Weekly news 2018-06-26: workflow optimisation

Hi Patrons! Since last week, I'm doing a lot of digital painting test: I tested Krita 4.1 of course; but I also tested Kubuntu 18.04 and worked on integrating in my workflow new tools and features that appeared since the Krita Sprint in May and mix that with what I learned from all the test of episode 25.

The experimental panel of ep25:

On previous episode 25, I used a new method for a single panel and it was really effective and also fun to paint this way: this method focus a lot of work on the black&white (from 1 to 3 under) then colorize (4) and paint-over the result with adjustment of color for the ambiance (5). 

This work-flow reintroduce a sort of "inking" pass on (3) but easier in my opinion, because it is made with "painting" tools  and not traced with pure lines as for a normal inking.

The steps were working together and I'm really tempted to use that for  episode 26. 

So I tested various approach to emulate this painted-line-art with my tablet(s) because during episode 25 I felt I spent a lot of time from (1) to (3) to repaint what was already drew in (2) ; but that was part of the experimentation and that's why I selected a small panel: I could always repaint it at last moment if things were not looking good. 

My first tests were not successful: sometime the line was too thin, too rough, too crispy, not enough contrasted (I tried the approach of sketching in digital pencil and smoothing after with filter or GMIC: it doesn't work really well). Here are failed visual from the tests:

New brush presets

I started to have better results when I made a new brush preset to assist me into the emulation of this "painted line-art" from scratch. It's a brush able to sketch at low opacity, glaze at mid opacity and create deep black at high opacity. It feels smooth and soft; I'm still experimenting with it.

When this mini brush-set will be ready I'll post it on my blog as a small specialized bundle.

Now I have to use this brush preset to draw all the panels as in the storyboard of episode 26. I'll show you how it looks!

That's all for this week (I also started last week to play around a mascot for Peertube; you probably saw it on social network). Have a good week and thank you for your support!