Titles are for Ninnies!

I was sitting here on the couch at 2:25pm and just realized it's Tuesday and that means it's blog-day! Now that I'm done with Roomies! I'm not sure what to blog about, although I do have a few things rattling through my head.

Networking
I'm bad at it. But it is something that I've been thinking about recently as it is desperately important as an artist (and as many other things, but I write what I know). The five months I worked at Amazon I gave my business card to two people - one because my friend made me and the other because he asked. Today, the lady I'm temping with asked if I had any work online and I said I'd give her my web address (but have yet to). How many people that I talk about my art with walk away from that conversation never seeing anything I have done? And why am I so afraid to mention that I'm an artist? I don't want to be over selling myself to the point of being obnoxious, but it does constantly surprise me to see how much people really do want to know about art. (Maybe because knowing an artist makes them feel cultured? Who knows.)

I'm also temping at a financial office right now, so these people would be the ones to show off my work to! (Only slightly kidding. But if I had a nickel for how many times friends have said, "If I had money I'd totally buy some of your work!" I'd probably have about a dollar and some change.)

Comic Book
I have 4 1/2 pages and the cover left to do. This thrills me to no end because I a) can't wait to have the thing printed and in my hands, b) can't wait to see Thomas have it and c) can't wait to get going on the webcomic. But I am also extremely proud to see how it's turning out and how much I've learned through the whole process. I really have made leaps and bounds in my illustration and computer literacy.


Color
Thanks to the Webcomics Weekly podcast (again) for opening my eyes. Listening through the archives I came across one where they talked about coloring with Steve Hamaker. It really is worth a listen. But he gave a tip that blew my mind! It's so simple, yet so great. He said if you want to create a mood or some sort of lighting, make a new layer (oh, this is for digital coloring, p.s.) and fill it with a transparent layer of any color (blue for night, orange or yellow for warm light, etc), then you can erase it away to bring out the white underneath or other great effects. I have used it a few times and LOVE IT. For example, this dog photo I drew the dogs in black then filled it with a transparent (about 30%?) orangey-burnt-sienna-ish color. That made all my blacks a dark brown. When I took the eraser to it, the whites became the light and the blacks got darker. It's like drawing on a toned paper or starting with a wash. I absolutely adore this tip and it really drove away a lot of coloring fears I was having (seeing as a full color cover is in my near future).

Even though I have 5 years of being a painting major under my belt, those last 3 years I painted mainly abstractly so coloring realistically scares me. But I've been learning a lot while diving into digital art as things aren't as precious as you can undo or hide layers. With paint you have to first learn the medium and then apply color theory. With digital you can kind of just go for it. And I like it!

This is a boring blog. Sorry guys. I am off to work on some paid design work now. Wee!