Good Afternoon everyone! I apologize for the delay, but I ran into a roadblock trying to upload the video that you can view at the end of this session. But it was a good learning experience, and I am on track now.

So let's get into it today. Every artist will have different methods of working, just as they have different methods of creating their art. Who likes to cross hatch for texture, others use heavy blacks in their inks, or even who uses charcoal vs graphite.

The same can be said in the media they choose to create their work, but which is best? Traditional methods have been around for centuries. While Digital media has gathered steam in the past decade and shows no signs of slowing down.

As such artist find themselves having to choose sides which media they want to work in. In some cases Digital is the standard for certain employers, while others still choose to be 100% traditional.

I find that artist should work in what makes them comfortable and what produces the best work for them. I also would say you should try everything and see if it something you could benefit from as well.

So let's take a quick look at traditional tools;

PENCILS- The type of pencils you use really is based on personal taste, and the type of work your doing. If your letting someone else ink your work, you may want to have a darker lead so your lines show more. Otherwise, feel free to experiment which will work for you, and no need to focus on having just one either.

• WOODEN- From the classic no. 2 we rocked as kid's to the picking up a set of pencils that have leads of various darkness. H leads are the hardest and lightest, and B's being the softer and darker, so a pencil of 4h is very light, while a 4b is pretty dark.
• MECHANICAL- Also come in various sizes like wooden, but these always stay sharp. Same rules apply with wooden pencils, but with a few "click-clacks" with your thumb, they are always ready to roll, no need to sharpen these guys.

ERASERS- Don't be surprised not all erasers are built the same, or meant for the same tasks

• RUBBER-The Pink ones, A Classic,but if your working with darker pencils, these can leave smudge marks
• VINYL- Normally the white ones, work best with lighter pencil lines
• GUM- The yellowish color eraser that tends to crumble when used
• KNEADED- This is my favorite, as it works well with all line weights and you can form it to fit into tight spots

PAPER- Just because it is White, doesn't mean it is the best choice for your project

• "Ply" is the term to look for with paper, 1ply is thin, 2ply is the industry standard for comic pages and boards, and then you have 3ply
• If your the type of artist who uses a light box, you do not want anything thicker then 2ply
• If your using inks, paints, or watercolors you will want to use a 3ply

You also would want to get a good set of TEMPLATES. These would be your rulers,french curves,t-squares and oval templates. Yeah, you can draw your lines without them, but they will look much cleaner using a template.

Experiement with diffrent tools and see which one works best for you. The good thing about tradional media it is pretty affordable to pick up a set of materials at your local hobby shop, or art store.

You can choice to work in digital media, which is pretty awesome and does have a few advantages to "Pencil and Paper" methods. Cleaner lines and files, editing as much as you like without smudges, and you can create custom templates for future work. But the downside is clearly the costs of the programs and hardware. And its the cost that some artist have a hard time justifying the expense.

Some things to know about Digital Work

• COMPUTERS- Cant do digital work without it. A Laptop and Desktop will be needed.The more RAM the better
• EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE- You want to back up your work and be able to free up the space on your computer, and with the storage sizes hitting terabytes these days, it is just a good idea to pick up if you do do digital work
• SCANNER and PRINTER- For those like myself who still want to work in Tradional methods but also take adavantage of the digital advantages, you need to get your work in, and get it out.
• A DRAWING TABLET- Drawing digitally with a mouse is near impossible to get crisp lines and different line weights. Tablets are fantastic for this. You may have heard artist mentioning a CINTIQ, which is combining the best of a tablet with your monitor.
• ART PROGRAM OF YOUR CHOICE- From the workhorse that is PHOTOSHOP, and the rest of the ADOBE products, COREL paint, GIMP, or even MANGA STUDIO. These all do the job very well, some do a specific job better then others. Experiment with different programs and see which works best for you.

There you have a quick rundown of the different tools you can choose to create your artwork. But the big take away is, how you decide to create your work or how long it takes to complete it matters less the final result, as this is what your viewers will be seeing.

You can choose to show your step by step videos, or explain what you used, but you don't get credit for what you use, but what you did with it.

So which is better? it comes down to what you feel works best for you. Some artists work totally in traditional while others are all digital and make no apologies about doing so. Personally I use a mixture of both.

I included a few examples of the stages of how I go about my workflow. Typically I do my sketches and pencils with paper. I feel I get better control and detail on paper. I then go ahead and scan my images in at 300 dpi or higher to starting inking digitally with MANGA STUDIO. I then finish the colors off in PHOTOSHOP.

In future G.T.P'S I will go in further detail on how I use these programs, but for know this is a quick example of what I do. This is my first screen capture video, so I apologize for the choppiness and audio issues.

I think these lessons will be better with video examples in the future so we will see how that goes. Fell free to share how your workflow is. Do you work in traditional methods, or are you all digital? a combination of both like myself?

And before we wrap this up, If you have any topics you want to see me cover in the following weeks, feel free to drop me a IM or leave a comment. I have a general knowledge on a good range of topics, so it doesn't hurt to ask and see what I can do for you.

So enjoy the video, and until next week

I am Mrfuzzynutz, and I don't double dip my chips!

And there we have it. This is just how I do it, your style may be more efficient and may involve more steps, but what matters is that your comfortable with it, but your also open to try new things to make it easier.

Remember feel free to leave comments on how to improve these lessons. If you you have a question that needs answering, or if you would like to see a topic covered in the future.

Until Next Week!