So important, even three times isn't enough to emphasize the importance of this word. Anh got a ticket to see Bon Jovi on Tuesday night, on account of her sister being sick, so I got the apartment to myself. I made myself some dinner, read the usual double-whammy of "Linux Format" and "ImagineFX" magazines, then poured myself a port, and settled in for a night of Wacom intimacy. It was time to progress from the artist's mannequin, so I looked at my shelf of toys, and thought I'd have a go at Batman. He's one of those "He-Man" type figurines; the cheap toy versions, with a rubber cape, and I'm sure the anatomy is a bit exaggerated, but I managed to pose him in a couple of ways and got to sketching his portrait. Here are some results: As you can see, I am only working in grays. One of the many tips I have gleaned from ImagineFX is that gray scale is the best way to see if you've got the contrast right in an image. So I thought if I just work in grays, I can work on understanding contrast levels before I begin to work on adding colors. I am sketching in GIMP 2.4, which is the latest stable release, and working in Linux. I leave the background layer white, then add a transparent layer, call it "outline", to sketch in. I use the eraser and brush tools until I am satisfied with the outline. I then add a layer, call it "color", and set the transfer mode to "multiply". I pick a mid-tone gray (50% gray) and fill in the block color. Then, on the same color layer, I set the brush to multiply and 45% opacity to do the shadows (in black), and set the brush to screen (change the color to white) to do the highlights. I finally use the smudge tool to blend the shadows and highlights as I would if I were using chalk and charcoal. One of the tips I am consciously ignoring is that you should keep your layers separate: base color on one layer; shadows and highlights on their own layer. I choose to put it all on one because I have found that I like to mix the greytones together and sometimes smudge the highlights into the shadows for a nice gradient effect. If I put them on separate layers, one always sits over the other. I ended my session on Tuesday night by trying a sketch straight from imagination: Corben Wallace looking up, wearing a plain under-shirt. I have found a pretty nice resource while waiting for my life-drawing classes to begin: www.drawspace.com it's free to join, and look at the tutorials in "flash-paper" format (ie: online) but you have to pay a subscription to download them in pdf. It's got loads of lessons in all levels of expertise from beginner through to advanced. I've begun to sketch market, but am finding it difficult to sketch the forms purely from imagination. I know I want to give it a sort of Turkish feel, architecturally, but have it half-buried in sand. I am going through my photo collection this weekend to look at pictures of the caravan sarais and palaces.