brown

Tomb Raider contest

illustration

There is this contest on DeviantArt that ended last night. It was for the new Tomb Raider game that came out. I’ve never entered in a art contest before, let alone try to draw someone else’s characters like so.

It was fun coming up with ideas, but I just didn’t get a chance to put as much time into it. I would’ve liked to have done coloring digitally, but at the moment my desktop is dead. I considered using marker but I didn’t feel like I had enough color range.

Playing around with Paper

Sketchbook

Tablets are a strange thing. They are that in between tech of awkward portability. You’re either lugging around something too big (10″+) or something too little (-7″). With the capabilities of a cellphone and a proper laptop, where does it really fit?

I’ve been playing around with my mother’s iPad with some art programs for it and a stylus. Paper is the application I’ve been using. What I really like about the app is the simple interface. However, I would like to be able to get a full pallet of colors without having to pay extra for it.

Drawing on the iPad is something to get used to. As there is no inherent pressure sensitivity, you’ve got to relearn what it is to draw with your hands. I love to draw traditionally with real paper and pencil, but I like the fact that I could draw digitally and push it straight to email or web post.

Do I want a tablet like an iPad to be able to draw digitally wherever I go? Maybe… I’m still undecided. It is an expensive piece of a equipment for not much output. And yet it’s still new, still portable as a notebook and pencil and fun. Does it beat drawing on a laptop with a mini Wacom tablet? I don’t think so. There is so much more flexibility when it comes to the software and hardware combinations you can get with that kind of setup.

Would I ever forgo my sketchbook and pencils for any of the above absolutely? Never.

hand and cloth

Sketchbook

There were three main things I wanted to practice on in this drawing — the hand, cloth and hair. Initially I didn’t know where this was going when I first sketched it. Finished, came back to it and then decided to ink it. When I finally purchased a marker set, I started looking for some sketches to color in and this was it.

The sketchbook is one of my favourites. Gifted to me by my best friend, I was curious to see how it would handle marker. Finch Paper at 100lbs the ink will bleed through to the other side, but not enough to ink onto the next page. The pages are so smooth — I’ll be doing a lot more inking and marker work in this book.