satoshi-san1 asked: Hey I have a question for you bara. How do you do the lineart on your pieces? Do you use the pen tool in adobe illustrator or do you use a tablet and ink them in photoshop?
tablet + photoshop all the way, i can’t illustrate in illustrator (ha ha) to save my life. for illustrations i also prefer a slightly more organic look than ultra-smooth precise curves…sometimes i draw and ink on toothy paper and scan that in to color
nadjina asked: What do you use to ink traditionally to keep the lines from smearing when you colour???
copic multiliners and kuretake brush pens
in the past, i’ve used sakura pigma microns, which also work very nicely!
quick little test run of ray frenden’s photoshop brushes. quite pleased so far
raefuun asked: What is that awesome watercolor/paper/??? texture you use in some of your pieces? Is it simply a brush's texture in painter, or did you download it/create it yourself? I love it's effect!
ah, which pieces do you mean? for most of them it’s just the “add noise” filter in photoshop, but for some (ex: my “ahoy” pic of gisele) i use an actual stock photo of textured paper that i think i snagged from cgtextures.com. sometimes i use a brown paper texture that i scanned myself from some kraft paper (used it for this, iirc)
chocolatestarlight asked: When you ink your drawings, do you first go in with a thin line and thicken them up over time, or do you put thick lines in from the beginning? And do you have a set system for what lines are thickened most, or is it just whatever you think will look the best for that drawing?
with most pictures i ink everything up front, but with some real media pieces i like to ink in thin sepia lines, then go back after the colors are done and darken/thicken some lines with a dark brown sharpie — i have to do it post-marker work or else the other markers will make the sharpie bleed when i go over it, since they’re all alcohol-based.
usually i thicken lines to try and establish a sense of weight and distance, and to separate elements of an illustration from one another…things closer to the viewer generally have thicker lines, things further away have thin ones; characters often have thick, dark outlines around them to establish them as a single element and separate them from the background, etc.
…sometimes i just do whatever though. i love bold and/or colored lineart, so i can get kind of carried away working them into my stuff :’)
fallenmachine-deactivated201212 asked: What kind of paper do you use for your pen and marker drawings? Also, I've been a follower of your work for such a long time (10 years I believe...X3)! You've always inspired me to keep drawing!
most of my marker work is done on strathmore bristol or deleter comic paper. and wow, thanks ♥ i’m happy to hear it!
ohsansi asked: Hi bara! im such a great fan of ur work, but also i admire the design of ur web page, i wonder if u can tell me, which program did u use to make the gallery, cuz i know there are some webpages that give some facilities to make gallerys but idk :(.Hope u can answer me, XOXO keep on rockin' :3
ah, thank you! most of my site was coded by hand in editpad, along with the layout for the gallery. the lightbox script i used is called “thickbox”, but i think it’s an older, unsupported script these days.
if you don’t want to spend a billion hours typing code out manually like i do, wordpress might be a good solution, i know it has a ton of gallery plugins. you just need to find a host that will let you install it
criminy asked: Hi Barachan! Long time fan here~. Your style really influenced my work growing up and I want to personally thank you for sharing your art! I do have a question, how do you go about choosing colors for your pieces? I always love the colors you use!
aww, thank you! um…i think i gravitate towards pinks and blues a lot because i just…really like pink and blue. haha. i love yellow too (CMYK palettes = ♥♥♥) in general, i like having around 3-4 major colors per pic, i guess? enough to get some contrasting colors in for interest, but not too many so as to keep a limited palette.
other than that…i try to save highly saturated colors for the more lively elements in each picture (skin tones, eyes, etc.) unless i’m going for a really rainbowy, lisa frank effect. the same goes for pure white and black, and completely neutral grays — use in moderation as they can be harsh or distracting! shadows are generally a little less saturated and colder; highlights are warmer and more saturated.
neon-carousel asked: Hey Bara! I've been a fan since viewing all of your stuff on Team Artail back in 98/99 or so, One thing i've always wanted to ask is regarding your line work. I've always struggled with digital line art despite having a good tablet and photoshop/painter. How do you manage to make your work so clean? Do you 'work into' the layer you have your sketch on, or do you use a brand new layer? Do you prefer a certain program? Also any other tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated :D x
wow, a super longtime fan! thanks for following me for so many years.
hopefully this post can give you a general idea of how i set up my layers and in which programs (it varies between pictures, though these days i ink in photoshop more often than not.) the one other thing about achieving smoother lines is to work big! 300 DPI at least. don’t worry about being a little messy with your lineart at this size, cause when you shrink the finished image down, most imperfections will disappear. and if you ever want to make prints/etc of your work, you’ll need large files anyway. good luck!
