I'm starting this new topic because I'm trying to learn to use my Wacom pad & stylus pen better because I want to do FanArt in my computer. I've been a watercolor/pastel drawing artist all my life, but I want to learn digital art. My attempts right now are childish compared to traditional arts by me - whenever I use Paint program whether with mouse or stylus pen, I feel like I'm learning to fingerpaint all over again....fun but messy!
Anyone who has digital art tips - I'd sure appreciate them. All comments welcome too. So here goes ...

This is one of my pastel drawing floral arrangements just entitled MIRROR:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h155/Sun.../mirrorSALE.jpg

... compared with this digital floral I just did, yes it's for Pisces called AMADEUS UNDERWATER FLORAL:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h155/Sun...waterFloral.jpg
----------------------
This is a digital portrait I just imagined and drew using a small microsoft mouse, I named it MIRRORED BLUSH:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h155/Sun...rroredBlush.jpg

Here's someone a little similar, she's the first portrait I ever painted in watercolors from a Nathional Geographic magazine cover - I call her NOMAD WOMAN:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h155/Sun...lorfaceSALE.jpg

* I do make large kaleidoscopic eyes sometimes on purpose.
------------------------------------------
Here is a WINGED MESSENGER, a delivery elf of sorts ... done digitally with a mouse trackball.
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h155/Sun...edMessenger.jpg

A comparably ornately dressed INDIAN GIRL from a Burrlington wool ad that I drew in pastels (you can see I had to change brands of pastels from chalky to creamy where I finished the hands ... lolol)
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h155/Sun...astel-4SALE.jpg
----------------------------------------------------------

Okay, here's a really bad one .... my first attempt with the stylus pen while in the pencil mode called TWO-STEP SCRABBLE:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h155/Sun...tepscrabble.jpg

Here are some pastel studies of someone who really knew how to dance .. DAVID LEE ROTH:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h155/Sun...LRofVH4SALE.jpg

* Forgot I gave it a rug texture to make it a tapestry in a Morrowind mod.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Since about 1995 I've cpmputer-repaired some of my hand-done art that had gotten damaged (Florida humidity & palmetto bugs are heck on paintings - I've lost some too far gone.) And I learned to enhance and even totally change my artwork via the computer - but have only recently really gotten the drive to draw digitally. Just a few enhancement examples:

This was a rather washed out grey-to-brownish pastel drawing of MESA VERDE from a photo by my sisiter. When I did a negative of the colors though and played around a little with the color values, it became much more interesting digitally than on paper:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h155/Sun...light-4sale.jpg

These two came from a decent bright summers day pastel drawing - but you can see the variations available digitally from the same picture IBISES:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h155/Sun...eIbisesSALE.jpg
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h155/Sun...icTile-sale.jpg

This watercolor called BLUE EGRET I simply repaired digitally because I used childsafe watercolors to draw it (our bands guitarist had 4 little girls who used to paint in my studio) but after I hanging it on the wall, I got the shocking awareness that palmetto bugs like to suck the paint. Luckily I could make the damage look like ripples and raindrops.
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h155/Sun...framed-sale.jpg
======================================================

Well, that's my little tour for now anyway. I would have spaced this out more over several posts but when I came online today, the forum skin has changed and dummy me - I can't figure out how to find the REPLY button to any of the threads.

So tell me what you think of my art attempts, ok? Any problems you see should be addressed, that's what I'm looking to fix. I realize I just have to get more practice with the digital art but it is frustrating to have everything you do look like some little kid did it. Teehehehe They could probably do much better, come to think of it!

oh wow Ibis. not bad, but paint is such a limited program to use >.< I'd recommend the GIMP if you want a free software, or you can get Corel Painter IX or Adobe Photoshop. I'm sure there are more free programs out there but I can't think of any at the moment.

grats on geting a wacom tablet tey are so yummy.

Definitely second the recommendation of Painter and Photoshop (Mrs. Treydog uses both...) Will quizz her when I get home about other software- I know she uses BuzzPro and KPT filters. She also works with a Wacom tablet. The main thing is to get brushes (plugins for Photoshop) that give you the effects you want.

wow thanx guys ... these are great suggestions and the techical kind of recommendations I need. Please keep em coming.

I do have a one month trial of PaintShop Pro. Thing is that it attaches it's logo to ALL my graphic creations in my computer - MW textures, personal artwork, any sample art run through it - so before the month ends, I have to run all the images through Photo Finish and change them back to my own. Otherwise - PaintShop takes them away when the trial version ends. Later I reformat, and do it again. But I've only used it for redoing Morrowind textures, now I will try it to paint with. I'll try to find a download of those brushes Trey, that sounds like just the thing.

Megil - I thought GIMP was just a remodelling program. I do have a download of it somewhere on disk too. I'll install that right away. Unless you think it might be better to DL a modern version of GIMP. They may have updated it since I got it.

I know MS Paint is so limited - the weird, too vibrant color offerings drive me nuts. I do customize the colors of Paint when I'm modding ... but to keep doing it for a Painting seems too tedious. I guess I should also try digital painting in Photo Finish. It at least has a much wider pallette of colors than Paint.

Thanks guys

Spoke with the GB (Great Bunny) during lunch-- her advice is thus:

Photoshop is great for layering; Painter had better brushes. Because she works from digital photos (usually), she layers them in Photoshop and then does her painting in Painter. A good example is "Little Pigeon River" (on her webpage). The ducks are actually in there twice- normally and inverted. The photograph gives the painting structure; the layers allow you to build depth and work with color. She also uses digital pictures of her traditional paintings as a starting point....

There are a couple of books that feature step-by-step tutorials of her technique:

Mastering Digital Printing (Harald Johnson) and Digital Collage and Painting: Using Photoshop and Painter to Create Fine Art (Susan Ruddick Bloom). It might be worth looking at those or similar books before plunging into expensive software- maybe get an idea of which one offers what you want.

Please thank the Great Bunny for me Trey (did you show her my Siggy pixel? I am a supporter of bunnies myself .) She is a goldmine of information as well as a great artist. I remember loving so many of her paintings that I took some screenshots to save. Before my reformat, I think I stored them in email with some other stuff.

Anyway, thanks again. Is the link to Mrs. Trey's website here in the FanArt section. I seem to remember it is - gonna look for it right now.

D'oh! Sorry!

www.rabbittwilight.com

Also, be aware that digital art still isn't considered "real" art. Idiots. GB says: Use Painter or such to plan a traditional painting and test ideas.

Thanks for the link Trey. Hey, rocking chair making is art, ya know? Everything that people create with panache and style is ART. Ibis has spoken.

Couldn't agree more. When the establishment art types sneer about how digital art isn't "real painting" because it is done with pixels, I feel like responding thus:

"If the limitation on something being art is the technology used, anything that doesn't involve daubing animal and plant pigments on a cave wall with your fingers and/or a stick isn't 'real art' either."

What makes art is not the method by which you get the vision onto the surface (or out of the stone or wood or whatever)- it is the ability to have that vision and turn it into something tangible.

Stepping down off my soapbox now. By the way, I particularly liked your ibisises (that's as hard to stop spelling as 'banana'). Seriously, nice art work- keep experimenting with software- we first got Photoshop 3.5 because it came bundled with a scanner. The idea was that she would retouch photographs (which she did, but it really expanded from there).

Oh my god, did she ever expand! I've been to her sight now and I am just humbled to know those digital paintings are done in a computer. Humbled and inspired at the same time - is there one word for that?

Glad you like my Ibises Trey. I think painting sunsets and Florida bird life is my favorite kind of painting. Someday I will put up the regular daytime pastel drawing of the Ibises... china blue sky, puffy white clouds, snowy ibises with orange/yellow beaks -- it looks so different. I'm pretty happy with how that particular pic can change chameleonlike - some can't.

I'm in the process of trying to put more of my better artwork from archived disk online at my Photobucket account and particularly at my DeviantArt account. I didn't realize before that DeviantArt gives you a copyright seal when you post a pic there. I'da been all over that before. The reason that I write Sunburst Studio or HI initials or write Ibis on them somewhere is to prevent free online copying of the images for any reuse.

Ibis, I was dodging this thread few days, but it's unavoidable, and I must comment now. I feel envy, tremendous envy, when I see works that are so good (you, Zarrexaij, DW, Neela, hell just about everyone here)... works which remind me over & over again that I am unable to create at that level, which, in return, only make me more depressed and unable to operate. In short - You Win, I'm Pwned. *goes to burn down something and drown himself in Shein afterwars*

Ohh ohhh ohhh!! Milanius, you better be hiding under yer bed when I find you , cause I am hopping on a plane for Serbia and am bringing both Stormbringer and Nailbringer with me!!! No, I am not going to cut your head off and stab you in the heart at the same time for being so pessimistic .... ohhhhh noooo ... I'm wearing my knee-high black leather highheeled steeltoe boots and black leather chaps & jacket that I have to don at GamingGoneWrong.com sometimes to straighten those guys out ----- & I am going to spank you with the Dwemer Axe and tickle you with the Bringer of Storms sword until I see a smile on that creative face of yours.

I am SOOOOO jealous of you dude! I wish I could model. I have Gimp, 3ds max, Gmax and now Java (I think that's the name) and I just cannot get it. Could you recommend a good REALLY BEGINNER tutorial for 3ds max for Compleat Idiots type??? Preferrably something that I could import into MW too .. thanx Mil.

I am teh complete idiot, sadly... modeling in 3DS is not satisfying at all for me, because I like to make things precise in ACAD (for which i have permossion), with the use of keyboard, and then export & polish them in 3DS (whisc one of my friends, the Pro, has). So, really, I have no idea how to do things in MAX, really.

Ah, so do you think that ACAD may be easier than MAX? Well, guess I'll be finding out hopefully for I'll be dabbling in both soon as you already know.

ANNND, you also write intersting stories in FanFiction section ... so I am jealous of you there. Don't really know how to write a good fictional story. I am very visually oriented. Wish I could write as well as the people in our FanFiction section right here.

HONESTLY. You guys are way better than some of the tripe romance novels I've skimmed through. We have a reusable pile of them at our laundromat for when you're sitting at the pool waiting for your clothes to finish spinning.

1. Actually, most people find ACAD much more restricting and hard for learning - it has to do with keyboard commands, but that's why I find it more suitable for me. It is essentially a program used for 2D & 3D blueprints, and on occasions for arhitectural & mechanical 3D modeling, but not at all in the same rank with MAX MAX is, after all, a complete, professional program solution for 3D animations, rendering and modeling, while ACAD is something quite different... But the mere ability to take a box & do nearly anything with it, or draw a 2d scetch & then extrude it into 3D object, then do aditional work on it... I am bizzare, and my mind also works in unusual ways, I know that.

2. Meh, good. Opinions are highly subjective, and besides, when one writes a strory every 3rd full Moon it's no wonder no one notices them.


p.s.: Stilleto boots ? Whips ? Gaming sites that can't be found [well I tried, but it just isn't there] ?... No dice, missy, my depression[s] are a deep, dark ocean which can't be moved by anything...

Ahhhh, an aiuthor every 3rd full moon = sounds like my 2 sisters who visit us in Florida every blue moon. The next one will be in May/June 2007.




I love the forthwith and familiar first person way you write your stories, Ze Milanius. It is for very enjoyable reading. As someone said in another FanArt thread, Geonox's ... a true creative culmination combines all the arts = visual, audio, storytelling = like a video game. We all should continue to work together.

I thought I remembered a tutorial Mrs. Treydog did for an online forum- just Googled it and it is still there-

Digital Art Tutorial

This shows some of the techniques and tools available in Photoshop and Painter.

Oh Thank you so much Treydog. You're a doll! I have a trial version of Photoshop so this is going to be wonderful ... Photoshop is still my most favorite mod retexturer tool for Morrowind - but I was mostly just messing around not knowing for sure what I was doing. Now I will LEARN. Very cool. Thanx again!

the paintings are realy nice ibis ! I love em! But you said that the digital painitngs are nothing compaired to your traditional paintings but I disagree. They might not look as good as the real paintings but the underlying structure is there. I mean I start out with a realy rough sketch when I do a digital painting, then draw a detailed version on top of it in another layer. This can basicly be done in any software which allows you to use layers. I recommend opencanvas. The 1.1 version is free just do a quick google search and you'll find it. It's basicly a simple version of painter but it's realy good for painting.
It's simple to use, allows you to turn your canvas and stuff but it's basic. But you can basicly make the paintings as nice as you want to. I use PS which isn't the best software for painting, honestly I still think opencanvas is better but I like some non painting features which photoshop has better:)

OH thank you, Goth Geo!!

I will google for OpenCanvas right after this post. I especially like what you said that it allows you to turn the picture. I know my art teacher said never to do that ... but I do sometimes in real life. I also sometimes do use a ruler and compass, another no no of this great art nun. As well as occassionally chewing gum but I never wear it on my nose which is what she'd make you do if she caught you chewing it in class.

do I miss Catholic school ....... NOT!

W.I.P.

This is an Altmer girl sitting on a couch that I'm attempting in Photo Finish and it is an easier program to use than Paint ... everyone was right about that. I've used it for year to change my retextures for Morrowind mods so I'm trying it now since I'm familiar with all it's functions. I'm still planning to try out all the programs kindly suggested by people here for digital art.

So, what do I do with her now? To make her more realistic? That is the reason my digital art looks so childish, I lack the knowledge of giving more digital detail. I know how to shade & shadow & blend & highlight with traditional methods ... but I will have to figure out how to do all that digitally.

I may try some of the Blend, darken/lighten functions of Photo Finish but the thing is it changes the whole picture at a time. I really have to learn this layering thing.

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g144/Ath...girloncouch.jpg

First, I am not an artist nor do I play one on TV (pop culture reference). However, I am married to an artist, so--

Although you seem most interested in figurative art, I think that is the hardest to master in any medium. Might be worth stepping back to landscape, still-life, and/or architectural to develop techniques for digital. Work on expanding your palette and blending colors to develop more depth. Definitely explore layers (for depth, but also as a way of testing concepts). The great thing about layers is that you can do some work, merge the result temporarily and decide that it isn't what you wanted- no problem. Save lots of stages so you don't have to repair too much if something isn't working.

Also, see if you can find Digital Character Design and Painting: The Photoshop CS Edition by Don Seegmiller. That is a very good resource for how to create fantasy/game characters using Photoshop. Another possibility (more general reference) is The Photoshop and Painter Artist Tablet Book: Creative Techniques in Digital Painting by Cher Threinen-Pendarvis. Books are teh expensive, so you might want to browse at a bookstore and pick something that matches the results you want.

Bottom line- with your traditional art background, you are actually ahead of the curve. Get the tools (software, brush plug-ins, etc.) to achieve your goals and the only limit will be your imagination.

ETA- A way to make the particular picture easier would be to use a photograph of an appropriate subject as a baseline. Get someone to photograph you or someone else on a couch/chair, etc. and then begin to modify the image to get the effect you want

Again - Thank You Mr. Dog married to Rabbit!

Yes, I see what you mean. I think landscape would be a good place to practice and until I learn to layer properly with a digital program ... it just occurred to me while reading your post that I could build a landscape in the traditional way I was taught ... make the farthest back background first and blend/shade/etc. it and then put my closer and closer object upon it 0 while digitally rendering the image in stages as it grows. That way the foreground could be criisp & immediate. I will try that!