lightpad

Kinderen vanaf 10 jaar kunnen bij Studio Jocelyn tweetalig online tekenles volgen: in het Engels en Nederlands. Lees onze ervaring.

Choose a favorite printable and print it out on transparency sheets instead of copy paper for an engaging light table activity.

Roli's set of modular music gadgets have been around since November, but today the company announced an update that will come in handy for those who use desktop music production apps. The new Dashboard for Roli Blocks allows you to employ the LED touch-sensitive pad to control software like Logic Pro X, Ableton Live, Cubase, Native Instruments Massive and a bunch more. With the Lightpad Block and Dashboard, you can upload pre-programmed scripts and edit as needed.

This year I'm releasing a Mouse Guard 2023 Calendar. I'll be taking copies with me to Baltimore and selling them through my Online Store. I created seven new pieces of artwork specifically for the calendar (even numbered months mainly). The new pieces were all drawn at 12" x 12" (the size of the Calendar itself) To the left you can see the final art piece for October. I didn't want to do a spooky October piece, but I did think it should have a pumpkin in it, so I came up with a lantern-lit pumpkin-cider booth...inside a pumpkin Below in this blogpost I'll walk through the steps to creating it. Reference: This istock photo is one of many many many pumpkin photos I looked at for reference before starting the piece. This photo helped me more with the look of the ground cover and the pumpkin leaf greenery behind the pumpkin booth. So while I did look at this image, I didn't directly reference it (or any of the other dozens of wild growing pumpkins I found photos of), but looked at it for inspiration. Layout: The first step was the pumpkin booth. I wanted there to be a bit of an up-angle for our view so that we could see the wall thickness of the pumpkin rather than it being obscured by the canopy. Once I had the pumpkin, bar, barrels, and leaves drawn I scanned them into Photoshop and figured out where in the frame it would fit. The placement I chose meant I had to draw more greenery on top as well as all the mouse characters on a separate sheet of copy paper (using a small prinout of what I already had on a lightpad). I added in the rope lines for the lanterns digitally and drew the lanterns themselves on the same sheet as the mice. Inks: With the above layout all set, I printed out the image (onto two sheets of legal paper that had to be registered and taped back together). I inked this piece on my Twitch stream on a Huion lightpad. Using the lightpad I could see through the 12" x 12" Strathmore bristol to the printout below so I could use it as a pencil guide. I used Copic Multiliner SP pens. There was a lot of density of texture on the floor and in the background, so I tried to be simple with any tones I added to the barrels, mouse clothes, or pumpkin. Flats: When the inks were done I scanned them into Photoshop and started the coloring process. In this step I am filling in each area with a flat color (no rendering, no textures)–it's like a professional version of coloring-in-the-lines. Many of the colors were obvious from nature for the scene, but it still took some time to dial in specific hues and tones for them. How light or dark, how saturated, how warm, how cool, etc. I fiddled with for a bit before starting the actual coloring At this stage I also establish the color holds (areas where I want the lineart to be a color other than black) on the lanterns and cider. Final: I rendered the piece using dodge and burn tools as well as a stock texture brush to add all the light, shadow, and texture. There was a play of light in this piece (the light coming from inside the pumpkin as well as from the lanterns) that was a hard thing to render without also over-rendering and overworking the piece. I hope that I found the balance so that it just feels like a fun crisp air evening where there's plenty of warmth from the setting and company. The Calendar is available in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/mouse-guard-2023-calendar

For a new 10 piece print set, I illustrated all of the past wielders of the Black Axe from Bardrick to Celanawe. I'd shown and listed the wielders in the Black Axe book--but they were only ever visualized as embroidery details on the Adana Tapestry––and I wanted to give them a more solid design existence. The set of ten 4.75" x 4.75" prints is available for sale in my online store and comes in a vellum envelope: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/wielders-of-the-black-axe-print-set To the left you can see the finished art for the Rudyard, Sixth of the Black Axes print in the set. Below I'm going to go through the process to create the art. Layout: I started with the idea of Rudyard interacting with an animal (with the Rudyard Kipling namesake it seemed right) and opted for an owl and baby owl. I drew Rudyard, the baby owl, the nest/branches, and the mother owl all on separate sheets of copy paper. I worked on them a bit overlaid each other on a lightpad and then scanned them all in and assembled them in Photoshop. The checker cape is something not shown in Rudyard's post axe life, but was in the pre-axe version of him––and I liked it enough to incorporate it here. I also like that it's ambiguous if He's there to help or harm the baby owl––reader's choice. Inks: I printed out the above layout when I was happy with the arrangement and taped that printout to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. On my Huion Lightpad I'm able to see through the bristol to the the printout to use it as a guide to ink from. I ink with Copic Multiliner SP pens, and I used the 0.7 & 0.3 nibs for this piece. Most of the inks were straight forward on this one. It was all about the density of lines in the deeper parts of the next, and then leaving a gap between the owl and foreground to push the focal depth. Color Flats: When the inks were done, I scanned the art and brought it back into Photoshop to start the coloring process. This is the step where I 'm basically just filling in each area with flat color. In this step I also establish the color holds, areas where I want the ink work to be a color other than black. Here that's the checked pattern on the cape, the spots on the eggs, the mother owl, and the runic '6'. I struggled with the colors for the background and owl on this and went back and forth adjusting how light or dark each was and if there should be a low or high contrast between the two or not. Final Colors: The final colors were rendered by using the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop (and a textured brush) to add shadows, highlights, and textures. I select areas and play with the color balance to shift colors in some areas. The entire 10 piece print set is available in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/wielders-of-the-black-axe-print-set

For 2017 I'll be introducing a lot of new 5"x7" matted prints to my convention appearances and in my online store. Fans have been enjoying the Saxon, Gwendolyn, Sadie, and Kenzie prints in the same format, so in addition to adding more guardmouse characters for 2017, I'm also adding more animals/scenes. In this post, I'll be sharing the process of creating the frog and mouse artwork to the left from concept to finished colors. Julia and I made a list of the type of animals that would work well in this format. On her list of suggestions was "something like the frog and mouse-harvester on the cover of my 2015 sketchbook". Looking directly to that piece of artwork, I set to doing a piece that would fit the taller orientation and have a less tropical-looking frog species while making the frog more the focal point than the mouse. I drew a frog (using some online reference for a northern leopard frog) and the mouse on separate sheets of copy paper. I assembled them all in Photoshop tinting each character a different color to help me see where one character started and the other ended. The outer line is a pre-set template I've made for this size of print so that it will float in the mat nicely...though, I'm not working at actual size, I'm working larger, but the proportions are right so that when the final version is printed to scale, everything will fit inside the mat. I printed out the photoshop assembled layout and taped it to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol and inked on a lightpad. I use a Huion lightpad that allows me to see the printout through the surface of the bristol. This means that on the surface of the bristol will only be my inks, no pencil lines to erase (though sometimes, I do tighten up the pencils a bit as I work if the layout sketch is too loose). For pens I used Copic Multiliners, the 0.7 & 0.3 nibs. All of the grass I did on the fly as I inked. Once the inks are scanned, I start the process of flatting the piece for color. This means laying in flat color (no concerns with shading or texture) to establish that areas like the frog's skin will be a different color than the rock, grass, of the mouse, etc. Once the flat colors are in I start rendering each area using the dodge and burn tools (lighten and darken) with a textured brush. I also added some color holds on those stars/will-o-whisps in the background. Here again is the finished colored artwork. This print and many more will be available at any of my convention appearances this year was well as in my online store. For process posts on previous prints: http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/search/label/Print 2017 Appearances:  C2E2: April 21-23 Heroes Con: Jun. 16-18 San Diego Comic Con: July 19-23 Baltimore Comic Con: Sept. 22-24 New York Comic Con: Oct. 5-8

For a new 10 piece print set, I illustrated all of the past wielders of the Black Axe from Bardrick to Celanawe. I'd shown and listed the wielders in the Black Axe book--but they were only ever visualized as embroidery details on the Adana Tapestry––and I wanted to give them a more solid design existence. The set of ten 4.75" x 4.75" prints is available for sale in my online store and comes in a vellum envelope: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/wielders-of-the-black-axe-print-set To the left you can see the finished art for the BAnkur, Second of the Black Axes print in the set. Below I'm going to go through the process to create the art. Layout: I started with a pencil drawing of Ankur on copy paper, and unlike much of my work, I did this drawing all in one go--no extra sheets for the background drawing, just a quick digital color blocking pass after drawing. On the Adana Tapestry, Ankur is shown with a scale mail pattern on his clothes--and instead of making regular metal armor, I decided to go with a pinecone seed look––something a rugged outdoors mouse sourced and assembled himself. The stitching on the helm and the eyepatch also suggest an worn existence. The other theme of this piece was to do a Winter scene. Inks: I printed out the above layout when I was happy with the arrangement and taped that printout to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. On my Huion Lightpad I'm able to see through the bristol to the the printout to use it as a guide to ink from. I ink with Copic Multiliner SP pens, and I used the 0.7 & 0.3 nibs for this piece. Knowing the snow would be atop every branch, I decided to inking in the bottom area with some dense texture to give contrast. I also avoided bringing the background line art right against the flame of the torch or the numeral '2' to help in the next step as well as give some depth of field. Color Flats: When the inks were done, I scanned the art and brought it back into Photoshop to start the coloring process. This is the step where I 'm basically just filling in each area with flat color. In this step I also establish the color holds, areas where I want the ink work to be a color other than black. In this piece that consists of The snow, the flame, and the number 2. Most of the colors were either plucked from the Adana Tapestry or established in my rough layout Final Colors: The final colors were rendered by using the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop (and a textured brush) to add shadows, highlights, and textures. I select areas and play with the color balance to shift colors in some areas. I added the falling snow snow and the torch glow effects on separate layers  The entire 10 piece print set is available in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/wielders-of-the-black-axe-print-set

For a new 10 piece print set, I illustrated all of the past wielders of the Black Axe from Bardrick to Celanawe. I'd shown and listed the wielders in the Black Axe book--but they were only ever visualized as embroidery details on the Adana Tapestry––and I wanted to give them a more solid design existence. The set of ten 4.75" x 4.75" prints is available for sale in my online store and comes in a vellum envelope: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/wielders-of-the-black-axe-print-set To the left you can see the finished art for the Bardrick, First of the Black Axes print in the set. Below I'm going to go through the process to create the art. Layout: I started with a pencil drawing of Bardrick himself on copy paper, and then added another sheet of paper on top of it on a light box for the snake skeleton environment. I scanned both sheets into Photoshop (tinted them to make viewing them easier) and added some basic color blocking as well as a quick medieval tent. With Bardrick being the fist I wanted him to be battle worn, so he has a tattered cloak which is stitched together in places. The helmet is the one I'd shown in the illuminated illustrations from Fall. And since one of the Black Axe's first mythic deeds was to have 'slain the five serpents who surrounded all that was' I though the snake bones as well as a tent that I thought implied a arduous campaign against the serpents. Inks: I printed out the above layout when I was happy with the arrangement and taped that printout to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. On my Huion Lightpad I'm able to see through the bristol to the the printout to use it as a guide to ink from. I ink with Copic Multiliner SP pens, and I used the 0.7 & 0.3 nibs for this piece. I had to be careful with the density of the ground covering so that the snake skeleton could still be seen. I also made sure I left a little white gap between the background details and Bardrick--this helps me coloring in the next step, but also gives some visual separation in the planes of depth.  Color Flats: When the inks were done, I scanned the art and brought it back into Photoshop to start the coloring process. This is the step where I 'm basically just filling in each area with flat color. In this step I also establish the color holds, areas where I want the ink work to be a color other than black. In this piece that consists of all the tent lineart and the numeral '1'. That 1 is a runic numbering I stole from artist Jeremy Treece which is a large 1 with a smaller roman numerals coming off the right side--in this case, just another 1. Final Colors: The final colors were rendered by using the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop (and a textured brush) to add shadows, highlights, and textures. I select areas and play with the color balance to shift colors in some areas. The entire 10 piece print set is available in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/wielders-of-the-black-axe-print-set

In 2020 I'll be introducing some new prints to my convention & online store offerings (Expected to debut at ECCC and in my online store in the weeks following). These won't just be new images, but a new format I haven't done before: 9"x12". The plan is for them to be full-bleed (the image goes off the edge of the paper) and we will sell them backed and bagged. So-far, it looks like I have 3 of them ready to send off to the printer. For this blogpost, I'll be walking through the process for the Hornblower Guardmouse print you can see to the left. The inspiration for the piece was a Woman's Sufferage meeting propaganda poster that I came across online. I loved the pose and the armor––and felt it was a great starting point for a Mouse Guard piece. So, I drew my guardmouse version of the hornblower, but replaced the metal horn with a tooth-horn borrowed from the Legends of the Guard Vol 1 cover tale. The fox was suggested by Julia and the castle-rooftop was done referencing Bran Castle in Romania. I drew my pencils on copy paper with a 0.5 lead in a mechanical pencil. After I had my pencils scanned in, I composed the final layout in Photoshop (truth be told, I started doing this right after I had the mouse drawn). I tint each drawing a different color to help me see the various elements. for the same reason, and to block in my understanding of the forms, I did a quick digital coloring job. It was at that digital coloring stage that I also blobbed in some vines of ivy draping over the castle roofs and towers. There's a part of me that was coming up with context for this image being a past matriarch on the tower parapet of Lockhaven, with a fox companion signaling for the Guard. I printed out the above layout onto copy paper, and then taped that to the back of a sheet of 11"x 14" Strathmore bristol. On my Huion lightpad, I could see through the surface of the bristol to the printout below so I could ink the piece. I inked with Copic Multiliner SP pens (I think I almost exclusively used the 0.7 nib for this piece). The inking process was something I broadcast on my Twitch Chanel (twitch.tv/davidpetersen) as fans watched and could ask me questions. After I finished the inks, I scanned them and moved on to the first part of the digital coloring stage called flatting (something else I did LIVE on my Twitch Chanel). This is the step where I place in flat colors to establish the color palate and to define where all the colors are (what is ivy, what is shingle, what is white fur, what is orange, what is armor, what is cloth or cording, etc.). To push back the depth and add some effects, I also established a lot of color holds. These are places I want the inkwork to be a color other than black...so the distance linework became a brown, the fox became a bit lighter, the engraving on the horn was tinted to look more like scrimshaw---and purely as a digital addition, I drew in whiskers on the fox. The last step was to do the final colors on the piece. I only did a little bit of this step on Twitch (though I did work on the tower stone and the shingles). The rendering and the texture are done simultaneously as I use a stock textured brush when I'm using the dodge and burn tools to add highlights and shadows. 2020 Appearances ***JUST ADDED*** C2E2: Feb. 28-March 1 Emerald City Comic Con: March 12-15 FACTS-Ghent Belgium: April 4-5 Heroes Con: June 19-21 San Diego Comic Con: July 22-26 New York Comic Con: October 8-11 Baltimore Comic Con: Oct 23-25