Vector art on crack

meep is insane. I'd never ever believe you if I hadn't seen video.

Wow, that's really neat. I especially like the shading/shadow work.

meep, I forgot all about doing that.

Nice Werk. But how did you get LK to hold the pose for 18hrs?

I have an old friend that does this. You must be an insane genius also. Let me rock you, Chaka Khan.

I have very little brains but an immense amount of patience.

you so crazy

Can you recommend a decent program for filling in a scan of a line drawing I have? Low learning curve but more advanced than MSPaint or GIMP that has a free hand tool? (I wants to color with computer crayons more or less)

^ get 'ArtRage'

For a scan, you have two options (that I would use). Adobe Photosop has great marquee/selection tools that can select the "white" areas inside the black outlines that you want to color. Once the selection is made, simply by using the magic wand, you can color the meep out of it without going out of the lines. Of course, you want to make sure all your outlineline connections are solid (no gaps) before trying this, otherwise when you try and select a specific area, all types off meep will be selected that you don't want. Most professionals who clean up art to make it camera ready for printing do this by making the scan greyscale, clean it up with eraser tools, and contrast levels, , fixing all the outlines so that there are no gaps, then bouncing the file into BPM format, then bringing it back to greyscale. The end result is a "coloring" book look to the outline.

Secondly, is importing the file into a vector program and re-drawing the entire scan with a nice thick black outline. The pen tool in Illustrator is awesome, as is the freehand pencil tool. Bring that drawing back into Photoshop and use the selection process I talked about above. Once done, the art will look stellar. Always color on a different layer.

Example:

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Dent, get yourself a Wacom Tablet. Drawing with a pen on a piece of paper is always better than with a mouse, unless you area confirmed masochist.

Go here.

Photoshop's pretty meep expensive if it's not going to be a source of income - GIMP is probably the best piece of freeware that I've ever used, and could do what you've described, so don't give up on it too fast!

I actually have a Wacom tablet, and I use it in Photoshop when I'm looking for that "sketchy" look. Most jobs that I do, freelance or here at work (i'm a designer), more times than not coorporate designs are much more clean and streamlined looking. Hence, the mouse.

But you're right Staff, a Wacom tablet is one of the best tools for an artist in today's design world.

Paying for Photoshop is so 1994.

Paying for anything on the internet is so 1992. I've got Photoshop Cs sitting on my drive right now, I'll have to see what I can do with it. I may even have a look around for iilustrator, thanks for the tips!

Dent: "I actually have a Wacom tablet, and I use it in Photoshop when I'm looking for that "sketchy" look. Most jobs that I do, freelance or here at work (i'm a designer), more times than not coorporate designs are much more clean and streamlined looking. Hence, the mouse. "

The Wacom works as well in Illustrator as it does in Photoshop, and the 'clean' corporate look is quite easily achieved, in much less time than with a mouse. This is the first one Crystalpipes did when she got hers 12 months ago. It took her about two hours. It is all done freehand with the Wacom and Illustrator.

Third time lucky.

I am going to make this meeping work if it kills me.

Pipes did a great job in that piece, looks like she knows what she's doing.

I did these two pieces a few years ago, bot without the tablet of course. I will be busting it out and messing with it again, now that you've got me thinking about it.

you are good at art.

i hate you.

I'll post one more. This is something that I completely stole from John Schwegel, a huge inspiration of mine. I did this about a year ago. I wanted to duplicate one of his pieces, just to see if I could manage the look and feel that his art projects. Anyway, I did the entire fish and spinal area in vector, then did the backdrop in photoshop. This was about 6 hours of work.

Yis, these are cool. I give you two thumbs up.

You'll get two thumbs and a meep up, however, if you tell me how to use Illustrator.

Start with the pen tool. Master it.

Do a google search for Illustrator tips and tricks and meep. I once bought a Adobe Illustrator for Dummies book back in the 90's when I started, and that really helped.

Dent your work is amazing. I wouldn't have the patience to do anything with a mouse. It's a wacom or nothing. Your image of the man in robes is an inspiration for all those who say you can't draw with a mouse. I am glad you are going to give the wacom a go for illustrator. It makes everything so much easier and quicker.

Yeah, this is some pretty amazing meep. Every time I look at it there's a little voice in the back of my head going "you're being tricked, this is not possible."

So you made the nearly-vertical straight lines on the robed dude's forehead freehand with a mouse? Not using a linetool or anything?

I don't think you're understanding my term of freehand. When I say freehand, I mean I'm not using a trace tool or some automated program that's doing it for me. I use a combination of all the tools in Illustrator to do whatever it is I'm aiming for. If I need a perfectly straight line, I use the mouse with while holding the shift key, it I know my line will be straight. If I need a curved line, I click and anchor point and set my second anchor point and drag my line until it's where I want it. It's more of a point, click and pull thing, rather than making strokes like a pencil. This way, if I want a true circle, I get it.

But, I also use the pencil tool, where it works identically like a normal pencil, except you're holding a mouse. If I'm looking for a sketchy effect, that's what I use. For the man in the robe, I used a mouse and the pen tool. I used an old euro painting as a reference.

It's not some sort of magic, or anything that is impossible to a normal human. I've been using these programs for over a decade, and I just know how to get the tools to do what I want them to do. Here's the line art from some illustrations, maybe this will help see what's under all the fancy coloring.

Hey try inkscape. it's neat. and you don't have to steal it to use it.

I just dabble in tesselations and acrylics, the occasional clay sculptures...

I would sell both my left testicles to learn how to sculpture. Then once I learned, I would try and figure out what the meep I would do with a widdled chunk of wood.

Just start.

mouse = wacom pen?

JUKE'D

Everyone has their own technique, meep.

I'm just sayin...

I recently finished this portrait for a Kenpo basics book that I have been working on with a senior martial artist.

oops

404'd meep vector art. Please.

Not bad at all. Still with the mouse or did you break and bust out the Wacom?

Great art dent!!

Now for something completely different. Not vectored meepbox, that meep takes way too long.

I would say I used the tablet 50 percent of the time. All the smoke effects in the background were used with the tablet as well. I get irritated because the tablet and pen feels too slippery together, rather then rough like a pen scraping across paper. I guess I just have to get the feel for it.

Man , you are one talented mothermeeper. Wish I may, wish I might. The fish, especially the fisheye is incredible, it's glowy.

My positive impressions were borne in the fact that this is art not bound by colors on paper. Anything I have ever done as visual art has been based on the "classical" medium. To see an evolution from that form is an impressive thing.

This lends to a belief in art in a new age.

It all comes from the "classical" medium. I went to school for 4 years to color on paper, and loved all of it, but the ease of erasing a mistake and the ease of making changes on the fly as well as getting things in print makes it all the better.

I did this one today for my instructor's studio.

That man has a head and face just built for meep porn. meep meep IS BETTER WITH KARATE.

I'm thinking Kumate Deth Match between James T. and bald-headed Master. Who will be the next WHITE WARRIOR?

you can get different tips for the wacom to give you a rougher/smoother feel. i know the intuos3's have like 3 different tips that come with the tablet. look into em if it's that important to you.