Erco's 2006 Sketches

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kps-mom

Another experiment in digital cleanup, this one a drawing of Kim Possible's mom. I like the graphics of the characters in this show.. kinda a japanse animation meets Disney; strong graphics with gradual curves instead of rigid.

Technical Breadcrumbs
Started with this raw, pentel-colored image from the scanner I drew while watching a DVD of the show. After scanning, made a blank layer above the original, then using Gimp's pen ('Path') tool, retraced the lineart as vectors, then used Edit|Stroke Path to stroke out the black lines to clean them up. Then made a new layer, and drew the colors and half tones. Also, selected the color areas of the hair, and stroked a few subtle gradients. I found that I could just select all the hair, then 'negate' away areas I didn't want to affect with the 'negative lasso', then applied grads. This let me apply several gradients to different parts of the same hair chunk.

This is mainly a proof of concept to get the multilayer drawing process down.

I goofed when I drew her right hand hair outline; I had the image set to 'Index' mode instead of 'rgb', so it drew a fatter, un-antialiased line. I should have redone it, but since it was just an experiment, I left it in as a reminder not to screw that up next time..

Speaking of next time, I should maybe try coloring the lines, instead of using just black. (Consistent with the show). Also, should see if Gimp's Path tool has a way to vary the line thicknesses, though I probably need to doublestroke the lines by stroking the path, tweaking it a little and then re-stroking to get variable line thickness. Definitely keep the grads subtle, otherwise it looks too computery. The halftones should probably be done on a separate layer, instead of as I'd done here, using separate colors. This would ensure true and consistent 'tones' instead of actual color changes. Gotta fix those miters; looks like gimp doesn't always make a nice point when a path 'cusps' (see 'flattened' line cusp in the point of her hair line below her chin)