It seems like an age since I last posted here - but then it's been a while since I've posted anywhere thanks to computer problems. Anywho, I've continued here and there with my efforts to re-create the look and feel of pulpy novels. The original goal was to develop techniques to produce them very quickly with a view to entering the pre-made book cover market - I've completely lost interest in attempting that market myself but not in the original project. I will, at some point, be putting up a blog with all that I've figured out but that won't be until well into the new year (and maybe when I've a new - and stable - computer).
Anywho, here are a few of the ones I quite like, all of which follow the same method. I can't draw for toffee (at least, not without a set square), so I start with a 3D staging program called Poser - I try to keep the scenes fairly simple and render against a transparency. Next, there's a little adjustment in GIMP or PSE8 before I load the result in ArtRage as a tracing image. I create a background layer, then turn the tracing image into paint layer. I then paint a background and merge the layers, finally attacking it all with oil brush and knife. I'm finding it much easier now to add colour myself, along with highlights and shadows. I also used to rely on a Cutout filter to help block out colour before taking into ArtRage but no longer feel the need for that.
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