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Imagekind Illustrators Discussion:
What medium is a good medium?
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October 31, 2008 at 9:56:48 AM
#1
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10/10/2008 |
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Toledo |
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Hello,
Being an illustrator I always second geuss what medium to work in. What is the good ratio between computer and hand? Some people use 90% hand and then scan in the image and add computer work. What are your thoughts?
Thanks
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October 31, 2008 at 1:45:56 PM
#2
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4 |
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8/11/2008 |
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valdosta |
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I chose the medium to match what the illustration is trying to say. I almost always start with a hand drawing. I had one project that I spent much time nit picking over tiny details over line and bold colors digitally just to have the printer decide to print in soft muted tones. (argh)
Some projects were almost entirely hand done with a tweaking to send them digitally. Other only the sketch was hand drawn. Some started as photographs. Some commissioned work never comes near the computer except to make mock ups or color studies for approval.
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October 31, 2008 at 3:09:37 PM
#3
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1011 |
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1/6/2007 |
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seattle, washington |
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Almost all of my Illustration work is done by hand, with watercolor, pen, and sometimes more recently gouache. Though my preferred medium is linocut :) I will use the computer to edit out paper texture or random drips, and to add text if needed...
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October 31, 2008 at 5:01:07 PM
#4
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4 |
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2/22/2008 |
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Los Angeles, CA |
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Nearly 100% digital here. I sometimes sketch out ideas, but I don't scan them. I like the versatility of working with vectors in Adobe Illustrator. I realize that for a lot of people it's too technical, but I find it really fluid and rewarding. Oh, and I almost forgot: endlessly easily mutable.
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October 31, 2008 at 5:17:45 PM
#5
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3 |
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9/30/2007 |
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Bellevue, WA |
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I always start with a sketch on paper, usually in blue or red pencil because I was trained as a traditional animator and I spent A LOT of time doing in-between drawings and cleanup work with them in school. If I'm going for an inked drawing, I'll typically do that traditionally as well, primarily because it's easier for me to get really good line weights drawing with actual pen and paper than it is tying to draw smooth, steady lines on a Wacom tablet. For anything else, though, it's straight from the pencil drawing to the computer, where I do all of my painting in Photoshop using my Wacom.
One other thing that might be worth mentioning: when I paint in Photoshop, I almost exclusively use scatter-tipped brushes with wet edges turned on, and I try to work on as few layers and with as few undos as possible. I've found that my finished pieces feel much more alive and less "digital" (for lack of a better word) when I allow for the possibilty of happy accidents, and painting over mistakes rather than undoing them is both good practice and can yield good (and unexpected) results.
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November 02, 2008 at 8:04:26 AM
#6
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18 |
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7/20/2008 |
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Montréal |
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That depends... I do work either entierly by hand (paintings) or entierly by computer (graphic design work) and sometimes a mix of the two. When I do work by computer, I rarely sketch anything at all. I tend to improvize right on the spot.
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October 01, 2009 at 7:36:15 AM
#7
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16 |
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9/26/2009 |
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San Francisco, CA |
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I don't believe there is any ratio that needs to be met, just personal preference. Currently 90% of the stuff I do starts as a pencil sketch, moves up to a pen drawing, then is scanned, thrown in Photoshop and painted. I love the fact that i can start over a paint job easily if I don't like it and all the other wonderful tools Photoshop provides, but i do miss having handmade finished art every so often so I have to go back and do a digital-free piece every once in a while.
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October 02, 2009 at 8:43:05 PM
#8
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120 |
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4/17/2008 |
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Jackson, Tennessee |
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I do a little of everything, some strictly by hand, some totally digital and some combination work. I think whatever medium you can get the desired results with.
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