Fan Art

[Cloud23465]

Try not to press too hard as you color with the pencils. Color in each area with light, gentle strokes. Your colors will start out light that way, but they'll get darker the longer you color each area, until you reach the intensity you want. And your pencil points will be less likely to break that way.

I dont even get to that point... I can sit there and sharpen it... grab the lead with no force at all it come right out of the pencil. I dont know if its bad wood that its made out of or the pencil was dropped before buying and the lead was damaged. Or maybe its the sharpener... I wish i knew.

[TransWarpDrive]

I've had that happen with #2 black pencils. It is possible (no pun intended) to oversharpen a pencil until the point is ready to break off. Do you use a crank-style pencil sharpener or one of those little hand-held ones where you put the end of the pencil in and twist? Either way, you might try taking it slow as you sharpen each pencil, and see if that helps.

[jeriddian]

What do you think, Cloud?


By jeriddian

[Rob]

Another fine job by Cloud on his drawings... very well done!

And a nice job by jeriddian on the recolor!

Attaboys for both of you!

[Cloud23465]

What do you think, Cloud?


By jeriddian

Was that mne? Man it looks so... flawless. Very nice! I'm not sure how or what you did but it made it look alot better.

I've had that happen with #2 black pencils. It is possible (no pun intended) to oversharpen a pencil until the point is ready to break off. Do you use a crank-style pencil sharpener or one of those little hand-held ones where you put the end of the pencil in and twist? Either way, you might try taking it slow as you sharpen each pencil, and see if that helps.

I use the little ones that you put on the end of the pencil and twist... its got like a razor blade on it. Problem is I need a sharp point to get to the fine areas to get them colored and not get any smuging if at all possible. I need to figure something out, Because with whats going on... colorings is getting very costly.

[jeriddian]

What do you think, Cloud?


By jeriddian

Was that mne? Man it looks so... flawless. Very nice! I'm not sure how or what you did but it made it look alot better.

Thanks to the power of Corel Photopaint. Adobe PhotoShop, of course, does the same thing. It only took me about thirty minutes to do it, too. I still have to learn to smooth out the lines automatically without having to resort to manually doing it, becasue that's where the time consumption goes, but there is a way. I just have to find it.

[Rob]

I use Jasc Paint Shop Pro v8, myself. Corel now owns it, and has made the most recent versions, but I have yet to see any practical purpose in upgrading.

But then again, there are times where I actually go back to Paint for some brute-force work. I actually use Paint quite extensively for my sprite-based webcomics, using PSP for resizing, effects, and touch-ups, as well as converting BMPs to other formats (JPEG or PNG; I use GIF Movie Gear to make GIF images).

[campy]

I use Jasc Paint Shop Pro v8, myself. Corel now owns it, and has made the most recent versions, but I have yet to see any practical purpose in upgrading.

But then again, there are times where I actually go back to Paint for some brute-force work. I actually use Paint quite extensively for my sprite-based webcomics, using PSP for resizing, effects, and touch-ups, as well as converting BMPs to other formats (JPEG or PNG; I use GIF Movie Gear to make GIF images).

I like Irfanview for cropping, resizing, changing formats ... basically anything to do with images which doesn't involve drawing tools. I used it a lot back when I was making Pocket PC and cell phone themes.

[TransWarpDrive]

I've had that happen with #2 black pencils. It is possible (no pun intended) to oversharpen a pencil until the point is ready to break off. Do you use a crank-style pencil sharpener or one of those little hand-held ones where you put the end of the pencil in and twist? Either way, you might try taking it slow as you sharpen each pencil, and see if that helps.

I use the little ones that you put on the end of the pencil and twist... its got like a razor blade on it. Problem is I need a sharp point to get to the fine areas to get them colored and not get any smuging if at all possible. I need to figure something out, Because with whats going on... colorings is getting very costly.

Cloud, I just remembered something I used when I studied art in college all those years ago. It was a sandpaper pad; essentially a bunch of narrow sheets of sandpaper glued together at one end (like the pages of a tear-off note pad), and stapled at the other end to a narrow wooden board with a handle on it. Here's how to use it: After you've sharpened your pencil as much as you can in the "twister" sharpener, you take the pencil and lay the pointed tip on its side on the sandpaper pad. Using slow, gentle strokes, you then sharpen the lead's point even further than the hand-held sharpener can (remember to rotate the pencil as you sharpen the point). You can get a sandpaper pad at any good art or drafting supply store, or you can simply use a sheet of fine sandpaper (but not too fine!) from the local hardware store. The sandpaper pad is more convenient to use as its sheets are already cut down into a portable shape, but the stuff from the hardware store might be cheaper if money's a problem. You'll just have to cut the hardware sandpaper down into small sheets yourself, though.
Hope this helps!

[Cloud23465]

Cloud, I just remembered something I used when I studied art in college all those years ago. It was a sandpaper pad; essentially a bunch of narrow sheets of sandpaper glued together at one end (like the pages of a tear-off note pad), and stapled at the other end to a narrow wooden board with a handle on it. Here's how to use it: After you've sharpened your pencil as much as you can in the "twister" sharpener, you take the pencil and lay the pointed tip on its side on the sandpaper pad. Using slow, gentle strokes, you then sharpen the lead's point even further than the hand-held sharpener can. You can get a sandpaper pad at any good art or drafting supply store, or you can simply use a sheet of fine sandpaper (but not too fine!) from the local hardware store. The sandpaper pad is more convenient to use as its sheets are already cut down into a portable shape, but the stuff from the hardware store might be cheaper if money's a problem. You'll just have to cut the hardware sandpaper down into small sheets yourself, though.
Hope this helps!

Thanks for the tip. I'm sure we've got some sandpaper around here and I'll give it a try. I have been pretty lucky today as the tips haven't been giving me any trouble (knocks on wood) and hope I can keep it up... But i will still try what you suggested.