Swag!

Staci attended a workshop over the weekend and she got a load of stuff. This is the armload of extra stuff she gave me. This wasn't even a quarter of what she got.

I'm pretty set in what I draw in now. I've spent a few years narrowing down what I think works or doesn't work for me. I like black and white, but eventually, about one in a hundred things is going to have to be in color. I'm trying to come up with a way I like coloring.

I like actual, physical processes. Coloring aside, I rarely side with digital when given any sort of choice. That in mind, I haven't come up with a way that I like to color with yet. Specifically, coloring black and white line art. There's a drawing on my computer that I've colored about twenty different ways with photoshop and I don't especially like any of them. The closest I've gotten with liking any of them, was when I started with a real, physical process, like an ink wash or something.

To me, just something about the wonky, organic ink lines and super crisp, digital colors just don't work. I think I'm gonna stick to more traditional coloring techniques when I need color on something. Washes or watercolors. I've seen good acrylic wash techniques that look promising. I thought of a way to use colored ink that might look interesting. I'm looking forward to trying that out.

I'll probably never find a way to digitally color that I like. I mean, there are digital colorists who's stuff I really, really like, but whenever I sit down with photoshop, whatever I do reminds me of horrible 90's comics. Even when I was a kid I thought those looked bad. Like a rainbow pooped on the art and everyone was like, "Eh, good enough. Send it to print."

Anyway, I think this stuff Staci gave me will aid in my adventures in serious coloring. We'll see.