Rant on Seeing

If you ever saw an awe-inspiring sunset you will probably agree that there is no other artist as great as nature itself.

But wait, we all see nature everyday, doesn’t it then follow that we all should be wonderful artists as well?

If you look up you’ll immediately understand that the answer is no… But why is that? After all, we can see and observe the nature around us very clearly. Or can we?

Actually no, not really.

Even though our eyes pick up almost all the information within our field of vision; our brain does only process a fraction of it. It concentrates only on a few aspects which it considers to be important.

Most of the time it’s our subconsciousness that chooses for us. It sets its priorities on objects that are moving and visually stand out from the rest (sounds familiar?). But even these it perceives very shallowly. It’s because our brain simplifies the visual information so radically that we can’t redraw something from memory even though we saw it so clearly before.

Let’s take this image as an example.

What we see is a yellow beetle on the roof of a disco. But what our brains actually process are completely different stories.

Note how perspective, colors and most details become extremely simplified, abstract and indefinite. The part that is most defined is the car, because it stand out from the rest of the picture. In other words, we are most conscious of the car.

Ha! And there you thought you were a conscious being! Fact is, our subconsciousness is the one in control most of the time. We can think of our active consciousness as a horsemen riding the horse — the subconsciousness. Although we can interfere when necessary, the horse runs by itself. It’s hard to tell who is truly in control.

Although our consciousness has an unbelievable potential to create, it is still rather limited and primitive as it has been around for only a short time in the history of life on earth.

Being truly conscious of the world around us would make it possible to draw things from memory exactly the way we saw them with our eyes. Perhaps we’ll be able to do that in a million years or so. But at the current point in human evolution we’ll have to really work for that.

We may only be able to consciously perceive one or two things at a time — usually we can’t even do that much — but that’s not such a bad start.

Try to look at the world around you as if you see it for the first time in your life; every day. Don’t take the nature around you for granted. Did you know how a pine tree really looks like? Yeah? I BET NOT!!

Our brain is really good at tricking us into believing that we know things which we actually don’t really know at all. There is so much to nature that we tend to ignore without even realizing. If you want to know the real world, forget what you thought you knew and learn anew, consciously.

To be conscient of all the remarkable things you see around you, I believe, is an important step in ruling the world through art.

Let’s practice seeing consciously as if our life depended on it!!!

Peace out!!

Texturros

What you gotta love about pencils is that there’s almost nothing you can’t do with ‘em — at least in black and white.

Some time ago I felt like drawing something with a nice texture and found this cool photograph of a fireworker. I think the picture is from the canon homepage, so hopefully they won’t sue me for copehright-infringments, but I’m willing to take the risk.

Well, enjoy this for now… I’m feeling like ranting for next time. There’s just so much batshit crazy stuff going around everywhere, especially in the art-world… but not today, I can’t keep my eyes open much longer…

Phew…

I bought a new desk and it took me almost the whole friggin’ day long to assemble this pile o’ ungrateful but shamelessly good looking and comfortable wood…

Man, I’m sooo tired. But I just felt like posting some random sketch, so enjoy. Or not.

Just a weird birdman trying to get into trance by dancing… Or whatever… Yawn… till next time, boys and girls.

Manga Ink!

A couple of days ago I ordered new manga paraphernalia from j-stuff.de (I already got it the next day after ordering, which is extremely cool, but besides the point…).

It’s not that I didn’t already had a lot of equipment, but now I have the complete set of inks from Deleter XD !!

I already had number 2,3,4 and 6, as well as the white ink and the Kaimei Manga Ink, but I thought i should also try out 1 and 5.

Here’s what the site has to say about each one of them:

1) Basic-Ink, great for drawing lines and big areas.

2) Non-Erasable.

3) Water-proof, matt-finished.

4) Water-Proof and very dark.

5) Watery Ink, with a faint, beautiful glossiness.

6) Watery ink, clear, fast drying.

Kamei Manga-Ink: Spreadable ink! Dries quickly! Semi-permanent finish! Suited for filling and striking.

I decided to test them extensively to find out which suits me the best. Interestingly enough, I found that the descriptions didn’t fit some of the inks. Of course it’s hard to tell whether it were just my inks that were different from the norm or if it were the descriptions that were wrong. That’s why – if you happen to have some of these inks, I’d welcome your comments.

Let me first summarize my results in this image:

As you can see, I have tested for glossiness, water-resistance and (alcohol-based) marker resistance. Actually, I also tested for erasability (number 2 is supposed to be eraser-proof), but it turned out that all of them were completely eraser-proof.

Ink number 1 is indeed a very easy to work with kind of ink. It flows well, is very dark and has a nice gloss. It’s not water-proof, but you can probably color it with markers – at least I couldn’t get it to smudge with a marker no matter how hard I tried. But I’d suggest to test it for yourself before relying on ME…!

No. 2 is practically identical to No.1 but it has no gloss.

The third ink feels just the same as the second ink, but it’s water-proof! However, the marker smudged it very slightly, which really surprised me. I would suggest to use markers carefully with this ink.

Number 4 is a real weirdo. I’m not sure if its just my ink, but it was terribly watery. Unless you use a LOT of it, it’ll look really faint. However, because of its dilution it flows very easily and is completely water- and marker-proof.

Ink number 5 has a really bitter smell which reminds me of a sterilizing liquid or something like that… Oh well, other than that it’s almost identical to ink number 1, but it’s gloss is a little bit weaker and it’s not quite as dark.

Ink number 6 stands out quite a bit as well. Contrary to number 4, it’s extremely dense. So dense in fact, that I couldn’t use it with a G-Pen! It just didn’t flow! So I was forced to use a brush… Other than its density, it’s almost the same as number one, just as dark and glossy.

Lastly there is the Kaimei Manga Ink. Frankly, it feels and looks just the same as the third Deleter ink. Meaning: it’s dark, matt, as well as water- and markerproof. The description also mentioned that it dries quickly, which is true. But: all these inks dry pretty quick. I didn’t notice much of a difference with any of them. That’s one thing that definitely makes these manga inks much more suitable for drawing comics than regular slow-drying ink.

As you see, the inks number 4 and 6 were the only ones to stand out in a somewhat negative way. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend them for drawing manga.

The others are almost equally good. I used no. 2 for a very long time but then changed to number 3 because of its water-resistance – even if you don’t plan on coloring, you never can be safe enough XD .

Oh, and perhaps I should say a couple of words about the white ink. It’s awesome – ’nuff said.

No, really, white ink is extremely usefull, not just for correcting mistakes, but also for all kinds of effects. You’ll constantly be able to think of new ways to create textures and other stuff if you have it.

Also, did you notice the MONO-eraser in the first photo? Yeah, I ordered it from J-stuff, as well. Who would have thought that an eraser could make a difference?! But hell, it’s the best eraser I ever had! It’s super soft, doesn’t leave much residue and erases perfectly. I will never use another eraser!!

But o well, it’s time to go to bed… Hope you learned something. Till next time.

I can see dead people!!!

…when I close my eyes, because I have drawn too many skulls!
Skulls are awesome, but they are much harder to draw than one can think at first glance! The ones at the top are the old ones; the lower they are, the newer. But that’s pretty obvious anyway.

Introduction

Hello, this is Ali Baba speaking.

In case you’re wondering who the hell I am, well, I’m a natural born mangaka.

Pfff… Yeah, right, as if – perhaps I should use the introduction for a lil’ rant.

Maybe you have heard of this little word called “Talent”? Huh, you did? Okay, that’s what I expected.

Well, when you are part of an art community, you can’t help but hearing it. Newbies are permanently afraid they may not be talented enough to learn how to be awesome at drawing. In other words – they believe they haven’t been born with the necessary artistic skill. Perhaps you yourself even had this thought?

But let me tell you – I think that “talent” is bullshit when it comes to drawing.

No, not in the sense that it’s not important – more in the sense that it doesn’t exist.

It’s a myth - in case you haven’t noticed.

Most people seem to believe that there is something like a gene that seperates between people who are destined to be artists and the other slaves… um, you know, those folks; like politicians and pastors.

Anyways, take a moment to think. Would you really buy that there is a gene for art? (Or for other stuff like cooking, preaching, nose picking or shitting?) No? That’s a step in the right direction.

But let me get this straight – people are not born as robots, everybody has their own little inbred qualities and weaknesses. But this stuff is marginal at the very best (unless you happen to have been born with, like, one eye or three fingers on every hand, in which case it may be a bit hard to draw – but then again there are blind artists and people who draw with their feet and with their asses).

What matters, though, is not what’s inborn, but what’s developed.

Now, there are two kinds of people: those who do and those who don’t.

If you want to learn a skill you can choose to learn it or you can keep on believing that you don’t have the talent to learn it.

“But why then aren’t all people geniuses at everything?” one could ask. Of course the answer is: “No time.“

We just don’t have the time to learn skills which aren’t absolutely necessary for our survival. That’s why we come up with excuses like “talent” to convince ourselves that it’s better not to waste time on secondary skills.

But when we try to learn something as if our life depends on it, then it won’t matter how little talent you thought you had. For example, ever heard of someone who believed he had no talent for learning a foreign language but then ended up in that country for a year and could afterwards fluently speak the tongue?

That’s not a rare thing to happen at all.

So, the people who we call “talented” are the ones who do. These people don’t waste time doubting their talent, they learn as if their life depended on it.

But don’t be tricked into thinking that those “talented” guys and gals had it in them all along; that it was somehow easier for them to become as bodacious as they are. Oh no, it’s not easy working 10 straight hours a day to improve your skills. But if you really love what you’re doing you will be so immerged in it that you won’t even notice what kinds of superhuman acts you perform.

So if you, too, really want to become a manga artist – or whatever kind of artist or non-artist – then you better stop wasting your time reading this article and get to work!!

Let’s try to become mangaka as if our life depended on it!!!

…I think I better leave the introduction for another time.