Essential Snarry Reader Interview with Acid
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Essential Snarry Reader Interview with Acid |
| Interviewer: | Aubrem |
| Interviewee: | Acid |
| Date(s): | March 9, 2002 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | Harry Potter |
| External Links: | interview is here, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
In 2002, Acid was interviewed for The Essential Snarry Reader by Aubrem.
The interview, somewhat more of a tutorial, includes many links to his art.
For others in the series, see Essential Snarry Reader Interview Series.
Excerpt
I tend try everything I can just to see if I can use a certain technique. I do a lot of mixed media work and in digital art's case, combine several programs to draw something.In traditional art (No need to call me Sir, Professor, Snape and Harry) I combine a lot of materials at once (anything to get the intensity and brightness of the colors I need.) Usually I end up using color paper, ink, markers, watercolors, or acrylics to define the base colors of the image and afterwards use color pencils, ink, oil pastels, and whiteout for texturing and detail. Usually the materials for base colors produce dark and saturated tones, and the materials I use for texturing and detail afterwards produce very light, almost transparent tones on top of the base.
The trick to using various media like this in one painting is to remember what has to be used last and what the certain media is good for. Lighter oil pastels over a dark base color (acrylics, ink or markers) provide nice texturing for stone walls or grass, but trying to add anything else over the layer of oil pastels is nearly impossible, nothing sticks to them but whiteout. Lighter or darker hues of color pencils over saturated marker tones can define lights and shadows of the object well, but try using pencils to define base colors and markers to color in the shadows and it'll turn out either very blurry or very messy.
When I paint digitally (Take My Hand, Morsmordre, Expecto Patronum, Silence), I usually end up curled up in a comfortable chair with the laptop and a huge digital tablet over the right armrest blocking half of my keyboard space. It's a very relaxing working atmosphere. The pen for the tablet has a mind of its own, so usually every drawing session begins with me digging through everything in the room, trying to track down where I left it last time. It's always in some obvious place I forget to check. For something that I use more often than I use actual pens or pencils, it has a way of disappearing when I need it most.
My main painting program is OpenCanvas. I have at least three versions of it installed, but usually use a free clone of OpenCanvas 2.2 which was distributed over the web as a demo by Deleter CGIllust (you can still download it from their website: CGILLust). OpenCanvas is great for the oil painting effects and can produce very bright, shiny color. Its layer modes provide a lot of control over the lighting schemes.
A lot of digital images lack texturing because it's easy to produce an area of very flat and spotless color on the computer, while simulating the irregular watercolor or bumpy canvas texture is much harder. I use another free program called Project Dogwaffle to add more textures to the final image. It is not as bulky (and not to mention as expensive) as Painter and its collection of organic brushes is really nice.
Photoshop and ImageReady are the final couple of programs that I use to adjust contrast and saturation to the completed picture and add border effects. Since the picture is almost done, most of the techniques I use at this point are similar to photo editing.
Other programs in my CG collection include ArtRage (nice brushes, needs better canvas size/zoom controls), Corel Painter (too many tools, haven't found the ones I like yet), some 3D rendering software, Bryce (landscapes), Poser (anatomy/poses reference), Flash (for vector graphics and inking outlines, if needed), Pixia (one of the free CG packages from the web), and so on.
Now, it might sound funny after this long list of software, but tools really do not matter (except maybe in the digital tablet vs. the mouse argument because the precision really does help a lot). This is coming from someone who used enlarged mode of MS Paint for pixel art for two years before switching to oekaki-like web applets and only afterwards trying out other digital painting programs.
Fan Comments
painless j]: This was fantastic! I'm speechless. Well, not totally speechless since you can see me talking, but wow. WOW! Acid, this is a terrific piece and a wonderful interview! Thank you and Aubrem (I assume it's Aubrem who did it?) for the pleasure!
lizardspots: *stunned* Oh wow. I hope Acid knows that it is *her* who inspires me every time I draw a Snarry picture, every time I experiment with colour. Lord knows I rant about how amazing she is to anyone who'll listen. When I see she's drawn something new, it just makes inspiration hit me like a truck. :DThis is a fascinating tutorial, it's an honour to see how you create your distinct colouring style, Acid. The composition theory was excellent, I will definitely be re-reading it to help me with future drawings. Your techniques for colouring are so clever! I'm such a dunce when it comes to using CG programs - the only thing I do is use multiply for the lineart. But this interview is making me feel brave :D and I feel the urge to attempt shiny colours in the next drawing I do. (I hope that's ok!) And gwah, this whole tutorial is packed full of throw-away tips and tricks and pure talented intuition, it's a testament to what an excellent artist you are.
...and before I get too carried away and propose marriage or something equally ridiculous, I'll end there. Thank you for creating such a thorough tutorial, and thank you to Aubrem for bringing it to the snarry_reader!
[myashke]: Oooooh, is it my birthday? *checks calendar* Hmmm... nope! Still, what a gift!!!Seriously, I'm just starting out, as you know, and this tutorial is so wonderful - easy to follow and a solid, tried and true formula laid out clearly for digital art. I tend to rush ahead of myself far too often and forget (or ignore) the fact that I SHOULD be separating highlights and shadows out on different layers for best effect. When I go to change the contrast or brightness, I'm screwed! This is definitely a better mousetrap, and one that I can handle, too, without feeling so frustrated. It seems obvious, I know, but it's hard for me to pick apart a painting I want to create and look at it in values instead of as a whole. This is going to be my guide for my next few attempts, until I can get the hang of separating out the elements.
fangirling I can't believe you took all that time to pull this together just for wannabe artists like me!!! You're the best, hon!! Not only are you talented, you're generous as well. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
/fangirling
[nefyr]: All of the information is a bit overwhelming to take in at once, but I can tell that this is by far the most detailed and useful tutorial I've ever found. Ever. My love knows no bounds.
[aliciamasters]: I'm not an artist, and can never actually use the information practically here, but it doesn't matter: it's fascinating to see the process! To see your work in so many stages is spectacular. Thanks to ac1d6urn and aubrem for this great interview!
[harpsi fizz]: Always glad to get help from the seasoned photoshoppers. Thanks very much. I guess practice is the key.
[anonymous]: This is so awesome. Everlasting gratitude to Acid and Aubrem for bringing this us! This must have took you guys a long time. There are so much information packed in here *drool* Much appreciation, as snarry lover, fanart lover, scribble(??) lover, and just because I like pretty things and appreciate the effort that goes into it!