If you’re interested in my drawing process, here is something completely new that I’ve just started to use. If technical stuff bores you, then just go click on the song and skip the next few paragraphs.
First, I use the drawing software Clip Studio Paint EX, and I’ve been using it since I started drawing back in 2007 (when it was called Manga Studio). The software introduced 3D models you could use as pose references a while back and when I first tried it out, frankly, I was not happy with the results. Second, I did not draw steadily, or at all, for almost six years due to depression. So when I returned to drawing this year, I had to essentially relearn what Clip Studio could do and teach myself to draw again.
As most artists do, I use reference photos and/or drawings to help create my artwork. I spend HOURS searching for poses and it is frustrating at best and a huge waste of time. While searching for poses recently, I stumbled upon a video tutorial for drawing poses with the 3D models in Clip Studio. WOW! They have really improved on how you can manipulate the poses and body shapes. After watching the video, I dove into the software, and I’ve been experimenting with it for the past few days. The image above is the result of my work.
I’ve said many times that the main reason I do not draw the 1977 characters playing at gigs is because the instruments are extremely hard and time consuming to draw, particularly the drums. With the new features in Clip Studio, I am hoping that doing these types of poses will be a bit easier to do now. I still have to draw everything by hand as I won’t stoop to just pasting in 3D objects into the comic; that would look weird.
The other upshot of using these 3D poses is that it will help teach me correct anatomy. I do okay, but I’m way off sometimes. Being self-taught, I never took any type of anatomy or life drawing courses, so these kinds of tools will help improve my process.
For those who celebrate it, have a good Thanksgiving! For the rest of you, hopefully you’ll get a couple days off from work. And if we’re giving thanks, well, BTO said it best and I have to be thankful for the feelin’ you all give me by sticking with the comic all these years.
That’s awesome, it’s always good to learn things, I just learned that there is software that can help in matters like yours, I like it. its just that learning curve, once you understand it, it will progress with time and benefit you. HAPPY THANKSGIVING.
Like any sophisticated piece of software, there is learning curve that can be overwhelming to many artists or potential artists. It took me a YEAR to even get the basics of the software back in 2007. But today there are a ton of excellent tutorials on YouTube that helps reduce that learning curve.
Back in the early 1970s, I originally learnt to draw with pencil and Quill pen, and frankly I never thought I’d convert to a digital artist. I’m glad I did though.
Oh, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you too!
Wow, yes, poses and body proportions look good. Am loking forward to seeing the result. But then, no bass? Did they ever play with two guitars and no bass? If so, my error.
Ah, I didn’t mention that they did not have an SG style bass model, only Fender. Bud plays an SG bass like mine, so I used the guitar model as a reference. Bud will always play bass!
Also, as bass player it has always annoyed me that Fender basses get all the attention. Lots of other great bass guitars out there besides a Fender Jazz bass. I’ve always wanted a Rickenbacker 4001 or 4003 style bass.
But wasn’t Bud’s a 4-string bass? As I seem to remember, basses with more than 4 strings were rare at the time, let alone with the usual rock bands (maybe with prog rock or jazz bands, which I didn’t follow much then).
I didn’t explain myself well, sorry. Bud’s bass will have 4-strings. The 3D model I’m using as a reference is a guitar with 6-strings, but I’ll draw it as a bass with 4-strings. I could not find a 4-string bass in the SG style as a 3D model yet.
Ah, I see. That sounds like a reasonable way to go. So you only have to make the neck that bit longer than that guitar’s.
Recent years I have been thinking of taking up guitar playing again, and what would be a better motivator than a nice guitar? An SG might be the just the thing – good enough for Zappa, sure good enough for me :–) – and there are even models that not horrendeously expensive, “real” ones, I mean. Or a thin hollowbody like B. B. King and Alvin Lee played, but these *are* horrendeously expensive. But there are nice affordable ones from Gretsch. Maybe even more versatile than an SG.
I bought one of my sons a BC Rich Warlock and the other a Memphis, but neither one of them plays much anymore.
I can play almost anything you can hit with a stick, not that well and certainly not professional quality, but I always wanted to learn bass and never got one for myself.
Rickenbacker drawers represent! I wouldn’t want to purchase one at this time (pricy and I’ve heard some not great things about the quality in recent decades) , but those are some really distinctive basses to draw so I made a point of one of my characters having one.
Might make pretty good stage costumes.
Ha! Yes, they are perhaps playing at the nudist colony. 🙂
All characters start off naked to get the proportions and pose right, then I add in clothing over those rough sketches. Luckily for me, most of the clothing worn in the late ’70s were pretty much skin tight, so I don’t have to fuss with fabric wrinkles or bulky attire.
As someone who has spent the past year or so drawing bands at a music festival, I feel you! Getting drums out of frame or into the deep background has been the main way for me to get those pages out. Of course, once I’d figured it out, I had the brilliant idea of having one band helicoptered in…
Drawing music festival scenes would be a huge pain in the butt! I have yet to figure out a good way to draw crowd scenes at a bar let alone an entire festival. I tip my hat to you!
I’m weird because I actually like doing crowd scenes. They do take a lot of time though.
Hey, nice to see you here. I really liked Incognito (and helped write its entry on the Jenny Everywhere wiki). It’s a nice bonus to see you enjoying 1977 too.
Happy Thanksgiving Byron! That looks great, and I too have struggled to frustration with Manga Studio years ago. I do like the 3D drum kit and guitars, but I also understand wanting to draw them by hand once you get the poses and such in place to “Own it” as they say. Take care and please keep it up!
Using 3D models in this comic would feel like cheating to me. It most certainly would speed up my process, especially for backgrounds. For now, I’m sticking with drawing everything out.
My next comic, a science-fiction story, I will take advantage of 3D models for everything but the characters as I’m not going to stress myself with drawing the interior and exterior of a futuristic spacecraft by hand. That would be nuts.
I remember reading an article where the Marvel artists back in 1977/1978 who had to bring Star Wars to the comic pages and how they dreaded drawing all the spacecrafts and technology in the backgrounds.
Must have some training on computers it doesn’t look easy even a powerful computer. Then again I used to draw Bushizilla comics of giant infantile George W Bush ruling the world in diapers with his flatulence calling America’s enemies poohy woohys. I even drew him scaring moon men, terra forming Mars and igniting Jupiter with his flatulence.
For a consumer level PC, I have a relatively powerful system. It is essentially a gaming computer used for mostly graphic work. By having a powerful graphics card, it makes dealing with these 3D models fairly easy.
Speaking of 3-D models…
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned this one 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTP2RUD_cL0
Or even this one 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WPzFnZkZmI
I remember how the 3D in that video was pretty much state-of-the-art for that level of budget in 1985. In the 1990s, I had a NewTek Video Toaster system running on the Amiga 2000 platform which featured the first versions of LightWave 3D software. It took days and days to render out a simple animation of a client’s logo. So much so, I purchased a second Video Toaster system dedicated just to rendering out 3D.
Today, those animations would render in hours, if not less.
I was still using an Atari 800XL with a basic cartridge then 😉
I’d had enough courses that I could build a computer from scratch, I just couldn’t afford to.
I can still remember making logic gates on breadboards spread all over a workbench to get a 4-bit ‘computer’ you ‘programmed’ with paddle switches to add two numbers together, but I passed the courses, enough that I ended up teaching basic electronics for a few years 🙂