Just Trying To Keep My Skills Sharp

[amish rob]

FD3EC1C7-EBB5-44CE-BF9F-784F2695FF86.jpg

Thanks, Tom, for the permission to use your photo. Now I’m going to draw some Doodles before I start the next realistic boat drawing.

[Rich Jones]

Excellent in every respect.
Wonderful work.

[birlinn]

Wish I could paint like that, Robert.
Great stuff- keep at it!

[leikec]

Outstanding!

Jeff C

[Hugh MacD]

That's awfully nice, Rob! Acrylic?

[WI-Tom]

Ah, man, that's so cool! How would a guy go about buying a print of that?

Tom

[TomF]

I like details like the Culler pattern oar.

[CWSmith]

I like that, Rob. It has a shadowy character.

[amish rob]

Thank you for the kind words. ‘Twas Doodling here that lead me to even consider drawing again, and I found I somewhat enjoy it, again. Ha.

The drawing is all digital, with a stylus and a colored pencil tool. It is super weird, but it allows me to make drawings like this, which would otherwise be cost prohibitive to make. This is hundreds of dollars of colored pencils, easily.

Of course, like anything we make, I can only see the shortcomings and things I’ll do differently next time.

[Breakaway]

Go for it! Please!

Kevin

[elf]

Yay! Ain't the computer marvelous!

[MoePorter]

[QUOTEThe drawing is all digital, with a stylus and a colored pencil tool.][/QUOTE] It has a nice, loose, hand made look for a digital process.That to me is the biggest challenge working digital tools - how to keep it from screaming digital...Do you use a wacom? Paradoxically I find it takes a DEEP dive into the subtle qualities of digital brush selection & use to escape digital artifacts. I enjoy your work. Moe

[amish rob]

[QUOTEThe drawing is all digital, with a stylus and a colored pencil tool.]

It has a nice, loose, hand made look for a digital process.That to me is the biggest challenge working digital tools - how to keep it from screaming digital...Do you use a wacom? Paradoxically I find it takes a DEEP dive into the subtle qualities of digital brush selection & use to escape digital artifacts. I enjoy your work. Moe[/QUOTE]


I use the term digital artist very loosely. I have met several ACTUAL digital artists, and they generally laugh at how I work.

The family got me an IPad with a pencil thing; it’s a horrible feeling device and way to draw, to be sure. Very odd sensation, to lay down color with no feedback. I understand there are screen covers that mimic the feel of paper, but I’m not at all sophisticated.

The only real “tricks” I use from the digital art vault are layers and erasing. Being able to add as many transparent layers to a drawing as needed, and being able to shuffle their order is amazing. It allows me to draw a bright pink sketch, and keep the sketch above any coloring I do; then I can simply hide the layer with the sketch, and it’s gone.

Otherwise, it’s all just simple drawing. I genuinely lost count, but this is more than 40 hours, for sure. I pick and chip and claw away in the stolen moments I would otherwise watch teevee or something else.

The color Doodles are done the same way, but with the digital ink pen tool. All drawn by hand, just like a big bag of markers.

[hawkeye54]

My lady, a 'retired' artist, says your work is "Amazing" ( a direct quote from her - I, too, share that opinion, Rob )





Rick

( I have never been able to progress past stick figures )

[Concordia...41]

I think it's excellent! And I would not have known it was a digital work, if you hadn't said so.

-Margo

[amish rob]

93CEF7D4-2559-4FAB-A01B-4100687767AF.jpg
This was Step One. The hardest thing about complex works like this is simply being able to slog on when it looks like absolute garbage, because it always does look terrible at some point.

Drawing is as much revision as writing, really, except so much of drawing is drawing OVER more than re-drawing.

The thing I like about this program and these pencils is that they “feel” like they blend like a nice pencil, making it easy to blend custom colors; on top of the nearly infinite selection of colors there are to choose from in the toolbar.

It’s fun stuff, and I’d not be doing it without the encouragement of my family and the folks here.

[Jim Bow]

I second Concordia's statement.

Reminds me of a cabin my daughter rented for a family weekend up near Bellingham. Feel free to use our rowboat the ad said. We found the boat, but it was tied at the bottom of an 8 foot retaining wall of huge gray boulders. The only way to get down to it was to be a 12 year old. I was 60.