Not the Rook!!!

Well, I got the registration problems sorted out - it's weird though - Manga Studio is now called Clip Studio Paint - at least if you get the digital download version (still Manga Studio if you buy it on DVD). Had me head scratching - but  checked, and it isn't some kind of pirated copy or anything, this is official. I hate the name - it conjures up a confabulation of MS Paint and clip art…

But all that's beside the point. Lol, I had the usual bout of excited impatience after I was finally able to register it and it was now mine to play around with to my heart's content - I had to take some time web surfing and eat dinner before I was settled down enough to actually stop and think about what to draw, and to plan it. It's funny - getting new art supplies or programs turns me into a kid!

My first attempt at penciling this was disappointing, so I turned it down to about 30% opacity and made another pencil layer above it (red this time to differentiate it from the original non-repro blue layer) and drew it over, but in a decisive straight-line style that from the start looked much more comic-book. And no, it's not the Rook. Really.

This is actually very encouraging - I've rarely done a head in ink that looked anywhere near this good. It still looks amateurish in ways, but since it's digital I can always go in and erase and re-draw any parts I want to. That my friends is what's known as turbo-charging the learning process.

I seem to have shifted myself deliberately into some kind of comic-book artist mode, just through a sheer act of will. It began when Kimonas informed me of the sloppy, hairy quality of the linework in my recent Bridgeman studies, and I kicked it up another notch for this one. More and more I'm getting the strong notion that improving as an artist - at least when you have the basics well in hand - is mostly a matter of focus and concentration. Of having a very clear-cut goal (not just the vague desire to 'get better') and a powerful determination to get there NOW. It helps of course that I have drawn comic style art in the past - many years ago. In some regard I'm just pulling up knowledge I gained then and pushing it farther.

Ok, too much blabber..

I also did this in CSP (I even hate the initials):