Sooo true about Photoshop line quality! Why is it so bad?
I think it's probably an artifact of the fact that Photoshop was never supposed to be for drawing. I still think it has the best brush engine when it comes to "custom" brushes.
I was just looking at Manga Studio Pro today. I might buy it for myself if I animate 10 more scenes.
DOOOOOO IIIIIIIIIIIT! It's SO worth it. Best program for drawing period, even if you're going to take it into Photoshop or something to paint it.
BTW, talking about cool art programs, have you triedArt Rage? It's pretty cool for concept painting. It's got a very "real media" feel.
I think I've tried it briefly -- I'm kinda over the "natural media" thing. I used Painter for a long time, but eventually went back to Photoshop, because Photoshop's image-editing tools and interface are second-to-none. You can also replicate most "natural media" effects in Photoshop pretty well if you mess with the brush settings.
Edit: Also, Painter AND Alias Sketchbook Pro come with new Intuos tablets. Pretty nifty, huh?
That is cool -- is it the full version of Painter? I know Painter Classic and Photoshop Elements used to come with Wacoms.
Just doodling. Using a camera instead of a scanner is something I could get used to. I've started getting the hang of drawing with the fountain pen, next up is getting good at drawing without penciling first.
@Omnutia -- wow, that is some really solid foreshortening, and a tough camera angle. Great work! It's interesting that the angle you took the picture at makes the paper itself into the receding plane that he's standing on. Great effect.
Digital art can wait. I'm going to try some short comics in just pencil, pen and my cheap alcohol pens. That said, I managed to do almost all of the sketching with unbroken lines. After going back to Windows, I'm having to get used to a new scanning program, thus the picture looking a bit washed out.
Kinda bored at work, listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks, made a couple of doodles on my notepad. I kinda liked this one, it's Tom the innkeeper (I know he is supposed to be bald)
bored today, drew part of a tank girl cover I had around on my HD. Question is, is it tracing if you draw whilst looking at it,or is it something else but just as bad? Even though I'm drawing from an object in front of me, it's not really life drawing. Oh well.
Question is, is it tracing if you draw whilst looking at it,or is it something else but just as bad? Even though I'm drawing from an object in front of me, it's not really life drawing. Oh well.
Is it "bad"? Well, since you clearly stated that you drew this from a Tank Girl cover, and you're not trying to pass it off as original, I don't think there's any reason it would be bad. Copying other artists' work is a time-honored learning method. Art students always do "master studies" where they try to replicate great artists' paintings and drawings -- you can learn a lot from it. I believe you can even learn from straight tracing over someone else's work, but in a more limited way. I do a lot of copying and tracing myself.
I've been playing with a new method for head construction that's been working out well for me, so I thought I'd share it. It seems to be pretty effective for getting a solid underlying head form with a minimum of lines. These are the notes I made last night so I wouldn't forget:
Nice! It also defines the planes of the face a little bit so that is good. Works out better than the animation circle cranium + chin method.
Funny thing is, after only two days, I'm sitting here playing with the circle cranium + chin method again. I've actually never had much success with that method, but I think I'm finally starting to figure it out. It's really unintuitive to me, but after tons of experimentation (and by that, I mean probably literally 80% of my sketching for the past two years has been trying to figure out heads), I'm starting to realize that a sphere is the only shape you can rely on to be consistent every single time, so it's probably the best place to start. I'm still defining the side-planes, though -- that's really important for me. It seem to work best for me when I treat the head as something of a cube.
Actually ended up way better than I was expecting (In that I didn't abandon it part way through.). I completed it on the first try with just a picture of a mouse from the front as reference.
It's going to take me a while to get the back hinged legs down.
It's going to take me a while to get the back hinged legs down.
Remember that animals don't actually have "backward" legs -- they just have short thighs, long feet, and they walk around on their toes. The "backward knee" is actually their ankle. When you think about it that way, it's not really that hard to draw.
I've been messing around with this program called Sculptris, and it's actually really cool. You start off with a "clay" form, and shape it to what you want with a large array of tools, and you can then paint it afterwards. I've discovered two things.
1)You can make some really awesome stuff with this program. 2)I really, really suck at sculpting and arty things, but I'm slowly getting better with practice.
EDIT - it also started out as a one-man operation, but they now have Pixelogic behind them, loaning them muscle and know-how to make it even more awesome - Pixelogic being the same guys who make ZBrush.
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I've often thought my mechanical design was better than my organic.
Gotta take it slow, bro.
I've started getting the hang of drawing with the fountain pen, next up is getting good at drawing without penciling first.
But it's an interesting thing to think about. I might try cutting out my drawings and composing them properly.
Meh, quick doodle I did for fun, if anyone wants to properly color this then I can send them the PSD file.
That said, I managed to do almost all of the sketching with unbroken lines.
After going back to Windows, I'm having to get used to a new scanning program, thus the picture looking a bit washed out.
This is a concept piece for my Maya class this semester. I am finishing up the model right now, but I had more fun doing this Photoshop painting.
I kinda liked this one, it's Tom the innkeeper (I know he is supposed to be bald)
Question is, is it tracing if you draw whilst looking at it,or is it something else but just as bad? Even though I'm drawing from an object in front of me, it's not really life drawing. Oh well.
Neatened up and attempted to scan.
It's going to take me a while to get the back hinged legs down.
1)You can make some really awesome stuff with this program.
2)I really, really suck at sculpting and arty things, but I'm slowly getting better with practice.
EDIT - it also started out as a one-man operation, but they now have Pixelogic behind them, loaning them muscle and know-how to make it even more awesome - Pixelogic being the same guys who make ZBrush.