Boredom on a Friday night makes me embark on epic projects. Tonight, I decided to follow Olduvai George‘s entertaining how-to on digital illustration.
A bit of background though — I’ve drawn all throughout my life, and have taken a science illustration class about two years ago. I’ve illustrated a couple things for one of my professors… but I’ve never embarked into the digital realm, even though I have a Wacom digital drawing tablet. I just never really bothered re-learning how to draw on the computer. And what a mistake that was. With Olduvai George’s motivational how-to and a really sullen night, I think I’ve gotten my feet wet with this new way of drawing.
I generally followed the tutorial linked above, however I deviated on several steps. Olduvai recommends not to use black for shading — oops. I do from time to time in traditional drawings as well… even though it’s a general taboo to do so. Oh well. I also merged all my layers, fitzing with the opacity on my earlier draft layers. I did that because when I draw, I don’t start a whole new drawing on my light sketch lines. I think they add character and sometimes more detail than you can ever get. Also, unlike Olduvai — I did not paint. I don’t like painting much, unless its watercolors. I prefer pencil or pen and ink and shade with cross hatching. So my picture is a bit different from that. I also didn’t complete the picture with a background… oh well. It was my first time.
Anyways, with all this talk, I am sure you wanna see what the hell I am talking about. This is a skull of Australopithecus afarensis that I drew tonight.
I definitely have to practice more, and won’t be quiting my day job any time soon. But, I really am liking this way of drawing more. Its less tiresome in my opinion.
Anthropology.net 