Comic Report #82.2 - Slow & Steady

Hello again!  This week I started work on painting the page, getting used to the new toolset.  I think working in Clip Studio Paint can end up making my art look a bit more fluid than it did in Photoshop, which I'm excited about.  I also think I can get this page finished by Monday, so keep an eye out for that.

Adapting from Photoshop to CSP, I find a lot of my old workflow ports over.  The way I like to work is drawing my inks and then painting in a flat midtone grey for all the character silhouettes on their own layer.  This way when I'm painting a character I can ctrl+click that layer and it will select the paintable space of each figure, and I don't need to worry about painting outside the lines.  I do a lot of eyedroppering and blending values so being free to kinda just brush in freely without worrying about overpaint lets me go a bit quicker than normal.  This function is still retained, which I'm happy about.

One of the possible trouble areas is how I handle word balloons.  CSP has a word balloon feature which I use for the minicomics, but for the main pages I like to paint in solid white paintbrush strokes on their own layer with a layer filter that automatically applies a black outline to the big shapes I'm making.  I'm gonna have to explore how to set that up when I come to that bridge, but for now it's just an idle thought on the back of my mind.

One of the curious details about this is when I painted in Photoshop, I think things appeared darker than they do when I look at the finished files on my laptop.  CSP might be displaying my range of values more correctly, so I might end up with a "brighter"
final product.  I don't know how this will pan out yet but it might explain why the sample paint jobs have felt juicier so far.

I have some obligations this weekend but I am pretty sure I can finish this page up in reasonable time.  Keep an eye out around Monday if you don't see a new page before then.  I'm excited to get this one done and move on, I think this new computer has been a good investment for me.  Until then, take care!  I'll have another post to share with you soon.