Aye Aye!

Last weekend I tried drawing on paper; mainly sketches and such. I ended up scanning two drawings. I planned on making one a vectorized drawing, and the other a rasterized drawing. The vectorized one, in this case, is a collection of eyes. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but a character's eyes are a thing I really like to focus on. As it stands, I have a tendency to continuously draw the same general type of eye, so this time I tried drawing several different ones to see if I can vary my approach somewhat. The original drawing has a handful of eyes that are missing from this picture, as I wanted to present a smaller set to avoid cluttering up the picture. It took about six hours or so to finish, from sketch to vectorized version.

I encountered a peculiar problem when trying to export the picture from Inkscape. It appears that, at least on my Windows platform, Inkscape filters tend to be a bit on the unstable side. This is readily apparent when applying a heavy filter to an object (or a group of objects) and then trying to resume work. The program will start to exhibit noticeable lag, especially when zooming in and out. This wasn't the main issue here, however. I noticed that when I tried to export the original image (over a thousand pixels in width and over seven hundred in height), the filters were lost during export. Luckily I only used three simple noise filters, which were light and weren't really necessary in the first place, so potentially I could have done without them. The solution was to export the picture in a smaller, more manageable size. This kept the filters intact.

Mirrors of the Soul

An Illustrated Guide to Life

I'd have hoped to have posted this yesterday on May 1st, but I wasn't able to reach the necessary art files. Long story short - It's been a busy time in my life. Rather than explaining the stuff that's been keeping me busy, I'd rather try showing it instead. It is my intention to draw five subjects over five weeks, but let's see how that goes. I tried out the open-source vector illustrator Inkscape during the weekend. What a positive surprise! I was expecting an uphill battle but it was a rather smooth ride instead. I've tried my hand at Adobe Illustrator by way of drawing logos and GUI elements, so I wasn't a complete stranger to the purpose of Inkscape. Perhaps I can post some of the output here once this sketch-stretch is over.

Sketch-Stretch 1