How exactly do you turn the dull, boring image on the left into the one on the right? Easy, read on for the tutorial!

I mentioned in a previous Black & White photo post that while I love the aesthetic I'd never done much of it, i.e. I'd never bothered to process my (colour) digital pictures into adequate black & white photos. But now that I've hit upon a method whose results I like, expect a lot more black & white posts on this blog!

Today I'm presenting 5 shots taken mostly during my last India trip (except the first, which was taken in Khor Fakkan). I hope you like 'em, and if you'd like to find out how I did them, do check back here in a few days when I'll put up a tutorial on how to convert images to B&W using the GIMP. (You can follow the site's RSS feed, and me on twitter).

A couple of Watchmen doodles I did the other day. My megaproject to redraw the entire Watchmen graphic novel has stalled. I could blame everything from the economic crisis to the crisis of not being able to draw well, but really it was the good old Crisis of Infinite Procrastination. I will get back to it but I need to think about a better, faster way to tackle it. As it was going I was obsessing about it too much and not enjoying myself. No sense doing something entirely non-commercial, that will never see public viewing, and not have any fun doing it, right?

So, a couple of fun doodles, quickly coloured (but since this is me, it took the better part of a day to color these in).

BTW, you can click on the Class of 1985 pic, or indeed right here for a 1600x1000 wallpaper version.

V

The further illustrated (and mundane) adventures of Mister Savant! Still after books, this time he seems to be negotiating the price on a tome. Typical, the man is so obsessed with cheap and obscure paperbacks when he should be trying to get his hosts to part with their hats!

This drawing started off in my 15x18cm notebook with a vague idea in my head late one night, and so I ended up tackling it a little differently. I didn't thumbnail or roughly draw in the entire scene, instead finishing the pencils on one character entirely and then moving onto the next.

This pic is both in Sketch Machine and Illustration because it started off as a pencil sketch in my little notebook, and by the time it was done I figured I might as well colour it up in the GIMP.

The other day I finally bothered to buy an optical mouse again. The old one had gone wonky and had been replaced, for a few months, with a ball one. While installing it I suddenly realised that the little graphics tablet attached to my work computer -- hidden beneath a pile of well-intentioned clutter -- was indeed working. Samir had fixed whatever byzantine driver issues were afflicting it, and in typical Samir fashion had now forgotten quite how he did it and when it had happened (btw, have you checked out his spiffy new blog and site?). With another hour to go before The Simpsons, I decided to give it and the new mouse a whirl.