Process
Inspired by the Dave Gibbons Watchmen tutorial I decided to try out the application Manga Studio. My standard working practice is to draw in pencil or ink and colour in Photoshop. I have, however, become bored with scanning and retouching and decided to have a play and see if I can work entirely digitally.
I thumbnailed my idea out as usual.
I then jumped straight into the application and, after finding sufficient reference, sketched out the figures using a pencil tool. I then made a new layer and inked away.
For colour, I exported the image and worked in Photoshop as normal.
I think it's a great application, very easy to use and I love the "ink" line quality. I didn’t time the process, but I suspect it was faster than normal. However, I think the finish is pretty classic comic book-y which is obviously what the application is designed for but not completely what I'm after in my illustration. Also, working exclusively with the wacom tablet has done nothing for my RSI.
I think I'll have another play or two. It's definitely a useful tool to have in the arsenal next time that style is required.
