Happy Sunday - why we don't trust interviews

Whoa.... blogger fail. I still have to find out how to use the new options without screaming... First of all: I like interviews... sometimes. More or less I think it is odd if you have a problem with printed images you personally do absolutely NOT favour, old or not really showing what you can do. Mostly because who might show can't be displayed online -and if you try an armada of company XY lawyers will send you funny bills.
Anyways... Advanced Photoshop was interested in an interview and I thought... k... let's do it. Can't hurt.

Do I have to mention that most of the information are messed up ten minutes before printing? I was 25,24, made my books with water-colours (no, it's ACRYLICS!... Arg!) and hell what else. Since those interviews tend to be messed up I generally don't trust ANY information giving in any interview since you have no idea what was twisted and changed and I bet I can't be the only one getting a new vita every 3 months. So... I am in a Studio now which I rule with my buddy Maike. Cool, I didn't know myself....







We use a collective mail-address since some customers work together with both of us and if we get a job for ---peeepp- we agreed that forwarding can become pretty disturbing. The mail address lead to the assumption: "Hey, these girls have a Studio." I have no idea why people don't ask if it's correct but start writing without getting a check if it's true. o_o
So.. I like the idea of a Studio but again... I didn't want to read about it in a mag... and getting "Cogratulation!" mails from my folks... ew.

The other thing is... I really thought after Ikea and American "call your boss by his first name, we're cool" habit it was oldschool to write: "Pätzke says..." .. Doh! I don't dislike my name but it sounds odd and impersonal.

After being frustrated like hell because of those fails I might mention that I spend 400 bucks on cat's stuff which leads me to the memo that I should start working again to cover those 400-oh-my-gawd-but-the-banana-leaf-thing-will-last-forever-shopping trip. =.=

Flashcat- inking for nerds

Inking can be pretty annoying. And even more if you need those lines shiny perfect for a huge image. It might not happen that often but ink+ eps-option= whoazzaaaa!!!
The stalker kitteh was inked in FLASH. Some people might scream: Ewww! But trust me if you have some pratice it's fine. I used it for my magazine work and a lot graphics for the agency and I will use it as often as possible.
---> click here to see which tool to use <----

Take the brush and click on "Use Pressure" (bottom). This is important to... well, actually *use* the pressure sensitive pen of a graphic tablet (without a gt the whole thing is pretty useless).

Flash might be a bit tricky and sometimes it cuts away lines but you always have a strg+z and that should do.

Cheers!

Sir Bogard Steps

of course I mostly forgot to make screenshots. >_> mostly 1 layer painting with the brush I listed in an older post.

Step 1: digitalizing the sketch
Step 2: painting the basic colors and shapes
Step 3: starting to paint details and shadow/ light

Step 4: starting to paint the goggles and the eyes

Step 5: adding more details and sharpening the edges

Step 6: Realizing my light setting is crap, starting to repaint the whole thing...happens always *sigh* (thanks to Dani for the optical hints)

Step 7: realizing the foot looks weird... repainting it in an even weirder manner... and just imagining that it's the reason why he wants to fly....

Blending the whole thing with brush in "burn" mode. sir Bogard still looks really relaxed.

Done... I guess.

Sir Bogard

... was absolutely positive about the fact that his royalty can fly.

I thought about painting a ridiculous dachshund (in German "Dackel" or..."Wiener") and seeing so many Dackel at the moment made it even worse.
Anybody interested in the steps? (Photoshop)

(B)utterly Blue

annnnd another one. In German I would call those "Pummelfee".
Life isn't friendly at the moment. I normally am in my regular happy-mode but yesterday just SUCKED.
I lost my EC card which is one day before a fair in another town an epic catastrophy and I still have to wait five hours before I can run to the bank and see if anything's missing. IF: somebody's gonna die. I saved up money for the next months and if this happens to be evaporated... gods.

Next drama:
calibrating the new Eizo. Gods... I should have known that you need a special training to get along with your shiny new screen. Ty and I spend two hours testing, calibrating, swearing, compare and whatever.
- The sRGB mode looks plainly weird because the colors are too blueish and yellow is missing.
- Custom.... skip it... it's shitty.
- EMU.... that one looked okay (but only in Photoshop... normal screen display looks too bright). I decided for EMU.
Ty: "What is EMU?"
Me: "Eww... i have no idea. Emotikitty United???" *confuzzled*
I think we'll spend another week of testing.

I have to admit: The screen IS great. But without perfect colors as bad as any other screen.
In the end I hold a printed postcard and fine-tuned via "Looks like this".
I know this is not so professional but at midnight we gave up.

So tomorrow will start my book fair week-end with test-pages in maybe wrong colors and without an EC card. It can get only better.

fail.....

.... and that happens if you can't merge... I have to shuffle those into folders soon or else it's gonna get disastrous.
Somehow i'm totally unsatisfied with my work right now. This is so NOT what I wanted and I guess I have to keep an eye on everything at once. After an unpleasant wake-up terror by Lilo, the 2-years-old Godzilla in the flat above mine I doubt the rings under my eyes will vanish until she's old enough to be kicked out by her parents.

work... slowly getting there

something for work... uh.. pink. atm it takes ages to finish stuff. :(

Hidden

i wish there was a "done" button for backgrounds....

Little Alien

.... or so does a little baby look. I felt like back into grammar school crawling through all those books and pages looking up the different states of an embryo. Why? Because that's one of those things I do atm. Drawing babies.

I got my comic paper yesterday and my new light table arrives tomorrow. I will take some pics and write a review as soon as I get a chance to do so (hopefully the week-end). I have no idea how much money I spend on new equipment over the past months but it was A LOT. And still a new screen and desktop PC are on the list. GAWWWDD.

Chicana

mah, i love those color schemes... but my PC hates the work. Died a million times and I already start doubting working on the other three will be any better. Whenever a customers asks for 80x60 cm images my computer totally fails. I really want a new one _._

Next to that... new comics, new illustrations, scouts, more scouts... even more scouts. Where January was smooth February gets busy and work-loaded.

Evening mood(y)

... and again some thing for work. ARG, i wanna post Hobbles!!! But i have to wait till Friday :(

Steamplotting

Something (just a small part of the rest) I've been working on for... felt ages. There are 10 more graphics to do and I'm like "omg, omg, omg!!!". So exciting.
Once again I'm surprised how good you can work with people you barely know. Eduardo for example. He lives in Portugal and I have never seen him. But telepathically ideas are pinging from my head to his and back and so on and it's fun to work with his Studio. Even late at night, quizzing new ideas.

Since most of the time it's like "Let's see if the customer will like it" this is really relaxing.


This is a rough sketch for a wedding card (for Tobi and Mags who will celebrate in summer). The whole card is HUGE (a complete train...) and I have to finish on monday. Anyways, my second personal card for a couple and I guess not the last one. Making those cards is nice. You get to know the couple (a bit at least) and you know: Those won't buy the standard cards. Hurray!

Les Dames -Zodiacs

done for a polish magazine. Will be out in November. woot!

So close to finish

Those weeks... oh my. I have been doing so many illustrations for the calendar, rushing through months that my hand finally started hurting again. It's okay... means I have to take a break soon. Two and a half illustration and I'm done.
Just to have a long list waiting. Ha haaa 0_0

anyway... many people asked if I could do a tutorial (na, you don't really want to see how I work). Tutorials are kinda okay but as books tutorials won't speak and a static tutorial can't really show *how* you work just which functions you use.

I thought about doing a live-stream for the cover illustration. It's a simple illustration but I hope it shows.... that messy work leads to a result.
Good Idea? Bad idea?

Things you might learn: How NOT to paint.... how to smudge intelligent (or not... I smudge a lot and I admit it... I hate airbrush brushes but I won't paint gazillion times over the same part if it takes 3 seconds with my cloud brush... )... how to skip the idea after 3 hours and start from zero... messy sketching... chaos. Yup, generally chaos.


Seeing Kiki tomorrow :D 16,3 years and I'm still excited every time I see my dinosaurus cat. Wee! Gonna make some pics. She should be fluffy again with winter-fur allover.

Insomnia

I haven´t been in the office since Monday. My stomach wanted revenge for two weeks with too much coffee, too nervous nights and -my own fault as well- stressful days. I was so excited because of a new project that I got sick.
I know it´s odd. I drink tea atm, eat my cereals and complain about unspiced food. It´s not that bad but I´m craving so much for spicy japanese food. Gaawwwd... Dragon Roll, I miss u so much.

I´m yawning along but the real sleep doesn´t come up. It´s a crux. I can´t sleep because I don´t have that much to do. Except reading... the comics and graphic novels I should read are piling up. I never thought it would be so hard to read stuff you normally wouldn´t buy. o_O

Good thing: I am nearly finished with my agency stuff. Oh my... just one piece left. I can´t believe it. It´s really hard to stick to a certain style while doing a complete set of illustrations. I started redoing some, added things here and there, corrected details but again: I´m glad when everything´s over. I really want to start a new project concept. Just bad that I cna´t work at home because I get tired every time I start Photoshop. XD

still unfinished....


finished... I love that one but the ivy killed my patience...

Cancer

just two left.... thanks god.

Rah

not my character but a commission I´m working on. Isn´t she cute? *pinching cheeks*
Hope I can finish it next week... weee!

Happy Saturday

I´m still waiting for my new coloured pencils to arrive :( I hope those will be here next week. I have some requested illustrations I won´t be able to do with Photoshop. arggg! >_<


Pong in his fridge. He got a sun-burn...


working on commissions... (weeee!)
(pencil is a TK9400 - 2H, Faber Castell)


my new classic pen. I love this one. It´s slimmer than the normal Intuos pen and made of plastic without rubber wrap but I like it more like that. The rubber tended to crack up.... I guess it won´t happen with this one and it´s easier for me to clean. But again... 80 bucks!


weee!² I still need some wooden boxes for my monitors. "Harry Potter" and a book of Jimmy Carter won´t do it forever... o_o

Slippery

i wish I would be faster... I like to do those... and at the moment I have to. I thought I would have more time after my last book-project but so many things pile up. Incredible. Not that I complain... I love to do those things atm >_<

Intuos... a matter of principles

weeee! My Intuous 3 arrived some days ago. It´s the same I have at work and I really love it. I just hope my second monitor arrives next week. I´m so used to work with two that it doesn´t make sense not to buy one (and since I´m going to work a lot more digital this year it´s useful).

(I should have cleaned up before taking the pic.. um...)

As you can see scrollbars are on both sides. I deactivated the left ones since I´m a left-handed person and scrolling with your amr while painting is really uncool. I use the right ones and honestly... I could go without those. Normally I work with pen +keyboard. And that´s enough.

Since my old graphire at home is okay but not that... let´s call it "perfect" as the Intuos which I have been using for 4 years now, I decided to buy a bigger one. The options where: Intuos A4 Number 3 OR 4.
When I saw the Intuos 4 I thought: "WTF?!"
Call me picky but have a look at this:

left side: The logo is on the bottom... When I said:
"I can´t use it, i´m left-handed o_o" the only answer was:
"But you can flip it, it works this way as well."

I´m not a graphic diva but for me it´s not acceptable that a left-handed person has to accept an upside down logo just because somebody decided that I´m part of a minority.
Yes, I CAN put it upside down. Of course it will work. Yes, it´s just a matter of principle.
Is it just me who thinks it´s odd?

I hope the design will be change when my new GT is broken... in some years. If the other GTs weren´t that bad I would decide to use another company´s product. I bought a classic pen as additional tool and the price was just ridiculous. 80 bucks for a pen made in China. Production price.. um.. maybe 20 Cent. The GT costs around 200 atm. See the point? It´s a bloody PEN, for 80 BUCKS! Rahh...

Only good thing I can tell you: My graphire pen plastic wrap started to crumble and harden last year. I wrote an email, attached a photo, explained the problem and got a new one. For free. Well, the service rocks. I never thought they would do it but wonders happen.