Jump to content

Ana's Art Returns!


Anacybele
 Share

Recommended Posts

Alrighty, I've finally finished coloring! ^^

the_sky_sage___louise_by_great_aether-d5wwonp.png

I went kind of slow with this, as I got distracted by a couple other things, and that cape kept giving me a hard time. xP But I got the job done! I also tried some slightly different shading techniques. I thought about what people have told me about using more brushing, so I did. Really only for some of the highlight part, but still. I like my result quite a bit. Full description here. :)

Oh, also, I left my layers unmerged this time. I did copy them and then merge the copies to make the watermark image though.

Edited by Anacybele
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 796
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Are you using the burn tool for shading?

If so, don't do that, it just saturates things, make your own colours.

Yes. However, I find the burn tool much easier to use than making my own colors. But is there anything you like about the picture? I don't appreciate people simply pointing out a flaw or two and just leaving it at that, nor do I appreciate them acting bossy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

easier=/=better

never use the burn tool to shade for digital art unless you intentionally want to saturate shade

also suddenly giving good advice=bossy and it's a bad habit to get into, using the burn tool that is

I guess a good thing is that you've coloured it, farther than i've gone in digital art

Edited by AstraLunaSol
Link to comment
Share on other sites

easier=/=better

never use the burn tool to shade for digital art unless you intentionally want to saturate shade

also suddenly giving good advice=bossy and it's a bad habit to get into, using the burn tool that is

You're still being bossy by saying "don't do this" and "don't do that." A better way to put it would be "I'd suggest not using the burn tool." I'm not saying I won't listen, I'm telling you a nicer way to say something. I'll experiment and see what I can do about shading without using the burn tool.

I guess a good thing is that you've coloured it, father than i've gone in digital art

Thanks. :)

Edited by Anacybele
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're still being bossy by saying "don't do this" and "don't do that." A better way to put it would be "I'd suggest not using the burn tool." I'm not saying I won't listen, I'm telling you a nicer way to say something.

Because the world is made of cupcakes and unicorns, and everyone will always be kind when they speak to you, amirite.

Fuckin' damn, girl. Get over it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because the world is made of cupcakes and unicorns, and everyone will always be kind when they speak to you, amirite.

Fuckin' damn, girl. Get over it.

I never said the truth should be sugar-coated. There's a difference between that and legitimately being nice, but helpful.

He was being plenty nice by not outright saying that it looks like worthless shit.

Well of course. But saying something looks like shit isn't the only way to be rude.

Edited by Anacybele
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I never said the truth should be sugar-coated. There's a difference between that and legitimately being nice, but helpful.

You're asking people to sugar-glaze their shit. There is no difference. If you're asking anyone to speak or word themselves differently than how they actually feel, it's the same goddamn thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're asking people to sugar-glaze their shit. There is no difference. If you're asking anyone to speak or word themselves differently than how they actually feel, it's the same goddamn thing.

I'm not. But if you don't want to believe that, that's your choice. I see no point in arguing or debating this, so I'm done with this conversation.

I have a request to do for a friend up next, peeps, but then I plan to draw some Awakening fanart for the first time. Wee. ^^

Edited by Anacybele
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not. But if you don't want to believe that, that's your choice. I see no point in arguing or debating this, so I'm done with this conversation.

Oh, good, that gives me free reign to spout more libel and lies. 8D

> You're still being bossy by saying "don't do this" and "don't do that."

>>> You immediately contradict yourself by telling him to word himself differently, and that you refuse to listen to others' advice without them first adhering to your silly, sugar-coated, re-worded standard. That, or you condescendingly "consider" putting it to use.

Honestly, get over yourself. Compliments and respect is something to be earned, not taken by force; and you've worked toward neither.

Edited by ObLIVIA
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, good, that gives me free reign to spout more libel and lies. 8D

Yeah, lies of your own. It's quite amusing, actually. lol

No seriously, I'm really laughing. XD

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because the world is made of cupcakes and unicorns, and everyone will always be kind when they speak to you, amirite.

Fuckin' damn, girl. Get over it.

He was being plenty nice by not outright saying that it looks like worthless shit.

Guys, stop being jerks.

I'm not a mod, but it's rude and nonconstructive.

Maybe this type of foolery is okay in non-serious matters, but art is a personal endeavour.

People work on their artwork at different rates to improve themselves, and they can decide for themselves when they will want to improve or change their style or whatnot.

You all are sounding quite self-important and self-righteous for no good reason, and that only triggers more defensiveness.

If you lack the tact, then you should only expect poor responses back.

Anyway, Ana, you deserve better critiques than that.

I think your image of Louise looks really clean and it looks like you show a lot of attention to small details. And, I am also impressed that you have done this for so many of your characters so far--and with a mouse too! lol It shows a lot of dedication! I usually fizzle out after about 4-5. XD

Making her armor and gold trim and spear blade have more shine might add extra oomph. I would use a new layer on "screen" in order to add the shine on top using a lighter yellow for the gold parts or lighter blue for the armor. That way, it doesn't mess with your artwork underneath.

Also, I think the cape shading looks a little bland since the burn makes it more grey, and I feel a warm tone would look nicer. Next time, try using a multiply layer with a light orange or the same yellow for that area and see if that works better? It's almost as easy as using the burn tool and you don't really have to choose a shade since you can almost just choose the same colour and the multiply mode will darken it up for you. Good to know you're trying to add some brushwork in as well. I think that can definitely help if you're finding the dodge/burn tools leaves you unsatisfied with how it handles a colour.

Edited by Prax
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Despite the objection of certain others to me posting in this thread, I will share my calm thoughts on the matter.

The hacking section is quite similar to tend to have assholish coments from time to time. The veterans are hostile to newbies (not necessarily newbies to the craft, but the forum/section) because they have to measure the abilities of the person that is "new". Measuring the abilities of the new person, the question is deciding if the person is "worth the time investment"?

In the case of hacking, "are they asking the same redundant style of questions over and over again?" In the art section, "Are they even listening to the advice and improving? Or are they just showcasing their stuff in hope of being praised?"

The starting point isn't the issue. It's the rate of progress.

The veterans will tend to be nicer in the beginning. However, if it is of the opinion of the group that the person is just being insistent that their way is better, they WILL tend to have more... blunt comments.

If you haven't picked up on the subtlties by now, I'll tell you. You do realize that your reactions to nitpick at the critique and the reputation you have generated due to that is the reason for your high traffic in your previous thread and this one compared to others? Yes, there's a lot of legitimate posts in this thread, but the recent ones as of late have been due to that. No seriously, just look at the amount of flare ups in your previous thread and here.

Granted, Prax has a point that the critiques as of late have been on the line of violating the rule of "If you don't have anything legitimate to say why something is bad, don't post".

Heh, I kind of get the feeling that people like picking on you, Ana, which makes you a little defensive.

I admit, I am one of those people.

But you are VERY quick to throw around rejections of critique simply because it is your opinion that it is not legitimate. Most of the ones that you've done that to haven't been anywhere close to breaking the "don't be an ass" rule for the art board, until you egg on the conversation.

I can understand your reactions to AK (obLIVIA), but not at AstraLunaSol. At all. That was one of the more calm and "legitimately looking to help you" posts I've seen. I don't see a shred of "bossy" in those two posts.

Edited by shadowofchaos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My only problem here is you asking for compliments ;/

if you want compliments, then provide quality art that people will like. if someone leaves critique and not a compliment, you take the critique and work on making your art better so said person will want to compliment it, not ask them to leave one because you don't like it when they don't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is not the first time the Creative board has tried to have a conversation about why the Burn and Dodge tools are bad. We were pretty civil about it then too, but surprise! it didn't work. Welp.

Look, "if you haven't got anything nice to say then don't say anything" is completely useless when it comes to art. It's a lot more like "if you haven't got anything nice or useful to say then don't say anything". People don't have to be assholes, it's true, but a lot of them are gonna be blunt and that's not the same as being an asshole. Even I'm gonna be blunt: the nicest thing I have to say about the latest piece is that it's not horrible and I can see a decent jumping-off point for more improvement.

But I can say useful things, so I'm gonna go ahead.

  • Burn/dodge have been covered. These are not painting tools (they are photo editing tools). They do not work well repurposed as painting tools. That's pretty much all there is to say on the matter.
  • Color choices in general: Not so bad as a whole, but the tunic/gloves/boots seem a bit oversaturated. High saturation works on some clothing but I don't think it is here. Just a little desaturation would probably sort that one out.
  • Stiffness: definitely got some going on in the pose and linework in general. Some of the fabric (cape and the back of the skirt) are better but on a whole it looks kind of... frozen? Really it's just a matter of practice for loosening up poses-- a bunch of quick gesture sketches over time. They're gonna look bad at first, which is why you do a lot of them and then eventually they don't look so bad and your posing on a whole is a lot looser and everyone wins. This will also include your linework in general, as will...
  • Line weight: I can tell that your linework is varied a little bit, but only just. Don't be afraid of thicker lines. Varying your lineweight more will help the sense of motion, so things won't be as stiff, and will also bring in more of a sense of depth and weight to drawing. Super thin lines are great in some instances but they don't work out universally.
  • Anatomy in general: I think I kind of missed the boat with this one because you had the underdrawing up earlier, so I'm definitely not saying you need to make anatomy fixes on this one-- rather, just remember them for the future. Most of your anatomy looks reasonable; the one thing that sticks out to me is that the arms and hands look kinda tiny. The length of the arms is okay but they're skinny enough to be noticeable, and the hands are disproportionately small. Not gonna say anything about the size of the eyes because that's clearly a stylistic thing but they're kinda square to a bit of a weird degree. Again, no need to mess around with those on this piece, but try to keep it in mind for the future.
  • In sum probably the only thing I'd tweak about this one in particular is the color saturation and probably the lineweight, but keeping all points made in mind for the next piece is really the more important part.

Well, okay, I managed to get a few more things into the crit section that are kind of borderline nice. And none of it was actively mean. But you're not gonna get any "oh wow cool"s or whatever out of me, or most people, until you produce something that legitimately causes that reaction. It's frustrating that it takes so much work, but you have to get used to it-- I know from experience. There's nothing wrong with needing improvement so long as you actually work on it, but if you barely listen to most of the constructive crit that comes your way just because the tone isn't sugary enough for you or because they didn't meet some minimum compliment requirement, your improvement is going to be incredibly slow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll echo kdanger's sentiment. There's no point in a post that's purely dragging someone down but people have the right to their opinions and by art posting on this board, users also have the right to post a critique.

On the matter of kdanger's critique, I agree with what was said about the colours being overly saturated. A useful tip is to open up a picture that you like, use the colour picker tool (the eyedropper), and pull out colours from the picture and use them in your own art. It'll help you learn colour theory by observation, since colour theory is really a tricky thing that takes a lot of time to learn. Especially if you have vision problems (which you do iirc? sorry if I'm wrong), using other pictures for colour reference and extracting colours is going to help you learn what combination of colours is pleasing to the eye, and it'll also help you learn what colours look nice for shading. Prax's multiply layer solution is also what I use, along with overlay layers, especially in the first pass I make (or if I'm being lazy heh heh heh).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You people truly do have to tone it down. There is nothing wrong with giving critique but so much of this is pointless bickering that makes it look like your trying to hurt Ana as opposed to actually helping her.

If you don't agree with someone (ie. Ana thinking Astra is being bossy) then perhaps try saying it in a useful way instead of calling someone's art "worthless shit" or insulting them as person? Just a suggestion, of course.

Like Prax said, art is a such a personal thing, so to plainly insult someone's art, especially without offering critique, is completely curt.

Creative Forum Rules:

Be polite and mature when posting comments and/or critical critiques. Bashing and/or outright rude behavior is not allowed.

SF Code of Conduct:

Show respect towards all members, no matter who they are.

Do not flame people, or bait them into flaming you.

Just a few rules that I'd like to remind you of, since it seems like some people have forgotten.

I'm not saying that the people doing the insulting are only at fault because you do need to realize that not everyone is trying to offend you, Ana. Astra was giving you legitimate advice that I'm sure was not meant to be interpreted as bossy. If someone, for example, mixes FE6/7 and 8 colours on sprite then I would tell them not to do that since it looks bad, but I'm not demanding and or trying to force them not to do it in a bossy or demeaning way.

I'd also like to thank you, Ana, for not getting as offended as you could have; some of this was pretty blatant flame-baiting but you just shook it off instead of getting sucked in.

Also thanks to the people who posted legitimate things.

There is so much garbage in this last page that if I were to remove it, I'd have to clear almost the entire page and have had handed out several warnings. So I'm not going to do that.

However, the next person to post filth insulting Ana or throwing in some worthless comment will receive a warning. If you have a problem with this, contact me or make a ticket.

Also, Ana, I suggest you just ignore everyone's replies but Prax's, kdanger's, and Samias' since the others really aren't worth your time.

eCut ~

Edited by eCut
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ugh, why can't I get the multiquote button to work? >_< Anyway.

I'm not saying that the people doing the insulting are only at fault because you do need to realize that not everyone is trying to offend you, Ana. Astra was giving you legitimate advice that I'm sure was not meant to be interpreted as bossy. If someone, for example, mixes FE6/7 and 8 colours on sprite then I would tell them not to do that since it looks bad, but I'm not demanding and or trying to force them not to do it in a bossy or demeaning way.

I know, as I agree that neither Prax, Samias, kdanger, or you are being rude to me at all. Like I said, one can be polite about critiquing without sugarcoating the truth. People here would learn a lot from Bulbagarden's writers, methinks. They are all polite and never so hostile, but they are very helpful. I learned a lot from the critiques I've gotten there. And hardly did I get only praise or compliments.

I'd also like to thank you, Ana, for not getting as offended as you could have; some of this was pretty blatant flame-baiting but you just shook it off instead of getting sucked in.

Heh, you're welcome. I have changed some in my time of learning to deal with situations like these. :)

Also, Ana, I suggest you just ignore everyone's replies but Prax's, kdanger's, and Samias' since the others really aren't worth your time.

Alright, I will.

I think your image of Louise looks really clean and it looks like you show a lot of attention to small details. And, I am also impressed that you have done this for so many of your characters so far--and with a mouse too! lol It shows a lot of dedication! I usually fizzle out after about 4-5. XD

Haha, yep, I plan to make art of all the "playable" and important enough characters in my fic. Thanks a bunch, Prax. And I pay attention to details like I do because I love designing my characters' outfits, even if I'm basing them off an existing style, like RD's. And yep, a mouse, but I've finally decided to ask for a tablet for my birthday. I think the fact that I always have at least a few ideas for pieces, yet I go so slow on each one has finally caught up with me. lol

Making her armor and gold trim and spear blade have more shine might add extra oomph. I would use a new layer on "screen" in order to add the shine on top using a lighter yellow for the gold parts or lighter blue for the armor. That way, it doesn't mess with your artwork underneath.

Sounds fine to me. I did actually use a lighter blue for the shine of the armor though and put it on a separate layer.

Also, I think the cape shading looks a little bland since the burn makes it more grey, and I feel a warm tone would look nicer. Next time, try using a multiply layer with a light orange or the same yellow for that area and see if that works better? It's almost as easy as using the burn tool and you don't really have to choose a shade since you can almost just choose the same colour and the multiply mode will darken it up for you. Good to know you're trying to add some brushwork in as well. I think that can definitely help if you're finding the dodge/burn tools leaves you unsatisfied with how it handles a colour.

Oh, okay. I can't believe I never thought of trying different layer blending options. xP And yeah, this time, I was pretty dissatisfied with how the dodge tool was working on the tunic, but I couldn't come up with a proper color either, so I just kinda gave up.

This is not the first time the Creative board has tried to have a conversation about why the Burn and Dodge tools are bad. We were pretty civil about it then too, but surprise! it didn't work. Welp.

Oh. I really apologize, then. I had no intention of repeating a past incident, I swear.

Look, "if you haven't got anything nice to say then don't say anything" is completely useless when it comes to art. It's a lot more like "if you haven't got anything nice or useful to say then don't say anything". People don't have to be assholes, it's true, but a lot of them are gonna be blunt and that's not the same as being an asshole. Even I'm gonna be blunt: the nicest thing I have to say about the latest piece is that it's not horrible and I can see a decent jumping-off point for more improvement.

Right. See, just as long as I hear something like what you've just said, I'm cool. You're not sugar-coating the truth, and you are indeed being a little blunt, but you're also being polite at the same time.

Burn/dodge have been covered. These are not painting tools (they are photo editing tools). They do not work well repurposed as painting tools. That's pretty much all there is to say on the matter.

Yeah, I've begun to notice they don't always work well for me. More brushing from no on, for sure.

Color choices in general: Not so bad as a whole, but the tunic/gloves/boots seem a bit oversaturated. High saturation works on some clothing but I don't think it is here. Just a little desaturation would probably sort that one out.

Oh, okay. I see.

Stiffness: definitely got some going on in the pose and linework in general. Some of the fabric (cape and the back of the skirt) are better but on a whole it looks kind of... frozen? Really it's just a matter of practice for loosening up poses-- a bunch of quick gesture sketches over time. They're gonna look bad at first, which is why you do a lot of them and then eventually they don't look so bad and your posing on a whole is a lot looser and everyone wins. This will also include your linework in general, as will...

Hrm. I really thought I had finally gotten past the stiffness. But I guess I still have problems with that, argh. But I'll do some practce sketches and stuff like you say. It'd be a way to deal with boredom I get from lack of a job anyway (why did I not hear back from that manager that interviewed me? ;_;).

Line weight: I can tell that your linework is varied a little bit, but only just. Don't be afraid of thicker lines. Varying your lineweight more will help the sense of motion, so things won't be as stiff, and will also bring in more of a sense of depth and weight to drawing. Super thin lines are great in some instances but they don't work out universally.

Well, earlier, someone had told me I should use thinner lines, so I went back to doing that with the Louise pic. But I see what you're saying. But how do people taper lines so cleanly as I've seen? GIMP's pen/paths tool will do it automatically in some instances, but I've yet to figure out a way to taper lines in Photoshop without having to use the eraser. :/

Anatomy in general: I think I kind of missed the boat with this one because you had the underdrawing up earlier, so I'm definitely not saying you need to make anatomy fixes on this one-- rather, just remember them for the future. Most of your anatomy looks reasonable; the one thing that sticks out to me is that the arms and hands look kinda tiny. The length of the arms is okay but they're skinny enough to be noticeable, and the hands are disproportionately small. Not gonna say anything about the size of the eyes because that's clearly a stylistic thing but they're kinda square to a bit of a weird degree. Again, no need to mess around with those on this piece, but try to keep it in mind for the future.

Oh, okay, great. People used to tell me my anatomy needed work, and I'm glad to hear that it's improving. I still suck at hands though. I just can't seem to get them right no matter how hard I try. Well, mostly. Some hand poses are actually simple for me, but most aren't. But thanks, I will keep this in mind.

In sum probably the only thing I'd tweak about this one in particular is the color saturation and probably the lineweight, but keeping all points made in mind for the next piece is really the more important part.

Alright, thanks a bunch. :)

Well, okay, I managed to get a few more things into the crit section that are kind of borderline nice. And none of it was actively mean. But you're not gonna get any "oh wow cool"s or whatever out of me, or most people, until you produce something that legitimately causes that reaction. It's frustrating that it takes so much work, but you have to get used to it-- I know from experience. There's nothing wrong with needing improvement so long as you actually work on it, but if you barely listen to most of the constructive crit that comes your way just because the tone isn't sugary enough for you or because they didn't meet some minimum compliment requirement, your improvement is going to be incredibly slow.

Hey, I understand. As I said earlier in this post, a generic "it's not bad, but it could use improvement" or some such is fine with me. And I see people clearly misunderstood me when I said they should point out something they liked. I didn't mean this to come off as "asking for compliments and praise." I meant that it doesn't hurt to make the artist feel like less of a failure and more like they really do have potential by pointing out even one tiny little thing that was likeable. You don't have to go "omg, amazing!" or anything, you can just go "I do like the pattern on the dress."

On the matter of kdanger's critique, I agree with what was said about the colours being overly saturated. A useful tip is to open up a picture that you like, use the colour picker tool (the eyedropper), and pull out colours from the picture and use them in your own art. It'll help you learn colour theory by observation, since colour theory is really a tricky thing that takes a lot of time to learn. Especially if you have vision problems (which you do iirc? sorry if I'm wrong), using other pictures for colour reference and extracting colours is going to help you learn what combination of colours is pleasing to the eye, and it'll also help you learn what colours look nice for shading. Prax's multiply layer solution is also what I use, along with overlay layers, especially in the first pass I make (or if I'm being lazy heh heh heh).

Oh, that's a good idea. I've actually done this before, though it wasn't often. I should pull colors from existing pictures more then. And my vision only sucks when I try to look at things closely. I'm farsighted, and I see details best from far away. My glasses, of course, help with that, but otherwise, my sight is fine.

Edited by Anacybele
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, okay. I can't believe I never thought of trying different layer blending options. xP And yeah, this time, I was pretty dissatisfied with how the dodge tool was working on the tunic, but I couldn't come up with a proper color either, so I just kinda gave up.

Blending modes are basically magic and also your best friend, yeah.

Hrm. I really thought I had finally gotten past the stiffness. But I guess I still have problems with that, argh. But I'll do some practce sketches and stuff like you say. It'd be a way to deal with boredom I get from lack of a job anyway (why did I not hear back from that manager that interviewed me? ;_;).

It does take a while-- I still have stiffness problems. It's hard to let myself just sort of flail at the paper/screen until things come out loose, but it gets easier.

Well, earlier, someone had told me I should use thinner lines, so I went back to doing that with the Louise pic. But I see what you're saying. But how do people taper lines so cleanly as I've seen? GIMP's pen/paths tool will do it automatically in some instances, but I've yet to figure out a way to taper lines in Photoshop without having to use the eraser. :/

It's really a matter of balance with the thinness. Mostly you just have to experiment with different amounts and see what winds up looking good.

For the tapering, a lot of what you see people around here doing is based on pen pressure. If you don't have a tablet, it's a bit trickier. Photoshop's pen tool has some functionality for it-- you draw a path and then right click -> Stroke Path, and it gives you an option called "simulate pressure" which auto-tapers. But that's not always going to come out to what you want it to, because auto-generated anything never does.

Adobe Illustrator has better line control and lets you adjust lineweight at each control point of the path, so you could use that to ink (I've done it a few times, but I'm a little rusty, so I'd have to have a look at that after I get out of this afternoon's class before I could properly tell you how to do it. I'll have a look at that if you want, though.) If you got Photoshop CS2 from where I think you got it, you should be able to get Illustrator CS2 from the same source. Basically what you'd be doing there would be inking in Illustrator and then coloring in Photoshop. Illustrator's kind of a pain in the ass, but it will do what you want it to.

Probably the best I've seen in terms of controlling lineweight without a tablet is SAI's linework tools, which work similarly to Illustrator's but with a more intuitive interface IMO. There's a free trial for it, at least.

Oh, okay, great. People used to tell me my anatomy needed work, and I'm glad to hear that it's improving. I still suck at hands though. I just can't seem to get them right no matter how hard I try. Well, mostly. Some hand poses are actually simple for me, but most aren't. But thanks, I will keep this in mind.

I'm pretty sure hands just exist to make artists suffer. Well, they have their uses, but yknow.

In terms of sizing I'd just suggest a metric that I totally just came up with on the spot: if you put your hand flat on your face, fingers together, it covers about half your face. Obviously there's going to be some variance with this, but yeah. Really just holding one body part up to another for comparisons is a valuable tool for proportions in general.

Alright, thanks a bunch. :)

No prob, glad I could be of use.

Oh, that's a good idea. I've actually done this before, though it wasn't often. I should pull colors from existing pictures more then. And my vision only sucks when I try to look at things closely. I'm farsighted, and I see details best from far away. My glasses, of course, help with that, but otherwise, my sight is fine.

Eyedropper tool is also magic and will reveal many unexpected things about what colors things actually are.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It does take a while-- I still have stiffness problems. It's hard to let myself just sort of flail at the paper/screen until things come out loose, but it gets easier.

Ah, I see.

It's really a matter of balance with the thinness. Mostly you just have to experiment with different amounts and see what winds up looking good.

Oh, okay.

For the tapering, a lot of what you see people around here doing is based on pen pressure. If you don't have a tablet, it's a bit trickier. Photoshop's pen tool has some functionality for it-- you draw a path and then right click -> Stroke Path, and it gives you an option called "simulate pressure" which auto-tapers. But that's not always going to come out to what you want it to, because auto-generated anything never does.

Oh, I see. And yeah, the stimulate pressure option doesn't really help much.

Adobe Illustrator has better line control and lets you adjust lineweight at each control point of the path, so you could use that to ink (I've done it a few times, but I'm a little rusty, so I'd have to have a look at that after I get out of this afternoon's class before I could properly tell you how to do it. I'll have a look at that if you want, though.) If you got Photoshop CS2 from where I think you got it, you should be able to get Illustrator CS2 from the same source. Basically what you'd be doing there would be inking in Illustrator and then coloring in Photoshop. Illustrator's kind of a pain in the ass, but it will do what you want it to.

Probably the best I've seen in terms of controlling lineweight without a tablet is SAI's linework tools, which work similarly to Illustrator's but with a more intuitive interface IMO. There's a free trial for it, at least.

I doubt I can get Illustrator CS2 as easily as I got PS CS2, unfortunately. I got PS CS2 for free because Adobe accidentally (or so it seems) released serial numbers for it and other programs awhile back. Prax had told me about it. They've probably taken it all down by now. But I'll see about getting it somehow once I finally get a job and have some extra spending money.

I'm pretty sure hands just exist to make artists suffer. Well, they have their uses, but yknow.

Haha, yeah.

In terms of sizing I'd just suggest a metric that I totally just came up with on the spot: if you put your hand flat on your face, fingers together, it covers about half your face. Obviously there's going to be some variance with this, but yeah. Really just holding one body part up to another for comparisons is a valuable tool for proportions in general.

Actually, I've kinda done that before. Guess I should do it more. xP

Eyedropper tool is also magic and will reveal many unexpected things about what colors things actually are.

Oh yeah, I use that all the time.

Edited by Anacybele
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, that's exactly what I was talking about in terms of getting Illustrator.

Anyway, if you want to try using Illustrator to ink, here's what to do:

  • Open up your scanned sketch in Illustrator. Make a new layer for the lines; it won't mess anything up if you don't, but it makes things easier.
  • Go over your lines with the Pen tool. This will give you lines of uniform weight; you can change the stroke weight to whatever you want your average line weight to be.
  • Further down the toolbox you'll see the Width tool. The icon looks like this: 1yIIUsQ.png To use it, you click and drag at whatever point on the line you want to alter the weight of. You can do this wherever you want on the line, at however many points you want.
  • If you want, you can resize your linework without losing any quality.
  • Once you're satisfied with the linework, get rid of the layer with the sketch and export what remains as whichever filetype you want; you can just go straight to a PSD file, or a PNG, or whatever.
  • Open it up in Photoshop and go about your business as usual.

The Width tool is a bit of a pain to work with sometimes but it will do what you want it to. The other nice thing about doing the ink in Illustrator is that you can scale as much as you want before going over to Photoshop, because it uses vector graphics instead of raster.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...