TOOLS OF THE TRADE

A few years back, my friend, fellow illustrator/storyboard artist Todd Harris offered me the term, “paper’s for chumps!” He was referring to doing art work on paper ; drawing on it with a pencil or pen, scanning the work, getting approvals from a director, and then doing FINISHES, scanning those, and THEN saving/emailing/printing the finished work. Oh, and as nothing is “finished” in film, like when the director changes their mind, and you have to RE-DRAW everything.Todd works on a Wacom tablet. It comes in a 4 by 6 or 6 by 8 size. A USB cable connects it to your computer. Using a special pen that comes with the tablet, you look at your computer screen, while keeping the pen on the tablet, drawing whatever you need to. The image you are drawing appears on the computer screen, or an attached monitor. What this does is that you can save time by not scanning. Everything goes directly into your computer. If you need to make a change (you need to be working in a program like Photoshop, Painter, or Illustrator) you can make the change you need to and instantly save it.When I was working on FAST AND FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT, my storyboard teammates Darrin and Jim hipped me on to Wacom’s CINTIQ, which we saw at a demonstration. A Cintiq is a monitor that hooks up to your computer. Instead of drawing on a tablet and looking at a separate screen (I can’t handle the dis-connect), you draw ON the monitor, as if you were drawing on a desk with a piece of paper. It replicates the angle and feel of regular drawing, while still getting you away from scanning. Many artists, like production illustrators Doug Chiang or Ryan Church do color paintings digitally. I mainly use it for black and white work. These guys are also brilliant artists with a digital brush or live brush. It just takes time to make the get used to the medium. One can certainly send digital art to clients in all stages and make changes.This is great for the commercial field. Fine artists need not apply.The difference is that a Cintique or even a Wacom tablet lack the “teeth” that paper has, and even when you are coloring, a Wacom pen is not the same as using an actual brush. This all has to do with “feeling” as you do your work. All in all, the Cintiq or tablet do offer advantages as well as disadvantages. As a commercial artist, digital lets me deal with my clients at the speed they are getting used to having and getting information.