@pies_corner's post on Artfol
What's the best advice you have for digital art? 
I'm a traditional artist who has recently begun drawing digitally. I use a tablet without a screen and the program I use is Medibang Paint. I kinda manage to do lineart and simple coloring and shading but I have an hard time sketching from a blank paper so I usually do this step traditionally ^^"
What's something that really helped you when you were learning drawing digitally? Any tips or shortcuts? Do you have any videos or tutorials that you think were particularly useful? Let me know ^^May 9, 2021
I'm a traditional artist who has recently begun drawing digitally. I use a tablet without a screen and the program I use is Medibang Paint. I kinda manage to do lineart and simple coloring and shading but I have an hard time sketching from a blank paper so I usually do this step traditionally ^^"
What's something that really helped you when you were learning drawing digitally? Any tips or shortcuts? Do you have any videos or tutorials that you think were particularly useful? Let me know ^^May 9, 2021
#question
#advice
#digitalart
Comments
If you're still trying to get use to drawing with the tablet and struggle with the eye hand coordination, try to use your tablet as your computer mouse when not drawing!
Keyboard shortcuts are your best friend, they make the workflow more efficient :)
If your pen comes with shortcut buttons, set one to right mouse click and the other alt. Alt button is the color picker so when you're drawing, you can click the pen button to pick up the colors :)
Keyboard shortcuts are your best friend, they make the workflow more efficient :)
If your pen comes with shortcut buttons, set one to right mouse click and the other alt. Alt button is the color picker so when you're drawing, you can click the pen button to pick up the colors :)
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•Pray to the Gods...
But seriously I used to scan in my drawings too. If you're using photoshop I'd recommend adjusting the contrast first to make the lines darker and the background whiter.
Another good tip is to separate the lines from the white background so they are on their own layer, this will allow you to colour more freely without having to worry about painting over the lines.
You can do this by going to paths, selection then inversing it. You then create a new layer and will the dotted lines with any colour you want....then presto you have a layer with the original lines you can lock and then just paint to your hearts content underneath it ...this really helped me the most as a digital newbie
Hope it makes sense
But seriously I used to scan in my drawings too. If you're using photoshop I'd recommend adjusting the contrast first to make the lines darker and the background whiter.
Another good tip is to separate the lines from the white background so they are on their own layer, this will allow you to colour more freely without having to worry about painting over the lines.
You can do this by going to paths, selection then inversing it. You then create a new layer and will the dotted lines with any colour you want....then presto you have a layer with the original lines you can lock and then just paint to your hearts content underneath it ...this really helped me the most as a digital newbie
Hope it makes sense
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•Some things I found really helpful are the transform tools and liquify! I'm not too sure omif medibang has it but they're absolute life savers.
Also learning about what each of the layer modes like multiply and overlay do are pretty useful :D
Also learning about what each of the layer modes like multiply and overlay do are pretty useful :D
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•Medibang Paint? Since i use this one too! :0 It's easy to learn, just press on everything! And pay attention to the effects and brushes of the cloud, they are really fun!
And ... try setting up your own shortcuts! Just go to the settings and edit! (I use a mouse, but I still like to use the shortcuts when I can hsusahsusah)
I think there is no need for tips, and you just have to go through the whole program until you find something interesting! \ (๑╹◡╹๑) ﾉ ♬
And ... try setting up your own shortcuts! Just go to the settings and edit! (I use a mouse, but I still like to use the shortcuts when I can hsusahsusah)
I think there is no need for tips, and you just have to go through the whole program until you find something interesting! \ (๑╹◡╹๑) ﾉ ♬
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Oooh I LOVE THIS FINALLY SOMETHING I CAN RAMBLE ABOUT!
1) the transform tool! It was so nice to just select certain parts of my lineart and rotate, deform, resize or mirror it! It is definitely nice if you need to "cheat" the other eye or if you rotating certain bodyparts to create a more dynamic pose. It's also really nice to copy and paste certain patterns.
2) CLIPPING LAYERS ARE LIFESAVERS! it makes it possible to paint on top of a lower layer, without the colour going outside the lines. And it's super easy to change the hue and opacity then too! You can use them to colour your lineart, or to add textures (like blush) on top of skin! OR HIGHLIGHTS AND SHADOWS ON HAIR. It's just really nice, it really speeds up my drawing process. This is also really useful with overlay layers, because it stays 'clipped' to the colours you intended to light up and not the other layers underneath.
3) Shortcuts on your drawing tablet and pen are really useful too, on my pen I have an eyedrop and 'moving' tool so that I can easily navigate over the canvas. On my tablet I have an undo and redo button, a paintbucket button (to quickly colour areas I have outlined with the pencil tool) and a pencil button to switch back.
4) And this is a personal preference, but experiment with hard textured styles instead of soft shading or water brushes. Hard brushes work really well to make work look more defined and clear to understand, whereas smudge and water kinda makes it look muddy (when used in abundance). If something looks too rough you can always smoothen it out later, or lower the opacity
I hope you have fun!! Good luck, I'm always open to more questions about this I love to ramble on about digital art hahaha!
1) the transform tool! It was so nice to just select certain parts of my lineart and rotate, deform, resize or mirror it! It is definitely nice if you need to "cheat" the other eye or if you rotating certain bodyparts to create a more dynamic pose. It's also really nice to copy and paste certain patterns.
2) CLIPPING LAYERS ARE LIFESAVERS! it makes it possible to paint on top of a lower layer, without the colour going outside the lines. And it's super easy to change the hue and opacity then too! You can use them to colour your lineart, or to add textures (like blush) on top of skin! OR HIGHLIGHTS AND SHADOWS ON HAIR. It's just really nice, it really speeds up my drawing process. This is also really useful with overlay layers, because it stays 'clipped' to the colours you intended to light up and not the other layers underneath.
3) Shortcuts on your drawing tablet and pen are really useful too, on my pen I have an eyedrop and 'moving' tool so that I can easily navigate over the canvas. On my tablet I have an undo and redo button, a paintbucket button (to quickly colour areas I have outlined with the pencil tool) and a pencil button to switch back.
4) And this is a personal preference, but experiment with hard textured styles instead of soft shading or water brushes. Hard brushes work really well to make work look more defined and clear to understand, whereas smudge and water kinda makes it look muddy (when used in abundance). If something looks too rough you can always smoothen it out later, or lower the opacity
I hope you have fun!! Good luck, I'm always open to more questions about this I love to ramble on about digital art hahaha!
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•Try everything- every brush, every button and every effect- when you start out just so you can know of everything you have and test out all the things you might or might not like
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•A lot of it just comes with practice and time. It can take a while to get used to digital art.
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•Experiment a ton with what brushes are available, how many layers you’re comfortable using, stabilizers, all the tools, the more comfortable/familiar you are with the program the easier practicing will be, also experimenting with other programs might be good too? Or atleast looking at what stuff other programs offer
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•you can try doing drawabox exercises. they are specifically designed to strengthen line work and review art fundamentals. :)
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•I also had problems with the sketch at the beginning and still have sometimes but I think that it helped me to do a lot sketching digitally. Digital sketches. They don't have to be good but they can help tp get a feeling for the size of the canvas. Well, that's what I think. 
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•I love drawing on photoshop or use my pencil for sketch on my drawbook, in voyage for exemple.
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•i've been doing digital art for like 7-8 months now and i still scetch traditionally! i think it's something i won't ever get used to hahaha but that's fine! i usually scetch it via the imported pic i took of the scetch in procreate anyways! (in total i scetch it like 1-2 times) and then you can also change stuff as if you drew it digitally from the beginning on!
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