Digital painting collection 1 (Also: Photoshop versus Paint Tool Sai)

I haven't been updating for a while now, but I'm actually quite busy with *gasp* art projects. These are a few digital drawings I did on the side. It's a really, really tough learning process, but it seems to pay off. Slowly.

I'm doing the switch from Photoshop to something simpler as well. I'm currently trying out Paint Tool Sai, which is far less bloated (for drawing purposes) and less laggy. The above picture is actually a direct comparison between both programs.

Click to see the full image (+ sketch) and more works!



Photoshop vs. Sai

As indicated in the lower corners, these two charming people were colored in different programs - the guy in Photoshop, the lady in Paint Tool Sai. I've recently got fed up with Photoshop for sheer bloat and lagginess. I don't fault PS for all the bloat, because it really is a fully featured photo and image suite. For my purposes, I'm using only about 10 % of its functionality, so it's not really the right choice. Also, the distinct lag between input display when drawing can really get on your nerves, though this can possibly attributed to my 3 GHz, 2GB RAM PC.

My first replacement candidate is Paint Tool Sai, and I'm really enjoying it so far - drawing is nice and snappy, the brushes have a great feel and the interface is fantastic. The only downsides is that Sai apparently doesn't support exporting PNGs with transparent background (what the hell?) and that there's no built-in scanning plugin (so you need to open another program to scan your linework).

Other than that I don't have anything negative to say - the one crash I've had probably had more to do with all the junk programs I had running on the side.

I'm hoping they'll fix the above points some time in the future. For the moment, I'll continue to explore the possibilities Sai has to offer.

Back to the image itself: I think I'll need to revise my opinion that digital painting adds nothing to an image that can't be expressed by good linework (other than color, duh). While the sketch is admittedly very shoddy and bland, even the best possible linework base would never have reached the same level of personality the colored image has. Maybe it's not that modeling will improve an image, but rather that it will evolve it in interesting and often surprising directions.

Anyway, I gotta study my drapery and lighting, and should try adding a background some time. Hrmph.


So, after this long-ass text (a first-timer, I think), here's some more paintings:

MANLINESS!

(click to zoom)

Linework:

Less manliness (and more suck):
(click to zoom)

And a little preview of things to come - mythical creatures!

This image is actually part of those mysterious projects I mentioned. Stay tuned!


And thanks for reading, I hope you like it!
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