It’s the top pic with the caption “Eidolon Flying High…. but will it last?”

Thanks for your time.

I have noticed it’s getting harder for me to draw on paper. My hand can’t hold the pencil or bic pen (my preferred tool of choice) without a great deal of pain. Meanwhile I can draw all day with my wacom tablet and never feel any pain at all.

Back when I was drawing on paper my hands would cramp bad. I’d crack them and stretch them out and use a stress ball but they still hurt. Not so much anymore drawing on the computer like I am.

when I first started draiwng in Illustrator and wasn’t sure if I could draw a comic or anything with the program I just sat there for a few days drawing every line and shape I could imagine. There are freguesnt lines you make while drawing the body so i would redraw those over and over until I taught my hand how to draw on the computer. It’s harder than paper in a way because you can’t rotate your art area as quick and easy as you can on real paper.

I’m still learning how to make some lines. I’m on the 4th issue of Iron Man and I am now making lines cleaner and better than when i started this series. And when I did the first issue I was so excited that I was doing better art and cleaner lines than on Illustrator. So I am doubling my abilities as I go!

It’ll get easier! Believe me.

Do you find it easier to draw from scratch in Illustrator or to draw by hand first and use that for reference? I’m still practicing with making a vector graphic without drawing it by hand first… but it never comes out _exactly_ how I thought it would. Sometimes it is better, sometimes worse. (Granted lately I’m drawing more in Flash than in Illustrator in preparation for animations I will one day be doing…)

That last guy does have a VERY cool cartoon style, too! And some kick-ass zombies!

~M

After looking through your gallery I was even more excited by the comic work you are doing in Illi. I really like your art style, first of all, and art in Illustrator is just great!

My ex-wife has some of my Japanese manga that ahsn’t shown up in the states yet and there is this one guy who resembles your work. he’s one of my top fav manga artists. I sure can’t remember his name though!

His work had these fantastic background scenes like yours with a lot of detail but very elegant in it’s simplicity.

You keep up the good work on that book. I’m going to watch you on my devart site.

I hope you stick around here too. I should be posting more soon. Plus witin a month I’ll get the camtasia program and start making more of these videos.

Please, everyone tell any artists out there about this site. The more folks we have learning this way of doing art then the faster we’ll all be able to improve!

http://www.deviantart.com/view/37477228/

the underdrawing I did on paper and scanned in — it was a very rough sketch just the balance of the figures on the page. I designed the lettering (cake in illustrator right?) and “inked” the whole drawing in Illi, then colored it in Illi (poorly, but I learned how not to color in Illi). A couple more pieces and I will feel totally comfortable drawing in Illi — man I can’t thank you enough!

However, there are some things I do that Illustrator handles perfectly and Photoshop can’t compete.

One example is the ability to grab any line I put down and move it. Even if one black line crosses over another black line. In Photoshop i would have to go in and cut it out. Illustrator lets me just click on the line and I can move it easily.

There are some other features with the Layer system I love in Illustrator. It’s a lot easier for me to lock layer in Illustrator than Photoshop even though PS has a locking system. The icon is bigger in Illy and I can click it faster.

I can draw a lot faster in Illy as well. I never have seen Photoshop keep up with my sketching speed. It may be the computer I use but that’s all I have so it makes sense for me to use the best tool for the job.

If you want to try Illustrator there is a 30 day free tril at Adobe. You might give it a shot.

I’ll start making more of these soon, Gary!

There was no under drawing. I just went in and drew the picture. Nothing too impressive. Just trying out the Camtasia features.