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Post by edzepp on Mar 2, 2011 12:10:17 GMT
Danke. I'm still browsing the Wacom site. It's either a Bamboo or an Intuos. Tips?
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Post by goldenknots on Mar 2, 2011 13:14:31 GMT
I can't find the resolution for the Bamboo, but it looks like it is a slightly less precise instrument. The Intuos has the same resolution as the Cintiq 12" that I use, and it has lots of buttons, which are probably user definable, an amazingly useful feature. It probably costs more, I didn't look directly at pricing. I did see some discussion of it here: forum.deviantart.com/hardware/general/1203599/I'm fond of overkill -- get the nicest one you can afford, so it might actually be more than you need, as opposed to aiming for cheap and wishing for more features later. Loren
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Post by thereisnosaurus on Mar 2, 2011 14:25:23 GMT
Intuos. Well, if you ever intend to be a really serious digital artist. having the function strips is super necessary for streamlined work if you want to be comfortable. I used a 9x12 for a couple of years before upgrading to a cintiq, and honestly that tablet was easier to use for basic production. You want to make sure you get a decent size though, 9x12 is about optimal, but step bigger or smaller I can imagine being ok.
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Post by edzepp on Mar 2, 2011 15:19:09 GMT
Well, I do eventually want to put together a comic, so yeah.
A Cintiq is way out of my range now, so I'll look into an Intuos. Thanks!
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Post by Tobu Ishi on Mar 2, 2011 17:39:16 GMT
I'm just tired of compromising my picture quality by scanning. My pencils end up looking light and indistinct. Have you tried adjusting your scanner settings? Scanning at a lower brightness and a higher contrast can get you darker, more distinct lines. I usually kick my contrast up to at least 30 when scanning pencils, and if I really want good strong lines to work with, I drop the brightness, too. i51.tinypic.com/313n220.jpg (Not GKC, but a good example.) EDIT: I am a grad student and really should be doing homework, not ripping off the ideas of more creative forumites. But I've been wanting to draw this for about a month now, if not longer. So. Shameless time-wasting, below. (I am late to the party as always - the jungle!Annie party, this time, it seems.) Delivered with apologies to 0o0f for idea theft, and to Reynard, for being The Worst At Drawing Animals, Ever.
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Post by legion on Mar 2, 2011 20:09:04 GMT
I suggested the idea of Mononoke!Annie with explicit instructions for others to use it since I can't really draw and BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW
JUST.
PERFECT.
I LOVE YOU STEAL MORE IDEAS PLEASE.
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Post by nikita on Mar 3, 2011 2:05:01 GMT
edzepp In Photoshop, press ctrl+L and play a bit with the little black white and gray sliders below the histogram. That should give you all you need to solve your contrast problem. One thing you should always keep in mind when buying art equipment is, that your skills will probably not magically improve simply by buying a really expensive (and digital) pencil. However if you're interested in digital drawing and painting and can afford it - why not?
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vollie
Junior Member
oh, triple wow!
Posts: 76
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Post by vollie on Mar 3, 2011 3:06:05 GMT
Annnnd bluh bluh bluh AU junk. Some zimmy'd!Jack and fire elemental!Annie. No clue how I am going to color this! But I will. Somehow. Also I can't draw hands. Or shoes.
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Post by edzepp on Mar 3, 2011 3:21:29 GMT
edzepp In Photoshop, press ctrl+L and play a bit with the little black white and gray sliders below the histogram. That should give you all you need to solve your contrast problem. One thing you should always keep in mind when buying art equipment is, that your skills will probably not magically improve simply by buying a really expensive (and digital) pencil. However if you're interested in digital drawing and painting and can afford it - why not? Thanks! I'm not really expecting my skills to improve magically. That said, there's a higher margin for error with digital art, which I need. We can't all be fuzzysocks. But you're right; I'm interested in this art thing as more than just a hobby.
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Post by jayne on Mar 4, 2011 14:00:29 GMT
Annnnd bluh bluh bluh AU junk. Some zimmy'd!Jack and fire elemental!Annie. No clue how I am going to color this! But I will. Somehow. Also I can't draw hands. Or shoes. Good Job! No worries about the hands or shoes... that's pretty advanced stuff... they will come with practice!
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Post by edzepp on Mar 5, 2011 5:05:41 GMT
Edzepp got a Wacom intuos 4!
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Post by Refugee on Mar 5, 2011 18:27:01 GMT
I am going to get an art tablet this weekend. It's time to move on up. Your art is superior and inspiring, but I am also looking forward to your post-shopping action report, and your user review of your new tablet.
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Post by edzepp on Mar 6, 2011 1:58:55 GMT
Well, I used it a bit last night, and I can say that it's gonna take some time to adjust. I need to work on how I grip the pen, and of course learn all the features. Other than that, I'm quite happy with it. It may take some time before you get to see the results. EDIT: Sooner, rather than later. I present Gunnerdoodles:
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Post by fish on Mar 6, 2011 21:33:13 GMT
hahaha awesome! is that residential-annie in the top right?
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Post by Alexandragon on Mar 6, 2011 23:08:34 GMT
LAUGHING ON LINE) That's pretty nice)
fish, yes, as I think.
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Post by edzepp on Mar 7, 2011 0:35:00 GMT
hahaha awesome! is that residential-annie in the top right? No. (Yes.)
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Chrome
Full Member
The Shiny One
Posts: 232
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Post by Chrome on Mar 7, 2011 4:01:28 GMT
Congrats, edzepp! I've had an old Aiptek 12000U (something or other, I've forgotten) for a few years, and spent the last six years with a Wacom Intuos3 6x8. (I'm currently in return-limbo on a Cintiq, grrr. First one was defective, and it's taking forever to get the replacement. Blah.) A tablet definitely takes getting used to for one major reason: we're all used to drawing on paper with a pencil/pen/marker/whatever, while looking right at it. A tablet forces you to look up, and refine your hand-eye coordination a bit, as you have to look at the image to see where your hand and pen are going. (This is why people want Cintiqs soooo badly; those take this particular middleman out of the equation....) If you've never used a digital tablet before, they definitely will take some getting used to. Once you are used to it, though, it'll feel much more natural. (And you'll wonder why you spent so long with just a mouse!) I think at this point what you might want to do is just turn off all the expresskeys and just use the tablet pen, and get used to manipulating it, and moving the cursor with it. Once you're settled into that, you can set the keys to whatever Photoshop shortcuts you want to use. The reason I'm suggesting this is that you're just at the very beginning; it might be better (and way less overwhelming) to just get used to drawing with the thing first. Another feature you'll want to get familiar with is how your program handles pen input, and interprets it into the brushes. Photoshop's Brushes menu can give you the option of setting line width relative to pen pressure, how much line variation you can get. There's other stuff you can do with pen pressure and brush settings, but the line thickness is probably going to be THE most important one to play with. Again, you may want to settle in first before getting into this, but it's totally worth it. I was shocked when a friend taught me this one. Then I loved it. Last but not least by a long shot, DeviantArt has a couple of decent tablet tutorials. Can't hurt to check those out, too. Sorry it was so long-winded. I hope this helps. Also: those drawings are pretty dang cute. I'd like to see more of those if you feel like it. It's okay if you don't.
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Rafael
Full Member
Cute and spunky
Posts: 202
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Post by Rafael on Mar 7, 2011 14:10:10 GMT
edzepp, these are so cute! I hope you don't mind that I stole one.
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Post by Eversist on Mar 8, 2011 14:39:40 GMT
Tom just tweeted about some fanart he's received from the author of Effort Comics. It's gargeous.
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Post by edzepp on Mar 9, 2011 8:18:16 GMT
Tablet update: I think I'm getting the hang of it. Tried drawing some eyes yesterday and got quite a bit of fine detail in. Really happy so far. Rafael: No problem! Glad you like it. Annie making the awesome boots: Thanks, Tobu Ishi for the Scanner advice, though I'm still fiddling with settings.
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Post by Alexandragon on Mar 9, 2011 13:26:09 GMT
Еhat's pretty nice and beautiful art, edzepp.
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Post by thereisnosaurus on Mar 10, 2011 14:08:23 GMT
edzepp: here's some tips and advice for you if you're interested. 1) always draw final linework at x abillion mangification. If you're drawing an eye, the eye should be the size of maybe a quarter of the screen. Ideally you want your stroke to use as much of the active area of the tablet as possible. 2) if your comp can manage it, work on images at huge scale. For example, to draw a 600x800 comic strip ( www.herointrainingcomic.com/?date=2011-02-23) I work with a drafting size of 10000x13333. This means you won't get as many artifacts and you'll be able to edit the image as much as you like later for print or whatever. It also helps with 3. 3) to get easy, one layer colouring, use the pencil tool. Make sure every colour area is bounded and then you can colour with the paintbucket (see above example). From there you can magic wand select the colour areas by setting contiguous to off to select every area of the same colour, or on to only select that one area. If you work at a high resolution and then shrink it down, you won't get any jaggy edges from this method either. 4) here's the setup I use for my keys in photoshop, I am right handed. scrollbars: both set to magnify/shrink Left long button: Shift (select in addition to) Left top button: ctrl (constrain selections) Left middle button: alt (colour dropper, remove from selection) Left bottom button: space (pan) Left long button: ctrl+alt (hit this plus top to undo) Left top button: z (use with long/middle to undo/redo) Left middle button: ctrl+shift (this plus top to redo) Left bottom button: tab (hides palettes and toolbars, hit again to show) This means I can do any selection or modifier command without using a keyboard, and also pan around easily (a must if you're doing lines blown up huge), easily undo-redo and so forth. you probably have an intuous 4 so will have more keys to work with. I'd recommend keying the following ctrl+h: hides selection (the marching ant lines get hidden but still apply) B: brush select, most used tool, so having a quick button is good I have the bottom seesaw switch key on the pen bound to rightclick for brush size modification, some people prefer to bind the +/- keys. You can also hit 1 to set raster tool opacity to 10%, 5 for 50% etc. Binding say 0 and 4 to quick keys gives you a hotswitchable 100% and 40% brush for shading work. 5) to get super smooth lines use the pen tool, don't try and manually do them. 6) don't be afraid to use your mouse/keyboard instead. I use my mouse for drawing grids and panels, making a load of selections at once etc. Anything where speed and precision are needed the tablet isn't so great for, mouse is far better. Unless you get a cintiq
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Post by arabesque on Mar 11, 2011 15:40:21 GMT
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Post by paxjax123 on Mar 11, 2011 15:59:01 GMT
Wow, it's brilliant! Also, to add an image to a post, right click the picture, select "Copy image location" (or "Properties" and then copying the link manually depending on your browser) and then adding [/img] tags to your post and putting the link in them. ... That, or add an attachment.
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Post by 0o0f on Mar 11, 2011 20:06:27 GMT
Delivered with apologies to 0o0f for idea theft, and to Reynard, for being The Worst At Drawing Animals, Ever. Ah well, it wasn't really my idea, and your drawing is really cute. <3 Also, when I first saw the suggestion, I also considered drawing kat as Lady Eboshi, but then thought that I would have to age them up and stuff if I was going to do that.
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Post by Tobu Ishi on Mar 12, 2011 5:19:33 GMT
Haha! Jones would make a brilliant Lady Eboshi, I think. I can totally see her getting her arm bitten off and hardly flinching. Totally chill. Walk it off, Lady Jones, walk it off! ♥
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Post by 0o0f on Mar 12, 2011 18:03:06 GMT
Tobu: That's true. Who would the rest of the cast be, though? Anyway, drawing with a tablet can be really awkward at first. I've found that I have an easier time if I use thick lines.
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Post by wombat on Mar 12, 2011 22:17:40 GMT
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percival
Full Member
there's a storm a-brewin'
Posts: 119
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Post by percival on Mar 13, 2011 16:18:52 GMT
Hey that's pretty cool, what is that made of?
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Post by wombat on Mar 13, 2011 16:35:40 GMT
Hey that's pretty cool, what is that made of? Thanks; I made it out of clay for my ceramics class and painted it with acrylics and black tempera.
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