Tuesday, October 10, 2006




I decided to ink my Boba Fett sketch from last week. If you’re interested in seeing the process I captured the entire thing. It might be hard to see but all I’m doing is laying down my inks on a new layer above the sketch. I’m using a Wacom Tablet with the pressure sensitivity set a little on the firm side.

If you’re at work you might want to turn the volume down. I dropped a song into this video so it wouldn’t be so boring and it’s got some bad language.

147 comments:

Keetsie Joy said...

That's some awesome work, Gabe. May I ask how you control the line weight so well in Photoshop? Is there a setting you use to get the tapered strokes, or is that all by hand?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for these captures. They've helped alot in elevating me from my status as a photoshop newbie.

Anonymous said...

man .... thats sweet line control. Some sexy pen on tablet action there.

A.R.StPierre said...

you make it look so easy :P
makes me want to hook up my scanner and try some stuff

Anonymous said...

Can't thank you enough for these helpful posts. I'm always tempted to switch over to inking digitally but after seeing this, I just don't have that kind of control!

Could I ask you the specifics of your brush settings?

Anonymous said...

yah tell us your brushes! and Wacom settings! what Keetsie asked, too :^) Tell us and I promise to get a Wacom tomorrow....

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting the demo video- good work!

Anonymous said...

Odd comment - but whenever you see a process video like this, its either so perfect, or so fast you never get to see things like a bad line, and use of undo. Kind of nice to see.

You wern't kidding when you said you were anal about inking though, hehe. I tip my hat to you sir.

Anonymous said...

Its amazing how much you can learn just by seeing something done. Awsome work and lots of thanks for the vids.

Anonymous said...

Who did the remixes of thouse fifty-cent songs?
Me like them.

Derek said...

How?!? How do you maintain such a steady hand without going over and over and over it again? Not a vector in sight, either! My hats off to you, good sir. All of them! I'm wearing three!

Anonymous said...

wtf, what is that song? :D

Awesome tho, respect ^_^

Anonymous said...

on your tri-weekly comic submissions, do you sketch those out as well? Or do you start from scratch in photoshop?

And the dirt-looking shapes you drew around Boba was a nice touch. It's subtle but gives a very rough feeling.

DaveT said...

Wow, that was a great video. I'm not really an artist, but I appreciate art and talent. It was great watching you work. You'll have to make a video of you coloring sometime if it's an interesting process.

Stuart Hacking said...

That's one freakin' steady hand you got there! awesome vid.

Unknown said...

God daaamn your strokes are tight. I have a hell of a time getting precise strokes in PS on my Intuos3, keep having to ghost over and over until i nail it. You seem to just land it plain. Bastard.

Anonymous said...

Dude, WTF kind of a system do you have.. Damn....

Anonymous said...

Magnificent.

Kato said...

Very cool video, thanks for posting!

Anonymous said...

Damn I hate being a fan boy but DAMN that really is amazing. Makes me long for art skills...Back to the code farm with me

Anonymous said...

Hey Gabe, can you tell me what the name of the second song was and where you found it. It's amazing. Also, its a great drawing, you're amazingly talented.

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Gabe,
Just wanted to say that i love your art and i've been a fan of Penny Arcade for ages now. I 'm a British fan, and bugged my Waterstones bookstore to get your Attack of the bacon Robots book in. I love your art and, even though i do quite well, could never draw as well as you.
Keep it up!

Anonymous said...

An awesome picture, but where's Boba Fett's Mythosaur on the shoulder plate?

Anonymous said...

Very, very hip. Thank you, sir. I don't really understand how you do that so well, but i'm darn glad you do. Outstanding work.

Anonymous said...

ooooo that's a lovely Boba Fett. I'd like a t-shirt of that!

Anonymous said...

Q UNIT!!!!

the.exile said...

Gabe,

You may have crap taste in music.

But your digital art skills are fucking metal. And I mean Hetfield '87.

Thanks for giving us these peeks behind the curtain.

-tx

Anonymous said...

Getting lineart that smooth that fast... damn.

OhCrapItsAndrew said...

wait-your doing this on a computer?? how the heck do you do that??

Anonymous said...

Fuckin beautiful.

Chrysis said...

It's been said a thousand times (34 to be exact) but Hotdamn! That is impressive! I hope you reply visa vis the settings questions because I too would love to know. Consider my hat well and truly tipped.

magusart said...

Outstanding control of the pen. Do you take Diazepam or something? Nary a mistake or stray line. I've just recently tried inking with my Wacom and Photoshop and either my hand slips or the sensitivity is messed.

I'm also curious what your brush and Wacom settings are. Either way, you're an inspiration!

The Devil Uno said...

I guess I should retire my mouse for a tablet.

Anonymous said...

I love watching you work man, inspirational.

Noel said...

Awesome vid Gabe! Inking was never my strong suit. I always hated doing onion paper tracing (pre computer drawing days). After watching you go through that, it looks like I need to mess around with my {blush} default setting Intuos tablet and just practice that more. Hell I was always trying to find a cheesy way to get around doing the digital inking, but my work always ended up looking choppy. Thanks for the inspiration bro.

Anonymous said...

Too bad boba fett SUXXX!!!!!

Try someone cool like Nien Nubb next time...

Anonymous said...

Is this video sped up? I would presume so.

How much?

Anonymous said...

Q-UNIT!

Tim said...

Awesome video, Gabe, it's always fascinating to watch a master at work. I shared it with my Photoshop homies here at the big A's Seattle office.

I second the request to see you do the color on this or any other sketch.

Anonymous said...

Great vid that's given me a serious dose of Wacom jealousy right now...

Anonymous said...

wonderful.

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much. I didn't even know you showed these kinds of things. They are very helpful!

I especially loved your lighting video!

Love the style in the artwork and of course... love the comic :)

Anonymous said...

That was pretty cool man, interesting to see it "come to life" as they say ;)

Anonymous said...

The confidence in your strokes really comes through in the piece.

You really should post more of these tutorials if you can. It's slightly demoralizing to see a pro ink a full figure in 8 minutes, but I can also see exactly what you're doing and learn a ton.

Anonymous said...

Wow. That's amazing.

I think you missed a little bit of the cape right beneath Boba's groin, though.

Anonymous said...

The beauty of it makes me want to go slit my wrists. I'm such a newb at photoshop. Thanks a lot Gabe, I'm going to go kill myself.

But yeah, you rock. Excellent work.

Anonymous said...

I, along with everyone else, can't figure out how you get such smooth lines on the wacom. They always line up with the other lines, they are always smooth and clean, and nearly always in one swoop.

WTF?! 0_o

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that was amazing. I've been wanting to see something like this since TechTV did a feature on PA and showed about 4 seconds of you in front of the wacom. I don't suppose you'd consider posting details on how you get around so fast on your tablet. Please, continue this project and show us the inking.

Anonymous said...

I almost had to shoot myself while listening to that music.

And, yes you pimped-out hos's I realise that I could have turned my speakers off.

BTW: Nice pimped out gangster drawing skills, or something.

You draw like Smokey the Crackman peddles his warez. Efficiently, with little to no police interference.

jefbot said...

sweet inks, gabe. what happened to the cintiq, tho? is there a reason for the switch back?

OhPunk! said...

That's awesome!!!

** Shaun **
My awesome blog: ohpunk.blogspot.com

-

Anonymous said...

Looking good!

One question if you don't mind. The one thing I've never been able to figure out through all the videos you've made is what setting you use for your pen tool to make such clean lines. Mind sharing?

Anonymous said...

Looking good!

I don't know if you'll actually respond, but I figured I could ask a question while I was here. The one thing I've never been able to figure out through all the videos you've made is what setting you use for your pen tool to make such clean lines. Any chance it's just something simple that I've been leaving out?

Anonymous said...

Gabe's had years of stroking practice. Isn't that right, Gabe? :)

Anonymous said...

Wow Gabe, thats some cool stuff. I've always enjoyed your art style no matter what the change, its always been eclectic and accessible. It's pretty sweet to see you do your thing, just curious how fast you sped that video up, if it was sped up? Now I have to try out the wacom tablets we have up at the studio to try and clean all my inks as that is my weak area. Thanks for doing what you do.

Anonymous said...

Each line you do would take me 5 or 10 strokes to get, my hands have a case of what I like to call 'the shakes' even with digital correction...

You did in 8 minutes what would take me at least an hour or two, but i'm curious, if you were to compare your skill and talent now to what it was say a year or three ago how much would you say you'd improved, not only in artistic style, but in speed and technical accuracy with photoshop?

Anonymous said...

Refreshing to see you don't mess with Illustrator. But I guess these are the kind of super powers years of Web Comic practice bestow on an artist, eh? Really, your strokes are so clean and exact that I'm tempted to ask if you're using some magnet settings or something. Jesus.

Anonymous said...

sweet thanks gabe. I just got my wacom tab just a few days ago. soomuch better than trying to do it by mouse.

clerihew said...

hi! I found your blog in the BLOGS OF NOTE section of blogger...

I got impressed with what you're doing.. Ummm.. actually, I was planning to another blog.. and it would be different from my recent blog since I want to be comics-like.. or manga-like..

But 'til now still not able to make it since I haven't finished learning about Photoshop... C=

err.. I'm kinda' looking for someone to help me.. hehe..

Anyway, I guess I'll be a regular visitor.. and oh! ummm.. I'll add your blog to my links.. would that be okay?

C=

Anonymous said...

Wow, amazing work, i too would like to know about the line weight thing, how do you go through them so fast.

Also side note, what happened to the PREY comic, its been like FOREVER and im still waiting for the last 2 pages, need more ART!!!

Anonymous said...

Awesome work on a badass, legendary character. I've always been a huge Boba Fett fan, and your version absolutely does him justice. Any chance for a full-color version?

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say I love your stuff. Very cool.

Anonymous said...

That was entertaining to watch. I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but I was puzzled at how in the hell you were managing to make it look so easy to draw with a mouse. I was watching it on the Penny Arcade news page, so I didn't know until I scrolled down and saw that you used a tablet to do it. I'm looking forward to your next video where you color it, and then I'm going to put it on my desktop.

Anonymous said...

Great drawings. I wish I could do that.

Bart

tca peel for in home use

headlight cleaner

Anonymous said...

Now...colour it...pretty please?

Some pirate said...

the surprising thing is hoe fast you draw. is the movie sped up at all?

Anonymous said...

sorry i didn't read all the comments to check if someone has already asked this.. do you use a mouse or pen/tablet?

i've never used photoshop for coloring, its looks SO COOL!! Got to try it but not sure if i should be practicing my mouse skills or not to even bother and go will pen skills ;)

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Makes me want to try to draw something as good as that, too bad I'm limited to MS Paint.

J-Fund said...

nice drawings!! Keep on posting!

Anonymous said...

Just a stupid smart-assery of a question - but why are you not working in Photoshops Fullscreen mode? I find it SO much easier to pan around the image.

Nice work.

Anonymous said...

Bobba's head looks weird.. he's missing the back half of his skull

Unknown said...

Good Work!! Got ur link from 'Blogs of Note' Hope to come back soon cos I like what I see!!

Anonymous said...

gabe,

I would highly love a "From Start to Finish" video/pictures of your "warm up" or PA sketches.

I'm trying to get into comic-esque drawings, and the online plethora of "tutorials" always starts off with drawing damned still-life fruit.

thanks in advance.

ps. you rock.

Anonymous said...

Nice.

Maybe you forgot a line of the cape between legs? :P

ThaSauce said...

I was kinda hoping there WAS a trick to straight lines >_<. I guess I'm just gonna have to try a lot harder.

Though I DO suppose the fact that my Graphire is only 4x5". I need to save up and get a bigger surface or somethin'.

Also: Q-Unit is all well and good, but NOTHING is better than the 50 Cent "In the Club/Benny Hill Theme" mash-up. That is KING.

Krishna M. Sadasivam said...

Awesome, Gabe. I've never been able to get my lines to look as good in Photoshop when digitally inking. Keep more of these videos coming.

aseariel said...

i'm going to keep up the request for "color version/video, please? :D ."

i am in so much awe of the steadiness of your hand in your work. most of my stuff is very, very sketchy in nature. =/

but! this is, nevertheless, as encouraging as it is interesting. looking forward to more of your art! :3

Anonymous said...

You are one of the best artists I've ever seen. The way you can just breeze through some of these sketches or inks is incredible.

Geoff Girardin said...

I just love your style of drawing.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if Mike reads the comments this far in, but I was one of the peeps asking some of the questions you answered on PA. Thanks heaps for doing that! It's awesome to see you taking time out of your day to help other artists.

Mike > *

Anonymous said...

Kandosii!

Anonymous said...

Obviously... Gabe hax.

Anonymous said...

enjoy this video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHgwKqIJP0Y

Anonymous said...

This is awesome! Clearly, I need to get myself a Wacom tablet to fully utilize photoshop.

-frank said...

you should invest in a cintiq, you'll never go back.

The Dude said...

Does anyone know what kind of pencil he uses for the first part on paper?

FDisk said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
FDisk said...

These videos are a tremendous motivation to draw or color and try new stuff. I've been looking forward to one since you made the bloom effect one. I really hope you make a coloring one next because I really dig your colors.

I took a stab at coloring your drawing, I hope you like it:

Boba Fett colored by Fdisk

Anonymous said...

That's cool!!!

http://honeyedmouth.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

have to admit, that was a pretty interesting vid. hope you end up coloring it, too. that would be great to see :D

Anonymous said...

Great video, thanks!

Anonymous said...

ok, the music is just awful, each one on its own right and also as a mashup but your skill is INCREDIBLE!... your Boba is awesome as well

cheers!

Moegopher said...

I wish I had the money to buy the right software and equipment to do that. Of course, even if I did it wouldn't come out as well as your art. You're an inspiration!

Flip said...

These are really something. Reminds me of the illustrations for a book I wrote that Wilson Swain did the illustrations for.

http://tryingtogetoveryouasshole.blogspot.com/

Chris Ellis said...

can i have your talent? I wont pay for it, but il give it a great home!

Love it!

angela said...

Wow...you're an amazing artist...and a pro at photoshop..I applaud you my friend.

Anonymous said...

Nice drawings

am said...

your drawings are so awesome and pretty! just a random blog-hopper. :) great work!

Anonymous said...

Gabe,

Thanks for posting this video. I'm as far away from drawing or any artsy stuff as you can get, but I do enjoy watching an artist work. This video was actually fun for me to watch (even as a layman!), and I found that the 8 mins passed so fast I didn't notice.

This was not only interesting, but entertaining. Thanks man!

-frijolito

prasanth said...

Finally! How it's done!

Adam Smasher said...

How come everyone else does a better Boba Fett than Lucas himself. I don't get it? Fantastic piece!

GreenThumb said...

wow, I don't have much talent in that area, and I'm not much into that exact kind of art, but that is impressive. Thanks for the video clip.

Anonymous said...

Hope you don't mind props from a Rhode Island art-school dropout, but good stuff! The video really makes you think about the detail. Nice touch.

High Power Rocketry said...

Very cool.

mickey the wicked said...

That's some brilliant lineart! I can't do it as steady as that. I was wondering, that is photoshop, right? And if so, what version is it?

lionzub said...

Hey congrats on getting the Blog of Note!

Probably wasn't hard with all the traffic coming out of penny-arcade.com :)

That is a really awesome video.

enabstraccion said...

uhi brother me dejo impresionado es demasiado bueno su blog me gustaria q visitar el mio y me diera sugerencias.es enabstraccion.blogspot.com y tambien me gustaria q me enseñara a subir audio y video al blog mi correo es enabstraccion@hotmail.com thank you

Anonymous said...

John Gabriel you are the man. Smooth, very smooth.

Anonymous said...

Wow youre great. Thanks for the post.

I realle enjoyed Penny Arcade. You have really evolved from the first cartoons!

You just got another regular.


~pete

Joby said...

Thanks for your effort..congrats being a blog note.

Have a look on my page

Indian Girls

severino el herbolario said...

visita www.clikee.blogspot.com

Andrea Frazer said...

I love your stuff. As a writer for magazines, and sometimes tv, I'm determined to write a funky kids book one day. Don't be surprised to get an email from me (but by then you'll be big and famous... so you can write to me!)

Anonymous said...

Gabe,
If I wash your car for a month or something will you buy me a wacom pad! I live just north of seattle.

High Power Rocketry said...

: )

Anonymous said...

Dude Gabe that would look awesome as a
Tattoo, when are we going to get to see the color version?

Anonymous said...

Hawk's consistency in posting is dominating you, you gotta start laying down more stuff! Just throw up your warm-up sketch every day :D

Kim said...

Any chance ya can make the Fett a coloring contest? It'd be neato ^_^

Anonymous said...

Great job


.....(\_........_/)
......)..(.......)..(
......(...(......)..)
.......)....(....)..(
.......(....(....)..)
.........(\\.--.//)
.......O)`.6..6.'(O
........../.........\
..........(..)....(..)
.........`(_c__c_)`
.............`\T/`
He knows this site

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure if you've aready answered and I'm pretty sure you dont do requests, but I'd be really intrested in seeing the process you go through when you color these in. I have to say thats a pretty amazing tool (the wacom) and I'm honestly looking into getting one.

Anyways, I guess what I'm sayin here is, if you've got the time could you please throw up a vid of you coloring or even another vid of inking.

Anonymous said...

Gaaaaabe you gotta update man. Just throw in some old drawings or something! Batman would be disappointed in you. Also, you should do a PA comic about Heroes. Hiro would like that.

Anonymous said...

UPDATE! POst more.

Chris Ostermann said...

I think you should use your artistic talent to bring attention to the lives of the Saints....NOT.
Bravo. Truely talented artists with internet bravado are too far and few between these days.

matt said...

I came back to this video after I got my Wacom a few days ago... and I got to say that damn, your stroke is solid! I also realised that I think I have my brush set wrong, because I noticed that even when you apply the light touch for the thin lines, it's still dark black instead of a slightly lighter grey.

Keep up the great work!

Otto said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Otto said...

My favorite posts on this thread are the ones who assume you are just some kid posting his drawings on the internet. Instead of an adult who does this for a living.

Graham D Pilling said...

Nice to see a process using the Wacom, good stuff!

Christ, I bloody hate that song though.......

Anonymous said...

Impressive, love the Q-Unit, keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

If you liked that music, look for "A night at the hip-hopera".
Nice queen remix..or Mash up as the kids call it these days.

It is hard to find, since it was pulled from production for legal reasons, but it's on the net.

Anonymous said...

Colored!

Boba Fett Colored by ChrisHanel

chels said...

Props, man. Wicked props.


But the pauldron! Where's the Mandalorian symbol on his pauldron?!

-=weeps=-

Anonymous said...

epic.

alexander said...

woah. man i need to play with photoshop more

Unknown said...

Very cool. I love it when you show us your process. But did you forget to ink his cape in-between his legs? It looks odd to me there. Otherwise, awesome sketch / inking.

Monkeycitto said...

His Stylus settings are like the Holy Grail.

Sweet ass Skills Gabe.

Wade Hone said...

Very nicely done. thanks for taking the time to make and post the vid.

I enjoy reading (the comic and the news,) Penny Arcade.

Keep on doing what ever it is your doing, it Rocks.

Wade / zWolf -out.

Anonymous said...

As Gabe said; "I’m using a Wacom Tablet with the pressure sensitivity set a little on the firm side."
The Wacom Tablet stylus is pressure sensetive, this allows Gabe to quickly change the size of the paintbrush simply by pressing more or less firmly on the stylus. Thought I'd put this up for anywhere who cares to check, noticed the question was going around alot.
Also, Gabe you rock, I didn't know it was possible to have that kind of control over the Wacom, guess I need some practice.
-Tyler

Anonymous said...

This is very creative, you're very talented. Maybe you'd want to publicize yourself more

Anonymous said...

You are the man.

Anonymous said...

Thieves in the Temple!
by Joel Phillips
publisher: www.religiousfreedomwatch.org
owner: American Coast Title (www.actfortitle.com)

In this day and age nothing is what it seems to be. So that’s what motivated me to put up www.religiousfreedomwatch.org so that you, the man in the street, could find out if anyone local to you is a zealot, bigot, Jihad Cell Member, Islamic bomber, child molestor, pedophile, pornography collector or internet copyright violator.

And, you will find many of each on the site!

But it goes beyond that. I have put the profits from my company, American Coast Title, into this effort. Going along with it are the other 2 owners, namely Linda Blood and Frank Berriz and of course we had to have the consent of our underwriters who happen to be Stewart Title of Texas.

But back to the point.

Two men in particular have made themselves quite rich by swindling the Church of Scientology.

The first is Dennis Erlich. What a piece of work. He is fixated on a married woman half his age. That’s just sick. He decided to call himself the “Reverend” Dennis and set up the “Informer Ministry” some time back. It got into a legal tug with the Church of Scientology and Scientology had to pay. Erlich went from living in a walkup dump to a mansion near a Palm Springs golf course. Hardly what you’d expect from a poor and struggling Reverend!

He rides around in a custom Mercedes and picks up young girls off the shopping streets there. This is what he wanted all along, money to feed his prurient desires.

The next is Lawrence Wollersheim. The man set up an elaborate scam involving disgraced homosexual lawyer Graham Berry to rob the Church of Scientology. It goes way back to when Wollersheim decided to be a coward and not get drafted to Viet Nam. He acted crazy and blamed it on Scientology. This was the plan he and Berry had put up.

Well for a long time the Church thought it would do OK and the slogan ringing through the orgs was “Not a Dime For Wollersheim” and it seemed his plot would go nowhere and people could just laugh at him.

Well assistance fell out of nowhere from other criminal elements such as Gerald Armstrong and Margery Wakefield. They got him the money he needed to hire high powered lawyers who extorted the volunteer legal department of Scientology into paying.

Now Wollersheim had to pay back Armstrong and Wakefield but he got enough to buy a Winnebago with its own internet hookup. Now he literally drives himself around America using this to harass Scientology. He uses Erlich’s mansion as a base of operations and the two of them hatch plots there and then off goes Wollersheim to make life miserable for Scientology parishioners. Wollersheim has been particularly effective at scaring off new students from the Flag Academy which is just a downright shame given what’s possible for people to learn there.

So not only have these men fattened their checking accounts but they don’t stop with the bigotry and harassment that has resulted in so much misery. L. Ron Hubbard developed the means to stop it but there’s only so much you can do when men like Erlich and Wollersheim and willing to corrupt and pervert the American justice system.

I for one would not be surprised if Wollersheim is the transmitter of these threats I have been receiving from Russia. When the Russian radio people showed up at the offices of American Coast Title there was in fact a motor home seen prowling the streets of Glendale!

Is that a coincidence? You tell me!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joseph David said...

OMG man, what can I say first. I'm a big fan. Huge fan. Please check out this link. It was inspired by you.
http://leftyart.blogspot.com/2008/05/photoshop-inking-inspired-by-gabe-from.html

Baodad said...

I was googling for line art of Boba Fett for my son today - he wanted a coloring page, and I came across this post. I'd just like to add my thanks to the list. This video was truly inspirational to me. I've always wanted to know how to ink like this, and you've helped me realize that I've been going down the wrong path by trying to craft my lines in Illustrator vectors.


Best Regards.

Jodie said...

This is great - do you do demo's on youtube?

Anonymous said...

Dang, I merely joined long and detailed comment,
but once I attempted to help send that our Traveler crashed.
Could it have been mysteriously saved or perhaps must i redo that?
Feel free to visit my homepage Remove Genital Warts

Anonymous said...

Heya handy write-up. I had created a little difficulity viewing this article
onSafari although, not sure exactly why?
My web site :: Background Check

Anonymous said...

That you can do either Amanda while you should concentration more
on a assessment website themselves.
Here is my web page : Cheap Car Insurance Online

Anonymous said...

Fine way of explaining, and good piece of writing to take
data on the topic of my presentation subject, which i am going to convey in college.


Review my weblog - wiki.oszone.net
my page: http://chessok.com/