it’s a pretty good tool for making speedpaintings, or drawing themes, or whatever.

here you go

notes written by me with other illustrations of random stuff like our instructor (both in inspiring and defeated poses).

illustrations by aaron and ben, scanned by thai.

Meeting on 3rd Nov (same time, same place blah blah)
Outing on 5th Nov (It’s on facebook, ask about it on the 3rd for details)
Chillout on 6th, 7th, Nov at Wilkie Edge Starbucks (we’ll be there by 1pm or so latest) (i have emailed you all on this)
8-10 Nov, 7-9PM, S4.SR1 (at B2), NBS. Comics Workshop! Cover charge is $3. Come over to the booth either on 3/4 Nov to register.

Also have you all been practicing! I can’t post much pictures nowadays since I’m working on a comic now instead.

Also if you caught the chalet thing (via email or otherwise) reply okay!!!

anyway for those of you who missed our outings, wish you were there, etc etc.
for those who showed up, congrats, i’ll try to see if i can organize some in-school lunches or something when next sem starts and i am actually in school.

so what’s coming up:

meetings are on wednesdays and at old can A as usual before we move out. it’s not likely to be the same tutorial rooms again since i guess people are starting peer tutoring early so all the big tier one clubs will have booked tutorial rooms for their own purposes. but don’t worry, there’s always space somewhere.

events (unconfirmed for now)
we’re going to have comic workshops, and with events there’s the actual day of helping out (and free attendance for helping out i suppose) and the pre-event publicity which means booth manning and giving out of flyers. the booth manning part is most likely to take place the next 2 weeks if it happens, so more or less you’ll be expected to lend a hand and so on.

OUTING AT STEAMBOAT PLACE THIS COMING SUNDAY IS NOW CHANGED TO BUGIS. SUMIMASEN

RECESS WEEK, WHAT IS HAPPENS?

firstly, draw outing. this is super important if you think you suck at drawing because people will be on hand to make sure you do not suck. i expect cereph will update you all but for now if i’m not wrong it’s TUESDAY 1300 HRS onwards, meet at CANTEEN B. If you are so inclined you can stay for dinner later. personally i as well as the other seniors can only come after 1730 or so to supervise, but i am sure with our gentle teachers we will not be sorely missed.

secondly, MIMOSA CHALET. its not strictly a chalet, just a huge grand stayover at Amos’ (Vice-president) huge sprawling mansion. seats are limited so please reply asap once you get the notification if you are able to make it. for those who would like a quick update first, it falls NEXT FRIDAY-SATURDAY-(SUNDAY?), the last weekend of recess week. i strongly recommend that you all try to make it, because it’s good interaction throughout the whole of VAS since it’s not limited to just coen/aniw/design. who knows, like our last two couples of VAS you might find TRUE LOVE from aniw, so why not?

just take note that if you miss this recess week’s fun and foolery, the next grande event will only be held AFTER EXAMS. exams are so far away, hmmm? so don’t miss this opportunity now!

CITY HALL MRT
17 OCT (SUN)
1800 HOURS

Also another side note: try to come for all meetings, especially if you have come to learn stuff. Otherwise….. you’ll miss out, duh

Also there is a call to arms for booth manning: 5-7 Nov and 13-14 Nov.

5-7 Nov is for the collection of Extravaganza artwork. Basically what it entails is that we just chill out at some place (like starbucks, etc) and wait for people to find us and submit their art. It’s not alot of trouble and you can see it as a study/chillout session, whichever you please. Then we can go for dinner after that.

13-14 Nov is booth manning for AFA. Once again, booth manning means you sit there and do your own things in case people come and ask you questions (since we’re most probably not selling stuff, i guess), so what it mostly is about is that we all lounge around the booth and talk cock. Again, another chillout session, and free AFA passes to boot.

That’s all! If you got their email then this is just a slightly more in-depth description.

1. Renting LTs and playing console games in them, once a month kinda thing.
2. Outings: Settlers cafe, picnic, karaoke, LAN, all pending discussion.
3. Sketchbook project. I forgot the link but basically you get a sketchbook from some art organization, they send it to you, you fill it up based on a theme, and send it back to them where it will get exhibited.
4. What do we wanna do this year? A publication (every sem), most probably involving a manga/one-shot.

Personally, I believe that if you want to make a manga, we could have the same characters but drawn by different people for each chapter. If you wanna make a one-shot, make many of them within a team of 3-4 artists. These artists will rotate being character illustrator/ backgrounds / shading / etc.

Next Wednesday will be lessons for those who want to learn, and for those who already know… That’s for Grace and Cereph to decide hmm.

Okay thats about it for now. The C and VC are very busy people do they don’t have the time to tell me anything that I could write. Also I don’t want to write the wrong stuff and make them fulfil promises they never made. Hahaha!

Before I start I want to make it clear that what Aaron is saying is that traditional painting skills lay a solid foundation for moving onto digital media later on. What I am saying is: Even so, getting a tablet will still help you as opposed to not getting one. Note that getting a tablet does not automatically translate into digital painting (although yes it is used for digital painting) and that getting a tablet can also train certain skills that can either be achieved by traditional or digital means.

So. Why a tablet?

I think I’ve mentioned it somewhere on this blog before. Getting a tablet, especially putting it in front of you at all times, plugged in to your computer, will strongly encourage you to draw. Sometimes while surfing the net you’ll see a nice picture and be momentarily inspired, so you open up photoshop and you’re all set to draw in less than half a minute. And if you get tired of doodling / sketching, Alt-tab brings you back to surfing the net and doing what you please. It’s less intimidating this way since there’s no “oh i must set 2 hours a day aside for drawing!” but rather, it becomes more of “i’m just using the computer and i might draw if i feel like it, but i don’t have to if i don’t want to.”

Note that for this to work, your tablet must be in “ready mode”, right in front of you at all times, between the keyboard and yourself. If it’s on your table but tucked into a corner, some people will find it too much of a hassle to just pull it out and start drawing, because the act of doing so is tantamount to “setting time aside for drawing” and is kind of daunting at times. This is a pretty big problem among beginner artists (not that it doesn’t exist for those with experience though), for whom each art piece they labour over for hours on end, and the end result doesn’t meet their expectations. For them, just pulling out the tablet means hours and hours of non-stop work without even a tangible reward at the end. So they balk at that and leave the tablet wedged between their CPU and their monitor, collecting dust.

So why is drawing more good? Drawing more is always good. People say if you draw more you improve, but they don’t exactly say how. Basically, drawing more allows you to refine your personal style, allows you to get your strokes right, allows you to put stuff into muscle memory (yes muscle memory does play a part), and instills confidence. When confidence comes you stop petting your lines, so congrats: you’ve levelled up. In addition, you don’t have to find space to stock your mountain of sketchbooks because it’s all digital. You also don’t have to worry about them being soiled or destroyed (unless your comp fails and you didn’t make backups. oops!).

Opencanvas is a program that allows you to draw with others online, LAN-style. Never draw alone again! Never see people face-to-face with their scrutinizing eyes!

So what skills can the tablet train? Values (shading, both in location and in darkness), Visualization (how hands should look like, etc, basic shapes and forms), Colour combination (digital painting). What it cannot train are as Aaron said: pencil strokes, inking, a feel for painting textures. But everything else is all good.

By drawing online, you can also show others who are online for instant feedback and critique. There’s no need to wait until every Wednesday (or meeting day) to show others and have your works critqued.

No mess! Using a tablet is clean and takes up little space and won’t get your stuff dirty.

So that’s all I have to say.