Heres the cover pic I did for the upcoming DD Book.

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When in doubt as to who is in charge on the battlefield, listen to the man with the bloodiest sword.

Very nice, in a your about to enter a world of hurt sort of way.
Good job, sir.

R-
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Rigon o' the Lakelands, Baron of The Castles & Crusades Society
The Book of the Mind

ooh, bad day to be her!

Well, I just edited that pic and reposted it. I was checking the boards last night to see if anyone had anything to say about my artwork, and I happened to be on my laptop. Holy crap! I didn't realize how much smear and smudge i had in the pic; on my desktop monitor it looked perfect to me....so I used my laptop this morning to touch up the pic and repost. Pretty embarassing. I learned a lesson about setting up my monitor for artwork....any of you experience anything like this?
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When in doubt as to who is in charge on the battlefield, listen to the man with the bloodiest sword.

Good stuff, Piper, and thanks for sharing. ATOM better watch his back I hear you're a damned fine CK as well.

The entire issue of monitors is a tricky one. Generally, nothing is ever going to look the same way on two different machines. You can't control how I have my monitor calibrated, for example. I think it varies by platform as well. PC's tend to display darker than Macs. It's the nature of the beast. I'd say as long as it prints out OK, you're golden.

Smudge and smear are fun tools for blending, but it's really easy to overdo it. Make them part of your arsenal, but never the whole thing. Layered brushmarks of varying transparency and tone should be your next step.

Do you use a digital tablet (like a WACOM), or is this all with a mouse?
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Jason Braun
Art Monkey for Hire
Three-Headed Troll Art Wurks

Thanks for the positive comments!

As far as a tablet, mine is a Wacom Intuos2, though I have been drooling over the Intuos4 lately (but its way too expensive for me right now). I can't do crap with a mouse at all, so a tablet was the only way for me to go.

Transitioning from being primarily a pencil and ink artist on paper to doing stuff beginning to end in PS has been a realitively smooth process for me, but a process none the less.

Thanks for the advice on the layering...I just started experimenting with it. Any good tutorials out there you could recommend? I wish I would have taken art classes in college, but now I have to study on my own.
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When in doubt as to who is in charge on the battlefield, listen to the man with the bloodiest sword.

Gotta love those WACOM tablets, man. They're simply amazing. I was lucky enough to catch an amazing deal on a Cintiq 12WX - the smallest of the ones where the tablet is actually a monitor and you draw right on the image. I don't do nearly enough digital work to justify owning it, but I couldn't pass it up. hahaha. I was actually taking a look at Matt Dixon's website the other day, and it motivated me to dust off the old Cintiq and dabble a bit.

ATOM is a maniac with teaching himself digital painting, so he'd be a good person to hit up for tips or links. He watches a lot of tutorials, and practices like a madman. His improvement over the past year is nothing short of amazing. As for my recommendations, I DRAW GIRLS has some good free/cheap digital painting tutorials. As the title suggests, it's mainly pinup and female anatomy, but he does dragons, comics, environments, mecha and character development as well. Even if you don't want to paint naked ladies (what self-respecting Bradley fan wouldn't?), a lot of the stuff Xia teaches can be applied to other subjects. There are over 200 free tutorials, and the paid ones are dirt cheap ($5-10). I've bought a couple of them in the past but unlike my friend ATOM, I'm usually just too lazy or distracted to give them a proper whirl.

I hope that helps. Keep it up!
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Jason Braun
Art Monkey for Hire
Three-Headed Troll Art Wurks

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the weekly Ninja Mountain podcasts:
LINKY

NM is a group of professional freelance artists who field all sorts of questions about business, technique, influences, etc. They're friendly, entertaining and informative, even if your goal isn't to be a freelancer.

Every episode has show notes in the blog, with links to the artists, books, websites, etc that were covered in that episode.
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Jason Braun
Art Monkey for Hire
Three-Headed Troll Art Wurks

You can find an intuos 4 in the 4x5 range pretty cheap on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Intuos4-Sma ... 666&sr=8-1

Drawing space on the tablet itself is unimportant.
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

I like it. Very Halloween.
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The Rock says ...

Know your roll!

Thanks for the link Pete. I find that I really don't use all the space on my 6x8, as I zoom into the area I want to work anyway most of the time. Man, that new Intuos4 has double the pressure sensitivity....I must have it. I would really like a Cintique, but that is insanely priced for me.
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When in doubt as to who is in charge on the battlefield, listen to the man with the bloodiest sword.

Cintique's are great if you've the money to afford one, but honestly I don't think they are of any use save for a luxury or 'bling' expense. I know several artists who swear by them, Nene Thomas and Larry Dixon come to mind, but I've played with them a bit and they really don't suit me.
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"We'll go out through the kitchen!" Tanis Half-Elven

Peter Bradley

I'll admit that my Cintiq was an impulse buy. I was cruising the Computer section of austin craigslist and an animation student was ditching his for about 3/4 the retail price. I made him a cash offer that was even a little less and he snapped it up. As stated above, I don't use it nearly enough to justify having it, even at the bargain price, but it sure is fun. Bling bling!

My single gripe is that many times your hand is blocking what you're trying to see. But I guess that's no different than traditional media - without the risk of dragging your sweaty meat-hook through fresh paint or graphite.

I upgraded from a Graphire to Cintiq, so I missed the whole Intous step. From what I understand, many of the cool things I love about my Cintiq (brush angle sensitivity, etc) are just as good on an Intous. But, to me, it's marvelous new capability.
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Jason Braun
Art Monkey for Hire
Three-Headed Troll Art Wurks

I like it

I have trouble with color in some ways