New Glasses

It's time for new glasses! Which... look almost exactly like my previous ones? 🤔

Actually, I change them every 5 years because of my driver's license. They examine my sight and if everything's OK, set a new expiration date. But it was time to get the new ones anyway, because these are in a pretty bad shape. There are surprisingly many scratches and I don't remember the last time I managed to damage my glasses so much. 😔

As I 'm not brave enough to wear contacts, I chose the model with magnetic clip on sunglasses for the first time ever. I used to order two sets of glasses - ordinary and sunglasses - but instead of spending my whole salary on them, I decided to try out these clip on glasses. So, only the time will tell if I was right (BTW, I still haven't got them, I have to wait for a week or two).

I need my glasses constantly, because I'm practically blind without them, but why do I need sunglasses so desperately? Well, I spend a good portion of time driving and they help me not only during summer months, but also when it's snowing and there's a white nothingness around me, or even when it's foggy. You'll rarely see me in my car without them, except during night, of course. 😁

Genos (One Punch Man)

Here's another practice with my Gaomon tablet, this time it's the cyborg Genos from my favourite anime One Punch Man. It was a random idea, just to see how the pressure sensitivity pen would behave with this kind of illustrations, and I must say I'm happy with how it turned out.

WIP:

My first drawing tablet

OK, this might not be my *first* graphic tablet ever, but the one I got about 15 years ago can't compare to this one - it didn't have a pen with pressure levels and to be honest, I didn't use it as much as I should have. I mean, I got used to the mouse, because I drew using Bezier curves and not free hand, so I didn't feel comfortable with that tablet. But now let me introduce you to Gaomon M106K with pen pressure sensitivity! 

The working area is 10x6.25 inches wide, and the tablet is 1 cm thick and weights 780 g. It's got 12 express and 16 soft keys and they're all programmable. I'm not sure if I'll ever need that many, but I'm not complaining. In contrast to Wacom and Huion models, the pen is rechargeable (via the cord you get with the tablet), but it lasts 350 hours and it even saves energy (it goes to "sleep" after 10 minutes of inactivity). It's got 2048 levels pressure sensitivity, which should be more than enough for my needs. I still haven't drawn anything worth posting, but you can see some examples of my doodling in the right lower corner - blending colours and experimenting with the pressure sensitivity. All in all, I'm very satisfied with it and can't wait to explore all its possibilities.

After some time I finally started experimenting with it - I mean, trying out some more "serious" things like drawing characters, which is my favourite theme. I wanted to practice and test the pressure sensitivity, so I chose an anime character, because they have more dynamic strokes, such as hair (BTW, in case you don't recognize him, it's Genos from One Punch Man, one of my most favourite anime). Of course, I'm going to finish it, use colours etc., but I decided to show you the work in progress because I'm excited about how it's going to turn out and so far it looks pretty good. 👍

#eyememe

Let's give this #eyememe a try! It's an interesting experiment to see where you possibly make mistakes while drawing eyes and how you could improve your skills. However, as you can see, I have several different types of characters (more anime-like, cartoonish, for my comic strips etc.), so I don't have a unique style and I often draw eyes differently. You can find all drawings in my gallery and they're mostly recent (the oldest should be about six months old). Can you guess some of them?

Using watercolour pencils for the first time

Lately I've been trying out my new watercolour pencils, as well as figuring out some kind of style that won't include computer manipulation. I mixed so many different techniques - first I used 0.1 fineliner for the outline, then I used the Faber-Castell watercolour pencils and tried to blend them as best as I could using a water brush pen. Then I used the Pentel brush pen to emphasize the outer outline and the 0.2 and 0.3 fineliners to go over some inner lines. I finished the drawing with the white pigment ink pen for some details and highlights.

Napokon je došao trenutak da isprobam vodene drvene bojice koje sam kupio prije nekoliko mjeseci. Iako se naši stilovi prilično razlikuju, inspiraciju sam dobio gledajući YouTube video uratke koje objavljuje Josiah "Jazza" Brooks - on većinom koristi Copic markere, ali ima nekoliko metoda koje su mi se svidjele i koje mogu uklopiti u nekakav stil koji pokušavam osmisliti. Možda je ovo tek još jedan prolazan trend, ali iskreno se nadam da ću uspjeti u namjeri da nađem alternativni način crtanja, koji ne uključuje obradu u kompjutorskim programima i koji će biti nešto brži, jer rad u Inkscapeu mi oduzima prilično vremena. To ne znači da želim odustati od digitalnog crteža, već samo naći dodatan način crtanja kako ne bih morao dugo vremena sjediti za kompjuterom.

Taj "stil" obuhvaća sve što možete vidjeti na fotografiji dolje. Nakon što skiciram crtež olovkom, tankim markerom (0.1) izvučem linije i počnem bojati vodenim drvenim bojicama Faber-Castell, koje vidite dolje. Prvo crtam "na suho", a zatim prijeđem kistom (u ovom slučaju, kistovima punjenim vodom, koje sam također kupio prije nekoliko mjeseci). Budući da desetljećima nisam crtao vodenim bojama, osjećao sam se kao običan amater, tim više što su u pitanju te drvene bojice koje doslovno trebate "razmuljati" mokrim kistom i ostvariti dojam kao da ste crtali običnim vodenim bojama. Kad se sve osušilo, ocrtao sam vanjski rub Pentel brush olovkom, te tankim flomasterima (0.2 i 0.3) pojačao unutrašnje linije. Za kraj sam upotrijebio gel olovku s bijelom tintom i dodao zadnje detalje.

A ovo su neki od konačnih crteža. Prvo sam nacrtao Jazzin avatar, i to na običnom papiru za printer, što je ispala loša ideja, jer se papir jako smočio i izvitoperio. Ostalo sam nacrtao na papiru za vodene boje - Pikachua i Hulka s hrapave strane i nisam baš bio zadovoljan dobivenim efektom. Za kraj sam nacrtao Spider-Gwen s druge strane istog papira i čini mi se da ću i ubuduće tako. Jedino me iznenadiloto što se i ovaj papir malo savio zbog vode, ali čini se da se sušenjem situacija ipak malo popravi.

Toliko zasad o tome, ali očekujte još koji izvještaj o napretku. Do idućeg projekta!

Devilman Crybaby

Here's my drawing of Akira Fudo in his demon form, Amon, from the newest anime adaptation of the 70's manga Devilman (you can watch it on Netflix under the name "Devilman Crybaby"). It's cruel, savage, bloody and brutal to that extent that I'm actually afraid to say how much I liked it. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone because of some of the most disturbing scenes (horror, violence, sex, etc.) you can see in an anime. As for my drawing, it was primarily a traditional, ink drawing (I even used the Pentel brush pen on some parts), but I decided to vectorize it and add some IG filters because it seemed too simple and empty.

Već dugo planiram nacrtati nešto vezano uz anime i stalno su mi na pameti Attack On Titan i One Punch Man, ali evo, pretekao ih je Devilman Crybaby kojeg odnedavno možete pogledati na Netflixu. To je najnovija adaptacija mange Devilman iz 70-ih i prvo što morate znati da je brutalnija i tragičnija od bilo koje anime koju sam dosad gledao (čak i Beserk) i nije za ljude slabijeg želuca. Scene nasilja, seksa i ljudi koji se pretvaraju u demone nisu baš za svakog, pa možete zamisliti kako sam se i sam začudio što je smatram apsolutno briljantnim uratkom.

Na crtežu je glavni lik Akira Fudo u svom demonskom obliku, poznatom kao Amon. Iz nekog razloga demon ga nije potpuno obuzeo, tako da je ostao pola demon, pola čovjek, tj. Devilman. Kao što možete vidjeti u nastavku, planirao sam tradicionalni crtež tintom (za neke poteze sam čak koristio i Pentel bush pen), ali sam ga na kraju vektorizirao u Inkscapeu i "provukao" kroz neke filtere, jer mi se činio prejednostavnim, ali mislim da je na kraju sasvim solidno ispao.

Kao što rekoh, Devilman Crybaby je trenutno aktualan i možete dosta saznati na internetu ili društvenim mrežama, ali nemojte se upuštati u gledanje ako nemate dobre živce i toleranciju na prilično gnjusne scene. U krajnjoj liniji, pogledajte prvu epizodu i sve će vam biti jasno. Kako počinje, takav ton će imati do samog kraja. Nemojte reći da vas nisam upozorio.

Do idućeg projekta!