Kasey's Sketchbook
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I think he uses lounge music versions of songs so he can't be sued by the original rights owners... I just think with the money this guy makes, he could afford better sounds.
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@Kasey-Snow I did a quick paint over here: https://youtu.be/TEBQCqEPudU
I hope it was OK to link your website(s). I don't get traffic at this point but I figure if I ever did it would be one way to direct people to you as well.
Also: sorry about the somewhat blurry nature of the video. I think it's due to my NVIDIA screen recording program but I'm not sure. If I ever started doing this type of thing more often I'd probably invest in something better.
Let me know if you have any questions.
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@mattramsey are using Shadowplay to record your screen? I tried that with no luck, but would love a video on it, since you did it successfully. Or point me in the direction of one that can show me. Loved the hard vivid layer of yellows you used, I'm gonna try something like that and maybe it'll speed me up.
Question if you were going to approach a gryphon piece would you do a greyscale layer for light and shadow, or is that not how you normally work, do you always go to direct color after linework?
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@Bobby-Aquitania Yep, it's Shadowplay. I'm at work atm so I'm going on memory (I can check on this later):
When I open up my Nvidia program (through the control panel) I see a tab that says Shadow Play. When I click on that I see all the recording options. There is a list of hot keys on how to record/stop record. Mine says Alt + F9. When I hit that a little green button pops up (I am able to direct where the button shows up--mine is top right corner). Then when I'm done I hit Alt+F9 again and the video automatically saves to the folder I've specified (also in the options menu).
I don't know what version of Nvidia/Shadow play I have so I can check that--it might make a difference.
Is the problem that you unable to record anything?
As far as my process: I have done grey scale-to-color in the past and I will do it again I'm sure. I really like that idea and it gives me a much firmer foundation than just doing straight color. I believe Dave Rapoza does that a lot, as does Bobby Chiu. Then they would use some Color & Overlay layers to get the right tones and then start painting straight color.
Many times, however, I just skip that step and go to color. This is usually due to laziness but sometimes I have a really strong idea on how the lighting will work and I don't "need" grey scale.
I recently saw a creature tutorial from Aaron Blaise and his process is similar to mine but I learned a lot of little techniques and "short cuts." My plan is to do a creature using some of his tips and then post a video of the whole thing. Maybe sometime in January.
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@mattramsey Oh wow, thank you for taking the time to do that! I think watching you work on it helped get my mojo back and I will probably return to it once I finish my 3rd Thursday entry. It was fun and helpful to watch and of course I don't mind you linking to me, I definitely appreciate it!
Also, on the topic of recording, I use Open Broadcaster and it seems to work pretty well and is easy to record on. Setting it up for streaming is a little bit more confusing, but once you get everything established it's a breeze, at least that's been my experience.
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@Kasey-Snow No problem--I really like the piece
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@mattramsey yeah Shadowplay starts and then gives me the not recording icon the green button with a red line through it. Happens no matter what I do. Restart it, restart my pc, use the command line prompt to restart the Nvidia streaming service. It's been a royal pain. Never has recorded one thing. My graphic card is a 960 Strix, and I have 16GBs of RAM, an i7 2600K CPU, an 850watt gold power supply, so it's not my specs...
I was thinking of using Open Broadcaster, but with your video using Shadowplay, I thought I'd give it one more try... nope, no luck.
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@Bobby-Aquitania Hmmm. I didn't really do anything fancy. There aren't a lot of options for me to choose from/mess with. As long as your "allow desktop capture" is enabled and you have a destination for your videos I'm not sure why it wouldn't be working.
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No biggie, I will probably use something more reliable.
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Latest WIP. I participate in a yearly secret santa art trade on another forum and this year I am supposed to draw a lion for someone. I like to use this opportunity every year to try new things with Photoshop and new methods of approach, so here's what I've got so far:
Here is a small color key mock up of the direction I'm going with the lighting/color:
Eventually there will be some low hanging branches to help frame the animal and downplay the contrast of that tail in the crook of the tree a bit, I just didn't block that part in yet. I might lower the tail and get the tip out of sight as I feel it draws attention away from the lion herself. But we'll see how much the branches end up obscuring it.
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Grabbed another hour to work on this, it's coming along I think. Still not sure about that tail tuft, but pretty happy the rest of it so far. Once I get it more finalized I'll be able to flip it around and and check for imbalance. Also planning on burying her paws in the snow a bit, just needed to block in her form so I could make sure her proportions were good.
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More or less finished. Really only worked on it a bit more after the last post, so not a huge difference. Did get rid of that tail tuft though.
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Nice composition and lighting! The lion's face is really nicely done, a lot of life there. In looking at some lioness reference pics, I think that the front legs are a bit too far apart and perhaps a little too thick in comparison to the hind legs. Very dramatic piece, well done!
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I'm watching Jake's class on Comic Books right now. He breaks down the elements of a successful page, addressing the problem you had above. Sorry I missed it the first time reading through your thread. But Jake does talk about how to use type and word balloons more effectively. I would give it a watch when you can...
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@natiwata Good eye, haha. Making the front legs too thick on cats/dogs is something I've always stuggled with for some reason. I tried to use some reference for the legs on this one to avoid exactly that, but apparently it didn't help enough. Thanks for the feedback!
@Bobby-Aquitania thanks for the hint, I actually did watch Jake's comics class trying to pay special attention to what he had to say about type and it just didn't quite answer the questions I had about how to not make things look cheesy. Specifically sound effects. Like, I know there have to be some rules of thumb out there about things to avoid (i.e. don't use comic sans, don't use the warp tool in this situation, always fade words in this situation, etc...) I guess I"m just looking for something more in depth on using type in comics.
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I will see what I can find for you. I know I have several books in my collection, but let me see if I can find you an online source.
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@Bobby-Aquitania VERY helpful. Thank you so much!
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Really liking the progress on this latest piece. The rendering keeps getting better and better. Keep at it!
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It's been a while since I posted, sorry about that. Been trying to get some personal projects underway. Worked on this comission earlier in the month and figured I'd share. Commissioner asked me to draw a Krampus. At the time I'd not heard of the movie, I went with my own conceptualization after looking up the lore:
