Hi! (Introductory Post)

rikthevik

Hi everyone. I'm Rik. My amazing gf got me a Cintiq 12WX for Christmas, and I'm loving it. The thing is, I haven't totally figured it out yet. Here's a couple of doodles that turned out okay. They were done with the Painter Essentials 4 software that came with my tablet and is running on my Macbook Pro.

Does anyone have some tips for a guy just starting out messing around with this? Any good software recommendations?

Mustang

I hate people with Cintiq's, unless they are willing to give me their Cintiq, and then I become very fond of them. Your doodles are nice.

Fletcher

for a free doodling program that doesn't hog a lot of memory or anything, GIMP (download for Windows 2000 and above here) is pretty cool. Small download too, if thats any concern.

I can't really offer much "art" help as I'm a doodler at best, but your posted pictures look cool anyway!

rikthevik

Another doodle!

Tesiacoil

The robot king thing; Adorable. Looking forward to seeing how that develops. Is this stuff all from your head? Because, you have skills. Good, good skills.

I know nothing of this device.
But I would love one of them. Oh, the things I could do.

rikthevik

Dr. Evil?

Tesiacoil

So you don't respond to what people say, you just keep posting doodles? Hm. Kind of makes asking questions useless?

rikthevik

Oh, sorry about that. I was focused on drawing.

Yeah, these are just from my head. I usually draw a lot in class with a fine tip pen, so I'm mostly trying to duplicate that kind of thing here. I used to play a lot of Warhammer and 40K, so my drawings are quite heavily influenced by that kind of thing. Actually, I guess all of these are Warhammer related.

Tesiacoil

No big. I was just noticing that someone else had given you some advice and just were distracted with posting, is all. But, thanks for responding to me, anyhow.

So, I'm guessing this thing is the new Wacom tablet? I have one of those lying around but I never really got into it. I'm more of a pencil and charcoal on paper kind of person.

I really envy people who can draw from their head. I always need a reference.

rikthevik

TMNT!

nakirush

Cintiq + Corel Painter X = Fun times.

I primarily use Corel Painter with my Cintiq, then switch over to Photoshop to clean things up a little.

rikthevik

Is there a way to turn on the pressure sensitivity in photoshop?

NightDragon

I'm not sure what version you're using, but for me...

If you've got the brush tool selected, look at the top-right bar in Photoshop...there should be two buttons to the left of the grey-ed out tabs, there. One on the right is the File Browser, and the other button is for your brush.

Click the "other" one, go to "Other Dynamics" (make sure the box is checked), and under Opacity Jitter (which should be at zero), select "Pen Pressure" under the dropdown menu.

Voila!

rikthevik

Hot! Thanks for the help. I figured there was no way Photoshop didn't support pressure sensitivity. Adobe seems to take over every other aspect of my computer.

NakedZergling

I like where you're going with your stuff. It's playful and energetic. Keep it up and post lots and lots so we can see your progress.

rikthevik

Doodles!

rikthevik

More doodles!

NightDragon

I think it would be cool for you to take some of these and try to develop them into something a bit more involved.....like that last thing you posted, for instance....or the left rat-guy above him. It's also just a bit difficult to give you much feedback on these, as there's not a heck of a lot of substance to doodles, usually.

Zombiemambo

I like your style, friend.

rikthevik

rikthevik

Thanks for your comments. I'm super busy in school this year, but I hope to keep doodling. My progress in photoshop might have to wait a few months. :-)

Also thanks to Rob Schrab for the inspiration for the werewolf pic. SCUD rules.

Nappuccino

The chest of the wolf doesn't seem twisted enough which makes the pose possible but very awkard at the same time. I do like your lines for the most part though and I can't wait to see some more polish get put on your ideas.

L.E.O.

this stuff fucking rocks, keep posting. maybe try making a finished one?

beavotron

the wolf has some major flyswatting going on
it literally looks like someone squished him into the paper with the palm of their hand

i am finding actually going back through your stuff that your posing as a whole needs work.
you've got way too many lines of action going on there.


read this, it explains it very very nicely:
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm#perspective_and_construction

and here's specifically what i'm talking about:

rikthevik

@beavotron :: Thanks for the advice! I've never had any formal training, just doodling in class. Mostly I just draw whatever seems fun and interesting at the time, without any regard for what it should actually look like when it's done.