White out for mistakes? Brilliant. I was not allowed to make mistakes, lol, working on frosted mylar, white out would have shown. So I just held my breath every time I drew a line haha.
It actually was not a Sharpie. But it was a fine line permanent marker by Pentel
they discontinued them so I bought every one I could find online, cleaned a few places out of what little stock they had, just to make sure I could finish the deck, as they were the only thing that worked right on the mylar I bought to use. Then I painted them with India inks and a paint brush. I bought a set of cheap paintbrushes from the back of a magazine, that are actually pretty good, very tiny, for people who paint model trains and such.
... Oh I relate to the breath holding! Especially with long continuous lines... deep breath in and slowly, slowly exhale through nose as pen makes its way down the paper
@tarotbear - what a great thread you started, with so many varied and supportive comments, it feels like there's advice to be discovered for a wide range of 'journeys'
I too second (or does it become 'third'
) the suggestion to acquire Photoshop or GIMP and get started on the hair-pulling and mountain-climbing... Yes, it takes time, but it is absolutely worth it
Every hour you spend learning about layers, brushes, masks, tools etc - are hours that will free up your digital painting, allowing you to explore, create and ENJOY the artistic process
For me personally (as I work both traditionally and digitally), I love that seamless transition between pen on paper - and digital drawing and painting (on tablet) - where each method has its own attributes; but the eye hand movements and 'technique' mirror one another (does that make sense?) ... That said, there are times where after painting for hours (in Photoshop) and switching to pen & ink drawing (on paper), my left hand flies out to hammer Ctrl Z on the table
Planning ahead (to a certain extent) is good advice too. As far as the artwork goes I need the freedom to refine, adapt, change... but as far as size (printing) goes - it makes a lot of sense to work this out in advance. I must admit I didn't do this in the beginning (I was too eager to get started on the drawings), though luckily the 'measuring phase' coincided with the phase where I went back over the artwork to finalise each card... IF I had been the kind of artist who completes each artwork before moving on to the next, discovering at the END that every card was the wrong size - I expect there would have been tears and unprintable words
And... the advice to 'never give up' - or keep to an 'art' schedule... is brilliant too