For those of you who may be unaware, Wacom tablets come equipped with a number of buttons that you can program to perform specific tasks in individual programs. The idea behind this is to speed up your work flow by keeping your eyes on the screen, your hands on the pen and tablet and to use the mouse and keyboard as little as possible.
Never mind that rebuilding the button functions is a pain when you get a new computer or reinstall an OS. The tablet is notorious for just plain losing your settings at random and inopportune times, and you’ll often find yourself going back to the tablet setup to reassign the key functions when you should be drawing or painting. Well, no longer.
Installing the new driver also installs a small separate App called Remove Tablet Software that allows you to backup your custom settings to an external file and then restore them to the tablet preferences when the inevitable crash happens. I tested it out this morning and it works just fine. In fact, I was so emboldened by this new feature, I assigned tablet key functions to all of my favorite apps, not just Painter and Photoshop. I’m glad to give a warm welcome to this long overdue function in one of my favorite digital design tools.
Marvel recently completed their Spider-Woman motion comic story (or “experiment” as they are now referring to it). Five episodes each adapted from the new traditional-format print comic, which is currently at the issue #2 mark.
I stopped watching the motion comic after episode 2. Not because I didn’t like it, but because I liked the print edition just a little more and I didn’t want to spoil the upcoming print chapters for myself.
Here’s a video that Marvel posted that gives us a glimpse into the production process behind the motion comics. I’m the kind of process junkie that watches all the “Making of” featurettes on his DVDs, so I couldn’t help but share this.
I think a huge mistake that many beginning comic artists make is that they spend too much money on overpriced equipment and materials. There are so many companies that position their products as “official” comic creation items and then ramp up the price. The most offensive product IMHO is pre-lined comic paper.
You’ve seen packages of these 11″ x 17″ bristol boards for sale in your local art/hobby or comic book store, usually for the price of about $25 for 12 sheets of paper. The manufacturer tries to justify the price by printing non-reproductive blue margins and guides on each sheet and telling you their paper is what the comic pros use.
Now of course, the drawback here is that you must trim the extra 3 inches off of the 14″ x 17″ pages and rule the margins yourself if you go for the cheaper board. I think that is a negligible task for all of the money saved. I usually put on some music and trim an entire pad all at once. It only takes about 15 miuntes and I save the 3″ x 17″ strips for scrap paper or doodling paper for my toddler.
Recently, Strathmore Paper has come to market with their own line of comic boards called Strathmore Sequential Art Surfaces. This line of paper features Strathmore quality and pricing, but the boards are formatted at the standard 11″ x 17″ size. They also offer pads of 5″ x 17″ bristol board if you are creating comic strips rather than comic book pages. These pads are not pre-ruled with blue line margins, but you don’t need those, anyway.
The SRP of $14 for 24 boards of 11″ x 17″ is quite reasonable. And if you simply must have pre-ruled pages, Strathmore has you covered there as well: $16 for 24 pre-ruled boards will still save you nearly $10 over the other “pro” brands.
I have no problems recommending Strathmore papers to anyone. I used them throughout college and many of my sketchbooks are Strathmore pads.
Final Notes:
When you rule 11″ x 17″ boards yourself, simply draw an 1.5″ margin on the top of the page, and a 1/2″ margin on the right, left and bottom sides. Easy-peasy.
Purchase the 300 series board. The 500 series board is heavier and more expensive and not needed for your day-to-day comics work, especially if you are just starting out. The pre-lined boards are only available in 200 weight.
These boards come in two finishes: Smooth and Vellum. Smooth is… well, smooth and Vellum has a rough, almost bumpy tooth to it. I always buy Smooth whenever possible.
These pencils have a cult-like following, and I proudly consider myself a member of said cult. At a price of $2 per dozen, these pencils are marketed toward students and office drones. The reality is that they make for an incredibly cheap yet quality sketching instrument that handily beat most other “professional” brand pencils.
The unfinished wood makes for a firm, non-slip grip and the graphite is soft, rich and dark. Lines can be drawn with an almost pen-like flow and you can get a full range of blacks when shading with the pencil. They also sharpen quite smoothly.
However, it should be noted that the eraser on the pencil is a real detriment to your drawing experience. Hard and almost oily, it will do little more than smear your marks if you try to erase them. I usually have my kneaded eraser handy if I’m doing anything other than note-taking with this pencil.
Despite my caveats about the eraser, Papermate American Naturals remain my default drawing tool and I consider them a steal. I keep several on my person, and several dozen around the house.
Recently, Blizzard Entertainment announced their forthcoming expansion for World of Warcraft called Cataclysm.
I used to play WOW religiously, but these days I just check in on it every few months. I never got my main past level 50 or so. But I love the whole environment of the game and the possibility of endless exploration and advancement in a medieval fantasy world still captivates me. I think it’s safe to predict my return to WOW when Cataclysm is released.
On the official Cataclysm site, Blizzard has published an art gallery of their concept art with links to High-resolution versions of each work. This is rare and generous opportunity to get your nose right up to some spectacular concept art by some very gifted professionals.
If you woke up to a chorus of angels singing this morning, that was probably me you heard when I found out that Wacom has released a new tablet/Cintiq driver that will allow you to backup and restore the custom settings you assign to it.
I think a huge mistake that many beginning comic artists make is that they spend too much money on overpriced equipment and materials. There are so many companies that position their products as “official” comic creation items and then ramp up the price. The most offensive product IMHO is pre-lined comic paper.
These pencils have a cult-like following, and I proudly consider myself a member of said cult. At a price of $2 per dozen, these pencils are marketed toward students and office drones. The reality is that they make for an incredibly cheap yet quality sketching instrument that handily beat most other “professional” brand pencils.
Recently, Blizzard Entertainment announced their forthcoming expansion for World of Warcraft called 
