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The Drawing Salon

 
  

Page: 1234(5)

 
 
grant
14:41 / 08.08.08
Sonic. Youth.
 
 
Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!
10:34 / 09.08.08
Yes! I love that song. I'd been planning to make a large A1/2 poster comic from it for ages, which was going to be half b+w, half sepia tones with a colour poster in the middle. But it was one of those big things I never seemed to get round to. So in the end I condensed it in to one small page because I really wanted to just draw it.

It came out a little more raggedy than originally intended because I was pretty ill when I was working on it. I remember being in my studio on a Sunday and living entirely off lozenges and herbal teas just because I wanted to get it finished that day, and my head felt as heavy as a cinder block by the end. But in a way the slightly more scruffy nature of it fits the tone of the song somewhat.

Part of me wants to show the band. Maybe I'll still do the more elaborate one sometime.
 
 
Hallo, Paper Spaceboy
18:48 / 09.08.08
Those are gorgeous, Suede. Particularly fond of the Zelda ones for some reason.

And I really wish I remembered to look at this thread when I'm at home some time, not at work, so I can make Cowboy Scientist's Orion into my desktop background. His steely War God eyes melt my heart.
 
 
Nelson Evergreen
09:45 / 12.08.08
These non-repro pencils confuse me. They show up if you scan them into Photoshop, surely..? Or can you get special voodoo ones nowadays?

I love drawing on my graphics tablet... but replicating what I do on paper? Nah. Like you say, Suedey, certain directions of swoosh are very, very tricky. But I do enjoy using it to make: a) big, chunky, jagged strokes, and b) tiny, tiny wispy ones - where you zoom in really close and get all precious.

Oh, and there's a c) too: adding greyscale on the fly. This strip was drawn straight into Photoshop with a Wacom. A pretty useful experiment... the best bits are where I'm resisting the urge to make it look like it's inked "proper", if you know what I mean - the bits where the greys are doing a good 50% or so of the defining.

 
 
iamus
18:21 / 18.08.08
These non-repro pencils confuse me. They show up if you scan them into Photoshop, surely..? Or can you get special voodoo ones nowadays?

They show up in scans yeah. Though it is easier to isolate them from pencils or inks, their real usefulness is debatable, which is why they've pretty much disappeared from everywhere but a few online retailers. I like the way they feel and I like the way they look. I feel happier sketching out forms in continuous line, quickly and with minimal thought using them whereas pencil makes me get all anal to early on. My best pages work when I know my layouts and then just attack the page with as little other baggage as possible. Because they're nice and light, they encourage me to do that.

Loving the new Edith and Hilda strip. Found it a week or so ago and that was a nice surprise. Quite bloody impressed that it's done straight from the tablet. I just don't think of mine like that yet. It's a tool for colouring and minor touch-ups in my brain. I've tried a bit, but my inability to make a consistently good line irritates me, and makes me feel like I'm having a frying-pan spit infinite miniscule drops of boiling fat at me. So I shy away.

Suedey - I hadn't meant to neglect the thread, just got horribly caught up with work and such, and it got away from me somewhat.

Well I've only been posting pictures really, which isn't so much what the thread is about. Same reason, I've not properly e-mailed you back in a while. But I think we'll agree to both be a bit shit at that.

The non-repros I use are from Paper People, mainly because I'm a cheeky swine and they were the ones I was swiping from the studio when I first started using them. The only problem I have with them is that by nature, they're a bit waxy and they tend to clog up any pen I've used that has a fibrous tip. That's really bloody annoying. Ball tip and brush are fine though.

I have to say though man, I've seen some of them before, but I'm really loving your nature stuff there. Like a lot. There's very much feeling of a place, a time and a mood that could change at any moment. I could go on with artsy-fartsy rationalisation, but I've not been drinking free red-wine so I'll just say that they totally jump at me. They show a different aspect to you that's not in your other stuff I know (not that they should be in the other stuff. It's just I know that stuff a lot better).


Oh, and...

 
 
raggedman
20:02 / 20.08.08
inspired partly by this thread
(Suedey you rock)
I've finally got round to putting some serious effort into learning to draw
all constructive criticism welcomed






 
 
iamus
22:57 / 23.08.08
I think that's bloody lovely stuff. Particularly the second one, which has a very loose, easy paul popeish style to it. I don't think there's much you have to worry about if this is you learning how to draw.

I don't think I have much of use to say in ways of criticism, because that stuff really appeals to me. I'd love to see any other stuff, or hear you talk a bit more about what you're up to with it, and how you go about making it.
 
 
Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!
12:01 / 01.11.08
Just quickly, a few more recent bits and pieces!


Snow Day



WPRB Design



Global Music illo for Plan B (with a working sequence)
 
 
Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!
12:44 / 01.11.08
Oh, and a bonus Pikachu!

 
 
Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!
17:30 / 19.12.08
A little seasonal fancy for you!


Seasonal Merriment


Also, a little one page strip I made a while back.
 
 
raggedman
17:57 / 29.12.08
Excellent work as ever Suedey. Hope you had a good holiday. Attached is the first page of a comic I've been working on. Does anyone have any advice on tones, shading, grayscale? Or know any decent tutorials or resources. It sounds daft but I haven't really used them before. I like the effect Gabriel Ba achieves in Casanova but I think it falls into the category of deceptively simple and you need to understand more about light than I do to pull it off. I think you can see in my line work that I have a problem with volume, giving things weight.
Any constructive crit of the drawing as well would be appreciated.
pop1
 
 
Poke it with a stick
21:24 / 29.12.08
leyla rose

One of my most recent sketches from Dr Sketchy's Glasgow. The rest are here, for anyone who fancies a look.
 
 
Poke it with a stick
21:28 / 29.12.08
raggedman, I especially like the panel on the top left. I actually think the constancy of line works in that one's favour.

I'd suggest using lines of different weight to suggest depth, but I'm not sure if that's what you're getting at?
 
 
raggedman
09:00 / 30.12.08
Thanks Ice Cream. There is something about the style I like but I think you're right, I tend to use a 0.7 or a 1.0, just a rollerball. I should get some more tools and try mixing them up.
 
 
raggedman
09:03 / 30.12.08
The Cherry Loco sketch (via link above) is really striking, really conveys the emotion and attitude. Slice of cake was excellent as well, love the restrained use of colour.
 
 
Poke it with a stick
15:58 / 30.12.08
Cheers raggedman - the Dr Sketchy's stuff is my attempt to get back into life drawing after a prolonged hiatus. If you're looking for life drawing opportunities then the format's really entertaining and good value (I pay 7 pounds for three hours) - no idea if there's one near you, but it's worth looking out for.

Alas, the restrained use of colour is mainly due to the time constraints and not being able to see what colours I'm using in the subdued light - confusing fuscia with crimson is not something I want to make a habit of.
 
 
raggedman
07:39 / 31.12.08
excellent, Dr Sketchy's sounds fantastic. There's one in London which I'll try to get to. I've done a couple of life drawing classes which have really helped and i've just done my first 'live' cartooning at a club nite which was a lot of fun. hoping to make it a regular thing.
 
 
iamus
16:35 / 31.12.08
I've been trying to get along to Sketchy's for over a year, but I'm always either working or excusing.

I really like the photo of the Botanic's railway station on your Flickr, Ice Cream. Never been down there myself, but I've always wanted to walk the tunnel from there to Kelvingrove Park that runs underneath Byres Road.
 
 
Poke it with a stick
21:01 / 31.12.08
Cheers iamus - if you're ever tempted to go down the tunnels, then for god's sake take a torch with you - there are a few holes in the ground that could seriously knacker your leg.

The Glasgow Sketchy's site is here, by the way.
 
 
Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!
19:56 / 31.01.09
Pictures!


Plan B Albums Spread

You can see the finished version avec accompanying Franz Ferdinand review here.


Twee Effort


I guess I should reply properly - I know I've got a stupidly long months old draft written somewhere - but maybe we should just back this thread up and take it elsewhere... any thoughts/suggestions on that? Would anyone like to be part of a Drawing Salon google group, perhaps?

If anyone has any ideas let them be known! This thread is actually really important to me, even if I completely fail to respond to it for months on end. I really like the more relaxed pace of such chatter, talking about artistic things with a smaller group feels more focused to me and I always feel lost among message boards entirely dedicated to such pursuits and find it hard to keep up. I only have enough RAM to do one dedicated task at a time.

I see this thread more like writing letters, it's more occasional but very worthwhile.
 
  

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