Questions, Discussion, Tutorials

Grifter

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.

Constructive Criticism by Blinky
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=875



Downloads

• Six Andrew Loomis books
• OpenCanvas v1.1 b71
• Photoshop Brushes

Tutorials

Quick Sketching
http://www.drawalot.com/smblog/2007/11/17/quick-sketch-the-fastest-way-to-learn-professional-drawing-techniques/

The Structure of Man: Video Tutorials on Anatomy by Riven Phoenix
http://the-structure-of-man.blogspot.com/

Over a Dozen links to Misc Reference Photos
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=5329

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/

Pens 'n' Pixels Tutorials (Colouring especially useful)
http://www.pensnpixels.com/instructional.html

Feng Zhu Design Tutorials
http://www.fengzhudesign.com/tutorials.html

Tom Nguyen's "how to draw breasts"
http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=39;t=000176

Another good Tom Nguyen article
http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=39;t=000144

Team Special Olympics Tutorials
http://www.teamspecialolympics.com/tutorials.php

Portrait Artist Tutorials
http://www.portrait-artist.org/

Pencil Portrait Tutorials
http://homepages.tesco.net/p.wilkinson/index.html

Scanning Line Art
http://www.steeldolphin-forums.com/htmltuts/scanning_lineart.html

Flatting Tutorial by Mark Sweeney
http://www.dave-co.com/gutterzombie/dload.php?action=license&license_id=1&file_id=21

Speedpainting Tutorial by Angel_of_Bacon
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6167278083166388456

A Buttload of Drawing Tutorials
http://www.drawspace.com/

Erik Gist Drawing and Painting Principles
http://www.erikgist.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=131
http://www.erikgist.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=132

Dan Gheno Life Drawing Articles
http://www.dangheno.net/pteachingsindex.htm

Walt Stanchfield Notes on Gesture Drawing for Animation
http://www.animationmeat.com/notes/waltstanchfield/waltstanchfield.html

Glen Vilppu Drawing Articles
1. Never Underestimate the Power of Life Drawing
2. Gesture
3. Spherical Forms
4. The Box
5. Introducing Material and Proportion
6. Drawing Ellipses
7. From the General to the Specific
8. The Landmarks of Anatomy
9. Seeing Anatomical Masses
10. Seeing The Figure As A 2D Object
11. Using Tone To Draw
12. Getting a Handle on Direct Lighting
13. Using The Idea Of Atmosphere

Eatpoo.com Guide for Art NOOBS
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=876

Moolt Animation Tutorials
http://www.moolt.com/animation.html

References

Concept Artist Link Index
http://www.turtleart.net/artists.php

Photographic Lighting Schemes (with examples)
http://uk.fotopunto.com/articulo-explained-lighting-schemes_60

Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work
http://joeljohnson.com/archives/2006/08/wally_woods_22.html


Online Colour Scheme Generator
http://www.steeldolphin.com/color_scheme.html

Colour Theory Guide
http://www.worqx.com/color/

Blambot Comic Fonts
http://www.blambot.com/

Microsoft Web Development
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/beginner/web/tier1/

Pose Maniacs Drawing Tools
http://www.posemaniacs.com/blog/

Books

Essentials/Basics

The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

Color

The Elements of Color by Johannes Itten
Painting With Light by John Alton
Color Theory by Jose Maria Parramon
Color Management: A copmrehensive Guide for Graphic Designersby John Drew and Sarah Meyer

Design

Design and Form: The Basic Course at the Bauhaus and Later, Revised Edition by Johannes Itten
The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams
The Non-Designer's Scan & Print Book by Sandee Cohen
The Non-Designer's Type Book by Robin Williams

Anatomy & Illustration

Dynamic Anatomy by Burne Hogarth
Dynamic Figure Drawing by Burne Hogarth
Dynamic Wrinkles and Drapery by Burne Hogarth
Drawing Dynamic Hands by Burne Hogarth
Dynamic Light and Shade by Burne Hogarth

Human Anatomy for Artists by Eliot Goldfinger
Anatomy For The Artist by Sarah Simblet
Artistic Anatomy by Richer & Hale
Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing From Life by George B. Bridgman

Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters by Robert Hale
Anatomy Lessons from the Great Masters by Robert Hale and Terrence Coyle

DC Comics Guide to Pencilling and Inking Comics

Learning Software

Photoshop CS2 Bible
Illustrator CS2 Bible

Comic Book Storytelling

Graphic Storytelling & Visual Narrative by Will Eisner
Comics & Sequential Art by Will Eisner
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
Perspective! For Comic Book Artists by David Chelsea

Animation

The Illusion of Life by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas
The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams

Aumni

First question of the new thread!

I recently formated my computer and since then my lines in Corel Painter [with a Wacom] have been jaggie. I make sure that the picture is properly zoomed into 100% of course and check the brush properties to make sure there is no jitter. I also tried upping the picture quality to something around 500 pixels/inch with no success, but before I never had to go that high to achieve a smooth line.

Is there a Wacom/Corel setting I might have missed that is causing this? Thanks for any help guys.

Zombiemambo

I've been drawing for most of my life, but for the past few years I have improved very little. My theory on it is because I haven't made an effort to improve, and I've hit the limit of where random doodling can help. One thing I've always stayed away from, and is valuable information, is that of values. What are some good exercises to improve my grasp on it?

mattharvest

Zombiemambo wrote: »

I've been drawing for most of my life, but for the past few years I have improved very little. My theory on it is because I haven't made an effort to improve, and I've hit the limit of where random doodling can help. One thing I've always stayed away from, and is valuable information, is that of values. What are some good exercises to improve my grasp on it?

In my experience it was the obvious: find something that's all black and white (e.g. folds of white fabric, plaster castings, etc.) and simply practice.

At least at my undergrad, all but the highest drawing class was exclusively B&W. We alternated regularly between contour and gesture drawings (i.e. no shading of value) and cross-hatch (i.e. line-value), and only did true shading when we worked with charcoal.

The nice thing about this, in concept, is that if you have a nice bright light, and a piece of thick white cloth, you're set for at least a while.

Zombiemambo

mattharvest wrote: »

Zombiemambo wrote: »

I've been drawing for most of my life, but for the past few years I have improved very little. My theory on it is because I haven't made an effort to improve, and I've hit the limit of where random doodling can help. One thing I've always stayed away from, and is valuable information, is that of values. What are some good exercises to improve my grasp on it?

In my experience it was the obvious: find something that's all black and white (e.g. folds of white fabric, plaster castings, etc.) and simply practice.

At least at my undergrad, all but the highest drawing class was exclusively B&W. We alternated regularly between contour and gesture drawings (i.e. no shading of value) and cross-hatch (i.e. line-value), and only did true shading when we worked with charcoal.

The nice thing about this, in concept, is that if you have a nice bright light, and a piece of thick white cloth, you're set for at least a while.

Cool, thanks.

Katchem_ash

So how much would it take (money wise) if you wanted an artist to draw something that you have a rough setch for?

Mayday

Depends.
How far would you want the artist to take it?
Coloured or lineart?
A single character or a complex scene?
Just PM me the sketch and I'll be able to tell you.

Also, is it supposed to be anime-styled.

Grifter

Mayday wrote: »

Depends.
How far would you want the artist to take it?
Coloured or lineart?
A single character or a complex scene?
Just PM me the sketch and I'll be able to tell you.

Also, is it supposed to be anime-styled.

You're talking to Katchem. Everything is anime with the guy.

Mayday

Ah, in that case it costs double ;P

StealthNachos

I'm about to change from XP to Vista and was concerned that my tablet might not want to make the jump. I have a Wacom Intuos 3, and I see they have drivers for Vista on the Wacom site but I was wondering wether anyone has had any problems with it or not.

Lly

The link for:

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

doesn't work, which is annoying as that sounded interesting.


edit:

I assume this was the thread you meant? http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=5329

Looks pretty damn handy.

Grifter

seems the link wasn't updated after the software change. I'll sort it out now.

anable

I was wondering if anyone in AC would be awesome enough to do something along the lines of what ruskin is doing in WB.

I'm just now getting into drawing and a class style routine set up by one of the many talented people in AC would be amazing help.

Lly

That's what the "Practice: Your Desk" thread is about.

anable

Not to say that the Practice Your Desk thing isn't a good idea, but is that really where I should be starting after picking up a pencil for the first time last week? Also, that thread was created a month ago. I was hoping someone could set up some weekly lessons or something along those lines.

Ravenshadow

looking for someone to start a tutorial thread for you is probably a little much. Google 'Drawing lessons'. Theres a ton of shit there. Some of it is free.

If you've just picked up a pencil, might I suggest just drawing? then post what you come up with and we can either giveyou or point you to some useful advice.

Lly

Conceptart.org has a lot of good regular activities.

Grifter

I've actually been meaning to make a new activity for a little while now but I only think about it when I don't have time to make one. If anyone has ideas for a new activity, please, feel free to share. It's about time that we had a new one.

MagicToaster

Art Corner Cereal Box!

Enef

Grifter wrote: »

I've actually been meaning to make a new activity for a little while now but I only think about it when I don't have time to make one. If anyone has ideas for a new activity, please, feel free to share. It's about time that we had a new one.

I think doing something like CA.org do, but instead of "Daily" make it "Weekly".

"PA:AC Weekly Sketch Group"

And the subject is picked at random, anywhere from one word to a sentence? Is there any "Word Randomizers" on the web that anyone knows of?

Just a suggestion anyways.

Lly

I fancy a vehicle design activity, maybe with a theme or maybe not. I really want to try my hand at designing some sci-fi/old-school hybrid vehicles. Not that I need an activity thread to that of course.

Nam

Does anyone know some good 2d animation programs? One in terms of overall quality and package and maybe another one thats easy to hop into and play around with.

Mayday

You mean... like... Flash?

anable

Or you can make some badass animated gifs. Those were the best part of the early intratube.

Lly

ToonBoom Studio?

supabeast

Nam wrote: »

Does anyone know some good 2d animation programs? One in terms of overall quality and package and maybe another one thats easy to hop into and play around with.

Get After Effects and learn to use the hierarchical character animation tools. They were actually developed for animators at Nickelodeon who were using AE to animate shows and making regular feature requests. After Effects CS3 was just released and Adobe has added an entire new system for rigging characters. You’ll also have all the other great After Effects stuff to play around with. Sure it’s more expensive than Flash, but it’s much easier to learn and use, better documented, and doesn’t have all the bugs and interface design flaws that can make Flasha PITA. And unlike Flash, with After Effects you can render everything out to Quicktime or Windows media (Flash can theoretically do this, but the video output in Flash is incredibly buggy), and at HD resolutions.

Nam

supabeast wrote: »

Nam wrote: »

Does anyone know some good 2d animation programs? One in terms of overall quality and package and maybe another one thats easy to hop into and play around with.

Get After Effects and learn to use the hierarchical character animation tools. They were actually developed for animators at Nickelodeon who were using AE to animate shows and making regular feature requests. After Effects CS3 was just released and Adobe has added an entire new system for rigging characters. You’ll also have all the other great After Effects stuff to play around with. Sure it’s more expensive than Flash, but it’s much easier to learn and use, better documented, and doesn’t have all the bugs and interface design flaws that can make Flasha PITA. And unlike Flash, with After Effects you can render everything out to Quicktime or Windows media (Flash can theoretically do this, but the video output in Flash is incredibly buggy), and at HD resolutions.

Sounds cool. I tried flash before posting in this request but it was a bit over my head I think.

Thanks!

anable

For some reason I have this cognitive block against drawing a cube with an angle lower than 30ish degrees.

Meaning this:


Is vastly more difficult to draw for me than:


The lower the angle, the harder it is. How do I get around this? Just practice, practice, practice? Is there some type of drill I can do or something?

Lly

Just get a grasp of 2 point perspective. There are a lot of tutorials out there, here's one:
http://drawsketch.about.com/library/weekly/aa021603c.htm

Horus

Trying to get back to drawing, I got my old pencils and materials. The only thing missing is a good book to reinforce the lost knowledge I once had in drawing. From the recommended list,
The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and The Natural Way to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Study

which one offers good foundation for someone who lost all knowledge of drawing.

Thanks


PS, I got Loomis PDFs but I don't want to be stuck by the computer to read it.

JWashke

I'm actually working my way through Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and plan to pick up where I left off on the natural way to draw once I finish. The two books seem like they stress the same thing which is the importance of drawing what you see.

The difference being Drawing on the Right Side of the brain explains the science of it, and uses exercises specifically designed to shift your brain mode while drawing. While The Natural Way to Draw just has you draw a crap load but doesn't really explain why.

Either one works, Though Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is definitely faster. The Natural Way to draw is broken into schedules, with 64 exercises total in the book, the first 3 exercises it has you draw for 15 hours before advancing. The main difference is DotRSotB will give you exact exercises, copy this picture upside down, draw your hand, draw a self portrait etc. The Natural Way to Draw will just say Draw gestures for 3 hours, and its up to you to find poses to draw for gestures and such.

I would recommend starting with Right Side then moving to The Natural Way to Draw if you can get both. If your really dedicated you can finish Right Side in less then a week, and it will give you the science of why you should be drawing that way, and a good foundation of basic drawing skills quickly. At which point you can move on to the more rigorous The Natural Way to Draw.

I don't think Drawing on the right Side of the Brain will help you once you've finished the intensive Natural Way to Draw, but I think its really something everyone starting drawing should read which is why I would recommend starting with it then moving on to The Natural Way to Draw.

Sairus

Now I'm learning to draw comics somewhat close to cartoon style, maybe a little PA style but I have problems drawing the same character more than once. How do people do it?

Grifter

Sairus wrote: »

Now I'm learning to draw comics somewhat close to cartoon style, maybe a little PA style but I have problems drawing the same character more than once. How do people do it?

They actually just draw the character over and over and over again until they are able to keep them on model. It's called practicing.

MagicToaster

I'm building this page, do you guys think this button is too blurry? I think I might have to remake them at a higher resolution.

Lly

The font needs to be crisper, but i kinda like the blurriness around the edge.

Mayday

Guys, I'm having this weird trouble with my PC in that the mouse cursor is lagging from time to time (stays in place when I move the mouse and jumps to the correct place a few seconds later). Does anybody know what's going on?

MagicToaster

Lly wrote: »

The font needs to be crisper, but i kinda like the blurriness around the edge.

What resolution is your monitor set to?

Lly

1280x1024

supabeast

MagicToaster wrote: »

I'm building this page, do you guys think this button is too blurry? I think I might have to remake them at a higher resolution.

Too blurry. You could clean it up some by tracking the letters a little or switching to a font with a good light weight (Neue Helvetica would work), but at that size a pixel font is really the best way to go.

MagicToaster

Lly wrote: »

1280x1024

Though it's blurry due to low resolutions and perhaps too much compresion on my behalf, for some reason it looks blurier at resolutions higher than 1024x768. I wanted to know if you were running above that resolution.

supabeast wrote: »

Too blurry. You could clean it up some by tracking the letters a little or switching to a font with a good light weight (Neue Helvetica would work), but at that size a pixel font is really the best way to go.

Thanks for the tip, but I can't change the font. It's the one used throughout the page I think I'll design it at a higher resolution to fix the problem. Also, out of curiosity, what resolution are you running, Supa?

supabeast

I’m at 1440x900.

Blurriness at higher resolutions may also be due to people using screens with larger or smaller pixels. For example, I have two 1280x1024 screens on my desk at home, one 17" and one 19." On the 17" gaps between tightly-spaced anti-aliased type start to fill in noticably.