October 15th 3rd day of class

I had a hard time getting ready for this weeks class.
I had a client job that was taking up too much time, and I was having a hard time getting into the art again.
I think it's because I know that it's taking up time that I should be using to do client work or look for more work.
I really want to dedicate the necessary time to this class. I want to make sure I get something of value out of it.
In order to delay drawing, on Wednesday, I worked on a 3D layout of the interior that I am using for the setting of my Cinderellastein story.
I spent more time on it than I should have because I was stalling and mentally getting a grip on the art side of the story.
A working the story/art out in my head first is a necessary part of the way I work.
Here are a couple of images from the interior...





I used a easy to learn program called Google Sketch Up.
You can get it here.
http://sketchup.google.com/
The basic version is free. That's what I currently use.
I used this program to create the interior of Cinderellastein's house.
I use Sketch Up whenever I know the story art will be set in an interior/exterior of a building that will be the setting for most of the story. That way I don't have to spend time on working out the perspective of each drawing.
I also get to play around with viewing angles more creatively.
I create my basic layouts in the rough stage then I go into my Sketch Up model and match them up and play around a bit.
Once I have a viewing angle I like I export a image of it, and save it as a .psd or .jpeg.
Then I print the file out and put it under a sheet of paper and draw my characters out.
I can then scan my characters and save them.


I can them open the scene file and the character file and cut/paste the characters into the scene and scale/move them as needed.






Then I can print this file out redraw the tight line art on a sheet of marker paper over the top of it.
I use the marker paper because it's bright white, I can see the print out through it, and it takes black colored pencil or marker very well. All of these qualities make it scan well.
I don't like tracing paper. It's just a personal preference I guess.

At this stage I will either use markers and colored pencils to color the art, or I will scan the art into the computer again and flop it so it is a reverse image.
If I do this it means that I will be printing it out again so that I can trace over the back side/blank side of the printout with a number 2 pencil.
Then I will transfer the image to the board or paper that I will use for the final piece of art.
That way I don't have to draw and erase on the final art.
Then I paint the image.

If I plan on using paper to do the final art and it's size will fit through my printer, I will just reduce the opacity of the digital file to 15 to 20% and print it right onto the paper. Then I don't have to draw on the paper at all unless it's needed for the final art.

I spent part of Wednesdaynight and Thursday morning trying to get the 12 drawings that I needed to have for class done.
It didn't happen because I was working out the final "look" of the characters at the same time, which slowed me down.
I did get 8 of them done and presentable.

This weeks work is to pick 3 of the images and create final black and white art.
Today I will be choosing the 3 images and reworking them into final art so I can start inking them tonight/tomorrow.
Hope fully I will be able to get them done.