Sorry for not blogging here since… wednesday last week, i think? It’s funny, but Makoto started to go into her little snit right smack in the middle of my last post here, right after i had put up the most recent sketches. In fact, you may have seen the double post that was stuck here for a while. That was a nightmare trying to figure out what was wrong, but we did, and things have been fine since (for a while i thought it was Movable Type borking up, but it wasn’t). Also consider the fact that Friday’s comic was started late, right after all of that mess. It’s… been a long couple of days 
Wednesday was a pure study in how you can be relaxing calmly in your chair at home without any worries and suddenly have a bus plow through the front wall of your house and chase you around the neighborhood. I was going through tutorials on how to use Painter IX… actually, tutorials on painting, period. I have no art education, and when it comes to coloring things, i really feel that lack of education. I have hope because many of the people who’s skills i respect are self taught, they just put the time and the effort into learning from all the resources that are out there. Anyways, i was just getting settled into doing the tutorials when Makoto threw a hissyfit. Fun.
So, if anyone here has any tutorials that they can recommend to me, please share. It’s a long road, but i need to get moving along it if i ever want to be able to produce the colored works I want to.
I suppose it doesn’t help that part of my biggest problems with the work i do is that i tend to get fully emotionally invested in it all. I suppose thats part of what makes it work, but at the same time, it can be kinda draining. I figured the last few comics would be a real bender for people, and it seems they have been. It is for me too, because i have to live out these two in order to get it down on paper. Honestly, i was surprised by how… upset Erika came out in Monday’s comic. panel 4 in particular just came down on paper like that. Six months ago i was really worried if people were going to believe or accept some of the pushing together of Erika and Largo that was coming. I think it’s come out ok. It kinda hurts to write stuff like this sometimes, because the stress is real for me too - not quite as bad as for the characters, but I can feel the edges of it too, you know?
Anyways, i have been good and haven’t watched ep 9 of AIR yet. I probably shouldn’t. I have a rant to write, i have a box of books to sign for the Dark Horse contest, and i’ve got store stuff i have got to get cracking on. I picked up In Strict Confidence - Holy the other day quite by accident (I was looking for Imperative Reaction but i was tired and for some reason “in strict confidence” was stuck in my brain instead ^^;; I was just surprised borders had either CD :P) - it wasn’t a bad accident, and the disk has been growing on me. I think i am definitely in an Industrial phase right now - strongly tempered by getting back into more downtempo stuff - i am this close to getting the Urchin cd from the Itunes music store. I need to be good. be good, be good…
- pirotunes: VA (Mixed By Red Jerry) - Deep & Chilled Euphoria - CD2 -
http://www.tiemdesign.com/tabindex-13/tabid-27/DesktopDefault.aspx
I know it’s not much and it wasn’t hard to find (all I did was slap in painter IX tutorials onto the google searchbar and picked the first thing), but I hope it helps you in painter.
I’m no longer surprised what borders carries…but then I work there and have ordered several things for ppl. It’s still a 50/50 chance on most music titles, but then my store is in over it’s head for special orders too…I get the wonderful job of having to wade through though requests and force the system to let me order them…or hunt them down because of how rare they are…*shivers*…I’d much rather shelve books…
Anyways, glad Makoto is all better…^_^
Don’t watch ep. 9 of “Air” if you plan on getting any work done. If previous eps have hindered your ability to get stuff done, then this one may bring things to a complete halt for a few hours.
Yes, it’s *that* good. The animation is absolutely gorgeous in this ep particularly, and the story… well, c’mon, it’s “Air,” after all. Don’t say someone didn’t warn you. XD
dammit rich… i saw your post too late.. now I’m completely fscking worthless.
No spoiler but it is densely packed with events and information and, dammit, they used snippets from my two favorite pieces of heartrending music from the OST in it.
just relax and watch…
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/demented.php
enjoy
duke
[stating the obvious]
Erm, Fred? Isn’t Merekat a mod on the MT art forums? Why not ask her for some ideas, or at least look at the tutorials on her website for tips?
[/obvious]
Btw, there’s absolutely NO SHAME in being a self-taught artist. I’m not kidding when I say some of the best artists I know have never had a formal art education, which in its ways is good: it doesn’t force you to do things someone else’s way and completely discredit your natural artistic inclinations, and you’ll have a fresh perspective on how some things can be done differently. There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT.
So there. *thbptptptptpppptttt*
i just seen air ep. 09 sunday at 2:30am. that was a bad move on my part, while working on my site… yah. it really got me off track. and then i had a hard time to fall asleep, because i was just wanting to watch it again. ^_^ dont worry, i was able to get what i was working on done. - (seting up the comments section and posting art) oh, and then ananth from applegeeks.com and hawkstudios.net visited my site, so that was causing me to freak out even more,preventing me from getting anywork done.
on another note, i really want to use painter ix,because i have read some really cool things about it. but i feel that i need to get me a tablet first. maybe i can find one some what cheap. hmmm…
later
http://67.15.36.49/ffa/tutorials/tutorialsdigipaint.asp
Most tutorials dont really teach color/painting concepts though. In that case a class would really help.
“Art Education” is often just one big joke, at least in my experience. They don’t actually teach programs or techniques, they just expect you to learn everything yourself when they assign something. So don’t worry too much about that ^_^
Best Painter IX advice I can give? Experiment. I’ve found that I can paint something using more or less random strokes if I pick the right color and brush. It’s rather useful.
wow, http://67.15.36.49/ffa/tutorials/tutorialsdigipaint.asp
was really helpful… i was shocked to find some tutorials by Mohammad. F. Haque aka Hawk - applegeeks.com. i dont no how long i have been trying to find out just how he colores the comics. and… well, now i no. yesss…
fred, you got you look at those tutorials, they are just so cool and really helpful. not to say that you are very good at coloring to. i mean just look that the cg art you did for megatokyo vol. 3, think that that came out really well. ^_^
yeah, stay away from ep. 9 if you plan on doing anything constructive (god, i love that show).
glad to hear about the downtempo — i’ve always been a huge K&D fan, but Urchin looks pretty promising. Peace Orchestra is awesome, too.
haven’t been here in a while, so congratulations on doing a kick-ass job with vol. 3 (my copy just came last week, along with a bunch of other stuff…)
good luck finding tutorials. i wish i had some recommendations, but i’m stumped o_o. gomen ne ^^”.
-hiro out
I’ll second what Nishiko said way up there - Merekat may be willing to help you out, though you may want to be prepared to do a few hundred push-ups in the process.
On a completely different note, you may want to think about getting that pink bunny costume ready again, Fred… Otakon may still be almost half a year off, but it never hurts to be prepared beforehand. ^_^
Just wanted to say that I think the recent comics have been some of the best. U r0×0r!
I’ve managed to avoid watching Air ep.9 so far as I’ve been watching Kanon start-finish for the first time.
I would just like to say that episode the last 2 episodes now hold the record as being the first anime to EVER make me cry (yes, thats right, no episode of Air has managed it yet). Ayu-chan is just sooo sweet.