Kimiko

Another commission, but this was inked in ArtRage - I was actually quite impressed! Just noticed that I've signed the wrong year - what a dilbert...

Sharon - Inks

Quick semi commission. Colours will follow later

Keys to my heart - coloured

Hello Sailor

Whoops! Forgot to post this one....

Keys to my heart

Meant for valentines, but a bit late - expect a coloured version later on...

Sendmail & MTA refusing connections with Puremessage

This is more of a reminder for me than anything else. If sendmail MTA starts refusing connections, it's probably because you have a lot of messages in the mail queue that are undeliverable, and are taking their time timing out. The refusal is caused because the sendmail demon is trying to run it's delivery queue too many times over the course of an hour - you probably have -q5m or something on sendmail's command line (process the queue every 5 minutes), change it to -q30m (30 minutes).

smcose

Here is the final finished version of smcose...

Inked & coloured in Xara.

Red Shelled - coloured

Arrrgggh!

For some reason, I'm sure that pencils hate me.

Recently working on another pinup (this time, the stunning Samantha (smcose)) when my 2mm green lead broke. Extend, sharpen, draw, SNAP! Repeat until lead runs out... I hate days like this, it breaks your concentration. Add to this that I've just bought 2 packs of leads (one staedtler blue/green, one staedtler F/HB), and I'm hoping I haven't just made a huge mistake.

Anyhow, managed to finish the nude sketch (clothing comes later in pinups), but my inking as usual, let me down I feel. This time, the sketch was inked using a bayard nib, a no.2 brush, and indian ink. It's better than my previous inks, but still not good enough - into Xara it will go, for final inking.

Have I mentioned how much I love Xara? It's so simple to use, gives great results, and I currently use nothing else. It's especially great for toon like pinups, as you can experiment with differant body shapes, colours etc, and it's all so non-destructive. It's also great for creating a collage as a reference for your sketches.

Next on my shopping list, is "The Wonderful World of Bill Ward, King of the Glamour Girls". This book is huge I tell you, and it's filled to the brim with Bill's wonderful cartoons and sketches. His use of conte crayon is fabulous - so good in fact, that I'm thinking of buying some to try...

Red Shelled during Mario Kart

Emma

Meet...Voxie!

Something I've been meaning to do for a while now, is to create a very simple character, that's quick to draw, and that I can practice putting into various costumes/situations so I can develop my cartooning skills - with this in mind, I give you...Voxie!

He's a happy little chap, who can turn his hand to anything, even though he has quite a temper at times. I've tried to keep him to basic shapes (circle for the head, rectangle for the torso, half circle for the pelvis etc...) and so far it seems to be working. My next test is to costume him up - expect to see some soon...

Once I've got Voxie going properly, I'll give him a little girl friend perhaps... Voxette?

"Oh it must be wonderful, being able to do computers...."

I've lost count how many times I've heard this phrase. "Ooh, it's so glamorous!", or "Wow, you must be SO clever!", or my own personal favorite, "I bet you make s**tloads of money doing that!"

Let me enlighten you.

I spent two and a half hours today taking two printers apart, and replacing the fuser roller gearing on one printer (which were missing some teeth) with those from the other. By the end of it, I looked more like a mechanic than a programmer - covered in oil, filthy from head to toe.

All just to save money.

Laughed? oh yeah, I laughed alright... :(

To lighten the mood, here's another sketch - Legs...

Snow Day...

Yup - Essex is snowbound, and me along with it! Never mind, at least I can work from home (provided the kids don't interrupt!)

Xara - things to watch out for...

The above image is called "RainyEyes", and in producing it, I found the following things to watch out for in Xara...

1. All line work should be on the same layer, especially if you plan on adding textures / transparencies to items that will be behind them (like skin...) - If you have to change the lines to accommodate, then do so...
2. Special Effect lines (like fur) May cause problems with (1). Transparency doesn't work, because the line style isn't kept - your best bet is to overlay with another line, on a higher layer.
3. Try to get your sketch as accurate as possible - although you can change the lines later, you'll have less work to do if the initial sketch is better.
4. PSD export at 300 dpi is the best option when exporting for editing in other programs.
5. If you plan on breaking lines to simulate penmanship, remember to set your line ends to round ends - also consider setting your corners to bevel.
   

Sweetie

Sweetie Pie - a mixture of Xara & Gimp.

The Garage - Coloured

Coloured version of the image in this post.

Jennifer

Not sure which one I prefer...
Hand drawn, then vectored in Xara.

Jennifer and Sweetie

Two very quick sketches today - the poses are based on photos, but the cartooning is all mine. I'm more pleased with Jennifer (the top one), but I that's because I've got the head wrong in "Sweetie" - perhaps I'll do the inks in Xara, and see if I can't improve them a bit (the head needs to be smaller...).

Angry...!

I'm so bloody angry with myself. For the last two days, I've been doing some pinup cartoons, and I made the same mistake that I always make - I try and make them too realistic. Whenever I do that, I get frustrated, because I can't seem to get the picture right, and it's because I'm trying to copy the picture I'm taking the pose from, rather than use it to draw my own.

I wouldn't mind, but it's the same mistake I keep making time after time. it's SO BLOODY ANNOYING!!!!

Tomorrow, I will do better...