Traditional Dip Pen Art to Digital Art

title="Traditional Dip Pen Art to Digital Art"alt="Traditional Dip Pen Art to Digital Art photo"

I love my Dip Pens! Albeit some clients like them traditionally colored ( with markers ) or digitally colored. I have this one client that needs the drawings ( illustrations ) for box art, manual and cards. Thus I scan my Dip Pen drawing and color them in Photoshop. The Aliens piece here ( and the project for Labmasu ) are perfect examples of Traditional ART to Digital ART.



As I've blogged here, there are various advantages between traditional and digital art.

I do enjoy both. And my current process of drawing on paper, and coloring in Photoshop, makes me produce a traditional dip pen and Indian ink ART, and a Digitally enhanced version at the same time.



Much like anything else, ART is a process. You need to enjoy making ART from pencil to rendering. An artist is in his own world from penciling to Photoshop work. You cannot jump to details OR you cannot be effective in any part of the process, if you did not enjoy every step of the process. ART is unlike office work where the boss jumps at the end and critic your work without understanding the process. Enjoy it and it will reflect in your final piece.



I hope you find this post insightful at the very least. Thanks as always for dropping by! Until next post guys! CIAO!

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Dip Pen and Indian Ink Art

I have been drawing for commissions for a while now, but have recently shifted to using Dip Pen and Indian Inks / Acrylic Artist Inks. Much like any of my other projects, I decided to use Acrylicos Vallejo Inks for all my drawings.



Acrylic Artist Inks dries a bit faster than Indian Inks and I just love my Vallejos in general. I might try the Windsor and Newton Super Black Ink soon, but I am very happy with the flow and the quality of the Vallejo Acrylic Artist Ink ( black, sepia ) I have right now.



I think I found my tool and medium. I love drawing with my Dip Pens! Other than the "old world" charm of using dip pens for drawing, the inks are just so opaque and deep. It is waterproof and permanent and it should never fade in time, unlike other pens ( brush pens ). My ART should stand the test of time so to speak.



Much like any other craft, the challenge of mastering and using dip pens for drawings add to the fun of using them. I love the idea that I am one of only a few artists who uses this tool and medium. Plus, the diversity and the control of the width of the lines that you could produce with one nib, is just so unbelievable.



Looking forward to sharing with you a ton more commissioned and non-commissioned dip pen and indian ink ART soon! Thanks as always for dropping by! Until next update guys! CIAO!

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MORE BLOGGING Coming Soon!

So it has been almost a year since I last posted something here. It has been a very CRAZY year for me so far. Crazy up and down stuff. So much realization and so much appreciation for all the blessings. Don't want to get dragging with life lessons and such, for my first post, so just wanted to say I AM BACK!



Will be posting a ton of stuff from now on. I just got meself a nice 27 inch iMAC for all the stuff I have to do at home. I will be posting all my projects here in my blog for documentation. I will post some miniature painting stuffs, illustrations, drawings and other ART and CRAZY stuff! This little space will be so active again.



Will never post about my day job tho. Posts will be mostly focused on my hobby and various commissioned works. I might also get back to painting Gunpla, mainly to test some cool acrylics paints for Acrylicos Vallejo.



Anyways, hope to share a lot the next few from now on! See you more guys! 

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NEW Acrylicos Vallejo Metal Colors and Angel Giraldez paint sets

My pinturas has arrived! Just got my NEW Acrylicos Vallejo Metal Colors and Angel Giraldez paint sets to test this coming weekend! My day job has been killing me for the past month, I have been sleeping over the office for almost 3 weeks now and I only go home every Sundays. Weekend-less and workload these days means very little time to paint and do my commissioned works. Very little time to test and play with my new pinturas!



However, I should be able to take a leave of absence this Friday and have a 3 day weekend. That means 2 days of painting and a whole day for the family ( Sunday )! I have been sleeping over here at the office since Monday but I just got my new pinturas yesterday. My pinturas almost made me go home yesterday, but figured to finish everything before finally coming home this Friday.



Anyways, I just got the new Acrylicos Vallejo METAL Colors! These new metal color set is not yet  at the Acrylicos Vallejo website, but should be available to retail stores around late August or September. I also got a few other auxiliary products which should make using the paints even more fun and easy. I got the Vallejo Airbrush Thinner, Cleaner and Flow Improver. The Flow Improver is practically a retarder of sorts that improves airbrush use of heavy pigmented colors.



The oddest product I got is the Metal Varnish. I think it is a gloss varnish with micro glitters to enhance the shimmering effect of metallic paints. The Metal Varnish should add more bling bling to your metal finish which makes the Metal Colors and Metal Varnish perfect for bling bling Gunpla projects. I hope to test these new sets on spoons and quick Gunpla projects soon!



I also got 3 new paint sets that was developed in partnership with Angel Giraldez. The Game Air Face Painting set, The Special Effects set and the Non Death Chaos paint set. These beautiful specially formulated and mixed colors also come with step by step instruction guides on how to use. I will post a different photo review on each set as soon as I get home.



Please stay tuned as I test all these stuffs on my projects in the coming weeks. Should come up with new finished projects soon as I should no longer be busy at work. Thanks as always for dropping by as always! Until next post guys! Just enjoy the hobby!

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Custom Ravagore 3 inch Blighted Blast Templates

As usual, I have shared photos of these 3 inch Blighted Blast templates at Facebook and Instagram ( don_suratos ) already. I like archiving my stuff here at my blog better though as finsing old posts are much easier than at Facebook. Plus I talk a bit more here. lol



This post is basically my usual " Weekend Dump " posts except I think that the templates makes for a more interesting post.



I did some quick cookie / burger looking templates the night before painting as it was made of wood glue and sand over a thin .5mm plastic sheet. I let the wood glue and sand cure overnight and painted over a nice coat of Vallejo Brown Earth texture paint. I then let the texture paint dry to touch under the heat of the sun for 2 hours before painting.



I was too lazy to bring out and set up my airbrush for this project and my son was bugging me to paint it quick so that he could play with these templates. These templates are basically my son's, as he has a Lylyth2 50pt army that he fields against my Cryx. My 8 year old son also loves fielding our Khador army ( but until he gets a Conquest or Victor ), he likes playing his Lylyth2 against my Cryx more often ( I hate eyeless sight ).



Obviously playing with an 8 year old that is very imaginative during battles makes me want to do more of these kinds of stuff. I want my son to continue to enjoy the game as I get an excuse ( from wife ) to get more army faster than usual. Our weekend visits to the miniature store ends up with either a faction book, a couple of solos, or even a unit sometimes ( with the approval of the mom ). So making templates that would make my son enjoy the game more ( win or lose ) is definitely a win win situation for the dad. hehe



We had a chance to use these templates with a couple of Cryx vs LOE last weekend. Not only did my son enjoy using them, he almost wiped out my Bane Tralls and Bile Tralls on my left flank. Dang! Did I say I hate Eyeless Sight already?



Anyways, I plan to create more fun looking templates in between commissioned works. I should be able to create some water and forest templates for tier bonuses and stuff as soon as I can.



I also finished painting a lot of commissioned works last weekend. I told the client I just need to let the paint ( Vallejo ) cure for a day before varnishes. Then I will take proper photos before sending to client. I want to give my client properly cured models with nice strong Vallejo varnishes ( gloss then matt / satin coat ).



Anyways, that is about it. More posts every after weekend as I cannot post as much as I want. Do check me out at Instagram and Facebook as I am mostly active there these days. Thanks as always for dropping by! Just enjoy the hobby! :)

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DC23MechArts Weekend Photo Dump 060215

The past week was so eventful for me! I got my box full of Vallejo paints, a couple of models from Privateer Press, my wife's birthday, a handful of WarmaHordes models to add to my army, painted a lot of commissioned models and got some tools from my younger brother who went to Japan for research work. Cool week!



Lazy to write today as I need to go home early to paint some more models! So I hope you enjoy my photos as much as I enjoy them ( lol )! Some people love taking selfies ( photos of themselves ), I love taking some workbenchies ( photos of my work bench )... so pardon the loads of photos of my workbench every week.



Anyways, thanks for wasting your time here. Until next post, just enjoy the hobby! :)

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