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Post by Rabbit ♠ on Dec 18, 2016 16:24:30 GMT -5
My artsy New Years Resolutions? Hmm...
-To draw decent humans -To improve on proportions -To work on textures - the one I'm focusing on right now is cloth -To continue my practice on shading an backgrounds to improve on creating a good mood in a piece -To get another Art Gallery trophy - I only have one XD
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Post by M is for Morphine on Dec 21, 2016 16:07:28 GMT -5
Has anyone worked in Cold Porcelain before, and what recipe did you use?
Oh, New years resolutions, that's a good idea.
I'd like to- Sculpt a bunch of heads so I can learn to paint heads Make at least one practice maquette from 3d game models Scratchbuild a building Assemble and paint my Nausicca and Kai model Take apart and rebuild my Tachikoma model from when I was younger, do it right and paint/base it Re-sculpt my dragon with more texture and less problem points for molding practice texturing/finishing in general learn to properly gate molds, improve my moldmaking in general make a figure with joints, whether I make the joints myself or buy them/steal them from a preexisting toy
There's lots more I want to do but that looks like a good year's worth of work. Let's see how I do.
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Post by Zoey on Dec 22, 2016 0:21:23 GMT -5
Loving some of the resolutions to submit to the art gallery! Hooo boy. My art resolutions... there's too many, man. The general idea is to "git gud at life drawing", which encompasses a variety of topics, such as: - landscape perspective - cars - integrating hoomans with detailed landscape backgrounds - animals (so I can design mythical creatures for world-building purposes) - complementing colors and making overall composition aesthetically-pleasing - foreshortening And some misc resolutions: - darnit, Zoey, keep all your arts organized - stop getting too caught up in detail and let your sketchbook actually be a sketchbook - actually finish one sketchbook before moving onto another (all my ladies and gents out there with like five sketchbooks that have like two pages filled in each, give me an aye) And on that note, I'm off to do two watercolor paintings in two different sketchbooks at once because it isn't the new year yet.
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Post by Shinko on Dec 31, 2016 17:50:27 GMT -5
So one of my Christmas gifts this year was an artist mannequin, the kind you can pose to use as a reference. I was pretty excited about this at first, but um. I discovered the doll's elbows and knees don't bend. =\ Like, they aren't stuck, there are legitimately no hinges in them to allow them to be bent. I'm confused, how useful is the dang thing if you can't pose the elbows and knees? Is this just a bad brand or...?
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Post by June Scarlet on Dec 31, 2016 18:00:45 GMT -5
So one of my Christmas gifts this year was an artist mannequin, the kind you can pose to use as a reference. I was pretty excited about this at first, but um. I discovered the doll's elbows and knees don't bend. =\ Like, they aren't stuck, there are legitimately no hinges in them to allow them to be bent. I'm confused, how useful is the dang thing if you can't pose the elbows and knees? Is this just a bad brand or...? It's the Brand. Artist's Loft, I think it's Micheal's store brand, but if it's not, it's store brand quality. Like store brand stuff at grocery stores, it's cheaper knockoffs of the name brands. And sometimes that's a good thing, and sometimes it's a bad thing. On some items, like let's say erasers, you don't really care too much about the quality. They're not, like, super bad erasers, they're quality enough for most purposes, and they're cheaper than name brand, so that's good for me. But on some things, you need more quality. That actually usually depends on what you're specializing in. Like, I really care about marker quality now, so I buy really expensive markers. But when I was beginning, Artist's Loft would have been fine. Generally, they're on the low end of professional quality, but better than the stuff you buy for kids. They're good for beginning artists. So anyway, I'd say that in the case of your doll, the cheaper version was a bad thing. To be fair to your gift giver though, I don't think you could tell by looking.
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Post by Twillie on Jan 8, 2017 22:50:13 GMT -5
Alrighty, so I've been wondering about this for a while, and although I've looked it up some, I find asking someone directly can give a more straightforward answer than online articles.
With all the digital art programs out there, how do you know which ones to use for yourself? What do purchased programs have that free ones, like GIMP, do not? Why do some people purchase Paint Tool SAI while others buy Photoshop? Or, why might they choose a much lesser known program? Are all these programs just alternatives, or are there clear advantages or disadvantages that they have over each other?
I've heard of people that work on one piece in multiple programs, like they do lineart in SAI and then color in PS. Is it worth getting both to do this, or is this just a preference thing?
This has just been bugging me as I sometimes wonder if I should try out programs like SAI or Gimp, or if there's some super secret to improving my art that these alternatives have x) The question is basically why do you use what you use, and do you think it gives you clear advantages or disadvantages with digital art?
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Post by Rabbit ♠ on Jan 8, 2017 23:50:25 GMT -5
Alrighty, so I've been wondering about this for a while, and although I've looked it up some, I find asking someone directly can give a more straightforward answer than online articles. With all the digital art programs out there, how do you know which ones to use for yourself? What do purchased programs have that free ones, like GIMP, do not? Why do some people purchase Paint Tool SAI while others buy Photoshop? Or, why might they choose a much lesser known program? Are all these programs just alternatives, or are there clear advantages or disadvantages that they have over each other? I've heard of people that work on one piece in multiple programs, like they do lineart in SAI and then color in PS. Is it worth getting both to do this, or is this just a preference thing? This has just been bugging me as I sometimes wonder if I should try out programs like SAI or Gimp, or if there's some super secret to improving my art that these alternatives have x) The question is basically why do you use what you use, and do you think it gives you clear advantages or disadvantages with digital art? Okay, I am going to try to answer this because I do use GIMP and I have a bit of experience in Photoshop from my Photography class from senior year of high school. I forget what exact version of Photoshop, but I think it was Adobe Photoshop. I really didn't use Photoshop in my Photography class for drawing, just for editing photos (which is really fun, though). I'll say this about GIMP - in my opinion, I think it's simpler to understand. That's probably just me because I worked with GIMP a lot more than Adobe Photoshop and I'm just used to it, but I just think it's simpler. For me, the layout just seems a bit more simple (at least in Single Window Mode - other than that and I am confused XD). The tool options as well are a lot more visible to me. How I have it set up, options such as layers, an undo history, colors, tool options, those are to the right of my screen. (I can take a screenshot of how I have it set up if anyone wants me to.) However, I can definitely say that Photoshop, at least Adobe Photoshop, has more options. At least through my work with the filters on Photoshop. I noticed that the filters in Photoshop have a lot more options than in GIMP. This actually came up in my head while working on my pic of Bobert because I really liked the Dry Brush Effect in Photoshop, I thought it was really pretty (it wasn't for a project, I was literally done all my work and I was messing around with pictures). I wanted to do that with the leaves in the trees and it wasn't there. It might have been because I couldn't find it, but either way, I was bummed. And that's just one example. There are other cool filters that I can't remember the name of. The filter options were really extensive in my opinion, which I thought was really cool. And even then, I'm sure there are lots of effects that aren't in filters that aren't available in GIMP. I just never got the chance to become too familiar with it. In the end, I say if you want to try other programs, I say do it. I saw that SAI has a 30 day trial (at least that's what I got from visiting the website) and GIMP is completely free. I just use GIMP because I don't have the money to afford Photoshop. Maybe if I actually have money laying around or I get Photoshop from my digital photography course I will be taking next year (it counts as a general ed class and I love photography - win win), then I will try it again. Until then (if that day ever comes), I'll be sticking to GIMP. In the end, though, I don't think it gives an advantage or a disadvantage, whatever program or equipment you use. I think if you know how to work with what you have, you can make really nice art. You guys know that I use GIMP and that I don't have a tablet, but I think I still make pretty good pictures with what I have. They're not perfect, no, but what really is? While quality tools can be helpful, what really counts in the end is your talent and experience, and I think everyone on here has talent experience. But hey, that's just my opinion. (I thought about what I was going to say sooo much while writing this. This is the most thought I've put into a post since I joined. XD) (Also, if any of the info I present is wrong, please do correct me. I am trying my best and I might have messed up.)
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Post by Zoey on Jan 9, 2017 1:42:21 GMT -5
I don't think I've ever messed around with GIMP too much, but from what I understand, Photoshop just has way, way, waaaaay more effects (like an entire drop-down menu from the top).
SAI does not have a text option and has less selecting tools than Photoshop. I don't think it can do things like make boxes and circles and stuff? But perhaps I just never found the option.
When I do comics, I used to sketch in Photoshop (nowadays if I do any, I sketch on paper and scan), and then lineart and make the boxes and speech bubbles in there, as well (because for comics, I actually prefer Photohop's lineart appearance, surprisingly enough, and SAI doesn't have the box-making or text tools). Then I would switch over to SAI (which reads .psd files), and color it in there because the wand tool on SAI is so much superior to Photoshop's wand tool for illustration (I'm sure the wand tool on Photoshop is great for other purposes).
When I used to do more detailed digital artworks (like stand-alone drawings or whatnot), I'd just do the whole thing in SAI, because SAI has a stabilizer that helps your lineart look smooth and clean. Any tool -- brush, pen, marker, etc. -- blends so much more naturally on SAI as well, unlike in Photoshop where it takes like fifty million brush strokes just to get a somewhat decently blended gradient (ie. blur tool on SAI >>>>>> blur tool on Photoshop, and the marker tool on SAI is just MMPF).
But if you wanted to mess around with artificial lighting effects and gradient effects, you'd have to load the picture back into Photoshop.
So I'd say for things like lineart, painting, and coloring, most people prefer SAI. For dramatic special effects, you'd have to use Photoshop because SAI does not offer those effects (and I don't think most free programs do, either).
I think I've used GIMP before once or twice, and while it is fairly decent, it just doesn't offer as many effects as Photoshop, and the blending tools are not as diverse or nice as the ones on SAI. Now, that's not to say you -have- to get Photoshop or SAI; you can still make perfectly great art with GIMP.
In a traditional art sense, it's like drawing with "student-grade" supplies rather than "artist-grade" supplies. In the end, a person with more skill is always going to make really nice art regardless of what they use, but if you compare two equally skilled artists, one with student-grade and one with artist-grade, the one with the artist-grade supplies will probably churn out a finished piece either in less time (because the better supplies will render easier or whatnot) or with better quality.
In a digital art sense, someone with skill can still make fantastic art even on MS Paint with a mouse (which is where I started waaaaaay back in the day LOL!), and it'll still look better than more "amateur" art on Photoshop. But imagine if that talented artist upgrades to a tablet and starts using something like SAI. Then their art will look even better, no?
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Post by Reiqua on Jan 9, 2017 2:16:47 GMT -5
*sneaks in shyly* TwillieI do not art, but let's say hypothetically that I sometimes try to make pictures, I would always (hypothetically) use GIMP for that. Mainly because as a non-artist, I'm not going to fork out a huge amount of money for Photoshop and then not use it! (Unless it's Photoshop Air, that would totally be worth it xP) I agree with everything Rabbit ♠ said about GIMP. It has a lot of options. I haven't discovered all of them, and nor has Rabbit, but we've discovered different ones to each other and there's still more to find. I also suspect Zoey's right in saying that Photoshop has more options, though most people will use predominantly GIMP or predominantly Photoshop so you'll probably be hard pressed to get an equal comparison. Another thing I'll add is that in that hypothetical world where I hypothetically try to make art, I actually prefer inkscape to any of these programs, but that's probably not of huge interest to you since it works with vectors which is inherently different to the more traditional art style that you've come from... So I'd tentatively advise you to download GIMP and give it a go. After all, it's free - what've you got to lose? Then see how you feel about it and consider Photoshop/SAI. And if in doubt, just get Photoshop Air, because it will always be superior to all the others.
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Post by M is for Morphine on Jan 9, 2017 3:29:28 GMT -5
Photoshop is good for a lot of things, but it was not made with cartooning in mind. My sister is constantly jumping between Manga Studio (which she said was absolutely a game changer for clean, easier line art) and Photoshop for various reasons. If you want to do some fancy, painterly things like a black and white value sketch with colorized layers over it you need photoshop because MS does not even know what that is or what to do with it. Photoshop was also an absolute necessity for working professionally on something that was going to be physically published (and for doing physical prints) because it can do CMYK color management. GIMP can do CMYK with a plugin apparently but Sai and MS can't.
So I guess it comes down to 'different programs are good for different things'. Figure out the kind of work you want to do and what you want to do with it and go from there.
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Post by Alyssa on Jan 9, 2017 18:20:52 GMT -5
This year I'm gonna try to:
-get better at watercolor -do art a lot more -gain a decent understanding of lighting and shadows so I can make my art less one-dimensional -do art a LOT MORE
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Post by June Scarlet on Jan 9, 2017 21:12:03 GMT -5
I basically used whatever I could find, which means my process is an oddly cobbled together thing.
Before I even got into digital art, but after I started scanning traditional art in, I used Windows Photo Gallery to manage the scans. Which came with Windows, of course. Actually, I started using that back when I was into digital photography. I liked to play around with the color balance and saturation and such. So like, if you mess with one thing, it makes the image more golden, for instance. I also liked to crop photos there too.
When I started scanning, the scanned comics would turn out very pale, so the first thing I'd do is up the saturation to max. Maybe mess around with the other stuff a little bit, like contrast. And when I'm doing my Dinner with the Scarlets, I still use those same photo filters and up the saturation and such using Windows Photo Gallery.
Then I would take that adjusted image, and put it into MS paint to resize it to an image size suitable for web. And again, to this day, I use MS paint to resize my images. It works pretty nicely for that, it doesn't look pixalated or anything. And that's the only thing I use it for.
Then I got GIMP at the suggestion of a classmate. Didn't really get much into until I started Ink. It's good for everything I need for that, except it doesn't resize images how I want it to. When it resizes my Ink comics, it keeps the pixels exactly black and white, even though I need gray to keep it from being pixalated at that point.
When I got my tablet, it came with a drawing program, ArtRage Studio. So I used it. It has some nice brush effects. The ink pen tool has a smoothing feature which makes your lines smoother, which I use a lot.
And that's where I'm at now. I would compare ArtRage as, like, the creative side, the paint, the pencils. But GIMP is the technical side, the rulers, the canvas prep. You need both to create good art, but you don't expect the ruler to be used as paint, or to apply paint with no canvas underneath. That's a little much, I do create art without using both all the time. But they each have their use.
Also, at work, they have Photoshop on their computer. But I open up the program, and feel completely lost. so I don't really have much of an opinion on it, other then I'm tempted to download GIMP at work every time I use it, just so I don't have to learn another program. But yet, I try to keep with it, because it's the industry standard and all that. But yet, there's always that thing, it's photoshop. I don't want to mess with photos, I want to do digital art. And there's just all this stuff in there I don't need. I don't want a bunch of filters I'm not going to use. I kind of like GIMP for its basicness, in a way.
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Post by Reiqua on Jan 10, 2017 4:27:32 GMT -5
Then I got GIMP at the suggestion of a classmate. Didn't really get much into until I started Ink. It's good for everything I need for that, except it doesn't resize images how I want it to. When it resizes my Ink comics, it keeps the pixels exactly black and white, even though I need gray to keep it from being pixalated at that point. Slightly tangential to the discussion, and I know you weren't asking about this June, but it sounds to me as though your image(s) may be using an indexed colour profile? That would mean that if you only have black and white pixels, when you shrink the image it'll still only use those same range of colours you had before - black pixels and white pixels, not grey. The thing to do would be to change the colour profile of your image to greyscale (or perhaps RGB, although I think greyscale would work better for Ink), just before you shrink it. That can be done in the 'Image' dropdown menu under 'Mode' (if you have a similar version of GIMP to me). I could be completely wrong on that diagnosis/recommendation! But thought it might be worth a try? Also a little more on topic, I likewise appreciate the simplicity of GIMP. I understand that since it's open source software there are plugins to do everything under the sun, but I personally appreciate not having it cluttered with a thousand filters I'll never use, like you said earlier
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Post by June Scarlet on Jan 10, 2017 11:31:43 GMT -5
Then I got GIMP at the suggestion of a classmate. Didn't really get much into until I started Ink. It's good for everything I need for that, except it doesn't resize images how I want it to. When it resizes my Ink comics, it keeps the pixels exactly black and white, even though I need gray to keep it from being pixalated at that point. Slightly tangential to the discussion, and I know you weren't asking about this June, but it sounds to me as though your image(s) may be using an indexed colour profile? That would mean that if you only have black and white pixels, when you shrink the image it'll still only use those same range of colours you had before - black pixels and white pixels, not grey. The thing to do would be to change the colour profile of your image to greyscale (or perhaps RGB, although I think greyscale would work better for Ink), just before you shrink it. That can be done in the 'Image' dropdown menu under 'Mode' (if you have a similar version of GIMP to me). Yeah, I do convert it to indexed colors at that point, because it saves on file size, and a small file size is extremely important to the comic. Still, I went ahead and tried it. The good news is that it did blend the black and white properly, leaving a grayscale. The bad news is that the gif saved at 347kb in GIMP, way over the 200kb limit. Meanwhile, MS paint saved it at 158kb. Since the comic image seems more or less the same, file size is the deciding factor, and I'm going to have to stick with MS paint for that purpose. I actually hear that file compression is one of those things that having a paid product does help in, and technically, I paid for MS paint when I bought the laptop. It isn't open source, at least.
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Post by Mostly Harmless (flufflepuff) on Jan 11, 2017 14:17:18 GMT -5
Completely unrelated o/
Out of yellow green, blue to cyan, and purple, which color would you say is warmest/has the most heat? The guidelines I'm using say whichever is closer to red or green depending where you are on the spectrum...Purple has red in it but yellow green has green in it...
Thoughts?
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