Ok so I’ve wanted to draw for a few years now but never actually made the time to do it. but there are a million pictures in my head screaming to get out, so I’m finally starting from square one. I have photoshop (just got it from a friend for doing some work for him, so it should be a legitimate copy) and I made the image in the attachment last night using my mouse and the smudge tool. :eyebrowlift: (man that’s a cool tool!) All I’ve used before this was and OLD version of paint shop, and ms paint.
anyways my main question is should I do much with the mouse or should I focus more on using an actual pencil? I like using a computer for the extra control but I don’t have a tablet and I don’t have the money or feel like I have the experience to get one yet. Any thoughts anybody?
one last question, I plan on doing a lot of drawing over the next semester and was wondering if anybody knew of a good site to get feedback on stuff I post. I will probably do it here unless you know of a better place, cause all you guy (and gals) are so cool and helpful.
Atemporalskill:
Nice work. There’s good balance and the compositon itselft is pretty good.
Do you have a scanner? If not… pencil work is probably not a valid point… you CAN photograph your drawings but this is a pain.
CGTalk and Deviantart are both good, but they’re flooded with stuff, so you might get lost in the flood. This community seems to be pretty good about feedback and it’s population is low enough that everyone can have at least some voice.
As for working in photoshop… you might find it best to start with line work on one layer. Do another layer to block in your colors. Follow with a duplicate layer for shading. There’s tons of ways to work and some do it all on one layer, others make a new layer for anything you can think of…
well this is my second drawing in photoshop, in the first one I did start with line drawing and it ended up really bad, but I am usually very good, probably too good, at working around my weaknesses to make something. (the reason I say “too good” is that it makes it so I don’t learn anything without expressly trying to learn it.) but I need to learn perspective’s, shading…
Thanks 4tonmantis, I have found that I’m pretty good at composition and balance, but my techincal skills are non-existent. lighting, perspective, drawing a stight line…
thats a good point about CGtalk and Deviantart, I hadn’t thought about that.
about the drawing with a pincel, I’m having truble with some of using a mouse and thought that a stylise/pen would offer more control and a better flow. using paper would be more or less temporary till I could get a tablet. but my question is is it just because I’m new to drawing or is it really harder to use a mouse for this kind of thing? and is it going to efect my art/progress later on as I get better using a mouse insted of a pen?
One problem with a tablet and digital drawing: once you use one it is difficult to go back to a mouse. I love using a tablet for sketching; after a while it is almost like holding a pencil. That said, please continue with a sketchpad and pencil/pen/brush/charcoal/whatever. You have sketches screaming to get out. Don’t limit them to pixels or graphite. Use lipstick on your mirror, chalk on your sidewalk, engine oil from your old BSA.
That’s BSA motorcycles, not guns! That’s dating myself but the point is: use whatever you’ve got at the moment you have an image in your head. If you don’t have a cocktail napkin handy, ask for the bill and use the back side. Seriously. Set those images free.
If you sit in front of PhotoShop and wonder, “if only I had a tablet I could do so much better…”, you are blocking creative flow. Doing the best with what you have will help you figure out what YOU need to get those images out of your head. Who knows? In the end it might just be an acetylene torch and a hunk of steel.
I’ve been using a graphics tablet for a while and find a mouse very clumsy to draw with. However the pen (path) tool is pretty easy to use with a mouse, so I recommend having a good look at that. Vector art is pretty popular in some circles, and I think many illustrators are using vector (paths).
I think the main problem drawing with a mouse is the drawings tend to get tight. You’ve got a good eye for compostion and color. If you have the sun on a layer, you might try moving it under the wing to see what this looks like with some really high contrast.
I totally agree with g60 about drawing every chance you get. Everything you do artistically will inform everything else you do.
Blackcat:
Thanks, yeah I haven’t done any research on tablets yet, I think it would be bad for me to do that too early as I sometimes jump the gun and get something before I really need it. I also tend to get better stuff on discount, it’s kinda hard to live up to my older brother though… (He is incredibly good at finding deals on things, he even found my computer for me.) but I have a really cool guitar because of shopping too soon. :o Les Paul Blackbeauty for you muical equipment nerds like my other brother out there.
g60:
so in summery, get sketching and get creative in the median. got it.
If you sit in front of PhotoShop and wonder, “if only I had a tablet I could do so much better…”, you are blocking creative flow. Doing the best with what you have will help you figure out what YOU need to get those images out of your head.
now that you put it that way I guess I was so wrapped up with the coolness of the new smudge tool that i forgot I was using a mouse. (for the picture above that is) thanks
averil:
yeah I know about that, I actually got photoshop by making some art work for a friend (web site buttons and stuff, not that hard or artistic really.) using inkscape. if people are interested maybe I’ll upload some of that work on here as well.
ok sorry every body its late and my posts allways get longer as it gets later.
well done