Crafty Litsters show your work!

[satindesire]

I make costumes and comics. :B

WOW!

Neat! How do you make your comics? Do you hand-draw stuff or do you use a computer program?

 

[KoPilot]

WOW!

Neat! How do you make your comics? Do you hand-draw stuff or do you use a computer program?

Thanks!

I ink them by hand (with nibs!) on big pages, scan them and color them in photoshop. I'm one of those people who firmly believes that inking things by hand gives comic art a very unique, and organic feel that you can't achieve otherwise. Unfortunately, I'm a minority. xD

 

[Noira]

Thanks!

I ink them by hand (with nibs!) on big pages, scan them and color them in photoshop. I'm one of those people who firmly believes that inking things by hand gives comic art a very unique, and organic feel that you can't achieve otherwise. Unfortunately, I'm a minority. xD

Oh, no. Many of us comic creators believe that. I believe that hand inking gives a very unique and organic feel that digital can't stimulate. I simply don't believe that the feel of hand-inking is suitable for every comic... which is why my comic is a digitally painted comic with no lineart. And I think that many people who've chosen digital think similarly to me... we appreciate traditional art, but it's not right for our comic. Vector looks different than digital airbrushing which looks different than cel-shading which looks different than traditional inking which looks different than Chinese style inking, which looks different than watercolor... pick the right art for the story is what I always, always say. For my comic, the right art was a very soft, painted style. I like what I see of the comic picture, though! Do you have it posted as a webcomic anywhere? I'd like to see more.

I don't consider my comic pages and art to be particularly crafty, so I shall share what I do that IS crafty. I make custom tags to hang from collars (or just wear as necklaces on their own)! Steampunky, of course. Because that's what I like.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a10/angstypen/Art/morecustomssmall.jpg

 

[sweepthefloor]

Necklace

I made this beaded necklace. It says Nursie. It is a piece of not-so-fine art, but I liked making it, and it has a nice toggle clasp. I might make more, with crystals.

 

[Primalex]

I thought about posting some 40K marine stuff here until I saw some of the finely done by Homburg and others, and decided not to dime myself out. Maybe some wood sculptures or the like will be up soon.

Please post them, then I don't feel that alone with my meager skills

 

[Primalex]

Anyway, post your work! The worst thing that is likely to happen is some constructive commentary and/or advice. And if it is from me, it will be advice on how to cheat, not how to actually paint finely. I cheat like crazy.

Okay, question:

Is it just me or is yellow a pain in the ass?

I'm trying to make some Bad Moon boyz, but the yellow drives me crazy - either I don't get enough opacity or lose too many details... hrmph.

 

[Seurat]

Okay, question:

Is it just me or is yellow a pain in the ass?

I'm trying to make some Bad Moon boyz, but the yellow drives me crazy - either I don't get enough opacity or lose too many details... hrmph.

Yellow is a pain in the ass. White base (no matter how you prime) and then layers, lots of thin layers to build up. Even Vallejo, which uses finer pigments, doesn't cover well at all, but at least it thins out better.

Using straight BMY is gonna make it look thick; watering it down will make it look blotchy. If it's all that is available, cut it with white.


Work has been a bitch, but I promised pictures. Soon.

 

[chy_girl]

I finally got off my ass and took the picture.

This was an art final when I was back in college. It's a close up rendition of Portrait of a Young Man by Bronzino. It's a finger painting done in printers ink on butcher paper. And for those who've had the misfortune of actually getting printers ink straight from the can onto their bare skin: yes, the class was fairly sure our instructor was sprinkling crack on his breakfast cereal.

 

[Homburg]

Okay, question:

Is it just me or is yellow a pain in the ass?

I'm trying to make some Bad Moon boyz, but the yellow drives me crazy - either I don't get enough opacity or lose too many details... hrmph.

Sorry that I didn't see this earlier.

Yes, yellow SUCKS. There is nothing good about it. I agree totally with Seurat on the worth of Vallejo Game Colour's yellows. They are vastly better.

First thing is to prime white if you are using a lot of yellow, red, or orange. Seriously. I know the current de rigeur is nothing but black base, but it MUCH easier to prime white and black dark areas than it is to prime black and try to get bright over it. And, honestly, with the great washes GW uses these days, white primer is much more useful. A layer of badab black can darken just about anything.

One tip for working on black base is to put a thin coat of silver on before you put white on. Yes, it is an extra step, but white often fails to cover almost as badly as yellow. So I hit it with a silver, then white, then yellow.

Another tip, if you can find it, is to cover your yellow paint with a good yellow ink. The absolute best that I have used in the past, geeze 20+ years was the "Yellow Wash" that GW put out in the mid 90's. Unfortunately, they stopped making it. Hell, I don't think they make a yellow ink at all these days. If not, I think that Reaper and Privateer Press both make yellow inks. Anyway, inking a yellow after painting it will help pick up the colour significantly.

In may case, I learned to work on white primer eons ago. Then GW went crazy with the white primer and WAY too much red, and I started working on black base. True to form, they swung into black base ("deeper shading" is translation for "black base means you will have to buy more paint to cover your model"), and I'm back on white primer. I don't know if it is contrariness, or just me exploring my options. Either way, I've found that it is simpler to darken a light model than to lighten up a dark one. Do one Bretonnian army and you learn that fact dead quick.

 

[Homburg]

Paint preferences are something worth talking about. Every manufacturer does certain things well, and others not so well. Where do your preferences lie?

For the core, strong-hued primary colours, I like Privateer these days. Their reds, blues, blacks, and whites are killer. Their greens are good on coverage, but I'm not sold on the hue. Something is off in their mixes.

For hot colours, I'm Vallejo all the way. Their yellow is the best out their in gaming world, and their hot red is great. I'm not super giggled up about the orange that I've got, but I have a tough time finding the right oranges anywhere. I'm more likely to ink an orange than to paint it anyway, so it matter little.

GW has some really good cool greens. They aren't always right for earth tone stuff, but still good paints. I'm also more likely to use GW's metallics than anyone else these days. Some of the vallejo metals are good, and the Vallejo model colour bronze is fantastic. I also like the older Reaper Pro series metallics. But the hands-down winner in metallics was Ral Partha's old line. Holy smokes, they rocked. I still have a coupla pots that are good and probably 20 years old. Some old GW pots that are the same. Paint lasted better back then.

For inks, I still have the same slope-sided, black-topped inks that GW produced when they first introduced inks. I've also got their excellent Yellow Wash, and Turquoise wash. The turqouise is not so useful, but for those moments when it is, it's brilliant. Vallejo's "smokey ink" is fantastic for darkening, weathering, oil stains, etc. Really good stuff. I heartily suggest it.

I am a HUGE fan of GW's washes. They are basically the best thing to comes out of Games Workshop in a decade IMO. The washes have completely restructured how I paint. Literally. My style has modified top to bottom because of these washes.

And lastly, primers. Wow, I could go on all day about primers, and how much I despise the gaming industry for the utter shit that they pass off as primer. These days I won't touch GW. Their quality is crap and they have such little etching agent that they aren't even really primers. The fact that they're three times more expensive than they should be just adds insult to injury. The only gaming primer that I'm cool with is Armory, and it's not a strong happiness. I'm as likely to buy rustoleum as anything else.

There was a product produced by either rustoleum or krylon called "ultrafine primer", but I've never seen the stuff on a shelf. Still looking for it though, as it sounds hot.

So, if you've read through all that, what paints do you use?

And, as an aside, I use a totally different set of paints for terrain and basing. If anyone is interested, I'll go into that.

 

[00Syd]

This is my current project, an embroidered tribute to my favorite movie, The Big Lebowski:

ABIDE

I'm still working on the background and when it's done, it should look like wood grain.

(p.s. sorry that the picture is backwards, it was the best I could do quickly.)

 

[rosco rathbone]

This is my current project, an embroidered tribute to my favorite movie, The Big Lebowski:

ABIDE

I'm still working on the background and when it's done, it should look like wood grain.

(p.s. sorry that the picture is backwards, it was the best I could do quickly.)

You could sell those.

 

[00Syd]

You could sell those.

Yeah, I know, people tell me that all the time (which is super flattering by the way, thank you!) but then I wouldn't have the pleasure of looking at them anymore! They are all really a labor of love and take a few months, at least, to complete. I do subjects close to my heart, and I'd be sad to see them go, even for a couple hundred bucks

I want to put them in round frames and hang them up all over my apt.

 

[richard_daily]

Paint preferences are something worth talking about. Every manufacturer does certain things well, and others not so well. Where do your preferences lie?

For the core, strong-hued primary colours, I like Privateer these days. Their reds, blues, blacks, and whites are killer. Their greens are good on coverage, but I'm not sold on the hue. Something is off in their mixes.

For hot colours, I'm Vallejo all the way. Their yellow is the best out their in gaming world, and their hot red is great. I'm not super giggled up about the orange that I've got, but I have a tough time finding the right oranges anywhere. I'm more likely to ink an orange than to paint it anyway, so it matter little.

GW has some really good cool greens. They aren't always right for earth tone stuff, but still good paints. I'm also more likely to use GW's metallics than anyone else these days. Some of the vallejo metals are good, and the Vallejo model colour bronze is fantastic. I also like the older Reaper Pro series metallics. But the hands-down winner in metallics was Ral Partha's old line. Holy smokes, they rocked. I still have a coupla pots that are good and probably 20 years old. Some old GW pots that are the same. Paint lasted better back then.

For inks, I still have the same slope-sided, black-topped inks that GW produced when they first introduced inks. I've also got their excellent Yellow Wash, and Turquoise wash. The turqouise is not so useful, but for those moments when it is, it's brilliant. Vallejo's "smokey ink" is fantastic for darkening, weathering, oil stains, etc. Really good stuff. I heartily suggest it.

I am a HUGE fan of GW's washes. They are basically the best thing to comes out of Games Workshop in a decade IMO. The washes have completely restructured how I paint. Literally. My style has modified top to bottom because of these washes.

And lastly, primers. Wow, I could go on all day about primers, and how much I despise the gaming industry for the utter shit that they pass off as primer. These days I won't touch GW. Their quality is crap and they have such little etching agent that they aren't even really primers. The fact that they're three times more expensive than they should be just adds insult to injury. The only gaming primer that I'm cool with is Armory, and it's not a strong happiness. I'm as likely to buy rustoleum as anything else.

There was a product produced by either rustoleum or krylon called "ultrafine primer", but I've never seen the stuff on a shelf. Still looking for it though, as it sounds hot.

So, if you've read through all that, what paints do you use?

And, as an aside, I use a totally different set of paints for terrain and basing. If anyone is interested, I'll go into that.

Vallejo is definitely the best model-makers acrylic out there, their military air colors are fantastic, right out of the bottle in an airbrush. I use it for anything small scale. I've tried just about all the other stuff you've listed; most of it is good, but armory primer tends to be really gritty. The best primer I've ever used for anything that has high detail is called Army Painter. It comes in a bunch of different colors.

 

[richard_daily]

A couple of shirts I made short print runs of.

The first is a spray paint stencil design that I used to wear on tour (especially in the south) that would piss people off.

The second I made after a good friend of mine had an abortion, and we threw her a cupcake party. A (former?) member of lit got one of these.

 

[where]

A couple of shirts I made short print runs of.

The first is a spray paint stencil design that I used to wear on tour (especially in the south) that would piss people off.

The second I made after a good friend of mine had an abortion, and we threw her a cupcake party. A (former?) member of lit got one of these.

cute! who knew you were so talented!

 

[Homburg]

Vallejo is definitely the best model-makers acrylic out there, their military air colors are fantastic, right out of the bottle in an airbrush. I use it for anything small scale. I've tried just about all the other stuff you've listed; most of it is good, but armory primer tends to be really gritty. The best primer I've ever used for anything that has high detail is called Army Painter. It comes in a bunch of different colors.

I've not used the Vallejo Mil stuff. The only problem I have with their model colour line is that it is not quite as tough as the Game Colour stuff. Wargaming minis get handled a lot, so tougher paint helps.

I use armory white and it seems to work fine. The only times I've had a grit problem were humidity related. I will say that it does seem a touch more humidity sensitive than some. Unfortunately, that is a problem around here.

I've not used the army painter stuff at all. I've actually got a can of their dip here on my desk that was bought for me by a friend. I use Minwax Polyshades for dipping, and love it, so said friend bought me the army painter variety. I plan to give it a shot, but I have trouble seeing how it is worth the freakish amount of money for what is, as far as I can tell, repackaged polyshades. Their primer seemed likewise expensive, and, at least in my experience, coloured primers have lower amounts of etching agent. This means a less-resistant finish in the end (ie the problem with GW's primers these days). How well do they stand up to handling?

And I really dig the "This is not a gavel" t-shirt. Good stuff!

 

[richard_daily]

cute! who knew you were so talented!

I have a sign over my bed that reads: "Thousands of satisfied customers"...

 

[richard_daily]

I've not used the Vallejo Mil stuff. The only problem I have with their model colour line is that it is not quite as tough as the Game Colour stuff. Wargaming minis get handled a lot, so tougher paint helps.

I use armory white and it seems to work fine. The only times I've had a grit problem were humidity related. I will say that it does seem a touch more humidity sensitive than some. Unfortunately, that is a problem around here.

I've not used the army painter stuff at all. I've actually got a can of their dip here on my desk that was bought for me by a friend. I use Minwax Polyshades for dipping, and love it, so said friend bought me the army painter variety. I plan to give it a shot, but I have trouble seeing how it is worth the freakish amount of money for what is, as far as I can tell, repackaged polyshades. Their primer seemed likewise expensive, and, at least in my experience, coloured primers have lower amounts of etching agent. This means a less-resistant finish in the end (ie the problem with GW's primers these days). How well do they stand up to handling?

And I really dig the "This is not a gavel" t-shirt. Good stuff!

Are you referring to using floorwax as a wash of some sort? Way too thick in my opinion. I've seen the army painter stuff, but I don't think I'd ever mess with it... Thin layers work so much better, although they're much more time consuming obviously.

The army painter primer is fantastic. It's well worth the price. It's by far the best I've ever used. I only use black and white as a general rule, so I can't speak for the colored primers personally, but I'd assume it's the same or a very similar formula.

 

[Homburg]

Are you referring to using floorwax as a wash of some sort? Way too thick in my opinion. I've seen the army painter stuff, but I don't think I'd ever mess with it... Thin layers work so much better, although they're much more time consuming obviously.

For doing certain things, the technique rocks. And by certain things, I mean large amounts of organic models. Here's a link:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Dipping_Tyranids

In this one, they are dipping tyranids. Nids are the poster child for dip, as the armies are enormous, and they are 100% organic. And, often times, the brown colour of the dip works well with the paint scheme.

As well as it works on nids, it is unbelievable on skeletons. The first time I used dipping was on my vampire counts army and I honestly doubt that I could've achieved better results with any normal technique.

The army painter primer is fantastic. It's well worth the price. It's by far the best I've ever used. I only use black and white as a general rule, so I can't speak for the colored primers personally, but I'd assume it's the same or a very similar formula.

Hmm, may have to pick some up next time I need primer. That some pretty solid praise.

You sound like you know your way around a paintbrush. Are you going to post pics?

 

[Xelebes]

I make music:

Xelebes - Trying to Speak

Xelebes - Prairie Syndrome

 

[Yasashii_Kaze]

So I finally caved and bought knitting needles today. I told myself I wouldn't take up knitting until I was at least an intermediate in crocheting, but the more knitting I see, the more I want to be able to do it. I just love the way it looks and feels. I got a little instruction book but it's been mostly useless since it apparently leaves huge parts out (like it will tell me what to do with my right needle, but fail to mention anything about my left one) so I've just been looking stuff up online. I've already learned to cast on stitches and I'm getting ready to learn a knit stitch. Any of you Lit knitters have advice for the newbie?

 

[wicked woman]

So I finally caved and bought knitting needles today. I told myself I wouldn't take up knitting until I was at least an intermediate in crocheting, but the more knitting I see, the more I want to be able to do it. I just love the way it looks and feels. I got a little instruction book but it's been mostly useless since it apparently leaves huge parts out (like it will tell me what to do with my right needle, but fail to mention anything about my left one) so I've just been looking stuff up online. I've already learned to cast on stitches and I'm getting ready to learn a knit stitch. Any of you Lit knitters have advice for the newbie?

Assuming you're right handed, the left hand does nothing but hold the needle with the stitches on it, that's why they don't tell you what to do with your left hand.

It really isn't very hard. You can knit a lot with knowing how to knit and pearl. While it's possible to teach yourself it will be much easier if you know someone who can teach you.

Enjoy.

 

[Yasashii_Kaze]

It really isn't very hard. You can knit a lot with knowing how to knit and pearl. While it's possible to teach yourself it will be much easier if you know someone who can teach you.

Enjoy.

Yeah, I'm already realizing it's going to be a lot easier to find someone to teach me at least to cast and knit. I've cast a set of 28 stitches a couple of times, and even though now I have the technique correct, they're too tight to go back through and knit into. I had to quit for the night because my hands were cramping up, but I'm having fun.

 

[richard_daily]

For doing certain things, the technique rocks. And by certain things, I mean large amounts of organic models. Here's a link:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Dipping_Tyranids

In this one, they are dipping tyranids. Nids are the poster child for dip, as the armies are enormous, and they are 100% organic. And, often times, the brown colour of the dip works well with the paint scheme.

As well as it works on nids, it is unbelievable on skeletons. The first time I used dipping was on my vampire counts army and I honestly doubt that I could've achieved better results with any normal technique.



Hmm, may have to pick some up next time I need primer. That some pretty solid praise.

You sound like you know your way around a paintbrush. Are you going to post pics?

That's way too glossy for my tastes, but I can see how it works... For speed, I usually rely on an airbrush.

here are some HO scale WW2 Soviet assault guns. Not my best work, but I did them start to finish in like 3 hours. Some minor conversions on them; handrails, freehand lettering/numbering, etc...