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Description
So here's my first commission for the year. A gift exchange between two friends, and they decided to commission me. I was pleasantly surprised, then humbled.

It will also probably be the last time I use this style for line art. This method involves turning on both opacity by pressure and line thickness by pressure. While the latter is something most artists including me would want, the former just puts a lot of unnecessary strain on my hands. Which is a shame, as in the past I was able to achieve wonderful looking lines which my peers admired. I feel it sort of emulates the look of ball point pens on paper, without the grainy paper texture. But if this method of creating lines was so good, why did I stop using it?

Mynare, another artist whose work I greatly admire, once posted that turning off opacity by pressure was the key to saving his hands from RSI. I first scoffed at the idea; after all I've been drawing for two whole years with pen opacity by pressure turned on. I did decide to give it a try, and I was surprised by the results. Instead of ballpoint pens, my lines now remind me of felt tip markers and indian ink with brush. After some few test sketches and doodles, I started receiving anonymous messages on tumblr, complimenting my lines. It was also a whole lot easier on my wrist not having to press down too hard to leave a good mark on the canvas.

As I was starting to get used to this new inking method, I received a call from one of my most important clients involving work that required me to be away for some period of time. I work as a photographer/videographer, and my work required me to be on the field (this is why I envy other creatives and freelance workers that only require a laptop and an internet connection). Not drawing for a single day causes you to go back to square one in terms of artistic ability; just ask any artist. Imagine not drawing for weeks, or months. Which is exactly what happened to me. I started to stagnate and ignore drawing, simply watching anime and playing video games all day.

Bit by bit I started making small sketches and illustrations, but no real "finished" pieces. Soon, I received emails for commissions and accepted them reluctantly (which is kind of foolish, considering how much I loved how they turned out in the end) and began work. However, being rusty and all, I defaulted to my opacity by pressure brush and "forgot" that I was already using a different brush. I also revisited all my previous commissions and they were all done with the opacity by pressure brush, and it felt wrong to use a different brush for this commission. As a personal policy, I never experiment when drawing commissioned pieces. That's what personal pieces are there for.

While I did love how this piece turned out, it took me way too much time trying to figure out what the right settings were and I felt like tearing my hair out at various points. I swore I'd just use the other brush next time.

If you're still reading, I do sincerely apologize; you're reading the ramblings of an artist at 5 in the morning. There's no moral lesson to be had here, and if you found one, please tell me what it is. I'm terrible at learning from the mistakes of the pasts; I'm a very stubborn guy. If you do want your few minutes back then please direct your violent reactions towards JackTheMaverick who sort of talked me into writing longer blurbs lol. While I did enjoy writing as a student, I prefer to direct all that energy towards drawing nowadays. I was the kid who wrote 15 pages for a 10 page essay. I was trained in copy writing and news writing classes to capture the thought and the reader's attention in as few words as possible and it's that training that stuck with me to this day. Aside from that, I really hate talking about myself now for some reason unknown, which has led to me talking about inane shit like brushes and brush settings instead.

It's getting too meta and I don't have my thoughts gathered, really. I used to be very systematic at this. Although I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this even for a bit.

If you've gotten this far, I might as well let you know that I'll be doing a little something for summer comiket, and this has gotten me really really REALLY excited. As I type this down I feel the energy returning to my body. What it is, I'm not at liberty to say. But it does involve one of my favorite characters from a currently airing show. I can't wait to show you guys. This is in addition to some artbook projects I'll be guesting in, so stay tuned for that!

Description
So here's my first commission for the year. A gift exchange between two friends, and they decided to commission me. I was pleasantly surprised, then humbled.

It will also probably be the last time I use this style for line art. This method involves turning on both opacity by pressure and line thickness by pressure. While the latter is something most artists including me would want, the former just puts a lot of unnecessary strain on my hands. Which is a shame, as in the past I was able to achieve wonderful looking lines which my peers admired. I feel it sort of emulates the look of ball point pens on paper, without the grainy paper texture. But if this method of creating lines was so good, why did I stop using it?

Mynare, another artist whose work I greatly admire, once posted that turning off opacity by pressure was the key to saving his hands from RSI. I first scoffed at the idea; after all I've been drawing for two whole years with pen opacity by pressure turned on. I did decide to give it a try, and I was surprised by the results. Instead of ballpoint pens, my lines now remind me of felt tip markers and indian ink with brush. After some few test sketches and doodles, I started receiving anonymous messages on tumblr, complimenting my lines. It was also a whole lot easier on my wrist not having to press down too hard to leave a good mark on the canvas.

As I was starting to get used to this new inking method, I received a call from one of my most important clients involving work that required me to be away for some period of time. I work as a photographer/videographer, and my work required me to be on the field (this is why I envy other creatives and freelance workers that only require a laptop and an internet connection). Not drawing for a single day causes you to go back to square one in terms of artistic ability; just ask any artist. Imagine not drawing for weeks, or months. Which is exactly what happened to me. I started to stagnate and ignore drawing, simply watching anime and playing video games all day.

Bit by bit I started making small sketches and illustrations, but no real "finished" pieces. Soon, I received emails for commissions and accepted them reluctantly (which is kind of foolish, considering how much I loved how they turned out in the end) and began work. However, being rusty and all, I defaulted to my opacity by pressure brush and "forgot" that I was already using a different brush. I also revisited all my previous commissions and they were all done with the opacity by pressure brush, and it felt wrong to use a different brush for this commission. As a personal policy, I never experiment when drawing commissioned pieces. That's what personal pieces are there for.

While I did love how this piece turned out, it took me way too much time trying to figure out what the right settings were and I felt like tearing my hair out at various points. I swore I'd just use the other brush next time.

If you're still reading, I do sincerely apologize; you're reading the ramblings of an artist at 5 in the morning. There's no moral lesson to be had here, and if you found one, please tell me what it is. I'm terrible at learning from the mistakes of the pasts; I'm a very stubborn guy. If you do want your few minutes back then please direct your violent reactions towards JackTheMaverick who sort of talked me into writing longer blurbs lol. While I did enjoy writing as a student, I prefer to direct all that energy towards drawing nowadays. I was the kid who wrote 15 pages for a 10 page essay. I was trained in copy writing and news writing classes to capture the thought and the reader's attention in as few words as possible and it's that training that stuck with me to this day. Aside from that, I really hate talking about myself now for some reason unknown, which has led to me talking about inane shit like brushes and brush settings instead.

It's getting too meta and I don't have my thoughts gathered, really. I used to be very systematic at this. Although I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy this even for a bit.

If you've gotten this far, I might as well let you know that I'll be doing a little something for summer comiket, and this has gotten me really really REALLY excited. As I type this down I feel the energy returning to my body. What it is, I'm not at liberty to say. But it does involve one of my favorite characters from a currently airing show. I can't wait to show you guys. This is in addition to some artbook projects I'll be guesting in, so stay tuned for that!