Eko goes to the Zoo

Found in the same geological strata as the last post. This sort of thing always messes with my brain a little. I mean, why isn’t the lizard in a cage. If your main character was a lion that ate Zebras and another one of the characters is a zebra and they had to sit down to a meal together what would they eat? Luckily Gecko’s and Toucans live on biscuits so that isn’t an issue here but still…

Eko builds a tree house.

I am currently trying to spring clean my portfolio site and I came across this Illustration. Back when I first started using a PC for artwork my only software Fractal Design Painter. It was always a challenge working at print resolution. I usually ended up having to record myself drawing at low resolution and playing back at high.  The results were pretty good but Painter was always a little temperamental and it didn’t always work out. It was a relief when I finally switched to vector drawing  and could see clearly what I was doing at any zoom resolution.

Here is a doodle (in Xara Xtreme) of a thing in a hat that I ran through the Woodcut filter in Corel Painter with interesting results. I like the way it interprets the gradient information. Maybe one day I’ll get to use the technique on a real job.

Actually the ‘Doodle’ technique I used is quite interesting. It is all done in the vector drawing software with no roughs. I simply draw a shape and try and make something from it. The hard part is resisting the temptation to junk the drawing when nothing is happening. I find that if I push through that pain barrier  I can surprise myself with the results and mostly nice surprises at that. I think the secret is to let go and not worry if it doesn’t work. Not something I find easy to do with commercial work so it is good to practice.

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