The paws grew claws today! It's a start on the finer details

Prissy Kitty looking a little more life-like today

Finally my colours and pen-handling on the Wacom are coming together. I decided to try adding some claws with a fine soft pastel, and add a whole additional layer of colour, so that I can even out the colour in the body and face. I believe I'm finished the tail now. My painting was brief - about 30 minutes today so far - and I like how the strokes of soft pastel created some appropriate highlights and shadows in the tail and front paw, plus edging to define those shapes.

Disregard the red background for now; I have a photo of a background I plan to work on and it has a cherry wood type of pattern.

I also spent a little time browsing tutorials online, to see if any more sophisticated technique could be applied. I found a useful tutorial that shows the basics of painting light and shadow on a still life, ironically done with Photoshop! It's title is Painting Light and Shadow, by Mattias Snygg.

Think I can finish this digital painting?

Just remember, it's my first one in a long time, and first one using a Wacom tablet.

My very first ones earned ribbons at my local country fair. The judges didn't know what a digital painting was, and no one had really heard of Corel Draw yet. That was my start with digital graphics, in 1993 to 1994, the first few years after I finished high school.

The kitty drawing (Prissy Kitty, I've decided to call her, to match her mean glance at the viewer who is interrupting her cleaning routine) has a face shaping up.

The eyes were detailed today

I'm crazy addicted to this digital painting, and at the same time need to read through the Corel Painter Getting Started Guide. I can't find keyboard shortcuts fast enough when I need them!

Progress on kitty painting...now it has a background in progress

Here's my Prissy Kitty digital painting so far, with a background started today. I'm following the basic steps in a tutorial on building up a 3-dimensional cartoon-like image.

This image feels like it's on track thanks to tutorial

I had been working on this image bit by bit, while learning to use Corel Painter AND my Wacom tablet. This tutorial was perfect for developing my image properly in terms of digital painting steps. I like the image in my head so much, that I'm being quite tedious in my process.

I went too far into my shading and highlighting earlier, trying to establish some depth to the character, before I found this tutorial. Depth can be established by painting, like in real life, with tints and shades of colours. That is was I initially did here. I also tried some dodge and burn tools that other tutorials suggested, after laying down a relatively flat colour to work with. It's useful to get practice in both.

And thanks to the Corel Painter Getting Started Guide I mentioned in my last post, I'm finding tools faster and more reliably already! And with only an hour of practice so far.

This tutorial starts out with blocked-in colours (in Photoshop I believe) then lighting effects, then details. The background is dealt with fairly late in the process, which suits this image similarly to the example shown in the tutorial. We'll see how it plays out in Painter and my kitty drawing. I'm still intending to have a leering glance on her, being interrupted by an admiring passerby looking at her shiny and clean coat of fur.

Finally found the best way (so far) to learn Corel Painter, free

I finally tried the Getting Started Guide for Corel Painter X3. The other tutorials and resources found earlier on the Corel site and help files didn't really cover the basics I need for this program, so the Getting Started Guide is so far helping out a lot. I also found the link online if you want to read it before you have the app on your computer: Corel Painter X3 Getting Started Guide.

Go download this, if you want a good basic start with Corel Painter

It's a PDF and you can download it so you can easily follow along with your Corel Painter window open, and also highlight things you want to find quickly later.

I'm working through it myself today, so that I can complete my cat drawing started earlier. I also want to begin working quicker and without frustration, for all my other ideas on my list.

My ever-growing list.

I draw every day, and I believe this is good practice, just like you'd do if you were learning a new language or learning to cook. Ideas don't do me much good sitting on my list.

Give Painter a try - I got a 90-day trial version when I bought my Wacom tablet, which is a good amount of time to decide whether I'd want to purchase the regular or light version afterwards. I have a feeling Photoshop will be a little inadequate for some techniques I want to do, such as the infamous digital watercolour paint effects that Corel Painter is so capable with.

Share your comments here...have you made any digital drawings or paintings, using Painter or any other app?

On that note, check out Painter's user contributions page. A lot of Painter-made samples show up that will inspire you. It's like going to an art gallery, but at home.

Also have a look at what happens if you search "using Corel Painter' with Google. What do you notice? My blog post shows up on the first page of the results ("Another kitty drawing"), because I apparently use that phrase frequently enough, and share it on my Google profile!

Happy digital painting!

Latest drawing - this one's a creepy, crawly figure

Here's a quick shot of a drawing exercise today, turned watercolour painting:

Cellphone snapshot of a drawing today

The exercise instructed me to start with a stick figure, which I took as an opportunity to draw an unfortunately weary human form. Then add mass, and colour, with light and shadow.

I didn't get so far as adding light and shadow specifically, but I did add an ominous tornado-like dark force at left, creeping up behind the poor traveller. Oddly enough, he seems to be heading into the light.

The paper was quite wet upon finishing, and I added some sprinkles of salt to try out the technique of using salt to add a textured look to watercolour washes. I sprinkled three areas - both of the red patches of background, plus the blue tornado element. I suspect the blue was nearly dry, as the salt had little, if any effect.

Note that my teen drawing was often creepy like this - some deformation but still recognizably human. This drawing takes anatomy more seriously though, to coincide with the thorough discussion of anatomy in the drawing books I've read recently.

This time, instead of starting with the feet, I started with the head; I really wanted the figure to not be completely in profile, and here he is turning away slightly so we see the back of his head and just a hint of an eye and nose. Then the basic pelvic shape, then the legs hanging off awkwardly, with dainty slow steps beneath.

I think he looks stable on his feet, but that crazy life-adjusted back curve tells a story that this person is not the same man he was years ago...although it still was just a drawing practice exercise!

Also note that his feet are able to articulate. I wonder if I drew that so prominently, at a time when I've broken some toes in my foot and can't make that shape with my own foot (yet?) !

This exercise reminds me that I love to make drawings of figures doing things. Sports is ideal for me, and I've done lots of that in past (not recently). And I also have fun using my imagination to create unlikely or unlikeable situations for the characters. Or maybe exciting and positive situations too. We'll see what happens at my next practice session, I guess!

Prissy Kitty coming along, even though I was busy doing a few freelance gigs today

Fiverr.com is keeping me really busy with app reviews. I love that computer geeky stuff, too, but I felt a little weird the past few days to not have much time to work on drawings.

So tonight at 11:00pm I blocked out a little time and no pressure to make a little progress on my sleek cat drawing idea that I started recently.

Cat looking a little more colourful after 20 min

I feel good that I made some progress. I still need to define in my mind how elongated I want her to be, and what kind of muscle tone I want to portray. I'm definitely leaning towards the clay sculpture look that I love so much.

Thoughts about transitioning from traditional to tablet drawing

While working with Corel Painter for this drawing this evening, I discovered a pastel drawing tool that feels very much like traditional Pan Pastel. It was Real Soft Pastel brush. I managed to get a real soft imprint as though I was using a sponge with Pan Pastels, especially when holding the pen in an overhand grip.

This pen grip doesn't always work with the graphics tablet, and works a lot better if you tilt the tablet so that the pen is making adequate contact at an angle. It effectively makes you notice how your whole arm is moving, rather than just your wrist. I prefer to not rely on my wrist, as I'm looking for soft, sweeping movements of course for my kitties.

I don't see any discussion online so far in my travels about how to transition from traditional drawing methods to a drawing tablet. I don't really want to give up my spontaneous and freely-moving arm gestures; a lot of comments online about Wacom tablets indicate the users are adopting a handwriting grip when using the pen.

I'd love to hear opinions on how people hold their drawing tools, whether pen, pencil, brush, or digital tools. Even my drawing books don't address this much, except for the one I'm currently reading. It's called Drawing Basics and Video Game Art by Solarski and it goes into some good detail about how to hold a pencil in various ways for drawing.

Another cat drawing came to mind - she's busy making herself look good

I got an idea to use the idea of a cat to portray a glitzy glamorous personality, to be interpreted whatever way the viewer likes, using pastel.

The visual style I want to use is the same one that dominates my mind but I work hard to get close to it using pastel. I believe acrylic would get to the effect quicker, but I enjoy using pastel, and now my Wacom tablet more than acrylics which are more costly in terms of preparing a surface and potentially ruining brushes.

I've decided the illustrative effect that I am most enthusiastic about can be described as claymation or china doll appearance, but in paint or pastel, which looks kinda like what these artists produce:

1) Will Terry, whom I found by accident online today. My favourite image of his is a good example of that 3-D clay sculpture look I enjoy. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy, and I believe it is a great way to portray cats. I believe cats belong on a pedestal. I'm sure my cat theme in my drawings tells a lot about my personality.

2) Jaime Zollars is another artist I found in some book in the past and I made a note of the name. My favourite image looks so serene and emotional.

3) Shawna Erback, found on Fineartamerica.com. My favourite image is video-game-lifelike even though you can't see the girl's face.

4) basically the entire graphics in the movie trailer The Boxtrolls, showing on TV right now!

I started this cat image as a digital painting. I've gotten as far as a pencil sketch. She'll have a glaring stare at the viewer, to say 'leave me alone while I'm washing.' I'm pretty sure every hair will be in place, except maybe a tuft that is disturbed currently by her tongue. And she'll have a pretty bow or bell on her collar. It might just be my most challenging personal project yet!

I might also want to create a copy using pan pastels. I think the glow of white paper underneath the light dusting of pastel pigment would look seriously vibrant and engaging.

Cheers for a work in progress!

Hey...at least I got the basic form out already!