Luke & Leia - initial colours

These are the initial colours for a cartoon I'm working on now. I haven't come up with any captions yet - that's coming later! Hand inked, scanned into GIMP, colours in GIMP & OpenCanvas...

windows - inaccessible boot device

Just a quick note to myself. To fix...

1. chkdsk /r
2. fixboot
3. (optional) fixmbr
4. If none of the above do not work, if you have a backup, recover the system32 directory in windows root. Use RIPLinux or similar.
   

GRUB install problems...

I've been fighting recently with a virtual linux box, trying to get the size of the virtual hard disk reduced (and as you know, MS Virtual PC doesn't shrink Linux hard disks very well). My answer was to create a new vitual blank hard disk, repartition it, recover the data, restore GRUB, and I'd be away...

Trouble is, it wasn't that easy. Every time I tried to use GRUB to setup the MBR, I got various errors - the long ang short of it was that GRUB couldn't see the files on the partition, even though I'd chroot'ed, and could see them perfectly.

The solution to my problem was twofold. Firstly, I hadn't created the partition properly. GRUB only works with partitions that use a inode size of 128, so I had to create the ext3 partition with...

mkfs -t ext3 -I 128 /dev/sda2

The next stage (after I recovered the data) was to chroot to the mounted /dev/sda2, and run GRUB in interactive mode, to setup the MBR - but still no luck, no files could be found. The reason was twofold

1. The linux recovery system CD used had /dev/hda as the IDE disk, not /dev/sda, so I changed my linux recovery system CD to one that used the same devices as my virtual linux system.
2. The sys, proc and dev points mounted as chroot did not match my current rescue system, so I needed to do the following before chrooting...

mount -t ext3   /dev/sda1 /mnt
mount -t proc   proc      /mnt/proc
mount -t sysfs  sys       /mnt/sys
mount -o bind   /dev      /mnt/dev
chroot /mnt /bin/bash

Once this was all done, I was able to run the GRUB interactive setup correctly. Interestingly, the inode size of 128 can also affect LILO too...

For more information, please look at http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Reinstalling_GRUB.

The Girl...

Hand drawn, inked using a manuscript mapping nib, and a brush. I'll edit this post tomorrow with a version inked using OpenCanvas...
... and here it is! Changed the hand slightly, and made some other mods. Also made a mistake under the arm, which I'll have to correct. Not sure which one is best though!


The last one is Xara Xtreme. Interestingly, both the digital ones took 45 minutes to ink.

The new "ME"

New version of my avatar, drawn digitally using OpenCanvas!

Sketching again...

Just a few quick sketches I did this lunchtime - I'm slowly improving...:)

Inking, pens and all that jazz...

Been doing a lot of thinking about inking lately. I've tried a multitude of implements to ink my cartoons over the past year, trying to find my favourites, and I've come to some unusual conclusions...

• Use what makes your cartoons look great
• Use what feels right

With this is mind, here is the top 5 inking implements for me...

1. Fountain Pentel. Without a doubt the most used pen in my box. It's not permanent, and I can't use it for cartoons that I colour traditionally, as it's not waterproof, but (and it's a very big but) it gives the most wonderful line. It's flexible point can give thick or thin lines, and it's just so expressive. Also available as the Stylo or Tradio, although the standard Fountain has the most expressive point. My all time favourite!
2. Faber Castell PITT pens. Wonderful pens, filled with permanent indian ink, and available in many colours and point sizes. My favourites are the M & F sizes. The B (Brush) option is one of the best available, although it doesn't hold it's point for long. The only disappointment in the range is the S tip (superfine) - it's too soft, and bends too easily.
3. Pilot DR Pens. Another brand of technical pen that's permanent and lightfast. These may be replaced in my arsenal soon by the Staedlter equivelent, as I find the barrel a bit chunky...
4. Copic Sketch Marker. Great for large black areas, but bleeds through the paper. may be replaced by Sharpies soon...
5. Copic Multiliner BS. Another technical pen, but refillable by cartridge. I've only tried the BS (Brush) option in these, which is similar to the Faber "B", but slightly more robust (saying that, when it goes mushy, it's VERY mushy...)

Soon to be tried - Tombow ABT dual tip pens, Sharpie Dual Tips and Staedler Pigment Liners.