Last week I sketched and inked a drawing of the Tower of London, scanned it into the computer and then painted it using Corel Painter Essentials and Adobe Photoshop.

This is the first time I’ve used Painter.  The program came as bundled software with the wacom graphic tablet I got long ago and I finally slipped the disk into the computer and installed it.

Painter provides brushes that make it possible to quickly build texture into a painting, which otherwise takes me more effort to create in Photoshop.  Painter also has a really nice color wheel that I find very intuitive and easy to use (I’m using version 3, the color wheel may have changed in version 4, it is said to have been improved).

After applying what might be called an ‘underpainting’ in Painter, I opened the file in Photoshop and continued painting, smoothing things, adding more emphasis to different colours and placing the final touches on it.  I use a really great set of brushes in Photoshop, that I bought from Portland Studios, designed by Justin Gerard.

I love painting digitally.  I don’t find that it takes less time or effort than painting with physical paints, but I love bright luminescent colors, and painting on the computer is very like painting with light.

When I was a kid, about 7 years old, I was often invited to go to a neighbor’s house to play.  My friends had a light box with a plastic sheet/screen on it that had tiny holes through it sized to hold colored plastic pegs.  The kit came with a variety of drawings etched in white on black paper.

The idea was to place the paper on the screen, push the colored pegs through the paper and the light behind, inside the box, made the peg light up.  Punching those colored pegs through that black paper and seeing them light up brilliantly in the otherwise dark room was something I still remember vividly.  The thrill of the finished ‘work of art’ gleaming in super bright colors!  I guess some things about a person just don’t change with time:  painting on the computer nowadays gives me similar delight.

Painting digitally is also a great way to investigate compositions and colors for a painting. I’ve used the computer to create a rough reference for a couple of the egg tempera paintings and also for some watercolor paintings.  It’s an excellent way to experiment and learn. From now on I plan to make a digital painting rough part of my routine work flow to use as a reference in painting an egg tempera or watercolor piece.

Here’s one of the sketches, from the movie Chain Reaction, I drew and inked using a Pentel brush pen.

'At Party' Brush Pen Ink Sketch

In January Irene Gallo posted an article on Tor.com about Justin Gerard’s The Hobbit paintings project.  Justin is the Illustration & Story Director at Portland Studios.  Also working there is Illustrator and Author, Corey Godbey.  I’ve been reading Justin’s blog,  Quick Hide Here, and Corey’s blog, light night rains, ever since.  And I’ve found both Justin’s and Corey’s art a real inspiration.

On April 1st, Portland Studios released a short animation and set up a contest, asking why the bull in the animation was mad.

Portland Studios moving picture

You can see the really neat animation,  “The Mad Bull”, at the Portland Studio web site.

The fellows at Portland Studios asked contestants to submit a 500-word narrative to answer the question “Why is the bull so mad?” I didn’t win the competition, but I had a great time writing my version of why the bull was so mad.  I’ve included it below, just for fun:

Having little land for crops, the people of Stonteen make their livelihoods as metalworkers and stonemasons. Pastures in the foothills sustain sizeable herds of cattle.  The townspeople have a close, respectful working relationship with their animals.

A boy, Hans, was born to the owner of the town quarry.  His father used oxen to pull stone from the hillsides.  Hans loved to build things and to train a bull, whom he called Tiku, to do many tasks. When Hans was twenty, he constructed a large metal, steam-driven machine, made to fit Tiku. He called it a Minotank.  He swore he’d develop a more efficient method to extract rock from the mountain than the traditional oxcart.

Hans’ father reluctantly agreed to let Hans train Tiku to drive the Minotank. At first Tiku was afraid of it, but Hans persisted. Seeing that the project was meeting with success, Hans’ father allowed him to include Tiku’s sons in the training.

Years became decades and eventually the entire quarry functioned with bulls driving Minotanks.  Increased output benefited everyone.  Stonteen became renowned for its artistry, masonry, weaponry, and wealth. The cattle were prized and treated extremely well.

Hans built the Minotanks in a huge barn on the outskirts of town.  He married and his son, Eric, became a gifted engineer. Eric worked with his father, now commonly known as “the Professor”.  Eric often brought his daughter, Ara, along.

Ara loved animals, and especially loved a bull called Kanu.  He was exceptionally intelligent, aware, and strong.  The other bulls deferred to him.  Kanu had known Ara since she was a toddler and carried her on his back frequently.

On Ara’s seventh birthday, everything changed.  Stonteen was isolated on all sides by high mountains, only accessible by one narrow mountain pass.  The villagers had forgotten their mastery of the weapons they forged, being accustomed to peaceful times.  They were defenseless when Valerian foot soldiers marched up the pass.

Situated in open land, Valerians had long been forced to defend themselves.  Hearing of Stonteen’s success, their army filed into the valley at night.  By noon next day they had conquered the entire village of Stonteen.

That morning Eric worked with his father. Ara and Kanu were there. The leader of the Valerian army, Commander Claudio, knew of the Professor, his son, and their work.  Kanu witnessed soldiers forcing Ara, Eric, and the Professor to leave the barn.  On reaching the Town Hall, the Commander’s headquarters, Claudio demanded they continue to maintain the Minotanks in exchange for Ara’s safety.

Most of the village inhabitants fled into the mountains; the small number remaining were coerced into serving Valerians. The bulls were forced to toil long hours, and were no longer allowed to roam free. Soldiers took Kanu’s girlfriend, Tessie, to the village center in readiness to be killed for a celebration feast.

Kanu was enraged. He lead the bulls to save Ara, Tessie, and reclaim Stonteen. He charged into town in his Minotank, the first of a legion of Minotanks.