Two years ago, a caring family member bought me Corel Painter Essentials 3 for my iMac. Granted, this wasn’t Photoshop, something I’d been crossing my fingers for, but it was cheap and it had lots of cool brush effects, though granted the program has a few bugs (especially in the lasso tool) and there is no magic wand, which ticked me off. Anyway, time went by, I tried the program, got caught up with other things (cough*college*cough) and came back to it again to try my hand at digital art. Now of course, what I really want to do is digital art like they have at deviantARt, or even something simple like coloring in a drawing.
So, silly me, I set about doing just that (the latter, not the former, at least not yet). I ended up creating something semi-decent using PhotoImpression because of its magic wand to color in a drawing, then adding effects to a photograph with Corel and using that as the background. Not a masterpiece but a nice first try. Then for my next piece, I decided to use Corel all the way. Needless to say, that piece will probably never see the light of day.
Here’s why: I was trying to paint WITH A MOUSE. That was probably the dumbest thing I have ever tried to do (no, there’s been worse, but this ranks up there with biggest wastes of time). For a few days (because that’s how long my patience lasts when it comes to art), I tried going through the drawing and painstakingly blending and erasing and delineating by mouse… it took me the better part of an hour one day to select a particularly complex section. Never shall I do that again.
All the while, I was watching Corel training videos helpfully provided with the CD. And voilá – my answer to my problem: a Wacom tablet! The Wacom website offers Intuos 3 tablets and a bunch of other unbelievable things that help when designing things on your computer. The Wacom tablet comes with a pen that lets you draw on your computer. Of course I’d seen things like this before, but never used one. Unfortunately, the 4X6 tablet costs approx. $230 and comes with bundled software – including Corel, which I already own. Even though a company e-mail assured me that the software was free, and it was the pen/tablet I was paying for (so they couldn’t just sell me that stuff without the software), I decided to check out another seller. eBay answered my prayers with a 4X5 refurbished tablet, all software included at around $150.
Now, unfortunately, I happen to have one of those extra-wide monitors, something I didn’t take into consideration when buying the tablet. So, at least the way I see it, when I move the pen left to right, the cursor moves faster on-screen than it would if I moved the pen up and down. This makes it difficult to make curved, vertical lines, but a few tries will get me there. I’m still slightly pissed, probably because I’m the kind of person that likes to buy a book with a perfect spine (one that hasn’t been read in the store) even though I know I’ll break the spine anyway. I want that extra inch!
In any case, now I have not only Corel but also Photoshop Elements 3. Nifty!! Because at last there is a magic wand! And neat-o effects!! I feel inspired… And, indeed, nothing inspires you quite like an anime convention when you get to see people making money off fanart (excellently-made fanart) and original artwork as well.
I desperately want to draw Kingdom Hearts fanart, if only because it looks so popular. And I’ve been getting into the SoraXRiku art because at least that pairing I can totally see, but I don’t necessarily agree with it since I think it’s just fine as presented in the game – Sora looking up (literally) to his bff (and role model) Riku – and indeed, Sora probably refers to him, at least internally, as his BFF. Haha, but it’s brilliant that Sora cares more about seeing Riku again than about seeing Kairi – probably because he isn’t quite at that age yet when guys are willing to run over each other for the sake of a girl.
So I may just draw some Cloud Strife art!! I still lurve him…even though I skimmed through Advent Children again to get a feel for his character and was reminded of exactly how EMO he is. And how badly written the script was. I mean, come on, the great finale is Cloud smiling at the end? And saying “I’m not alone”?? Wow….at least the fight scenes were drool-worthy. Although the plot made no sense… Ah…shall prettiness win over depth? This time…YES!! Cloud is too pretty (or badass) to be defeated by the poor writing skills behind Advent Children. So I shaaaall draw him…once I get the hang of the Wacom pen and Photoshop. Oh, so much fun!!
Update: Oh, and after posting this, I realized that now – yes, I am questioning my morals. Haven’t drawn in so long and first whiff that fanart is popular and now I wanna draw it? After not drawing it…ever? (Okay, thrice. For magazines.) But I luuuuurve Cloud…
