Halkun's stupid art thread.
halkun
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I've decided to try some cartoon art with a tablet I have, but I seem to be having some problems...
For an example, I have my original scan and then my outline trace I did with a 4x3 Wacom using Gimp.
Original
Trace
How do you make the line art better? My lines are all shaky and squiggly. I scanned the picture in at 300 dpi and thought that if I traced resized the picture to a lower screen resolution it would look better. I traced it at a really high resolution. (About 500%, Kind of following how Gabe does it with his ustream broadcasts.) but it looks really bad.
Another issue is that when I draw, my index finger keeps pressing the button on the side pen and I get a context menu that pops up when I'm trying to draw. That's annoying and I can't see any way of turning that off. I just make due
For an example, I have my original scan and then my outline trace I did with a 4x3 Wacom using Gimp.
Original
Trace
How do you make the line art better? My lines are all shaky and squiggly. I scanned the picture in at 300 dpi and thought that if I traced resized the picture to a lower screen resolution it would look better. I traced it at a really high resolution. (About 500%, Kind of following how Gabe does it with his ustream broadcasts.) but it looks really bad.
Another issue is that when I draw, my index finger keeps pressing the button on the side pen and I get a context menu that pops up when I'm trying to draw. That's annoying and I can't see any way of turning that off. I just make due
halkun on
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Smooth lines are a case of being confident and knowing the line you are inking rather than simply 'tracing'. You will notice Gabe is quite quick and frequently undo's until it's exactly how he wants it. A lot of people also find it useful to lock their wrist and use their whole forearm to draw rather than just moving the hand or fingers.
I always give the same advice when it comes to inking: the wacom is merely a tool to allow you to do things quicker - if you can't ink a drawing with real ink and paper, then you won't be able to do it using a wacom.
Go buy a good brush and some indian ink and ink a few drawings. Get a feel for the action and the motion needed to pull clean lines and think about the pressure you are exerting to get the thickness you want. Practice, practice, practice.
Then when you do it on the Wacom it will be 100x more intuitive and look right.
Finally, the button on the pen pisses me off also -- you can disable it in your Wacom options, or you can just take the button physically off the pen.
Good luck! :^:
EDIT: looking at your original drawing, be prepared to have people in this thread tell you to go right back to the beginning learning proper form, shape and technique, because your drawing is lacking the basics. No offense intended - you asked for inking advice, which is what I've given, but ultimately the inking isn't what is letting your work down. So heads up on lots of people basically telling you this exact same thing.;-)
of course it does. When you simplify the rendering with regards to the texture, color, shading, all of that, then the form becomes all the more important.
I don't really "art". I've been told I can draw, but it's really just silly doodles and the fragments of Anime fandom from 20 years ago. However, last night I thought it would be amusing to create a cute little comic for a friend of mine and a few of my close friends. I really haven't "drawn" for a long time, and never really came up with characters before.
Aha! A Challenge!
Now, I don't have much in the way of tools or knowledge. The first thing I did was find an old eraser from about 10 years ago, some #2 pencils from when I was in college, and some nice printer paper and got to work. I started out drawing silly faces on paper. I'm talking one step up from what you would find in a high school trapper keeper.
Here's something I pulled from the trash. Keep in mind this was the first thing I did last night when I started.
For giggles I decided to use some XKCD stick figures as frameworks, and added balls for joints like I see in those "how to draw" books you see all over the place... This experiment resulted in something that surprised me... It came out, for what I was shooting for, somewhat decent.
Not bad... Not bad... So the next thing I did was put together some charactetures of me and my friends.. Who knows I might be able to put something of a comic together after all.....
Here are scans of what I have so far. Keep in mind this is only after 24 hours of dicking around with a bare minimum of art supplies and some caffeine. The idea is get these into line-art from and compose all the characters together standing in a room. What would be really awesome is if I had these together by next Wednesday.
Feel free to rip into them. I can only get better. (Hey, if anyone wants to line-art these for me, more power too you, though I'm sure that's unrealistic to expect.
Here they are in order of which they were drawn.
Gallery = (http://img27.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=paulf.jpg)
The last one I reused somewhat the pose of my original stick-guy. That last one is me, BTW.
Utilize the search function on your browser and go to your local library.
my mind just exploded with rage.
...and you wonder why I get the way I do.
as an artist thriving to improve with a cartoon style for the past 12 fucking years, this basically jabbed a fucking dagger into a pretty touchy ass vein.
the mentality that the cartoons you see in saturday morning cartoons didn't require years of study, require no knowledge of shape, form, anatomy, line, fucking ALL THE THINGS THAT A PERSON WOULD STUDY TO GET THERE is a mentality that fucking turns me into the incredible hulk and makes me want to smash fucking heads in.
Like I've entered the hive mind.
why because you realize, unlike fucking 99% of the non-artistic world the effort it takes to get good at making something look believable but still simplistic?
no man, that just makes you fucking smarter and more intuitive than absolute idiots like this guy.
But at the same time, I'm not vested in art. My viewpoints are going to be a bit different.
This, however, is a different thing. Shape and form are the foundations of all art. It is the core things that make up art. It doesn't matter what you are working with, or what genre of art, you are making shapes and forms. That's it.
So understanding how those things work obviously improves your art.
So let's just say that I understand that my initial assessment is wrong and trying to correct it. I can tell my poses need work, and I need my joints to be a little more consistent. I'm trying to figure out where all the balls and sticks go based on my idea of anatomy.
I guess an easy way would be to take pictures of real people and draw the lines and joints over them and see what the differences are.
But actually, there are some decent proportional rules for the human body. I'm sure someone can suggest a good book or tutorial to teach it to you.
I used How To Draw Comics the Marvel Way, which pretty much only teaches you to draw Captain America.
There's an excellent resource for you in the chat thread. The man's drawings are very simple, but they follow all the fundamental rules of drawing.
rage subsiding
returning to normal state
i am glad you have seen the error of your ways.
Actually doit, that would be kinda funny.
"I was born; six gun in my hand; behind the gun; I make my final stand"~Bad Company
I've actually started doing this a while ago, and honestly, I really do not understand why I never attempted to do it earlier, and it's helped me with some tough perspectives. It is a very useful tool, don't feel ashamed to utilize it!
If you're serious about improving your abilities, It'll take a lot of work Halk.
Check out the Questions + Tutorials thread for some suggestions on books/studies, and read everything everyone here has to say. Then practice. A lot.
and stay away from Anime.
can you read?
like seriously... are you capable of reading and more importantly comprehending what you're reading?
because i suggest you go back and read every post in this thread before you say shit like this
You see, telling people to stop trolling when there's no trolling going on is a form of trolling.
I'm like the troll king. with a PhD in trolling. I minored in flames. I know a little about trolling.
Also I'm going to shit in the mouth of the next person who says "stay away from anime"
lemme know if anyone actually thinks this would help anyone.
sorry if i just wasted your time :P