dewline | Entries tagged with tools of the trade

I have to wonder, given this context re: Clip Studio Paint...

https://www.creativebloq.com/news/clip-studio-paint-subscription

Yes, Krita exists as an option and so does Affinity Photo...but I bought CSP for specific reasons of comics design suitability. So did many others.

Current Mood: aggravated

I got the Cintiq hooked up to my iMac.

One more thing I need to do for this to work well: I need to find something - preferably not a book - to elevate the iMac on my desk so that I can fully view both screens at the office/studio workstation in the basement. The HP external monitor's going to go unused for a while, I think.

Current Mood: hopeful

I got my debit card PIN problem fixed up at the bank. (Sadly, this is an issue that has to be fixed in person, one of the few banking issues that has to be fixed that way.)

I used some Christmas gift-money to buy a personal DVD copy of Black Widow.

There was reassurance that my local comics dealer is still operational, and was able to reassure the staff that I have not forgotten my obligations to them. More pointedly, that I anticipate starting to get caught up on my reading next weekend because payday timing.

The local custom-t-shirt printer can work with PNG files I bring for them, and that they can print on 3XL t-shirts.

The British mystery novels that inspired the CBC TV series Coroner are still in print as of two years ago, and available through local booksellers.

It may be possible for me to finally get a used Wacom Cintiq without breaking myself financially. More on this anon, I hope.

New battery for the cell-phone, finally. Been worrying about the battery I bought with it for a few weeks after four or five years. Didn't think the shop I bought the new battery from would have it in stock yet.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Home-for-now
Current Music: Tapestry on CBC Radio

Yesterday, I went and looked at offers on eBay of used Cintiq tablets that I still dare not accept. I attended the monthly ByMUG meeting via Zoom. And those were, I think, the highlights.

Today, it was back to the job search.

That's all for the moment.

Interesting!

https://www.poynter.org/tech-tools/2021/four-digital-tools-that-got-me-through-the-pandemic/

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Home-for-now

A job I had a year or two ago allowed me to learn about the existence of software branded Balsamiq. So today's video tutorial studies finally went in that direction, seeing as I'm still interested in web design.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Home

1. I got this linkage from the Weekly Typographic, an e-newsletter from the League of Movable Type: Hero Patterns and Zondicons. Both are run by Kitchener's Steve Schoger. Whom I'd never heard of before today. The former is a collection of background patterns for web pages, the latter for icons.

2. One person's idea of how many kinds of typefaces there are. You might disagree.

https://bonfx.com/types-of-fonts/

3. Another link from the Weekly Typographic: Sophia Yeshi on how she got into design, the value of people lifting one another up, representation...

More as it comes to mind.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Home
Current Music: The Weekly Typographic Podcast

A lot of such things that I'm giving a renewed look at are Staedtler-branded products: Triplus Fineliners, Mars Graphic 3000 Duos. There's Faber-Castell, too: their Pitt Pens and Grip Finepens. Shinhan Touch; Sakura Permapaques; Pigma Senseis and Pigma Microns; Prismacolor Premiers of several kinds; Copics; Marvy La Plume II...the list goes on. I might post an image of a sampling later.

Current Music: The Current on CBC Radio

Some of these things, I've had for over 20 years. My Dad was still alive when I bought them. (And he rolled his eyes about my buying habits at Wallacks and DeSerres because...well.) Anyway, I'd expect all of them to be dried up and out of order permanently because of the age issues.

Not so!

Some testing over the course of this morning whilst checking assorted job boards for more conventional day-jobs (I can't give up on that either!) has proven some of the oldest of these to still be somewhat functional. I'll try to work up a list of effective brands later today or tonight, okay?

Meantime, lunch calls.

Current Mood: busy

One more possibly good thing today: there's a new version of the planetarium freeware Celestia available now. As someone who's been getting some enjoyment out of v.1.6.0, I am intensely curious to see how v.1.6.1 will work out. Especially once the GAIA DR 2 data is integrated with it.

https://celestia.space/

Current Mood: hopeful

Go look at this:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/12/magazine/inside-one-of-americas-last-pencil-factories.html

How one of the tools of what I've called an artform, a hobby and a trade at different times of my life gets made, in images, thanks to the people of the New York Times.

Current Mood: enthralled

I bought a new scanner/printer combo device today. The price was just about right, or right enough. It's going to be difficult to find a table I can set it down on, though, once it gets in the house.

The reason I bought the thing? It's capable of scanning an A3-sized art board in one pass. I've had an Epson Perfection 1260 for over ten years, and it's still reliable. But if I want to scan an 11x17 art board into the computer, I need at least two passes, sometimes as many as four. And then "stitch" them all back into one document in PhotoPaint, Photoshop or whatever else is usable.

And when I saw this thing in Staples - yes, I know, more money for the Republicans, sadly, via Bain Capital...for which I will have to atone - I just snapped. No more. No more. I want proper tools to do a proper job. Even if they are already out of date.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: "Democracy" - Leonard Cohen

Saw this one getting some bandwidth from

drawn_ca and

coudal this afternoon.

Anyone here know if it works and plays well with the "Mountain Lion" edition of OS X?

Current Music: Yebo! - The Art Of Noise

Turning the 21 cintiq sideways makes it perfect for comic pages by kevin mellon

Turning the 21 cintiq sideways makes it perfect for comic pages, a photo by kevin mellon on Flickr.

Some days I wish I had one of these.

Not gonna happen soon unless I get lotto-lucky. Or I sell a lot of stuff.

And the DVI port has to be fixed first anyway...

(Apologies to Kevin Mellon for taking his visuals out of context.)

Current Mood: tired

"Accomplished" isn't all of it, though. For a while there today, "frustrated" would not have been out of line to describe the mood today either.

( More technobabble for interested parties... )

And tomorrow, it's back to regular job-hunting and other errands, including a writing workshop.

Back to you!

Current Mood: accomplished

Well, this is something that's been sorely missed in the profession and the Web ever since Larry Dempsey's Inking Survey site got pulled: a blog devoted to explicating just what kind of range there truly is in the tools of the comics creation trade. And it's a BIG tool kit.

Special thanks to publicbroadcasting.ca's Science Fiction, Comics, and Gaming Channel for pointing me to drawn.ca's link to this particular blog.