This past weekend, I finally gave a Wacom Cintiq a test drive. I've heard a lot about the Cintiq, but never actually seen one in person. The Cintiq belonged to a buddy of mine, Braxton Harrison. While I am dipping my toe into the digital pool, Braxton has completely cannonballed/belly-flopped into the pool and is making quite the splash! He is currently working a graphic novel that he is doing all digitally. It's going to be the bomb.
And along with my other good friend/all-digital advocate and one of my co-hosts on the SiDEBAR podcast, artist Dwight Clark, we all sat down at a local restaurant and gave the Cintiq a what-for.
Here's me in progress with Brax looking on. Amidst the tangle of wires and cables, he said I looked like an 'Operator' from the Matrix:
Lastly, I think it was Dwight who suggested a jam piece with the three of us on the Cintiq to mark the occasion. Braxton went first and laid down an AWESOME Punisher in no time flat. Zipatone and textures and everything! The gauntlet had been thrown. So to keep the Marvel Comics 'street-level' theme, I did Elektra and Dwight did Moon Knight. We also threw on some Zipatone. Here is the final jam piece signed by each artist:
Thanks guys for an awesome Sunday afternoon!
You can find the blogs of Braxton Harrison, Dwight Clark, and the SiDEBAR podcast in my 'Friends and Favorites' section to the right. Please check them out. You won't be sorry.
4 comments:
Dude this jam piece is crazy cool. I'm not sure what to do with digital. I know some people make it rock, like you guys, but I don't know if i could ever be happy without my paper and pencils. What do you think, man?
Stevo,
Thanks for the ups on the jam piece. It was fun. As for digital, both Braxton and Dwight are huge advocates of an all digital workflow. Myself... ehhhhh... LOL!
However, it is about utilizing the tools to get the best result. The extent of all digital for me has been coloring comics and doing digital paintings. There are some gradations and effects that you can only get in digital coloring. Plus in working digitally, it is quicker to get certain tasks done like screentones and textures that would take you hours by hand.
As far as doing line art and comics completely digitally, we'll see. But I look at guys like Braxton, Kyle Baker, Freddie Williams II, Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Alex Maleev and Skottie Young who make it work for themselves gloriously.
Like you, Steve, I'm still trying to lock down my traditional skills foremost. I could never abandon brush, ink and Bristol or paints and canvas/watercolor paper. But damn if I'm not going to give digital a shot and tame the beast to my particular aesthetics.
The best advice in my short experience with digital I can give for digital is don't try to make it act like regular tools because it won't. You have to tame the beast to your own aesthetic needs.
Try it.
I'm beginning to think that maybe there's no "analog vs. digital" argument at all. It's like "HB lead vs 6B lead" or something. Just a different tool, huh?
That it, Stevo! I’ve been preaching the digital workflow for ease and necessity if nothing else. I also believe you’ll “adapt” to whatever medium you’re open to and explore it. Moving solely to digital was rather easy as I never really nurtured analog in the first place.
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