Our SVS Virtual Studio FEBRUARY 2022

chrisaakins

Here is my second character I developed for my comic. I am trying to go for an urban college kid feel.

lizardillo

This took me a bit (a lot) longer than I expected but I managed to finish it as a portfolio piece. No Riley for me this month - I can't deal with another full-pager!

AngelinaKizz

My morning coffee is usually accompanied by some character doodles. I start with very basic shapes like triangles, hearts, squares, ovals, circles, and then sometimes I just let the pencil go in a weird squiggle and see what I see in the shape. These are two I’m working on right now the page is full of soon to be rendered characters. Pencil on printer cardstock.

Heather Boyd

@lizardillo You did such a great job on this! I like the story, character and composition.

chrisaakins

Did more work on the mural…

jenn

@burvantill I didn't notice either
@kayleenartlover this froggy is terrifying the way he is looking at me with the scissors haha

Kim Hunter

@demotlj Love it! I ran a 4-dog team for many years and took a spin around my pasture on my x-country skis about and hour ago. You captured this well. Cheers!

Jeremiahbrown

demotlj

@kim-hunter Thanks. It was so much fun to watch them; I imagine it's great fun to sled with them.

lizardillo

@heather-boyd thank you so much

lizardillo

@chrisaakins this looks an interesting project Chris. Where is it? Apologies if you have already said, I’ve been in out out of the forum quite briefly recently so I’m not that up to date with everything.

chrisaakins

@lizardillo I love sharing so it's no problem to retell it! A church children's ministry hired me to paint their children's wing in the theme of a small town. It has been a fun but much bigger project to paint than I anticipated. Wall paint takes FOREVER to dry. I needed to paint it will wall paint to make sure it was durable and wouldn't fade over time. I need me some good worker bees to help out. I paid my daughters to help but they are too busy now.

Miriam

@von_nimmermehr I love the layered textures & colors! Your avatar is cute & sweet. I'm wondering, "Is she surprised, impressed, or does she like to sing?"

Miriam

@chrisaakins said in Our SVS Virtual Studio FEBRUARY 2022:

I am trying to imagine how you could turn this into a vector and yeah I don't think that's possible. Way too much texture.

You should be able to do it in a program called Affinity Designer (which is similar to Adobe Illustrator). https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/designer/
With Designer, you can create vector shapes, and apply raster textures or brushes.

"Switch between full featured vector and raster workspaces ... Add raster brush texture to your illustrations, ... mask and add grain to your crisp vectors"

I can't remember for sure (since I have both), but you might need to get Affinity Photo as well as Affinity Designer in order to use the raster features in Designer.

I was very excited when I saw that you can work with vector & raster in the same program. I'm just a beginner with this, but you can check out their website for examples.
At the website above, scroll down to "Vector or raster, you decide" & you can toggle the raster effects on & off to see the difference on a vector illustration.
Here's a short demo video that shows how you can paint raster images, or apply a raster texture to a vector shape in Designer: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/tutorials/designer/desktop/video/338830412/

Affinity can export as (save as) all the major file types, including .psd — I haven't personally tried sending a .psd file to someone who uses Photoshop, so I can't vouch for it, but I really like the Affinity programs (and they are much less expensive than Adobe Photoshop, et alia!).

Miriam

@braydin-hawlette Wow, this cover is great!
Is this a book you're writing, or an example of a cover illustration?

Miriam

@lizardillo I agree with Heather. You did an amazing job!

burvantill

@lizardillo Looks really great!

kylebeaudette

Asyas_illos

@kylebeaudette love these! How long does one take you to do? Love the Beetlejuice and Harry potter

kylebeaudette

@asyas_illos thanks! About 30 minutes, sometimes 5 minutes for easier ones.