First cartoon idea with alien

I drew a whole frame featuring an alien and I went for a new idea - tentacled squid. The helmet (and the flying saucer) indicate that it's an alien rather than a squid.

This is how I scribble them in the book before tracing them in pen

Sketchbookin'

I had a short wait in a waiting room yesterday, so inspired by a Craftsy course I'm taking, pulled out a little sketchbook and drew what was around me.

It's not great but probably better than anything I'd have been able to do (or have been prepared to show anyone) previously.

Unlike the boots, there's an entire scene (and also unlike the boots, there's no real subject!) I tried to think about shadows, but there's still no real dark areas in the picture, as there would have been in the scene in front of me.

Turn your iPad into a drawing pad for your Mac using Astropad

Funny how you stumble onto something

I've been watching youtube videos tonight that compare Cintiq Companions, with iPad Pros and Surface 3's. I'm kinda leaning towards the iPad + Apple Pencil, but I wanted to see some opinions from some of the pro artists.

I stumbled across a comparison of an iPad Pro and the Cintiq 13HD, which while it isnt' a like for like comparison, he had it set up so the iPad was working as a drawing tablet for his mac. He was able to do this with an App called Astropad.

That got me thinking, I have an ipad and jot script stylus, for the sake of £15 it was worth a try. And if it doesn't work very well then I can still use it for a new iPad Pro, should I decide to go for that.

Astropad Purchase Screen in the App Store

Installing Astropad

After purchasing the App (and I think it's the most expensive one I've bought so far), you next download the Mac software which enables the link to be made. It does make you wonder why Apple don't do something like this, but perhaps it's a little niche.

Next step is to decide whether to use WIFI or USB to connect. I chose USB because the battery was running low on my iPad. It then just worked straight away. I've used screen sharing software before but this is a two way link. It gives you control of the Mac.

Next thing was to boot up SketchBook Pro and have a play. Astropad has a tool side bar which has a number of useful actions. It almost worked correctly for SketchBook, but can be configured how you like (as long as you know the key presses for the desired actions).

Next think to do was set up my Jot Script, which was simple enough, but I couldn't get it to use the pressure sensitivity. (That's a shame - a little frustrating)

Doodling in SketchBook Pro

I had a good play, that ring at the bottom right show/hides the tool sidebar. It can be moved about, and does a good job to preserve as much screen as possible. I'm not sure if the set of tools can be altered, but that's something to explore another day.

In summary, all I've done so far is mess about and play, not tried anything too serious. It's not quite the same experience as my Bamboo. It's a little too slippery because of the metal tip on glass screen, but hopefully it'll prove useful and tide me over until I buy some better hardware.

My aliens

Being away from home I'm unable to scan too, so resorting to the camera. That bit was easy, but getting the pictures from the phone onto this blog wasn't easy. Gave up in the end and sent them from my phone to laptop (don't get me started on how messy that is!)

The first one was my original idea, just eyes on stalks and not much else. I also like 'admiral akbar' with a helmet full of water. I like the big head, little body idea too.

Now I've started, I've more ideas. But I think it's true, it has to be a stereotypical alien in order to be recognisable as an alien.

Drawing a cartoon alien

Today Shiela and I had an idea for an alien based comic to point out the absurdities of modern life, hopefully in a humorous way.

First step is to try and draw some aliens,.. I even roped the kids in to help. It's more difficult than you think.

First set of ideas

Here's a few more

I haven't focused too much on the body yet, but I would like a simple cartoon style, with perhaps 2 or 3 different types of look.

In addition to that I need some UFO ideas because I have some ideas about parodies based on car driving.

Using a handwriting font - important tool or cheat?

This morning I've very reluctantly tried something that was suggested to me a little while ago, and while I've had to compromise on something I felt was an important matter of principle, the improvement is vast.

I've aimed from the start for a 'homespun' look in my cartoons, and part of this is writing the captions by hand. Although they did look untidy and made the whole cartoon look amateurish, in a way this is what I was after. I felt that with time and practice, those captions would become neater.


Typing them feels a little like cheating, as well as giving up on some of the authenticity. But after trying it, I'm in no doubt at all that it's the right thing to do. Here's a comparison:

One major 'pro' is productivity; writing each caption by hand and scanning it is a little tedious, but I'd be prepared to do that if the result was right. Now adding the captions is fast and fun rather than laborious, and making tweaks to the actual text is simple too.

iPad Pro

I had a trip into Derby today to pick up some DIY bits and the odd christmas present.

While I was in PCWorld I wandered over to the Apple section and had a play with the new iPad Pro.

First impressions are, it's huge, and swiping between Apps was fast and smooth. It had a few drawing Apps installed, but with no "pencil" I couldn't get an idea what it would be like for drawing. Yes, I know I can watch Apple's videos but that's not the point, if I'm thinking of spending that much I want to try it.

Seems odd that lots of places have the new iPad in stock, but nobody has the apple pencil right now. Even the Apple online store says dispatch 4-5 weeks, and that seems like a serious blunder to me.

It's a similar story for the Smart Keyboard, with a 3-4 weeks waiting time. So for a device that's supposed to start to bridge the gap between mobile and laptops it seems like they've dropped the ball. Mind you,.. £140 for a keyboard?!!!!