In Digital art? I would love to learn how to do digital paintings.
Also any good places online to find a free copy of Flash CS5 or sai?
What's your favorite art program? Are you a traditional artist or a Digital artist?
Any tips for others and maybe me? c:
Discus some art~ Probably the wrong topic forum, whoops.
First person who can find me a free copy of flash CS5 will receive a free animated icon by me. ;u;
Like this one, http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6728681. (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6728681.) Just sayin'
Thanks~
This will likely get moved to the Art section, but I'll give a few tips based on what I know.
A LOT of artists that I know use Paint Tool SAI for the actual painting. I have it and I tried it and I don't like it much, but the way the brushes work in that program are apparently far more natural-looking/feeling than any brush you can get for Photoshop. A lot of the really astounding artists I know of claim to use it alongside Photoshop.
I use Photoshop CS3 quite exclusively. It took me a long time to learn the few tricks I know about it, so I'm reluctant to use anything else like SAI or CS4 or CS5. CS3 is stable and it works quite well, and it doesn't look ugly and Windows 95 like CS2 does. The following tips I have are for Photoshop.
EXPERIMENT. Throw together some lineart and start colouring, and while you're at it, see how the different layer-blending properties work, try different filters and effects, different brushes*, different brush-effects and pressure-settings (if you're using a tablet).
*(Learn how to make your own custom set of brushes so that, when you load-up different ones to try them out, you can always load up your favourite set for everyday use without having to search for them or re-create them).
Learn how to use transparency masks. Basically, what it is, is you colour on a layer and you make all of the edges nice and inside the line-work. Now you want to shade or add different colours without changing the nice neat block colouring you just did. You create another layer on top of it, right click on it and click "create clipping mask," or "group layers" (depending on what version of PS you're using), and the top layer will only let you colour over top the areas that are filled in on the layer beneath it. I find it very handy for shading and adding texture overlays and stuff.
Get savvy with the keyboard shortcuts. "B" is for "brush," "E" is for "eraser," "M" is for "marquee" (the rectangular selection tool), "V" is for "move tool," [ and ] adjust your brush size, holding down spacebar lets you move the canvas around if you're zoomed in and want to paint in a different spot, holding CTRL and using + and - zoom in and out, and holding ALT while using the brush tool enables the sampler so you can click on an area and it loads that exact colour into your palette. I always draw with my right hand on my tablet and my left hand on my keyboard.
Also, if you can, get a keyboard with a zoom button. Two of the keyboards I own have this little rocker/slider button on the left that is a dedicated zoom in/out button and I use it like Iggy Pop uses heroin. It's so goddamn useful.
Learn to use texture brushes if you want to do a mind-blowingly detailed pic. There are several places you can download them from online, for free. Grab the Nagel Brushes (http://lounge.ego-farms.com/showthread.php?t=67) for texture work (I use these, some are great while others are meh.) They are very useful and can be a lot of fun.
That's all I have for now. I need to head to work, but I can try and answer any questions you have later. =)
The english fan client to SAI is pretty good. (OMG WE CAN ACTUALLY READ IT LOL ) Even if you have a license for SAI (i do) It doesn't register with the english pack.
http://sai.detstwo.com/sai/ (http://sai.detstwo.com/sai/)
the SAI licence isn't too expensive either compaired to Adobe. ($50 aprox. Depends on yen/USD difference at the time of purchase.)
Utilize DA. DA might suck for a lot of things. But its abundant with tutorials! Search Digital Painting Tutorials, SAI/Photoshop Tutorials, etc. You'll find tons of neat things :3
I never liked sai when i first used it. When i came back to it later on it eventually it started to make sense. :3
Also, watch people livestream and see what they do.