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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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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Helga the Conqueror Minion Warlock - Commissioned Work

I finished this cool little Helga the Conqueror model at the same time as the Alexia Ciannor and the risen models. Both are primed, hand painted, and varnished with Vallejo acrylics. Nothing to write home about, but I do love the model so much. This is what is so fun about commissioned works, you get to paint and work on models you are not aware of or models that you never plan ( or need to ) buy for yourself.



I feel I painted this a bit darker than usual. The excess washes was the result of painting it at the same time as the risen models which I intended to look dirty. The washes diffused the effect of the highlights in the photos but the model looks a tad better in person. Besides, my painting are friggin zoomed in in these photos ( lol ).



I hope you like my pig ( my client's pig ). Will have more models painted next weekend! Thanks as always for dropping by! Until next post guys! Just enjoy the hobby! :)

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Alexia Ciannor and the Risen Mercernary Unit - Commissioned Work

 I just finished these Alexia Ciannor and the risen Mercenary Unit. These are commissioned works as usual with the website version as my guide for the colors. I tried to give the models a dirtier look with washes and they came out fairly okay. Here is the link to the Alexia Ciannor and the risen at Privateer Press website.



As it is obvious by now, I am not a fan of cork as basing material. I love how other painters make them look so nice and good, but I feel they are not strong enough after extensive game play. Cork base work should be awesome for display pieces definitely, but I am really afraid to use them for models for gaming.



Anyways the concept of the base and the whole unit is to try to make them look like they just came out of the ground. So I glued large pebbles around the models to make them look like so. The ground work are just aquarium sand glued and painted. Nothing special but I think I like the result. I could have painted more highlights on the models but spending even an hour per model is too much for a 24 piece unit!



All the models are darker and dirtier as usual as I painted numerous layers of washes over the models to make them look they came out of the ground. Fairly happy with the rusted looking metallics and very happy with the look of the bases.



I hope my client likes his Alexia and the risen as he gets them today! A ton more models to paint next weekend! Thanks as always for dropping by, Until next post guys! :)



I post a lot at Instagram these days... do follow me @DC23_mecharts if you like photo dumps everyday! Thanks! :)

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