Here're the steps I go through in the process of making a picture of a character:

1. Sketching. Plotting lines of action, building basic forms, and indicating loose details.

2. Refinement. Taking a sketch, increasing the size and painstakingly going over every line with a small brush while simultaneously erasing everything that isn't a line.

3. Flat colors. Slowly tracing the inside of the line work with a variable-sized opaque brush and then filling it to establish a transparency for masking later, then painting in the basic colors.

4. Shading. Using 50% grey as a base, I'll set up a palette of light and dark grey tints and paint in the shading. By setting the color layer above to overlay, and using the masking info I set up earlier, I can quickly block in shading and refine shapes.

Out of all of that, refinement takes the most work and is the most tedious. Filling in the flat colors is mostly busywork, but not as bad. In comparison, shading is so easy that I almost don't have to think about it at all.

What I'm getting at is that I'm starting to really hate line work. I've tried on a few occasions to skip it entirely but the process is so ingrained into my psyche that I tend to have a hard time going without it. If I could just PAINT, everything would be so much easier.

I think I've lost probably close to 100 watchers in the past few weeks.

Remember when FA had custom thumbnails? Boy, those were good times.

Ah well. Not complaining, but I feel kinda bad for driving people away.

http://www.ctrlpaint.com/

So uh. I actually discovered this website on a journal here on FA, but that was weeks ago and I can't remember who the person who linked it was. But this place is the reason I was so productive a couple weeks ago. This guy posts tutorial videos on various digital painting and photoshop techniques a couple times a week. I've learned more here in a few days than I have in years of experimentation. Like for instance, I just watched the video on brush control basics. I ALMOST skipped it because I figured this was elementary stuff that I already know, but then he goes on to say that you should never combine width control and opacity control except in specific circumstances. I've ALWAYS had width and opacity tied to pen pressure. I try it with opacity only it's like HOLY SHIT, how did I ever get so far without knowing this? Everything is so much EASIER now.

Start out with Digital Painting 101 and then work your way up from the last page. I might have to buy some of his longer videos. This guy is doing a great service to artists.

... of some good color theory tutorials? I've seen a few but I still feel like I'm floundering.

Huhmmm.

I have a hard time living with myself.

I'm an introvert. But. I sometimes just. Can't stand being alone. So I go online. But I can't bring myself to talk to anyone. So I just wait and hope someone starts up a conversation. And then someone does, and it's great, but then it withers away because I never say anything.

I can't stand to talk about myself, it's an effort to talk about what I'm doing ... I freak out when anyone tries to be nice to me ...

I don't know why I'm like this.

It all just kind of came out at once last night, my frustration with myself. I'm sorry if I worried anyone.

OpenTTD is a game about managing a transportation company. In it you build railroads, bus and truck networks, airports, etc to link cities and industries together. In this game, you need to be aware of what individual cities think of your company. If they're accepting of you, they'll allow you to place depots and ports within the city limits, or even demolish buildings and alter the nearby landscape. Doing this too much will naturally lower their opinion of you until they won't allow any alterations at all.

Now, there are several game mechanics related to this wherein you can try to raise a town's approval of your company. Providing transportation services naturally raises their mood. A city's approval will naturally trend towards neutral over time if you do nothing at all. Planting trees nearby will generally raise their mood. And lastly, you could try to bribe the city council, which if successful will instantly raise the approval rating towards you, letting you build whatever you want for a bit.

Thing is, that's not always successful. The citizenry can find about your corruption and hate you even more. I've had this happen a few times and my reaction is generally "How dare they get in the way of my plans! It's as if they don't WANT me level half the city to make way for a giant airport! Who the hell do they think they are?"

WHO INDEED.

So where am I going with this? The MPAA recently came out and said that it was an "abuse of power" for Wikipedia to go down for a day in an attempt to inform the citizenry of the internet of their shady dealings. And I can see why they're upset! After all, they spent a lot of time, money and effort bribing congress into letting them write their own legislation. They have so much money and wield so much power that life to them is essentially a game. If they lose this fight with SOPA and PIPA they'll rant and rave and spout rhetoric and project some more, and then they'll calm down and plan more ways to bend the game to their will.

What's up.

So, Good old Games added Ultima 7 to their library awhile back. I personally consider it one of the greatest RPGs ever made, and I still fondly remember spending most of a summer with it after trawling a few abandonware sites and installing Exult.

I didn't realize until just now, however, how long ago that actually was. While looking through my art folder I found a screenshot of Ultima 7 I took that dates back to July of '04. That was over seven years ago. Nearly two years before I first played Morrowind and became lightly obsessed with the Elder Scrolls series in general. I mention that because Ultima 7 was one of the forerunners of the "open" RPG as we know it today, and may not have aged as well as I've assumed.

I'm kind of afraid to play it again. I couldn't play Morrowind without graphical mods after Oblivion showed me what infinite view distance and a lack of constant loading interruptions could do, and now I'm not sure I could play Oblivion after Skyrim showed me the possibilities of NPCs without potato chins.

What do you think? Got any personal experiences with Ultima 7? Can it still hold up as a classic if one keeps an open mind?

So,  Skidd and I, we go way back. We're old friends. And when something bad happens to old friends, I gotta start busting kneecaps!

Haha. No. Not really. But he did get screwed out of a job and is looking to make some cash until something comes up, so I thought I'd point out that he's got a couple of auctions on Furbuy going, ( http://www.furbuy.com/seller/Skidd.html ) which you should totally buy if you've got some dosh lying around.

Have I talked about this before? I'm sure I have. But I haven't actually done anything about it, so I'll bring up the discussion again.

When I was but a wee level 1 artist, I would fill pages and pages of sketch paper with cartoon heads. That was all I knew how to draw. When I got slightly better and could draw simple bodies, I started making up characters, putting them in weird situations, making little comics. Tiny little comics, dozens per page, prolifically. And all I really strove for was to get better, to understand anatomy, perspective, color, etc. And I never stopped drawing. On good days I could fill several pages with the stuff that was bouncing around in my head.

Now? Well. I haven't progressed much lately. I can tell my style is becoming slightly more refined over time, maybe my shading is a little smoother than it was a couple years ago. But I haven't really improved much.

And I'm starting to think ... maybe that's ok? Maybe I've reached a point where I need to stop focusing on technical skill as much? I'd like to go back to a time when I could sketch all day and slam ideas down on paper, but I can't because I worry too goddamn much about how it'll look. Two of my favorite artists recently have been  redic-nomad and  seely because they're both fantastic artists, yet they also draw loose, stream-of-consciousness comics, and they still manage to look aesthetically pleasing, and why didn't those useless art correspondence classes ever cover sketching like that and why do I keep bringing this up when all I need to do it just sit down and DRAW except sometimes I do and it's really neat but then my brain won't let me aarhed6482`093 fdsj row24ew̳̳̗͚͉ͧ̉̑͢f̖̬̲̋̆ͣ̅ͦͣ͡d͑ͧ̇̌͑͑̄͏̟͕̭̪̩̭̖s̐̽̈́̽̿͊̑͝ ͙̞̤ͦ̑ͪͥ̈e̤͔̦̮̖͎̝̍ͫ́ͬ̂4̪͙̓̈́8̹͎͉͇̫͈̘̂͂̕ 2͢3̬̪̞̏̆̑̽̀̓̉͡ ̆̈̎͠f́͡x̲͚͡ ͖̌ͭ͛ͯ̅b̄̄̐̔́҉̯̟̭̠̞̰ļ͓̜̠͎̙̙͕̓u̬͎͑͊̄̉́̈ͨp̒̾҉͎͎̤̜̬ o͟h̙ͬͯ͌ͤ̄ͨ͘ ̲͙̯̣͕̥̥̆̽̏͑̏͂͑n̯̠̟͞ô̲͎ l̠͎̟̫͌̒̆ͧ̒o̱̲͗͛͗̓̐ͤͥo͕̥͉̘̟̞ͬ̽ͪ͋͠ͅk͕̹̰͖͇̜̎́͌ͤ ̖̱̮͚̪͌̋̈ͩ͢w̨̥̍̈ͬ̓h̟͈̬̻̗̾͑a̵͈̘̬̜̺̣͈͊̄ţ̌̋̒ ̺̹͚̦ḫ̵̝a̞̓̈̌p̧̖͚ͦ͋̄̂̀̓̌p̧̻͚̥͐̀̈́̎̚e͙̬̯̲͔̝ͅnͤͦ͛͏͖͈̖͓e̴ͬ̒d̳͍̞̺̼̂̋ͧͧ͐ͮ͠ͅͅ



EDIT: Anyway. Point being, I'm starting to value raw style over technical skill. A picture can be sketchy, messy, poorly planned, but it's the little things that matter. The expression, the way a mouth is drawn, even just the content, or what's happening in a picture. All of that could be improved by technical skill, but it can operate independently of it as well.







OR MAYBE I'M TALKING OUT OF MY ASS I DON'T KNOW

So. Uhm.

I've been pretty much overweight my entire life. Ever since I was diagnosed with asthma when I was 5. Or that's what I told myself, anyway. That I was fat because running, walking or even just being outside on a cold day left me struggling to breathe. That was pretty rough in grade school. They couldn't risk the possibility of being sued because some kid OD'd on his prescription medicine, so I wasn't allowed to carry an inhaler with me. And this was when the health craze phase really started kicking into high gear. Every week we'd congregate in the assembly hall and watch a video about why all your excuses for being fat are bullshit, and then go off to walk several laps on the track field.

When I was older I went on a couple of diets. Diet Center and South Beach. Lost about 40 pounds each time, then gained back more than I had lost. They were fast, they were effective, and they were brutal. The reason their advertised results are "not typical" is because almost nobody stays on them for more than a few months. Lose a few pounds, gain them back, repeat ad nauseum. I remember once going to a store and becoming irrationally angry because being on a diet meant I couldn't eat a tube of raw cookie dough. That's not something I'd ever do normally, but these diets deprive you so much that you start to go crazy.

Well. I didn't get my asthma under control until a few years ago. Now that I could breathe, I took the opportunity to join a gym. I got pretty good on the elliptical. Eventually got to the point where I could run for half an hour, burning 400 calories in the process, or so the machine told me.

In two years, I never lost a pound.

So this has always been in the back of my mind. Always thinking about it, about what I could do. I'd been following r/loseit on Reddit for awhile, just kind of browsing, seeing what other people had to say, when I saw a link to an article on some webpage called Nerd Fitness.

http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/01.....actually-suck/

The Reddit submission that linked to this didn't get many upvotes. People there don't seem to like Nerd Fitness too much. But that article really resonated with me for some reason. Got me fired up. I did some more research, on the paleo diet and bodyweight exercises. Figured I could give up cereal without any problem and replace it with eggs. Started keeping a food journal, followed the instructional workout videos on Nerd Fitness and started keeping a workout journal.

Almost considered cancelling my gym membership, but then discovered r/fitness on Reddit. Researched barbell exercises, researched Starting Strength, started doing weighted squats, overhead presses, bench presses, dead lifts and power cleans. Felt ridiculously strong.

This all started in January. As of last Friday I've lost 27 pounds and gained a lot of muscle. That's hardly a success story; it averages out to less than a pound a week. But it's sustainable. It's a lifestyle change. I'm not depriving myself. It hasn't been easy - I've given myself minor injuries during weightlifting a couple of times, and the slow rate of progress is frustrating at points - but, well ... it's working.

So yeah. That's my story. Maybe I can inspire someone else. That'd be neat.

If you wanna add me in the off-chance that I'll log on someday, I've got a new MSN account under the name ZombieCat2001. You can figure the rest out.

... Y'know. I came up with that as an alternate alias when signing up with Yahoo or something back in 2001 when "ZombieCat" was taken. That was awfully shortsighted of me. Makes it look like I'm ten years old. AND YET I CONTINUE TO USE IT. BECAUSE ZOMBIECAT IS ALWAYS TAKEN. I AM A FOOL.

Looks like my old defunct Hotmail account has been used to send spam, and is now locked down. That also means that I can't access MSN, so ... y'know what? Screw it. It looks like getting it reactivated is going to be a pain in the ass. I don't care anymore. I barely log on anyway. Like, twice a month maybe.

So whatever. Sorry if anyone in my contacts got spam.

Take inspiration from everything. Make a folder on your computer and fill it with images that catch your eye or are aesthetically pleasing in some way. From time to time, open that folder, browse through it, and attempt to copy the things in it by eye. Copy the work of other artists. Learn how their style is different from everyone else's. Boil all that down into the elements that make up that style. Take the elements you like the best and implement them in your own work. If you're a young, inexperienced artist, do this to establish your own style and to learn how things are done. If you're an older, experienced artist, do it anyway. You'll stagnate otherwise.

If you're worried about looking like a leech, then credit your inspiration, or just don't upload anything that you think borrows too heavily from other sources. But remember, nothing is original. Even the most inspired piece of work borrows from everything that came before it in some small way. By doing this, we are advancing the state of the art and becoming better artists.

... that I'll reply to all the good, thought-provoking comments, but then it's two days later and I forget.

And then I'll stumble across them months later and feel really bad.

I know I don't always say it, but I really do appreciate the comments you all take the time to write. Thanks.

Been thinking about this a lot lately, but it kind of came to a head recently. I'm kind of a shitty friend, simply because I have a tendency to lose contact with people. I literally can't count the number of friends I've FORGOTTEN ABOUT COMPLETELY, haven't talked to in months/years, haven't even thought about ... It's like, I know I KNEW a lot of people at some point, but it's a hole in my brain. And I'll go through these periods where I'll frequently talk with a few people for an extended period of time, like every night we're having these great conversations, but it's really only because THEY'RE the ones who initiated the conversation, and if they ever stop they'll just kind of fade out of my mind.

But I mean, I'm only one person, right? I can't be friends with everyone. But it hurts to think about all the people I've lost contact with. And it's likely going to happen again, and again ...

All I ever talk about in these journals is weird personal problems, or videogames. I'm not depressed, at least not at the moment. I'm just tired and felt like saying what was on my mind. I guess.

People ask me what's on my mind. I've spent so many years hiding my true feelings in real life that I apparently can't access that part of my mind anymore. What AM I thinking about? Uhm .... stuff? What occupies my idle cycles? Nothing? I have very few opinions. I'm not really passionate about anything. Do I have any hobbies? I guess what I do here is a hobby. But I can't talk about that, because I can't let myself talk about that, so I don't talk about myself.

Please stop asking.

... that I'm starting to wonder if I'm just asleep most of the time.


Zzzz

Sorry I don't reply to comments more often. Sorry I don't upload as much as I used to. Sorry I'm not online to chat much, and when I do I'm either overly enthusiastic or morbidly depressed. Sorry I say I'll draw your request, then do nothing because I can't say no. Sorry I can't say what's actually on my mind or what's bothering me. Sorry I never start conversations. Sorry I haven't talked to you in months because of that. Sorry it takes me forever to reply to notes or Emails.


So, yeah.

Help.

Oh god what is this. 1125 submissions, 608 journals and more tweets than Echofon can handle.

I can't believe I'm actually home. Like I'm gonna wake up and discover it was a CRUEL JOKE.

Going out of town for a week and a half. My online activity will be sporadic at best. Not that it really matters, but I figured I should at least say something. Maybe it'll cut down on the number of people asking me to look at pictures I can't safely view, or join them for a game my shitty laptop can't handle.

BUT PROBABLY NOT.

I'm cool with that.

I'm terrible at cultivating new habits, so my "Sketch a little every day" thing didn't last more than a week. I might've still been able to pick it up again, but this past week has been hell. A surprise roadtrip to Oregon for my cousin's wedding and to visit relatives (which was actually quite enjoyable, but left me mostly incommunicado), catching a cold and then spraining a tendon in my right hand. It's slowly getting better, and at least I can mostly grip things now, but I still need to keep the affected fingers in a buddy splint for awhile, which makes things difficult. But even if that didn't apply I'd still be living in a perpetual fog, so it doesn't matter much.

Uhm. Hey! Fallout 3 GOTY was 50% off on Steam awhile back. I knew something like that would be coming ever since New Vegas was announced, so I'd been waiting to pounce. It's, uh. It's weird finally playing a game like this, that everyone has been raving about for, what's it been, almost two years? You get a preconceived notion of what everything will be like. People talk about events in the game, but without a point of reference it's hard to reconcile that into what's actually happening. Which is why I was completely blindsided when I encountered Vault 112. Surely people must have been talking about this! Did I just miss it? Were journals, blogs and imageboards going "HOLY SHIT", or did it not warrant mentioning? I guess Oblivion, my point of reference, had a few areas like that, just completely off-kilter and different from everything else you'd seen, but ... yeah, I dunno. I liked it.

Anyway. That's what I've been doing, I guess. Among other things. I really want to get back into drawing regularly, I just can't muster the drive to do so. Story of my life.