looking for paint or program, HELP!?!?!?!?!?

OK, I have been doing mechanical pencil drawings for most of life and want to graduate to color now and I am looking for a way to do it.

I am really inspired by the works of Keith Thompson (50 fantasy vehicles to paint and draw, 50 robots to drawe and paint) and the artists who draw and paint the comic series "The Darkness".

I am interested in using Acrylics but THEY ARE UNFREAKING BELIEVABLY EXPENSIVE, $11.00 for one small tube of color.

I have heard about using computer programs like adobe and others at comp USA bt I have no idea where to start,

Any advice?

Try Gimp - it's allmost equal to photoshop in possibilities and it's free.

When it comes to colours, I personally used to prefer oil, but they're not cheaper than acrylics and as I don't know your style, I don't know if they'd be better for you.

I work alot on sletching and drawing, most of my stuff is comparable to being a sorta wannabe Christ Hook (Osprey military series) but in black and white mechanical pencil, I try to take advice from Burn Hogarth and take after his drawings but it alwasy comes out looking terrible, but I work at it.

If you want to do any computer painting I highly recommend getting a Wacom tablet. Its like $360 for the 6x8, but it comes with PAINTER. Having the pen and pressure control really helps.

Kagetora: I couldn't find too much from the people you were referring to (admittedly didn't look that closely) so could you post some links of what you want to do?

@Ramashan: I agree that it's helpful (I own one myself, but hardly use it due to owning a 13.3" tablet PC, which is a way better solution imho) but I doubt it's really an option if acrylics are too expensive.

I don't own a scanner, so I'll find some links


below is a link to the osprey military series site, the search I made was for any book on the hospitallers, most of which Christa hook has done illustration for.

http://search.ospreypublishing.com/s...lesheet=titles

below contains a link to gallery of Keith Thompson, his stuff, to me, is AMAZING, some of the robots in this gallery are the books I have.

http://www.keiththompsonart.com/vehicles.html

from Keith Thompson I find alot of robotic insoiration but I am waiting on a book on drawing basics for that, I have a few theorized processes to do it, but the last time I tried using them... well lets just say that a 4 yr olds fingerpainting looked better.

also, Keith Thompson uses both Acrylics, watercolors and than digital medians, so his work is a combination of several techniques.

I would like to buy his DVD, but I already spent my budget for the next month and a half so I'll have to wait, I am trying to explore 'free' techniques right now.

below is a link the game "the darkness" behind which is an entire comic book series with graphic art work done by Marc Silvestri, Dale Keown, Joe Benitez, Keu Cha, Eric "ebas" Basaldua, Steve Firchow, Stjepan Sejic (that's how he spells it) and Svetlin Velinov.

http://www.2kgames.com/thedarkness/local.htm

They are all great artist, but its the vivid color and sheer terror that their works produces that I lie the most, this series is the main reason I want to get into color because one look at the book I have "the Art of The Darkness" and its like watching LOTR, Two Towers all over again but with more badass demons and UNBELIEVABLE detail

also try wikipedia for 'The Darkness' it can give you a really good overview.

below is a picture of the main character with artwork done by Silvestri, Matt Banning and Steve Firchow.

http://www.outlookskates.com/DarknessMain.jpg