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Hey all, I am trying to learn how to do digital works. Drawing for me is easy, transferring it over to the computer/mobile is also not a problem. I have learned how to use different layers for different sections of my drawing and thus coloring it before using the clipping tool to shade it or make it lighter etc.

I am no professional by any means. My current work is for a character of mine. Sahlem is a work in progress in the arts part because for the life of me I can not figure out how you make the outline as crisp as it appears with some of the art I have seen here on RPR.

This is about as far as I have gotten in my works. Probably the best I have done since starting this part of the art world. I know it could be better and the outline in the hair bothers me. The face turned out much better than I anticipated, but I feel there is something missing.

untitled69.jpg

Please, if anyone could give me some pointers or hints, I will be internally grateful. I don't have anyone or anywhere to learn such things from.

Also, if this topic is in any means colliding with any rules, I apologize. Remove it if so and it will not happen again.
Are you using Sai or Photoshop or something else?

Some advice: Play around with the stabilizer and make/download different brushes for the lineart. Learn about the opacity lock or transparency lock if you haven't already; you can change the hair outline colour if you have it on a separate locked layer. Experiment with layer effects.

Check out tutorials for whatever software you're using on deviantart or tumblr.
Pomkeki

Edit: Forget it
SilentSybil Topic Starter

I am familiar with Sai. A friend recommended it to me and I am currently going through the month trial of it. I have an ASUS computer/tablet (the one they were advertising here recently) and am able to remove the keyboard to draw onto the screen itself which was the main reason I bought it in the first place. The line produces slower than I draw it, which could be just a problem on my end since I have yet to really explore it further. I haven't really gotten into it as much as I thought I would, not being able to use my fingers to zoom in was a problem (which I am sure can be easily fixed somehow by a check or option...or something.) as I usually use Ibis paint x for the android and being able to do so was very helpful and quick. I created that piece from my mobile phone among others. There is an alpha lock that keeps the outline there for me to draw over as much as I want without losing it. The magic wand, select new layer, fill with paint, and clipping over that layer, is how I have been proceeding.
Kyce

I generally crisp up my lines with the 'sharpen' filter ( in photoshop), so I draw them out, then just sharpen to get that crisp look. For works with more painting I don't bother with that, however where lines are prolific I use that method. I personally think your lines are quite decent and will improve with practice.

My biggest critique for this piece however, are the colours, they are over-saturated and bring too much attention away from the drawing and rather to the glaring colours. I would use a softer blue or a brown/beige colour for her skin as opposed to the orange used. Otherwise great work so far! You've got a lot of potential and I look forward to seeing your future pieces :)
SilentSybil Topic Starter

Kyce wrote:
I generally crisp up my lines with the 'sharpen' filter ( in photoshop), so I draw them out, then just sharpen to get that crisp look. For works with more painting I don't bother with that, however where lines are prolific I use that method. I personally think your lines are quite decent and will improve with practice.

My biggest critique for this piece however, are the colours, they are over-saturated and bring too much attention away from the drawing and rather to the glaring colours. I would use a softer blue or a brown/beige colour for her skin as opposed to the orange used. Otherwise great work so far! You've got a lot of potential and I look forward to seeing your future pieces :)


I have been wanting photoshop, but for the life of me can not find it. Any time I have searched it up, it's been a type of photoshop, but not the kind that gives me the option to draw freely without editing a picture of some kind.

I must agree with that critique, I am still learning appropriate colors for things. I forget that some hues are a mixture of even the stranger colors you don't see, but are required to make the ones you do. So used to just black, greys and white. I think I got a little excited with being able to give it some color and got carried away.....^^;

@Pomkeki:

I thought the fuzzy was bad? O.o

When I colored it, those fuzzy bits always showed up...but I guess I need to figure out how that works to where it doesn't. I know the layer placement above or below the outline is important, does over or under help with that? Or am I completely off track?

----
@illantis:

You know what? I have been looking up tutorials on youtube and my results have been...terrible? They speed through their stuff and make it impossibe for me to see what's going on, but I didn't think of deviant art at all! *facepalm* I am one of it's members and had yet to see one appear there, but I will most defiantly go and check that out!
Kyce

SilentSybil wrote:
Kyce wrote:
I generally crisp up my lines with the 'sharpen' filter ( in photoshop), so I draw them out, then just sharpen to get that crisp look. For works with more painting I don't bother with that, however where lines are prolific I use that method. I personally think your lines are quite decent and will improve with practice.

My biggest critique for this piece however, are the colours, they are over-saturated and bring too much attention away from the drawing and rather to the glaring colours. I would use a softer blue or a brown/beige colour for her skin as opposed to the orange used. Otherwise great work so far! You've got a lot of potential and I look forward to seeing your future pieces :)


I have been wanting photoshop, but for the life of me can not find it. Any time I have searched it up, it's been a type of photoshop, but not the kind that gives me the option to draw freely without editing a picture of some kind.

I must agree with that critique, I am still learning appropriate colors for things. I forget that some hues are a mixture of even the stranger colors you don't see, but are required to make the ones you do. So used to just black, greys and white. I think I got a little excited with being able to give it some color and got carried away.....^^;

I have a free copy of CS6 lying around if you ever need! :) I'm not sure what site to hand it from but its there and ready to be uploaded.

That's fine we're all learning! Pinterest has some great resources on serving both resources and skin tutorials/pallets.
Generally with skin you'll want to avoid adding bright oranges unless you're drawing an alien. I myself am certainly no master, though here's some basic pallet of just a few skin colours.
pallettes.png I use more red/darker orange with more grey the darker it gets, where as I can go more beige/rosy with more lighter skin. Saturation is also important in colour, some people use it stylistically but generally overly bright colours are an eyeburn and best served in small amounts and not as hair/skin colour. Like so with this red pallet2.png

Colouring takes time to learn but is definitely worth learning and I wish you luck on your artistic journey!
Here is a skin palette I like to use for reference :)
388665917cba492d4693d1c9cc4c9f27.jpg
There is a free copy of Photoshop c3(?) Buried deep on Adobe's site. If I can manage to find it after I am done working I will link you!
SilentSybil Topic Starter

Oh my goodness! The color charts will be mega useful! Thank you all for helping me with this! I couldn't ask for more...I honestly didn't think I would get this much feed back. T^T I really appreciate you guys! I would love to keep you all updated as I progress so that I can get some feedback. I REALLY want to be able to do this. So, if you ever have anything else to share with me, leave it here- or PM me! Either is fine!
SilentSybil Topic Starter

Ehen wrote:
There is a free copy of Photoshop c3(?) Buried deep on Adobe's site. If I can manage to find it after I am done working I will link you!
Kyce wrote:
I have a free copy of CS6 lying around if you ever need! :) I'm not sure what site to hand it from but its there and ready to be uploaded

That would be absolutely wonderful!
There's a Tumblr post or two somewhere with Sai for free. Just do a google search for it with site:tumblr.com in the search bar.

People seem to prefer Sai for lineart, myself included. I do lines and flats in Sai and export to psd for coloring in Photoshop. Don't be afraid to go back and forth while you figure out your preferences.

Also, what size canvas are you typically using?
Ryu

pixlr.com

Works similar to photoshop.

Or Krita, it is awesome for digital art. And it is free.
SilentSybil Topic Starter

illantis wrote:
There's a Tumblr post or two somewhere with Sai for free. Just do a google search for it with site:tumblr.com in the search bar.

People seem to prefer Sai for lineart, myself included. I do lines and flats in Sai and export to psd for coloring in Photoshop. Don't be afraid to go back and forth while you figure out your preferences.

Also, what size canvas are you typically using?

What would you recommend? I've noticed the smaller the canvas, the quicker the marks load after drawing.
Pomkeki

Edit: Forget it
SilentSybil wrote:
illantis wrote:
There's a Tumblr post or two somewhere with Sai for free. Just do a google search for it with site:tumblr.com in the search bar.

People seem to prefer Sai for lineart, myself included. I do lines and flats in Sai and export to psd for coloring in Photoshop. Don't be afraid to go back and forth while you figure out your preferences.

Also, what size canvas are you typically using?

What would you recommend? I've noticed the smaller the canvas, the quicker the marks load after drawing.

It really depends. I like to zoom in a lot when i draw, so i usually use a 3000 x 3000 px canvas.
SilentSybil Topic Starter

Pomkeki wrote:


That actually helps me understand it alot better. I don't use the first tool, for obvious reasons. The second is most likely what I am using now, but I am not entirely sure (probably a default for ibis paint). I will be putting one of these on my laptop so once I get something on there, I will take a closer look at each of the drawing tools.
-Quietly sneaks in and takes some of the advices for themself- (?)

Jokes aside (and bc i feel I'd feel like a jerk if i commented here without leaving no feedback :'D) I can tell you one or two things i've come to learn over the years. I'm not really the best, so i'm sorry of you knew any of these, or they don't really work:


One thing I figured fairly recently is that making a second lineart after doing a block, shadowless coloring on the whole picture, really improves the linework's quality! I figure it must have something to with having a better view of the whole picture and it dimensions once you do. I've also tried doing the second lineart over the color's layer (IE: doing the hair's linework at the hair's color layer).

Another thing you might like to now, specially if you're going for Sai, is to use the "lock opacity" and "opacity" settings. The first one allows you to well, lock the layer's opacity. This means it wont transparent when you erase, and also gives you a lot of freedom regarding edges when you are doing things such as blush details, edge colorings, and other witouth having to worry about the borderlines in the meantime. The "opacity" setting allows you to regulate the layer's opacity, and it's most helful when doing shadows, and thin fabrics/translucent materials.

Other than that, idk what to tell you that the others may have already, or you might already know xD Regardless, let me know if any of those where useful!
Hey, I'm going to pop in and drop this here-- pop into the group. It's pretty much nothing but artists, and we post all sorts of things to help and there'll be multiple peeples to answer your questions!

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