Computer Cleaning

I took apart my computer the other day and gave it a solid dusting.  I don't think I'd taken it apart since I had some RAM issues many moons ago.  A nice cleaning was long past overdue.

For those of you who have never cleaned the inside of your computer, you should do so periodically (more frequently if you happen to live in a particularly dusty area).  Before you even open the case, disconnect your power supply cord from the back of the computer (while it's off, of course) and if you have one, shut down your power supply unit by flipping its switch (I think most PSU's have one).  Press the power button for a few seconds to discharge any remaining electricity and then proceed to open your case.  Be sure to ground yourself to before you touch any components (this can often be achieved simply through touching the metal case or by wearing a special wrist band). 

With your case now open, you will see the guts of your computer and the many dust dragons (because bunnies are too small) that reside within.  The picture to the side is what my own computer looked like after dusting.  Not a perfectly clean computer, but much cleaner than it was when I opened it.  A can of compressed air and Q-tips will be your best friends for cleaning.  And a vacuum cleaner to pick up the tons of dust that will come out.  Note that when using compressed air, do not tip it.  Getting any kind of liquid in the guts of your computer will be very bad.  Also note that when cleaning your fans, do not let them spin freely.  It's possible for them to create a kind of static discharge and inadvertently toast your components.

When cleaning, just take your time and try to be as thorough as possible.  Your main points to target should be the fans (dust buildup slows the blades), power supply box (always a good idea to keep that as uncluttered as possible), graphics card fan, and your CPU fan (the CPU can get quite warm under heavy operation, so a nice, well-cleaned fan is helpful).  I used a vacuum cleaner for removing dust from bare areas (such as the bottom of my case).  If you choose to use a vacuum cleaner, be very careful not to touch any key components as the static from the cleaner can fry them.

Once you're all done, make sure you reassemble your case, hook everything back up, plug in your power cord, and turn on your power supply.  Good as new and cleaner.  You might even notice that the fans will run a little quieter now...

Thoughts On Man Of Steel

I went to the midnight showing of Man of Steel on my birthday last week.  The theater wasn't packed when I arrived, but it had filled to near capacity by the time the show began.  No cosplayers were at the screening that I saw, but I heard from others that some garbed in full Justice League gear showed up at theirs.

(For those of you who haven't seen the movie, some minor spoilers follow):
Man of Steel is basically Superman Begins in that it explores Clark Kent's origins and psyche mostly in flashbacks peppered throughout the film.  They work pretty well for the most part.  There was only one sequence that I took issue with, but that had to do with the execution of the scene and not the scene itself.

One thing that Man of Steel does well that previous films never really touched on is the relationship between General Zod (Michael Shannon, who is absolutely phenomenal in the role) and Clark's biological father, Jor-El (Russell Crowe in what I think is possibly the best version of Jor-El on screen).  Zod, as Krypton's military leader, has a singular focus of ensuring the survival of the Kryptonian race no matter the cost.  Jor-El, Krypton's lead scientist, also wants to ensure Krypton's survival, but through a far less violent method in the form of sacrificing his only son to Earth.  In a society that had become nothing more than a machine where everyone born was bred only to fulfill one specific purpose in life, the idea of a child given a choice was heresy.  This dichotomy forms one of the key backbones of the film and is especially well touched in a scene towards the finale.

Another thing that Man of Steel finally gets right is giving Superman some people to punch in the form of the Kryptonians Zod, Namek, and Faora (a small, but standout performance by German actress Antje Traue).  This all out display of Superman's powers is something that was sorely missing in Superman Returns.  An especially nice touch is the way eyes look when heat vision is being activated.  There's several big action scenes throughout the movie and though they're done well enough, I started to feel a little fatigued from all the constant non-stop destruction.  I very much enjoyed the hand-to-hand sequences though.

All in all, I thought the entire cast was pretty solid.  Henry Cavill, Michael Shannon, and Antje Traue may not have been household names before this movie, but they will be after.  This was a film I enjoyed so much that I saw it twice on opening day.  Very rare occurrence that is.  

For those of you who've grown accustomed to after credits parts in superhero films, there are none here.  However, there are some easter eggs in the form of a visible Lexcorp logo on the side of a tanker truck and a Wayne Enterprises logo on a satellite during the last fight scene between Clark and Zod.  There's also one when Clark is inside the spaceship that will later become his Fortress of Solitude in the form of an open stasis pod (possibly a reference to Supergirl of whom that ship belongs to as shown in the special prequel comic for Man of Steel).  There are more and I'm sure you can find them through the power of Google.

For anyone who wants to erase the bad taste of Superman Returns, Man of Steel will not disappoint.  It may not be a great movie, but I think it is a highly enjoyable one.  As of this writing, it opened up to a $125 million box office weekend domestically, so a sequel is assured and maybe, just maybe, the Justice League will also be greenlit...

Behind the Scenes: Lulu

For this week's blog post, I decided I'm going to talk a bit about my process for colorizing my pictures.

The first step is of course the sketch itself.  There's no wrong or right way to do a sketch.  That's all up to the artist and how much additional prep work they may want to do before coloring.  I try to draw a fairly clean sketch so there's less clean up to do when I scan it.  Some artists might choose to draw in blue pencil and go over it with ink or a dark pencil.  Some prefer to do a rough sketch and trace over it in ink using a lightbox or even digitally in Photoshop or GIMP or other art software. 

Lulu sketch digitally modified

To the right is the scanned sketch.  Both for sake of visibility and general cleanliness, I always adjust the image's color levels before I upload it anywhere (it makes the blacks blacker and the lights lighter; useful for removing most leftover smudges and pencil marks).  If you draw on standard letter-size/printer paper, you'll be able to scan in your work with one pass.  However, if you draw on anything bigger than that (this sketch was done on 11"x14" paper), you'll have to scan your image in 2 or more halves and digitally stitch them together.  It's not as complex as it sounds.  Pretty seamless if you're only dealing with 2 pieces.  More than 2 and it gets just a bit more difficult, but still not too bad.  

The next step after scanning in the image is to separate the line art from the background.  This is so that the black lines will stay on top of everything (think of the line art as the icing on a cake).  Which software you're using determines how easily that can be done.  There's more than one method to separate line art.  Just a matter of which you prefer.

Now that my line art has been separated, I'm going to keep it as the first layer and set the layer type to Multiply.  From there I start creating different layers.  There's no rules for how many layers you can or should have, but more layers usually means a bigger file size and more CPU resources.  I combine elements on a layer where possible provided that they don't touch each other (you don't want your elements touching on the same layer as that can confuse you when coloring or making special adjustments).  For example, I have Lulu's hair on the same layer with her belts, and her dress's fur lining on the same layer with the floral designs on her sleeves.  I have all the dolls on their own layer, but I would not put the dolls on the same layer with her hair pins because those two elements are directly touching and would make coloring more difficult.

Lulu pic layers

My method for composing layers is flatting all the colors out first in their respective layers.  I do it either by using the lasso tool for precision or just painting broadly and erasing the overrun later.  When creating layers, always keep visibility in mind.  A layer higher up in the list will supersede everything beneath it and something low on the chain will not be able to be seen through the elements above it.  It all works very much like a cake, if you will.  

You can see I've started some of the actual coloring process.  There is no one good way to color.  As with everything I've mentioned, it's all about user preference.  Some kind of a graphics tablet with a pen is pretty much a must for doing any kind of coloring.  My tool of choice at this time is a Wacom Intuos5 Medium.  Coloring remains as a process that I am still far from being great in.  An artist's work is never done...

An Internet Of Art

I've been drawing since I was in elementary school.  I'll be 26 in a little over a week, so that would make it approximately 14 years of drawing in one form or another.  I have many of my old works, but not all.

In the modern world, the internet is more accessible than ever before.  There are still many places that don't have access to it, of course, but most people who want it can find a way to it.  Restaurants, hotels, cafes, and fast food places commonly offer it as a freebie for their customers.  

It's with that in mind that I wonder how my artistic evolution might've diverged had I had the kind of access to the internet when I was young and more impressionable than I am today.  Today, young artists need only go to Google to find much of what they're looking for.

The internet was around when I was younger, but I didn't have a computer to access it (I wouldn't own my first computer until 2005).  I used to visit the library and surf the net any chance I had.  When it came to learning more about doing art, my main resources were whatever books I had.

Computers have dropped a lot in price over the years and the internet is now no longer restricted to just computers.  If you have a phone, a modern gaming system, a tablet, or even a special TV, you can access the internet.  For aspiring artists in today's age, all the information they need is just a click away.

I think that websites like deviantART are great resources for artists, no matter how advanced or how new they are to the field.  It's what I like to call the ultimate "bigger fish" syndrome.  All artists can always find someone who does their craft with more and with less skill.  And that kind of perspective can help on the evolutionary scale.

I see many works by many different artists every day.  Hundreds upon hundreds.  Most of them, I just click through.  Not enough time in the day to go through and manually look at each and every one.  But from time to time, I'll see something that stands out to me, either something that I feel is more skillful than my works or something that I think can be really good with a little guidance.

My art hasn't yet reached the level I think it should be at, but I still think that I can do some pretty great stuff at times.  And on occasion, I will take the time to share some of what I've learned over the years with those who want the help or those who just want a different perspective.  Because once upon a time, I too was just an artist who wanted to be noticed...

Black Magic Woman

Lulu sketch

I started this sketch of Lulu about 2 weeks ago.  Finished it up yesterday.  The final version is pretty close to what I had originally envisioned when I started sketching it.

In Final Fantasy X, Lulu casts magic using voodoo dolls as her weapons (all of which are floating around her in the sketch).  I found some of the dolls tricky to draw as I was unable to find much good in the way of reference pics.  

I know Lulu wears a variety of necklaces, all of which were excised both for the sensuality of the image and because I wanted to move on from this sketch.

I've started working on my next sketch.  I'm not yet sure who the character will be as I'm still composing the body.  At this point in time, I'm thinking a lady from the Resident Evil universe.  I shall not harp on the topic at this time...

Practice Makes Perfect

Lulu WIP

I started working on a sketch for the The Warriors of Final Fantasy tribute over at Game Art HQ (the Deviant Art group page can be found here).  I opted first to take on Kuja, then Beatrix, and Freya before finally landing on Final Fantasy X's Lulu.   

The pic to the right is of course not finished, but it's what the final version is more or less going to be.  I encountered quite a bit of anatomical difficulty with constructing this image.  But I learned some things while studying how I could improve.

I think part of the key to creating good art is understanding how the muscles lock in together.  If you can keep the layout of the underlying musculature in mind, it can keep you on the right track when building your pose.

Whenever I compose any picture, I usually will draw the body completely naked first before adding any clothes.  So sometimes that means I spend a good chunk of time defining a form that is soon to be overwritten and erased.  Maybe there are faster ways, but I need to understand where the underlying form is before I can clothe it.  Of course, sometimes it's simpler to just leave it unclothed... 
 

 

Comic Book Script Writing

I grew up reading many comic books.  They, along with video games, were my earliest inspirations for wanting to be an artist.  The beautiful pictures, the cool designs, the covers, and the stories...all were amazing to me as a young boy.  Fast forward about 16 years.  I am now going to create my own. 

Granted, this would not technically be my first comic book.  I assembled some small ones when I was little.  But what separates this project from the others is that I'm going to approach it in a more professional manner.

It's currently titled Seraph and will revolve around a woman chosen to be the last defender of mankind against evil itself.  There's more to it than that, but that is the gist of it.  At this point in time it will be seven total issues, one of which will be a prologue issue (or Issue #0).  

Much of the content that will be in Issue #0 would normally have been revealed through exposition and flashbacks if it were written as a novel as originally planned.  Since comic books by their nature need to be concise with storytelling, the prologue issue will serve to set up most of the key points prior to the main storyline beginning.  

One thing I've learned about writing a comic book script is that there isn't really one single way to do it.  The format I'm using for the time being is going to be a simple Page/Panel/Narration/Dialogue layout.  I'm sure as time goes by I'll adjust it as needed.  

 
 I'm still very much early on with it, but I think I will enjoy the process...

Resurrected!

It's been almost a year since my last entry on this blog.  I have been active in my art since then, of course, but I haven't been documenting it here.  Where to begin?

First, I have not yet finished my magazine project.  It's been floating around in various stages of development.  It very much remains near the top of my priorities list.  I have my plan for it roughly laid out.  It's only a matter of executing it.  My original vision for it was to be something similar to Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue, though now it will be more akin to American Curves and Playboy.  It will be interesting for sure.

So what's new?  Since I wrote my last entry in August 2012, I have changed jobs.  I went from working 2nd shift to graveyard shift, which was quite a toll on me physically and  mentally.  Even now some eight months later I am still not particularly settled with it.  But I have my reasons for staying, chief amongst them financially as I've not yet found a way to monetize my art.

What's coming up on the horizon?  Besides working on my magazine project and the occasional fan art, I'm also aiming to develop a comic book series based on a story that I was going to write as a novel at one point in time.  It will be a daunting task for sure, but one that I feel is a necessary evolution for myself both creatively and personally.

Is that all?  On the creative front, yes.  However, my mind is always ticking and churning, so something else is never far away.  I want to eventually see about constructing my own dedicated website soon, but I don't think I yet have enough reason or material to.

I will be turning 26 in a little over a month from now.  I know that this path I've chosen as an artist is unlikely to ever become something terribly lucrative and I know that I haven't even begun to yet endure the trials and tribulations that such a career requires.  But it is what I've aspired to do since I was a little boy.  Specifically, creating comic books is more or less what I've been aiming for (the perfect marriage between my writing and drawing talents).

I think the only thing that's ever stopped me from becoming more than I am at this point is me.  And it's been long past time for me to stop it.  

I'm going to aim to write at least one post a week, maybe more if I have something especially notable to share or discuss.  As always, you can keep up with my works at my Deviant Art gallery here.  See ya on the flip side.

"There is no knowledge that is not power."