Nick's Rage Against the Machine Spot

[Caesar]

You never cease to stun me with Your most elegant illustrations, dear Nick. Thanks for sharing!

[Voldo]

Very nice paintings

[Nickillus]

Hi,
I've been following your work for a few months. It's just wonderful. Great lighting, very dynamic poses, a really interesting use of color etc. And your tutorials on SKP and Artrage have really been instrumental to my getting a grip on how to use them. I had a question or two-

To get the kind of detail you're producing in some of these works, what kind of dpi and res are you working at? Lots and lots of layers?

Also, it looks like a lot of what you do emulates pencil work. Is that true? I see, to my eye, a lot of tasty sketchy stuff going on. I've been viewing enough of your stuff that it's hard to remember if it was for SKP or Artrage though.

Also, it would be very interesting to hear your thoughts on the two programs. What each does very well, comparative to the other, etc. Do you switch between the programs in the midst of a single project? Or sort of stick to one?

Finally, I know you've had that thing up on your website about an Artrage art/tutorial book coming out for a long time, but I really hope it happens. That would be very very cool. The truth is that I wish there was something similar for SKP. Most tuts are really about mechanical mockups and whatnot. I don't see as much use for it with finished artwork, though I really love working with it.

Thanks for sharing. It's very cool to see you back on the boards after a few months away.

Many thanks for the kind words Steve. Now if I can just live up to half of them I'll be a happy man.

With regards to my work processes and getting detail in -
Dpi depends on the size of the piece and how that might affect performance on your system. Bobby Chiu advocates always working at 300dpi whenever possible and I'd agree that's a very good rule of thumb especially if you are thinking ahead for print purposes. It also works out about 3X magnification on most screens' standard resolution and allow plenty enough scope for detail that will look fine on actual paper.
And yes - I'm a layer hog. I find working on separate layers for things can help organise clean elements and provide the opportunity to build depth and subtlety when working with additive blend modes (like multiply or watercolour for example).

I always liked working with a real pencil so both ArtRage and Sketchbook Pro's pencil tools delight me with their good emulation of the same. I tend to prefer the 'precise' option switched on in AR, unless I watch to exploit the roughness of a paper texture. The stuff I post here will be AR pencil work, as I see that as an important point of the forums here - to share our AR experiences and images.
There is an Autodesk forum where I would post SKB drawings but it's not as buzzing as this one and I've been forgetting to check into it of late. The images below are ones done in SKB and reflect the use I make of the ability to create custom texture brushes (as it doens't employ canvas/base textures) - custom brush heads are of course possible with stickers in AR, but I tend to use stencils and paper textures more.

I generally use AR for anything that requires a more painterly approach and SKB for a more graphic style. It's not that SKB can't produce painterly looks but just that it's how I feel the two software's 'personalities' sit for my style and mind set. They are both lovely to work in, but I don't tend to cross pollinate imagery - not for any particualr reason I can expolain though - big help huh!

I do know that Simon Dominic Brewer has declared he regularly uses ArtRage and Painter in combination - and his work is simply outstanding (and he's one of the self taught brigade making it doubly impressive).

The book has been on hold for a while for various reasons, but mostly because I've got bogged down with other stuff. My thought at the moment is to plod on in the background with it - but have an eye for the inevitable release of ARtRage 4 at some time in the future so I can include some stuff with particular relevance to that.

At the moment it's all 2.5 to 3.5 content and will be immediately out of date when 4 smacks us round the face with how great it's bound to be. It will also allow me more time to track down more unsung superstars of AR with the hope of them allowing me to display some of their images.

I do hope to knock out some more tutorial sort of things soon, but am a notorious slowcoach. Comparative ones for AR and SKB is a good idea and well worth consideration. I've done something recently that might sneak into a future issue of ArtRageUS, but that's entirely up to Bobby Ray and his excellent helpers.
Thanks for your interest - hope I answered some of your questions at least a bit.

Voldo ad Caesar - Many thanks.

[Steve B]

Is the work you're producing usually for print? That's my presumption. I recently spoke with someone about b & w inking for print, and he was advocating 600dpi. That seemed like an awefully high res to me, and I wasn't really sure what the real-world benefits would be versus 300 dpi. Do you have an opinion on this based on your experience?

Re: the Autodesk forum- yeah, that place is dead, which is a shame. There's really not much of a community for the tool, frankly. It gets a lot of slack from people I talk to about it-- that it's underpowered, doesn't do much, etc. But if what you want is pencil and ink work it seems wonderful. Very simple, very easy to use, very much designed for a pen and tablet (I'm on a tablet pc)-- it doesn't do everything, but what it does it does well. What impresses me most though is that you do your coloring in it too. I've done some pencil work in it, and the done color work in Artrage.

I like the idea of comparative tutorials for AR and SKP. That would really really interesting. Yes, now let me schedule your time! Hahaha!

I hope the book comes to fruition. Shame that the vidcam interviews stopped as well. It was fun to see Someonesane and John Hodgon in the flesh. Clearly there was a point when there was a helluva lot of stuff in the works.

[Nickillus]

Hi Steve,

I've been working as an illustrator in children's publishing for nearly thirty years, so I've got into the habit of thinking and preparing for print - even when I don't have an actual book or magazine lined up for an image. I figure it gives me the option should I decided to use it that way later on. Where's the drawback eh?

Yes it's such a shame that the SKB forum is a bit of a desert. It's a fantastic software for drawing in particular, and more than cpable of rendering out decent paintings these days, particularly with the addition of a few layer blending modes and the custom brushes. Fluidity and touch response have always been its selling points, and they are just as good as they ever were but with more tool options these days.

I reckon the main reason for folk thinking of it as primarily a design tool is due to the other big hitting software in the Autodesk aresenal, which are 3D and design stalwarts. So long as the software doesn't just disappear it's no skin off my nose. I tell folk how good it is, just like I do with ArtRage - it's their loss if they don't bother to check it out properly.

I'll have a think about the comparative tutorial and see what crops up. I'll alert you if and when it looks like going anywhere.
yes it's a bit of a shame about the fading away of the live broadcast thing for the moment. A number of organisational things conpsired against it - a combination of Jon and myself getting ridiculously busy but more damaging was Patrice (the creator and driving force beihind the ItsArtMag site) running into a brick wall in finding new funding for the site, which he runs and pays for almost single handed. He's holding down a couple of jobs already and the extra pressure the live broadcasts were taking on his time was unsustainable. Doens't mean we won't work a way round it at a later date, but for now it's on hold until we do. We will find a way . . . .You guys will suffer our drivel again one day.

[Caesar]

Your illustrations and step by step tutorials are simultaneously sheer delight and a most useful and beneficial lesson of humility for me!

[Freid]

Hiya !

This thread is a treasure !

[Arjen Vriezekolk]

Hi Nick,

I do hope to see your piece for the challenge "the day we left earth" on It's art magazine.!
And all the others by the way to.
Would be a wonderfull opportunity to compare each others way of working towards a final result...

Please keep us informed about your wonderfull work!

Regards,

Arjen

[Arjen Vriezekolk]

please ignore my invitation......About a year late...
It's the small print that always gets me......

Arjen

[Nickillus]

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the silence. Had my head down catching up after a bout of flu (or some such bug). Thanks for all the encouragement. It is always appreciated, thanks.

Haha Arjen - I thought I'd gone through a time portal - I'm so glad it isn't just me that does stuff like that though. I'm always getting dates muddled and deadlines . . .well we'd best not talk about them - whistles and shuffles about a bit.

Haven't got much I can show at the moment due to publishing constraints and such -but have started playing around with some silly Christmassy ideas for something. Very rough and vague at the moment but there is a plan behind the vagueness - honest.