Tutorials, Questions, and Discussion Thread

bombardier

It looks like the old thread has been sucked into a black hole and is gone forever, so this will have to be started from scratch.

Use this thread for:

• asking questions pertaining to the forum or art instead of making a new thread for them
• discussing said questions or issues in the forum
• posting links to useful tutorials you come across on the Internet
• post tutorials that you made yourself

Mods, please add links, tutorials, and links to useful posts to this post whenever you see them.


Downloads

• Figure Drawing for All It's Worth by Andrew Loomis
• OpenCanvas v1.1 b71

Tutorials

Basic Lighting/Texture/Form Tutorial and Reference Guide
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm

Alduar's Abstract Art Tutorial/Process
http://alduar.iseenothing.com/tutorials/abstract/

Making a Comic by eliseu gouveia
Penny Arcade Accumulated Forum Knowledge/Making a Comic


References

Over a Dozen links to Misc Reference Photos
Penny Arcade Accumulated Forum Knowledge/Reference Links

Millions

Huzzah!

Anyone have any good sites for typography ideas? I've been on this big typography kick lately but I'm running low on inspiration.

TheBurritoMan

Here's a couple of virtual manakins, they have a selection of poses, and you can select lighting effects and all that jazz.

Female
Male

Alduar

and the final piece....

Arisa

TheBurritoMan wrote:

Here's a couple of virtual manakins, they have a selection of poses, and you can select lighting effects and all that jazz.

Female
Male

You might want to mention that these are Windows-only downloads.

TheBurritoMan

I might, but that's generally assumed.

Sorry Ms. Arisa.

Orikaeshigitae

Holy sweet Alduar, that's cool. It should be mentioned that I have one of those as my desktop.

Mr. Dave

does anyone know a tutorial for a basic flash preloader?

NeoRedXIII

Portal from which Vehicles, Environments, and Creatures come from via Photoshop, tutorials by Feng Zhu.

A personal favorite.

Edit: A List, by Iruka.

Millions

Mr. Dave wrote:

does anyone know a tutorial for a basic flash preloader?

http://www.flashkit.com/index.shtml

Bam. Click on 'Tutorials' ...type in 'preloader'. Then you've got plenty to choose from.

Plus they usually include an .fla file with the tutorial. So you can crack it open, see how it works.

Mr. Dave

hey cool! thanks.

Dog

Silly question, but how do you people hold your pencil when you are drawing? (I normally use a mechanical pencil)

I've read that you are supposed to hold it in your palm with your knuckles facing down on the paper, but it feels really awkward. I'm used to holding the pencil like I would just normally writting, but the more I hear the more inadequate it sounds...

Any tips or insights would be appreciated. Thanks =]

PeterAndCompany

I just hold my pencil as anyone else would. Just like writing, nothing special.

TM2 Rampage

Nimble wrote:

Silly question, but how do you people hold your pencil when you are drawing? (I normally use a mechanical pencil)

I've read that you are supposed to hold it in your palm with your knuckles facing down on the paper, but it feels really awkward. I'm used to holding the pencil like I would just normally writting, but the more I hear the more inadequate it sounds...

Any tips or insights would be appreciated. Thanks =]

Knuckles facing down on the paper?!

Dog

Ya, something about holding the pencil in your palm with your thumb and index finger. Feels really strange to me as if I am holding my pencil as if it were a toothbrush. (I believe it's predominantly used for drawing on vertical surfaces)

It's meant to make you draw with your shoulders/arm rather than with your fingers/wrists. Of course I may be interpretting this all wrong...that's why I hope to get some insight on how others do it...if at all. :oops:

Toji Suzuhara

That sounds like how you hold a paint brush.

I'm sure all of those methods work, but you hold a pencil however it works for you.

SketchTheArtist

Hi there!

That virtual mannequin could be REALLY useful! But, is there a way to make your own pose instead of it to be random? :?

AlyceInWonderland

Was the doodle thread deleted for a reason?

Angel_of_Bacon

The server is fucking up a bit, it seems. I tried deleting a triple post in there and it proceeded to delete the whole thing- but then it came back a minute later...and then I tried editing a post in another forum, and it disappeared again!

:shock:

I'm not sure if it's going to blink back into existance or what. I'll make another thread in the meantime, in case it doesn't.

Angel_of_Bacon

Uh, it reappeared.

WHAT THE HELL.

I'm scared

AlyceInWonderland

...weird...

SketchTheArtist

Yeah, dunno if it was me. I tried posting a sketch for a piece and it gave this message, something like 'Unable to create new word match'. Weird. :?:

AlyceInWonderland

Yeah, that same thing keeps happening to me, and the forums were down for a bit aswell...It pisses me off especially when I'm trying to edit a reply.

TheBurritoMan

SketchTheArtist wrote:

Hi there!

That virtual mannequin could be REALLY useful! But, is there a way to make your own pose instead of it to be random? :?

Not that I'm aware of. There's 17 or so different "poses" that you can adjust the timeline on.

SketchTheArtist

aaahhh....so you can't just move it so it'll be in a pose YOU want. :?

eminkey2003

Could anyone post the link to the "Me and Louie's Sister's Coloring Tuturial" from the last thread, please? It was very helpful.

TimTheSloth

Does anyone have any watercolor tips? Whenever I get a good color I run out of it quickly and I have a tough time making it again. I'm also having a hard time making more and less intense variations of the same color.

Monkey Box

Does anyone have any suggestions for some good drawing books? Anything except anime/manga style.

Jonis

How can I prevent Photoshop from lagging and freezing? I got this really nice brush set, the EraserX set, but it's really slow sometimes, and while painting the other day, it froze 6 times.

AlyceInWonderland

What's a good size for a wacom tablet?

Cadaver Bob

TimTheSloth wrote:

Stuff about watercolor

I'll try help you out. Watercolor's not my forte', but I have a little experience.

1. Running out of color. Two things you can do, either get really really good at mixing colors (hard, takes a while to learn) or just try and predict when you're going to need a lot of a color, and mix a helluva lot of it.

2. Intensity. I'd recommend getting a color wheel/downloading a color wheel, plus memorizing it would help. To deintensify you mix a color with a little bit of what's opposite of it on the color wheel (its complimentary color, technically). Say, blue, you would mix a little bit of orange into it. Purple, add yellow, red add green, and so on.
Getting high intenisty colors, I'd say you just need to mix more raw pigments (paint) into the water-paint mixture. I'll admit, high-intensity isn't always watercolors speciallity. The very nature of the medium ensures that you're not always going to be able to get it as bright as you would like. For example, the blazing intensity and blown out colors digital painters get will be next to impossible (not ENTIRELY, but unless you're a master, then yes.)

Another (improper) way of deintensifying is to mix a little brown umber into it. It's sort of an all around deintensifier, but will have slightly different results than adding the colors proper compliment.

Hope that helps some. Feel free to ask if you need more info.

AlyceInWonderland... I have a 9x12 and I like it a lot. Most people I've heard of have the slightly smaller 5x6 (I think thats the right dimension) and they seem to do fine with em. The larger size is just a little more "convienient", meaning you can get larger pen-strokes into it. In the end, it all depends really on what you're gonna use it for, and moreso how much you're willing to blow on it. Got the money burning a hole in your pocket? Go bigger, I'd say. It's just an easier interface.

Feel free to argue, everyone.

eminkey2003

AlyceInWonderland wrote:

What's a good size for a wacom tablet?

4" x 5" is fine for me. You usually make comics too, so I don't think you would need a bigger size, since you should be working at high resolutions (or zoomed in) to color and ink your stuff anyway. 4 x 5 is also the least expensive, ranging from $80 (at newegg.com)-$100 (Most reatail stores, Best Buy, etc.)

I have my own question about tablets: What does the Graphire 3 tablet Driver CD do? I think I may need to install it again. Something is off about my tablet. Usually, small movements with the pen make large movements on the screen. Maybe I just haven't used it in a while. I'm worried because I think I've already thrown away that disc. Does anyone know where I could find a new driver disc for my Graphire 3?

Monkey Box

You could just go to their website and download the driver. The 2nd disc includes various illustrating programs I think, including painter.

Megamau_X

is there any way to make the colors blend in photoshop, like they do with some of the oils in painter?

eminkey2003

Well, not exactly blend color pigments, I think, but you can change the opacity of your brush and paint over the color you want to blend with another color.

Ravenshadow

Megamau_X wrote:

is there any way to make the colors blend in photoshop, like they do with some of the oils in painter?

you can use the color mixer mega. (if you're trying to take a color like a green and throw some red hues into it, etc)

when you bring it up slide the color bar on the right instead of using the arrow to move the circle around. you'll see the colors blend like magic

AlyceInWonderland

Anyone know any good male anatomy sites? I can't seem to find any decent ones on google.

TheBurritoMan

Have you tried Getty Images?

AlyceInWonderland

Wow, I haven't. Thank you very much!

JonnyBot

This forum has inspired me to try my hand at drawing again. I haven't drawn anything in like four years. I wasn't any good then. I just bought a sketchpad, a kneaded eraser, a mechanical pencil, and a book of anatomy (Human Anatomy Made Amazingly Easy). My question is, should I start with the book, then move to life drawing, or life drawing, then anatomy lessons? Or both at the same time?

Also, can anyone recommend a book that teaches shading techniques? Shading is probably my worst area.

TimTheSloth

I would take a guess that shading isn't your problem as much as drawing and seeing things as three dimensional objects. There is a book called Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain or something like that which everyone will probably refer you to. I've never read it, but I'm sure it's good!