Saturday, October 26, 2013

Art Rage 3: Perched Hawk

It's finally Saturday, and I can work on ArtRage and watch some cartoons in peace.

I finished Season 2 and started Season 3 of the 1984 Transformers series on Netflix this morning, and I'm really wishing I had the movie that bridges the two seasons. (But I'm pretty sure I'd cry when Optimus dies, and I don't have time for that crap this morning.)



I'm learning the ArtRage software as I go, and enjoying every new trick I discover. In particular, I regret telling several inquiring people at the San Diego Comic Fest that the software does not work best for coloring scanned pencil & ink work, because there doesn't appear to be a way to put the line art onto a transparency.

I usually do this in Photoshop using Bergdesign's Peel Off White Photoshop plugin. It's an invaluable tool I use in Photoshop to preserve the intricacies of Johnny's inks, as well as any pencils I get a chance to color.
However, it turns out I can have scanned artwork on its own transparent layer in ArtRage, though it does require using Photoshop first. I simply use Peel Off White on the artwork in Photoshop, then save it as a transparent PNG (interlaced). Then in a new (properly sized) ArtRage painting, I import the PNG to its own layer.


This is important because I don't always want the line art to remain black. With its own transparent layer, I can lock the transparency and paint the lines any color they need to be.

Back to work for me, and a great weekend to you!

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