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Drawing Your Own Blog Illustrations
Posted by ThriftShopRomantic • 9 days ago • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: cartooning, doodling, drawing, illustration, process, programs
I had entirely too much fun pulling together some cheesy comic book style illustrations for recent superhero spoof post--
You can check out "The Injustice League Fights Anti-UnInjusticeness and Stuff" here:
www.cabbagesnkings.net/2009/11/injustice-league-fights-anti.html
And I wondered how many other folks drew their own illustrations and what process and programs do you use?
Because I'm cheap and I don't actually have Photoshop, mine are done by screencapturing scenes I create through Microsoft Word. (I know it sounds nuts, but it actually creates a sort of interesting, distinctive style. Not high-end, but workable.)
Or do you have a favorite source for your blog images?
User Comments
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Who would waste their time doing that!-
Oh, I know-- totally not your style, right? You're WAY too serious for that sort of silliness, aren't you, Claire?
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Haha!
Do you seriously just use Microsoft word? I know you have mentioned it before, but I just gave it a wee whirl and it is hard! The amount of effort you put into yours is awesome.
I use pen,pencils, sharpies (love the smell), charcoal pastels etc
Then I scan the images, using my cheap A4 sized scanner.
Then I edit them using Picnik www.picnik.com/
Picnik is great for enhancing colours, weird photo effects and adding font, speech bubbles, frames etc.
Or I use microsoft paint, then edit in picnik.
I may invest in a graphic tablet in the future, but for the moment I am stuck with above methods.
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Yup, I do use MSWord, I make things out of shapes and gradations. Some of it I free-hand with the mouse, when there isn't a shape I think works for the look I want.
Re-seeing your rabbit down there, I wanted to mention to you, I think your doodles are getting more effective all the time. I like some of the stylistic effects you've added to them.
I do think you should really consider doing that small doodle book you were waffling about before. -
I have now downloaded Gimp, had done previously but found it too fiddly. MSword is quite fun once you get the hang of it, much better colour options than Mpaint.
Mucho thanks for the compliment It has been fun messing around with the world of doodles and effects. Not sure I have the discipline to actually do a doodle book, my mind wanders all over the place lol. -
I've actually though about this, also. I picture a lot of my semi-fictional stories as graphic novels. I don't think I have a scanner that is high enough quality, though. Very cool idea. -
PinkMonkeyChatter- Oh, you should give it a try with one of your stories to see how it would work out!
Never know unless you give it a shot. -
Oh give it whirl pink monkey!
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You really just use MS Words! I would have never guessed that! I think it's really cool ^_^!!
And Claire, thanks for the website! Oh you should definitely make a doodle book! I would like to have one ^_^!
I use pen, pencils, markers, watercolors (Talens & Winsor&Newton)etc. I also use specific watercolor paper. I currently use Fabriano and it has a nice texture.
I also have a4 scanner, it makes strange noises haha. It was cheap, so I guess I get a talking scanner for that.
I did invested in a Wacom drawing tablet, Bamboo Fun. Really cool. You have to get used to drawing like that, but with practice you get far!
But the doodles on my blog are usually cleaned up in Photoshop. I can't do more with Photoshop yet, hopefully in the future I will learn that haha.-
Windsor and Newton makes some good paints. I've used them before in both acrylics and gouache. And regarding the talkative scanner, it's amazing though how a cheap scanner can still do a great job.
I've always enjoyed your illustrations. There's a sort of... joy... to your work. It has an innately cheerful tone.
I would love a drawing tablet someday. Right now my garage needs a new roof, though, so it might be a while! -
Thank you !!
Yes you can have a whole conversation with it ^_^! And the quality is really good, can't say that about the printing though. But I only use it for scanning anyway.
Hmm I think you're right. A new roof is important! The tablet I got was one of the cheaper versions, around 190 euro and I got a discount. You do have tablets with LCD screens, the price goes up to 1000 euro...that is a bit out of my budget...
Wacom is one of the leading brands when it comes to drawing tablets. Before I got mine, I had another one, but the way the pen moved over the board...was really odd and it felt like there was a magnetic field over it. very strange. I returned it and got a Wacom instead. -
Seeing your water colours TJ, certainly makes me want to paint, I am awful at it. I may as well paint with the brush up my nose.
Totally agree with thrifty, your illustrations are pure happiness. Have you ever done anything grumpy/evil? -
Thanks Claire !!
Hey! If you stuff the brush up your nose...maybe you can start a new method of painting ^_^. I just started using watercolors one day, because I think I'm terrible with color pencils. If you ever feel like using watercolors again, go for it! I'm still not that good in it, but it is all about practicing I guess.
I tried to make an 'evil DB' and an 'evil clown', so far people still think it's cute. But I shall post a few 'darker' drawings in the future. I think it's all about expression and also a few changes in my drawing techniques haha. -
I am sure there is probably some nose art already out there lol
I might see if there is a painting class I can go to, maybe that will help.
Ohh the darker side of TJ.... look forward to it. -
Elephants use their paint brushes with their trunks. That's a very long nose. .
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I am amazed that you were able to create those illustrations in Word. Someone once described drawing with a mouse the same as drawing with a brick. I agree. From your style I think you would love adobe's Illustrator software which is much cheaper than photoshop. You could also look into the free versions of illustrator and photoshop, the names of which escape me at the moment. They're obviously not as good as adobe, but I imagine they're a lot more sophisticated than Word.
Because of my current set-up I can't use a tablet and have very much missed freehand drawing. When you're ready to buy a tablet, check out Wacom line.-
Aah true! Illustrator is also very good!
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Oh, I got to use Illustrator a couple of times in college, but not for years. I imagine it's even better now.
Yes, drawing with a mouse is a bit like drawing with a brick or a bar of soap. It's doable-- I've been doing it for years so have built a camaraderie with it, but sometimes it's frustrating.
Thanks for the recommendation on the tablet!
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The Gimp is a great graphics program. I use it for everything. It is free.
www.gimp.org/
All my logos and most layouts were designed by me on Gimp. Haven't tried the comic thing though-
Hey, thanks for sharing it. I'm always glad to have some new possible (and, y'know, free!) resources like that to check out.
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There's another one that is free, similar to Freehand or Illustrator.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkscape
I haven't used it so I can't vouch for it, but it's there so try it out. -
Based on the description, this looks extremely promising.
I'm thinking over the weekend I'm going to need to do some downloading and experimental doodling.
Many thanks! -
Gimp works great and is easy to use, it's very close to MsWord. Inkscape has a bigger learning curve, it's a vector graphics program so everything is done using paths.
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I'm a huge fan of Photoshop, especially CS3, Jasc Paint Shop Pro works for me too.-
The Paint Shop Pro is new to me, so I'll going to go check out the info on it via The Google.
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That looks like its straight out of a comic book and all you use was Micrsoft Word. Your drawings are very talented.-
Oh, thanks much!
I used to do a regular comic strip during college in the school paper-- the old fashioned way, with pen and ink and a ruler!-- so every now and then I still get the need to post something like this.
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Have you looked at Gimp?
I am in awe of your magical talents. Some day I hope to discover that I have one laying around somewhere. Sometimes I imagine discovering talent in my pants pocket when doing laundry, like a crumpled, forgotten $20 bill.
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FlamingPoodle (a few posters above) included Gimp, which I'm going to check out. I appreciate the recommendations.
And I thought your magical talent was blogging and distilling information. Having more magical talents than that just seems greedy. -
You may have a point.
I have Gimp and I like it, though I can't do anything with it that rivals what you can do in word, it would be interesting to see what you can make of it. -
Heh, I never imagined when I started this thread there would be so many intriguing (and free-- free is good) software programs that do this kind of stuff.
I never really looked, figuring I did okay with Word, but now I'm feeling sort of inspired.
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I use Paintshop Pro 5 for my graphics. I have been drawing with a mouse for years. Bought a pen pad but never got around to using it. I imagine I should. My last posts were digitized from some old photo slides - stuff I did back in the 80s. Tons of stuff I need to scan in a preserve. Any suggestions on price-wise scanners to use?-
Ah, another mouse-drawer-- woo-hoo!
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I bought a £35 scanner a few years ago and although it is a wee bit temperamental, it does do the job. If you have lots of stuff to scan, you may want a more expensive/reliable scanner, as my cheap one decides to crash after scanning three things.
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WOW Jen! I can't believe you that on word!
I have only done scientific doodles, jejeje. All in powerpoint. I guess it's almost as using word, just a tiny bit less complicated.-
Yup, Powerpoint and Word use a lot of the same technology. Although I have no knack for putting data in those Powerpoint graphs...
I always end up with some chart that, instead of showcasing what I want, talks about HALF of what I want and then some crazy default creppe.
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I think its cool! I Use anything I get my self into at the moment no matter how much time it takes. Personally, the longer I spend producing something, is the more I enjoy it in the end! Presently i use Photoshop tho lol! You got talent-
I imagine it's got to be nice to look back at your artwork, know how much effort you put into it, and say "Yes, those were the results I wanted."
I can't always translate what I have in my head to paper. I'm okay with the electronic cartooning-- my PAINTING is tragic. It never looks like how I imagine it.
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I am not at all competent in the area of computer illustration. That is beaucoup impressive.
Have you ever used inkscape? I only know it's open source and used a lot but other than that I know nothing about it.-
Hey, Cooper-- Cute new avatar-- took me a second to recognize your cartoon self!
Re: Inkscape-- thanks, yes, Poodle above mentioned it and it looks really like it's got some exciting tools with it.
Things I could get into a lot of happy trouble with!
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Sounds very technical. I stick to old fashioned oil paint on canvas, then take a photo of it -
Sounds very technical. I stick to old fashioned oil paint on canvas, then take a photo of it
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Hey, whatever works for ya is good.
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Thrift, those were great illustrations! If you name your imagery well, it will get noticed on the search engines. I googled the image ‘joker card’ and to my surprise a pencil drawing of mine came up. Artwork takes more time then writing, but it can have a big impact. I am a big believer that blogs need to be both pictures and words.-
Thank you, Dave! And yes, a lot of good traffic can come from GoogleImages if you think about how you name things.
I definitely recommend folks who have images on their sites to really think about how someone might search for that image-- and use those keywords in the photo name.
If you're in Blogger, you have to click an item in your preferences that says you'll allow your images to be indexed as well as your pages. But it's really worth doing. -
Jenn where is that preference for image indexing?
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Ack!- in looking at Blogger, I realize it's in the Google Webmaster tools instead-- my apologies for being a confused dufus.
When I log on there later, I'll refind the exact dashboard in it. -
Great! I want the hours of my life back, that I wasted looking for it!
(okay the 2 minutes)
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Bill them to the Underhills account.
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Fletch! ha
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Since I can not draw even a good stick figure I am stuck with photos for my blog.-
But taking the right photos to go with a post isn't really easy either sometimes.
Especially when you're trying to keep up with a bunch of running little piglets. Nature doesn't always cooperate. -
caught them being still for a change. They look dead but they were laying in the sun getting a tan. Notice the smiles on them. -
I like how they're all facing the same direction, sorta like some very muddy pink bathing beauties.
"Can somebody pass the Coppertone?... Or raisin sauce?" -
When it is cold they stack up like fire wood. I will try to catch them doing this soon
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Maybe they should be pigs in a blanket?
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Very nice.
Youse gots some talent girlie - me likeeee-
Me thankee.
Sorry, trying to follow your lead there. -
I lead very well... If you don't mind. LOL!
The ex used to get mad cause he would be trying to lead and well, I would take over. *GRIN* -
Heh- My best friend does that-- even if she doesn't have directions for where she's going. It cracks me up.
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excellent thrift! puts my poor excuse for cartooning to shame really. i use paint (as if i need to tell anyone). anyway, i too did one on a superhero. his name is caption man and he is a little known "d list" superhero.
cranelegspond.blogspot.com/2009/02/830-super-hero-d-list-caption-man.html-
Well, they can't ALL be A-listers, now, can they?
You know, CaptionMan must tear out his hair over the LOLCats.
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My blog posts are usually long (that's what she said), so I usually break them up with photos that I monkey with using Microsoft Paint.
I'm highly technical like that.
Mental Poo:
www.midgetmanofsteel.com-
Some of your photos on there make me want to bleach my eyes. So, um, since that's kinda your goal-- well done!
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One more vote for Inkscape. It's just fantastic.-
Have you tried GIMP as well?
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Of course. I've been using it for years. Highly recommend it.
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Cheers, Friday. Your vote has been noted!
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If you had to download just one, which one would it be?
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Well, they both serve different purposes to me. I use GIMP for photo editing and Inkscape for banners and simple drawings (and its results are fully scalable, being vector and all).
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Yes. But you waste your time doing this. BTW Nice -
So what if it wastes time?
You like to waste time making pointless comments, which is more fun? -
@Patco-- I don't believe anything that gives me joy, while simultaneously creating a post people got a smile or a laugh from, can really be such a bad thing.
Blogging itself is a big time-suck, but I'll never regret doing it. I've gotten a lot out of it, all of it more than the time I've put into it.
Plus, creating your own illustrations means that you never have copyright infringement issues. And you can repurpose them any way you like when they're your own.
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Rather cool list of online drawing tools
www.allgraphicdesign.com/graphicsblog/2008/05/online-drawing-tools-free-onl...-
Oh cool! Thanks Claire
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I would recommend this software to anyone, it's very good. This is the download link for the free version.
www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Graphic/Graphic-Editors/ArtRage.shtml-
Thanks for chiming in, Sir Aaardvark. I must say, I find myself somewhat relieved to discover it's not a "how to draw the nude aardvark in 10 easy steps tutorial" or something.
We know how you are -
It's actually 11 steps if you want the anatomical correct Aardvark.
-Mike -
No one wants the anatomically-correct aardvark...
(Except, presumably, other aardvarks.)
Yet somehow, we get it all the same.
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If I have a notion I doodle (rarely) The one looks like a messed up VoodoKobra. -
I was going for a cross between Robin (of "Batman And" fame) and Jack Sparrow. But you may have a point.
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crpitt, thanks for the links. I took a quick peek and am drooling with anticipation to try some BUT must focus and say no to time sucks today :-0-
Do it!
Or at least do it when you have time and then report back here lol
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