I found one review video online where the person said the Wacom Cintiq had problems drawing lines where they should be and hence you needed to rehearse each pen stroke. Personally I have not found that to be an issue at all. I know I still redo lines several times, but that is because of my drawing skill not being perfect vs their being an issue with the graphics tablet itself.

I love the fact that the Cintiq graphics tablet gives me all the benefits of drawing with pencil and paper but at the same time has the wonderful facility of undo, move, cut and copy. I really like the express keys the graphics tablet has. I love the fact you can customise each programme you use with the tablet to have its own set of express keys. This is great when say Photoshop and Manga Studio don't use the same keys for drawing tools for example. Also with the express keys gone are the days where I am constantly trying to stretch my fingers between “p” (for pen tool) and “e” (for eraser tool) when I am working on at picture in Manga Studio!

One thing I have found though is while working on the Wacom Cintiq I have a tendency to adopt a really relaxed and laid back of working with one hand while the other arm is supporting my head. This would have been impossible with a conventional tablet but yet it seems so natural to draw and doodle this way with the Cintiq.

Next fantastic thing about the Cintiq was that it came with some free software. Considering how much I paid for the graphics tablet I was jolly well hoping it would come with some art software! I got Corel Painter Essentials 3 with my tablet and I have to say, OMG at the difference with colouring in this programme vs Photoshop! Actually I felt a bit like a kid in a candy store when I had installed Corel Painter, so much so I just could not stop playing around with it and seeing what it could do. Here is the weird and wonderful thing I created during my play session. 

I have to say I can well see myself using Corel Painter in the future to do my colouring vs doing it in Photoshop. 

In conclusion

Even though it has one or two things which are not perfect, the fact that my Wacom Cintiq allows me to get the closest experience to drawing with pen and paper means it is well worth the money.   Working on it feels more natural when compared to working with a conventional graphics tablet and it is this which makes it really stand out as a great gadget.

Anyway I hope this proves useful for anyone who is contemplating getting a Wacom Cintiq graphics tablet.  If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me.

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.

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 ^_^.

A new leaf for my art blog

After many months of going, "I am going revamp my old blog up and get it up and running", I have finally got around to doing so.  The aim of this new and improved blog is to give readers of the yaoi manga "Noctivagus: Wandering by Night" and sneaky peak at future pages, insight on how pages are progressing and a general look at my artwork.

Below is a sneak peak of the next page of Noctivagus: Wandering by Night.  I have no idea what has happened in panel 1 other than my character has got possessed!  He is supposed to look cute and innocent in that panel, but for some reason while sketching he started to turn into this evil being, haha.