Thinking too Much

And Why it is Bad for Art.

I sometimes wonder if I am destined to get along with Painter 9. I see so many artists doing awesome things with it and yet when I do it with my own art, it never works. I'll fuss over it for hours and hours and then realise it looks like arse. In Scott's words, I'm 'fighting' the art rather than making it.
I think it's a combination things - most painting involves working over the pencil lines, using them as merely a guide, the final work being the result of working layers and layers of colour over those pencil lines so there's nothing left of them by the end. Voila - a painting.
I love my pencil lines. I like working UNDER an outline. Maybe it's the animation and comics background talking ;)
I am not good at traditional painting. Never have been. The only digital non-Photoshop tools I feel comfortable with are watercolours and pastels, which can be blended lightly and have some texture to them. I like texture. Makes it feel not quite so Photoshop airbrushy.

Today's art - cued by whatever was playing on my iPod at the time. Try it, it's fun!

Painter 9 - I'm STILL getting used to the watercolours on painter 9. If anything, there's too MUCH choice and it's still very hard to control translucency and get a good bleed going.


This too two goes. The first version was on Photoshop and ended up looking like it was done with flat gouache. It took me a while, which cued me that perhaps it wasn't working. So I rescanned the pencil, clicked open my well-loved Painter Classic and 20 minutes later, done.
LOVE Painter Classic's watercolours. Shame the level function doesn't work and they only take JPGs.
Oh, these are problems you WANT to have, shut up, woman.