Drawing OOTS by hand

[kuv]

So here i am, my first real post (the one at the welcoming subforum does not count, i doubt that anyone watches those :smallwink: ), asking out of pure curiosity:

How come there's a 54-page thread about Illustrator techniques for drawing OotS style and a bunch of other software apps, and no one mentions the option of actually drawing them by hand (and then scanning for Photoshop coloring). Is it too time-consuming or complex? Something i don't get? I would guess the latter, since i'm positive you guys would know your OoTS :smallsmile: :smallsmile:

[Sampi]

Well, the OoTS is drawn by computer, so the easiest way of emulating that for avatars is to follow suit. There are a couple of people drawing by hand, but that's rare - and nobody's made a post detailing "how to draw the OoTS by hand" mostly because no one's asked or bothered to write one.

Nobody's stopping you, though. That would be a fresh way to do it.

[Abardam]

Pretty sure Dr Bath used to, and I sometimes do for drafts.

[Dr. Bath]

Yup, I did. However, it is hard to get quite as smooth lines and colour as easily, converting the file for use in photoshop is annoying, so now I only really hand draw Erf-style, and even then only sometimes.

[Mr_Saturn]

Alarra draws by hand, and shes the best hand-drawer i know. A moderator btw. :smallsmile:

[Calamity]

So here i am, my first real post (the one at the welcoming subforum does not count, i doubt that anyone watches those :smallwink: ), asking out of pure curiosity:

How come there's a 54-page thread about Illustrator techniques for drawing OotS style and a bunch of other software apps, and no one mentions the option of actually drawing them by hand (and then scanning for Photoshop coloring). Is it too time-consuming or complex? Something i don't get? I would guess the latter, since i'm positive you guys would know your OoTS :smallsmile: :smallsmile:

I draw by hand, my comic stirps are mostly hand drawn! Really easy but for most people the artwork really suffers. Awesome people like Alarra, Dr.Bath and Abardam not inlcluded of course.

[Omicroncubed]

I do draw by hand, but I never scan them for recolouring or something.

I only do that when in school and bored (mostly math lessons I take quotes from OOTS and draw them up. The teacher doesn't even notice)

EDIT: My math notebook is so far filled with ''what are you...'', ''All hail door, king of doorland'' (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0400.html), ''heh heh, your junk'' (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0468.html), ''crap on a stick'' (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0075.html), ''Whatchootalkin' bout redcloak?'' (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0117.html), ''so ye were in a hurry ta 'get outta that closet' then?'' (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0237.html) and ''Thog like puppies'' (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0051.html)

[kuv]

Nobody's stopping you, though. That would be a fresh way to do it.

Sure, i'll give it a try.

STEP 1 ROUGH DRAWING

Using a blue pencil (it's easier to remove its traces afterwards), we draw our character. This is Mistanthalas, an elf from our campaign. I have tried to focus on his main characteristics- well, obviously apart from the pointy ears. He has long hair, a custom-made armor from a slain green dragon and a moonblade. Those will do- i did not really want to overdo it, the beauty is in the simplicity after all. Draw freely, erase, be creative. Use a coin to draw that circle if you have an unsteady hand- nobody's watching.:smallwink:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/kuv/step1_blue.gif

STEP 2 INKING

When i was sure i was ok (after 3-4 minutes, i got lazy), i traced the lines with ink. Be careful here, minor mistakes can be corrected in PhotoShop later, but major ones can't. I myself left a mistake slip here and only caught it when it was too late (see later).:smallmad:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/kuv/step2_inked.gif

STEP 3 SCANNING

Use FILE>IMPORT to scan your document. Use 300 DPI. Crop/rotate your image to your liking (but don't mess with its size, we need it big). Don't worry about all the blue smudges, we'll take them out like this: IMAGE>ADJUSTMENT>HUE/SATURATION. Now choose the BLUES from the drop-down menu and push LIGHTNESS all the way to 100%. Repeat with CYANS from the drop-down menu. You might still have some haze clinging, so try this: use IMAGE>MODE>GRAYSCALE to discard color info. Now use IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>THRESHOLD. The default value is 128, leave it there if you are sure, or experiment and judge by the preview. That's it! You can use a brush (B) to erase some spots or mistakes (i did this to smoothen the tips of his shoulderguards and to remove the shining lines from the sword). I could (should have, really) spend 5 more minutes polishing this stage, that line at his lower right corner of the torso sticks out. Whatever- i just wanted to get this over with, normally we just use a white brush to erase and correct the details.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/kuv/step3_clear.gif

STEP 4 COLORING

It's all downhill from here. Turn MODE>CMYK so you can use colors and use the Wand (W) to choose an area. Choose your color and then the Bucket (B) to fill said area. The Bucket fills a closed area... even if there's an opening of one pixel wide, the color will get out and fill the next area, so “plug” the hole with a black brush. I see now that i messed his fingers, they don't seem to grip the hilt right- but that's what you get for being lazy/sloppy. When you are done, you can freely change the format (TIFF for large printouts, GIF for Web use, etc), and use a smaller DPI ratio. Um, i think that's it actually, give or take. It's not perfect, but the whole procedure took 10-15 minutes max, with no attention to detail (hey, it's late and it's a friday night):smallredface:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/kuv/step4_coloring.gif

I'm far from even an amateur artist- just passing my time.:smallbiggrin: This procedure was derived from trial-and-error, as well as information from various tutorials. It's far, far from perfect, but i thought you might want to add your two cents and make it better/easier. I also realize that it's more “proper” to some to use Illustrator, but playing with pencils, erasers and actual paper is fun too!

SO. What d'ya think? Go easy on me :smalltongue:

[Magioth]

it looks good, the body need work, the face and hair are good :)

maybe resize it with infranview?

its all great except that background :smallfrown:

[Omicroncubed]

Looking good there! :smallbiggrin:

[Jibar]

Drawing it by hand?
Huh. Well, if I had the skill (and programs) with colouring on computers, I'd probably do a dip.
When I'm bored, I regularly do little (http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a155/Jibar/Spiderman.jpg) doodles (http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a155/Jibar/Coolguy.jpg), all in OOTS style.

[Castaras]

Hmm, I've done quite a bit(Read: In every school book) with OotS style doodles. Some end up coloured, others kinda...sit there(Read: I think they're crap).

*Goes to dig up some stuff*

[Dr. Bath]

Here's a couple of things I hand drew,
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h24/solarturtle/Goddess2.jpg
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h24/solarturtle/thoglikespillaging.jpg

Whilst it is easier, I found that it is far more time consuming in the long run. Also, my scanner broke and I haven't bought a new one.

What you've done is good, although the body is a bit wide and the lines on the arms and legs could do with being thicker.

Helpful Hint: Try scanning it in black and white, the blue isn't picked up. Also, I find it much easier to colour in black and white because you can then colour it in paint where it can be slightly easier to shade. However, make sure you save as a bitmap or .TIFF file, otherwise the colours bleed and it doesn't look as good.

[Dawn]

I have a couple of signed books by rich, which include hand drawn OOTS figures...
They look good, but with just an outline seem kind of sloppy.

[Dispozition]

I know that Ego does it by hand sometimes...I've been tempted to try, but my style is too detailed to do it properly...

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

Whenever I clean out my binders I have a pile of doodles, too. Lots of OotS style goblins, usually grumpy ones saying things like "We're all going straight to hell, you know that, right?" Also, I seem to accumulate a few OotS style bats, usually at the top of the page telling me what the assignment is. Sometimes I even try Optimus Prime. (all of this comes between random shading and letters turned into rabbits, of course)

I think a couple are pretty good, but I have no scanner and my digital camera is crap, so you'll never see them. So the style is very possible by hand, rather easy and quite fun. Much more fun than sketching a lego-monstrosity.

[Rakleb]

Oh me I do it a lot i have tons of goblin pictures and Belkar pictures all stick figures.