http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:SilentCarol&section=today deviantART RSS for by:SilentCarol en-us Copyright 2010, deviantART.com Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:43:04 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://SilentCarol.deviantart.com/journal/24638664/ http://SilentCarol.deviantart.com/journal/24638664/ Thu, 07 May 2009 16:30:50 PDT
Today, after five hours of searching and downloading a suitable software, I managed to recover my lost photos. I sure hope I will never have to go through this again, it was such a pain in the ass. Seriously.

So, finally an update that isn't a miserable Ps scribble. Ugh. I'm glad I got my pictures back, I should be happy.

]]> ~SilentCarol http://SilentCarol.deviantart.com/journal/20596917/ http://SilentCarol.deviantart.com/journal/20596917/ Sun, 21 Sep 2008 06:55:05 PDT
But this is the way it is... When I post something, I post a lot. And then I do nothing for the longest time. And then I post tons and tons again. So sorry

Anyway, I took some pictures again and I'm happy Also put up a few older ones...
Oh well. Until next time, bye.

]]> ~SilentCarol http://SilentCarol.deviantart.com/journal/20537902/ http://SilentCarol.deviantart.com/journal/20537902/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:43:58 PDT People should never use copics for anything. Ever.
Why?

First of all, the price. It's like one marker costs around 4 €, depending on if it's Ciao or some other kind. If you want to have more than one shade of red, you need to buy at least three, because adding a new layer of the same color rarely works. If you wish to have more than one color, you need to buy tons of different markers. Without the extra fills, they run out quickly as hell too. (I know, I've used them!)

Second, the amount of the markers is just crazy. There are like million different shades of each color and you need to have them all to make the coloring work. And in the middle of coloring your most awesome piece of work ever, you realise you've just run out of the blue you used to shade your character's pants or something. And the people who sell these markers think that you need a special wallet just for these markers, among all the other shit they're trying to sell you. And people buy it, just because it's the official trademark, omg! They totally can't keep their markers stuffed anywhere else!

Copics were invented (by Satan, most likely) to imitate the brush. A real brush. That's why they have tips like that. Which brings me to this question:
Why use them at all? You could just take a brush and use watercolors!
"Oh no, they're really hard to master, copics are so much better!"

REALLY.
In my opinion, copics are for lazy people who want everything done ready for them. I mean all of the different shades too: you don't have to go through the trouble of mixing them by yourself. They're are ready in the set of markers you've bought.
The basic starter set is usually something like this:
[link]

It has the most basic colors in it, probably one grey and a black one.
What in the world can you do with those? I mean what kind of a picture does have colors like that?
"ooh, I wanna draw Sasuke, eek, he's like so cute omgg!"

Yeah, well guess what. You can't. Because there's no skin tone included. You gonna make him bright yellow? Think again, noob.
And that starter set (with the good-for-nothing basic colors) already costs more than your mommy earns in a day. She's gonna have to work all week for you to get your fucking markers.

Let's look at it this way.

Use watercolors. A set of quality watercolors costs around 20-25€. It includes around 24 different shades and colors, which you can mix endlessly, creating hundreds of new shades. A good quality set also lasts for years, depending on the usage. You can have different sized brushes (with copics, you gotta buy them separately for all the shades. the markers have two tips, but the other one is mostly useless, and it's no bigger than the brush tip), you can cover much larger areas and have all the colors in the world way cheaper.

Or,
Use Photoshop. Yes, it's expensive, but you only need to pay for it once and then you can use it forever. It also requires some practice, but it's still better than markers. The color never runs out on you. You can erase it and do it again million times. It leaves a lot room for practice. And, when you learn it, you might be able to produce some pretty nice art.

So the basic thought of this rant: do not use copics. Use watercolors. Use PS. Actually pretty much anything is better than copics.
I have one exception though: the grey tones.
If you buy, let's see, like 6-8 shades of grey (warm or cold ones in a set), you could be able to make some nice greytones with them. Still, those can be done better ink or watercolors. Or PS.
So yeah. Don't buy copics. Copics are for idiots who don't know shit about colors. Don't be fooled by it's reputation as the "official manga marker". There are no specific tools for making manga, or any comics whatsoever. Every artist has their own preference, and I seriously haven't seen a single professional who's using copics for their finished work, nor have I ever seen an impressive piece of art made using them.

Signing off for now, bye.

]]> ~SilentCarol http://SilentCarol.deviantart.com/journal/20289737/ http://SilentCarol.deviantart.com/journal/20289737/ Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:49:36 PDT I just felt like doing it... I mean, I had some stuff to add so I did. I will have some more stuff sometime soon. Hopefully I'll add some new photos (when I have the time and energy to take some) and a 10-page comic I did this summer for a friend. It's kind of a fan-comic, and I used watercolors to do the greytones for the first time ^^ Yay. It was fun. I really enjoyed making it, so hopefully it'll end up here. Otherwise I'm kinda out of pages to put here, since the size of my originals is A3 and my scanner is only A4.

I think that's it. And as for the random visitors: thank you all for the favs ^^ I don't always reply but I always appreciate it.

]]> ~SilentCarol http://SilentCarol.deviantart.com/journal/19763187/ http://SilentCarol.deviantart.com/journal/19763187/ Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:14:17 PDT Pretty much a noob still, when it comes to photography. And photographs are what I'm mainly going to put here. If I manage to scribble something incredible by hand, I might share it, but this is a photoalbum mostly.

And about the contents, ahem, they're mostly land/waterscapes, buildings and stuff like that... Things around me. I'm getting bored of taking pictures of the same things, so I try to keep my stuff varied.

So, in short: I'm not a professional and just beginning to learn these things, so you may not find any masterpieces in my gallery. Just shots taken for personal amusement.

//edit

Okay, so, I added an "Illustrations and comics"-folder in my gallery. I'll still be mostly doing photos, but I'll put up some drawn stuff too. Depending on how lazy I am, I might even scan some pages I've done. We'll see.

]]> ~SilentCarol