Children Game, Pt. 2 Illustration selected as "Staff Pick" over at Renderosity

I got a nice bit of news today. Another one of my illustrations has been selected as a "Staff Pick" (in other words, an "Image of the Week") over at Renderosity.com. The Poser group moderator (a nice lady by the name of Boni) chose seven images for the week of July 31 - Aug. 7, 2017 as the best for the week.

© 2017 Mike Mitchell

The image was created for a short story by Roger Keel, called "The Children Game." It was serialized in the Collectors' Club Newsletter, and this was for the second half of the story. The central figure is based on the Michael 4 model, and the two cops are LoRez figures by Predatron. I rendered the base images in Poser 11, then created the sketch effects with Akvis Sketch.

Renderosity is an online community of artists who work in traditional and digital media. If you're interested in seeing the other illustrations selected that week, the list is available here at the Renderosity website.

Again, no prize, but it's always nice to get a pat on the back and be told that other people like what you're doing.

Police image chosen as Poser Staff Pick of the Week

Just got some good news! My latest illustration for the story I'm illustrating was selected by the staff at Renderosity to be a "Poser Staff Pick of the Week." You can see the entire list here: https://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2915631

© 2017 Mike Mitchell

This was one of my early attempts to use Akvis Sketch to create an illustration for publication. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Sketchy Behavior, Part 8

As I said last time, I needed an illustration for the table of contents for the Collectors' Club Newsletter #120. So I decided to use the club's mascot, Captain Epistle (it's an inside joke, folks, that stems from the club's past wherein members would write letters to the magazine, where they would be printed).

Captain Epistle flies into action...
In the magazine, there were boxes of text appearing in front of him with the details
about this issues art, comics and features.

As before,I stayed with Daz Studio because the figure was already set up properly, and I set about changing the pose and cape flourishes. Once I had a basic pose ready, I whipped out three or four renders, including a toon render. This time I checked the pose to make sure it fit with the text elements (which are not shown here), and once I confirmed that I would actually be able to use this one, I composited the various renders in Photoshop so I could adjust the blending modes and run individual layers in Akvis Sketch.

Once I had the base sketch layer, I would adjust it with the Levels tool, or even the threshold adjustment. Anything to make the faint strokes sharp (after all, this was for print, and distinct lines would work better).

Again, this is a nice start, but I don't think it's ready for production use, yet. I am getting there, and the inclusion of the gray toon render layer really helped add some definition to the final image. All in all, not a bad job for a quickie.

Sketchy Behavior, Part 7

I needed an image of this superhero (he's the mascot for the Collectors' Club Newsletter) to use on the table of contents, so I decided to revisit Akvis Sketch. There were two major reasons for this:

1. The character was already set up for use in Daz Studio, and I didn't have time to transfer him to Poser 11.
2. Creating the image in DS meant that i couldn't use the stark, noir render style I've been using on the recent images I've shared with you. 

Genesis base figure with a variety of shaping
morphs applied. Finished in Photoshop and Akvis Sketch.

As before, I decided to keep the original colors, but in this case, they came out so light I actually used a non-processed layer as an overlay to pump up the colors. All in all, this was a relatively successful attempt. I'm not 100% happy with it (I don't think it's ready for production work, yet, which is too bad because I really would like to use this style for an upcoming project). 

But, it was good enough for my needs... except for one thing. The final composition was wrong and it didn't fit the page. So, as you'll see next time, I had to do it again.

Sketchy Behavior, Part 2

On Monday I showed you some of my latest work with Manga Studio and Akvis Sketch that demonstrates some of the sketch-like effects I'm experimenting with. The goal with these techniques is NOT to create a single illustration that looks good, but to create a workflow that I can repeat so that I can achieve the following:

• Create images quickly
• Maintain a consistent style
• That print well (usually in b&w, but sometimes in color)

So far, both of these approaches appear to hit most of the marks, at least on technical terms. However, like all artwork, it comes down to combining artistic skill with technical competency. In other words, I think I need more practice with both of these techniques.

Bobby E. Studying: Poser 11 and Manga Studio

Here's my next iteration on the Guy Studying sketch I showed you on Monday. I have a feeling this might be the one I actually use (I'm illustrating a short story written by a friend, Roger Keel). 

One of the things I like about this is the inclusion of the brown, and the addition of blue to his tie (my wife suggested that). The brown was actually a happy accident – I was originally playing around with two shades of blue, then I inverted the color and got this cool sepia effect. One of the nice things about this particular sketch effect is that it's not super-precise, which means it takes on a more organic and rushed look that I usually have in my art. In this case, I think that's a good thing.

Sketchy Behavior, Part 1

The other day I mentioned that I was trying to fit some clothing to a heavy/stocky figure. In this case, it was a shirt and tie to a morphed Michael 4 figure. There are trousers, too, but they are below the desk so we can't see them.

Sketched Effects: Top effect created in Manga Studio 5,
Bottom effect created in Akvis Sketch

For this illustration, I used my standard technique of rendering the figures in Poser 11 with the Live Comic Book Preview and then played with the lights to get two views that I liked. I then layered them in Manga Studio, where I applied a variety of touch-ups and effects to get the look I wanted..

However, this time I also sent one of the images over to Akvis Sketch and created a pencil sketch look.

As with my previous attempts, the lines it produces are too thin and fine for the type of look I'm after, so I worked with that image at a smaller size than it would be printed, and then blew it up to match the dimensions of the ink lines. In this case, the final illustration was 2000 pixels wide, and the Akvis Sketch image was 500 pixels wide.

In both cases, I used a simple sketched effect from Akvis Sketch to make the background.

I think both versions of the image have something going for them, although I must say I think I personally prefer the hard ink lines of the first one. In both cases, you should probably look at a larger version of the image (click on it) to see the details more clearly.

First test with Akvis Sketch

As I said last week, I finally took the plunge and invested in Akvis Sketch as a post-processing tool to create images that look like they were hand drawn. I have a project coming up and I think this would be a good look for it.

I paid for the commercial license, which runs $154 -- but I was able to get %15 off by posting links to the software on my blog and then requesting a coupon code. The software publisher responded overnight, and i got the software for $130.90. BTW: The non-commercial license is less expensive, so you can buy it and then upgrade later. It won't save you any money (the upgrade will cost the same as the full commercial license, but you do get the benefit of trying the software out before you pay for the commercial license). And, of course, there is a 10-day trial so you can test drive it before you buy (and make sure it runs on your hardware).

Copyright 2017 Mike Mitchell
Render from Daz Studio, converted to line art with Akvis Sketch

These are my first "serious" tests with the software. As usual, it's a composite of multiple passes. I created multiple layers of the image in Photoshop and then masked out the different parts I wanted to work on. You see, I wanted a darker pass on the dress, lighter on the face (I also turned off cross-hatching on the face) and a different pass on the hands and gun. The background is also on a separate layer -- I just splashed some colors around and then ran Akvis Sketch on it. I wanted bigger strokes, so I actually scaled up the background about 200% so I could get nice, big strokes on it. I also added some touch-ups along the edges and some extra lines (her elbow bend and chin, for example) to give it more definition. All in all, not bad for something I'm just playing with at this moment. I think this could be a useful tool in my production artwork and I'm looking forward to working with it more.

Copyright 2017 Mike Mitchell
Render from Daz Studio, converted to line art with Akvis Sketch
then converted to b&w.

I worked in color and then converted to gray scale so we could see what it would look like in both formats. What do you guys think? Which is your favorite? (NOTE: these are worth clicking on to see at a larger size – you'll get a better look at the line work).

Delving into Akvis Sketch

I'm finishing up my behind-the-scenes tests with the trial version of Akvis Sketch, and will soon have some art to share with you. In the meantime, I thought this video might be of interest to anyone thinking about adding sketch tools to their repertoire.

This is a cool video, but I think it barely scratches the surface of what you can do with this product. I hope to demonstrate that to you all shortly.

Akvis Sketch to my Digital Toolbox

To be blunt, there are so many programs that "convert photos to sketches" that I consider them to be a dime a dozen (although most hardly charge that little). Photoshop has plenty of tools that all do a decent job of outlining the figure and adding sketchy lines. The problem is, none of them produce production-level work. By that, I mean they all come out looking like a photo that has been run through a filter.

While that's fine for hobbyists, it doesn't fly when you're trying to create something for print that actually looks like a sketch instead of a photo that's been run through a filter.

Anyone who follows my art at all knows that I'm a big fan of the India Ink Photoshop Plug-In by Flaming Pear (I use it to create the woodcut/engraved art used in my Western illustrations), which does a fantastic job once you get a handle on how to use it.

I've spent a long time looking for something that will give me control similar to what is available in the Sketch Render Designer in Poser, where I get a lot of control of edges, angle, density, and all of the little tweaks that make it look more organic and less procedural (in other words, more hand-drawn and less computerized).

With a few tweaks, Poser can turn the crisp line art render
of the Live Comic Book Preview into something
that looks hand sketched... almost.

I'm not bashing the other tools like Filter Forge or any FotoSketch or any of those items. They do a good job – just not the job I need done. 

Anyone who knows me is fully aware of the fact that I do not just jump in and buy new software. I test it... and test it again... and test it again to see if it's going to get the job done. That's why I'm a big fan of free trial software. I need to shake something down before I will spend money on it. One of the tools I've downloaded multiple times (one of the bonuses of having multiple computers) is Akvis Sketch.

This is a commercial tool that includes settings for edges, angles, midtones and things like that. In other words, it offers a degree of control that I need to attempt getting professional results. 

I have used the demo version for a few samples, and have decided that it is worth the $154 business license (I did consider buying the Home License while testing it and then upgrading later, but I think I've seen enough to know that this could wind up in my professional work very soon). 

I will post new artwork, using Akvis Sketch, as soon as I've got something worth looking at.

BY THE WAY: Sketch is just one of the many cool filter packages available. If you're at all interested in taking your digital art to the next level, you really should check out the other fine tools available from www.Akvis.com.