2012 to 2014 sketchbook tour & a rant about video editing

So… I got distracted. I am going to post up the first comic page but for some reason I felt a great need to film my sketchbook instead? 

Anyway, you can find it on YouTube here. 

I've been meaning to get my sketchbooks up on YouTube for a while now, partly to share them with those who are interested but also as a way of having a permanent record of them where even if the original burns they'll still be safe. 

The sketchbook I picked I had kicking around for a while...it's pretty old...it's pretty anime...the anatomy’s terrible......at least it's proof I've improved? So yeh, as the sketchbooks go this might not be the most interesting one, it's nearly all bad or unfinished art, but I decided I may as well start with this one since I am planning on getting them all up. Maybe I can switch back and forth between new and old books as I do so...make the old books a little more bearable.

So I went to record my book.... turns out that process was much harder than I thought it would be.

First of all, I've only done a tiny bit of video editing using the adobe programs which I no longer have so I had to go on a hunt for a good free one. All the reviews suggested different programs.... I was looking at long lists that didn’t have a single name in common. 

I originally went with shortcut, I think after 20 lists or so it appeared two or three times. I installed it, I couldn't work out how to make it run..... I eventually gave up.

Then I went with Lightworks and so far it's been okay. The tutorial covered nearly everything I needed and for the most part it was easy to find answers to questions I asked. I think I'll stick with it. 

Grey Lady

It's been a while since I posted huh? Sorry about that, at first I was too ill again, then too busy catching up with things and then to be honest I was just out of the habit and kept forgetting about it. I've also started job hunting again, as much as I want to I really shouldn't be focusing on my art or blog right now…great fun.

So what I've been up too...I finished the first page of the Terrier Studios comic, I'll probably post about that next since I have the permission, so I'll leave talking about it till then. 

I've been doing quite a few granulation tests, haven't had many useful results without using granulation fluid and I've got very little of it left now. Still I have enough to do a few more test and it goes a long way. I'll talk about that more once I finish those tests.

I wasn’t completely happy with how my last black and gold painting came out so I did this one, greatly cutting down on the amount of gold used. I like the overall effect, I like the granulated background...I think in general it could have done with more polish and time spent on it. 

Lady of Sunlight

I did this one just before New Year's but I've not been well enough to upload it anywhere until now.

This was mostly to test out the ArtGraf watercolour graphite and the Finetec gold watercolours to

together. I was planning on using the ArtGraf pencils in there too but it didn't seem to happen that way. 

I actually took quite a lot away from painting this. Most importantly...I really like just doing small quick paintings. I keep doing big long projects but to be honest just doing something that's A4 and takes a day and a night to finish.... it's so much more satisfying. I get so bored of most of my paintings by the end of them so surely that results in worse art over all. Besides just doing loads of quick paintings would surely improve my skills faster anyway, at least for things like anatomy and composition...both things I need to work on. 

ArtGraf watercolour graphite & water-soluble pencils

First of all sorry I disappeared for a while... I just keep falling ill again. I thought I was getting better the last time I posted but a second round got me the day after. I've been too ill to do much for two weeks now. It is getting rather annoying...

But I'm finally up for writing again so hopefully it's finally going away.

 So for Christmas I got ArtGraf watercolour graphite and water-soluble pencils. Both my mum and I love the work of Yoann Lossel so after getting me the gold watercolours for Solstice the graphite was the logical next step (well logical looking back at it, at the time I had no idea.)

I've wanted to do greyscale plus one other colour (preferably metallics) paintings for a while now. It's a style I really love but I've barely touched outside of little doodles.

But for one reason or another I've never quite been satisfied with my black tools, pens only give one shade unless you crosshatch, I seem to have problems ruining my paper trying to get darks with normal pencils and I dislike the graininess of the 6B and higher pencils, I also don't like the shade of my black paints both acrylic and watercolours though Payne's grey could work.... there’s something very muddy feeling about black paints, I'm not sure I could really explain it. 

Finetec coliro pearlcolours

So first of all: that's me back. I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays, I spent Solstice with my mum, Christmas with my family and Hogmanay with friends. Over all pretty good.
I was planning on returning much earlier, I was thinking the 2nd, but I've been really really ill for the last few days and completely unable to think or properly talk to people. Still have it a little but at least I'm able to write now.

So for Solstice my mum gave me a box of Finetec coliro pearlcolours.....these things are amazing.
I've really got into metallics recently after using the brass powder mix (that I used on a Light in the Dark) however there was a couple of problems with that method: If I mixed too much I couldn't reuse it and it used up a lot of my limited amount of gold calligraphy ink...I don't have enough to do something big with it again but my mum was thinking of testing out the brass powder with gum arabic (I think?) so I'll see how that goes and if it's worth it for me to try.
Anyway, after I finished that painting I was actually thinking of buying these, or one of the cheaper versions out there, but my mum had the same idea and decided to get them for me. :)