Yesterday I bought some computer software called Clip / Manga Studio which is for comic book artists. I think it will be a lot faster than Photoshop. But first I have to learn how to use it :P So I splurged on the tutorials for another $20. For some reason I expected more of an interactive experience, something like a CD-ROM. But nope. They're just videos. If I had understood it correctly, I probably could have watched something on youtube for free instead. Oh well :( Anyway, Manga Studio has some cool features, like a bunch of 3D models you can pose. Basically they have these human-shaped models, and you can even adjust the camera angles in order to get a pretty good idea of the pose you are trying to draw. Also, you can go into the extreme perspective mode and see forced perspective poses, which is another thing you just can't do in Photoshop. Posing these 3D models and camera would be extremely helpful for somebody whose style is more 'realistic' than what I'm doing currently. Anyway, the basic 3D model looks like a typical artist mannequin. They also have some other models, like teenagers in school outfits. The schoolgirl's skirt has a *lot* of action on it. When I was dragging the model into the scene, my son looked over and whoop! There it was. Her skirt was flying up and showing off her underwear. He was like, 'ugh!' What's that? And I said, man I don't know. Just some crazy software I'm trying out. Embarrassed much? Haha. Anyway, the 3D model is definitely a useful tool. Then I watched other videos, and I was intrigued by the watercolor brushes. So we were all just doing our own things yesterday. I was playing around with the software, while my son was playing his video game, and it was really chill. While we were having our hang, I experimented with various brushes and ended up making this little composition. I thought I would share it because, why not? To me, it kinda feels like the feeling we had hanging out yesterday. Also I can see some figures in the composition, and it makes me think of having an adventure. In the forest. Hiking a trail to a waterfall. Something like that. Anyway, I like it. It makes me feel good to look at it. In an unexpected midnight buying spree, I actually placed an order to print this image on canvas. Future me will get a nice surprise later in the week! Haha. It will be cool to see how this piece looks when it gets printed on canvas. Maybe I'll do a follow up post so you can see the result. :)
