Qwerk

2016 - another year. They roll around so quickly now. 2015 was a mixed bag - lots of triumphs and some tragedies. It's been a long and exhausting year - lots of work, too many changes and little security. I am glad to see the back of it and I get the impression many others are too. Maybe we are all picking up on the same restless zeitgeist.

I'm at a bit of a cross-roads - between many things, in limbo. I want to take a step forward but I don't have too many options - well none that are practical anyway. It's been a struggle to keep my job and part of me wonders how much longer I should keep trying. My graphic design course has yielded some great results, but I regularly ask myself whether it is worth persevering. Moving into commercialism seems about 20 years too late. 

Another year and another business name - I think that's the fourth in as many years. Art_Geek wasn't doing it for me, so I've registered Qwerk Designs - because I'm quirky, the letters are unusual, the numerology works and it will look good on a T-shirt. It's a branding thing - I figure my best selling point, or 'point of difference' as it's known in the industry, is my 'rugged individuality' (as one person expressed it). I really wanted to use 'Munted Doll Designs' but I doubted many people would get  it - my ironic sense of humour is too obscure for most of them.

My real fantasy is to get some work as an illustrator.  I wouldn't expect to make a living from it but it would be wonderful to do some editorial illustrations, or drawings for a small book. It's probably just a pipe-dream but I'll keep moving in that direction.

Illustration: detail of a work in progress for 'Square' - a 2016 group exhibition for the Great Southern Festival (part of PIAF)

comet girl

I am revisiting some of my old oil paintings and turning them into digital images. I never finished this one in its original state but had done most of the figure. I am now using it as a reference for this new work.

It is an adaptation of a dream I had fairly recently, so it is 'autobiographical' (although I have taken a fair bit of artistic licence).

Digital painting suits me so much better than traditional media. It is still time consuming but less frustrating because I can change things more easily if they don't work. Also, because I construct an image in layers, I can move things around for better composition, like the comets for example - or create an entirely new background for the figure. 

I think I was born too early because this technology wasn't around for most of my life. I didn't touch a computer until I was 41. Better late than never I guess - at least I have had the opportunity to learn to paint with digital media.

apropos 'of nothing'

This is my contribution to the group exhibition of nothing currently showing at 'Kent River Studio' from the 26 September to 11 October. 

Hand drawn linework digitally coloured and printed on 310 gm archival paper (the grid was created in Photoshop).

getting happier

I've decided I like this better without the outlines in the background. I love the ease with which you can apply tones in Manga Studio and I am having fun learning how to use them.

There is a precedent for this style of course (isn't there always?). I was watching Pokemon today (not much on TV at that time of the morning while I'm having a cuppa) and noticed this is how they do it. The characters have outlines and the backgrounds don't. Although my style of drawing is quite different and limited to black and white, for this one at least.

I'm finding it quite addictive.

skater boy WIP

Had a bit of difficulty deciding on a strategy for the background. I did a ballpoint pen drawing and imported to Photoshop to create a psd file. Then I tried vectorising in Illustrator and even inking with the pen tool. I am not a huge fan of the perfect inked line the pen tool tends to create when you are inexperienced with it (as I am). Finally settled on this - isolated the line and now colouring in Manga Studio on a layer underneath.

I am enjoying the brush because it is giving me a mottled texture rather than super smooth saturated colour. Maybe not as good as the stock background provided by Manga Studio but more in keeping with the figure. I like the layout of the background better too as it gives it more depth. Works for me anyway.

me & manga studio 5

I thought I had it already but couldn't find it in applications (I bought Anime Studio Pro by mistake). So I invested yet another $80 in software to get Manga Studio 5. This was going to be my summer holiday project but I got a bit excited and jumped the gun.

I've posted this drawing here before but I made some changes in Manga Studio today - more shading and applying a texture to the board. Easy as - just select the area with the Magic Wand and drag the texture in. Which is cool if you want to apply the 'halftone' dots you see in comics. The background is an MS freebie. I am planning to do an original eventually. And I haven't finished the soles of the shoes - you can see the clouds through them.

You can import as a psd (with all layers preserved) - which supports my method of hand drawing and Live Tracing in Illustrator to colour in another program. The pencil is much better than PS and the brushes are really nice to use. You can rotate your work easily but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. The interface is a bit different to Illustrator and Photoshop, but similar enough so you can feel your way around until you get to some tutorials. For some reason it saves automatically as RGB which is a bit of a nuisance if you are doing stuff for print but it's easily fixed.

I think this is definitely the program for people who like drawing.