I've been testing my "just bought" tablet here and I practiced with at for a couple of hours ( 5-6 to be exact ;)). But during the practicing I've bumped into a few questions myself. So here is my round :) :

1) I used this tutorial to know some of the brush in combination with the tablet side of photoshop (this one to be exact -> here <- (http://www.noir.org/tutorials/2dTutorials/Photoshop/Spyroteknik/Digital_Painting/index.html)) and I was wondering if many of you out there use this Opacity brushing technique. And does the background allways need to be black ? Because you are working with the Opacity function, wouldnt it "shine trough" if I use something else as a background, or do I draw "everything" on that black background?

2) I "stalked :)" Steel Dolphin's work for a few weeks (discovered it a few months ago) and I saw that everything is smooth in his painting/drawing/art but as I read some topics on this forum it showed that he dislikes or ratherhate the smudge tool. But how do you get your art so smooth them.

3) I've seen many users use large paintings (7000 x 11000 px, for axample anry) and then resize it to a commun size. Is this a good way to "smooth" the survise of a paining. And doesnt it require like, 10-20 px brushes to make them nicely viewable in the resize mode ?

Those where them so far, I hope I'm not bugging you with all these questions :)

I think I can help you with your last question there.

Big images like 7000 x 11000 are usually done in 300dpi (I mean, who'd need something that big just for a computer?) which is only x amount of inches wide and tall when its printed. So it doesn't really get resized exactly...


I think I'm right, I'm not too good with print.

I am currently experimenting a lot here with brush settings etc trying to figure out what's best for me... Haha, shit it's hard, and I'm to lazy to read any tutorials. At least yet. :p

Sorry I can't help answering your questions, but I can assume on the smudge tool thing.
Ever drawn with a pencil by hand? I mean... If you want to shade and make it look 3 dimensional I've seen many use their finger to rub it out instead of draw the shade completely... That looks kinda dirty and not so good. Looks much fresher if you take some extra time drawing it perfectly. (takes a whole lot more time though)

I think that's the same with smudging if you don't do it propper etc.. Or... even if you do it propper or not...

I bet our painting gurus has some answers ;)

Congrats with your tablet btw :)

Okay i will try to answer your questions as best as I can. :)

Question 1:

The technique of using the opacity set to pen pressure with hard round brushes is a very common technique and the one used most often by many of the pros that I know of ;) No you dont have to start with a dark background. In fact It depends onthe end result you would like and what type of lightng you might be using....extremely high contrast or dramatic lighting scenes may be better to start off witha dark bg. Myself...most of my paintings start with a lightly toned canvas using a light to mid range neutral color to start.

Question 2:

My art is not that smooth, much of what you see is resizing in action, if you saw 50% detai shots of most of them you would be surprised, but I do like to see some brush strokes - makes things more interesting. I dont like the smudge tool at all, again there are some artists that have the paitience and skill to work with it and have their work look good but 9 out 10 times its so bloody obvious that the person smudged that its a huge turn off for their art. The smudge for blending is lazy and usually a poor substitue for proper blending with color - I would rather use a slightly softer edged brush to blend in soft edges if i needed to.

Question 3:

Anry uses huge files they are done at 72dpi but at those resolutions (7000x11000px) would yield a print of 23x37 inches at 300dpi -holy crap batman that takes some serious processing power, the blank file alone in PS is 220 megs or something. I am assuming Anry uses alot of small brushes and blends that way-lots of small strokes together can give the impression of smoothness. He also uses Painter, not that that would make a huge difference seeing as how most of his paintings could have been done in PS as well.

Thanks for your hel Steel Dolphin :) Greatly apprieciated, I'm gonna start to morro with actual painting using this information. Thanks again :)

No problem....just remember though, depsite all that I said and all that junk...its what works best for you that you should do and that comes with time and practice. ;)

Well I'm just starting out on the tablet myself so this proved to very helpful guys, thanks.. ;)

I got some questions about coloring my art (I though it was unnecesery to make a new topic). I can controll my pen and tablet thing properly and the sketches and all isnt a problem, but afterthat comes the coloring.

I tried SD's wasp tutorial, but with the settings of the fill 10 / opacite jitter on, I need to stoke over 1 line to get it clear, afcourse I can push harder (I got a 512 presure tabet) but I think I'm to afraid to brak the point of the pen.

Then I have no clue how to blend stuff with each other without making things so "messed up (in a way that you see enormus color difrences)" ofcourse I can go with the alt+dark color, stroke stroke, alt+ light color, stroke storke, alt+dark color stroke stroke etc etc... (I dont even know its the best way to blend but its the way that kinda has the most nicely blended result.

Then I got the problem with difrent styles of coloring. II've heard of just hard round brushing giving it a more cartoony look but still realistic (sorta Anry style but non-painter) then we got the opacity brushing which I cant make my drawings detailed in. I usualy end up with lots of black spots, then I go over it with a round brush and suddenly I feel like not continueing the drawing.

Ive been experiementing with the coloring for about a couple of weeks, and I would really like some examples of some good colored art, with some instructions (like some step my stp drawing in CS, ot in painter), where can I find a good source for these, for coloring art and for some short tutorials about making them nicely.

Greetz,

PS: I colored some drawing but they look way to cartoony which I hate, any hints on that.

Thanks A Bunch Already !

I think it would helpme if you posted some examples of what you are having problems with, as I am at a bit of a state of confusion as to what you are trying to ask...

:edit: Nvm, sorry bout this, I think I got the whole thing figured out.

:alc:

:edit: Nvm, sorry bout this, I think I got the whole thing figured out.

:alc:

I'm also having the cartoony problem

http://img22.exs.cx/img22/5316/bee3.jpg

can you please share how you figured it out?

First things first: who forum is back, was it only me or was it down for a while ?

Second of al: x-naga: maybe a bit of a late reaction but maybe it can still be usefull. I got rid of the "cartoony effect" by adding so much detail it it "has" to look more realistic. And I can see you still got the line/sketch layer visible in the drawing, try making that invisible and start adding shading to the bee's back ( sigment for sigment, and for axample, draw the hairs on the bee's back) just add a lot of detail, this takes time though and when adding to much detail it could make the drawing "busy".

And one thing that helped me a lot is skipping to painter. I started to "studie" some of other artist darwings (www.anry.ru has some amazing drawings made with painter.) And I started to figure out the line strokes, the shading, the highlighting, even almost every hairstroke. Try doing that to, learn from the masters ;).