Hello world

Ok I've started a lot of blogs in the past but have never gotten around to maintaining them. Some that I still do occasionally post in, well, things have been a bit constricting and awkward with them - can't really explain much about this - so the posts I do there end up too rigid and antiseptic. So what's different with this one? I don't know. except that this is attached to something I'm working on, so hopefully that will make me want to update this more.

I couldn't seem to draw anything using pen and paper (I don't have a tablet) the past few weeks, so I figured I'd try to do things digitally (via mouse). I've also been meaning to try out 2 techniques with colouring digitally. Not from existing tutorials, since I'm not very good at following instructions. I tend to think up general ways on what to try out, instead of envisioning a final result for the style. Come to think of it, I'm also like this with doing art - I don't have a specific vision of how I want the work to look like.

Anyway - yes I apparently have a propensity to ramble on and on about things - the two styles are: 1. something that doesn't involve any line art, and 2. colouring with a dark-to-light approach. I'm used to drawing things on pen and paper - with areas clearly outlined by bold pen marks. I try to soften this effect when I colour digitally but the lines still end up showing one way or another. So now, I'm trying not to include any of the original line art into the final image. With the second, people normally approach colouring is like this: you have paper - usually something light, then you add the colours (which tend to be darker). You also tend to add shading, as opposed to adding light to the image. Dark-to-light works sort of like the reverse of this. You begin with a dark-coloured background and gradually add light areas in many increments until you get a finished work.

So yes, since I couldn't draw anything non-digitally, I wanted something productive to to pass my time with, and also wanted to try out something new, I figured I'd start on a personal project that combines the two styles mentioned, and eventually refine them. Which is why I started working on a Rider-Waite-Smith-styled deck of 78 cards. The figures are easy to do, the forms aren't too complicated, and the layout of the images tend to be very familiar.

I've finished the entire Majors, Aces and twos (and surprisingly in less than 2 weeks!). I'll be posting them in later entries. I'm thinking maybe I'll edit the earlier of the majors I did, since back then I was still experimenting with the colouring style, so they have a rougher and cruder look.