This is the latest and last sneak preview by way of an enlargement of a small area selected from my current color digital decalcomania project: “Totem Repair Shop.”
Totem Repair Shop is finished! All that remains to be done is to optimize it for printing and for sharing on the web, then I will post it here. That post will include a link to a larger version so the detail can be more easily seen.
For my own curiosity, I will make at least one digital print of it to see how it holds up in the real world as inks on paper instead of being millions of glowing pixels on a flatscreen monitor. That test print will have to wait a couple weeks while we replace the computer used to communicate with our printer. Hence, I will not be posting the full finished version of this project until I am satisfied that it yields a good print.
I was surprised by how involved this project became. I thoroughly enjoyed creating it and I learned a lot about the potential of Painter software. The completion of this project frees me to focus all my time and attention on my next digital adventure: animation.
After a full year of digital drawing and painting, I feel confident enough at last to seriously commit to creating digital animation. Depending on how an animation is set up it can require from 12 to 30 drawings for just one second of on-screen action! It is going to be a LOT of drawing. Animation is labor intensive and slow-going!
After personally testing several programs and reading a lot of reviews, I decided to use Toon Boom Animate 2 for my first project. I will also be using images created and processed in Photoshop and Painter and compositing everything in Adobe After Effects. Initially I will be focusing on traditional 2D frame-by-frame animation, which lately I have seen being referred to as tradigimation when accomplished using software instead of paper, pencil, ink, and paint.
Animate 2 comes complete with a nice steep learning curve and an 870 page user guide. A computer geek’s delight for sure. I certainly have my work cut out for me with this new direction.
Hopefully, fairly soon I will be able to tell you and show you how my animation progress is going. But, until I have some actual animation news and/or examples to share, my posts in the near future will contain previously unpublished material from the NFMOA archives involving sound, sculpture, drawing, and painting. Right now I am busy getting acquainted with the software and its tools and busily searching for and developing story ideas.
bobcomings.com 
Bully for you, I know we both love animation. You love to do it and I love to watch it. You sent a “out-o-site” piece to Precita Eyes for the Gala, thanks for that! Your luddite friend…..HANK
Hey, glad you like “Into Possum’s Cavern.” For a long time I thought it was just a bit too creepy for the gala fundraiser. I hope it brings in some $$ for you guys.and yes, I have a LONG slog ahead as I learn how to do frame-by-frame animation. Keep painting and stay well my friend.
REally interesting and wonderful. I love the value variations within each designated area, and of course, all of the intriguing, mysterious overlaps. My Painter app is a little buggy with my Wacom, so I don’t use it enough, my default is always PS. Got to give Painter more of a workout:) Love your blog.
Thanks for the feedback. I use Photoshop and Painter as if they are components of a digital drawing & painting kit. I have done a lot of painting and drawing in past years just with Photoshop and found it somewhat limited in the way the user has to manage, build, and alter brushes. Painter’s strength for me is in the immense selection of existing preset specialized brushes and the many ways to alter any of the existing brushes to create brand new ones. And I love working with Layer Blending Modes in both programs.Now that I am devoting all my image-making time to animation, I find that I miss how forgiving Painter is for me. Because of my physical limitations, my drawing motion is pretty much from the wrist forward. Very little elbow or shoulder movement is involved. So my drawings are very shaky and inaccurate in constant need of cleanup and redrawing. In Painter I create images with areas of tone and color that I can then smear and blend into each other. Perhaps over time I will find a way to work with line in animation that is a bit more forgiving than it is now. I really enjoy the range of media and content in your posts. Thanks for doing your blog.Bob Comings
Thank you Bob. I’m very much enjoying your work as well. The smear and blend works brilliantly. I also look forward to more of your animations. New territory for me-quite exciting.