Adventures with Adobe

[sigune]

I have been delving into digital drawing lately. It's ... an adventure :-). I may have mentioned before that I am taking classes to learn about Adobe Illustrator. My original idea was to take an InDesign course, but the school advised me to take Illustrator first, so that is what I did. I had no idea what Illustrator was, though, so I didn't have any idea about how it might come in handy for me. (Wow, that sounds silly.)

Now that I have to think about the design of my webcomic site, though, I am beginning to see how I can put my newly-acquired Illustrator Skillz to use. Mind you, I can't do very much with it yet (I am only two months into the course), but it is beginning to be fun. And I am thinking that I may just be able to design some graphics for the site in Illustrator.

You can find my first experiment below. I made a design for the inside of Gawain's shield, which according to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight depicts the Virgin Mary. I thought it might be nice to have this image as a kind of emblem on the site, because Gawain's soubriquet of 'Ladies' Knight' can also be interpreted as 'Lady's Knight' or the Knight of Mary. To get an authentic-looking image, I traced the figure of the Virgin that appears on a page of the Book of Kells - partly in order to see if I could do it ;-). Well, I could:





Last Sunday, I also joined a webinar in which Dave Gibbons demonstrated Manga Studio. I have been thinking about getting Manga Studio and drawing my comics digitally, but so far I haven't made up my mind yet :/. The thing is that I am not at all sure that I will be able to draw digitally to my own satisfaction. Also, if you want to do it really well, you need a professional graphics tablet (from €600) and if you want Manga Studio with all the bells and whistles (including perspective guides), you are talking about a €250 investment.

I thought that I had better have a first try at inking digitally with the tools I already possess, just to see what it is like. So I took my Tiny Tablet and Photoshop and had a go at a sketch. Conclusion after my first try: it was pleasant, but my manual inks look SO much better. I freely admit that my lack of digital experience may have played a part, and I have to add that I didn't completely finish the picture either. But it is nevertheless clear to me that if digital inks are ever to replace my traditional ones, it is going to require BIG improvements.

I'm posting the digital thingy for your interest. Don't look if you don't want to be spoiled for my next Snape piece, a commission from the_winterwitch :-).

Comments

[veradee.livejournal.com]

An older Snape? He still looks great. :)

We use InDesign at work, and now I'm trying to figure out how it could be useful to publish a web comic. It's the web part that puzzles me, not the publishing part. I thought you meant to upload single pages, or do you plan to upload the entire comic as a book (a file)?

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Actually my interest in InDesign has less to do with the comic than with my hitherto futile attempts to find a job. :/

It's not a significantly older Snape, really. It's Snape recovering from his latest Shrieking Shack adventure :-). He's had to keep to his bed for a long time, so he will be walking with a cane for a while. He has borrowed McGonagall's (from OotP), I am thinking...

[veradee.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see. I have no clue about Illustrator, but I'm pretty sure that it comes up as an requirement in quite a few job adverts. I hope it's going to work out for you.

Looking forward to the story.

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

These look very good to me - and I am very curious about the last picture. ) Is there a story that goes along with it?

[sigune.livejournal.com]

Yes, there is - the_winterwitch is writing one. I did have a lingering interest in picturing Snape after his almost-death-by-snakebite, and that happened to fit in nicely with Alcina's own story idea.

More details soon :-)!

[bettyboop-comic.livejournal.com]

Wow, that has to be the ugliest Jesus ever. Gives me visions of Little Britain, that one does...
'But I want bittyyyyyyy...' :)
So how was Dave Gibbons as a lecturer? Did you pick up anything interesting?

Be seeing you
--nout

[sigune.livejournal.com]

The main impression I got from Dave Gibbons is that he seems a really nice person :D. It was fun listening to him, but one hour was a bit short to go through an elaborate programme like Manga Studio. Also, I had already read Manga Studio for Dummies, so I didn't learn a great deal. I enjoyed the webinar, though.

Disclaimer: I did not design little Jesus. I just copied him :P.

[bettyboop-comic.livejournal.com]

>>Disclaimer: I did not design little Jesus. I just copied him :P.

I totally knew that, come on. I'm not that thick ;_;

[sigune.livejournal.com]

I know that :P! It's just that you sounded so reproachful - I felt the need to re-emphasise my lack of responsibility *g*.

[the-winterwitch.livejournal.com]

I can well imagine how useful this can be and could become for you, so I'm looking forward to your new skills and what you are going to do with them.
I know near to nothing about digital drawing and can't therefore fairly judge it, but I think your first experiment went very well. I know this image well (and love it) and find your tracing/copy/drawing (how is the term for that?) is very good.
For the second experiment, I think the tree shows already how useful this could be. But for the general image, I also prefer the traditional, manual inking... and am really looking forward to it already! ;o)

Good luck for finding a job with the new skills, too!