Manga Studio studies at the library

Some painting studies in a library using Manga Studio pencils (mostly) set to 80% opacity with a very portable MacAlly iceCad graphic tablet. What I learned is that library visitors are good for candid extended studies. Tech note: I had to abort a different trip because MS wanted the install disc before launching–which I didn't have; so now, for future location sketching, I'll add a disc image (.dmg) to my backup thumbdrive.

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)

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.

Taking Manga Studio out of the studio for some location sketching

Manga Studio EX4 is my favorite app for storyboarding, but I don't like the name because it seems to be designed exclusively for..well, manga. The more I use it though, the more I'm discovering its versatility beyond inking comics. Here's some sketches I did at a bookstore cafe.

Advantages of location sketching digitally that I discovered during this session:  Because I'm terrible at multitasking, chatting with bystanders slows me down (which I like to do)...so when I noticed a few curious glances about what I was doing, I just lowered the brightness of the screen and the opacity of the line work—I prefer to sketch subjects in their natural activities and alerting them that they're models turns the page on that drawing. A Powerbook with a limited viewing angle is actually an asset too. When I don't plan the boundaries of a drawing correctly or the subjects stay around longer that I anticipated, I can just add more "bits of paper"..