Robot still Here

Hey everyone, I had to skip my stream on Monday because I was a big pile of sickness so today I wanted to make up for it with a six hour stream-a-thon. I'd done this colour key earlier in the week, and while I switched the characters around I wanted to stay quite close to my initial doodle. 

It was a lot of fun, and even if the stream wasn't broadcasting for the first three hours (d'oh!) I still did the full six. Anyways, hope you like it!  

Even better, if you *do* like what I've been doing, could you mention it to people? In real life!? Clicky-likey-share is more than welcome, but word of mouth is invaluable. Please and thank you! The book's called 'RobotWasHere' for those that don't know!  Catch you all next week!

The Spice Of Life

Some of my favourite bits when it comes to a project like this is the warmups, palette tests and design process. 

This was done as a quick doodle just to speed things up and work straight from the lasso tool and nothing more. Quick, but sloppy. I'm definitely gonna come back to the approach in a later painting though!

I was having a really off-week on the stream, and after doing some colour tests based on a doodle in my sketchbook, I decided to play more with the creatures that would inhabit that scene. Turned out to be a whole lot of fun.

This was to set the scene for a short comic sequence that's in the book, and was partially me pulling away from my usual compositions. FINALLY got some rain out that I'm happy with, and can control it easily. Really happy with it for even that alone! 

Underwater

Hey everyone, just a quick update with the picture from the last two streams. More to follow as they come :D

Burning Candles

Anyone who's worked freelance will probably recognise the moment when you decide to work late.

Your body calls quits, your brain calls quits, or your bladder stages a coup d-etat. The bladder wins all wars eventually, so succumb to your coffee fuelled master. The rest of them however, ask us to quit in less cutthroat a manner. 

You can power through, knowing it will cost you the next day or you can quit now and get up incredibly early and finish the work then. The latter is a dangerous one to the uninitiated, as it puts a short and solid cap on your deadline and will be a much harder mark to hit. However, working whilst tired makes for sloppy decision making. And once you're beyond the ability to move a stylus around a page, EVERYTHING is decision making. Is that the right line? Is this the right brush? Does that need a texture? How's my composition. Every brushstroke is a question. 

If it ISN'T you're not being economical, and you're wasting time. 

I got to that point pretty quickly in tonight's stream, and I vote to stand up and walk away for now. I'm cool with that- my deadline's by the end of the week, and I hit the time I promised myself to stream each week.

I did make sure to get down the important stuff so I know where I'm headed- the lines (although there are some sharkwhale designs I might dive back into) and when I could feel myself starting to drop I just zoomed out and painted over the whole thing a rough jist of what I want the whole thing to look like. 

I'm happy to stop here- it's enough to tell future-me where things are meant to be headed.

This is a marathon, not a sprint ;)

Older and wiser, or just more patient

I used to get really frustrated, wanting many things out of a painting but not knowing a specific technique to get everything I wanted out of it. 

Working in black and white never converted well into colour.

Working straight in colour was visually vibrant but usually fell prey to weaker drawing skills.

Lining things first either ended up coloured with the lasso tool, which is useful was definitely less fun when it came to rendering materials. 

Looking back, it didn't seem like I was getting *better*, just that I was doing *different things*

There were one, maybe two occasions where everything seemed to come together. In every single one of those instances, I'd painted the picture twice. Once til I got tired of it and went away, and a second time with a fresh idea,different spin or a new set of techniques. 

Inspiration's not dependable, and I've been racking my brain for the longest time to try and figure out how to tame this beast and put out consistent, good work. 

1) SLOW DOWN. 

Warming up, thumbnailing, research, reference, prep studies. If you can, DO. They ALWAYS directly improve the picture, even if they're easy to ignore 'I know what snow looks like' 

ALWAYS WORTH IT.

2) THERE IS NO MAGIC TECHNIQUE.

You want to draw everything out? Go right ahead. You want to throw down big shapes in greys to get your values? Knock yourself out. There is no cheating, there is nobody holding your hand. Ten hours into a painting and a hand looks iffy? cut it out and redraw! It's NEVER TOO LATE, and you can build that into your workflow. It's just how neat you keep your layers that'll set you apart. 

You prefer the line tool in GIMP? Switch it up! I've a real tendency to stick to just PS, but every time I go outside my comfort zone I find something awesome in SAI, GIMP, Illustrator, Flash or Painter. Well worth exploring. They're all just tools, and all are applicable and could save you hours down the line. There is a good/fast balance to be struck. If you find yourself becoming a one-trick-pony it's time to kick down those walls because that way lies stagnation, ain't nobody got time for that! 

3) DO NOT UPLOAD IT 

It's like a roast chicken- if you can, let it breathe. You can see mistakes, have ideas for a last minute glaze that might *MAKE* the picture. THEN, when you've seen it with fresh eyes, show the world your awesome artings!

4) SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE

I've done 10 hour paintings, and ditched the last 8 hours of the painting because I thought the rougher version was better. Overkilling a painting is often an eyesore to look at, especially when you see the amazing things that get done in the 30 minute spitpaints over on Facebook. 

I'd strongly recommend them for anyone who wants to up their speed. But what I'm looking for from myself now is GOOD_FINISHED_ART on a consistent basis, and that takes longer than 30 minutes. 

I'll do another post on the big project that I'm working on during my weekly streams- would be interested to hear any feedback ye have. 

In the name of shameless plugging, they're every Monday at 8.30 at www.livestream.com/charco

and here's some of the work I've been doing in them. Feel free to drop by or spread the word ;)