#oskuek

Finally got some time to do some digital inking for Psylocke of the X-Men. Psylocke digital inking demo with Medibang. Work in progress. First drawn on artblock paper with pencils, scanned and set at A3 size(297mm x 42mm) size, 300dpi.

Video: How to do inking for a pencil drawing of Star Wars Sith warrior, Darth Maul. Using Medibang and Wacom Bamboo tablet.

I took the new drawing tool , Mediabang for a "test drive." At first, I wanted to try it on drawing a Japanese castle. But on second thought, better try it on something smaller, like drawing a Tako-tako snack stall.

I gotta say, I enjoyed this new software. Previously, it would have taken me a long time just to draw something like this in Photoshop. Because in PS, I wouldn't be "drawing" the lines. I would actually be "etching" the lines bit by bit to form long lines. So, it's more like sculpting in 2D than really drawing. But with mediabang, it is just like drawing. I can draw faster and with better precision and anti-shake feature for my pens and brushes,so that I get smooth lines.

At first it was a bit daunting. I mean Mediabang's website does provide many tutorials(in text, wish they had video too). But it wasn't arranged in a linear way. The videos do have a few categories, but as a beginner like me, I went there and I didn't know where to start!

So, I needed a plan. I figured out what I needed most first. The thing I had to know was how to start a canvas, how to set the dimensions, the resolution. The next thing I needed was how to put a photo in there so that I could trace. After that, I wanted pens, brushes settings.

The fun part for today's try-out was that Mediabang has something Photoshop doesn't, a set of different grids that could be rotated, adjusted and manipulated. They are like digital rulers on the canvas for me to draw straight lines, horizontally, vertically, diagonically....there was also elipse like tools for me to draw spheres, circles...etc. This is something so useful for illustrations, I'm not even sure if the latest PS CC has it. If it doesn't, it should.

So, here is a quick review of Mediabang after trying it out to draw the tako stall you see here.

1. It's easy to use, the tools, the concepts are pretty much the same as Photoshop. 2. For example, press B for brush, it has layers , you can merge layers by CTR+E, you can lock layers, you can control your brush size with "[" or " ]" keys, you can grab and move your canvas by pressing spacebar. So it is pretty much the same as photoshop. Lasso selection tool, shapes tools, cut, paste.....If you're a graphic designer, you'll feel right at home. 3. Somethings I haven't figured out yet...like what's "bpp" for the images? Sometimes some shortcut keys don't respond, so I had to use the mouse to click the tool on screen. Like the move with spacebar sometimes doesn't work. 4. What's "Ooze" setting for the brushes or pens? I only know it has a max setting of 5 or 0. At 5, your brush becomes dotted lines. But why call it "Ooze?"

There's still a lot for me to explore, and I wish somebody would put together much better tutorials for Mediabang. It's a great tool. If you're an illustrator, or manga, or comic artist, this is definitely one of the good tools to use. Because, face it, using PS or AI alone ain't gonna cut it. I know, those are the professional tools at every design agency, but it's very slow for illustration purposes, especially if you want to do crisp and smooth line art. In Mediabang, just bring up the grids they call Snaps. You can immediately draw vanishing points, any straight lines for buildings and architecture....you can do buildings fast and like never before. So many ways to draw the lines, don't want the grids? No problems, just click with your brush on one end, hold shift key, and click another end to form a straight line in any angle. So easy.