Archival's sketchy

[Archival]

I bought two weeks ago a brand new pen & tablet for $32(!). "Genius 4500" low-end brand. It's flickery, so my drawings are sketchy.
I'm left-handed; I can't draw with mouse (right hand accustomed to). For some reason, if I use mouse with left hand, sketching/navigating/gaming gets worse.

And what better topics to sketch but... RP scenes? :)

Thread: See You., the search for spectral Navigator Ausra's body
Scene: Captain Silver and crew pass through festival honouring Ausra's birthday on Metzger island. Silver haggles with merchant for bottle containing treasure map, while Ausra's three sisters acting as tourist guides wait patiently.
Silver - Captain
Ulisse - Quartermaster
Rodrigo - Gunner
Razarth - Cook
Drum - Carpenter
Raena - Swashbuckler
Superbia, Nelchael, and Noah - Ausra's sisters



Caption: Did sum one say CHEEEEESE?!

[daevablacc]

That is cool :D

[supernal]

I think this is fucking great.

To be clear I don't mean the drawing itself is spectacular, but that you did something to give cohesion to the thread and brought a visual to the words. Good job.

[Tebo]

For some reason, if I use mouse with left hand, sketching/navigating/gaming gets worse.

Laterality versus muscle memory.

You might want to try working with different photoshop tools or trying some different software, however. Quite a lot of that sketchiness can be smoothed out with the right drawing tools. Judging by the artifacting of the JPG this seems to have been done in MSPaint, so you're going to suffer from a lack of aliasing on diagonals and curves. Most people who use a tablet use a program like Photoshop that has aliasing and layers. GIMP is just about as powerful as Photoshop, and is free.

The only reason I make the suggestion is that this is otherwise fairly well done, with a lot of attention to detail for the style you chose.

[Archival]

Thanks for the compliments and feedback! Yes, I only have MS Paint at home and my comp is junk. And no internet to download GIMP, etc. >.< I started using other colours besides black, though, to add shading depth. Until I upgrade (lol...), this is the best my sketches would go. I'm also realizing now my 16:9 monitor at home is skewering my sketches noticeably. -_-


Thread: [Quest] (Closed) Seeking: Big-Ass Gemstone for Short-Term Lucrative Fling
Scene: After securing a fishing boat, the blind guide explains where to find the buried monastery site housing a big-ass gemstone: on a valley by the sea, east of Last Chance.
Emir Knom - ice sage
Tathasine - retired knight
Shanty - schemer
Frederick Eldin - rogue
Natalia Lancer - tracker
Zyphia - adventurer


Caption: A blind guide leading...

[Aleksei]

Awesome job =D

[Malum]

You sure are!


jk

I like how fast you pump out gfx. Wanna job?

[Tebo]

Well, if you have access to a computer with a CD burner or a small flash drive, you can get Paint.NET to take home with you. I'd recommend it to anyone who was looking for something simple but wanted an upgrade from MS Paint, and it includes aliasing and layers in a much smaller package than most of the graphic programs that have such features.

Also, you shouldn't be having trouble with your monitor's aspect ratio. If you have a 16:9 monitor and a 4:3 tablet, you can usually reassign the active area of the tablet to coform to your monitor's aspect ratio. Think of it like the black bars on most DVD movies on a standard-definition television. I don't have any experience with your specific tablet, however, so you'll have to check the software that came with it for these settings, if they exit.

Also, with Wacoms, there is a Pen Mode, in which each point on the tablet corresponds with a point on the screen (like a pen on paper). Then you have the Mouse Mode, in which the stylus behaves like a mouse and you can pick it up and move to another part of the tablet and set it back down without moving the cursor. If you can't adjust for aspect ratio you might want to give that a try (again, assuming a similar feature is available for your device).

[Archival]

systemNULL, I just DL'ed GIMP-2.0 and copied the program folder (111MB) to my USB. I hope this will work and not have to deal with registry keys issues when I re-copy at home.

Even if my tablet-to-screen ratios are off, I don't think it would matter because I naturally follow my sketch on screen; never glance down at tablet. What I meant with the 16:9 ratio is... that it's squished vertically. So what I am sketching would 'un-squish' (appearing longer vertically) on 'normal/standard' monitors. -_- Is there a way to view anything on my 16:9 monitor 'normally', even if this means black vertical bars on the sides to make my screen look more square? I feel like trashing this monitor now; I noticed it when I played Starcraft... my pylon matrices seemed off; didn't know this will throw a monkey wrench into sketching.

I am actually using Pen Mode exclusively with my tablet, but still use the normal mouse with my right hand to click on menus and switch tools. Mouse only conflicts when I forget to lift pen sufficiently far away from tablet.

Thanks! Your feedback is super helpful. You're a true Valiant.
Arch

Edit: Just using GIMP now... it's awesome! For something free? Wow.

[Tebo]

A lot of the same minds behind GIMP are the type that were also making their own operating system - an OS for which Photoshop never worked properly. That's no longer a problem, with major strides in WINE's compatibility, but that was always the target featureset. GIMP remains relevant, even for Windows users, because it's free.

My only problem with it was that (in past versions) all the toolbars and paletes were separate windows, so getting organized was a bit of an ordeal. If I ever run an Ubuntu box again I'll probably take another stab at it to see how it's progressed in the last three years.

Most video cards allow you to change your aspect ratio to show 4:3 resolutions properly. The problem is that most monitors I've used don't support it. If you can't find any settings in your display properties or your monitor's OSD to correct this, then you can try setting your resolution to one with a 4:3 aspect ratio and using the monitor's OSD controls to manually "squash" the horizontal width if it's still stretching. The thing to remember is that this will be a global change and you'll have to take those steps every time you want to switch back and forth. The controls you're looking for will look something like the ones in the blue bar shown in this image.

osd-scal.jpg

[edit] You should have no problem copying the program folders for most applications in Windows XP as most of the registry values generated during the installation (especially for free programs) simply point to files and folders, and these values are typically created anyway when you copy the folder over. You may be short a Start Menu program group or other shortcuts, but you can add those manually with ease.

[Archival]

GIMP works fantastic at home. Thanks again! I will try the monitor tweaks later, but for now, reducing height to ~88% seems to fix the proportion skewer. The math escapes me, but visually, the sketches now look fine...


Thread: Runaway Princess (Quest)
Scene: Disguised as a gringo and armed with a baby bird in holster, Tuck finally caught up with the Runaway Princess in West Coast Town's Dancing Swan Tavern.
Tuck C. DuMasque - insurance agent
Faylynn Defleur - runaway princess
Darius - hawk
Lucian - ferret


Caption: Runaway royalty doing the running man

[Eternity]

This stuff is awesome!

[animosity!]

You put austere eggs in every picture. Aw.

[Tebo]

I'm really looking forward to watching you put GIMP through its paces. Lemme know if you need any more help.

[Archival]

systemNULL, unfortunately, the pen tablet doesn't work properly with GIMP. The cursor moves fine, but the input circle is stuck to left of screen. Purchase came with trial versions (30-day) of Photoshop and Corel, though. The monitor doesn't the 'squeeze' function so I'm just gonna do the 88% squash.

Thread: SC Academy
Scene: M-team reconnoiters after Medivac damaged; stealth approach no longer viable.

Done in MSPaint. The medic was someone else's sketch. WIP.

Thread: Over the Horizon
Scene: Omsguld dives with rope from mizzen's topgallant aboard La Joya de Corona.

Five-minute sketch using Photoshop CS4 trial version. WIP.

Edit: Argh.. my sketches are getting worse! But I can see the improvement of lines using Photoshop. >.< I guess I'll have to fork some moola for the program. Maybe next year.