Nato

Nice job on the cardboard minis Dynamo. They look real good.

And of course, great work Storn.

Personally, I'm glad that a new universe has been started up. It's been so long since the last official (4th Ed) Champions Universe stuff came out, that I think it's nice to have a fresh look at it. I personally like the new villains, and new versions of old favorites, so much better than just about any of the previous edition ones. I think the quality of writing has greatly improved too, so I have very few complaints about the new team or setting.

Well he said it in the video game so I don't much care, Mr. Knowitall.

I've always been partial to Duke Nukem quotes.

"I'm here to kick ass and chew bubblegum. And I'm all out of bubblegum."

Re: Not sure...

Originally posted by Delthrien

... where it came from, but it goes something like:

 

"I know a hundred ways to make you regret that. Pick a number..."

"Uhhhhh.... One-hundred-ONE?"

<---------------------------- Grond is my favorite. I hope he rips those UNTIL sissies apart when he wakes up.

Nice job, both Jessie and Ben. Enjoyed both stories a bunch.

Just "bookmarking" this thread so I can get the updates and remember to check out all the good tips. Cool thread.

Pretty cool menace. What characters did you start with to make these?

Patriot, gald we could help you out. It's been fun sharing ideas. BTW, is the pic on the Yahoo Group from your WWW link your illustration?

http://www.neoterranean.com/art/tutorial/coloring.html

The last page of that tutorial tells you exactly how to take the line art layer and color the lines like you ask about. It's pretty dang cool.

As far as your first question, I'm not sure I follow. You can change the layer belending mode (normal, multiply, screen, darken, lighten, saturation, etc...) in the layers pallete. Select the layer you want. At the top of the pallette you should see a drop down menu that lets you change the blending mode. By default it's at "normal."

Not sure that's what you want to know though. Perhaps we're misunderstanding each other. Photoshop is a hard thing to explain without pictures or someone at your computer showing you.

There is definitely great value in having someone physicaly SHOW you how something is done. Whether it's at a private art school or a community college, a good teacher can definitely unlock things that you may never get from a book. I was also scared to paint in oils until my figure drawing teacher at the local community college taught a painting class. Since I had so much respect for that guy I signed up for his painting class and finally tackled that fear. What he taught us in the first class TOTALLY showed me that there was nothing intimidating about oils other than my ignorance of the medium. Once he showed me the order in which to paint, how to mix paints and glazes and stuff, it wasn't that hard at all. No harder than any other paints I'd used. I just had a stigma about the fact that they weren't water based. It would have taken me much longer to start painting in oils if I hadn't had him to give me some basic instructions.

If it's too late in life to devote four solid years to school, don't worry. You can take a class here and there. Or get involved with an artists group in your community. Or find a local artist that's better than you and hang out with 'em. It's the exposure to better artists that will help you get better, if you already have the drive to do so. Heck, even chatting with another artist online will help. I've seen kids get out of private art schools who haven't gotten much better than when they enrolled. And I've seen kids in community colleges that take one class and then show remarkable improvment. And these were people who thought they had NO drawing ability and took they class because they had to. It's all in loving to draw, wanting to learn, learning to observe, and having great teachers - wherever they are. Sometimes they're in a classroom, other times they're online or in a book.

The key to understanding good inking is first learning how to draw well. After that, studying how line weights are used and principles of design (which are actually part of leanring how to make a good drawing anyway). Learning about what draws your eye to the subject of importance. If you understand that stuff, you'll be a successful inker.

Besides, everyone knows that inkers are just tracers. (Chasing Amy reference for humor, just in case any artists are thinking about hunting me down.)

By the way Eric, I've become a big fan of your stuff. I like the texture in your inking. You get a lot of nice "greys" with your hatching and feathering. Your latest stuff in MC were some of my favorites.

Hey Patriot. Glad it's working out for you. Maybe you'll even come around to wonderful world of greyscale in time.

Heh. I'm a PC guy all the way. Mainly because of my gaming and hardware background. I like to build my own and stuff, which you can't really do with Macs. I've used Macs plenty but they're not my favorite thing to use, even for graphics. Plus, a high-end Pentium 4 with a nice 3D card like a GeForce 4 or a Radeon 97000 will easily hold it's own for graphics work. Whoops, I hope I didn't just spark a Mac vs. PC debate.

Man, just about any model of tablet by Wacom will do you good. The Graphire is a budget tablet, but I've been able to do anything I wanted to with it. At less than $100 it's a great deal. The Intous is the next model up. I've used the 12x12 size in school but it was too big for my tastes. You really have to move your arm around on that thing. With a smaller tablet you can flick your wrist and move across the screen instantly. But seriously, they ALL work great if they're by Wacom. Can't vouch for other brands.

Not a bad idea. Not bad at all. Cooooool.

Oh, just remembered something.

Frank Cho, cartoonist of Liberty Meadows and amazing illustrator, uses Micron pens for pretty much all of his inking, other than filling in major areas of black. I was pretty amazed when I heard that.

http://www.libertymeadows.com/

I think it's really hard to give a definite answer on exactly what to use for inking. I've seen many people get great result with art pens such as Pigma Microns or tech pens like Radiographs, and then others who use dip pen nibs such as a Hunt 102. Others swear by a Winsor & Newton Series 7 #2 brush. Some ink so well with any of the above tools that it's almost impossible to tell exactly what the employed. Many use a combination of all of the above. Definitely check out Gary Martin's books. He now has a second book out that has four different pages by four different pencilers. Then each pencil page is inked by four different inkers. Then it gives you blueline pages of each pencil page for you to try it yourself. It's really helpful to see how each pages is approached by a different artist and what can be done with ink to bring out the best in a page. I'm not the world's best inker yet so I'm really practicing that hard these days. I can slowly see improvement. It's best to familiarize yourself with any tool out there for inking and learn how to pick the best tool for the job and the best tool for how you like to draw. Definitely don't just settle for one tool because it's easiest without giving others try.

I use the smooth Bristol board as well. Holds the ink better; well at least the batches I've had lately. Paper and ink quality can vary from unit to unit within the same brand. It's wierd. Paris paper might work for you too. It's made for technical drawing though and it's pretty thin, so it won't stand up to much brushwork. Bristol's the stuff for that.

Definitely follow Storn's advice on pencilling tight. It's much better to plan it all out in pencil. Then again, Steve Dillon of Preacher and Punisher fame hands in such loose pencils that it's hard to tell what's going on. He inks them himself though. He's just one of those guys.

I agree with Eric. Don't worry too much about art school. While I'm not saying that it's worthless at all, it's not the most important thing in the world. I would however suggest getting involved in a figure drawing class or group. This is one of the greatest things that help you learn to draw better. Observing the nude form is incredibly helpful.

Assuming you have players that enjoy writing and are good at it on the fly, OpenRPG can be very enjoyable. I've had tons of fun with it with my online group, all of whom write very well and can think (type) on their feet. Having nice maps and some good color minis adds to the experience tremendously, as does having some character pics uploaded to a personal website. You can send links to these pics and other useful things inside the chat. If you learn how to use the Hero Die Roller function in it you'll have even more fun, especially if you use the formulas to make to-hit roll, attack roll, damage roll, and skill roll buttons on your sheet. I actually have elimated a lot of rolling by using Hero Combat Simulator in addition, letting it roll and keep track of damage and END, and then just narrate what happens to the players. They all seem to enjoy this approach. None of them are sure EXACTLY how much damage they've dealt or how badly they're hurt so they really have to role-play it out. IT's a blast for me. I feel less inhibited and can think of better dialogue and use accents moreseo than in my face-to-face games. I highly recommend it.

Thanks for the ideas Hermit.

I did want to give him a company name that perhaps tied in with a code name. You can see on the sketch where I placed a spot for a logo. His company name would after all want to highlight his superpowered construction abilities. But, if he used a past villain name, that could adversley affect his company's new image. Unless his reformation was highly publicized. I also don't think that he was a notorious or evil villain - more like a criminal that people kind of liked. Like he was charismatic despite being on the wrong side of the law. Something to that effect. Then when he decided to change for good, people praised him even more.

Which is why I like I. Beam. Sounds like a super name, but it's his actual name.

Coolness, glad I could help!

Greyscale is easily colored in Photoshop or any other program that uses layers and a similar blending mode to "Multiply." So MS Paint users are kinda outta luck there.

With greyscale art on a separate layer set to multiply you can just color underneath it. The thing to keep in mind is the darker the grey, the less color will show through. So lighter greyscale images work best. You can also paint over the top of the greyscale layer if you need color to show on a dark area.

Again I have to say, DUUUUDE. I like it. thanks Bob. Ignatius. Pretty funny. I'd abbreviate that too.

Thanks everyone for the ideas. I'll post some more soon.

Here's another guy from the campaign. One of the supers that doesn't really go heroing or villaining. He puts his abilities to profit. In a MC campaign he'd fit in perfect with all the construction going on. I have a general origin in mind. Once a small-time villain, at some point decided it wasn't worth it (either in prison or when he say the devestation of MC), decided he rather make things than destroy them kinda thing. I need a name for him. Names I've bounced around...

Construction

The Foreman

Crew

I don't know about any of them. Maybe just a cool legal name - a play-on-words kind of name.

But if Hermit wants to write me anothe origin story he's welcome to it!