Under the Knife

My Camaro is in surgery.  For those that don't know me, I'm extremely anal picky about who works on my car(s).  But I'm not saying who's doing the work.  It's classified.  If I told you, I'd have to kill you.  Ever since I installed my headers, my A/C hasn't worked because of a punctured line.  That happened back in 2002.  That was one of those - oh c'mon just one more shove to the pipe in there and BAM!  PSSSSSSSS!  Oops.  There goes all my freon.  Literally gassed myself out of the garage.  That wasn't any fun.  Good thing my wife wasn't in there at the time.  Pretty sure I would've heard it about that one.  That stuff doesn't smell good.  But all that comes to an end soon, while my mechanic works to restore the line and freon to working order.  It'll be nice on the few hot days we have left for the year.  Hopefully, I'll get her back tonight in time for me to enjoy this gorgeous weather.  

New Video Posted on Youtube

It's only taken me nearly two years to complete another tutorial video for all my friends on Youtube.  That's not bad right?  You guys screamed for another Illustrator inking video, so I obliged, this time using Illustrator CS4.  This is the fourth video I've done, and being under the scrutiny of a screen recorder is still uncomfortable.  I used a new drawing as well.  My buddy Matt Martin drew this for me to ink, so with his permission, I figured this would be a great opportunity for a new tutorial video.  The drawing is great rendering of a character he created in high school called Vortex.  Special thanks to him for that.  The pleasure is mine, really.  I respect him greatly as an artist, so being that he allows me to ink his drawings is a real treat. 

One of the reasons it's taken me so long was that I was trying to figure out a new way to present an old method.  Well, I shouldn't call it old, but this method of digital inking has been around for awhile.  So, I figured I would just use the same method with an updated version of Illustrator.  I'll admit, I used to really dislike using Illustrator.  But my job has forced me to learn it, and now that I'm used to how it works, I like it.  It's great for this kind of a process.  

A few people have asked if this is possible in Photoshop.  And the answer is yes, partly.  Photoshop is a completely different program than Illustrator.  With PS, you're constrained by pixels and resolution.  Or, as we call it in the business, PPI.  (Pixels Per Inch.)  Not to be confused with DPI.  (Dots Per Inch.)  They work together, but they are not the same thing.  Illustrator is basically a vector program.  It's not limited by pixels.  I may explain in more detail in another post.  But, if this video is as successful as its predecessor on Youtube, I'll consider doing one in Photoshop.  I know a lot of people would like that, because Illustrator doesn't seem to be as common to users as PS.  

My original inking tutorial has almost 80,000 views as grows every day.  Thank you to all of you who viewed it and asked questions.  And I hope you enjoy this new one that I posted today.