Creating a PIXEL canvas in grease pencil (...a vector program) Blender tutorial

I recently started using a feature within grease pencil which allows me to get smooth color transitions and soft blending, and I’m super proud of the results!
I’m still in awe of what this tool is capable of, and I’m excited to keep exploring and of course sharing what I learn. I hope this is helpful :)
My free "pencil" brush pack (I still use these brushes constantly!)
sophiejantak.gumroad.com/l/mcbol
For a more in-depth look at my painting process with grease pencil: / sophiejantak
Grease pencil brushes and more: sophiejantak.gumroad.com/
Pet commissions pages: www.sophiejantak.com/pet-comm...
MY SOCIAL LINKS
Instagram: / sophiejantak
Twitter: / sophiejantak
artstation: www.artstation.com/sophiejantak
deviantart: www.deviantart.com/sophiejantak
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 some ways to get blend colors with grease pencil
01:26 ...why though?
02:00 basic pixel canvas
04:31 complex pixel canvas
11:14 This is just a base, btw
13:12 One tip to make your experience better
13:49 Unexpected benefit
15:32 Final piece reveal!
17:20 the Frannie remake !!!!
Equipment I use…
TO DRAW
Wacom cintiq
Wacom intuos pro medium
Blender 3.6.5 (yes I'm officially out of touch with the new updates, I've accepted it)
TO MAKE VIDEOS
OBS for screen recording
My webcam to film my face
My cellphone to record audio
Blender 3.6 to video edit
Krita for the thumbnails

[@SophieJantak]

Thanks for watching, I've been SO EXCITED to share this new technique! -I've made the final .blend files of the two portraits featured in this video FREE to download! sophiejantak.gumroad.com/l/adkkl -If you'd like more, I put together this bundle containing an assortment of .blend files and process videos for six different artworks created using this technique. sophiejantak.gumroad.com/l/oeqduh I hope you enjoy poking around in my files and getting to see my process more in depth, if that interests you :)

[@Artaingus]

Hello Sophie! About the Airbrush doing weird things with colors, I found a video explaining that you just have to switch the layer opacity from 1.000 to 0.999 and it works. I gave it a try, and it indeed works (and we don't notice the 0.1% of transparency). I thought this information might interest you. On another note, thanks a lot for all your tutorials about Grease Pencil. I discovered your channel this month and your arts and videos are really great and helpful!

[@nathanwood4762]

Sophie Jantak is an inspiration! At first, I have no clue where your idea is going, and then it doesn't seem practical, and then it yields substantial and novel results. It is so amazing to see you use the tools to do what you want when conventional thinking has already jumped to the conclusion that those tools can only work for very specific applications. Watching your videos, I can see that you thought very carefully about what you have learned because you show the drawbacks to the technique you present, and also focus on the strengths of those techniques, and how to use them together with other techniques to meet a bigger objective, and ways you adapted your art style to suit the technique. You even show examples of how it helps your art instead of isolating it to just a proof of concept. You set a good example to other artists by working hard to make solutions to your discouragements, and staying alert to ways in which you can pursue more possibilities. Thank you!

[@SophieJantak]

I'm incredibly touched by your kind words, thank you so much for taking the time to write all this! I really appreciate all this ❤

[@shaneleaman8916]

I feel like you are filling a huge gap in Grease Pencil usage which is both refreshing and inspirational. l really appreciate your goals, struggles and fixes from a workflow perspective, but you also touch a lot on what it does for you as an artist to approach form and color in unique ways. I think you are very innovative and always appreciate whatever you decide to produce.

[@SophieJantak]

This means so much to read, thank you!

[@kikon78]

Take all the time you need for follow ups and future tutorials, Everything you do has so many layers and tid bits of knowledge that your pace will allways inform our pace. Love you.

[@SophieJantak]

Oh wow I really appreciate this, thank you!

[@GaryParris]

This is visual art using Blender is a valid process in and of itself, you do not need to use other apps just because you can, i love that you are using grease pencil to create your images as well, i use Blender for my visual art as well!

[@rogerkelly4550]

Your best discovery yet! Wow. I would have never thought you could use vertex paint like this.

[@SophieJantak]

Thank you so much! I remember being really inspired by how this channel used vertex paint mode kzbin.info/www/bejne/rmjCiq1pi9yNq7ssi=kMts3a-eXNJw5GJS - though I wanted to find a different way of adding a base of colours

[@unarei]

I know that you can do texture painting in blender, but turning an entire image into a vertex per pixel is crazy and even crazier that it doesn't lag immediately for any image

[@SophieJantak]

Haha fair enough! Funnily enough I've tried a lot of things that have made my Blender crash, but this method has surprisingly always worked well enough

[@apextest9735]

Love your explanation videos and full walkthrough process.. you are the reason I have started drawing again. ❤

[@PolyRidge]

FANTASTIC! you're such an inspiration for Grease pencil! i hope they create some sort of point/density fill for strokes in the future, would spead this process up so much! very cool!

[@SophieJantak]

Oh that sounds interesting, what you're describing is going a bit over my head but it sounds cool! And thank you, I'm glad to hear that :)

[@ElRotura]

What an amazing art from an Amazing Artist! Its so impressive how you can do this marvelous art with your imagination and Blender tools!! Thanks a lot for share your work, and have a nice day! :)

[@SophieJantak]

Thank you, this means a lot to hear! Have a nice day too :)

[@44punk]

Subscribed.

[@rafaelhernandez4215]

Eso fue muy inteligente de tu parte :)

[@artistCDMJ]

It took me getting my computer updated and rebooted to finally get KZbin to work again, and now I see where you were going with the 'pixel canvas' for smooth transition. Honestly, I knew about that with mesh planes before because of how vertex paint works easing from each vertex between colors, but I'd not been aware of exporting an image to GP object and that Vertex Paint could be done on GP objects. Insert the usual mind blown meme here. I dropped a couple dollars on your gumroad for the file downloads so I can jumpstart my GP exploration. I do wonder if there is a way to consolidate some of the workflow of render to gp concvert into an operator so that you can avoid taking so many steps here, but I'll look once I get the hang of this. Thanks for the insights!

[@SophieJantak]

Thanks for the support! That sounds really interesting, I don't have much experience with mesh painting so it's cool to hear about the overlap. If you ever do figure out something that could save some steps, please let me know, that sounds really great

[@gunnaryoung]

This is really cool! I'm curious how this compares to a plane with a png image texture behind the grease pencil object..

[@SophieJantak]

Thanks! I believe I've tried something like that, I've tried vertex painting on a mesh behind a grease pencil artwork, for example. But the benefit of working all within grease pencil is that I can use grease pencil features like layer masking, and modifiers like the build modifier, which is especially useful for animating my art or making 3D pieces. I hope to share more of that in the future :)

[@Kim-uf8bb]

nice

[@SophieJantak]

thanks :)

[@rogerkelly4550]

This still has my head spinning a bit. I probably could use the Python API to generate a series of GP points in a limited area for vertex painting instead of making a canvas from an image. (Maybe even built a Blender extension to allow for drawing it on). That would reduce the number of points on the canvas to start with. Then it would be less resource intensive.

[@SophieJantak]

That would be AMAZING! That's not something I would know how to do, if ever you explore this idea further please let me know :D

[@Kim-uf8bb]

mice

[@crazyHatter79]

and what is the purpose of such lessons? to show that blender can do this? blender, after all, a program for 3D, first of all...and for beautiful stylish drawings can and more convenient to use other programs designed specifically for drawing, isn't it?

[@nathanwood4762]

It may seem impractical to use a 3D application to make an illustration instead of staying on the beaten path of 2D vector/raster apps, but she's not doing it just to show off. Blender's Grease Pencil module was designed with the intent of making 2D stroke objects like you would find in vector software, but with the ability to modify those objects in ways that are either more convenient or only possible to do in 3D (such as 3D transforms, modifier stacks, key framing, texture editing). You can find examples of Grease Pencil illustrations that she has rigged, and illustrations she has created in 3D. While it is technically possible to accomplish similar results in other applications, Blender's toolset offers a way to do it in one app with relatively modest hardware specs, and maintain full ability to edit any component object in the project. In this specific video she has shown how you can use vertex paint in Grease Pencil as a way to create smooth gradient-like color transitions that you can control with a brush. You could try Illustrator's gradient mesh, but it can't be edited with vertex brush like in Blender. You could try masks, paintbrushes, gradients etc. in your paint software of choice, and end up with dozens of layers and none of the convenience of object based editing. Marco Bucci is another 2D illustrator on KZbin who uses Blender Grease Pencil together with its 3D capabilities. Here's a video about how he uses lighting and 3D camera with Grease Pencil to generate ideas for concept art. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3i1pWVqm76Mjbc

[@SophieJantak]

Fair enough. I think art is about more than convenience. I've always made art because I enjoy it, and I just have a more enjoyable time using grease pencil than more conventional drawing programs.

[@crazyHatter79]

I have just started learning blender, I'm making my second soldier))) your lessons/videos I've been watching for a long time, VERY like the blue girl who rotates a little, I want to try to repeat, but I don't understand English very well by ear...(((((

[@SophieJantak]

@@crazyHatter79 Good luck learning Blender! If it helps, I transcribe all my videos, so if you enable closed captions on youtube you'll see accurate subtitles for all my videos

[@crazyHatter79]

@@SophieJantak and that blue girl has them, too?) And you add a mod that shows the screen what buttons you press?