Beth Test

[laura_seabrook]

This was another test of Illustrator and my graphics tablet. On the left is the figure of Bethesda, originally drawn by hand with pencil and ink, scanned in and coloured with Photoshop. The image of the right is the same thing but I hand traced the scanned line-work using the tablet in Illustrator.This took me about 2.5 hours to do, but that's because I'm learning both Illustrator and the tablet.

On average it takes me an hour to sketch and ink a whole comic page (the above is only half a page) and another hour to scan, process and colour it in Photoshop. Using Illustrator, I would probably still sketch the page by hand, but instead of inking that I'd just scan the sketch in and ink/colour it in Illustrator. Still working out a decent work flow as well. With the above I abandoned the idea of creating shapes and then filling them with colours. Rather, what i did was create the line-work on a layer above one that had the colour files.

The line-work was done using the Pencil tool with a variety of widths and with built-in in tapering on the strokes rather than using the pressure on the tablet. I found I got a better line that way. I had to slow down my drawing as well, otherwise Illustrator would mysteriously alter the strokes I'd drawn. Nonetheless this is heaps better than my first attempt (not shown) where I tried to do an accurate hand trace using the Pen tool. 

The colour files were done with by drawing shapes using the Pen, Pencil  but mostly the Blob Brush tools on a lower layer (after I'd locked the one above). If I "went over" the lines above, I'd cut it back using the Eraser tool. That's a technique I've used both in Photoshop and real life (with conte and gum erasers) and I find it easy to do, because I'm not initially worried about accuracy, and can concentrate on flow.

The shadowing and highlights were done using by painting fills above the colours and setting their blend to Multiply and Screen (much like what I do in photoshop). This didn't quite work as well, because new shapes and lines seemed to default to "normal" blend at 100%. No doubt there's a much easier way.


Overall I'm very pleased with the result, especially compared with a panel I created last week. This is still a learning curve, and it's all about learning what works for me, and what doesn't, for the style I want to create. It's also highlighted the need for a better tablet. The one I'm current using (a Medion MD 85637) is a bit jerky at times with the stroke I'm doing prematurely "cut off" in the program I'm using. I thought it was just Photoshop, but that happens in others as well. I thought maybe there was a "dead spot" on the pad, but I think that's not the case now. Of course it could just be the way in which I hold and move the pen, and that's why I bought a copy of the Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book.Can't afford a better tablet just at the moment, but am already thinking of a Bamboo Pen & Touch which I might get for about $A 160.

But not now - other stuff has priority, and I'm still learning, so the Medium is good enough for that.