A lot of us like to ask binary questions.
Is this good or bad? Do you like it or not? Make it simple for me.
In my day job as a university lecturer in Animation, the questions become more specific. But they still contain an opposition of outcomes; where only the most extreme ends of the spectrum are the only possible choices.
Questions like, specialized or generalist? studio or freelance? 3D or 2D?
I like to say, to most things, "it depends". There's a lot to be gained by playing in the middle, taking up the whole spectrum of possibilities.
Every single tool has different benefits and drawbacks. Through experimentation, I've started figuring out what tools work the best for me. How to integrate them into sets of 'workflows', or sequences of doing things. Like a book of recipes that helps my cooking turn out better.
My workflows do just that- they flow. they change from project to project, picture to picture, depending on what I need and what I discover through the process.
Drawing traditionally (using paper and pens/inks/paint etc) is great for the 'happy accidents' that occur where you can't control-z. Things spill, spatter, you slip, and things go in unplanned ways. There are also a lot of naturally occurring advantages that you can plan for, such as how paint dries, how ink flows depending on the brush, method of application, dilutions, etc. All the ways different media react with each other and the materials being used to prepare and apply them.
The reference photo
Photo of the finished ink wash drawing.
Tooling around/'digital editing' using Gradient Maps and Blend modes in Photoshop.
It's really easy to do quick renders with wildly different results just by twiddling a few settings, and it's one way that you can get close to the 'happy accidents' of traditional media, as different layers and modes interact in unexpected ways.
Reference photo of Storm in one of the more recent X-Men movies. Love the expression and the lighting.
The inkwash and watercolour sketch.
And too many render experiements.
Before long it's possible to come up with a stack of various iterations and choices for further development. Much longer and it often descends into complete ridiculousness, but even then the results are often interesting.
Thanks for stopping by :)
