Author Topic: Art Tips Thread II  (Read 214828 times)

KrackoCloud

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #270 on: April 03, 2015, 05:18:23 AM »
When I started out with tablets, I bought a Bamboo Pen & Touch, which has an active area of 5.8"x3.6". You can pretty much get used to any size of tablet. So no, you technically don't need 10"x6.25", but I would still suggest it. It's just a lot more comfortable, imo.

If you're willing to learn something like GIMP, the comic side of things can probably be taken care of for SAI, though not without significant hassle. Otherwise I'd go with MS (to be fair, I haven't used it myself, however).

DX7.EP

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #271 on: April 03, 2015, 06:36:53 AM »
I prefer Autodesk Sketchbook, myself, as its interface is well-catered to tablet PC users. While it is excellent for quick doodles and detailed edits, I do not consider it a one-stop shop either; thus I'd recommend either getting just a general jack-of-all-trades software or a combination of software to utilise in a chain (eg. sketching program + comic format program).

Do your colors have enough saturation? No they don't.
Don't over-saturate your colours, now! :P

Would also help to have pro-calibre (IPS/PLS panel) displays for higher colour gamut accuracy versus a standard TN one. Over-correcting saturation amid a bad display is often not a good thing, after all.

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #272 on: April 03, 2015, 07:13:50 AM »
Getting a colour calibrator is real nice. You can now join the secret circle of everyone else who uses 6500k.

pineyappled

Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #273 on: April 03, 2015, 08:38:42 AM »
I... don't think a color calibrator is necessary for most people lmao
« Last Edit: April 03, 2015, 08:42:10 AM by kinoko »

Vento

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #274 on: April 04, 2015, 04:34:19 AM »
Sai  is love sai is liv

I use clip studio to tone my comics and stuff tho
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Mеа

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #275 on: May 03, 2015, 11:07:09 AM »
Hooooly crap. To all the people here who were suggesting studying anatomy, and to the person who invited me to those sessions a few years ago (I forget who): forgive me for not having listened to you. I just re-picked up drawing, after several months of busy-ness, along with some anatomy studies, and once again hooooly crap. Everything is so much easier. My third eye is opening, one I never knew was closed. Form, structure, balance, sense, everything, aaaaaaah--
Here is a fairly fun mini-series, just keep scrolling backwards through his posts.
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Teewee

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #276 on: May 13, 2015, 08:20:26 PM »
Lucky you, Mea. It still all feels like witchcraft to me ^^;

Could someone link me to something that shows me how fat dilutes the muscles as seen past the skin? Been doing quite a few posemaniacs-based drills, and I'd like to see which muscles poke out, as well as when they do.

Mеа

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #277 on: May 14, 2015, 01:12:30 AM »
It may be more useful to you to think instead of how (the visible/important muscles) attach to the underlying skeletal structures. They all have beginning and ending points. If you know that, then you just connect those points with squishy things, ie: the actual muscle. That way, instead of thinking of how the muscles in the armpit area stick out a certain way, you can just draw the rib cage/clavicle/etc and humerus and just start connecting them with the right muscles. The armpit then draws itself. Kind of like drawing a star by randomly putting down 5 dots and then connecting them, as opposed to trying to draw it by only the contour. Not saying that I'm at this level, but I'm trying to get there. Try also starting with one area at a time, since this is all really hard and complicated. I'm starting from the head and making my way down. Which is why my characters are currently limbless

Edit: ie: The answer to your question, why does this muscle stick out? Is, because that muscle is connecting between two point on separate bones. And the more you move those points around, the more the muscles have to stretch to stay connected.
« Last Edit: May 14, 2015, 01:25:27 AM by Mea »
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Bio

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #278 on: May 14, 2015, 03:13:23 AM »
The question seems more like how subcutaneous fat changes the form of the skin. The answer is it doesn't really because for a normal person this layer is small enough that the muscles and bones can still contribute to the surface, with the fat only contributing really to curves. For an overweight person, a quick image search reveals that the only (typical) affected areas are the abdomen, hips, shoulders and necks and upper thighs. The rest of the body doesn't see that much of a drastic change that the deeper muscles don't contribute at all.
« Last Edit: May 14, 2015, 03:16:39 AM by Bio »

Mеа

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #279 on: May 14, 2015, 03:34:59 AM »
I saw that as 2 questions, one on fat and one on the appearance of muscles. I got the latter and you got the former, so teamwork!
Just found this YouTube channel, anatomy for artists which my roommate suggested that looks promising.

It seemed to me like he was trying to learn the body by looking through posemaniacs, which is about as useful as labeling lumps on the surface, which is why I made the comment on the inner connections. It's an excellent resource for reference after you get general attachments of the insides worked out I think.
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Bio

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #280 on: May 14, 2015, 03:47:57 AM »
Yea, it won't do you much good to learn surface landmarks and not understand why they're there.
Spending some money on anatomy book isn't so bad either. I've got Rogers Peck on the side tabbed out and it's just an easy flip cause pdfs are a pain.

Teewee

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #281 on: May 14, 2015, 09:31:35 PM »
So, the general ideas you're telling me are:
- I can see how muscles poke out past the skin based on how the muscle groups connect to certain bones
- Fat doesnt lessen muscle protrusion much, most of what it does is make parts of the body more rounded. For overweight people, the fat only significantly lessens muscle protrustion in the ab, hip, shoulder, neck, and upper thigh areas.

Is that correct?

Also, I know how helpful anatomy books can be, but teaching myself through them doesn't work out very well. If I had someone to guide me through them, I'd do well, but since I don't...well, I keep trying to make use of what resources I have. Which are admittedly lacking, despite how much there is on the net.

Fumi

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #282 on: May 20, 2015, 12:17:34 AM »
I don't know if this goes here but I need help. For those with tablets, do you know if I can use different tablet models and pencils?

See, I got a Bamboo Fun CTE-650, the tablet is working but I'm afraid the pen isn't, it broke and it won't even respond. So my question is, can I use any kind of tablet pen? I've tried to look for a pen that matches my tablet model but they are rare and it's pricey :<

Thanks in advance

Mеа

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #283 on: May 20, 2015, 01:26:07 AM »
My roommate's CTH-470 pen does not work on my CTE-450, and vice-versa. I would assume this cross incompatibility carries over to every other iteration of bamboo as well, unless Google says otherwise.
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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #284 on: May 20, 2015, 02:42:14 AM »
Usually, no. Digitisers vary by manufacturer, model, and implementation, so you will need to check with Wacom for a compatible part.
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Fumi

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #285 on: May 21, 2015, 01:57:27 AM »
Thank you, I shouldn't risk and instead buy a new tablet :( besides, this one is too old (and it isn't mine anyway ;A;)

Maple

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #286 on: May 28, 2015, 12:00:59 AM »
Remember me? I got my tablet   :3. There weren't 10x6.25 available in distribution for my country so i got a 8x5.

Now: how i am supposed to use it?! Now it feels so unnatural, i got hand strain after some minutes, i must put my sight either on my computer screen or on the tablet and that's more or less the same as drawing blind, i put my arm up and down more times in 5 minutes than in a hour-long art class...

Some tips before i destroy return it?

KrackoCloud

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #287 on: May 28, 2015, 12:04:47 AM »
Everyone struggles with a typical drawing tablet at first. Don't expect to get good drawings from it for a good while, and just keep practicing.

Maple

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #288 on: May 28, 2015, 12:18:39 AM »
Everyone struggles with a typical drawing tablet at first. Don't expect to get good drawings from it for a good while, and just keep practicing.

Could you be a bit more specific? I'm a total novice here and to say that is like telling a 4 year old to practice his algebra skills. Sorry for my rudeness, i'm getting my jimmies too rustled over this common situation. :fail:

btw, currently i have SAI trial version, if that helps.

Mеа

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #289 on: May 28, 2015, 12:35:03 AM »
I don't know how you could possibly get hand strains from using a tablet. Have you ever held a pencil? Do you get hand stains from using that? Just hold the stylus like a pencil.
By practice, Kracko means to develop the hand eye coordination of drawing something without being able to look at your hands. And the only way to acquire that is with time, to ingrain the physical skill into your body.
It may help to hold/place the tablet in different positions. If the height of your desk is what may be causing strain, through unnatural wrist positions, try holding the tablet in your lap. Or somewhere else. Presumably a place you would feel comfortable drawing with an actual sketch book on.
Like I said, it takes time. One of the better practice routines would be to draw straight vertical and horizontal lines. If there's any angle, try rotating the tablet until it looks right. Or learn to draw straight regardless. Once again, your body will understand eventually.
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Delfigamer

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #290 on: May 28, 2015, 02:00:54 AM »
Strange. When I got my tablet, it took me only several hours to get used to it. Not like I suddenly started to paint like da Vinci, though.
Maybe your tablet works in a relative mode? Supposedly, placing a pen on the tablet should move the mouse pointer to a corresponding position; but, sometimes, Windows think it's a touchpad, and even applies ballistics of one. Needless to say, the latter mode is several orders more confusing, if at all usable, and is certainly not the one intended.
Could it be that your drivers aren't configured appropriately?

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KrackoCloud

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #291 on: May 28, 2015, 02:42:53 AM »
Delfi brings up a good point. Some tablets by default will stretch and skew your cursor's movements because the resolution of the tablet doesn't match the resolution of the screen. You should definitely check out your settings.

Mеа

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #292 on: August 27, 2015, 03:13:27 PM »
I feel like silhouette practice is helping me in that I have the pieces in my head but not the overall figure. It also helps you to be a bit more daring about shapes and poses since you don't have to worry about the details. If you make them small enough, ~3in/7.5cm, you can do a lot really quickly.
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Massaca

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #293 on: September 06, 2015, 12:41:30 AM »
So I've got quite a lot of spare time but waste a fair bit of it sitting around doing absolutely nothing, lack of interest in anything. Drawing is one of the only things I really want to do and have for a while, wish I could but I can't at all. Can't even copy from a reference image right there. Never had any artisctic talent at all.
Of course though, I also have no understanding and lack even the basics so I was wondering, how do I start to learn from the very beginning? I'm sure there are tons of books and sites but I wouldn't know which were half decent and which to avoid.


(If I can even get anywhere or learn anything I just want to draw cute girls and such, typically. Mainly I want to do digital stuff but I assume it's best not to just buy the cheap intuos drawing pad, jump right in and try to learn from there >_> And if I could actually learn to draw with pencil and paper that'd be great anyway)

Mеа

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #294 on: September 06, 2015, 02:23:51 AM »
So an entirely new hobby? I can relate, I just picked something entirely new up recently myself.
I think the key when learning new things is to internalize tiny pieces at a time. Morsels, like gum--something small you carry in your mouth everywhere and that you can just continually chew and chew and chew and chew and chew away at. Having to continually refer back to something you're learning is tiring and discouraging. Practice the pieces you've internalized, then play around with them once you start getting bored. Then check back on the references once in a while to make sure you're doing well. Having random drawing buddies help too.
Keep showing your work and keep getting feedback. If you start to feel a little discouraged or sluggish with your progress, getting someone to keep you accountable can be helpful so you can keep practicing and hence keep getting better.
References references, I keep mentioning references, try this one. Check out Andrew Loomis' Fun with a Pencil on that page. Around page 14 ish is a great place to start. It may not be the style (or gender, lol) that you're going for, but I think it's excellent for getting into the swing of things. The best way to draw is bottom up; quick, easy, nice consistency is the trick. You'll get better at each of those when you've done it often enough, but the best way to be consistent and stay consistent is to start bottom up, ie: with a framework, an undersketch. And it doesn't have to be spheres and cubes, personally I found those hard myself. I like circles a lot, and those pages in Andrew Loomis help you. Draw a circle-ish thing here, draw one line here, then plot a blobby-thing for an eye here.
When I say consistent, I mean that you don't want to spend an hour drawing two things where one looks awesome, the other sucks and you can't figure out why. Having a framework of some sort helps with that, you can figure out what you did differently, how you plotted the elements on this most basic frame (like a circle, or a couple squares). You can adjust the relative distances, sizes, etc next time and see how it turns out. When you feel one works well, you'll remember it and your work will be consistent.
If referencing someone else's artwork, I'd suggest someone with very simple, clean, nice linework first. Avoid the complex, hair-strands-everywhere artists. If you're drawing anime-y, avoid the complex eyes too. All you need is a sideways pair of parenthesis hood with a circle inbetween. To be honest, I don't think it helps at all in the beginning because you're not adept enough to absorb the general aesthetics of the reference into your own style and it takes too long anyway, but sometimes it's helpful. And fun, I had lots of fun with that back in the day. Still took forever though. Also, if you're posting it, make sure you credit the original source. Oh, and remember that the point of copying or referencing someone else's work is to learn from it, not to just post it as some inferior version on DeviantArt.
As for tablets, some people apparently are more geared towards digital drawings, but I feel that you should hold off on that. The tablet isn't some magic wand that helps accelerate the learning of drawing. You should start with pencil and paper first. It's also more portable. I suggest you buy a big sketchbook to keep all your drawings in. Buy a small one and you'll often find your character's lower bodies being cut off; buy a big sketchbook. And then make a daily goal of filling in a page or two. Maybe start a 60 day improvement blog to keep yourself accountable.

Avoid How to Draw Anime books and their variants like the plague. If one touches you, burn your clothes and recite a thousand sutras. If you touch one, cut off that hand and I'll give you advice on drawing with your feet.

Above all, if you want to do something, do it now, start now. If you're not going to be an artist as a profession or living, you don't need talent, you just need to start now. Like right away. Get as much time in as you can. Good luck.
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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #295 on: September 06, 2015, 05:27:35 AM »
Pen control will be what let's you improve the most during the early stages. You can't learn to draw, if you can't draw.

Massaca

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #296 on: September 07, 2015, 02:20:42 AM »
Thank you very much, I really appreciate it.
I don't have anyone to draw or check with but no matter. I do already have a book, Spiral bound on the long side, bit short of A3 size with those slightly thicker pages.

Anyway, read through the first 14 pages of Fun with a Pencil. I'll go through when I get home and start with it, see how things go. Nice to have a place to start.

Thanks again.

Pen control will be what let's you improve the most during the early stages. You can't learn to draw, if you can't draw.
That's something I didn't consider before and I imagine it's certainly a contributing factor.

pineyappled

Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #297 on: September 07, 2015, 02:37:46 AM »
Check out Perspective Made Easy imo. Also I like Hampton muuuch more than Loomis (buy a physical copy of his figure drawing book after getting throuhg fun with a pencil and skip every other loomis book). Bridgman is alright too but miles less comprehensible.

Buy a cheap plain sketchbook and bring it with you everywhere.

e- Go to a cafe, park, or library to draw!
« Last Edit: September 07, 2015, 02:43:24 AM by kinoko »

Mеа

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #298 on: September 07, 2015, 04:48:53 AM »
Also I like Hampton muuuch more than Loomis (buy a physical copy of his figure drawing book after getting throuhg fun with a pencil and skip every other loomis book). Bridgman is alright too but miles less comprehensible.
Hm I might have to get one myself. What else would you recommend? I'm going through one of the Bridgman anatomy PDFs and having some trouble since it pretty much only lists muscles and their actions with a couple limited example pencil sketches thrown in.
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Kitten4u

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Re: Art Tips Thread II
« Reply #299 on: September 07, 2015, 08:44:59 PM »
If you're just looking for a place to start then I actually recommend copying other things you see, whether it be other paintings (even then it can be anything from a photograph, to a old master painting to a random image on Danbooru that you like) or objects from life.  Drawing from another 2D image will be easier because then you can just focus on the shapes rather than try to figure out exactly how to translate a 3D object to a 2D surface.  Also, to clarify, I  mean copy, not trace.  Tracing will not help you, but copying is much more useful than it sounds, and I'm surprised it doesn't get recommended more often. 

For me, the first hurdle with painting was training my eyes to see what's actually there rather than what my brain thinks is there.  In order to avoid overwhelming us with information, our brains developed a very effective auto-correct system and simplification system that we as artists have to learn to look past in order to accurately portray what we see.  By copying something, you're learning to look at what's actually there rather than what you think is there.  It's important to take it really slow so that you make sure you're really paying attention to everything there.  Besides helping you learn to train your eyes, if you're copying photographs or other works that you consider 'good' or 'high quality' you're giving yourself a baseline for your own work.  You'll just start understanding whether or not something is 'correct' because you've been looking at it and emulating it for so long.  This will help you spot mistakes in your own work so that you can go correct them.

For techniques, there's one that I think carries over regardless of what you want to draw, the medium you want to use, or any other techniques you find you like: an iterative approach.  What I mean by that, is that you don't want to jump into details right away, rather you want to start with the simpler shapes and then fill in the details so that you can see the whole image first and make sure your composition's good, your proportions are correct etc.  This post shows it better than I explain it.  See how the artist blocks out the simple shapes first and then starts adding details?

For medium, most of what you learn from one medium will carry over to others just fine; you'll have to learn the quirks of whatever particular medium you want to use.  So, if you know you want to do digital I don't think there's anything wrong with picking up a tablet and diving right into it.  If you're not sure you'll like the hobby, or just can't afford a tablet right now, then starting out with a pencil and paper won't slow you down any if you decide to switch to digital later.  Don't worry about it too much, the important part is just drawing.

With all that said, in my opinion, the most important thing you can do to learn how to draw is draw what you like.  Learning how to draw can be frustrating, so it's important to keep it fun.  Besides, no one becomes an artist 'to get better,' they do it because there's stuff they want to draw.  So, be sure to do whatever's fun for you.
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