Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your outlook), I can’t find any of my drawings from back then, and I’ve been searching long and hard because I want to redraw something from back then and see just how much I’ve grown. But, until I find something, we’re stuck with random ramblings like this every week. –a few weeks ago
Guess what I found!
Example: we were told to paint a rock in my painting class, and I thought of breakfast.
The last few weeks I’ve been posting a lot of comics that document things that’ve actually happened, and it got me thinking: inspiration really can come from anywhere (even your bowel movements).
…Especially your bowel movements.
Back when we were all young-uns, we drew. It was what we did.
Then we grew up. Most people stopped drawing, but I didn’t. I liked it, and I saw no reason to stop. I was always able to count my friends on one hand, so I never really cared about being weird. I accepted that one early on.
So draw I did, and draw I do.
However, it hasn’t always been an easy road. “Live by the comics, die by the comics,” I believe the old adage goes.
You know what? Art is hard.
You know what makes it harder? Cats.
Seriously. I could have just spent two or three hours staring at a piece of paper, unable to create what I want to create. Finally, the muse hits, and a symphonic melody of pencil and paper emerges. Lines swirl all about in a hypnotic dance; shapes form delicately yet boldly; the work becomes art–MREOOOW!
Oh, great. He’s back.
Who knows, maybe next week they’ll fight to the death. –last week
Yep. It happened. The not long-awaited battle of the week-century: soft shading versus cel shading!
Just to recap previous posts, soft shading involves blending color softly (who’d a thunk it?), while cel shading is when you have solid chunks of color creating the illusion of depth. Before this death battle begins, let’s break each side down and see what’s going on.
Since cel shading took the spotlight last week, I figured it would be fitting to give soft shading a similar profile. Who knows, maybe next week they’ll fight to the death.
Anyway, now that I’ve got less than an hour to write this post because soft shading takes for-freaking-ever, let’s get this show on the road.
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[Click for full size.]
Then, after a long week of not doing much of anything, I drew stuff. Shocking for a cartoonist, huh? This week’s illustration, given the title of this post, was cel shaded. You can behold it’s purdiness (I’m from Georgia) to the right.
To be cel shaded is to appear both flat and three dimensional simultaneously. Oh wait, hang on. *turns off philosophical gibberish* Ah, that’s better. Now then, let’s define cel shading. At its simplest, it’s an artistic rendering style that creates shading with flat areas of color. If you want shading, a solid block of darker color goes over the base color. Cel shading invokes the ever-quoted “less is more.”
Ever played Wind Waker? That’s cel shaded.
