Category: Drawing

One of the reasons I’ve spent so much time working with Concepts this month is because I’ve been looking for a replacement app for Adobe Ideas. Adobe replaced Adobe Ideas with Adobe Illustrator Draw, which is very nice for drawing with, but…

I cannot export my work in any useable format.

Adobe Ideas allowed users to export their drawings as a vector PDF, which could then be opened in Illustrator or almost any other desktop vector program. Adobe Illustrator Draw will only allow users to export drawings as low resolution PNGs. Unless you own a copy of Adobe Illustrator CC on your desktop. Then you can send Adobe Illustrator Draw images to CC and work on them there. Of course, that’s assuming you have a copy of Adobe CC. Which I don’t.

The end result is that I have some drawings that were half-finished when Adobe made the switch from Ideas to Illustrator Draw. I wasn’t worried initially about it, because Adobe said they would be adding the SVG or PDF export eventually. Well, it’s been about a year since Adobe switched things over, and still no SVG/PDF export. So I am now exporting LOW RESOLUTION PNGS of my half-finished drawings in Adobe Illustrator Draw so I can re-start them (and FINISH them) in Concepts.

And I have to say, the results are pretty good.

 

 
For this image, I was able to go back to the original sketch, done in Sketchbook Pro by Autodesk, and start from the beginning again with the inking and colors. And how does it compare with Adobe Illustrator Draw? Well, here’s the unfinished drawing from that app.

 

 
I actually think the inking looks better in the Concepts app. There’s more line variation, and I have more control over each individual line. Plus Concepts has a text tool, which is a nice thing to have!

I got back some images of the busted robot coloring page I did earlier this month. I should be posting those tomorrow. For now, I’m going to watch Doctor Who and relax for the rest of the evening.

 

 
I love desaturated greens and pinks, and these seem like the perfect colors for this drawing. Now that I’ve laid down the flat colors, I’m going to add some details – cross hatching, highlights, shading, more hints of those pretty pinks, greys and greens. Time to have fun!

 

 
I’ve just finished my fourth day in a row of volunteering for Girl Scouts. I think I’d be willing right now to drink some of that wine.

No comments today. Too busy, too tired. Just pics of today’s drawings.

 

 
I had not intended to add this much detail to her hair, but things kind of got away from me. I expect it will take me the rest of this month to finish the hair and maybe add some details to the dress. I have no idea what I’m doing with the dress yet, but I’ll figure it out!

Meanwhile, I’ve exported the Pirate Queen as an SVG file so I can open it up and tweak it in Corel Draw. And while I do that in the background, I’ve started sketching out something new…

 

 
This is something inspired by a tweet that came up in a conversation about Lovecraft. I’ve been reading an anthology of Lovecraft at bedtime, and I made a comment about how I find Lovecraft to be the perfect bedtime read because his stories are both creepy and soothing at the same time, and a friend of mine mentioned that would be the perfect description of a very evil bottle of wine. So that’s what I’m drawing, an evil Lovecraftian bottle of wine. Enjoy!

 

 
I think there’s one or two last details I still want to add, but I don’t know how much more my iPad can take. Concepts is still performing pretty well, but this drawing is definitely slowing it down.

 

 
So the above robot is based on a doodle I did a few years ago. I love drawing robots, especially rusty, broken ones. With this guy, I included some of the highlights and shading, but you can add your ownif you like.

Anyway, once I got this guy done, I did more work on the pirate queen.

 

 
I love how this is turning out, especially since Concepts has done yet another update, and now I finally know how to set up custom colors. I still have a lot more work to do on this one, but when it’s done, I think I’ll upload it to Society 6 as a print and maybe as a throw pillow or mug or something else.

Anyway, I hope you like both pictures, and let me know if you color the robot!