Unleash the power of Sai

Tutorial / 25 June 2022

Hi my friends!

I decided to try this "manga/anime" Japanese underrated software that I heard from my days in DeviantArt community, because I feel that a piece of software is something that takes a lot of work and nowadays some artists use it for one and only specific style. Remember Clipstudio paint in their early days? Or what it was called before on this side of the planet? Yes, Manga Studio, because it's japanese and well, you only can draw or paint manga (?) and now, the artists discover the power behind that software.

I have more than 20 years in the art industry, from comics to videogames, and of course films too. And let me tell you that as an old time user of Adobe Photoshop I tried every piece of software in the market because I'm a horrible nerd, and Paint Tool Sai version 2 is what the artists that need a transition software between Photoshop and ClipStudio needs.

This underrated painting software is what Photoshop should be, is lightweight, fast as a speeding bullet, and cheap. It's easy to understand, the GUI is a perfect balance between Photoshop and Clipstudio, no learning curve here, just painting.
You have the essential tools to make the most beautiful art, the speed is matchless, when you open a hundred layers PSD, it opens in no time and the same file opened in Photoshop gives you time to make your dinner and take your dog to the park.

I love manga and anime of course, even some of the ameri-manga style I found in new artists over the social network but tools are not just for one task, if you don't believe me think of the cavemen painting the walls with their fingers and we can still appreciate their art, tools are just a medium for the artist and we can do whatever our imagination want.

So I recorded a video process of a non prepared or pre-sketched illustration, just opened SAI and I let the imagination fly with you as a viewer.
The full image takes 8 hours, and no plugin or magic filter was applied, just the common HUE/Saturation or Overlay/Multiply needed in some layers. No extra brushes (love you SAI) just the ones you need for paint.
No hundreds of adjustment layers and Channel tricks, no, just my art on a blank canvas.

I invite you to join this ride with me, I'm planning to make in the future a full tutorial of Paint Tool Sai, showing how you can setup or customize some tools for be more productive, but for now I give you a quick preview of me trying this amazing piece of software.

I wish you the best in your career and I hope to see some of your creations with this magnificent painting software. ✌️😊

Carlitos out!


 

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Merry Xmas! and a Happy New Year!

General / 24 December 2018



Merry Xmas to everyone and a Happy New year! for more cool art and project in this new 2019 :) Cheers!!!!

Feliz Navidad a todos y un Feliz Año nuevo! Que sigan el excelente arte y los proyectos en este 2019 :) Salú!

Carlos Cabrera
Concept artist & Illustrator

The FreeBundle Magazine
The Cabrera Brothers Company

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Blown engine 🚗

Article / 21 December 2018

Now I have some free time and I was investigating a little about why some artists have a better life than others.

Of course, we have some big differences in terms of language, countries and age. An artist from a third world country has a more difficult path in his career for all the oppression that a bad nation can exert on us; but that oppression only steal our time, so it is not a total excuse since great artists were born in oppressive countries and in the end, they were successful in their career. 


So, why do some people, unlike others, live a better life working of what they love?  Well, without thinking about social problems, taxes or even the family, some people have a clear vision of understanding that we are like engines ... you can accelerate to the top and, in the end, you will blow up your engine.
We have limits, no matter how young, experienced or rude we are, we have some limits. So, is that phrase that all artists and teachers say true? Do you have to work every day, every minute in your art to be better in the future? I think it's true but with small changes. 

Do you feel that sometimes you watch a movie or read a book, even playing a game is something that you feel is not right and a sense of guilt invades you? The feeling that you're wasting your time instead of using that precious time to keep practicing.

Well, let me tell you that I have that feeling every day, and I worked in the video game industry and the film industry for the past 15 years struggling with this every day, and it's not a healthy feeling, believe me. 

Now I have a chronological pain in my arm, it hurts right now when I write this article, because I blown up my engine and continued pressing it until it was too late. It's not something that does not allow me to do what I love, but sometimes the pain reminds me that I pushed too hard.


So in my research of why we do that I found this very interesting theory, the Parkinson's law 


It says that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion", a simple explanation is "If you wait until the last minute, it only takes a minute to do". 

And if you think on that, it happens all the time! 

You think "OK, I need to finish this painting for that client/school for the next week, I have time", and you can complete the task in one single day but now, the damn painting -fill the time available- and you deliver the work in the last minute. And if you continue doing this you will start to think, "I'm not professional because I waste too much time! I need to invest better my free time!" and BANG! you'll end with a never ending job and no time for you.
I remember that people say that was great to work of what you love, so, why sometimes we feel guilty when we watch a movie or play a game? because we don't know how to manage our time, we spend too much time thinking that we spend to much time.
So you think again that you need to wake up at 6 am and work 16 hours straight to be a better artist. Why we do this? We can create amazing things, we can love our jobs and what we do? We set an office schedule. Why? because otherwise we feel like we are unproductive, procrastinating, etc.


We can do better things on less time, we do it on deadlines, why we can't daily?
Because you have to set your mind on what it's job and what is free time and then, manage your time.
 I think that an artist don't have to push their engine to the top, an artist need a lot of interaction with the world and other creations to turn on the imagination spark again, how can an artist draw a dog if you never see one in the park? Google image is not the world, the world is out there and you need to live to create. A job is an important part of your life, but if you can balance a life and work, believe me, you will become a great artist in half the time.
Did you think about the last time you had a hobby without that guilt feeling? An artist needs to learn about anatomy, color, light, shadows, feelings, mechanics, and some of these topics needs more than an image on internet, you need to create with your hands, feel, watch and smell the world around you without feel that you are a lazy person.

You, in the end, will become a great artist, because you have passion for what you do, when your draws looks bad you erase everything and start again, nobody have the passion you have inside. And that passion is a mix of your art and your life, and that is the fuel of your engine.
So take care of that little engine inside you because is the one that will take you to the top!


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Finally a magazine from creators.

Article / 04 December 2018

I feel very happy to announce that here in Cabrera Brothers we finally finish one of the most ambitious project of the year.
A free online magazine from creators to creators and lover of hobbies!
The free bundle!!!!

We have a lot of content for you, articles from movies, games, my first comic!, literature and even an entire audio book. And the best of all, free of charge.
 Why? Because we have that need like you of have a little corner on internet, far away of this crazy social media internet from today were you are ruled by likes, analytics and comments, a little corner were you can enjoy at your own time from quality content, special just for you. No banners or social media buttons flying around the page, here is just good quality content that we at Cabrera Brothers do for you.

All this year we worked hard to add this project to our busy schedule but we need it, because we have a lot of content to share and a lot of projects ahead and this magazine, is our happy place were we can publish our best creations.

I hope you enjoy this new project as we here enjoyed to do it and we have great and amazing ideas for the next issue.

THE FREE BUNDLE ISSUE 1, COME TO CHECK HERE


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First post testing last version of Art Rage (demo)

Article / 04 June 2018

This my first post and I will try to be more here than in social networks, showing from time to time some behind the scenes, testing art software and everything we loved back in the days on a website or blog.

So today I found the demo version of ArtRage and I have to test it with all it new interface and I love it so far. I'm sorry for the quality of the image, you can't export in demo mode so I take a simple screenshot.
The oil brush smudge the colors very well and testing it on an old computers works like a charm. I think I will use it again for other tests and see if I can add this badboy to my daily workflow with Adobe Photoshop. I hope worth the try and maybe I pick a license if fits ok with my art :)

So here is my Venom quick test! Enjoy


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