Need A Couple Tips

[josephdm]

**MOSTLY FOR ARTISTS ONLY**
So, I've recently purchased a Wacom Drawing Tablet and I'm not all that used to drawing like this.
NOTE: I am not discriminating against people who do not draw, I'd just rather have Art advice from professionals.
Basically I'd like tips. Such as, programs, techniques and other goodies. Some I can think of are: Sharpening the design, like, realistic and not sketched. This can be thread of art tips for others too. I've been drawing traditionally for most of the time so I'd like help with this type of drawing. Thanks if you can post some stuff here . Would mean a lot.


*Cough* MonMarty Faewyn OctoberGwen Luthien *Cough*

 

[DrFong]

Disclaimer: I personally stink at drawing, but I have an art degree. Does that count as a professional? HAHA!

In college I had a professor tell me, "drawing is like playing tennis - everyone stinks their first time." But you draw, draw, draw and lo-and-behold you become good at it. Practice, practice, practice. Get Adobe Illustrator if you can afford it, that plus Photoshop and you will be unstoppable.

 

[MonMarty]

Use paint tool SAI. Get a smudgeguard, if not, buy some cheap smooth glove and cut out the fingers you like to use to have grip on the stylus, it keeps the tablet clean and stops irritation on the skin from friction. Also use the point stabilizer in paint tool SAI as it helps with shoddy linework avoiding. I have mental disconnection with my handword, so I need the line corrector. If you are on a mac, you are down on your luck.

 

[OctoberGwen]

Hehe, I've only ever drawn traditionally. With pens, pencils, papers, and the such.

But I find the best thing to learn about how to draw something is to sit down and watch it. Hayao Miyazaki, the co owner of Studio Ghibli, will sit for hours and observe things like pleats, shoes, how people walk, talk, human emotion and reactions, how people laugh and move their mouths. This is a skill that, I feel, all artists should have. If you have a laptop or can pencil out sketches, you could even sit in like a starbuck's or a panera's and observe people without them being too shocked or weirded out. (Let's face it, if we sat out at the park or a really busy business park here in the states, we might get cited for stalking.)

And you wont be magically amazing right from the start. Only a fraction of artists are naturally talented. Ira Glass spoke about story telling once and how we all start off with this amazing inspiration and this is how we get into this type of stuff. But the work we do just doesnt equate to the vision we have. Everyone had a time period like this, this gap, where they put out work and it just doesn't match up to the taste that started all this inspiration.

This period can last years, decades even. (Dont be discouraged!) But that taste you have is still good. It's still amazing. You just have to work at it. If this is something you really want to be good at you'll have to work at it. Make a quota each week of putting out like two digital drawings even if, to you, they aren't very good. That's the only way to close this gap.

Now, I know I dont do digital work but I hope this helps a little. Just keep at it and good luck!! You'll be amazing before you know it!!

 

[josephdm]

Thanks MonMarty DrFong OctoberGwen for all the great tips! I'll try to use them in my next drawing , also more tips are welcome for others who are starting out as well .

 

[Faewyn]

Personally, I would take the time to learn proper anatomy, perspective, etc. It can be tempting to simply dive-head first into drawing a person or object from the get-go, but if you're not careful, it can lead you to become an inconsistent artist (like myself). If you take the time to learn how the body works and connects and moves, muscles and bone structure and all, you'll be able to draw any pose, any perspective, any position, instead of working off limited knowledge that makes your drawings come out good only half the time.

Paint Tool SAI is a great program if you have a PC - I've seen the point stabilizer in action, watching the Livestreams of an artist off-site, and it's really amazing. If you have a Mac, like me, I would recommend FireAlpaca. It's like a watered-down version of SAI, but it's pretty good for a free program. And, it handles large images much better than GIMP does. I usually sketch off a 5000x5000 picture, and use a black brush on a new layer to make the lineart. Because the image is so large, the shakiness and roughness of the lines are better hidden when the image gets eventually downsized and transferred to GIMP.

Also, layers. Layers, layers. Work on different layers so that you can make changes and edits to specific parts of your drawing easily and without complications. I separate all pieces of clothing, the skin, accessories, and will usually have around three layers for the hair. This is especially helpful if you want to give hair a softer, more realistic look by swiping strands of hair across and around, for example. It's something I'm still learning to do.

As for getting used to tablet drawing, I would recommend sticking with traditional drawing and scanning them onto your computer, if you want to still create art but also want to get used to your tablet. Then you can essentially use the scanned picture as a sketch to trace your lineart over, getting used to using the tablet and pen. Eventually, you'll want to sketch directly on your computer program and stop using scanned pictures, but in my opinion, it's a good way to get started.

(And you may want to consider getting rid of the Pen Sensitivity function for a bit, when you're first starting up. Personally, I never really had a problem adjusting to it, but a lot of artists seem to get stumped by the function when they first start using a tablet, and choose to disable it for a while.)

 

[Magivore]

DrFong is almost exactly like one of my art teachers... .___.
Anyways, I might as well send a suggestion, A little shadow to the character can be the quite a difference. Reflections can help too, and I suppose this is aimed for if you draw something by water, or if there is a "light" in the art {For example, a drawing of a person in the sun}. It can definitely tone up realism. You can use shadow in many sections of art, however reflection isn't needed to be used as often. Be careful when using shadows too, as using it too much could end up just making a dark stain where your character used to be. Be sure to go lightly where there isn't shine or "light" on the character and objects.