blokfort
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End of Month Post - February 2021
🕑 Added 2021-03-01 03:16:26 +0000 UTCI got a lot of work done, but unfortunately I don’t have a lot to show for it. Mostly the highlights of this month are a couple of big projects, daily drawings, and a lot of time dedicated to learning and re-learning certain aspects of the art programs that I now I’m currently use. It makes me feel a little bad, because I feel like I need to consistently show and provide the work that people are supporting me for. I only managed to finish page 7 of Eyes on the Prize, and a few other commission-type art to show time-lapses and other stuff. But, I’m very, very happy with the final results of the things I have completed.
I’m not terribly familiar when it comes to the subject of mech or machine type stuff. I don’t normally like to talk about commissions in great detail, but one of the things commissions I had to work on was an old suit of mechy-armor. It was an odd (and sometimes frustrating) process of trying to put pieces together in a way that made sense, when I don’t actually have a lot of mechanical sense or knowledge. It’s kind of funny to mention, but lately I’ve been getting into the Warhammer 40k. I think the designs and universe are a lot of fun! I think after doing a few daily drawings of some of the Adeptus Astartes armor, it helped a bit for this armor commission. Maybe.
Another thing that helped a lot while doing said armor was using a different art app/program. Originally, I used Procreate (Pro). I started using Pro in 2015, when I got my first iPad. It was a pretty great drawing app, very simple and pretty intuitive to use, minus custom brush making. The custom brush making is atrociously bad. The the thing that made me switch to using the new program, Art Studio Pro (ASP), was basically because it was the same thing, but had more tools. And, even when talking about the same exact tool, it had more options and customizability. The touch-gestures are faster, the bars are customizable, the fact that it has a quick-gesture-page-thing. Pro has none of those things. These days, Pro’s interface is just… incomprehensible. Certain things are, and are not customizable, the touch-gestures are slow and laggy, THE GOD DAMN LAYER LIMITS. Oh right, ASP has no layer limits. I could go on, but I think you get the idea. If you want a nice drawing program, try out Art Studio Pro! I’ve also heard that Clip Studio Paint is quite nice as well. I think Procreate started it’s downfall when it decided to focus on the iPhone version, Procreate Pocket. Completely mind boggling to me. So, with the change to ASP, I’ve had to get settled with how canvas are made, where tools are, customizing buttons, remaking *BRUSHES*. The brush making in ASP is amazing, it’s so easy. Everything I want to change is in a spot that makes sense. Mostly. Better than Procreate anyway. So yeah, a large chunk of time was spent getting used to ASP. But now, I’m settled!
Page 7 of the comic was actually done in ASP as well. I relocated all the page preset stuff over to ASP from Pro. Making the frames of the comic is a little funky, but it get’s the job done. I will say, Pro’s ability to edit a line-shape after drawing it is quite nice, and would love to see the same happen in ASP at some point, but until then I’ll just have to make do. I recreated my main brush in ASP, except somehow it’s even betterer than the one I used in Pro. I don’t actually hate doing the line-art all that much now, which is a good thing because there’s a lot of it. In page 7, I’ve decided to try and NOT color the background at all, only using various grey-scaled colors to mark setting. light grey for outside, darker grey for inside, etc. etc. It makes characters pop out more, I think. The trade-off though, is that I feel like I have to do a lot of line-art in order to actually show where the characters are, setting-wise. Currently, it’s ok to me in the end anyway, as just doing line-art is far less mind taxing than having to pick and repick various grey shades in order to color bits and pieces of the background along with the characters, over and over, and over. It’s also less layer management!
I’m thinking I’ll be accepting commissions again soon for March. Things have settled down now, and I feel ready to take on more. Was also maybe thinking of posting to Tumblr again.
