Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Two New Additions to Site


I just added a couple of Pee Wee Harris strips to the Pee Wee portion of my site. One concerns a better mousetrap and the other has to do with sandals and gophers. Hey, it's a living.

5 comments:

Gary Fields said...

hey mike,
I read your comments about doing the linework in Illustrator when you say you're pulling the paths. How do you get your thick and thin line without the pressure sensitivity of the wacom? Are you making "shapes" or doubling back and forth with your path line to make the sharp pointiness or roundness of the noses? I don't know if I'm getting my point across or not...

Mike Adair said...

Hey Gary,

I used to do my linework with ink and a brush and got the thick and thins the traditional way. When I do them in Illustrator I'm just faking that brush look by plotting my points with the pen tool. The nose is an object that I'd typically plot with 4 points - one at each and of the arch and two in the middle on each side of the shape. I then pull the handles out to create the shape.

I'll try to post a quick "how-to" on the blog soon!

Hey, nice monkey on your Coming Soon page!

Mike

Gary Fields said...

Hey Mike,
After reading your comment, I now know how you do your line art. Thanks!! Here's what I do in Illustrator. I draw with a 3 or 4 stroke to do my black linework, using a mouse. After it's all done I make a copy of the art and put to the side. Then I convert the stroke line art to fills on the original (select art-object-path-outline stroke). To get the thick and thin lines, I go back and move the points at the ends of the lines on top of each other and adjust accordingly. That's how I did that coming soon monkey. It's kinda like 6 in one hand, 1/2 a dozen in the other. Whatever it takes to make it look good at the end of the job.
I wnet to the Kubert School years ago and HM hired a bunch of guys. Vinnie A. still there? Keep up the good work!!

Mike Adair said...

Hey Gary,

In the end, you're right, whatever it takes...

I'm not the best when it comes to "Sharpie and blank paper" drawing. I do lots of sketching over sketches to get something to an acceptable level. I think that's why I gravitate toward the pen tool in Illustrator. It gives a drawing whimp like me the control I need.

One of my buddies at Hallmark is Chris Grine and I think he uses a method similar to yours. It sure yeilds a more natural look. (He's linked on my blog).

I knew a Vince Adriani who used to work in Shoebox. But Vinnie? Not so sure.

Cheers,
mike

Gary Fields said...

Mike, Vince Andriani is the guy!! He's not there any more?! Do you happen to know where he went? Thanks.
Gary