Artrage2 : Debian installation

When purchasing a Wacom Bamboo Fun, a few applications are provided among them there's ArtRage 2 from AmbientDesign - 

It works!

Making comics on Linux

Making comics is fun, but requires a lot of skills :
you have to be very imaginative, write interesting stories, be well organized, be good at drawing, accept criticism, be able to publish frequently ...

You will also have to make a few choices on the software to use, photoshop still being a bit pricey - you might be interested in open-source software -  and nowadays they are as good as the leading one.

Assuming you already have a comics in mind, and have drawn a few pages already on paper.

The best route for you is to scan those pages, and import them in Gimp - then to ink them and color them.

By putting the sketch on layer1, the ink on layer3, and the colours in layer2  - you are pretty much set.

Beware though, not to mix layers - if you're using Gimp 2.6 - if you have Gimp 2.8 there is a new lock/unlock feature you might use to prevent editing the wrong layer.

Then when the art is done, you simply add a layer4 for text. Make sure the text is spell checked because Gimp doesn't have this ability.

Image credit : Battle for Wesnoth comics

Quick environment sketch with Gimp

Gimp 2.8 is about to be released soon (January 2012 ?!), and many people are waiting for the single window mode impatiently.

In the meantime, I've stumbled upon some nice Google+ posts involving some painting or photo-montage.

Painting environment composition is fun, and in a couple of hours, you can see result ... just experiment and try various brushes (the chaos and evolution set (by David Revoy) is recommended) ; one benefits of doing such exercise is learning to make good composition and harmonious sceneries, and how to set and use the light - because that's key.

These 2 videos might help :
YouTube - Quick environment sketch
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGYqZZwzp18 (from idrawgirls.com/tutorials/2011/10/20/how-to-paint-landscape-mountain-river/)

Picture credit : Phillip Koops / Peileppe

Drawing Tutorial by Jolly Jack

The video above is the part2 out of 3 - I've seen Drawing tutorials many of them - some are just plain "speed painting" with no explanations whatsoever - but I recommend these 3 videos by Jolly Jack because he gives a lot of good information and advices during the process - very helpful.

I'll try to highlight a few interesting points :

1.  Before starting you should already have a rough idea of what you want to draw
2. When drawing start with the head - set where the character is looking and build the body according to that pose.
3. Concentrate on the figure's flow, make the pose looks right
4. Use a very thin brush (1) for the rough sketch
5. keep the layer 0 for the white background an use layer 1 for the sketch
6. After the basic outline is done on layer 1, get a larger brush and add details starting with the eyes
7. You should work at least in 300dpi
8. When the rough is done on layer1, it's time to add a new layer for the final line-work
9. add 2 layers (one will be used as a buffer and made invisible)
10. set the layer1 with the rough to 15% opacity and retrace it on layer 3 (line-work)
11. use a slightly larger brush (3.1) for the finished lines
12. After the line-work is done, duplicate the layer and merge them - to add contrast
13. Now it's color time, add a new layer (4)
14. If possible have a palette for each characters you have - otherwise load a previous artwork
15. Layer 4 is used for the flat colors, use the lasso tool on layer 3 then return to layer 4 and fill the selection
16. After the flat color is done add a new layer (5) for shadow, using black with 40% opacity
17. Then add the light (new layer (6)) with white and 10% opacity

Interesting to notice that the whole process (starting from scratch with a blank document) to the final artwork seems to have taken only about 1 hour - Impressive!

We're not worthy

I was getting all excited about ArtRage2 and found some tutorials ... to do absolutely crazy things with textures. And then I realized there's so much to learn and sooooooo little time ; but I know that when I grow up I want to be Nick Harris ;)

[ Pixelbrush ] - Interview with Nicholas Mark Harris

"We're not worthy!" (repeated, while bowing, to guests whom the two deem themselves unworthy to interview)

Springtime

A little pseudo painting using ArtRage2 - "Spring" is the word !

Transforming a photo into a sketch

Very cool Photoshop tutorial - take a photo and transforming it - into a sketch.
Create an Illustrated Look From a Photograph - PSDTUTS

Wacom : Photoshop Elements

After I gave a shot at ArtRage2 bundled with the Wacom tablet, I took the other cd that was in the box - and installed .... Photoshop Elements (PE) ...

First surprise, it wasn't a cd but actually a dvd and the installation took ages to finish (2GB ??) - so I thought that I would have something quite impressive - and in fact, (second surprise) it's just a minimalist version of Adobe Photoshop with limited features, ... there Adobe Bridge CS3(c) to browse into the pictures, and then a couple of assistant (or wizard step by step guided tutorial (sort of)).

Anyway, it's not too bad, (2GB ??) the filter gallery is impressive, but the mega killer stuff are the brushes, ... yep, I have to say ... I was quite convinced that Gimp was in some respect a fair equivalent to Photoshop, but after using those brushes, ... Well Gimp has some improvements to make.

On the left as usual a little sample done with Photoshop Elements (PE)

And below some additional resources :
Photoshop Elements resources
Photoshop Elements

Subway Series 2008 - ArtRage2

Impressive gallery Mr Ed Velandria uses the time he spends on his daily subway rides from Brooklyn to Manhattan to sketch portraits of other subway riders on his laptop computer with ArtRage and a digital drawing tablet.

Subway Series 2008 - a set on Flickr

Wacom : ArtRage2

Still using Gimp, Photoshop Element, and ArtRage2 and finding good things in all of these tools, and unfortunately some limits as well ...

So far m preference goes to ArtRage2, because it gives back the feeling to use a brush and can really render the illusion of painting on a canvas.

As an example here is a dog on the left, done in 3 layers one for the background filled with the large painting tool, then some crayon for the furs, and final detail on the upper layer to trace contour.

Wacom : pressure sensitivity

After modifying the /etc/X11/xorg.conf and rebooting there was no noticeable change in the wacom stylus behavior whether in Gimp or Inkscape ... I was confused - but then digging in both applications options I found that the mouse was still the selected input devices and so I just had to disable it and select the stylus and eraser and put them on Screen mode (see picture on the left) -- and it worked !

So now the last thing is to setup the eraser to actually erase ... ;)

configuration was LinuxMint 17 

Wacom Pressure sensitivity

So far, it's workable - but still need tweaking :
1. the pressure sensitivity

# Option "PressCurve" "0,75,25,100" #Softest curve (loose pressure)
# Option "PressCurve" "0,50,50,100"
# Option "PressCurve" "0,25,75,100"
Option "PressCurve" "0,0,100,100" #linear curve (default)
# Option "PressCurve" "25,0,100,75"
# Option "PressCurve" "50,0,100,50"
# Option "PressCurve" "75,0,100,25" #firmest curve (hard pressure)

2. the "eraser" option

On the left is a paintbrush version of the previous post's Elvish fighter with a shield - that wasn't there in the previous version.

Wacom Bamboo fun setup

In fact it was not so difficult to have the wacom working under Linux/Debian
I followed this blog entry - and it works now.
Except that I can figure how to make Gimp recognize the eraser on the pen.

Here on the left is another test with the Bamboo fun - still using ArtRage2 - I think I'm just starting having fun with it.

I made a variation using paintbrush - which is more rough looking but still looks nice.

Using the Wacom is still a bit difficult, holding the pen the right way, not touching the tablet while hovering ... is a bit challenging.

I think the key is the speed, when using a real pen - the speed is faster, and so I guess sometime I will have to refrain going too fast.

Bamboo Wacom test drive

This is atrociously twisted character on the left is actually my first attempt with my new Wacom Bamboo fun and ArtRage2 (provided free of charge).

I will try to keep some posts - dedicated to this topic.

PS : Tried to use it "out of the box" with my Linux unit - but then basically the tablet was recognized as an USB synaptic device ... and act pretty much like a very slow mouse ... so it will require some tweakings first. Will post more on this, probably next week (?!)