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Thursday, January 27, 2011

Illustration Friday - Dusty/Digital Baby Steps



His name was R. Dustorm McCloud, but folks jes called im Dusty. He got that there name cuz he was born in the great Dust Storm of 88. 19 and 88 that wuz. The R. was cuz he wuz named fer his Pa, P. Rusty McCloud. Another yarn fer another day. But that's right, Dusty was Rusty Dustorm McCloud.

Somethin' 'bout bein' born in that there whopper of a storm. Dusty was born dancin up dust storms wherever he went. Even when he wuz a wee bitty thang! Good thang his Pa married his Ma! Cuz her name was Molly Clean-er-Up McCloud. And yeseree, that's another yarn fer another day too!
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This is another digital experiment in Sketchbook Express. I took some screen shots along the way. You know there's nothing worse than a convert.... But rest assured, it's not my goal to convert the world. Rather, since I'm a digital novice (and I know some others) I thought I'd share some baby steps along my way. So if you'd like to see this drawing as it progressed, scroll on down to the bottom of this post to see how it was done in that there magical drawing machine thang - Sketchbook Express. (Ooops, there's still a little dust storm goin' on in my brain!)




For me, one of the unintended consequences of learning to do screen shots is that I discovered you can cut and paste from a screen shot. At one point, I felt like I was losing some of what I'd done previously. (Several points, actually. Including the finish! Sigh..) But, when I looked at an earlier screen shot in Preview, I was able to cut and paste from that earlier stage of the drawing and put it back into SE. Truth be told, I'm not at all sure I retained the energy of some of the earlier stages in this drawing, so I may do it again. Nice to know I can walk backwards through my screen shots.




Zooming is certainly one of the great advantages of anything done digitally. Can't do that on paper. Not that I don't expect to continue drawing on paper! But, it's nice to have the choice!

                                                                               


You can rotate parts of your drawing, move them, etc. Of course this is nothing new to anyone who draws digitally in Photoshop or Painter, but in SE, when you click the tool, it appears right in your drawing. Tools are accessible in a very streamlined way.






When I draw on paper (usually extra heavy tracing paper) I draw on both sides. I flip from front to back in order to check my proportions and see if anything looks out of whack. In SE, you can do this by going to Image > Mirror canvas. I do a lot of this - both on paper and in SE.




First rough idea. Sketchbook Express is in no way a substitute for Photoshop or Painter, but it has some nice features and it feels natural and easy to use.

18 comments:

michele said...

Well if he ain't the rootin' tootin'est! Lil' Dusty is just too cute, kickin' up his heels and a small storm!
Thanks for sharing the info about new tools! :o)

Marion Eldridge said...

Howdy, Michele! Thank you!

Tony LaRocca said...

LOL that's adorable!

Marion Eldridge said...

Thank you, Tony! Thanks makes me :o)

MrBibleHead said...

Hey Marion! I’ve been waiting on pins and needles to see what you’d come up with.... it was worth all the sticking and pinching :o) Love Duststorm! Great process examples as well! You ROCK!

Marion Eldridge said...

Wow Jack! What nice things you've said- and you gave me a great hearty laugh too! Thank you SO, SO, much! I've really been missing IF (tied up with a deadline) Happy to have the work, but also happy to have time to experiment and try to get better. Thanks again, you are very kind!

Rob Colvin said...

Nice drawings, Marion. I'm impressed that you draw on your Wacom tablet. It still feel awkward when I try and draw on it.

Marion Eldridge said...

Thanks so much, Rob. I never thought I'd do it either - especially the drawing part. But, this Sketchbook Express thing really does make it feel more natural. Actually, at the moment, I'm more impressed that I learned how to do screen shots! LOL! Really easy though. Command -shift-4 (all at once) Then drag to the area you want a shot of and click! Screen shot! I've only done it in SE, not Photoshop. But those instructions were FOR photoshop, so I imagine it's pretty much the same there.

Sue Rundle-Hughes said...

Wow, this is great... so much movement. I really ought to try and find sketchbook express to buy :)

Karen Lee said...

What a fantastic, dynamic little guy! I love to see the bones of your drawing and your process. I struggle with retaining the energy of early drawings too. I never thought of flipping a drawing over to see if it still looks right. I had to revise a sketch yesterday to flip horizontal and it looked so WRONG to me that I re-did it from scratch. Now I know...thanks for sharing!

Karen Lee said...

Oh and you can screen shot anything on the internet too - that can be handy!

Julie Hammond said...

he is just rip roarin' adorable! Love it!

sketched out said...

Love this lil guy, Marion! I'm very tempted to give S. E. a whirl. I typically sketch with pencil, scan and then paint in Photoshop. but always looking for new techniques.

Seems like you really have that thing down!! Great take on the theme.

Ann Marie DiVecchia said...

Great lil' character ya got thar! I liked the voice, too. Maybe this will become a story! I find myself in a love/hate relationship with working digitally. I'm afraid of losing myself to it. Nonetheless I find myself using digital tools more and more. It was fun reading your post!

Roberta said...

What a cutie! Yee Ha!

k.h.whitaker said...

love him Marion, I use sketchbook pro, it is great for sketching on the computer and then you can take it into painter or photoshop. Love the hat, I'm working on a little cowboy myself! Great minds think alike ;)

Emilie Boon said...

Wow, Marion! I love that cowboy and you are making a lot of progress with your digital sketching. Congrats!

Susan Miller said...

Wow, you really are moving right along, looks great, very motivating. I am not familiar with that program, it looks very fun, I do believe once learned, digital can be very liberating, its the learning curve that is daunting.
Great job Marion.