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Felt like doing another environmental piece. Here’s an update on my work-in-progress!
Everything in my brain these days is a little solarpunk-tinged, but I wanted to try using some ref from our travels along the north of Lake Superior for the environment, since I feel like Solarpunk as a genre usually goes for a more tropical or temperate instead of boreal ecosystem feel, but obviously people can live sustainably – and have, and do, and will – at all latitudes.
Also I just love to draw a big ol’ spruce!
Process so far:
First, rough (really rough) sketches stacked on top of each other and filled with airbrushed colour. I built the palette from my colour ref screenshots folder, and while I like some parts of it it wasn’t quite hitting for me. Also, I accidentally composed an image where there’s a key split right at the halfway point horizontally, which isn’t working for me either.
So then we did some grabbing and moving of compositional elements, and also I used a whole array of adjustment layers to start tweaking the colours, bringing in more cold atmospheric perspective and varying the temperature of the different light sources:
With that hammered out it was time for a Clean Drawing! I throw a 15% opacity white layer over everything so I can see what I’m doing:
And the drawing is mostly done now! Next pass will be Small Charming Detail drawing additions (maybe adding a few more people, or wildlife, or graffiti?) and also I missed some safety railings, but we’re just about ready to start painting.
One of the things I used to think was silly was taking the time to do the drawing like this. At my most warmed-up, I can draw as I paint, at least a little bit, but after decades of doing this kind of work I am forced to admit that thinking about the narrative (location, time of day, set dressing, character posing, environmental storytelling etc) is a drawing activity for me, not a painting one. That feels a bit weird to admit, but it’s true! Once I’m thinking about value and colour, I stop prioritizing narrative as much – maybe because painting is more of a math style activity, using a less verbal part of my mind? Drawing is definitely WAY more verbal for me.
Anyways, the clean drawing remains a VERY important stage, and I would like my concept art teachers from 16 years ago to hear me say this aloud: you were right. Do the drawing. Stop skipping the damn drawing.
Anyways, this piece is gonna take me some time to paint, but I’ll be sure to drop back in when I have more to show of it! And if you have feedback or suggestions, you know where the comments form is!
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New to digital art? Switching to Clip Studio Paint? Either way, it can be helpful to know how to learn and customize all the various keyboard shortcuts it offers!
I wrote this up in an Art Director capacity but seems like the kind of thing other folks might want to reference sometimes too! So, here we are, a quick overview of ways to customize your keyboard shortcuts etc in CSP:
(click on the screenshots to expand them)
Shortcuts are under the file menu!
The shortcuts manager is a little separate popup window.
There’s a dropdown for all the different types of keyboard shortcuts:
once you select one you can edit, add or delete it
once you click edit you will see the shortcut box open but there won’t be a cursor in it
It’ll just capture whatever key you press.
there’s info at the bottom
if you try and set a shortcut to a key already in use it will flag you:
if you choose “yes” it will remove it from the other shortcut purpose. If you click “no” it will reset your current shortcut to what it was before.
most things I can’t find elsewhere turn out to be listed under “options” such as brush size up and down:
another useful one in Options is Drawing Color:
Tools also have keyboard shortcuts you can edit!
Tools are special because they can share single key press shortcuts:
You cycle through them by repeatedly pressing the key. This is fundamentally different from Photoshop but totally workable. I have not figured out how to adjust the ORDER you cycle through them, though, which is annoying.
You cannot add modifier keys to these shortcuts, so you just have to use single keys. This is because in CSP you can temporarily switch tools by holding down the single key shortcut while you want to use the other tool, and then when you release the key it will revert to your previous tool. (Photoshop actually does this too, which is neat!)
finally, you can assign shortcuts to individual brushes here too:
And don’t forget! All of this setup can be designed to best work with your tablet/cintiq/macro keyboard/wacom expresskey remote!
Also if you’re switching apps it is good to know that your pen pressure sensitivity settings are specific to each brush – in fact, to each sub-setting of each brush:
So you can hugely customize this!
If overall tablet pen sensitivity is feeling weird, you might want to go into your tablet settings and make a Clip Studio Paint application context and adjust the pressure sensitivity settings in there:
If necessary you can also adjust modifier key settings:
There are SO MANY
and you can be specific to individual subtools like specific brushes:
it’s a bit overwhelming, for sure, but really powerful!
just make sure if you want a setting to apply to most tools to do it in General Settings:
For example, I made my middle click on my mouse into the Hand tool, but first I only did it to the brush I was currently using and couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working everywhere, till I went back to this submenu and saw I needed to apply it to General Settings.
If you want to backup or load settings from another computer or from before a reinstall, you need to use CSP’s cloud service: https://tips.clip-studio.com/en-us/articles/887 – SOME cloud space should come included with your account, should be enough for your settings!
And last but not least, don’t forget that there is a manual! https://help.clip-studio.com/en-us/manual_en/720_preferences/Shortcut_Settings.htm
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I’ve been drawing a lot of dragons in my sketchbooks but it seemed like it would be fun to properly work one out digitally!
I took the time to do some rendering tests on its head as well, to test some techniques I’ve been using on paper as a digital painting approach:
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I recently got my hands on some kids’ tempera art sticks, after watching some artists I love show off their use of them to add abstraction and texture to their sketchbook work.1
These are not professional tools – they aren’t opaque, they are likely not lightfast, they are slippery and goopy and inconsistent across colours – but they ARE fun. Extremely fun. Good silly fun.
I’ve been using them solo and combining them with neocolor iis; it’s forced me into a slightly less tight style that I think has been very good for my brain.
I’ve made a lot of stuff I wouldn’t give the time of day with this technique, but that’s part of learning a new technique! That’s also just part of sketchbooks. Gotta put the stinkers somewhere, right?
In the interest of transparency and showing the whole spectrum of the experience, I have included drawings I am not personally at all interested in/happy with/attached to as well here. It’s your guess which are which tho!
2 responses to “Doodling with Chunky Supplies”
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these are soo stunning—impossible to pick just one favorite! colors and shapes are a delight
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Heck! thank you!
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I’m really excited to announce that I’m going to be tabling at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this coming weekend! As you might guess, it’s located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the Mattamy Athletic Center – old fogeys like me will know the building as the Maple Leaf Gardens, though it’s been through a thorough reno.
I’ll be tabling on the ice rink floor, table 197B:
It’s been 6 years since I last tabled at a convention, and almost 4 years since I sold physical things online through my own online store, so I have lots of exciting new stuff that I’m really pumped to share with folks!
You’ll be able to finally get your hands on a collection of all the existing Lomy in the Abyss comics! I’ll have a zine of both of my short comics about Adin! I’ll have a few print copies of my goofy pulp scifi novella about time orbs! And I’ll have a preview of my wizard puberty zine, which I’ve been working on this spring and summer and can’t resist the urge to show off – though sadly it wasn’t possible to finish it in time to print for TCAF!
I will also have art prints, including the Tangled Dragon, a few other favourite pieces, and some much requested classics.
Speaking of much requested classics, I’ll have my remaining copies of By Crom!
I’ll also have Orin and the Dead Man’s Sword and its accompanying art zine!
Lomy will be represented as well, with my riso zines Resonant Realms and The Listening Station:
And I won’t forget my Pocket Dungeons, both in zine and pocket pack format!
I’ll also have Wolfspell, this being (I think) the first time it’s been sold in physical form in Toronto, so definitely not one to miss!
And I’ve got blankets featuring my Tower of the Forest Wizard, Seven Odd Islands, and Realm of the River Dragon playmaps – these turned out gorgeous and it’s so exciting to have them at a show finally!
And last but not least, I’m going to be bringing some receipt zines I’ve made on my thermal printer; they are a really fun experiment in ephemera on my part, and I’m really curious to hear what y’all think of them!
If you’re going to be checking out TCAF please do say hi! And if you’re on the fence about it, let me pitch it one more time: it’s Toronto’s premiere independent comics festival, maybe one of the best ones in North America, and free to attend! Saturday and Sunday this weekend, downtown! Comics galore! Hope to see you there!
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Not sure how I never uploaded the final of this! but here’s my finished knight portrait in oil pastels. I’m very happy with the shadowy blue light effect on the whole thing!
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my partner leant me his 27mm prime and it is indeed as delightful as promised!
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taking my camera on dusk walks has been legit incredible – can’t wait till we get some of those deep blue summer dusks later this year.
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