You may want to do a "draw my life" but the realization is problematic for you.
What material, what camera, what software and how to draw ? So many questions that make your "draw my life" project wait in your to-do list. I will try to show you How I make a draw my life and maybe you want me to do your "draw my life" if you want ?
1.How to do a draw my life
A draw my life is a succession of drawings with a voiceover to tell a story.
I have been drawing for a long time and I was recently asked to do a drawing on video in the manner of a "Draw my life" as a birthday gift. I tried several techniques, several materials and I finally found what was best to draw my life in terms of image, sound, commentary and visual rendering.
Here is an example of the result, illustrating the story of Stéphane Biamont, Lead singer of a band group "Sortie de Secours" in south of France.
The person who asked me to do this "draw my life" sent me several photos, links to the band's website, and some character traits of Stephane biamon.
It's up to me to put all of this in place for the storytelling. Once this text is written, I can go forward with the drawing and not the other way around : text first then the drawings !
2.which material to do a draw my life ?
I am not a fan of the latest technologies and I prefer to use old equipment and some DIY tricks. Here is the list of equipment that you can easily find on a second hand site!
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Which pen for a draw my life ?
For the drawing, I use my refillable Indian ink pen which has made more than 1000 portraits to date, indestructible and tireless. I test from time to time other pens like this one or this one (picture below), they have certain small advantages such as the fast ink refill and the ability to give a continuous and regular line regardless of the ink level in the cartridge.
India ink allows you to have a good contrast and to render well on the paper, but be careful, there is no room for mistakes !
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Which paper for a draw my life ?
The paper I use is 210 gsm thick paper from the Clairefontaine brand. The rendering is impeccably white, no stain and a thickness that allows you to work well with India ink.
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Which light for a Draw my life ?
Light is a very important element for visual rendering. a light that reproduces natural light well.
A "draw my life" is filmed from above, so to avoid any shadows on the paper due to my drawing right arm, I use a natural light bulb located right next to the lens.
Direct lighting is obtained with maximum brightness for the lens of the camera. Just the shadow of the tip of my pen but that's not much! And why not a Led bulb? Well, I tested some models of Led in hot or cold light and the result is not satisfactory for the rendering.
The technology has surely evolved since then and it deserves a second try. I keep my Sylvaner bulb until the end of its life while waiting ... because it gives me a good spectrum of light unlike LEDs which only give a reduced spectrum.
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shooting a Draw my life with mobile phone ?
A cell phone is made for making phone calls, social networking and that's it for me: I need a real device to make a film, that is to say a camera with a real lens, an electrical connection to the mains (on for a good hour at full speed), a good memory to record an hour of video, and which does not do anything else (dring dring) when I work.
So the phone is not the ideal tool for me ...
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Which Digital Camera for a draw my life ?
My first "draw my life" was made with a Coolpix P500 camera in video mode. The shooting was very good, thanks to the super photo lens; the battery could last half an hour (one hour of film with 2 batteries) and a 4Gb memory card could store 40 minutes of video.
The result was decent, but the processing time of the video was such that I spent my days in editing to speed them up to obtain a final video of a few minutes, and have ths in mind : nobody wants to watch a 1 hour draw my life!
Speeding up a video is very time consuming task, and you lose the sound of the video in the end. So I went in search of a real camera ....
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Which caméra for a draw my life ?
I use a camera which has a very interesting option : the time lapse.
Instead of filming in 24 frames per second, it only takes 2 frames per second and allows me to have a film speeded up about 12 times compared to the actual drawing.
The time lapse camera is not a recent model that costs an arm and legs,Nno. It is a Samsung camera, around 10 years old, found on a second hand site.
A bit of D.I.Y with a homemade assembly arm, the light is placed right next to the lens and it's a Go for the drawing!
3.Which software or application for a draw my life
I don't use any special application to make a "draw my life", just a video editing software called VideoPad. The principle is to glue the videos to each other and overlay the audio recording of the narration.
This software is available on the web and works relatively well. Expect to spend several hours of editing for a rendering of 3 minutes even with a powerful machine.
4. Becoming a Draw my life youtuber
If you want to have your "draw my life" on YouTube, you will have to go through the production and then post it on YouTube and wait for fame like Frenchies Cyprien, Roxanne or Norman.
If the project seems a little too complicated to you, that you don't know how to draw at all, I can take care of everything !A draw my life for you, as a gift ot for someone you like.
Order here for your custom portrait and add the draw my life option to get a nifty video like no other and stand among the celebrities who shaped history!
