how I do my drawings

[Jay Mc]

Howdy folks,

Heres a little insight on how i draw out my images.
First of all i draw out and scan a rough sketch, then
I whack up the trasparency on the sketch and make it the top
layer.
After that i add a new layer, and start doing solid colors.
Once I've layed out the solid colors, I then start adding
different shapes that use gradients, feathering and also
trasparency (you can see the kind of shapes i do around the
head on the second image). But to get your shading right,
you'll have to do alot of pieces.
The hair is a tricky one, especially blonde hair as it has
so many tones. So it's quite handy to have some sort of
referance. But i basically tackle the hair the same way
as i do with any other part of the drawing, by drawing
out shapes that use gradients. For stray hairs, I use
the pencil tool, and if i want a gradient on the pencil line,
I'll convert it into a shape and then apply a gradient.
Anyway, I hope this helps you guys out.

I have no plans to finish off this image any time soon

cheers

Jay

[Jon G]

Thanks, Jay Mc

I honestly think posts like this make internet worth the time not spent on doing stuff.

Do you use a tablet for tracing, and what Xara tool - the shape editor?

thanks again for sharing, and the pic is cool!

sunny days,

.jon

[Kman]

Thank, Jay, for the fine info and the great developing image.
It's always good to see/hear/learn how an artist creates.

In addition to answering Jon's questions, could you also guess the
amount of time a piece like this involves?

Last ... from the screen snaps you provided, it seems you only
had 3-4 layers used in composing this image. Which startles me,
given the amount of material used (the number of pieces for shading
and transparancy). I would have thought one would have used even
more layers.

Thanks again, and please, do keep sharing your ideas and your fine
work.

Ken

[Grafixman]

What interests me is how you come up with the ideas for your illustrations. From the internet, books, TV or movies or do they just pop up while you're drifting off to sleep? Looks like you've been doing this for quite some time, from your control of the shapes and colors. Very nice indeed.
For the sketches, do you do them very tightly before starting on the final render or loosely, adding details later in Xara? Looks like you're very comfortable drawing on paper. How does it compare sketching with a tablet on a computer? Pros and cons for sketches to be finished digitally.
The shapes, do you cut them out from one another when putting them on top of one another to get the shading, or do you just clipview them to the base shape?

[Jay Mc]

Hi people,

let's answer some questions shall we.....

Jon and Ken, doing high detailed art usually takes me
about 2 weeks to do (thats on and off), sometimes it might
take a little longer or shorter, depending on how good i want
it to look.
The skin tones take the longest to do, the pirate womans skin took
2 days, but was not going the way I had hoped for, so i'm going
to have to redo it.
Layer count is usually around 3 to 4 layers (including the sketch),
I tend to stay away from lots of layers, because it confuses the
sh** out of me. Near completion, I tend to make a layer for the final
details. And yes, i use a wacom drawing tablet, Hope this helps

I have slacked off in doing the high detailed stuff, as I just
don't have the time anymore, but when my holidays come pretty
soon, I will have about 3 finished images for you to look at.
so if you don't see me post soon, you'll know why

Grafixman, the pirate woman that you see, was completely done
from my head. but sometimes I'd have to refer to my comic books,
in order to get some posing just right. I also look at other
peoples art on the internet.
The dracula woman was again drawn from my head, but the idea
was sparked from another vampire image that i had seen ages ago,
with virtualy the same blood design and similar dress.
So full credit should'nt go out to me on that one.
Anyway, look at comic books (jim lee or j scott campbell
are my faves) but also consider life drawing and watching decent
japanese animation.
My love for comic art, and my curiosity for life drawing seems to sound
like a weird mix, but it seems to work (judging from all your great
comments)
My artwork still ain't up to scratch, but hopefully one day it will.

Thanks for all your kind words, and I'll post some newer stuff later on,
and maybe a xara file so you can see how i do my artwork more thoroughly.

cheers

Jay

[Jay Mc]

as for doing the shapes Grafixman, I just go by instinct and just draw them out, and since
it's vectors, you can fix or delete them