Summoned to killing time in Court

Last week I was summoned for jury service to the Los Angeles Superior Court. After orientation, here's some fellow prospective jurors in the Assembly Room waiting to be assigned to a case. These were sketched with a Bic Atlantis ballpoint pen.

• update:  using Manga Studio EX5, I added some digital watercolor washes (after converting the blue ink to gray)

Storyboard frames using Manga Studio 5

Outdoor location painting with Manga Studio

 

 

Here's some recent Manga Studio EX4 painting studies of outdoor subjects. These had to be done from inside 2 coffee shops and a library because I had to use my laptop power adapter (dead battery). Although with the sun reflecting off of my aluminum Powerbook much of the time, it felt like I was outdoors anyway. The goals were to gain milage with various pencil compositing modes, geometric rulers, temporary layers and color palettes.

Painting with Manga Studio

These studies were painted using Manga Studio EX4 based on the ballpoint sketches of a pick-up basketball game from my previous post. I mostly used various Pencils on these.

Coloring without exporting to Photoshop seems more and more feasible.

• update: some storyboards drawn and colored with MS only

• more studies (including rendering with rulers and 32-bit color vectors)

Oil rubout-like

A coloring of my B/W tonal study from my previous post that's like an oil rubout illustration technique popular in the 60's.

A uniquely digital architectural rendering style

Although I proposed a more traditional watercolor-type architectural style for this future food co-op, the client wanted a more pastel look. The resulting hybrid architectural sketch was done in a style only possible in the CG world; in other words, "coloring"  with pastels on an ink drawing would be near impossible in the analog world. (inks: Manga Studio EX4 + pastels: Photoshop CS4)

Two versions of an architectural rendering

These are 2 versions of a sample rendering that I did as part of a bid. I based the first version on high key, compressed value scale renderings provided as reference. It began looking too flat to me, so I added additional darks. The second version is closer to my concept of an architectural rendering and the lines were hidden to provide another option. The line drawing was done using the perspective ruler in Manga Studio EX and then colored in Photoshop, using some customized oval brushes that I labeled "UFO"s for brevity, although "almond"s would have been more accurate. 

Surfing at the library

As I've said in earlier posts, I think the coloring capability of Manga Studio EX4 is underrated. This color rough, based on last week's Bic pen sketch at the library, was done to further explore versions of "Brush Pens" and a Wacom tablet (which I can color with all right on, but which for drawing still feels like my first day on ice skates).

Representational coloring with a Pattern Brush

I was surprised at how I was able to simulate a water media look in this test using a pattern brush in Manga Studio and now wonder if I can replace Photoshop/Corel Painter for basic coloring in my workflow...resolution would be the major hurdle, but at least it'll be worth more trials..

Taking the Concentric Circle Ruler for a spin

Did this practice piece to test out 2 features of Manga Studio EX4. The Rulers in MS EX4 are exceptional—one of them is the Concentric Circle Ruler, which I used for these helicopter blades. I also wanted to push its color rendering capabilities to see if this "inking" app could be used to do a semi-tight illustration comp.