Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Works in Progress



Here's some panels I've been working on. 
 Painter 8 isn't perspective friendly.  This floors me because it's supposed to be a drawing program.   Where's the diagonal guides?*  Where's the precision?  And don't get me started on that klunky "perspective grid" it offers.   I'm getting nostalgic for my T square and triangles.  
I found an inexpensive drawing program that offered way better tools,  but there were graphic card problems (a first for both of my machines). 
If you know any drawing programs that let you make guides are diagonal and vector based, or anything that's perspective smart let me know, please.

*I made diagonal lines for reference, but I can't snap anything to them.

8 comments:

stray said...

Your drawings look great!

booda baby said...

ToonBoom has a perspective that's really nice and a quadmap tool. My favorite work around, though, is to absolutely ignore 'proper' perspective. So far, it's never been easy for me to do and even when I've done it, it all ends up looking so ... starched.

That said, this looks really cool.

Linda Davick said...

Namo, what are these great drawings for?

Photoshop:

http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/photoshop/articles/phs9avrvanpt.html

But must you use real perspective?

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Thanks, Stray.

And thanks to boodababy and Linda for the software tips.

Normally I don't use much perspective- a lot of illustrations don't need it. On the other hand, I could use the practice and I like how it can make imaginary places look somewhat "real." Maybe I've been looking at too many Winsor McCay illos (damn, he was great).
The drawings are a mini comic I've been kicking around in my head. You'll see more of it soon.

sal said...

Perspective wears me out.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Hi sal,
What part of perspective wears you out?
My biggest problem is getting the camera angle I want. I find it useful to copy a photo with a similar angle and note where the vanishing points are...
...or I use my preferred method- no perspective. :)

Pile Girl said...

Namowal, I admire your drawings so much!
I'm really bad at perspective. I had to look at the Photoshop link Linda provided. But I have Photoshop 7. It does not have a Create Plane or Edit Plane tool. This is the first time I've ever heard of these tools.
Photoshop 7 has always done everything I needed. Now I want something that I'd never heard of ten minutes ago!

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Thanks, Pile Girl.
Don't be too impressed- part of the top image is largely based on a reference photo I took at Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles.
:)