May 26, 2011

Bill Clinton

A quick pen-style illustration I used for a job proposal. I chose Bill Clinton because he's recognizable and generally liked.

May 24, 2011

Illustrations for K-Rob ESPN Video

A few sketches used in a video interview with Kevin Robinson
(Pro BMX) for ESPN.com.






http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6580701

May 15, 2011

Wacom Cintiq vs Monitor Color

It seems the common consensus is that artists out there have been frustrated by the difference in colors displayed on the Wacom Cintiq compared to a typical monitor. For me personally, at times it has been pretty frustrating - more so before I realized what was even happening.

After completing an illustration on the Cintiq, upon displaying it on a regular monitor - which is what everyone else in the world will use to see it - suddenly it seems over-saturated, and some hue's get pretty drastically altered... it's definitely not what you saw when you were coloring it on your Cintiq. There is a technical explanation, but rather than dwell on that I've proceeded over the course of time to try to develop a reasonable work around. (I will also note that color calibration devices, etc. aren't a solution. This is because the problem isn't related to any adjustable settings accessed through your monitor's interface or the Windows system controls - it's just the difference in raw technology used to display pixels on the monitors.)

Aside from all the obvious things you would jump to in order to troubleshoot the problem - such as calibrations, profiles, control panel settings, drivers, inputs and outputs, even cables...

One thing I tried was creating a series of actions recorded in photoshop, to convert the saturation, hues, and other properties in the image so that it would translate. It wasn't really feasible, if even possible, to tune a set with one single formula that could simply convert every image. Even the best conversions could never really get you completely there, especially with a flattened image.

So this is my best solution, and it has been working very well for me so far. One panel in Photoshop I never really utilized, and apparently took for granted, is the Navigator panel. By giving you a preview of your image in realtime, and allowing you to maximize it as large as you want - you can use it as a clone of your document to display on your regular monitor. Being able to see what your color will truly look like when viewed on a monitor as you are working is really the best way to manage things so you can adjust accordingly and know what to expect!

I've included an image below demonstrating the setup, and also the variation in color in a piece I'm currently working on. In this one for example - the color of my sky is completely different across the 2 screens, which dramatically changes the mood I'm going for... things like this are crucial to know ahead of time!





















I've done a lot of googling and haven't seen much in the way of actual workarounds, please share if you have any of your own.

May 11, 2011

Hockey

It's Emily's dog...