It's Flamingo Frenzy Time!

Like my art? Well, it's coming. Something new and exciting. Maybe even unexpected, like the flamingo in the BG. You probably didn't think she was going to show up on your screen...

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In Motion: Sonic Throwing a Boomerang

A lot of fun with this piece, Sonic the Hedgehog hurling a boomerang! By the way his hair, and even the spikes on his back, are swishing, it looks like he put a good bit of effort into the throw! Now the questions are: Where’s it headed, what or who’s path will it cross, AND will Sonic even be there to catch it when it comes back? Jesus loves you!!!

Behind the scenes time! I read that traditional animators use blue pencils to sketch the basis of the animated frame, and then I suppose it’s inking as normal. What’s amazing is that, when scanned, the blue pencil SHOULD be easier to separate from the black lineart digitally, compared to a regular gray pencil, which is closer to the color of the inks.

Though there are what’s called “non-photo blue pencils”, which can be used for the job, a realistic question is:

Can you use a “normal” blue pencil to create clean lineart scans, or does it have to be a special kind to work?

Yes, actually, you can use a non-“non-photo blue” pencil to create pretty clean scans. While I can’t speak for all pencils or types of paper, I sketched this piece on printer paper with a light blue colored pencil that wasn’t labeled “non-photo”, and then inked with a fine tip marker. After tweaking some correction settings and what-not digitally, below you can see the results for yourself! (did I mention, the lines were inked with a THIN fine tip, and it still came out clean!) (would using thicker inks affect it negatively? great question–go find out!) (or maybe I’ll do one eventually…)

#1/Left: Original scan; see the blue pencil? | #2/Right: After correction layers and what-not; Clean scan, YAY!

For a look at what inked art with regular gray pencil looks like scanned: “Tangle x Mighty Happy John 3:16 Day 2023!” was also drawn traditionally; However, there are some differences, such as: thicker lines, was drawn in a sketchbook that has a different texture than printer paper, the presence of red in the scan, and the correction settings were probably not identical. I can say in THAT piece, a good portion of my original pencils are not visible, but if you look around Mighty’s hand you can see some; once again, the next question is, would a blue pencil have the same problem on this type of paper/with thicker inks?