Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Seriously Al, you really tell incredible stories with your art.

Really really awesome stuff.

--Ron--

Happy New Year everyone! Here's the finished cover pic for the Saga Of The Giants:)

Nice!!

Al, you do great stuff.

Do you computer color your artwork? If so, how did you get the splotchy watercolor background look? The gray stuff in the giants picture?

I use a program called Krita to color all my stuff, but I still like to drag out the watercolors and do it by hand sometimes.

Teaman- I used watercolors on that pic. The gray blotchy areas were done with a large house painting brush dipped in watered down ink that I sort of just lightly stabbed down on the paper.

Al,

Thanks for that quick reply. I hadn't thought that it was an inkwash, so good to know.

We watercolorists gotta stick together.

Do you do a final ink afterwards so the ink doesn't run when you apply the watercolor?

Teaman- yes we do.

I color over the inks. So far I haven't had much of an issue with the colors hiding the inks much- not sure if it's because I water down the color a lot. There have been times where I'll go back over a spot with black if it looks a bit washed out.

If you are using India Ink, then it may not run too much with water. My concern was that the black would run into the colors.

That is a HUGE problem with a lot of markers, though again, some $$ ones may use ink that is waterproof.

Thanks for the nuts and bolts advice. These are the kind of things you only get talking shop to people who do your kind of art.

And are you inking on watercolor paper or just a regular drawing paper (or cardstock?)

Sorry if my questions are pesty, but this is exactly the kind of effects I'd like to be better at.

Teaman- no prob:) I've been trying to use bristol board for the last few color pieces I've done. In the past, and for most of my b&w drawings, I usually use printer paper or cheaper sketch pads, because it's cheap.

I'm not sure if it's india ink. For the giant, I used a pentel pocket brush pen and the ink that came with it. I like using a brush for inking because it's less work in a way, and I tend to work fast. So far, it's worked really good with water. On the Field Guide cover, I used a gel pen that was supposed to be water resistant, and was I guess. If you look close at the FG cover, you can see where some of the inks washed and blurred. Live and learn:)

What do you use for inking?