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Update News / Diary Entry / EX EX CG Content / Patreon Tier Tax 30.05.2020
🕑 Added 2020-05-30 19:27:00 +0000 UTC
Hay everybody – It's time for another catchup and chat!
TL:DR – Strange month was May, EX EX iG and Futa of mock CG tests available to download (but quality is..... shakey), June plans to finish off uncompleted outlines + CG more.
The month that was May – was a bit of a strange month in truth. I had many plans going into the month some which happened, some which didn't and others that came in instead. So let's review in detail.
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CG Testing – Okay, so this will be a bit of a boring section for anybody who just wants porn and doesn't care or know much about the craft, you have been warned.
Okay so the plan was to this month do some CG testing and find a way to get art out much quicker, even if it was poor, it'd be coloured at least and be out in the wild.
I have quite a bit of banked up artwork (of various states of completeness) that would be really nice to release but also when things get a little tough time wise in RL then I could use to bang out in a hour or so and get work to you awesome people. See this shit takes hours and is honestly close to a full time job at times, no lie. A compromise is needed sometimes.
ANYHOW I began testing and did 3 types of colouring CG techniques. To begin I did cell CG Test (very anime like) – which was done on an older Futa girl. Now the CG came out fine. It was meant to be quick and nasty, and that's how I feel about it honestly.
The cell colouring technique while quick'ish was slower than I'd had hoped but I felt the look didn't gel with me and was slightly contrasting to my look and feel of works past.
However I may need to test on a more modern image to see if that was just lack of modern design elements (I now use a pretty awesome painted outline technique filter which started roughly a few years back, but came after this futa girl ¬_¬) which would have made it slightly more useable, so I may do one more coming up as another test to see if it was just an old image funk that was making me feel this way or it indeed was just not my style.
Next up was CG Sharp – A combo of cell shading colouring and a semi hard / semi soft brush. Now again I used a more humble concept image as a test on this, nothing very special but had at least the modern filter tech I mentioned above which somewhat helped... somewhat. Again it seemed too stark and crass looking to be nice in my eyes but maybe better than the cell colouring tech.
Now the image used isn't that inspiring and she did colour quick (so I MAY use this again) but I wasn't too impressed. I'm glad I tested it out but again... it's not really ticking the boxes I need right now. No point doing it if it looks kinda crap at the end of the day so I'll have to keep that one aside as a backup method.
The Last method tested is very close to my current main method. It takes a touch longer to blend colours nicely together so uses a softer brush to work colours in to one another and make it look nicer while not being TOO exact. It doesn't fade and blend outlines, is more general... than my more favoured method and a newly implemented soft tablet brush settings in the art program setting have helped out and made it easier to get into and have fun with. Using a careful but limited colour range is key also.
So here is the funny thing with CG colouring, if your going in, painting all these areas, even if its a flat coloured section say shadow under clothes, or painting a vein in or such most of the time if spent getting there (position, correct layers, brush settings) and not SO much time actually applying colour regardless of technique.
Doing this quicker 'lighter blending' is the middle ground between a more detailed CG work and a quicker one. It takes a slight bit more time, but the results are much better honestly. Mixing some hard colours but mostly soft blending colours others gives a MUCH better result while not taking AS long as usual.
The only downside is that while it doesn't take an age, it still takes a tiny bit more time, but that adds up each line and area you cover, so its not perfect and time will creep up. At least I could 'cut it short' if really needs be and it won't look too contrasting.
So clearly this one is the winner and will be heavily applied going forwards.
I think the greatest take away from all this testing is that... there isn't REALLY a quick colouring way that doesn't look total arse. All colouring except flat takes time but and with minor tweaks and a small chunk of time you get better results at the end of the day...
CG can be done quick and fast, but it can damage to image if it doesn't look right from being too fast, too quick.
So upon reflection I'm in this position where I just won't have time to CG all my older art and make it look great. Some images maybe released as outlined versions only (which you all know I think is very lazy and hate to put art out to pasture like that) but I'll use this CG blend light until something better comes along.
I thank people for allowing me time to come to this conclusion and testing phase, it's just not the quick results & good results I hoped we'd get from all this ¬_¬ Still, it's a tool I'll be using going forwards so was worth the time to get right.
A few of the test pieces will be posted inside the EX EX sections for the cell futa and CG sharp iG examples. There are more versions of each image on the outline versions (which you may enjoy more honestly) so I've posted them alongside the testing images.
The one that came out well, I put more time into and you'll be seeing her very shortly! Look forwards to that one ^_^
I also may sometime soon test another CG method of tone / greyscale painting the image and colour tinting it. See as a test how this come out as some artists use this method and its worth testing and experimenting and growing while keeping things fresh and exciting!
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MOVING ON next we have the start of the Giga Contenders! I'm really glad I made a push to finally make a move on this pack and get it rolling and pleased with the 1st image. I wasn't sure when would be the right time to work again on this, but now is that time I feel.
I sadly however don't have a HUGE backlog of futa in storage, even less of girls whom could be Giga worthy but I'd still like to at least bang out a new one every month, if not ideally much more – we'll just have to see how time management allows for it. But all in all I think this is the right direction for futa art to flow when it can in this Patreon ATM.
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Experimental Express Art - Am I going to go back to EX EX for the upcoming month?... I don't know honestly, lol. I used May EX EX time for outline completings and maybe CGing.. but would I rather make new quicker and fun works or get out less higher quality content instead? Time taken away from content like new mainline art is indeed that.
I've yet to make up my mind for this month in truth so please bare with me. EX EX is the wild card and I think some fun ideas have come from it, it has value. I'll have to see how my mind feels in a few weeks time.
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Going into June Plans – Well as last month was CG testing (and its results will be applied going forwards) and this month the current battle plan is 'Outline Finishing June' - finishing abandoned and incomplete art, updating them and getting them ready for CG colouring or release.
So this may sound like a step back to older content, but already in the last month I've made a few images that are MOSTLY outlined, but are not completed and then I got distracted or had to move on and so it is sitting just needing an hour or two to finish and be ready! An incomplete image is no good to man nor beast.
So I'm trying to cut down on new stuff drawn (which maybe put into conflict with the need to do giga girls etc. – but I digress) and ideally get them completed, and hell maybe even some CG coloured also when they are done.
Virus workflow – so at the moment we are all still in a rocky position. For me and where I live it has calmed down over the last month or so ago. However The UK hasn't done well with it and is slow to return back to normal, but it will be shortly.
As a result more 'normal' life activities will resume which means less time doing art at some point. I've been sensible with getting work ready over the last few months (and touching up some for release as mentioned above) but know that work flow from me could be more spotty while this all happens bnut I've tried to prep for it ahead.
Patreon Rewards Tidy Up – a quality problem to have but the current page has become crowded and is a bit busy with so much happening. I'll be looking to sharpen up the section and reduce where needs me. So I'd highly recommend if you have not to save all images (esp the older ones released) before this happens as a heads up!
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Patreon Sneaky Tax Tier Ratings - Okay, so the swines at Patreon have asked us to give you the heads up on this before they do come the start of the next month - I feel they are doing this to off load some of the anger onto us creators rather than them themselves but you need to know regardless.
They state it's Law that certain places be taxed for what we provide and offer and will be starting this from the start of the June. you'll probably hear about it soon. Now I've declared what content the Patreon gets when you sign up and tried to make it so that the buggers don't take a penny more than they can while being truthful.
I've done what I can on my end here, hopefully it doesn't mean much or ripple down much (I mean its just digital art, not sending you physical goods or anything here) but some may see an increase and that's what it is.
Know that I hate it, know I have done my part to soften the blow some and know I too pay taxes from what Patreon give me also. Everybody loses but hopefully it's not as dire as it could be - or you may see no change because you live in an awesome place that hasn't decided to tax us again ¬_¬ We can but hope. Again, apologies, done what I can, out of my hands >_<
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Right, I'm really tired of typing right now but I am forever grateful for peoples support more than ever and thank you for backing me up with my works, it really means a lot! You all rock and I'll keep on working hard to get this unique and wonderful content to you ASAP!
Deepest of thanks, and stay safe as always! - Sius
