Another piece of work with the tablet

So My Paint so far is pretty damn good with quick sketch style caricatures.  So what can it do with some other kinds of stuff?  I decided to make it flex its muscles again and this is what I got from it.

The only issue, is that the output file isn't that high of a resolution.  However, I do hear that there is a workaround for that, and if that's true that could change some things.  As long as it doesn't impact performance too much it shouldn't be a problem for when I'm on the go.

Aside from that, wow this thing actually does pretty damn decent pencils.  I still need to mess with more of its brushes though, as I've used it's most generic option.

DIGITAL CARICATURE TRIAL!!!

First of all a shout out to my friend Chris Moore of www.visualunlimited.com for making this all possible in the first place!

Long story short I've managed to acquire a tablet PC from him.  It's a Gateway M275 series tablet PC.  From what I understand, at the time of it's initial release this was a VERY expensive system.  Primary reason more than likely being the fact that it uses a touchscreen that is operated by a stylus.  But it's not just ANY old stylus.  It's Wacom technology, and boy it lives up to the name.  The kicker is that it supports pressure sensitivity, which is more than I can say for the iPad or many other tablets/devices not named the Samsung Galaxy Note (and even then it still doesn't work as well)  The biggest issue I've always had with other devices was the lack of it, and while I could probably have gotten around that and been able to do stuff with it I felt like I would've been jumping through hoops just trying to get thick and thin lines out of the thing.  So, what's the verdict of my tests?  Well, I'll let the results speak for themselves...

One of my first experiments with it.  She was drawn from an old park sketch.

These guys, and everyone else was done on request when I asked for guinea pigs for my experiments!

 I can almost draw her with my eyes closed.  LOL  Digital doesn't change that one bit.

 She was the first one to get color.  I was pleased enough with it to take it a bit further.

 Some refinements were made here.

 And even more here.

 This was the first one to be done for someone in a live setting!  It's a bit more simplistic for times sake, but you can get decent speed out of it if you set yourself up right.  Still working on ways to streamline it though.

 Can even work more than one in there!

I think what I'm liking about this approach is the comic book like results I'm getting from these.  The brush that I'm using in the My Paint program for this is Kagura for the black outline sketch and hair shading, Brush to block in the big color areas, Modelling 2 to work in highlights and shadow, and Charcoal to do stuff like 5 o'Clock shadows and such textures.  My Paint is a pretty lightweight program so it works very well on this system given the specs and all.

From what I've seen of it so far, I really like what I'm seeing from it.  It doesn't seem to operate with too many issues, and it's definitely got promise in terms of where things can go with it.  A few more trials will have to be done with it, but sooner or later I got a feeling that I'll have a new product to offer prospective clients.  This might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

A story of violent tendencies, the BABY, and little Hylian warriors among other things...

 From top left to bottom right, Quentin Tarantino, Yoshio Sakamoto (Metroid series director) and Eiji Aonuma (Zelda series director) along with a random figure at the mall.  These were trickier to do than expected, especially Tarantino.  I drew him out in various ways about 6 times before I just started scribbling him out and got what I got here.

 Some randoms from the mall.  I like the top two the best, though the bottom looked just like the woman I drew from.

 A napkin sketch from the bar.

And another one, both guys are DJs.  One of which I've known for a long time.

Opening up the Valve, and gettin' Shiggy with it!

Just sketching, and testing out a couple little tricks here and there.  I absolutely love that 01 sized pen.  Let it get worn a little bit, and whatever you draw with it becomes easier to work with.

Some more random stuff, and a little Hobbit.

 The legendary Gandhi.

 Some faces, one that I know personally, one some might now, and the others are random.  The top one was an extremely quick sketch.

 Some Hobbit stuff.  I think it's obvious which crack at it I liked better.  Sometimes first impressions are wrong.

 So what happens when you decide to jack up Gollum even more?  Interesting results.  Don't love it, don't hate it.

 I'll have to try her again sometime, fell into the trap with her.

And last, but never least Teiaki.  Gorgeous model, and recently engaged.  Congratulations, again.

Just a few randoms from out at the mall recently.

Believe it or not, the bottom right one was a woman.  But yeah, just messing around with my liners and brush pens.  Sometimes it feels more limiting and yet sometimes I feel like the things I do with it are a bit more structured.

Rockwell, and Dr. Phil. An explanation.

I remember when working on a project right before the end of the year I was discussing with a great friend of mine the whole business as far as doing these for clients, and I had a way of describing the whole thing that I haven't let go of and wanted to put down in text. The idea was that whether it's live work, or studio projects for others, one should think of themselves as a combination of Norman Rockwell, and Dr. Phil.  Rockwell, in the sense of honing your ability, and Dr. Phil when it comes to your working relationships with the people that are your clients.

In the live portrait and caricature scene, your client is often times either standing behind you, or in the chair either excited or nervous as to what they're going to see when you flip the paper over.  One has to have the technical ability to be able to draw things well (Rockwell), yet you also have to know and understand the times where you can crank it or hold back. (Dr. Phil)  It's a delicate balance in the live scene and it's one of the things that I feel I've gotten better at over the years of being in this business.  I'm still not perfect at it though (nobody is), and every once in a while I'll either get a bad Phil reading on someone and end up making them mad, or the Rockwell just doesn't do what it needs to do (or gets to do too much *lol*) while the Phil tries to run damage control and fails for that one client and God knows who else behind me.  Stuff happens.  From my personal experiences the Dr. Phil end got better for me when the Rockwell improved over the years, though I've seen the reverse happen and success be just as good so it's not the order of improvement that matters too much as it is whether that balance gets found.

Now with live work, either way the scenario goes, the whole ordeal is usually done in a matter of minutes and the effects are usually put out within an hour upon "resetting yourself" if for some reason things go south.  On the other hand, commission work can be a whole other can of worms simply due to the duration of time it takes and the money involved in it.  What I've found in my experiences with it is that people want to see a LOT more of both Rockwell and Dr. Phil.  People are going to be hiring you for that Rockwell ability, YET ideally they're also paying you for that caring Dr. Phil.  I've heard a lot of horror stories throughout my time in the field.  Often times, the artist gets commissioned for something, (ESPECIALLY with the likes of portraits) and for whatever reason the artist can't get the OK from the client to finish something.  For whatever reason it just doesn't quite match the vision the client has for what it is that being worked on.  If you're a rookie at the game, I'll just tell you right now.  Get used to this happening, I don't care how good you believe you are.  Sometimes you just NEVER get it (hopefully that's extremely rare) and you have to bow out as gracefully as possible.  For the majority of those other times you GET it in your head and do it the way you believe you were told to it only for the project to come to a stalling point because THAT GUY LOOKS A LITTLE TOO ANGRY, or WE THINK THAT THIS GUY NEEDS TO MOVE OVER SOME, AND KNOCK OUT THE NUMBERS TOO.  Even if you feel you're right, don't get offended by it, be the Dr. Phil.  Talk it out, maybe you can convince them to keep it the way you feel it'll work best, but if you can't just change it up to how they want it.  The big thing I believe we sometimes forget in the process of this is that what you're doing is ultimately THEIR PROJECT that they're paying you to produce.  When it's something personal for  yourself you can do what you want to do with it, but when it's theirs the project is a joint effort between you AND the client and you need to do everything that you can to make it go smoothly.

That said, there IS an important element to the Rockwell/Dr. Phil paradigm that needs to be stated.  It is preferable to get both of them balanced out as close to 50/50 as possible.  Too much Rockwell, and for many clients they'll feel like they cannot work with you.  Too much Dr. Phil and some will feel as if they can do whatever they want with you and get away with it.  In scenario one, word DOES go around and you may find it more difficult to get work when you're being a primadonna.  In scenario two, you may get paid for what you put out.  However, you'll be throwing your head at the nearest desk over how little you got for how much extra work you put into it (especially if you weren't thinking ahead).  Balance them out as close as possible, and there's a much higher chance of everyone leaving the deal happy.  Really, who wouldn't want that?

So to close this out, get your Rockwell and Phil in order.  You'll thank them both later.