DC Solits

[boynightwing]

I use photo reference all the time. I find it helps with the shading specifically, but also in getting the general pose down. All the schooling I ever took which was 2 years animation, and then graphic design, then a year of Illustration indicated that photo reference was probably a good thing.

Now, if done incorrectly, then it can look really stiff and lifeless which isn't good. And a vibe I get from the Obama one.

I used a photo reference for this just for the pose. The details etc were all mine. I coloured it in photoshop.


This one was also inspired by a photo in a magazine. I liked the picture so I used it for reference.

[boynightwing]

Frank Frazetta said it best......draw from life who cares if you get it wrong.....the power behind the drawing will convince people what you are trying to say...

Awesome Quote!

[kingdom warrior]

I use photo reference all the time. I find it helps with the shading specifically, but also in getting the general pose down. All the schooling I ever took which was 2 years animation, and then graphic design, then a year of Illustration indicated that photo reference was probably a good thing.

Now, if done incorrectly, then it can look really stiff and lifeless which isn't good. And a vibe I get from the Obama one.

I used a photo reference for this just for the pose. The details etc were all mine. I coloured it in photoshop.

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t102/kessek/zaranaposefinished.jpg

This one was also inspired by a photo in a magazine. I liked the picture so I used it for reference.
http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...malsisters.jpg

I'm not a fan of photoshop to say but I am coming around to liking it for what it is and the crunch of a deadline.....

My Major complaint over the years is that too many young artist use it a crutch. instead of learning how to Master painting first on Canvas or paper...they skip and learn to do it on a computer....IMO the Artist is cheating themselves from critical thinking in how to apply color light and shade...

If a software can do it for you with a click how are you learning? I know it's not as easy as I say there is more to it........

Those are very good solid drawings by the way.....

[kingdom warrior]

Oh and just for the record digital coloring is fabulous in animation.....way better than painting cells and I know that's hard to do.......

[boynightwing]

I appreciate you breaking it down for me. I always find it helpful when people elaborate on things they don't like (or do like!) as it gives me some insight to what people want.

And I agree! Learn to use the real stuff first because it can only help you with the digital too. I'm really good with Acrylics, Air Brush, Prisma Color Markers, Oil Pastels. I can do water colors but I'm not great at it. I draw and ink everything by hand.

Photoshop can be a crutch absolutely. But it is an art form to those who can really master the complexities. Those are the same people who would already have a solid art foundation to begin with. All the button pressing in the world cannot make someone a great artist.

I remember when I was in highschool...around 93. Photoshop and other programs were just being introduced to the school system. I had one art teacher who told me flat out that computer art wasn't real art. To which I told her that it must be because she was already criticizing it...which is what happens when new forms of art emerge. Anyway, by the end the year, she was begging me to teach her how to do some of the stuff I had already figured out on my own. I gave the whole art department a Saturday morning course on Corel Draw and Photoshop. Which in turn earned me the Art Award for my year and $500. :D

[kingdom warrior]

I appreciate you breaking it down for me. I always find it helpful when people elaborate on things they don't like (or do like!) as it gives me some insight to what people want.

And I agree! Learn to use the real stuff first because it can only help you with the digital too. I'm really good with Acrylics, Air Brush, Prisma Color Markers, Oil Pastels. I can do water colors but I'm not great at it. I draw and ink everything by hand.

Photoshop can be a crutch absolutely. But it is an art form to those who can really master the complexities. Those are the same people who would already have a solid art foundation to begin with. All the button pressing in the world cannot make someone a great artist.

I remember when I was in highschool...around 93. Photoshop and other programs were just being introduced to the school system. I had one art teacher who told me flat out that computer art wasn't real art. To which I told her that it must be because she was already criticizing it...which is what happens when new forms of art emerge. Anyway, by the end the year, she was begging me to teach her how to do some of the stuff I had already figured out on my own. I gave the whole art department a Saturday morning course on Corel Draw and Photoshop. Which in turn earned me the Art Award for my year and $500. :D

I've been drawing for over twenty years.....there are many ways to achieve what you want to do these days. I totally understand that....

but at the same time I have only one critique when doing a painting in the computer as beautiful as it may look, someday an art collector is going to come up and ask for the original painting. what's the Artist going to say ummm errrr uhhhh wait I'll print it for you? I'll have a copy made on canvas for you???

It totally cheats the art collector from collecting.

seeing a digital artist photoshop a photo and turn it into something else is rather amazing to me......I know a few who a rather good at it....they can't draw to save their lives but can come up with some beautiful photo images......

But taking a photo and turning it into a comic book drawing like Greg Land does and a few others.....no that's lazy flat out cheating and swiping....

[kingdom warrior]

See what I like about this drawing it's honest,you said you had photo reference but it's NOT a trace I can see your style it's honest it's cute it works....simple, I get it the colors pop......

[boynightwing]

LOL I was just going to suggest the same thing in regards to Greg Land. I've seen people go to him at Cons asking if the original was for sale and he could only tell them the whole thing is digital.

It makes it hard for him to sell original art or for anyone to collect it.

Thanks for the compliment. It's true, I only used the photo as a reference but I drew the whole thing from scratch. Reference should be just that. Not traced.

[kingdom warrior]

LOL I was just going to suggest the same thing in regards to Greg Land. I've seen people go to him at Cons asking if the original was for sale and he could only tell them the whole thing is digital.

It makes it hard for him to sell original art or for anyone to collect it.

Thanks for the compliment. It's true, I only used the photo as a reference but I drew the whole thing from scratch. Reference should be just that. Not traced.

Honestly, I feel todays comic book readers/collectors are being ripped off....once upon a time, a young artist with potential would get a break in comics.you would see his art progress with guidance from his editor. he would make leaps and bounds and in time become a go to guy when deadlines needed to be met.

These days the young artist is pushing himself to take pics and bypass how to properly learn their craft.......

It took Kirby Years to reach the level of art he reached during the great FF run.

If you look at his art when he started FF till let's say the Galactus trilogy you will see his work had great leaps and bounds and by the time he did New Gods his art was at a whole new level.......

[johnmiic]

I always thought Greg Land's work screamed of "tracing". The poses and expressions seem to similar from not only issue to issue but title to title. It looks great but seems so DeJaVu.

[samurainoir]

I'm the proud owner of a couple of original hand-drawings by boynightwing.

[ctc]

>It looks great but seems so DeJaVu

That was always my problem with the photoshop stuff, the tracings, the guys who work too much off models, and realistic stuff in general. I've found cartoonier stuff more expressive, and less likely to suffer from the crawl through the uncanny valley.

Don C.

[samurainoir]

This is a photo trace or worked in photo shop

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/files/2012/02/DCUPRESENTS_9_aksjhdf7696as92666662.jpg

This is a photo trace or worked in photo shop

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/files/2012/02/AC_Cv9_274615896987g.jpg

Photo trace or worked in photo shop.......
http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/files/2...7889woiuer.jpg

Tony Harris has been drawing the black and white art for his Shade covers in traditional ink and wash.


Gene Ha also draws using traditional tools as well.


As does Ryan Sook, who you often hear cited in interviews as the kind of artist that other pro artists admire (including Mike Mignola who is a big supporter of Sook).


I'm just impressed that they can draw hands!

[samurainoir]

Also worth checking out is the Comic Book Artist Magazine interview with Neal Adams and his stance on photography as an important tool. Keep in mind that Adams is firmly in the Photo Realist school by his own admissions.
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(as mentioned previously, Adam's role in pushing Photo Realism in comics for a generation of artists is also recently explored in great depth by Dave Sim in Following Cerebus and Glamourpuss, where there was also an interview with Adams).


He's admitted to tracing and even pasting in photographs into his artwork as a shortcut.

Arlen: You mean you didn't know where you were going?
Neal: No. I usually hit the ground running anyway, and if you do a Marvel book, nobody hands you a plot. There was no written plot. So what you do first is what you're secure in doing, setting the scene.

I had been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and had seen an exhibit on the Aswan High Dam that the Egyptians had moved from the Lower Nile Valley floor to the upper tier of land, so this incredible sculpture would not be destroyed. I had magazines, photographs and brochures from that and I thought, "Jesus, this is an incredible place." I said to myself, since this is a pharaoh, why don't I just go to Egypt and start my story with the X-Men trying to rescue the brother not in some museum, but in Egypt, at the Aswan High Dam?

The first thing I did was trace a photograph of the Dam to give me a solid lock into reality and I worked off of that. I try to give everything I work on a sense of authenticity so when you look at it, you believe it.

[torgospizza]

Honestly, photo reference is the only way to get the kind of background realism that Sojourn #20 (above) exhibits. I've never seen a comic artist pull off that sort of detail on grass without resorting to it. The closest I've seen done freehand is probably old Gary Kwapisz stuff from SSoC, and there is still a huge difference. In the Namor/Sue pic, however, it's not needed at all--it's just pin-up nonsense. Even with tracing, Land does have to know how to draw to get the result he or Tim Bradstreet achieve. So I'm guessing they just do it to save time or out of a sense of insecurity about their abilities, which is unwarranted. They already have to have composition down to do what they do and they add plenty of detail, so I don't know what's up with them.