WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
-
6 comments
Hey, I'm continuing the experimentation around this two characters. I also start to like these two, they also let me express a visual metaphor of what I'm living. Maybe I'm finding a simpler form of storytelling.
On a technical point of view, they are super challenging with their difference of size. Thanks to the blond sorceress, I can train expression, pose and anatomy. Thanks to the scene with the Dragon, I can train perspective, shot, composition, more material and background interaction.
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-28_introduce-the-dragon-to-the-outside-world_0_failure-oopsie.jpg)
_The original 'direct painting' fail_
But I failed when I first started this test. I tried to start "direct painting". It means I tried to bypass the thumbnail, the sketch and went directly at painting shapes with a brush to get done the color flat. Maybe I was a bit too bold about it because I quickly reach a dead-end. One advantage: I could quickly set the general idea of the scene and it was readable. On the downside, I really had poor shapes, flat perspective and fixing a start-up like that felt immediately that I'll need hours and hours to adjust all the shapes into something better.
So I started over.
I went back to 1.Sketch, 2.Color Flat, 3.Shading, 4.Paint-Over. Discipline.
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-28_introduce-the-dragon-to-the-outside-world_a_color-flat.jpg)
_1. Sketch_
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-28_introduce-the-dragon-to-the-outside-world_b_color-flat.jpg)
_2. Color Flat_
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-28_introduce-the-dragon-to-the-outside-world_c_color-flat.jpg)
_3. Shading_
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-28_introduce-the-dragon-to-the-outside-world_d_color-flat.jpg)
_4. Paint-Over and adjustments_
I also posted on the way [a feature request on Krita artist for better Quick Clipping Group on Krita](https://krita-artists.org/t/wish-quick-clipping-group-feature-better-auto-naming/50436). It will be more constructive than what I wrote on the last blog post where I complained about the usability of the group in Krita.
This time, I also decided to not flat all the layer stack after the shading was done. I also tested a big change: using a single layer for the shading as I did for some episodes of Pepper&Carrot. The illustration had 6 top level groups (more than for other this time), and I couldn't imagine managing three layers for the shading only per groups. I went to the 'Hard Light' blending mode, and I found new tips to keep a global mood on the piece without having to rely on a top 'paint-over' paint layer or a projection to do my color adjustments.
It's too bad I spent way too much time on this one. Definitely not yet a suitable workflow for comic and a Pepper&Carrot episode. So, I have to continue to explore to find where I crunch things down or not. My ~~dragon~~ instinct will guide me, I'm trying to not overthink it and I'll just follow two never-failing partners: curiosity and fun.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
-
4 comments
_4K resolution available, click the picture to enlarge._
SO, after the previous "[Confront the Dragon](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article935/confront-the-dragon)", I continue my research.
This time, I wanted to study a more cinematographic shot, with depth of field and again, multiple light sources (obviously a contrast of a cold and warm one).
I think I improve a bit in the way I'm letting more and more expressive brush stroke visible but in place where they are not an issue for reading the picture. Firm edges and sharpening are ok, but I need to find a better solution because I used here the "clipping mask" workaround in Krita, and it was really unbearable how many layers where necessary and buttons to press to just shade a shape and then merge back. I start to really wish if Krita had real clipping mask.
On the downside, I spent a bit too much time at the drawing and the flat color. I saw later on the artwork I could really solve most of the sketch at the flat color step, and I could also do a less precise flat color because the shading sort of broke a lot of its precision. So, I have two rooms for optimization in my next test.
My goal is to find a way to crunch the time and optimize it until I can do something like that in 2 or 3h max. Right now, I still spent the double on it.
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-25_a_discuss-with-the-dragon_ccby_david-revoy.jpg)
_The drawing_
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-25_b_discuss-with-the-dragon_ccby_david-revoy.jpg)
_The color flat_
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-25_c_discuss-with-the-dragon_ccby_david-revoy.jpg)
_The quick shading pass_
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-25_0_discuss-with-the-dragon_ccby_david-revoy.jpg)
_my desk and setup: Intuos Pro Large, Fedora KDE Linux 36, Philipps 245E monitor_
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
-
6 comments
I'm still continuing my research and I had to do a test to stress my new method even more.
My stress test: I had to paint visual effects (fire), night ambiance, fog, a foreground/middleground/background, a perspective system, etc... And because I'm doing all of that in a larger plan to solve many other bottleneck in my production, I decided to go for a theme of "Confront the Dragon". It has an opportunity to study many material at once.
Unfortunately for my test, it failed. I don't get exactly the rendering I wanted. I pushed the artwork anyway so I could post it and the file doesn't sleeps on my disk system.
I wish I had a better way to preserve the silhouette of the ground (foreground/middleground/background/dragon/character) and the layer stack of Krita did not help about that. The alpha inheritance workaround for clipping mask is not fluid to work with, except if you have only one or two group like that in your file.
I'll continue to explore.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
-
no comments
Hey, I'm happy to announce two signing session dates in November:
### Foire du Livre de Brive
• Saturday 5 November (afternoon)
• Sunday 6 November (morning and afternoon)
I'll be in the "Espace des trois provinces", the part dedicated to comics in this festival.
**More info:** http://www.foiredulivredebrive.net
(Note: I'm registered under my pseudonym "Deevad" and not "David Revoy" in the list of guests)
### Capitole du Libre, Toulouse
• Saturday 19 November (morning and afternoon)
• Sunday 20 November (morning and afternoon)
I'll also give a quick talk about the new features recently added to Krita.
**More info:** https://capitoledulibre.org/
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
-
7 comments
A workflow experimentation that turned ok. I'm trying to capture a feeling of nostalgic (J)RPG, like a mix of old Zelda, Secret of Mana, but also series like Record of Lodoss War, all of that mixed with the high fantasy I also loved at that time, D&D, Magic the Gathering, DragonLance, etc... Hard to balance a painterly style, the type of design, and the mood. I study that for future P&C episode because I want to go into this direction.
## Process
I also try to speedup and optimize my process a lot. I created new brushes for that, but I also learn to start painting differently. I'll give you a quick overview under:
**Step 1:** I keep a step where I draw before painting. I struggled a lot over the past year if I should keep this step as I saw I was more and more able to directly start with painting. But on my recent research, this temporary layer saves a massive amount of time. Getting the volume right (approximatively), the perspective and the proportion really avoid many post fix and post correction while painting. I'm resisting the urge to detail or design at this step; it's much more like a wireframe or a light outline of the 'low polygon' version of my topic.Working with segments not connected and a low opacity brush preset helps me to just draw what's necessary. Anyway, there is not a lot of pressure because I know all the pixels of this layers will never be visible on the final result.
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-20_a_painting-study_wip.jpg)
**Step 2:** I changed my habits for this step too: I paint flat colors under the low opacity guideline. I usually will paint a 'precolor' with shadows and all. But I decided to merge some ideas of what I learnt with the 'comic/cartoon workflow with line-art' to my painterly workflow. During the process, I eventually turn off the visibility of the lines in mid way. I'm not only painting flat area of colors: I'm also painting the creases, the part where light can't reach. It's a sort of ambiant-occlusion; but not detailed. The goal here is to get my 'model' colored as if it was standing under a (cold) white neon light doing a 360° all around it. For some reason, it's easy for me to paint this way. I made myself a brush preset on Krita with hard edges and almost no opacity (unusual for my taste) to paint this step. Because of the omnipresent light, it's a good time to focus on the design of the shapes; how they read in perspective as 3D volumes, and how they feels as 2D shapes language: the angles, the primitive shapes (circles, triangles, etc) and a variety of them. I also can start to manage decoration and patterns at this step. It's totally not boring to paint this way (if I compare that to flatting for a comic line-art) I keep a real freedom and the guideline of (1) are quickly obsolete and removed. I can really see myself managing prototyping comic pages and start to work on the storytelling at this step.
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-20_b_painting-study_wip.jpg)
**Step 3:** I try to approach shading very binary: or in light, or in shadow. I exclude the half tones, and this is not (here again) my comfort zone. I'm used to paint and do modeling directly with opacity on my brush. I made a softer brush to paint this step, because it allows me to do a little bit of modeling, I couldn't remove too much this habit. If the brush was too hard (eg. with a hard rounded brush, very clean) I wouldn't like to paint this step, I tried. I'm used to shade using one layer (with the "Hard Light" blending mode), but I discovered some advantage now to use two layers: a first one in "Multiply" to set the tone of shadows (the depravation of light, with a residual light coming from the surrounding), in this case a greyish cold to simulate a bit of color coming from a sky box. And for the other one, I create on the top a "Color Dodge" layer and paint with a warm grey on it. I found two advantages to manage my shading this way: the layer are flexible and I can summon the HSV adjustments anytime to adjust the delta between the light and the shadow, how cold/dark or how warm/bright they should be. I can imagine this might help with the consistency of light from a panel to another one. The second advantage is about using the E key of Krita as an eraser with my soft painterly preset on the light (Color Dodge) layer. I can adjust the good angle of the light and compute my brain-raytracing more easily. It's a good flexibility for the control of the art-direction, because you can test various setup if you get stuck. It's amazing how splitting that much light and shadow, in a more dramatic fashion of what I'm used to can improve the readability of the shapes. I can't wait to try that on comic panels.
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-20_c_painting-study_wip.jpg)
**Step 4:** I flat all the previous steps to one "Normal" layer. Then I do some post adjustments. For example, a layer in "Overlay" on the top will manage very well some spikes of saturation (eg. see her hair or neck) and also manage the secondary light source (the bounce of green light on the floor, coming from grass, or the blue skybox from the top that neutralize many hue). I put a little Color Balance to yellowishify the tone of the picture. That's one advantage to flat all to a single layer (for the character): you can then use filters, or Gmic filters for color grading. I also adjusted the contrast (an important note here: I try to not crease to 100% black or white, tones should looks a little bit in a reduced color gamut , avoiding high saturation or to deep tones; it reinforces −probably because of our visual culture− the feeling of a painting). That's something I observed recently in many old school non-digital fantasy gouache painting scanned. My last step is to detail with a small rounded brush, but you'll see here I only painted on her face and around. It's not really about increasing the resolution of the whole piece, but just placing some accents of density of details here and there. That's also possible thanks to an advantage of this workflow: because there is no drawing or lines baked in the artwork at an early step, there is no need to perform an overall 'clean-up' at the detail step. Parts detailed are a bit blocky but still easy to read. That's a precious place to save time.
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-20_d_painting-study_wip.jpg)
I'll continue to test this method for sure, and if my new brushes stabilize over the next week, I'll share them.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
-
10 comments
So I am into a period of doing anatomy studies with for main purpose trying to get better at articulating the body on (digital) paper. My motivation: easing the drawing process on the future episode and feel more confident to start drawing lessons on my video channel. On the last [episode 37](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/webcomic/ep37_The-Tears-of-the-Phoenix.html), I had a lot of trouble with drawing the poses. I especially struggled with one of the panel on the last page where Pepper shows the large knife of the butcher to the Phoenix. It was a top down view, and I made many paint-over to obtain something I'm still not happy with. So, I pump my skill a bit to avoid this type of situation in the future.
I already have almost a week of training on these, part time. I'll not share all the first batch on the blog because I drew them mostly without clothes and the first batch looks bad and a bit too NSFW for my taste. Only this morning I had the idea I could not draw some details and cover them with a pant and a top so I could share the studies. This doesn't remove any complexity to the training and it makes it easier to manage the files imo (eg. no fear to accidentally show the studies in public or in a sketchbook). I'll keep this way to practice.
Do I see improvements? Not much yet. Sure, my line is a bit more precise but my poses are still stiff. At least, I have less and less difficulties to draw the body as a whole. It has been a month I switched to use the Intuos Pro Large now and I'm happy about its precision mapped on my 24'' quadHD monitor. It wasn't evident because its active area is smaller than the tablet I come from (the Intuos4 XL). The too grainy default surface already ate 4 nibs, but the overlay sheet is getting a little bit smoother and the duration of the nibs is increasing accordingly. I drew these three poses at 50% viewport without zooming in, on single layer for each of them, with a slight Stabilizer 'size' (around 28) and the [mechanical pencil](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article854/krita-brushes-2021-bundle) part of my 2021 brush pack.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
-
14 comments
A remake in my style of the original character by Kasuga for the unofficial mascot of Wikipedia, a Krita artwork licensed under the CC-By-Sa-2.5, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic.
Wikipe-tan reads and edits the Wikipe-tan page on a transparent neon retro-futuristic tablet with a stylus. I changed her costume to take distance from the maid costume not really aligning with what I wanted to depict. She is a focused reader and editor.
I did this piece as a side project for testing a new set of brushes and workflow. Click on the picture to enlarge it to 3148x2858px (2,2MiB).
Links:
- [Wikipe-tan Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipe-tan)
**License Attribution notice:** "A remake by David Revoy of an original character designed by Kasuga, CC-By-Sa-2.5"
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
-
32 comments
The publisher **Prikazka-igra** just ended [their crowd-funding campaign for publishing their Bulgarian translation of Pepper&Carrot](https://prikazka-igra.com/pepper-carrot.html). It was a success with over **1700 books sold**. Congratulation to them!
Now their campaign is over you can still buy a copy: it's just now a bit more expensive than when they ran the campaign (for classic inventory/batch printing reasons).
## The cool side
You can **read for free their Bulgarian translation**: the page of the campaign contains two links to the PDFs in low quality but good enough to be read on a tablet. This is really cool to show the digital version of the final product and I understand why it convinced many visitors to support this campaign. The publisher already has published other books so I can imagine an audience already trusting their quality and they propose a full preview before buying it. That's nice.
The PDFs are **published under [the CC-By-Nc-Nd-2.5 license](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/)**, a good surprise because my other commercial publishers (eg. Glénat or ex TokyoPop) often goes full Copyrighted with their derivation . Indicating a license with clear rules is always a benefit over Copyrighted content, even if this CC-By-Nc-Nd-2.5 doesn't allow editing, derivation and commercial usage. But at least, it allows me to re-host the PDF [on my 'print' directory](https://www.peppercarrot.com/extras/?dir=print). This is useful for archiving or sharing non-commercially copies.
The books received a lot editing: each comic pages received a background texture instead of the white separator of the panel and sketches were inserted, giving to this publishing **a unique look**. The publisher told me it is promised to be print on **high quality** paper and hardcover. The publisher also **promised to share a part of the profit** of the campaign in 2023.
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-07_screenshot_125442_net.jpg)
_Attribution, license and nice presentation._
## The "meh" side
[info]**2022-10-11 Update:** Each topics under I disliked or was confused about were carefully answered by the publisher and the community in the comments. It gives context and depth to the decision and **I feel better now** about the changes knowing that. To avoid the reader to jump back and forth between the blog-post and the comment section, I took the liberty to plug the answer of Nikola Raykov, the publisher, directly in-between the points of my original article. [/info]
I found a **panel removed**: [the Kiss of Shichimi and Torreya](https://www.davidrevoy.com/data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-07_pepper-carrot-sample-panel-removed_prikazka-igra_bulgarian-cc-by-nc-nd-25.jpg) and a **dialog changed** (Torreya is now a 'friend' of Shichimi, not her girlfriend). You'll find on the Pepper&Carrot website the [original episode un-edited](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/webcomic/ep36_The-Surprise-Attack.html) if you want to compare.
_A panel was removed, depicting the cute Lesbian kiss of Torreya and Shichimi._
> **Nikola Raykov**: First let me clarify that we do not have different words in Bulgarian for a "friend" and a "girlfriend", both are "приятелка". The two girls might still be intimate friends, we just don't get to see the actual kiss. The reason for this is very simple. This panel would have caused a scandal in Bulgaria, the whole comics would have been labeled LGBT propaganda (especially considering the fact that there are no male heroes in it at all). Our audience as a publisher includes very small kids. It would have been a huge problem for something that is actually a very small detail and does not have any relevance to the main story. As an author myself I completely understand David's opinion. I would have been irritated if somebody made a similar change in my works, but I just don't think the hate and the labeling of the whole comics is worth it for something that is so insignificant. If it was important for the main story or the message of the work (like in V for Vendetta for example) it would have been very different story.
I don't understand Bulgarian, but I used an app that converted my screen-shot of the PDF so I could translate the text. Something I could spot on the same page: "O, боже..." (translated by "Oh God...") that are clearly **not a choice of wording I would use** as a die-hard atheist.
> **BirdOfPrey**: [...] in Eastern Europe it is completely normal to use "O, боже..." even if you are completely not religious, it's more of a set expression at this point.
> **Nikola Raykov**: This was already explained above, so no need to go into details, a lot of atheists would use this as an expression, but if I knew this will irritated David, I would have used different wording.
They also **removed episodes** to pack the series into two books of 100 pages (eg. of missing episodes: Episode 1 with the potion of flight, Episode 7 with the Wish, Episode 13: the pyjama party, Ep26 Books are Great and Ep30 need a hug).
> **Nikola Raykov**: Episodes were not removed. It was rather a selection of the other episodes that left some of the others out. We are a very small publishing house and we do only 2 projects per year. I wanted to be able to tell the whole story of Pepper and Carrot (up to this point), but anything above 2 books of 100 pages would have been an overkill trying to publish and sell it. So we picked up all the episodes that are related to the main stories and left out the single ones (such as summer special, Christmas special, etc.). I would love to publish them at some point in the future if the comics are well accepted by the audience (I would also love to include some of wiki info and David's conceptual art).
I also saw a speechless episode (episode 25: There is no shortcut) receiving a special treatment: **dialogs** were written for this one and pasted over.
> **Nikola Raykov**: After all the single episodes were left out, this turned out to be the only silent one. It looked extremely strange as if in the middle of the story all characters just lost their ability to speak. My goal through the whole time was to try to create a consistent story. This is also the reason why Episode 19 was moved right after Episode 12 (don't know if David has not noticed this change or he likes it as it makes sense).
I also found **issues with fonts** (see picture at the end of the article), and frame around rounded panel not really well integrated.
So, as you already understood by the title of this article, this version of Pepper&Carrot **is heavy derivated**. Unfortunately, I can't really measure the magnitude of the changes because my process for translating is long and tedious.
## Is it allowed?
Yes, these changes are **totally legal** because it is indicated on the first page along the mentioned Creative Commons license. I translated this part too to be sure about it, and they indicated this version of Pepper&Carrot **received large editing** of Panel, episodes, and speech-bubbles. This license and this indication **is then totally compliant** with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International rules...
So, it's not what I consider infringing to my moral as an author. I can still be proud to be quoted as the author of the ending product, and it is still (I guess; I haven't translated everything) very OK to get my name on it, but I just consider this edit "far from official Pepper&Carrot".
As I have no idea of the political/religious/comic-industry context in Bulgaria, I'll probably not try to project any bad intentions about it and focus about the effort that went into this derivation to "improve" it to the audience of this publisher.
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-07_screenshot_130104_net.jpg)
_I made the episode 25 without any speechbubble, but the version of Prikazka-igra above reintroduce a dialog written by themselves._
## Matter for thought about derivations...
I'm sincerely happy Prikazka-Igra made a successful crowd-funding, especially −*I'm not gonna lie*− for the part where they promised to share benefits. The work to publish the next episodes of Pepper&Carrot became super complex and living in this world is more and more expensive. Any financial help can be converted into more production time, so I can develop this series as I want. So any help is warmly welcome. I wish more publisher across the globe would imitate this initiative.
It also shows me a real example of how the content can be edited before publishing. It's a **real life situation** of what is a derivation and it was a good opportunity to question my feeling about it. **I don't agree** with this removal of the cute Lesbian kiss of Torreya and Shichimi, **but I allow that** because it is part of giving freedom as I do with the Pepper&Carrot license.
The crowd-founding contain a very honest preview the PDFs and there will be **no surprise** (I guess) for the audience who bought it. That's part of the work of a publisher **to adapt** a work to an audience (I remember the heavy cut of scenes from the anime I watched when I was a kid on French TV, with many dialog rewritten).
If I would have wanted my story and words to not be changed: I would have selected the **ND/non-derivative** option on the Creative Commons license and I didn't.
I just hope this publishing will contribute **to welcome a new Bulgarian audience**, willing to discover the original version of Pepper&Carrot later, and maybe **contribute to a faithfull and free/libre translation** on the website and join the 60 other translations of Pepper&Carrot!
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-10-07_screenshot_130507_net.jpg)
_On a technical end-note: look at the 'big number' and how they are cropped.
it's a mix of publisher not downloading the font,
mixed with [a regression of Inkscape](https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/issues/3821).
It is somehow sad to see this issue of rendering..._
### Links:
- The Campaign: https://prikazka-igra.com/pepper-carrot.html
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
-
6 comments
A contribution to Wikipedia (pages without pictures), I discovered it thanks to the French initiative [Les Sans Images](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projet:Les_sans_pagEs/Les_sans_imagEs).
It was difficult but a good training: I had to not copy the photos but derivate a lot from them so the portraits could be under libre license.
I'll upload them later to Wikimedia. I'll need to cut them to illustrate each of their profile.
Clockwise: Li Tingting, Zheng Churan, Wei Tingting, Wu Rongrong, Wang Man.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feminist_Five
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
-
11 comments
... but in my style.
The references (under) and my remake (on top). Click to enlarge and see the brush work. While doing a long commission for the next campaign of Framasoft, I'm still playing at the evening with doing these remakes of free and libre culture characters. I'm not sure yet what will be the next one, but I want to continue that.
Important attribution complement if you plan to reuse: "by David Revoy, a derivation from an original design by Mandi Paugh. CC-BY-4.0"
(update) Speedpainting timelapse videos
▶️ Ptb: https://peertube.touhoppai.moe/w/7mtYbNYJTDULLpDJUMcgcn
▶️ Ytb: https://youtu.be/RIF_nb7DAfU
[](data/images/blog/2022/2022-09-21_sara_opengameart-in-my-style_references.jpg)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
-
3 comments
Hey, here is the mascot of https://pleroma.social/ named Pleroma-tan. Users of Pleroma asked me to draw her in my style long long time ago and it was sleeping in a dusty 'someday' folder.
I wanted to test new brushes on a character and I remembered of her. So, this is a Pleroma 'in my style'.
First week of September I wrote the detailed scenario for episode 38 and 39 of Pepper&Carrot. Episode 38 was too long (first scenario had 12 pages) and I found a way to split it into two episode while making the two interesting. It took me a lot of effort and rewrite.
I'm right now painting a big series of illustration for the upcoming campaign of Framasoft. I'll start storyboard soon along the way.
So, it's a busy start of September with many very productive days. I feel more and more confident about my painting technique in Krita, and I have real fun with it. Maybe you can feel it on this Pleroma-tan artwork. 🙂
CC-BY-SA-4.0 note: attribution to "David Revoy, pleroma.social"
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
-
3 comments
A fan-art portrait of the video game character Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy 7 (design of the Remake), the portrait is done imitating pencil portrait, using [the newest brush bundle from Ramon Miranda](https://krita-artists.org/t/sk-sketching-in-krita-v1/45795).
*This work is a fan-art of a fictive video game character property of Square Enix Co. Ltd, published here under fair use.*
