Adobe Illustrator - Recommendations needed for cartooning tools for student

Author

Recommendations needed for cartooning tools for student

Dan Serra

2004-02-20, 12:38 am

My son who is in high school has been enamored with creating cartoons
for the past year. He prefers ink and paint and the traditional look of
political cartoons. There is a type of shading that he has been trying
to achieve that involves the use of diagonal lines or cross hatching
with the regular inked lines. It is very tedious to do this by hand.

His art teacher told him that in the "good old days" they used a special
board called duo-shade where you would paint a chemical onto the board
and the diagonal texture would flow from the brush as it developed. He
thought that there might be software out there that might be safer than
the chemicals and less messy. He wasn't sure if they still made this
board anymore.

He thought that either Photoshop, Illustrator or Freehand might be able
to create this flowing diagonal texture (or pattern) but he wasn't an
expert in any of these and neither am I. It's too expensive to buy the
wrong one and make a mistake so I would appreciate any recommendations
you pro's might have.

Thanks in advance

Daniel

remove -1- to email personally danser@x-mail1.net

Poul Solbjerg

2004-02-20, 11:28 am

Hello Dan...

In Illustrator CS you can use the scribble effect..

Poul Solbjerg

Dan Serra wrote:
> My son who is in high school has been enamored with creating cartoons
> for the past year. He prefers ink and paint and the traditional look of
> political cartoons. There is a type of shading that he has been trying
> to achieve that involves the use of diagonal lines or cross hatching
> with the regular inked lines. It is very tedious to do this by hand.
>
> His art teacher told him that in the "good old days" they used a special
> board called duo-shade where you would paint a chemical onto the board
> and the diagonal texture would flow from the brush as it developed. He
> thought that there might be software out there that might be safer than
> the chemicals and less messy. He wasn't sure if they still made this
> board anymore.
>
> He thought that either Photoshop, Illustrator or Freehand might be able
> to create this flowing diagonal texture (or pattern) but he wasn't an
> expert in any of these and neither am I. It's too expensive to buy the
> wrong one and make a mistake so I would appreciate any recommendations
> you pro's might have.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Daniel
>
> remove -1- to email personally danser@x-mail1.net
>

Oldylocks

2004-02-20, 6:28 pm

PhotoShop's Cross Hatching / Ink strokes filters are okay, but you can tell
they're digital effects. You can't create flowing hatches with them,
either. Well, it's difficult.

Hey, I thought cartoonists were supposed to be into the originality and
craft of it all, anyway. That's why I admire a good cartoon.

Just a side note: If your son wants to get into a good art school, it'll
look really good that he's worked hard and has (some) done tedious things by
hand so don't completely give up on the hand drawn artwork. Reviewers do
look at the method, not just the result.

But maybe this is just a hobby for him. I know it's hard to get kids to keep
from getting bored with projects so I suspect it's either a digital answer
to his problem or the whole thing is abandoned???

If there's a cheap, quick answer, someone here will know of it. Do you have
any examples of his stuff online, by the way, so we might be able to find a
more specific answer for you?

-Oldylocks

"Dan Serra" <danser@x-mail1.net> wrote in message
news:40359413.D6353A92@x-mail1.net...
> My son who is in high school has been enamored with creating cartoons
> for the past year. He prefers ink and paint and the traditional look of
> political cartoons. There is a type of shading that he has been trying
> to achieve that involves the use of diagonal lines or cross hatching
> with the regular inked lines. It is very tedious to do this by hand.
>
> His art teacher told him that in the "good old days" they used a special
> board called duo-shade where you would paint a chemical onto the board
> and the diagonal texture would flow from the brush as it developed. He
> thought that there might be software out there that might be safer than
> the chemicals and less messy. He wasn't sure if they still made this
> board anymore.
>
> He thought that either Photoshop, Illustrator or Freehand might be able
> to create this flowing diagonal texture (or pattern) but he wasn't an
> expert in any of these and neither am I. It's too expensive to buy the
> wrong one and make a mistake so I would appreciate any recommendations
> you pro's might have.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Daniel
>
> remove -1- to email personally danser@x-mail1.net
>

Oldylocks

2004-02-20, 7:28 pm

They still sell duoshade. It's an editorial cartooning technique standard.
It doesn't look very messy, actually. buy it buy it buy it. Cheaper than AI
I'll tell ya what.

http://www.grafixarts.com/duoshade.htm

"Dan Serra" <danser@x-mail1.net> wrote in message
news:40359413.D6353A92@x-mail1.net...
> My son who is in high school has been enamored with creating cartoons
> for the past year. He prefers ink and paint and the traditional look of
> political cartoons. There is a type of shading that he has been trying
> to achieve that involves the use of diagonal lines or cross hatching
> with the regular inked lines. It is very tedious to do this by hand.
>
> His art teacher told him that in the "good old days" they used a special
> board called duo-shade where you would paint a chemical onto the board
> and the diagonal texture would flow from the brush as it developed. He
> thought that there might be software out there that might be safer than
> the chemicals and less messy. He wasn't sure if they still made this
> board anymore.
>
> He thought that either Photoshop, Illustrator or Freehand might be able
> to create this flowing diagonal texture (or pattern) but he wasn't an
> expert in any of these and neither am I. It's too expensive to buy the
> wrong one and make a mistake so I would appreciate any recommendations
> you pro's might have.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Daniel
>
> remove -1- to email personally danser@x-mail1.net
>

Dan Serra

2004-02-21, 2:28 am

Thank you for the advice and the link, he's very excited and like you prefers
the traditional stuff. He doesn't mind the traditional hand work he finds it
very "theraputic" after a stressful day at school. He likes the work of McNelly
and Ramirez (Political cartoonist) and I think they use dou-shade with their
hand line work. He does a butt load stippling for hours on end. He's setting up
a site in about a week I'll post a link. Not withstanding the DNA his work is
pretty funny.

Dan

Oldylocks wrote:
[color=darkred]
> They still sell duoshade. It's an editorial cartooning technique standard.
> It doesn't look very messy, actually. buy it buy it buy it. Cheaper than AI
> I'll tell ya what.
>
> http://www.grafixarts.com/duoshade.htm
>
> "Dan Serra" <danser@x-mail1.net> wrote in message
> news:40359413.D6353A92@x-mail1.net...

Oldylocks

2004-02-24, 2:28 pm

Please *do* post that link and the best of luck to him.
-Oldy

"Dan Serra" <danser@x-mail1.net> wrote in message
news:4036FDBC.A196BE9B@x-mail1.net...
> Thank you for the advice and the link, he's very excited and like you
prefers
> the traditional stuff. He doesn't mind the traditional hand work he finds
it
> very "theraputic" after a stressful day at school. He likes the work of
McNelly
> and Ramirez (Political cartoonist) and I think they use dou-shade with
their
> hand line work. He does a butt load stippling for hours on end. He's
setting up
> a site in about a week I'll post a link. Not withstanding the DNA his
work is
> pretty funny.
>
> Dan
>
> Oldylocks wrote:
>
standard.[color=darkred]
than AI[color=darkred]
of[color=darkred]
trying[color=darkred]
special[color=darkred]
He[color=darkred]
than[color=darkred]
able[color=darkred]
the[color=darkred]
>

martin chiselwitt

2004-02-26, 9:28 pm

> Dan Serra wrote:
>
There is a type of shading that he has been trying[color=darkred]
??

Tedious?? Are you kidding me? christ

If your kid really DOES love cartooning, there is nothing tedious about
it. He should find cross-hatching a joy. Why get a machine to do it??
learn to draw. use a scanner is all i will say...