ratcreature: fanart, Junkie!Roy

Rat Creature (

ratcreature) wrote,
@ 2008-04-24 23:55:00

Current mood:	accomplished
Entry tags:	fanart, fanart: dc, fanart: green arrow, fanart: roy harper, green arrow

fanart, Junkie!Roy
Fandom: DCU (Green Arrow)
Characters/Pairings: Roy Harper (back when he was Speedy)
Media used: Wacom tablet in GIMP
Rating/warnings: PG, I guess, for drug use
Notes/comments: This took me a really long time, and I don't just mean that I first had the idea for this in 2006. I have no idea what I am doing wrong that digital coloring takes me so long, isn't it supposed to be efficient? I suppose it's one of the pitfalls of being self-taught. Anyway, it's Roy during the famous heroin addict story line. As always, feedback is very welcome.
Preview: preview of Junkie!Roy

And two details showing parts of the image in the original size/resolution. (I drew it at 3100x2540px.)

detail in the original resolution

(Post a new comment)

	girlwithoutfear 2008-04-24 10:14 pm UTC (link)
	Really nice job! I haven't gotten very proficient with the Wacom yet. Must. Practice. More. Time for you to do another DD fan art. Hint, hint. (Reply to this)(Thread)

ratcreature
2008-04-24 10:25 pm UTC (link)

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. Unfortunately I don't have a really nice Wacom, like an Intuos, but merely a cheap one. On the bright side it's not that awful that my rats chewed threw the cable messing it up (I fixed it with copious amount of tape holding the cable strands together, but it's never been quite the same.)

And I'm afraid my next fanart will be SGA because I was foolish enough to sign up for a fanart challenge. (*due in a little over a week. meeep!*) But I really like Matt, so there might be more DD fanart eventually, I'm just really slow when it comes to realizing fanart ideas.

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	rubynye 2008-04-24 11:29 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, Roy. That's a picture full of pain. applauds you, smudging a tear away (Reply to this)(Thread)

	ratcreature 2008-04-24 11:48 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you! And yeah, it's a bit bleak, but we all know he got through his addiction at least. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	petronelle 2008-04-24 11:30 pm UTC (link)
	This is beautifully drawn and the subject matter makes me hide my eyes too much to elucidate more than that. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	ratcreature 2008-04-24 11:50 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you! I'm glad you liked it even though it's on the angsty side. (Reply to this)(Parent)

ilyena_sylph
2008-04-24 11:44 pm UTC (link)

This is absolutely fabulous.

It makes my internal Roy want to curl up in a ball, and my internal Dick very very upset, and I am captivated by the detail of the FEATHERS. And the Bow. (and glad I piped up on canonistas).

And I am so damn impressed by your art.

You have a Wacom? I keep being told I should get one. Which one do you have? the bamboo? does it--*shuts up and goes back to being so damn impressed by the detail of the art*

(Reply to this)(Thread)

ratcreature
2008-04-25 12:34 am UTC (link)

Yay, I'm glad you like it (and for your info too, it helped find example pictures of the right kind of bow).

I have a Wacom Volito, which was the precursor to the Bamboo, i.e. the cheapest Wacom a while back. It is not an ideal tablet for drawing, as it is not really meant for "serious" graphic work, not just because of the small size, which isn't that problematic, but also that it doesn't have tilt support for example, and not as good a resolution or pressure sensitivity as the more expensive models. But when I got it, I had never drawn with a tablet before, and didn't even know whether I'd like it, and I wasn't about to spend hundreds of euro on something that I might not even use, and I couldn't easily spare the money anyway. Even a small Intuous would have been much more expensive, and non-Wacom tablets are much less supported under Linux, so trying another manufacturer wasn't a good option (also pretty much everybody seems to agree that non-Wacom tablets are just crappier, but I think that is more relevant the more "high end" you get). I'd like to get a better one, but can't afford it right now.

It is still much better than drawing or even just coloring with a mouse, and it's not like I need it professionally. If you haven't tried drawing on a tablet before I think going with a cheap Wacom is an okay choice for just trying out the basic technique, because tablet drawing is really quite different from working on paper (much easier than wrangling any kind of graphic work with a mouse though). But even if you don't like it that much in the end, a basic tablet is more comfortable for your hands for all kinds of graphics stuff, things like cropping and resizing photos for example, so you won't have wasted money either way, because a simple tablet is worth it for just those things even if an expensive one would be complete overkill if you just want more precise control to crop the ex out of all holiday pictures or whatever.

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	ilyena_sylph 2008-04-25 12:39 am UTC (link)
	Oh, you're so welcome. When I saw it was you posting, I immediately started praying for art. And wow, did we ever get it. That's still just awesome. Thank you so much for the advice! grins I am giving it serious serious thought. Because I have such a hard time with my mouse doing any kind of graphic work, and my scanner hates the work I do on actual paper. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

ratcreature
2008-04-25 01:02 am UTC (link)

Even a tablet that is not fancy and lacking the advanced features will give you much better control than a mouse. I find it still hard to draw directly freehand with my tablet without doing anything on paper before, I think that would need much more practice to become proficient, but the learning curve for using it to ink/color/rework a rough pencil sketch is not that steep. I think the difference (at least for me) is that when reworking something, even if it has lot of flaws, you have some guideline already on screen to orient your movements on, to deal with the disconnect of moving your hand on the tablet, but have the result on screen. I find doing things digitally is especially useful if my pencil sketch has problems, like for example with this picture Roy's arm was somewhat in the wrong place and the head wasn't right, and stuff just didn't work in my pencil sketch attempts at all, so I scanned one and rearranged parts until it looked somewhat right in broad terms and then drew the details over it in another layer, fixing things, and then rearranging again.

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	blackrosebard 2008-04-25 02:33 am UTC (link)
	Oh that is just gorgeous. And...pain. Through and through. My Dinah is wanting to curl around her Roy and NOT LET GO! (Reply to this)(Thread)

	ratcreature 2008-04-25 06:00 am UTC (link)
	Thank you!, I'm glad you like it. And yeah, he definitely deserves hugs. (Reply to this)(Parent)

glockgal
2008-04-25 02:36 am UTC (link)

OH SPEEDY. OMG I love that you drew a scene like this and I love the angle and pose and entire composition. It's like the viewpoint of someone crouching down to survey and pity him and that's just so perfect. Looooove the detailing of his perfect shoes and the lovely gungyness of the wall and just. His flopped over self, it's all a tableau of tragedy. HIS QUIVER AND BOW. WAH. *CLINGS*

The perspective of his face is a little odd and I had a bit of trouble discerning what was what (I thought his mouth was his nostrils at first lol), but I'm sure you've already acknowledged this and it totally doesn't detract from the overall scene.

And yay use of a Wacom!! Digital colouring gets faster with practice, ahaha. I was totally like 'wtf is faster about this' as well when I started using mine!

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ratcreature
2008-04-25 06:17 am UTC (link)

Thank you, I'm glad you like it, and that the tragedy comes across. I wanted to show him as he hits his the lowest point.

As for his face, I'm not sure, I had some trouble with it, and tried just making it vaguely okay to me and then stopped. I think the oddness you notice may be that I might not have gotten the foreshortening of the head to really match with the rest of the body. I mean, there is quite a bit of foreshortening from that perspective, so the lower half of his face/head should be larger in absolute terms to look right, but I'm not sure I did enough of that, but may have balked out in favor of drawing facial expression more like I know without noticing.

And yeah, practice... I'm such a lazy sloth though. *g*

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swordandfaith
2008-04-25 05:13 am UTC (link)

Oh. Oh, wow. You did a really wonderful job of making him look pathetic/pained/hopeless. A lot of times I notice that when people draw things about this kind of subject matter they tend to make it. . . well, glamourous, I guess, and not ugly like it should be (NOT THAT I'M CALLING YOUR WORK UGLY. MERELY THE SUBJECT MATTER IS A PRETTY UGLY/GRIM TOPIC).

It's very well drawn too, and I like the setting/angle you drew this at. So this is really good from both a technical and emotional point.

So, yeah. Good stuff, good stuff.

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ratcreature
2008-04-25 07:08 am UTC (link)

Yay, I'm glad that the despair and hopelessness comes across, because I wanted to show Roy as he hit rock bottom.

And I know what you mean with the atmosphere of depicting drug use. I think it is because drugs also have an air of glamor, glorified decadence, and creative mind altering effects alongside with the squalor, sickness and crime elements, also the rejection of bourgeois mainstream values is implied, which can be positive or negative depending on your perspective. It's the same, whether you have some 19th century artist going on about absinthe, or some 1960s hippie about pot or LSD.

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	glitterandlube 2008-04-25 06:45 pm UTC (link)
	This is excellent work! The detailing is amazing. wow. I can't tell you how awful I am at digital coloring, and the tutorials I've looked over so far have not helped in the slightest. (Reply to this)(Thread)

ratcreature
2008-04-25 07:07 pm UTC (link)

Thanks! I'm glad you like it.

I love the undo button that comes with doing things digitally, but the intricacies of digital painting totally elude me. I mean, I see the people who can make digital coloring look like a photo, and those you can make it look like amazing paintings, and I looked at tutorials, and even at tutorial videos that people made while painting digitally, but I still can't make either work at all. I'm more or less stuck with filling in a base color, and then add a darker area for shadows in a layer above that, and another layer with a few simple highlights, and that works okay with my generally somewhat comic-like style, but in reality it is not so much a style "choice" on my part, but my technical limitations. I sometimes feel like I'm doing the coloring book version of digital coloring.

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glitterandlube
2008-04-25 08:10 pm UTC (link)

I recc'd it in my journal because it occurred to me I never do that for fanart, and I like your stuff.

I spend a lot of time watching speed art like Nico Di Mattia does on youtube, but mostly it's just an awe thing. I was practicing on uncolored fanart that is basically meant as coloring books and sucking at that. I think part of my problem is I can't draw.

What program are you using?

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ratcreature
2008-04-25 08:25 pm UTC (link)

Thanks for reccing me.

I use GIMP, which is open source, and thus free. In general I can't afford to pay for software, so I've been pretty much an exclusive Linux user for the last decade or so. From what I understand GIMP is similar to Photoshop (which I have never used), at least I can follow a large number of Photoshop tutorials for graphics stuff, though some of the more arcane functions (some filters and such) are missing or in slightly different places.

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