Friday, February 10, 2006

Batting Out Another One

Batting Out Another One Originally uploaded by Gelatomettista2.
[jimlee]

Another one...they take about 30 minutes and honestly, it's mostly trial and error at this point.

The images are too day-glo really but I like the pop art effect you get with the saturated colors. Painting this with oils or acrylics would take hours. And yeah, this is done with a Wacom product...the Cintiq21.

It's the monitor which you can draw on. I have a Wacom tablet and that was fairly effective and intuitive but the Cintiq is just like drawing on paper.

9 comments:

Peter said...

goes well with the joker...was never a big fan of magenta or purple but it works well in this piece. I wonder if there is way for you to record your process, that be an interesting follow.

mic? said...

The marks and the bright super-saturated neon colors are what I love best, I think. They're so reminiscent of the 80s, Pop Art, Warhol... mixed w/ your iconic style... it's just craziness!! It's all so new to me... I've never seen anythin' like this before. Great marriage!

;D <--- cheesy

Peace...

Russ Sheath said...

Very cool, I like it. Great stuff Jim.

Russ

Mario Alba said...

Peter and Jim,

I know of this program called "Camtasia" that records everything that goes on in your screen. It also records audio as well, and a co-worker has tried this program on her tablet, so I know it can be done and it works. And since we all know how much Jim likes to record the making of, and HE knows how much we like to see it, it might be something to keep in mind.

Sinc' said...

Dude! You have a Cintiq?!?...I hate you.

Seriously, these rule, man. Just don't get fast at it, 'cause that means Scott and I are out of a gig!

Sinc'

Requius said...

I think I'l take a moment here to blab on the topic on the luxurious Cintiq. I bought my 18sx about a year ago just before the 21ux was announced (DOH!) with the hopes of eliminating the separate processes of pencilling and inking and, of course, with the prospects of complete editing control that the digital medium allows for. My preferred style involves very fine linework that aspires to Rich's finesse, and so I attempted to match the delicacy of the turqouise rapidograph but was willing to compromise to the point of the smallest Micron, 005.
After extensive research and sinking an extraordinary amount of time into trial and error, what I've encountered has led me to abandon digital linework altogether.

First, the 18sx (I assume this is true for the 21ux?)
has a screen resolution of 100dpi meaning that to view a canvas of, say, 11x17 at actual size, you would set your canvas at 11x17 at 100dpi. Because the minimum size for a decent print is at 300dpi, you must draw at 3 times of the physical size which is a downside in itself in terms of time and labor. But even when doing so, I found that during reduction for print, lines (most especially the finer ones) would get a lot of fuzzy greying on various printers -perhaps industrial grade printers would counteract this?

I felt that it would be best to utilize the image for both print and for the arena of internet display - preferably at comic book print size though certainly not at 33"x 51" (11x17 at 300dpi)or even larger if your monitor is the standard 72dpi. Major problem here:
Now I can match the afformentioned
real pens sizes using Corel Painter IX's scratchboard tool (the very best inking "brush" I have ever encountered on any graphics program) at the size of 1 to 2.5 pixels. So what happens when you reduce a single pixel by three? Grey, because the computer compensates for a lack of further division with opacity. And that's only to show you the pic at the physical size of 11x17 - 6x9 is clearly out of the question.

The only alternative that I found to combat this is vector imaging ala Adobe Illustrator. And it may be possible (doubtful) to approach the quality I seek with, but in the end, I'm an artist not a technician and that process is ultra time consuming as well as terribly unnatural.

My conclusion is that the analog method continues to offer a better quality with a more natural feel and with a scanner you can surmount the sizing obstacles for web display much more effectively.

Mind you, this is strictly a comparison of linework with the intrinsic contrast of black and white being the most extreme test of digital imaging capabilities.
For color work and most especially painting, the Cintiq coupled with Painter IX is phenomenal and is an almost magical experience,
but ultimately I'd rather pencil than paint.

So if your heart's set on an investment of a Cintiq, those are some aspects to consider - aspects I wished I had known before going to the ridiculous lengths that I did to acquire mine. And as far as I'm concerned, inkists are a commodity unmatched by machines.

Nice sketch Jim.

MadPowerBomber said...

both of these need to be on t-shirts.

Stephane Lemieux said...

These are both rad as hell, I wish I wasn't computeretarded. Maybe I could belt out quality pics in the ball park area of this magnitude (hey as long as I'm wishing right? haha)

Kudos Jim for giving me yet another reason to love Batman!

WILLIAM CHOI said...

Hi Jim, Its cool to see you using a Wacom tablet. Maybe We might see a comic exclusively in digital from you? Hmm? :) hehe, maybe if you show Wilce it will help get those Wetworks issues out on time LOL, and more comics to enjoy for me!